Screenshots!

[Sir Beane]

http://totalwar.org.pl/board/viewtopic.php?t=21741

Click on the link for some new screenshots of ETW. I don't think these have been seen by most of us before.

All credit goes to bloodshed for finding these! :2thumbsup:

An interesting note about the 4th screenshot. The advisor message reads:



Mines

Mines facilitate the harvesting of underground resources such as gold, silver, iron and precious gems for both manafacturing and trade purposes.

Manafacturing? Sounds like we might need resources to produce certain things now. Or maybe it was just a bit of flavor text, who knows?

[KozaK13]

Hmm, colours are different on the mini map to what we have seen previously.

All in all nice screenies, i like the look of the campaign map.

[Sir Beane]

You are right about the colours. It would be nice if someone could blow that map up so we can take a look at what else has changed.

[Lusitani]

Great screenies..i specially enjoyed the Polish Winged Hussars.

The detail on the fort is also very interesting.

I couldnt help noticing however that there is a major abundance of white horses in the game and i guess drummers look all the same... lol :juggle2:

Thanks for the screenies :yes:

[Mailman653]

The new advisor is quite a looker, I wonder what accent she will have. It's great to finally see the officers, standard bearers and drummers up close.

But,

1.Weren't musicians in the contiental army supposed to wear red coats with blue cuffs and turn backs? Or to generalize, the reverse of the armies colors?

2.The American drummer and the Prussian look almost identical.

[Durango]

Hmm, colours are different on the mini map to what we have seen previously.

All in all nice screenies, i like the look of the campaign map.

So do I! Although the water sort of reminds me of jelly :laugh4:


You are right about the colours. It would be nice if someone could blow that map up so we can take a look at what else has changed.

I did a quick fill in where the....white stuff was over Scandinavia.

https://img158.imageshack.us/img158/859/closeupeuropecu3.jpg (https://imageshack.us)
https://img158.imageshack.us/img158/closeupeuropecu3.jpg/1/w600.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img158/closeupeuropecu3.jpg/1/)

:bow:

[cannon_fodder]

Now that they're parameterizing their shaders better and such, it's a thing of beauty. Technically impressive with very, very well-designed assets. Finally a new TW game that's more aesthetically pleasing than Shogun.

And you know it'll run amazingly well in spite of the scale of the graphical/physical/behavioral task. CA are the best optimizers I know of in the whole industry.

[Sir Beane]

So do I! Although the water sort of reminds me of jelly :laugh4:



I did a quick fill in where the....white stuff was over Scandinavia.

https://img158.imageshack.us/img158/859/closeupeuropecu3.jpg (https://imageshack.us)
https://img158.imageshack.us/img158/closeupeuropecu3.jpg/1/w600.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img158/closeupeuropecu3.jpg/1/)

:bow:

Excellent work! :2thumbsup: The map looks like the factions are in the same places as our previous information, but some are in different colours.

[KozaK13]

So do I! Although the water sort of reminds me of jelly :laugh4:

It does now that i think or it...meh i like jelly, it adds to the appeal.:laugh4:

It really does look stunning, even the reflection of the fleets makes it all the better. The map texture and colours are what med 2 tried to aspire to, perhaps it was a transition phase between rome and empire...



And you know it'll run amazingly well in spite of the scale of the graphical/physical/behavioral task. CA are the best optimizers I know of in the whole industry.

I hope you are right, i'm afraid for my system's performance after how bad it handles call of duty 5...

[Durango]

Now that they're parameterizing their shaders better and such, it's a thing of beauty. Technically impressive with very, very well-designed assets. Finally a new TW game that's more aesthetically pleasing than Shogun.

A crusade has been called by the pope. His Lord's wrath having been incurred upon a heretic's words.
It is marching toward the province of cannon_fodder.

j/k :beam:


Excellent work! :2thumbsup: The map looks like the factions are in the same places as our previous information, but some are in different colours.

Thanks!

Which ones are in a different color? Can't remember the previous minimap...

[Sir Beane]

A crusade has been called by the pope. His Lord's wrath having been incurred upon a heretic's words.
It is marching toward the province of cannon_fodder.

j/k :beam:



Thanks!

Which ones are in a different color? Can't remember the previous minimap...

Most of them actually :laugh4:. The ones that aren't include England, France, the United Provinces and Spain.

I have to agree with everyone. The campaign map is really starting to look fantastic. The city models are still a little dubious though, in my opinion they look a little out of place. Like they were tacked on.

[Sheogorath]

Prussians wear blue and yellow?
Seems more Swedish to me. I thought the Pruskies went in for a more monochrome approach.

[CBR]

Prussians wear blue and yellow?
Seems more Swedish to me. I thought the Pruskies went in for a more monochrome approach.
Huh? They are already way too monochrome in that picture.


CBR

[Monk]

Finally, some screenshots that don't blind me with bloom to look at!

I like this new batch the best, really good stuff. Keep the shots coming guys! We should be seeing more as reviews of the game begin to pop up. :yes:

[Mailman653]

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/thru-ages-1.htm
I found this, might help add fuel to the color war.

[Megas Methuselah]

Thanks for the mail, Mailman. That is not how I imagined the uniforms of Prussia... :dizzy2:

[Vuk]

Is that multiple constructions per turn that I see?

[Polemists]

The new advisor is quite a looker,

Well i'm sold on the tutorial feature now :laugh4:

[Sir Beane]

Is that multiple constructions per turn that I see?

Actually I think it's a building queue after looking at it closely for a while. Multiple constructions per turn would be awesome though, so we can hope.


Well i'm sold on the tutorial feature now :laugh4:

You'll be cranking the Advice up to 'Frequent' or something similar then? :laugh4:

[gollum]

Nice shots - the game looks better than M2 on the field - but i particularly like the campaign map - finally the cities/armies proportion is more subtle. The men are way more detailed than before it seems.

!it burnsus!

[Polemists]

You'll be cranking the Advice up to 'Frequent' or something similar then?


You can bet your bottom dollar that i'm going to be hitting the "What should I build" button alot more often. :2thumbsup:

[Sir Beane]

You can bet your bottom dollar that i'm going to be hitting the "What should I build" button alot more often. :2thumbsup:

This may sound silly given the eye candy, but I hope they get a decent voice for her. An interesting, natural sounding voice would really help the advisors come across as helpful and not annoyingly whiney. :laugh4:

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Could someone clarify me the thing with those agents on that campaign map screenie.

1. Gentlemen? - The ones in west and south of Copenhagen and in southern Sweden
2. Spy/Assassin? - Left from that Stockholm info bar
3. Priest? - Next to Abo and near Königsberg?

Also, why does the Swedish fleet have that Pirate thingy?? That Crossed swords and skull?

Also, it's not about those pics but I'll ask it anyway, Do we get to name those cities too that will appear during the game??

[Sir Beane]

Could someone clarify me the thing with those agents on that campaign map screenie.

1. Gentlemen? - The ones in west and south of Copenhagen and in southern Sweden
2. Spy/Assassin? - Left from that Stockholm info bar
3. Priest? - Next to Abo and near Königsberg?

Also, why does the Swedish fleet have that Pirate thingy?? That Crossed swords and skull?

Also, it's not about those pics but I'll ask it anyway, Do we get to name those cities too that will appear during the game??

1. Yes those are Gentleman.
2. The spy and assasin have been combined into one agent called the Rake. That's him.
3. Those are probably just Gentlemen or Rakes in a different faction style. Priests aren't in the game.

4. Because it's sitting on a trade route raiding enemy trade fleets perhaps? Well spotted! :2thumbsup:

[Polemists]

Those are probably just Gentlemen or Rakes in a different faction style. Priests aren't in the game

It is mentioned in the pc gamer article that Missonaries are in as a campaign game unit.

Whether this will be cut form final game or is a addition not earlier mentioned I don't know, only that it's mentioned in the article.




This may sound silly given the eye candy, but I hope they get a decent voice for her.

Actually I liked what CA did in MTW2 where the girl gave a local greeting depending on who you played. Bon jour if you played France, etc, etc.

[Sir Beane]

It is mentioned in the pc gamer article that Missonaries are in as a campaign game unit.

Whether this will be cut form final game or is a addition not earlier mentioned I don't know, only that it's mentioned in the article.

Really? Seems strange that they haven't been mentioned anywhere else, maybe a late addition?



Actually I liked what CA did in MTW2 where the girl gave a local greeting depending on who you played. Bon jour if you played France, etc, etc.

I liked that as well. It would be nice if each faction had their own specific advisor, with the correct race and voice for each faction but that is probably be too much to hope for. :sweatdrop:

[Polemists]

Probably so, unless you assume she looks very swedish like...which all depends on how you view women in sweden in this time frame.


As far as pirating I know alot of people want the feature where you can pirate trade fleets (privateering basically) of other factions.

CA has mentioned this is in the game in some form, though whether this is just bribing pirates to attack or giving your units a letter of marque or something I dunno.

[Discoman]

I liked that as well. It would be nice if each faction had their own specific advisor, with the correct race and voice for each faction but that is probably be too much to hope for. :sweatdrop:
Then again how often do we listen to advisor? I mean we do on the 1st (maybe second) playthroughs and then after that most turn it off. I rather hope the units don't have accents and rather speak that language.

Could someone clarify me the thing with those agents on that campaign map screenie.

1. Gentlemen? - The ones in west and south of Copenhagen and in southern Sweden
2. Spy/Assassin? - Left from that Stockholm info bar
3. Priest? - Next to Abo and near Königsberg?
Woah Woah Woah! Didn't CA state that agents wouldn't be on the campaign map anymore?! I guess not... god I really hate moving those guys around, then forgetting about them, then needing them and finding out they died a decade ago. :shame:

I like the pictures, though in some of the screenshots a lot of the faces look the same.

[Sir Beane]

Then again how often do we listen to advisor? I mean we do on the 1st (maybe second) playthroughs and then after that most turn it off. I rather hope the units don't have accents and rather speak that language.

Woah Woah Woah! Didn't CA state that agents wouldn't be on the campaign map anymore?! I guess not... god I really hate moving those guys around, then forgetting about them, then needing them and finding out they died a decade ago. :shame:

I like the pictures, though in some of the screenshots a lot of the faces look the same.

The stated there would be fewer agents than Medieval 2, which indeed there are. As far as we know there are two agents, the Rake and the Gentleman. Med 2 had six, so that's quite a good improvement.

Apparently there may be three now, if missionaries are in the game, but that is still half as many as Med 2. :2thumbsup:

[Polemists]

Then again how often do we listen to advisor? I mean we do on the 1st (maybe second) playthroughs and then after that most turn it off. I rather hope the units don't have accents and rather speak that language.

There is a distinct hotness to listen ratio, I could share it but involves complex math formulas and algorythms along with matrices :P

She's preeettty hot, I dunno, i may listen to her alot :)


Agents are back, sorry to say. Hopefully with the whole stream lined, improved thing, we won't have same issues we had in MTW2

(Mainly the 5-6 guys bribing my cities every turn.)

[KozaK13]

There is a distinct hotness to listen ratio, I could share it but involves complex math formulas and algorythms along with matrices :P

She's preeettty hot, I dunno, i may listen to her alot :)


Agents are back, sorry to say. Hopefully with the whole stream lined, improved thing, we won't have same issues we had in MTW2

(Mainly the 5-6 guys bribing my cities every turn.)

She isn't real btw...

Your cities got bribed? Never happened to me, i found it disappointing. So can the rake and gentleman both assasinate enemy characters?

[Sir Beane]

She isn't real btw...

Your cities got bribed? Never happened to me, i found it disappointing. So can the rake and gentleman both assasinate enemy characters?

He knows she isn't, but you can't stop a guy from wishfully thinking. :tongue:

The problem is not that cities were bribed, but that diplomats and even princesses endlessly attempted to bribe cities without success, thus slowing down the turns with their painfully long-winded 'offering a deal' animation.

[Polemists]

Games arn't real? O_O Empire total war is not a time machine to the 18th century? O_O

Who knew :laugh4:




Sir Beane has the idea, when you played MTW2 at a variety of times (i'm in a reply campaign as we speak) a variety of diplomats and princess would surround your cities and they would endlessly attempt it. This was quite annoying as not only was it a long winded animation but do to bribe mechanic completely pointless.

I am hoping that gentlemen and rakes if they have animations, will be quick animations.

[KozaK13]

Kk i didn't realise what you meant, now i agree with you, that was terribly annoying..

I tried to say she isn't real with a degree of sarcasm but i failed it appears.

[Sir Beane]

Kk i didn't realise what you meant, now i agree with you, that was terribly annoying..

I tried to say she isn't real with a degree of sarcasm but i failed it appears.

No we realise you were joking, but me and Polemists will reply to anything if you give us the chance. :tongue:

Back to topic!

These screenshots are all very nice, but they are lacking something. That thing is buildings.

I have not yet seen a screenshot that had a decent view of an in-game building. Those shots I have seen with buildings in them frankly looked really bad, as did the brief views of buildings in the videos.

I hope CA aren't trying to hide the fact that buildings in Empire look rubbish. Hears hoping that they just haven't thought of releasing a few building screenshots.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Btw, do we get the option to view our settlements like we had in RTW??

You know when you opened your settlements scroll and you had that little button that allowed us to see those settlements on battle map??

I really liked that option and really really missed it in M2TW! :shame:

[Sir Beane]

Btw, do we get the option to view our settlements like we had in RTW??

You know when you opened your settlements scroll and you had that little button that allowed us to see those settlements on battle map??

I really liked that option and really really missed it in M2TW! :shame:

I hope so! I miss that feature to, and it would be nice to see it make a return. :2thumbsup:

[Megas Methuselah]

Especially with all these new pretty, peacock graphics. I hated the fact that in M2TW, I could build my capital into a wonder, but it would be all for naught because I was never able to see it. :no:

[Sol Invictus]

It looks like Gibraltar has been added as a Region but it is not controlled by Spain. I am very glad that it is now a seperate Region from mainland Spain but I am worried that it is not Spanish.:gah2:

[Incongruous]

Looking at the second picture of a battle taking place within a valley (I think that's where it is anyway), I must say that the unit formation and depth is a little worrying, those units look shabby and constantly out of kilter and the formation itself is very dense. Also, looks like a very smalkle battle frontage, perhaps negating my earlier belief that battles were now vast and considered affairs:embarassed:

[CBR]

120 men units in 4 rank formation. OK I guess 3 ranks would be better.

As unit size seem similar to earlier titles and no big difference in number of ranks used I doubt you will find armies to take up that much more width than before.

Just imagine they don't use cadenced marching and all will be fine ~;)


CBR

[Incongruous]

Ok, so it is only one rank, but that will make all the difference in terms of frontage and effectiveness, as a human I can understand this, can the AI?

I know that the unit sizes are the same (perhaps even less) as before, but still, I expected battle pics to show armies primarily in two spread out but cohesive blocks, but with small detatchments scoping around for beter vantage pionts and f;anking attacks, I have yet to be shown this and it was a major factor in the period's warfare (at least form the Seven Years War).

Also, is there anyword on an ability to control allied armies like in Kingdoms? This will be a game braker for me.

[Sir Beane]

Ok, so it is only one rank, but that will make all the difference in terms of frontage and effectiveness, as a human I can understand this, can the AI?

I know that the unit sizes are the same (perhaps even less) as before, but still, I expected battle pics to show armies primarily in two spread out but cohesive blocks, but with small detatchments scoping around for beter vantage pionts and f;anking attacks, I have yet to be shown this and it was a major factor in the period's warfare (at least form the Seven Years War).

Also, is there anyword on an ability to control allied armies like in Kingdoms? This will be a game braker for me.


I wouldn't worry about this. The fact is there is a lot of the game we have yet to see as screenshots or video. City battles for one. The kind of battle you describe will probably happen.

I don't think we will be able to control allied armies in Empire. CA mentioned recently that they will be AI controlled.

[Polemists]

Yea I don't think anyone has seen city fighting yet, the closest thing anyone has seen is that one video ("Land Battles" maybe?) where all the guys are shooting from the house until it gets hit by a canon shot:laugh4:

I'm curious to see how it all works out, but obviously no one knows.

But obviously no one knows until it is properly DEMOnstrated to us :2thumbsup:

[hoetje]

Hmm, colours are different on the mini map to what we have seen previously.

All in all nice screenies, i like the look of the campaign map.


true, nice screens, {GrailKnights}Kozak

:P

[Polemists]

Have to say I'm surprised, last time MTW2 was this close to coming out, we had those faction pictures,

You know picture of Germany, it's saying and the faction select screen. (Which I guess no one is doing since now they give us the factions haha)

and a leaked demo (which I still want)

Faction videos (Where did those go?)

Newsletters with battle previews (I miss those tooo)



I mean other then 5-9 unit, building, ship profiles, 5 dev diares and 10 confirmed factions...the information has been pretty darn slim coming otu of CA.

This puzzles me :wall:

I wants to get geared up about game....give mes stuff :2thumbsup:

[Sir Beane]

Have to say I'm surprised, last time MTW2 was this close to coming out, we had those faction pictures,

You know picture of Germany, it's saying and the faction select screen. (Which I guess no one is doing since now they give us the factions haha)

and a leaked demo (which I still want)

Faction videos (Where did those go?)

Newsletters with battle previews (I miss those tooo)



I mean other then 5-9 unit, building, ship profiles, 5 dev diares and 10 confirmed factions...the information has been pretty darn slim coming otu of CA.

This puzzles me :wall:

I wants to get geared up about game....give mes stuff :2thumbsup:

They might be keeping marketing to a minimum to avoid over hyping the game and having it be a disappointment upon release.

Or hopefully they are too busy making it brilliant to come up with promotional stuff. :2thumbsup:

[KozaK13]

true, nice screens, {GrailKnights}Kozak

:P

You have some nerve showing your face here....:drama2:

I do wonder where the factional videos went...

[Barkhorn1x]

Prussians wear blue and yellow?
Seems more Swedish to me. I thought the Pruskies went in for a more monochrome approach.

The shade of blue (Prussian blue :yes:) looks about right and yellow was a facing color for some Prussian regiments. See the uniform link posted by another member = IR von Knobloch is an example.

What was frightening was that the original Prussian color -for clarity's sake* - was black. Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.


* ...or so we were told. This was another result of CA's penchant for almost always choosing gameplay over history. As if historical accuracy doesn't have gameplay value itself.

[Fisherking]

The shade of blue (Prussian blue :yes:) looks about right and yellow was a facing color for some Prussian regiments. See the uniform link posted by another member = IR von Knobloch is an example.

What was frightening was that the original Prussian color -for clarity's sake* - was black. Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.


* ...or so we were told. This was another result of CA's penchant for almost always choosing gameplay over history. As if historical accuracy doesn't have gameplay value itself.

An interesting side note to that uniform.

I have been told that yellow, or gold is a color associated with bravery in the German language. Where as, in English we know the opposite is true, at least for yellow.

[Digby Tatham Warter]

Greetings,
The second one of the new screenshots(open battle) I first saw on my work PC, a 19" square shaped LCD monitor.

When I got home and set it as the desktop image on my 22" Samsung widescreen LCD it looks massively better, Mainly due to the battlions advancing, being properly stretched out!

For those of you thinking about upgrading monitors, you will really be glad you did for ETW.
Going over to a Digital input made quite a difference on sharp detail as well, meaning when playing EB the troops still look crisp and sharp when zoomed further out.

[Sheogorath]

The shade of blue (Prussian blue :yes:) looks about right and yellow was a facing color for some Prussian regiments. See the uniform link posted by another member = IR von Knobloch is an example.

What was frightening was that the original Prussian color -for clarity's sake* - was black. Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed.


* ...or so we were told. This was another result of CA's penchant for almost always choosing gameplay over history. As if historical accuracy doesn't have gameplay value itself.

Ah. I went and looked it up and, although I thought they were originally black, it appears they went in for a navy blue (with white trim) in the Napoleonic era. That would just be for the infantry, of course. I dont even like to think of how people dressed their cavalry in this era. Some of their uniforms were really quite tasteless :tongueg:

[ConnMon]

Did anyone notice that below Stockholm there was a little icon with people, and it had a '1.8 M' beside it. Is empire going to have realisic population amounts now? Is this new or am I just out of sync? And on the map, is the little blob to the far left Iceland? It's the same color as Norway, so thats what I thought. :help:

[Sir Beane]

Did anyone notice that below Stockholm there was a little icon with people, and it had a '1.8 M' beside it. Is empire going to have realisic population amounts now? Is this new or am I just out of sync? And on the map, is the little blob to the far left Iceland? It's the same color as Norway, so thats what I thought. :help:

You are a little out of sync, but not by much. Yes the game uses realistic poplations now. :2thumbsup:

And yes that is Iceland, in the game and belonging to Norway. :beam:

[Marten]

An interesting side note to that uniform.

I have been told that yellow, or gold is a color associated with bravery in the German language. Where as, in English we know the opposite is true, at least for yellow.

Interesting to me that you all refer to the black uniforms in the prussian army. In 1813 the famous "Lützower Jäger" were founded as "Freikorps" (Free Korps) consisting of mostly students. They got no payment and had to dress themselves. So they got the idea of black uniforms (cheap colour, you know), with gold and red laces. They invented the colours of the federal republic of germany without knowing it ... :yes: But our "founding fathers" did remember in 1945 (also our students in the revolution of 1848).

This regiment is only famous because of the famous members, just 2 of them i know from my memories: Joseph von Eichendorff (famous german poet) and Friedrich Fröbel (you may know him - he invented the "Kindergarten"). There was no decisive military impact in any way from these guys, they mostly fought together with russian cossacks as cavalry. By the way, 1813 was also the year of the new founded "iron cross" - iron because of the lack of money.

[Marten]

My membership doesn't allow me to edit, so i have to add:

Gold as color associated of bravery may result from the "Pour le Mérite" (founded by Frederick the Great in 1740 for bravery). The bearers of the medal had some exclusive rights: All soldiers - even the higher ranks - had to salute them, also all guards. Frederick awarded the medal also to civilians like his friend Voltaire. In 1842 a "peace class" for science and arts was founded, it still exists today. Very famous bearer is Alex von Humboldt.