Disappointed

[Masek]

Hi,

i must confess, that i'm a little disappointed about the quality of the game. Without looking for them, i found several severe bugs:

* I group some infantry, order them into a line and draw them into position. Strangely their "fire angle" points to a side and a approaching enemy beats them easily while i turn them around, unit by unit.

* When i select units for my battle, it says "insufficent funds" for every unit, even though i have more than enough funds and can purchase those units.

* Especially cavalry gets easily stuck on obstacles and the the persecuted units escapes.

* Artillery on "fire at will" targets (even though cannister shot is selected) some units far away even though infantry approaches and shoots at them.

* Currently you have to micromage the units a lot, since they behave strangely in group formations. Example: Four infantry units in a line: A B C D. I draw another line fifty yards ahead and they end up like B C D A with A walking diagonally through the enemy fire.

* Light infantry with rifles in skirmish mode isn't retreating on incoming infantry and gets beaten up. They don't try to keep their range advantage.

Overall the quality is not up to the standards of the other TW games. Even though they had to be patched too, the initial quality was significantly better.

Sincerely yours, Martin

[Beskar]

I loved the game, it is fantastic quality. Especially the campaign mode, though, some one once said the factions said what they disliked about you, but I can't seem to find that option.

The horses do have to be micromanaged, their AI is like that due to in game objects such as spikes. Yes, this is annoying, but its to make sure you don't run into a line of spikes and mass suicide, the game treats it as you not seeing the spikes/gave the order to go through them.

You are really downplaying the game if you rate it as disappointed just for that, that's not even 0.1% of the game.

[Sir Beane]

Picking out a couple of bugs is pretty easy for any game on the market. If you expected Empire to be released without bugs then you were always gonig to be disappointed. Post these problems in CA's official bug thread and hopefully they will be fixed with the next patch :2thumbsup:.

[quadalpha]

I loved the game, it is fantastic quality. Especially the campaign mode, though, some one once said the factions said what they disliked about you, but I can't seem to find that option.

The horses do have to be micromanaged, their AI is like that due to in game objects such as spikes. Yes, this is annoying, but its to make sure you don't run into a line of spikes and mass suicide, the game treats it as you not seeing the spikes/gave the order to go through them.

You are really downplaying the game if you rate it as disappointed just for that, that's not even 0.1% of the game.
To see all factors affecting relations, hold your mouse over a nation in the diplomacy map.

[Andres]

Picking out a couple of bugs is pretty easy for any game on the market. If you expected Empire to be released without bugs then you were always gonig to be disappointed. Post these problems in CA's official bug thread and hopefully they will be fixed with the next patch :2thumbsup:.

We had on Org bug thread for M2TW. Maybe it could be helpful for CA if we had a sticky which contains all bug reports?

[Beskar]

To see all factors affecting relations, hold your mouse over a nation in the diplomacy map.
Big thanks, I will try that now.

[Sir Beane]

We had on Org bug thread for M2TW. Maybe it could be helpful for CA if we had a sticky which contains all bug reports?

Good idea :2thumbsup:.

[Masek]

Hi,

please don't get me wrong: software (especially of this dimensions) contains bugs. But my personal impression is, that those bugs are more often and more severe than they were in STW, MTW, RTW and MTW2.

CU, Martin

[Hooahguy]

whoa. you really think these bugs are worse than the ones in RTW and MIITW? :dizzy2:

[Dayve]

If you hold your mouse over the faction thingie in the thingie screen... you know what i mean

It says, for example: "Different government -5" "Same religion +10" and so on and so forth.

That's where you see why factions like or dislike you.

[Sir Beane]

Hi,

please don't get me wrong: software (especially of this dimensions) contains bugs. But my personal impression is, that those bugs are more often and more severe than they were in STW, MTW, RTW and MTW2.

CU, Martin

More severe than RTW or M2TW? I have to disagree. Both of those games had some horrendous bugs when they were released. Like the bug in M2TW that made shields give a unit less defense. And the fact that pikeman basically didn't work. And there were also the bugged charges...

So for ETW has had annoying but mostly harmless bugs that don't affect gameplay too badly. Of course it's still early days and there might be something worse out there...

[Namarie22]

Sadly, as time passes we tend to look at things with a jaded approach.

Empire is muuuuuuuch more stable and solid compared to RTW and M2TW at launch...

[Shadebeard]

Yeah all the stuff the OP mentioned can be fixed by either refined tactics (we're still in that trial-and-error phase aren't we? :wink:) or patches.
I believe the grouped unit fire angle issue is getting fixed in a patch, if I remember correctly. I'm trying to look up the CA quote.
And frankly, if you look at the big picture, especially the campaigns, I think everyone agrees Empire is the greatest Total War game ever.

[Buckwallis]

I hope you are right about the patches, etc.

It's a beautiful game. And I'm holding out hope... but...

Granted I've only played 3 battles so far. 2 in the Independence, 1 as Prussia in a Long Campaign. In both I noticed similar things to what the poster referred to. Also... the sound tends to come and go. It didn't in the demo.

The pathfinding bugs are horrible. I've tried to think they aren't too bad. But they are just horrible. And the Native AI just runs around in circles or runs waaay to my rear and then turns and runs at the back of my line... if I step aside it will just keep running.

I'm holding out hope...

[ArtillerySmoke]

I hope you are right about the patches, etc.

It's a beautiful game. And I'm holding out hope... but...

Granted I've only played 3 battles so far. 2 in the Independence, 1 as Prussia in a Long Campaign. In both I noticed similar things to what the poster referred to. Also... the sound tends to come and go. It didn't in the demo.

The pathfinding bugs are horrible. I've tried to think they aren't too bad. But they are just horrible. And the Native AI just runs around in circles or runs waaay to my rear and then turns and runs at the back of my line... if I step aside it will just keep running.

I'm holding out hope...

It's day 2. I'd hope you would be holding out hope.

I haven't even played the game yet and I know it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

You're disappointed...some companies haven't even shipped preorders yet! :shame:

[Dayve]

I'm not at all disappointed... i love it. I'll vouch for the stability someone mentioned, i've been playing nonstop since 12pm, so 12 and a half hours, and not a single CTD or freeze.

There are annoying bugs sure, like when your nation is ruled by a queen but all traits and other info refer to her as a him, the lag you get when you click on a unit or city on the campaign map and sound coming and going for footsteps and horse charges but who cares... we know these only exist because sponsors and funders demand the game be released as soon as it's playable stability wise, despite all the little bugs that need ironing out.

It'll be patched, just relax, we're only on day 2.

[Callahan9119]

Sadly, as time passes we tend to look at things with a jaded approach.

Empire is muuuuuuuch more stable and solid compared to RTW and M2TW at launch...

I disagree, I'v bought every release besides shogun the day it dropped. This is just 1 and a half days, the surface hasnt even been scratched.

My game should not be crapping out on my supercomputer for "low video memory" and all the other graphic bugs that are flooding tech and sli boards, especially when my rig can handle crysis on high/highest while spinning half a dozen plates on poles.

That said, this game is way deeper than any release to date....too bad they cant finish a game before its released. One mod up there said make a handy list for CA, they already know about these problems...its naive to believe otherwise, just look at how quick a patch is coming....announced before the game was even unlocked on steam.

[Marius Dynamite]

The battle AI is hot and cold really.

Sometimes when then enemy advance, they advance in a line and perform very well. All too often, however they come one by one and get shot down, or move as a blob and fight as a blob and get shot down as a blob.

It should be able to recognise when it has an advantage in a shootout and simply mobilise itself into a shooting position, especially when I have my men standing waiting for a shootout.

I'm not all that fussed though. As I said, it has its moments of competence and provides a challenging battle. Also I recognise CA has added a lot to this game and wouldn't have had vast amounts of time to work on the battle AI. I would expect if the next game or even an expansion uses this type of warfare we would see massive improvements in battle AI.

[Belid Hagen]

only thing I dislike about E:TW so far is tha absolutely horrendous load times. I find myself auto-resolving 4/5 battles simply to avoid the 3-5 minute load times.

[ArtillerySmoke]

I disagree, I'v bought every release besides shogun the day it dropped. This is just 1 and a half days, the surface hasnt even been scratched.

My game should not be crapping out on my supercomputer for "low video memory" and all the other graphic bugs that are flooding tech and sli boards, especially when my rig can handle crysis on high/highest while spinning half a dozen plates on poles.

That said, this game is way deeper than any release to date....too bad they cant finish a game before its released. One mod up there said make a handy list for CA, they already know about these problems...its naive to believe otherwise, just look at how quick a patch is coming....announced before the game was even unlocked on steam.

This is the thing: ALL games today are shipped without being 100% finished. It's just the way the industry is. Be happy that you have a day 1 patch with more to come.

Look at DoW2 - MP Pop Cap Bug has led to a broken MP since day 1. We STILL don't have a fix for that.

CA is pretty good man. Perfect? No...but much better than most.

[Murmandamus]

* I group some infantry, order them into a line and draw them into position. Strangely their "fire angle" points to a side and a approaching enemy beats them easily while i turn them around, unit by unit.
I've had that a couple times, but just right clicking on the enemy unit when it was in range snapped the firing angle straight to the right direction. I didn't have to manually rotate them.


* Artillery on "fire at will" targets (even though cannister shot is selected) some units far away even though infantry approaches and shoots at them.
I've also had my cannon firing at a routing unit that was on the opposite side of the map. I have a different problem with artillery which has been more of an issue though. Sometimes when you tell them to cease firing they still fire off another round, but in a random direction. I had one fire a shot straight down the line of a unit that was standing next to it, even though it had been firing straight ahead when I told it to stop. Other times they've just shot into the ground around them, luckily without hitting anything.


* Currently you have to micromage the units a lot, since they behave strangely in group formations. Example: Four infantry units in a line: A B C D. I draw another line fifty yards ahead and they end up like B C D A with A walking diagonally through the enemy fire.
Haven't seen this one myself. Are you just selecting the 4 units, hitting G and moving them, or are you using the formations button? Maybe with the formations button they're rearranging themselves to keep the more experienced units to one side of the line or something.

In previous titles I've had the formations get messed up if I grouped them while they were still moving, so now I make sure all my units are fully in position and stationary before grouping them.

[Buckwallis]

The battle AI is hot and cold really.

Sometimes when then enemy advance, they advance in a line and perform very well. All too often, however they come one by one and get shot down, or move as a blob and fight as a blob and get shot down as a blob.

It should be able to recognise when it has an advantage in a shootout and simply mobilise itself into a shooting position, especially when I have my men standing waiting for a shootout.

I'm not all that fussed though. As I said, it has its moments of competence and provides a challenging battle. Also I recognise CA has added a lot to this game and wouldn't have had vast amounts of time to work on the battle AI. I would expect if the next game or even an expansion uses this type of warfare we would see massive improvements in battle AI.

Right. That's what's got me nervous.

And I've also noticed that units get hung up around fences and such... and when they lose cohesion... well, it's trouble. That said, I'm playing on Ultra sizes... so maybe that's a factor. I'll kick it down a notch and see.

Like I stated... I'm holding out hope. And I know it'll get patched. And I know the modding community is just now licking it's chops. I still believe this thing is going to be one fine gem once polished... I just hope the pathfinding and a couple of the AI issues are able to be tweaked.:help:

[Callahan9119]

I just was in a siege battle vs computer to adjust my graphics, 8 X AA does wonders, without it most hard edges look like they were attacked with a cheese grater. I very quickly noticed that sections of wall would pop in and out of place anywhere adjacent to a damaged section of wall, literally it would pop out a distance equal to its thickness. Also, all over the walls there were several gaps in the sections where they just didnt match up.

It really rather jarringly destroys immersion. And I noticed it in my first siege battle....how do you miss that?

I cant figure out where the screens i took saved to, but I'm sure you could recreate it easily, it was the big ottoman castle.

[A Very Super Market]

Graphics glitches happen all the time....

[Callahan9119]

Huge sections of wall should not pop in and out with such dramatic effect unless someone found a secret lever to activate said magical wall.

And that wasnt in the manual, or Gamefaqs.