The Daily Update at the Com

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Copied this from the Com. They have started a thread telling us what they are doing.


April 8th:


Just thought I would make a post about where things are, where things are going and what we plan on doing.
First off, we are going to support Empire for a long time. The first game play patch with both a lot of fixes and balancing/economic changes as well as more is in testing, and then the cycle of hot fixes then game play patches will begin again. At the moment every programmer is focused on fixing bugs.

What balance/economic/other changes will be in the first game play patch?
Quite a lot really. Unit balancing has seem some general tweaks across the board to improve it. Unit costs have changed for both multiplayer and single player.
For multiplayer there are now separate costs for early and late era so that units better reflect the techs available, and units such as mortars and rocket ships have had big cost increases and light infantry have had their cost increased a bit as well.
For single player, unit costs have increased on normal, even more on hard and even more on very hard so that on very hard units cost 4x their upkeep cost. Bigger ships have had their cost increased and all ships upkeep costs have increased.
There have also been general economic tweaks to prevent the huge sums of money that were possible in the late game, and so to increase the challenge of the game.
As for the other changes, we've added in a delete save game button, a button to allow you to view battle replays from the single player Play Battle menu, improved ship grouping UI and other things.
There are also of course AI improvements and yes naval invasions though they may be rare for now.

What you going to do after that?
Well we are going to carry on fixing and improving the game. The AI (both battle and campaign) will see continuous improvements, multiplayer will see improvements, there will be more balancing improvements, and some nice free stuff you'll be hearing about in due time.
From a personal perspective as someone working on unit balancing, the next game play patch after this one will see some big improvements in terms of diversification of different unit and artillery types. The game play patch after that one will see improvements to naval battle balancing.

So what are you getting at?
We are going to carry on supporting Empire for a long time. We are going to carry on improving Empire. You'll see more as things get done.



Jack.

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/53425

[Smellycat]

"There are also of course AI improvements and yes naval invasions though they may be rare for now."
ahem what?
so France and Great Brittain will get to india how? or attack each other how? I am shaking my head in disbelief here. what does RARE FOR NOW mean?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Jack Lusted at the Com


There were bugs preventing naval invasions that have been fixed for next patch, however balancing the priorities of them against other things will take more time hence why for now they will likely be rare but occuring after the gameplay patch, but improving more over time as we continually improve the AI.

[johnhughthom]

I am shaking my head in disbelief here. what does RARE FOR NOW mean?

Perhaps it means as rare as they were in real life....

[Smellycat]

naval invasoion just means transporting troops by sea, thats not rare

[johnhughthom]

naval invasoion just means transporting troops by sea, thats not rare

Well perhaps nations ferrying troops between their own regions wasn't(to me that is the main issue, not naval invasions of enemy territory), but you know how CA usually work. They go from one extreme to another, I was worried the next patch would suddenly see random three or four unit armies landed on your territory a la BI.exe for RTW or M2TW where you would see Portugal land armies in Wales every campaign. I am very pleased they intend to change it slowly and not go for a massive overhaul.

[Slaists]

Well perhaps nations ferrying troops between their own regions wasn't(to me that is the main issue, not naval invasions of enemy territory), but you know how CA usually work. They go from one extreme to another, I was worried the next patch would suddenly see random three or four unit armies landed on your territory a la BI.exe for RTW or M2TW where you would see Portugal land armies in Wales every campaign. I am very pleased they intend to change it slowly and not go for a massive overhaul.

Well, come to think of it: the only purposeful AI naval invasions I have so far seen in TW games took place in Stainless Steel mod of MTW2...

All the vanilla game invasions usually involved some AI's units (or lone faction heirs) being shipped to some obscure lands and left there to wander (or sit) aimlessly...

A couple exceptions: in vanilla RTW, Carthage used to land forces to take Corsica. but that was scripted I think pluse - unless destroyed, Carthage would land a force (to be destroyed by Romans) in Corsica every other turn... The other exceptions that I noticed were in MTW2: Byzantines would consistently land forces in Crete while Sicilians would go for Tunisia and western Greece. Again, these invasions were most likely scripted.

I hope, CA does something more creative with ETW in this department.

[al Roumi]

I am pleased to know what they are working on at least, and an indication of their appreciation of what is or isn't a priority. I personaly hope CA are dealing with what we see as a priority first, and what they see as easy to do second. No one wants to big issues to be un-touched and carried over throughout various patches.

[Prodigal]

Ok now I only saw this in my first game, I've never seen it since & I'm not sure where they came from...But I invaded India & had a small stack of Dutch come marching up into my territory. Not Portugese, Dutch.

Now they weren't at war with everyone on the map, so the only way they could have got there is by landing.

Course never seen it again & don't expect to, its by far the worst bug in the game. That and AI factions massive F.A.G (Fear of Aggressive Gaming) factor, VH/VH, nobody attacks me!

Yes it will get better, no doubt...But geez fix the blindingly obvious game killer, *omg this games getting boring* bugs first.

Rant ends.

[A Very Super Market]

They may have just traded territory...

[Allu X]

Any naval invasion is good enough for me. As long as it means Spain can get rid of their piles of units once every 5 turns, that's fine :D

Same goes for them actually re-enforcing troops in the Americas, instead of leaving me to annihilate them.

Problem: I hope Naval invasions by the Ai doesn't mean the Pirates will be nerfed at turn 5...

[Prussian to the Iron]

i hope they fix some obvious diplomatic bugs too. for some reason offering a 2500 dollar gift and 3 enlightment techs, 2 military techs and an industrial tech doesnt seem to be enough to get my ALLY to trade with me.....

and why is it everyone refuses to trade with me?i mean, sometims my allies or people i am "very friendly" with will refuse trade. trade is good for everyone!! why refuse it?!

[nafod]

This is the kind of stuff I like to see, forward looking comments.

[Slaists]

i hope they fix some obvious diplomatic bugs too. for some reason offering a 2500 dollar gift and 3 enlightment techs, 2 military techs and an industrial tech doesnt seem to be enough to get my ALLY to trade with me.....

and why is it everyone refuses to trade with me?i mean, sometims my allies or people i am "very friendly" with will refuse trade. trade is good for everyone!! why refuse it?!

On my H campaign I have not had a problem getting trade agreements with as many nations as my ports would bear. If one faction refuses, I go to another...

I suspect, trade refusal has something to do with the random AI personalities: some are more mercantilistic than others. After all, mercantilism (keeping trade internal and "protected") was not such an unpopular idea in the time period considered.

[SpencerH]

I think this is very good news. Jack Lusted deserves a lot of respect for his work on previous games and the fact that he is taking the time to make such a statement suggests that it may reach a point where I'll allow myself to play it.

[Fisherking]

It seems like mostly good news.

Rare invasions is good. I hate them spamming loads of armies and putting them ashore on every little dirt clod. If it were just France trying to go to England or England intervening on the content that would just about be enough.

We will just have to see how the upkeep and price increases impact the play.

[Phog_of_War]

Ok now I only saw this in my first game, I've never seen it since & I'm not sure where they came from...But I invaded India & had a small stack of Dutch come marching up into my territory. Not Portugese, Dutch.

Now they weren't at war with everyone on the map, so the only way they could have got there is by landing.

Course never seen it again & don't expect to, its by far the worst bug in the game. That and AI factions massive F.A.G (Fear of Aggressive Gaming) factor, VH/VH, nobody attacks me!

Yes it will get better, no doubt...But geez fix the blindingly obvious game killer, *omg this games getting boring* bugs first.

Rant ends.

Dont the Dutch have Celyon and another mainland India province?? I have not played in India yet so i am not sure.

[A Very Super Market]

No, Ceylon is an island, and only the Portuguese have a mainland territory.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Dont the Dutch have Celyon and another mainland India province?? I have not played in India yet so i am not sure.

ceylon is an island, and the only non-indian faction with an indian mainland province at start is portugal.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

We will just have to see how the upkeep and price increases impact the play.

I hope that it improves the mid and end game. No spamming of stacks by the human player and the AI (Spain garrisoned by 25 stacks) I hope.

I hope that CA nerves the minor powers and make the great powers more aggressive. Small states should be looking for help from major powers, not destroying them.

[anweRU]

Small states should be looking for help from major powers, not destroying them.

Remembers a small tribe of ~ 600 cavalrymen eventually conquering Byzantium, Serbia, Hungary, Bosnia, Albania, Mamluke Syria and Egypt, the Caucauses, and what is today Iraq and Iran, and sending fleets as far as Ireland and Burma.

Also remembers a small group of rebels turned revolutionaries, whose navy by 1945 was larger than all the rest of the world's navies combined - and most of those navies were ships built by said nation...

I don't have a problem with a minor power rising to a major power status. It should take time, and effort though.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I also don't have a problem if one minor nation becomes very strong, but this was the age of rivalry between GB and France (aka the second hundred years war), the rise of Prussia, the dividing of Poland etc. The small powers allied with the big ones to get some help.

In this game France is a nice kitten without claws. The struggle for colonies between England, France and Spain never takes place. France was trying during the 18th century (and before and after) to dominate Southern Germany and Italy. The small states that should feel threatened by France are more dangerous to France then vice versa. When the strength of Spain was weakening France was trying to get influence there as well. Because of the alliance between France and Spain from the beginning this never takes place.

I don't want a simulation of the eighteenth century but there are great opportunities for war that never materialize.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

second update




April 9th


Hi there everyone, today we thought we would post a follow up to yesterday's daily update as there was a lot of response to it.

How come you are focusing on balancing and not fixing bugs?

We are not. The designers are working on balancing improvements, and the programmers on code fixes. Work on one does not preclude work on the other. It is not a case of we can work on balancing or fixes, it's a case of we can do both, so we are.

You're quadrupling upkeep costs!?!

No, the recruitment cost of units on very hard will be 4x their upkeep cost. Upkeep costs are actually reducing slightly. This confusion was caused by poor wording in yesterdays update.

Why didn't you mention fixes for such and such?

As a designer I do not work with code so I am not aware of all the fixes that have been done. This does not mean there haven't been any. We are fixing the sound issues people have been reporting, crashes and lots of other bugs.

Some examples of fixes in the upcoming patch are:

- Fixed audio volume dropping following advisor
- General sound balance changes
- Campaign map optimisations, and general crash fixes
- General stability improvements and crash fixes- General optimisation tweaks- An array of fixes and tweaks to improve AI aggression levels
- Fix Video Stutter

There are a lot more fixes than those coming in the patch.


And what did you mean by rare naval invasions for now?

We've fixed the bugs that were preventing the AI from doing naval invasions, but that did not mean they would suddenly start doing them all the time. The priority for them needs to be balanced against all the other items that have priorities for the AI and this will take a while to get right. We are going to continuously improve the AI so the amount of naval invasions will keep on getting better from the initial fix that is coming in the next patch.

What about multiplayer?

More maps are coming. When is still being discussed but you will see more maps at some point(mostly 4v4s, 3v3s and 2v2s).

The problem with cheaters being able to edit unit stats and costs without problem for multiplayer has been fixed and will be in the next patch.

Other multiplayer improvements are still being discussed.

We will also continue to work to fix bugs with multiplayer.

As this weekend is Easter Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, there will not be anymore Daily Updates until Tuesday. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Jack.

[anweRU]

I hope the wait-10/15seconds-for-audio bug will indeed be fixed. It is such an odd bug though. I suffer from it when selecting Paris (in my current UP game), and some of my naval units (especially if they are in port), but not with most other stacks & cities.

As for the post above that: Hopefully the colonial rivalries will show up with naval invasions bug being fixed. I agree that the European 1-region minors need to be nerfed. They get a huge bonus for both economy & research, making their armies deadly to the so-called "major" powers. Larger "minor" powers, such as Denmark and Persia, aren't that bad. They seem to behave just like the "major" powers.

As I said before, I don't mind minors growing into majors if a power vacuum exists. But the way Austria, Spain, France, Sweeden, Prussia, Poland, Russia & the Ottoman AIs are, there are far too many power vacuums in Europe.

[Prussian to the Iron]

a.i. needt to be more agressive. not onec have i had an invasion of my provinces larger than 3 units burning some farms. and only 2 times have i had my port blockaded.

[johnhughthom]

only 2 times have i had my port blockaded.

While I agree the AI is not aggressive enough in general, in each campaign I have played the AI has been quick to blockade a port I have left poorly defended, especially the port in my home region.

[NimitsTexan]

For single player, unit costs have increased on normal, even more on hard and even more on very hard so that on very hard units cost 4x their upkeep cost. Bigger ships have had their cost increased and all ships upkeep costs have increased.

A little surprised at this . . . if anything, it feels there should be more units on the map, not less.

[Smellycat]

A little surprised at this . . . if anything, it feels there should be more units on the map, not less.

oh thats for us not the AI

[NimitsTexan]

Yeah, but if things need balancing, you could lower the cost for the AI (giving it more troops), not raise the cost for humans.

Also, it is sort of counterintutive to the real logistic situations faced by European power. Building armies (and, to a lesser extent) navies was the "cheap" part; keeping them manned and supplied was what was more expensive. Raising an army quickly should be doable, but the player should also be encouraged to disband unnecessary units in time of peace. But that change looks slow the raising of armies and make it more beneficial to maintain a large standing army indefinately.

[Smellycat]

Yeah, but if things need balancing, you could lower the cost for the AI (giving it more troops), not raise the cost for humans.

Also, it is sort of counterintutive to the real logistic situations faced by European power. Building armies (and, to a lesser extent) navies was the "cheap" part; keeping them manned and supplied was what was more expensive. Raising an army quickly should be doable, but the player should also be encouraged to disband unnecessary units in time of peace. But that change looks slow the raising of armies and make it more beneficial to maintain a large standing army indefinately.

Oh IDD, I also think just making troops more expensive is taking the easy way out and does not equate better campaign AI

[Jack Lusted]

Unit recruitment costs are being increased to make losing a full stack mean more instead of just being a couple of turns worth of that losts full stacks upkeep cost.

[Smellycat]

Oh while you are here will any other European factions than Portugal/Netherlands make it to India like the nice lady in the faction intros said? And please, I bought the game because of your AAR and haven't played it for 2 weeks now because of the naval invasion bummer I require a real answer, its either coded or its not

[IRONxMortlock]

Unit recruitment costs are being increased to make losing a full stack mean more instead of just being a couple of turns worth of that losts full stacks upkeep cost.

That of course presumes that the AI will be clever enough to defeat a full stack of mine,:boxing:

[MikeV]

I think this is very good news. Jack Lusted deserves a lot of respect for his work on previous games and the fact that he is taking the time to make such a statement suggests that it may reach a point where I'll allow myself to play it.
According to the credits (https://forums.totalwar.org/wiki/index.php/ETW_people#Design), he's listed as a designer. So, he'd be a good person to question about gameplay-related issues.

[antisocialmunky]

Unit recruitment costs are being increased to make losing a full stack mean more instead of just being a couple of turns worth of that losts full stacks upkeep cost.

Thanks, Jack.

I understand what you're trying to do but I rather see the AI actually capable of defeating a stack. This solution seems just kinda like a bandage since it doesn't make the experience anymore fun, just somewhat frustrating when the AI hits you with ridiculous amount of troops that you can't afford but it can just throw away. We've seen mods where this happens(Grey Death from EB for example) and it just gets old after a while.

Not saying upkeep shouldn't be tweeked because raising armies is fairly easy but I rather still ahve that great AI you guys promised. :laugh4:

PS. They should be paying you for PR :)

[Jack Lusted]

We're not changing the costs because of the AI, we are changing them so that it makes losing a full stack have more of an impact.

[SpencerH]

According to the credits (https://forums.totalwar.org/wiki/index.php/ETW_people#Design), he's listed as a designer. So, he'd be a good person to question about gameplay-related issues.

I'm well aware of who Jack Lusted is (online). I'm not interested in gameplay issues per se. I'm interested in determining whether I will ever buy this or any future TW game. To that end, I'm interested in reading comments on the current version and (hopefully) its evolution from a beta version to a game I will play. While any rational comment is useful, those written by people who's opinions I've come to respect on these issues over the years are more valuable to me. After my frustration with CA over the years, I do not attribute any special status to comments on TW games made by those who work for CA. In fact, I'm more likely to view their comments with more skepticism than the average post. Jack Lusted, OTOH, is in a special position IMO since he is a player, a modder, and is now an EA insider and I have no reason to believe what he says is corporate "doublespeak".

[NimitsTexan]

We're not changing the costs because of the AI, we are changing them so that it makes losing a full stack have more of an impact.

The only ones whoever lose a full stack in my games (aside from fighting against the Cherokee, darn OP AmeriIndians) is the computer . . . I have never lost a full stack against the Euros or Asians in ETW. I imagine it is the same for most players.

[nafod]

The only ones whoever lose a full stack in my games (aside from fighting against the Cherokee, darn OP AmeriIndians) is the computer . . . I have never lost a full stack against the Euros or Asians in ETW. I imagine it is the same for most players.

Seconded. Only defeats came from the Inuit and the Cherokee.

[Fisherking]

Seconded. Only defeats came from the Inuit and the Cherokee.


Lucky you!

When I played as UP I lost two stacks against a bit more than a stack of Prussians. I don’t know if they were just teched up higher than me or what but it was more like superman vs. the homeless. And believe me there didn’t need to be more penalties on top of that one. It was more than bad enough!

[Megas Methuselah]

Seconded. Only defeats came from the Inuit and the Cherokee.

I suppose they wouldn't be so difficult if all the minor factions were balanced (such as Georgia not being able to recruit multiple stacks), and if the Native American units weren't so inexpensive to recruit.

[Forward Observer]

I'm well aware of who Jack Lusted is (online). I'm not interested in gameplay issues per se. I'm interested in determining whether I will ever buy this or any future TW game. To that end, I'm interested in reading comments on the current version and (hopefully) its evolution from a beta version to a game I will play. While any rational comment is useful, those written by people who's opinions I've come to respect on these issues over the years are more valuable to me. After my frustration with EA over the years, I do not attribute any special status to comments on TW games made by those who work for EA. In fact, I'm more likely to view their comments with more skepticism than the average post. Jack Lusted, OTOH, is in a special position IMO since he is a player, a modder, and is now an EA insider and I have no reason to believe what he says is corporate "doublespeak".

Don't you mean Sega? Shogun was the only Total War game published by EA. Medieval was was published by Activision and then from Rome and on, it has been Sega. The CA development company was actually purchased by Sega, so I doubt there will be any more changes of publisher in the near future.

Cheers

[Megas Methuselah]

Don't you mean Sega? Shogun was the only Total War game published by EA. Medieval was was published by Activision and then from Rome and on, it has been Sega. The CA development company was actually purchased by Sega, so I doubt there will be any more changes of publisher in the near future.

Cheers

Rome was activision. Don't know about its expansion packs, though.

[johnhughthom]

I'm pretty sure SEGA took over just before Barbarian Invasion.

[Smellycat]

anyways (yes it was just before BI) i like the way Jack Lusted side stepped this (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2205031&postcount=32) question

[SpencerH]

Don't you mean Sega? Shogun was the only Total War game published by EA. Medieval was was published by Activision and then from Rome and on, it has been Sega. The CA development company was actually purchased by Sega, so I doubt there will be any more changes of publisher in the near future.

Cheers


Sorry, by EA I meant CA. :Bangs head numerous times:

[Upxl]

The dude sounds tired.

They're obviously doing their best to get it straightened up.


On a side note: "planning to support ETW for a long time" this could either be a good or a bad thing.
But will no doubt swallow some profits, so let’s just look at it as kind. :beam:

[Forward Observer]

Rome was activision. Don't know about its expansion packs, though.

You are correct. When I was typing, I grabbed the Barbarian Expansion Box and saw SEGA on it, and just assumed Rome was the same without first checking.


Cheers

[antisocialmunky]

IIRC, Activision was Rome. Sega was BI.

*oops didn't reasd that last post*

[Prussian to the Iron]

anyways (yes it was just before BI) i like the way Jack Lusted side stepped this (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2205031&postcount=32) question

you...you do know hes not on this thread right? that was a letter in the .com. geeze some people are so ignorant :furious3:

[johnhughthom]

geeze some people are so ignorant :furious3:

And others are so rude. ~;)

[Smellycat]

you...you do know hes not on this thread right? that was a letter in the .com. geeze some people are so ignorant :furious3:

He posted in this thread 3 times and i posted my question 5 minutes after his first post so he is "on" this thread unless his little brother took his log in details and trolled us

[NimitsTexan]

No offense, Smelly, but you might trying being a little more diplomatic. "Requiring" an answer is a bit presumptious, don't you think?

Anyway, it is generally standard policy not to post details about things like that, at least until after they believe they have everything fixed. I am surprised (and pleased) that Lusted has shared even the little details he has.

[Smellycat]

Yeah but problem is a person like Lusted who is a really experienced modder would notice the lack of naval invasions within 2 hours of playing the game and re-reading his AAR (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=112895) now seems like it was a science fiction novel

[nafod]

Yeah but problem is a person like Lusted who is a really experienced modder would notice the lack of naval invasions within 2 hours of playing the game and re-reading his AAR (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=112895) now seems like it was a science fiction novel

Actually his AAR doesn't list anything innaccurately. Of course after playing it it doesn't describe much at all.

[Servius]

Has there been any word on when the next patch may come out?

I've stopped playing until the rest of the CTD bugs are gone. Just too tired of starting up a new campaign and then randomly (to me) hitting a CTD wall in the cycle of AI turns, or when I try to embark/disembark a units. Those crashes are rarer since the last patch, but they still occur every so often. I haven't been able to complete a campaign yet. But I really like the game, when I am able to play it, so I eagerly look forward to the extermination of the remaining bugs causing this kind of CTD.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Today at the com by Jack Lusted


April 14th

Todays update will be some progress news on the next patch.

The Beta Test Group

As many of you will be aware a short while ago we asked for members of the community to apply to a beta group we were setting up in order to help test and provide feedback for future updates. We now have a good sized beta test group testing the latest version of the next patch. This is the third version of the patch they have tested, and soon they will testing the next version of it. They have been providing very good and detailed info for us, and patch progress is good.

The next patch is almost where we want it to be for release. After the next patch is released we will continue a cycle of bigger gameplay patches that will of course include more than just gameplay changes.

A short update today, but I know a lot of you are wondering about the next patch and I hope this gives you an idea where we currently are with it, and how the patching cycle will continue.

[Barkhorn1x]

Good update.

We could all bitch about why CA didn't go the Beta Test Group route with the first patches. But that would be pointless. They are doing it now - and the patch will be on version #4 soon. Without this group we probably would have had to suffer with a buggy version #2.

[Smellycat]

and ther best part is they don't have to pay them anything

[Zatoichi]

Way to make a positive into a negative!

If you really want to go down that road, CA have to pay the people who are looking after the feedback from the Beta group etc.

But that would be silly, and a waste of everyone's time right?

[Smellycat]

Well it could all have been avoided if they tested the game properly before release but i guess they figured out "Since everyone has to use Steam anyways we'll release now and patch later". To me the whole process is like locking the barn door after the horse been stolen. On top of that they had the nerve to charge extra for units in a game they were fully aware was not finished. Hell even the extra units are not finished, my Ottoman Organ Gun disappears when i zoom out. So you could say I don't share the enthusiasm since NO DATE was given and no real details on improved/fixed AI except for making my units more expensive which is laughable

[nafod]

Lucky you!

When I played as UP I lost two stacks against a bit more than a stack of Prussians. I don’t know if they were just teched up higher than me or what but it was more like superman vs. the homeless. And believe me there didn’t need to be more penalties on top of that one. It was more than bad enough!

I'd imagine the Prussians could be tough. Especially since they start with bayonets....seems to take ages for everyone else to even research plugs.

But I only play Russia, Prussia and the Ottomans. So I've never faced the Prussians:)

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Jack today april 15th.


Another short update today, it will cover an interesting issue that was reported during recent beta testing of the next patch.

The mod, it does not work!?!?!?1

A change that was made in the patch (addition of a seperate late multiplayer cost for units) broke mods that edited unit costs as the mods did not contain this new value. They would crash on loading the game. Now not wanting to leave people who play some of the more popular mods with a game that doesn't load for reasons they would not understand, we are adding support to the game so that mods without the new field in them will still work once the patch is released.

Though modders, I would advise you to take advantage of the new field once the next patch is out.

So...beta update?

The foruth and version of the next patch will be done soon and will enter testing.

There will be a changelist posted closer to the release of the patch.

[Veresov]

Empire is total unstable for me and the last series of 'patches' actually made things worse. Support has been about releasing a broken game and beta testing it on my dime. I am not optimistic about this patch and my patience is wearing thin.

[Fisherking]

I just uploaded some drivers that came out after the game’s release, hoping it would fix the land battles not loading completely for me.

Well that was a huge mistake. Now I get auto shut downs telling me the system overheated. I can not tell that it did.

There is a game issue here some where. I have monitored the heat, fans, and so on and it does not seem due to excessive heat, but there is some conflict.

[Prussian to the Iron]

i must say, i believe it is your guys' computers that are the problems. i have installed it on 2 computers, a 2009 vista and an XP at least 4 years old, and i think its older. both have run it without problems, except for 1 that was resolved with the patches( and it wasnt even gamebreaking!)

perhaps you should check the specs of your computer and see if tey exceed the minimum requirements first, and then if they do, then odds are it is just not compatible with your computer, though it should be.

I have to say, im sick of people saying they hate this game because of bugs. odds are it is your computer, and thus your problem, not the softwares. judge the game based on the gameplay, not the bugs.

[Servius]

I really like the game, but have stopped playing until they squash the last vestige of the end-of-turn/agent/embark-disembark bug that causes a CTD you can't work around. The first patch cut down on the frequency a lot, but since then I've had 3 campaigns cut short because of it. I'm eagerly looking forward to the resolution of that problem since I really like the game.

[Grumfoss]

I just uploaded some drivers that came out after the game’s release, hoping it would fix the land battles not loading completely for me.

Well that was a huge mistake. Now I get auto shut downs telling me the system overheated. I can not tell that it did.

There is a game issue here some where. I have monitored the heat, fans, and so on and it does not seem due to excessive heat, but there is some conflict.

What drivers did you update or was it a bios change?

If you roll back the driver does the problem go away or does it remain?

If it remains it looks like a hardware fault - probably processor fan - you probably wouldn't notice a problem when the computer is idling, but when you put it under pressure (i.e. running a game) the temps will skyrocket - very quickly.

If the problem goes away then it was a driver issue.

Just out of curiosity what program are you using to monitor the temps.? - I would recommend using speedfan.

[Fisherking]

What drivers did you update or was it a bios change?

If you roll back the driver does the problem go away or does it remain?

If it remains it looks like a hardware fault - probably processor fan - you probably wouldn't notice a problem when the computer is idling, but when you put it under pressure (i.e. running a game) the temps will skyrocket - very quickly.

If the problem goes away then it was a driver issue.

Just out of curiosity what program are you using to monitor the temps.? - I would recommend using speedfan.

The temps don’t skyrocket! I am using speed fan, though with my board I can’t control the fans it seems.

I updated the video drivers and a bios change.

I may be stupid but with vista I don’t know how to roll back the drivers. It is also compounded by the fact my computer is in German and it is tough to figure out what is what.

[Prussian to the Iron]

thats weird....noe of the computers im using for it is a vista too, and it works fine.

if your computer is german, are you running the german version? that may be the problem.

[TB666]

April 16th


April 16th

We've had an interesting week so far. I've just come away from a meeting on the multiplayer campaign beta and things are progressing well.

Naturally the patches remain our focus, but the multiplayer beta is also being worked on. Please don't be confused with the gameplay upgrade currently in beta testing, these are two different things and the multiplayer beta is set for a later release.

For those that are interested Sensei and I spent Easter weekend in France presenting to the excellent LAN event in Poitiers. There were about 1000+ French fans there, playing loads of different games, we made an appearence at the opening ceremony and gave an update on what we were doing with increased threading and i7 support for Empire in the near future.

It's too early to put dates or numbers on things at the moment but some of the early work is yielding impressive performance gains...

Thanks again to everyone for tuning in and reading these, hopefully they give some insight into our day to day work. Right now, patches and the gameplay upgrade are our biggest focus.

[Fisherking]

thats weird....noe of the computers im using for it is a vista too, and it works fine.

if your computer is german, are you running the german version? that may be the problem.

The version I am running came from the UK but you can load it in any of a dozen or so languages.

It is loaded in English, however.

There also seems to be more stuff using up RAM when the system is idle since the updates. RAM is a problem with vista, though I have never run out yet, so far as I know.

As I said, I was looking for a solution to the Land Battles not loading properly. It is simply the way the game is behaving on my system. I am guessing it is a problem with the video drivers or the bios change, most likely the video drivers.

But I have gone from being able to play the game using mostly auto resolves for land battles (the naval worked perfectly) to not being able to play at all.

Frustrating!

[Slaists]

The version I am running came from the UK but you can load it in any of a dozen or so languages.

It is loaded in English, however.

There also seems to be more stuff using up RAM when the system is idle since the updates. RAM is a problem with vista, though I have never run out yet, so far as I know.

As I said, I was looking for a solution to the Land Battles not loading properly. It is simply the way the game is behaving on my system. I am guessing it is a problem with the video drivers or the bios change, most likely the video drivers.

But I have gone from being able to play the game using mostly auto resolves for land battles (the naval worked perfectly) to not being able to play at all.

Frustrating!

I have not witnessed RAM problems (so far), but I have had a couple 'out of video memory' crashes. Rebooting the PC and reloading the game all worked fine in those instances. I guess, there is some 'memory leak' problems present.

[Barkhorn1x]

i must say, i believe it is your guys' computers that are the problems. i have installed it on 2 computers, a 2009 vista and an XP at least 4 years old, and i think its older. both have run it without problems, except for 1 that was resolved with the patches( and it wasnt even gamebreaking!)

perhaps you should check the specs of your computer and see if tey exceed the minimum requirements first, and then if they do, then odds are it is just not compatible with your computer, though it should be.

I have to say, im sick of people saying they hate this game because of bugs. odds are it is your computer, and thus your problem, not the softwares. judge the game based on the gameplay, not the bugs.

You seem like a good guy and I think you mean well so I will be delicate here.

1. I am happy that you can run ETW with no issues on two computers.
2. There are MANY MANY folks with very poweful rigs that cannot
3. I have continuing issues with sound and lag on the campaign map
4. None of these issues exist with other recent games I play that demand a high end rig (SHIV)
5. None of these issues exist with M2TW
6. The common denominator here is ETW and it is a buggy mess in its present incarnation

Your milage may vary - and good for you - but you cannot simply wish these issues away by blaming them on gamers pc's.

[Barkhorn1x]

I have not witnessed RAM problems (so far), but I have had a couple 'out of video memory' crashes. Rebooting the PC and reloading the game all worked fine in those instances. I guess, there is some 'memory leak' problems present.


Go to this link and apply this fix. It will solve your particular issue.


http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=238484

[Forward Observer]

I have not witnessed RAM problems (so far), but I have had a couple 'out of video memory' crashes. Rebooting the PC and reloading the game all worked fine in those instances. I guess, there is some 'memory leak' problems present.


There is an explanation of the issue and a 3rd party fix for the "out of video memory" crashes. I've not had a one since I applied this process. It is a two step process for any system other than Windows Vista 64 bit, but everything is explained.

Here is a link:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=238484

If one uses this small mod you will probably have to re-apply it after any patches or updates since the modded file usually gets replaced with each update--although I believe that developers are aware of the fix and may simply incorportate it in future updates.


I may be stupid but with vista I don’t know how to roll back the drivers. It is also compounded by the fact my computer is in German and it is tough to figure out what is what.

The term "rolling back" drivers is a bit of a misleading term if one is not familiar with the process. All it really means is removing the present drivers with the uninstall feature in the control panel and installing an earlier driver release. Driver releases are numbered just like patch files are. If one goes to the manufacturer's site (ATI or NVidia) they will have files not only for the latest release, but also earlier versions.

Two new Nvidia driver versions were issued while Empire was in it release process, so the game was never tested with the latests releases. By rolling back to a previous driver, I eliminated all of my CTD's with the exception of the ones related to GPU memory. However, I believe subsequent game updates by the developer eliminated the need to do this.

There is a recommended process for changing out drivers that many people do not follow and this can lead to GPU issues and conflicts. Many people simply download and run the latest GPU drivers over their current ones. While the the NVidia and ATI driver installation programs are supposed to be designed for this, it can lead to problems because old driver data and in particular registry settings do not always get removed. This can cause conficts which in turn results in graphics related issues--especially for games which are the most intensive use of your GPU's 3D resources in the first place.

Check the FAQ for the process at the manufacturer's site and copy and paste it to a file in your system so you wll alway have it for reference. Most tech experts also recommend that one should use a driver cleaner program after removing current drivers. This requires one to reboot into safe mode before installing the new drivers to run the cleaning program.

Here is a link to the one used by everybody who bothers to perform this operation.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/


I save all the GPU drivers that I download to a file berfore I run them, and usually maintain at least the current and maybe 2 or 3 previous driver downloads. That way I have my own small library of 3 or 4 drivers to choose from.

It is a bit more involved process to update drivers this way, but most experts indicate it will definitely prevent a lot of the GPU related woes that many people seem to have.

[TinCow]

Good to know that development is continuing on the multiplayer patch. I'm very eager to try that out.

[Barkhorn1x]

If one uses this small mod you will probably have to re-apply it after any patches or updates since the modded file usually gets replaced with each update--although I believe that developers are aware of the fix and may simply incorportate it in future updates.




That "modded file" is the Empire.EXE and it will have to be modified after each patch (if that includes a new .EXE) until CA provides one that is set to accomodate memory beyond the set limit. They have promised to do so at some point. Of course, all will have to modify their boot string for this to work per the instructions in the link - but this need be done only once and then you get a choice of how to boot your PC.

[Forward Observer]

That "modded file" is the Empire.EXE and it will have to be modified after each patch (if that includes a new .EXE) until CA provides one that is set to accomodate memory beyond the set limit. They have promised to do so at some point. Of course, all will have to modify their boot string for this to work per the instructions in the link - but this need be done only once and then you get a choice of how to boot your PC.


This is true unless one is using Vista 64 bit, which luckily I am. All one has to do with Vista 64 bit is perform the second step in the process with mod installer to add the corrected line to the executable.

Cheers

[Dradem]

Problem: I hope Naval invasions by the Ai doesn't mean the Pirates will be nerfed at turn 5...

Maybe the Pirates will take all the small Islands in the Americas, and will be a lot harder to take down :2thumbsup:

[antisocialmunky]

The version I am running came from the UK but you can load it in any of a dozen or so languages.

It is loaded in English, however.

There also seems to be more stuff using up RAM when the system is idle since the updates. RAM is a problem with vista, though I have never run out yet, so far as I know.

As I said, I was looking for a solution to the Land Battles not loading properly. It is simply the way the game is behaving on my system. I am guessing it is a problem with the video drivers or the bios change, most likely the video drivers.

But I have gone from being able to play the game using mostly auto resolves for land battles (the naval worked perfectly) to not being able to play at all.

Frustrating!

Might be voltage settings in the bios but I strongly advise you to not mess with any hardware options in the bios. You might go and try to find a temperature shutdown value in there and set it higher.

If you want to do a rollback or look for more specific hardware help: www.hardforum.com is always a good place to goto.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Today from Kieran


April 17th

Today we addressed several savegame issues, and also tweaked some of the unit balancing.
We've also corrected the bug whereby reinforcements entered the battlefield from the wrong direction.

There's ongoing work on the major gameplay upgrade which incorporates all of these updates and many, many more.

Apologies for the short update today, just wanted to give you a quick overview of major issues, back to the grindstone!

Kind regards,
Kieran

P.S: Just as a reminder, although there will be work going on over the weekend, there likely won't be another update until Monday.

[anweRU]

We've also corrected the bug whereby reinforcements entered the battlefield from the wrong direction.

If that is for real, then fighting manual battles with multiple stacks will be fun again! :2thumbsup:

[Slaists]

Thanks, will check it out.


There is an explanation of the issue and a 3rd party fix for the "out of video memory" crashes. I've not had a one since I applied this process. It is a two step process for any system other than Windows Vista 64 bit, but everything is explained.

Here is a link:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=238484

If one uses this small mod you will probably have to re-apply it after any patches or updates since the modded file usually gets replaced with each update--although I believe that developers are aware of the fix and may simply incorportate it in future updates.



The term "rolling back" drivers is a bit of a misleading term if one is not familiar with the process. All it really means is removing the present drivers with the uninstall feature in the control panel and installing an earlier driver release. Driver releases are numbered just like patch files are. If one goes to the manufacturer's site (ATI or NVidia) they will have files not only for the latest release, but also earlier versions.

Two new Nvidia driver versions were issued while Empire was in it release process, so the game was never tested with the latests releases. By rolling back to a previous driver, I eliminated all of my CTD's with the exception of the ones related to GPU memory. However, I believe subsequent game updates by the developer eliminated the need to do this.

There is a recommended process for changing out drivers that many people do not follow and this can lead to GPU issues and conflicts. Many people simply download and run the latest GPU drivers over their current ones. While the the NVidia and ATI driver installation programs are supposed to be designed for this, it can lead to problems because old driver data and in particular registry settings do not always get removed. This can cause conficts which in turn results in graphics related issues--especially for games which are the most intensive use of your GPU's 3D resources in the first place.

Check the FAQ for the process at the manufacturer's site and copy and paste it to a file in your system so you wll alway have it for reference. Most tech experts also recommend that one should use a driver cleaner program after removing current drivers. This requires one to reboot into safe mode before installing the new drivers to run the cleaning program.

Here is a link to the one used by everybody who bothers to perform this operation.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/


I save all the GPU drivers that I download to a file berfore I run them, and usually maintain at least the current and maybe 2 or 3 previous driver downloads. That way I have my own small library of 3 or 4 drivers to choose from.

It is a bit more involved process to update drivers this way, but most experts indicate it will definitely prevent a lot of the GPU related woes that many people seem to have.

[Rufus]

Have they said whether the major gameplay fix will invalidate previous saved games, since the AI and unit balance, etc. will be different? If so, I don't really want to start a new campaign just to have to abandon it when the patch comes out.

[Phog_of_War]

If I recall correctly, the updates will not patch your saved games. I recomend you finish those games (if you can) ASAP, and start fresh when the patch is released.

[Servius]

I wish Kieran would say a little bit about progress on squashing the last of the unit-related CTD bugs. That's the single most important issue for me right now, since I haven't been able to complete a single campaign yet because of it, and I no longer want to start new ones because it's too frustrating to put all that time into building an empire to just get cut short, and never knowing if the next time you hit the End Turn button will be the end of that campaign.

I've tried to rotate about 4 different save files to revert to when the bug appears, but that doesn't stop the bug from appearing again. I've also tried to isolate the bugged unit (it seems to start with General units), but it seems to quickly spread after the first bugged unit appears and eventually, one shows up in an AI faction and the CTD triggers when the AI is taking all of it's turns.

[Barkhorn1x]

What bug is the Unit Bug and how does it manifest itself?

[Servius]

I guess it has a lot of names. It's the one that, when you click on a particular unit or agent, or try to move it, or embark/disembark it, the game CTDs. You can try to ignore the unit. For example, if it's in an army stack, through trial and error you can eventually isolate the cursed unit. Once you've indentified which one it is, you can move all other units out of the stack and keep playing the game, so long as you just don't touch the cursed unit again.

This bug gets unavoidable when one of the AI nations gets a cursed unit. When that happens, the game will crash when that particular AI nation's flag appears at the top of the screen when all the AI nations are taking their turn.

[AussieGiant]

That's what has just happened to me I think. The AI's turn just craps out at a certain point in 1740 every time I've tried to end turn.

:shame:

[Marquis of Roland]

If that is for real, then fighting manual battles with multiple stacks will be fun again! :2thumbsup:

Hell Yes.

[ArtillerySmoke]

Is this patch out yet?

[Relic]

Free Stuff?!

I like the sound of that!

[TB666]

Is this patch out yet?
With Steam, you don't have to ask that question.

[ArtillerySmoke]

With Steam, you don't have to ask that question.

I'm not at my house and can't play right now.

So..is it out yet?

[Prussian to the Iron]

not unless it came out today

[ArtillerySmoke]

not unless it came out today

Thanks.

[Barkhorn1x]

I guess it has a lot of names. It's the one that, when you click on a particular unit or agent, or try to move it, or embark/disembark it, the game CTDs. You can try to ignore the unit. For example, if it's in an army stack, through trial and error you can eventually isolate the cursed unit. Once you've indentified which one it is, you can move all other units out of the stack and keep playing the game, so long as you just don't touch the cursed unit again.

This bug gets unavoidable when one of the AI nations gets a cursed unit. When that happens, the game will crash when that particular AI nation's flag appears at the top of the screen when all the AI nations are taking their turn.

Hmm...never had that one - yet. Guess I've been lucky.

[NimitsTexan]

We've also corrected the bug whereby reinforcements entered the battlefield from the wrong direction.

If that is for real, then fighting manual battles with multiple stacks will be fun again! :2thumbsup:

Awesome . . . now if they would just let us bring multiple stacks on the field at the same time, again, as in M2TW.

[TB666]

April 20th

Today we're putting the latest build of the gameplay upgrade patch through internal testing having gotten feedback from the beta group. The mod issue has been fixed, as have a raft of other bugs over the weekend.
We don't want to give a specific date for fear of getting hopes up unnecissarily but the gamplay upgrade patch is almost ready to go, so you should all receive it shortly.

Loading battles from a savegame have been fixed and we're doing another build now to see what there is left on the chcecklist for this upgrade.
As a note, please do remember that this is only our first planned upgrade, more will follow.

Thank you all for your continued support and patience.

Kind regards,
Kieran

I'm really interested in seeing the patch notes for this patch.
By the sound of things it seems like they fixed alot of bugs(hopefully).

[Lemur]

Me so excited.

[Grumfoss]

Me so excited.

me too me too ~:)

[Servius]

I have to say that, while I'd love it if I had clear info on whether the cursed unit (my name for it) bug is fixed and a fixed release date, I still find comfort in these daily updates.

It's odd for me to say, but I almost don't even remember M2TW. I remember playing it for a while, being bummed that England's billmen couldn't take cavalry anymore, and getting a bit tired with castle vs. city decisions, I just stopped playing. I can't even remember when I stopped playing, so I don't think I ever got mad at what I understand was very poor post-release support on CA's side.

What CA is doing with ETW does seem to be markedly different though. While we can all bemoan the fact that the game had any bugs on release, my heart is lightened by what appears to be significant dedication to post-release support. We'll see how useful it is once the patches come out and we know for sure if bugs have been squashed and if any new issues have been introduced by the patches, but I'm still okay giving CA the benefit of the doubt for now.

[Veresov]

I've been a total war series hardcore fan since the days of Shogun and my inability to run Empire without crashing has left a bitter taste in my mouth. My interest in getting this patch is more an obsession with just being able to run Empire without a consistent crash. Once that is done, this game is likely going to find itself back on the shelf.

This is one fan that has learned his lession and will only buy new CA products when they end up in the bargain bin.

[johnhughthom]

No update yet today, they would usually be released by now wouldn't they? Could it mean the patch is imminent???? :sweatdrop:

[Fisherking]

No update yet today, they would usually be released by now wouldn't they? Could it mean the patch is imminent???? :sweatdrop:

It is hard to tell. They could be working late. Check back in about an hour or so. If there is none then they may have passed on it for the day.:inquisitive:

I wouldn’t read anything else into it…

Soon or very soon don’t mean a lot. It could still be a couple of weeks.

[TB666]

Well they said they would provide us with the patch notes before it was released didn't they ??
Maybe they are preparing that ??

[Tarquinius]

Seems like there won't be an update today :(

[TB666]

Seems like there won't be an update today :(
Looks like it, either that or they are working late today.

And they were working late

April 21st

Apologies for the delayed daily update today, there's been a lot going on!

Firstly the multiplayer campaign beta is shaping up well, I'm told that we'll have our first internal candidate within the next few days, meaning it might get rolled out to our public BETA group sooner than expected, but more on that as it develops.
We solved a couple of pathfinding issues today for the upcoming gameplay update and I also met with the designers and battle AI teams to add some more robust behaviour from the battle AI for certain situations. Big thanks to Jamie F and Richard Bull on these fronts.

There are some cool discussions and feature lists being put together for some announcements in the near future, naturally I can't discuss but we'll let you know as soon as we're able.

A fix went in for a trade route problem today too, and more will follow for stability. The graphics guys are working really hard on nailing the shadows issue and we've also had another contrast pass done by the art team on the campaign map with hardware effects on. It looks even richer.

Thanks agin for your patience, and apologies for the late update, it's been a busy week!

Kind regards,
Kieran

[Prussian to the Iron]

oh hrey, i jusdt realized my birthdays in exactly 1 week!!!!!

/spam

:P

[TB666]

Today's update is fairly short as we're getting down to the wire on the upgrade patch. We're looking to give the final build version of the patch to the beta testers tomorrow morning, and let them absoloutly hammer it, and then, well hopefully it'll be yours shortly after.

There will be a changelist released with the gameplay upgrade so you'll see most of what we've corrected or fixed. If I may I wanted to talk a bit about what we're looking into with gameplay upgrade 2. Which is due after the next round of hotfixes.

There was some interesting work being done today by the graphics team on the weather effects and particle systems, which look awesome. These will have a different interplay with battles too.
There's also some intresting UI stuff being tossed around at the early stage, some of which may make it into gameplay upgrade four.

I'm told we got through a couple of turns of multiplayer campaign today, meaning it's going well. Please give a big cheer for Alex at CA who's working on this one constantly.

We realise you're all waiting on the gameplay upgrade and the raft of fixes it introduces. We've just fixed a campaign map pathfinding issue which we hope will solve some boundary problems, thats the big fix thats gone in tonihgt for the beta testers.

Again thank you all for your patience, and it's not too long a wait now, hopefully you'll feel we've made a big improvement.

Kind regards,
Kieran

[nafod]

I must say that my opinion of the ETW release is improving considerably with all this talk of continued support and improvements. I like what I'm hearing. If that indeed was the plan (and it seems more and more that it was) then I can survive with the limited crashes I've experienced and lack of worthwhile AI.

[Barkhorn1x]

I must say that my opinion of the ETW release is improving considerably with all this talk of continued support and improvements. I like what I'm hearing. If that indeed was the plan (and it seems more and more that it was) then I can survive with the limited crashes I've experienced and lack of worthwhile AI.

Word!:balloon2:

[Devastatin Dave]

There was some interesting work being done today by the graphics team on the weather effects and particle systems, which look awesome. These will have a different interplay with battles too.
There's also some intresting UI stuff being tossed around at the early stage, some of which may make it into gameplay upgrade four.



Why do I have this deep fear that there is a good chance that this will cause even more stability issues?:furious3:

[Sheogorath]

Are they going to fix the corruption issue? :hairpin2:

[Daveybaby]

some of which may make it into gameplay upgrade four
Wow. Nice to see this level of ongoing support. Good stuff.

[Barkhorn1x]

Latest update.


April 23rd

Final version of the gameplay upgrade patch is being distributed to the beta testers shortly, the complete executable build has just been finished here at CA and is going live to them in the next few hours, all being well.

The new naval group behaviour and collision avoidance logic is all in, and the new naval combat group UI is also up and running. The dreaded 'Indian pathfinding campaign save' corrupt bug was isolated and fixed, removing one of the big save game corruption issues.
We've removed the zone of control for navies blockaded inside ports and also changed the shader model 2 fixes for shadows on the campaign map. This is in addition to the raft of crash and stability fixes which have been added.

A fuller changelist will be available in the actual release, naturally.

Thank you all for your patience, we're almost there with this one.

Kind regards,
Kieran

Looks like the patch will be released next week then.

[Barkhorn1x]

Are they going to fix the corruption issue? :hairpin2:

What is the specific issue ?

[TinCow]

I have to say, it's remarkable how far these small daily updates go towards appeasing the fanbase. Knowing what's going on and that work is being done daily makes it a lot easier to be patient.

[Sheogorath]

What is the specific issue ?

The savegame corruption. Y'know, savegames vanishing. It's really quite annoying.

[Servius]

I have to say, it's remarkable how far these small daily updates go towards appeasing the fanbase. Knowing what's going on and that work is being done daily makes it a lot easier to be patient.

I agree wholeheartedly. Even when Kieran talks about bugs I personally haven't experienced, or aspects of the game I skip by auto-resolving naval battles or whatever, it still makes me quite happy and considerably more patient. As always, the truth is in the tasting, but having a consistent connection to a dev/rep on what going on day to day and how things are progressing at a macro level is very comforting.

I'm pretty sure I'd be less disappointed in and mad at Relic (regarding Dawn of War 2) if they had this type and level of interaction.

[Barkhorn1x]

The savegame corruption. Y'know, savegames vanishing. It's really quite annoying.

Don't know about disappearing savegames. Never really heard of that one. The claim is that the next patch will fix a 'raft of bugs' and I can imagine that savegame corruption in the sense that a savegame fails to load will be addressed.

You will have to wait for the specific patch fix list from CA.

[TB666]

Don't know about disappearing savegames. Never really heard of that one. The claim is that the next patch will fix a 'raft of bugs' and I can imagine that savegame corruption in the sense that a savegame fails to load will be addressed.

You will have to wait for the specific patch fix list from CA.
Well this sounds encouraging for those that suffer from corrupt save-games

The dreaded 'Indian pathfinding campaign save' corrupt bug was isolated and fixed, removing one of the big save game corruption issues.

[AussieGiant]

"The dreaded 'Indian path finding campaign save' corrupt bug was isolated and fixed, removing one of the big save game corruption issues."

That's the bastard that destroyed my GB campaign after 24 hours of play!!!!

Yes TC, I also like the communication like we are seeing. It is reassuring and a good sign that someone with half a brain and some common sense is pulling the strings behind the scene's.

--------------

CA/Sega Boardroom:

Unnamed SEGA Marketing/PR suit: "So how should we go about appeasing the various message boards and all the frothing at the mouth that is going on about the state of the game?"

Questioning look is cast about the room by said pin stripe suit type.

Unnamed CA developer from the back of the room: "How about we just tell them what we are doing?"

Silence

Unnamed SEGA Marketing/PR suit: "That sounds like a great idea, and something I vaguely remember in Marketing 101.

Excellent suggestion!!

Someone get on that."

CA developers en mass look at each other in shocked silence.

Moments later a CA developer leaves the room and heads for his computer.

[johnhughthom]

Todays update:


The final version of the patch has gone into beta community testing, and we're going to test it over the weekend. We had hoped to have it on general release tonight but it was felt there should be longer dedicated to international version testing.

There are over 70 bug fixes in this upgrade, plus a tonne of balance and feature tweaks.

Some of the key game breakers that were fixed include: Fixing the crash caused by AI capturing a ship after naval combat. Fixed the 'port selection' crash when selecting a port in North America as Great Britain, we fixed a crash on building capture notification, we fixed the 'stuttering loading bar' issue and the mid-battle crash related to audio. We fixed the garrison outisde playable area crash during land battles. We also fixed the crash caused by certain factions attempting to assasinate gentlemen inside a school. We also addressed the hang loading into battle problem.

We hope to have this gameplay upgrade out the early part of next week following the weekend's testing, meaning hopefully, you'll all see a marked improvement.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to talk about Naval invasions if I may. The technology behind naval invasions is actually really rather heavy and is still causing some issues. The gameplay upgrade will make naval invasions possible but they will be rare. The AI now has a proper mechanism for the planning involved and can execute that mechanism when required, however increasing its frequency is a balance issue we haven't been able to get fixed in time for this upgrade. So in short, naval invasions are now possible and may occur, but they will not be frequent, which means we have to up that likelihood.

As a ray of hope to those concerned with this issue, I've seen the work we're doing on the AI for the next patch coming on leaps and bounds. There are a large amount of significant performance fixes that we're working on for the upcoming upgrade, this included. The primary purpose of the gameplay upgrade that will be released next week is to fix the AI aggression issues, remove the vast majority of game breaking crashes and tweak the unit behaviour whilst laying groundwork for naval invasions.

Again, many thanks for your patience. Hopefully you'll all be discussing these changes next week.

Kind regards,
Kieran

[Barkhorn1x]

Now, that is a nice beefy post with some good news. And CA, take your time and get it right. We will wait.

[Beskar]

Do the upgrades work with mods?

I am wondering, because I am using a mod, would it upgrade the modified file or will it replace that file? And once it is upgraded, can your game be upgraded again?

Also, Naval Invasions?! :O :O

[Servius]

Again, great news.

On naval invasions, I suppose the ideal situation is when the AI treats an invasion that requires transport over sea exactly the same way it treats a land-based invasion. What I mean is, if England was physically attached to France, then the French AI would weigh an invasion of England exactly the same way it weighs and invasion of Spain. If an invasion of England made sense, the AI would do it. If not, it wouldn't.

We just want the AI to know it has access to island regions. If it wants to invade them, we want the AI to know how to do that.

I don't think we want the AI to overvalue invasions of island regions, just so we can see the AI do it. We just want the AI to know it can, and how, if it wants to.

[Servius]

Ooo, a question someone might know the answer to. Will the patch be compatable with existing save games, or will it require you to start a new campaign? The reason I ask is that, if the patch should be out early next week, I'd like to start up a new campaign now (keeping my fingers crossed that the cursed unit bug didn't show up before the patch did). If the patch is not compatable with existing save games, I mind as well wait till it's out.

[johnhughthom]

I've got a feeling the answer to that will be "The patch is savegame compatible, but a new game is advised to get the benefit of all the changes." Or something similar.

[Beskar]

Last I heard, you can play your previous saves, but your saves don't benefit from the changes.

[Negative]

I just want to know if artillery will be fixed. Will it limber/unlimber like it should, and will the cannons cease fire when you tell them to?

Also, will sound effects work properly? I'm sick of hearing gun shots and cannon fire 30 seconds late.

[Rhuarc]

The final version of the patch has gone into beta community testing, and we're going to test it over the weekend. We had hoped to have it on general release tonight but it was felt there should be longer dedicated to international version testing.

Well, I'd rather they test fully before giving us something that introduces more problems, so good.

I didn't see mention of some of the things I had hoped to see. It sounds like they have focused a lot on bug fixes, but I do hope they fix the battle deployment flip-flop. Right now, I'm avoiding every battle that could include reinforcements, since this means you always start out surrounded. To say that this affects gameplay is a huge understatement.



I'd also like to take this opportunity to talk about Naval invasions if I may. The technology behind naval invasions is actually really rather heavy and is still causing some issues. The gameplay upgrade will make naval invasions possible but they will be rare. The AI now has a proper mechanism for the planning involved and can execute that mechanism when required, however increasing its frequency is a balance issue we haven't been able to get fixed in time for this upgrade. So in short, naval invasions are now possible and may occur, but they will not be frequent, which means we have to up that likelihood.

This is great- I think. I'm a little troubled that CA refers to this problem as 'naval invasions,' as if this is an AI aggression issue. Maybe, but I don't necessarily want a hyper-aggressive AI, and honestly, I don't care about the AI planning complex naval 'invasions', although this would be nice. All I really want is the AI to be able to move troops by sea. Period. If this has been fixed, and Spain/France/Britain can and will now reinforce their overseas colonies, then I am happy camper ready to start a fresh campaign.

Cheers

[Servius]

Well, since the elimination of a campaign-killing bug is something I want to benefit from, I guess I should wait.

[johnhughthom]

.


I didn't see mention of some of the things I had hoped to see. It sounds like they have focused a lot on bug fixes, but I do hope they fix the battle deployment flip-flop. Right now, I'm avoiding every battle that could include reinforcements, since this means you always start out surrounded. To say that this affects gameplay is a huge understatement.




I'm pretty sure one of the earlier updates mentioned this had been fixed.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Today at the com


April 27th

Dear All,

Today's update is very short. We're finishing the testing of the patch at SEGA's in-house QA and verifying the weekends results with our beta group. Provided they are content we should be able to sign the patch off for general release and distribute it tommorrow evening (28/4/09) around 1900 GMT. Naturally if there are any unforseen problems this might move a little, but it's looking strong at the moment.

We're currently writing up the full changelist which we'll include with the patch, so you'll all be able to see the full extent of the problems addressed and features added/tweaked.

Today saw the regular SEGA/CA annual conference take place at which we discussed Empire's future and the future of the TW series in general.

I appreciate today's update isn't technical in nature, as hopefully, all this information will be released tomorrow evening.

Kind regards,
Kieran

Patch tomorrow !

[maestro]

\o/

Yay! :beam:

[Marquis of Roland]

w00t new campaign tomorrow

[hoom]

Hurrah!


Today saw the regular SEGA/CA annual conference take place at which we discussed Empire's future and the future of the TW series in general.Not sure that this is actually a positive? :inquisitive:

Hoping the discussion went more like:
Sega: ETW has sold well, just a shame there were so many bugs at launch.
CA: You made us release it too soon, it needed several more months development.
Sega: Yeah, we now realise this, sorry. Hows the patching going?
CA: Well we're nearly at release of the first big patch, planning on doing several rounds of small quick fixes & bigger less frequent patches.
Sega: Ok cool, how many patches are you going to need to do?
CA: Looking like we need to do at least 4 of these cycles to get the game to the quality we want it to be at.
Sega: Ouch, we really should have given you guys the extra months huh? Oh well I guess we're going to just have to suck it & let you do that. Keep at it & make those fans happy!
CA: Sweet.

Rather than:
Sega: ETW has sold poorly & there are too many complaints.
CA: You made us release it too soon, it needed several more months development.
Sega: We're probably not going to let you make any more TW games unless they are for console.
CA: :help:
Sega: & this is the last patch for ETW.
CA & fans: :skull:

[TB666]

However as far as I know, ETW hasn't sold poorly.
It was nr.1 for quite a while despite being a PC-exclusive which is pretty hard these days.
Anyway, here's to the patch and let's hope it fixes most of our issues like the sound de-sync issue and CTDs for some people and corrupt saves for some people. :2thumbsup:
And that the AI can finally do a naval invasion if it wants too.

[AussieGiant]

I hope it's the first version of hoom's post.

They have certainly verbally committed to more than this patch. If CA were to turn around now and say "that's it" it would cause an uproar.

[Razor1952]

ETW is a new game engine , once its bugs have been ironed it should be on to the next game/ expansion for CA/Sega with this engine.

As for Steam I hope it has kept the real world pirates at bay so CA/Sega have the revenue streams to produce more PC games .

Personally in ETW if I could identify some real pirates I 'd happily nuke them in the game even if it meant cheating a little.(like putting a tank with uranium shells into ETW) Pirating of ETW is this communities real mortal enemy.

[Beskar]

As for Steam I hope it has kept the real world pirates at bay so CA/Sega have the revenue streams to produce more PC games

I heard the Somalians are too busy at the moment to pirate E:TW.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Hurrah!

Not sure that this is actually a positive? :inquisitive:

Hoping the discussion went more like:
Sega: ETW has sold well, just a shame there were so many bugs at launch.
CA: You made us release it too soon, it needed several more months development.
Sega: Yeah, we now realise this, sorry. Hows the patching going?
CA: Well we're nearly at release of the first big patch, planning on doing several rounds of small quick fixes & bigger less frequent patches.
Sega: Ok cool, how many patches are you going to need to do?
CA: Looking like we need to do at least 4 of these cycles to get the game to the quality we want it to be at.
Sega: Ouch, we really should have given you guys the extra months huh? Oh well I guess we're going to just have to suck it & let you do that. Keep at it & make those fans happy!
CA: Sweet.

Rather than:
Sega: ETW has sold poorly & there are too many complaints.
CA: You made us release it too soon, it needed several more months development.
Sega: We're probably not going to let you make any more TW games unless they are for console.
CA: :help:
Sega: & this is the last patch for ETW.
CA & fans: :skull:

LOL.. But real business doesn't work that way. Try

SEGA GUY TO CA: Tell us more about your next proposed project. The approx development time and team size?

Sega guy runs to SEGA number crunchers who confirm that a profit is possible.

....4 years later....

CA: We have run into technical problems and the games not stable enough for release. We will need to delay.
SEGA: How long
CA: A couple of weeks, month at most and we should have ironed out the problems for sure.

.....1 months later....

CA: We have run into technical problems and the games not stable enough for release. We will need to delay again.

Sega guy has meeting with Sega senior management recommending a further delay. At this point Senior management consider disciplinary action and/or management changes.

.....2 months later....

CA: We have run into technical problems and the games not stable enough for release. We will need to delay yet again.

SEGA: Our distributers & retailers invest considerable capital into promoting an expected product and many supply contracts carry substantial financial penalties on delivery default. We cannot affort another delay particularly in this economic climate. We will need to release the game by the agreed date.

The discussion may have went something like this;
How much more will ETW cost us?
Were sales good enough to offset your previous delays and cover existing support costs?
Can we possibly afford to continue with TW series considering ever increasing development & production costs? What can you do to make the franchise a profitable business again.

[hoom]

Well that is more or less the scenario 2.

I skipped the first bit up to 'the discussion probably went like this'


Anyway, regarding the daily updates, I don't understand quite why CA don't post updates at the CA Developer blog http://blogs.sega.com/totalwar/ ???
I mean, isn't that exactly the sort of frequent updates that are what a developer blog is for? :juggle2:

[Rufus]

When they say naval invasions will be possible but rare, are they referring to any transportation of troops by sea to any destination, or just to a foreign country (true invasions)? I don't have a problem with naval invasions being rare, but the AI should transport troops by sea to its own colonies more frequently.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Patch will be tomorrow


April 28th

I have to start this one by saying 'and this is why we don't normally put dates on things'.

The patch will now go live tomorrow (29/4/09), rather than today as there have been some last minute technical issues to do with distribution. I should stress the patch itself has been through the CA, SEGA and external Beta group test phases and has done well, so we don't expect any hitches with the code itself. That said we're unable to bring it you this evening due to a technical problem with uploading/distribution.

My apologies to those of you who have cancelled appointments/meetings/dates/operations/weddings as a result of this change, this upgrade will make a genuine difference to the way Empire plays and of course address it's stability issues.

Kind regards,
Kieran

[Beskar]

My apologies to those of you who have cancelled appointments/meetings/dates/operations/weddings as a result of this change, this upgrade will make a genuine difference to the way Empire plays and of course address it's stability issues.

Wife-to-be: Darling, tomorrow we will finally be married and have the happiest time of our lives.

Husband-to-be: Sorry Hunny, we got to cancel.

Wife-to-be: What?! Why?! ~:mecry:~:mecry:~:mecry:

Husband-to-be: CA are releasing their new patch. I can't miss it for the world.

Wife-to-be: :furious3::furious3::furious3:

Husband-to-be: What's wrong?

Wife-to-be: :furious3::furious3:

Husband-to-be: ?

Wife-to-be: ARggghhhh!!! Mother was so right about you!!! *runs off crying*

*ex-Husband-to-be, logs onto to see daily update at the Com and reads the delay*

Ex-Husband-to-be: :furious3::furious3: YOU CA!!!!

[Elmar Bijlsma]

So... SNAFU?
This Steam thing, what a marvellous idea. Really does wonders for patch distribution. Makes traditional sites like GamersHell look rather foolish now. It's only one day, but in the current cavalcade of fool ups (no prizes for guessing which word I would rather have used) it's just stunning that they could bungle something so comparatively simple as patch distribution. It's like they are doing it on purpose.

[Servius]

I understand the anti-piracy advantage of steam, and I can see how it might offer an advantage in patching in making sure everyone who plays has the current patch, but it doens't make patching easier or faster.

Downloading a patch exe from a developer and double-clicking it to install the patch is pretty easy. In this case, the use of Steam causes a delay in patching, even if it's (hopefully) only for 1 day.

[TB666]

well to be fair he never promised the patch would be out today.
Still it looked like it would have since there wasn't any issues with the actual patch which was the thing that could have caused a delay.
Instead it turned out to be STEAM that caused the issue.
Sad but I guess waiting one day won't kill us.

[Lemur]

I'd rather have more communication than less. If that means that we will sometimes have expectations raised and then deferred, so be it. Better than a black wall of "when it's done."

[AussieGiant]

I'd rather have more communication than less. If that means that we will sometimes have expectations raised and then deferred, so be it. Better than a black wall of "when it's done."

110% behind that comment.

[TB666]

I'd rather have more communication than less. If that means that we will sometimes have expectations raised and then deferred, so be it. Better than a black wall of "when it's done."
Indeed.
If you go by TWC(unfortunately) they make it seem like it's best just to keep their mouth shut because they will threaten with lawsuits if you don't release it, since they think they said "it will be out tomorrow" instead of the what they really said "We hope that it will be out tomorrow", thus treating it like a verbal contract or something.
Happy that the .orgians(or something) is more calm in this matter.

[Balbus]

Indeed.
If you go by TWC(unfortunately) they make it seem like it's best just to keep their mouth shut because they will threaten with lawsuits if you don't release it, since they think they said "it will be out tomorrow" instead of the what they really said "We hope that it will be out tomorrow", thus treating it like a verbal contract or something.
Happy that the .orgians(or something) is more calm in this matter.

No kidding. It's pretty scary over at TWC. Some of the posters there seem to be genuinely deranged. I'm not joking. You'd think CA had murdered their entire families or something. I've never seen anything quite like it.

[TB666]

No kidding. It's pretty scary over at TWC. Some of the posters there seem to be genuinely deranged. I'm not joking. You'd think CA had murdered their entire families or something. I've never seen anything quite like it.
It was the same during the RTW era(which again the .org was the more reasonable site back then).
All the forums were pretty much hot-zones back then.
TWC handled itself well during M2TW due to a zero tolerance being issued on CA-bashing.
Some people got banned for simply looking at the CA-logo the wrong way but overall we had a more reasonable discussion and far more productive.
Today there is none, any thread being created is usually derailed after a few posts resulting in whining about bugs and other issues.
I have been flamed quite alot of times for simply trying to put things into perspective.
Hopefully the patch will calm things down a bit but I can promise you that some of them will complain regardless, no doubt about the same issues despite them being fixed(some of people complaining about the load-save bug in RTW complained about it even after it was fixed).
Kinda strange that CA doesn't post here that often despite being a better forum to communicate with their customers.

[Ordani]

Kinda strange that CA doesn't post here that often despite being a better forum to communicate with their customers.

Where-ever CA people are will be the forum perceived as most desirable to be using to most people.

[Phog_of_War]

I find it funny that some of the same people who said

"Take your time CA, we are willing to wait for even 2 to 3 months."

Are the same people who now say

"Wut? No patch today?!? That is just wrong CA!! You promised!!!!!!!" ~:mecry:


Side note: post #100 :chucks:

[TB666]

I find it funny that some of the same people who said

"Take your time CA, we are willing to wait for even 2 to 3 months."

Are the same people who now say

"Wut? No patch today?!? That is just wrong CA!! You promised!!!!!!!" ~:mecry:


Side note: post #100 :chucks:
Even more funny is that people that screamed out "OMG CA you released a non-tested patch that made the sound bugged, why don't you test your patches CA !!!111" are the same ones that are screaming out "Stop testing the patches and release the patch now, you can always fix it later !!11":laugh4:

[Elmar Bijlsma]

TB666, Phog_of_War, is that even true or are you saying it to make yourself look cooler by comparison?

On the daily updates thing, sure, it's lots better then it was during the RTW days when communications were infrequent, later then promised (that were just the announcements, not a patch!) and used as many words as possible to tell us as little as he could get away with including pre-announcing announcements and worst of all resorting to direct untruths.
I got so fed up with Shogun/Richie, and also the people who kept profusely thanking him for any bit of non info being drip fed. Back in the STW days he was far more open, less prone to PR spin.
Don't miss Shogun/Richie one bit.

By comparison, a big two thumbs up to the recent comms. It's been getting better ever since SEGA grabbed the reigns. While the news/circumstances haven't been all that good, the generally frank communication (excepting Kierans off site post-release interview which put a bit too rosy hue on things) allows me to be a bit more understanding towards CA and the people that work there, and be more accepting of the current situation.

My annoyance as expressed in the previous post wasn't so much about CA naming a date and not making it. I took more issue that they couldn't get the release right when it shouldn't be all that hard. I mean, the patch was ready Friday, probably earlier. You'd have thought they'd be getting everything ready then, merely waiting to flip the switch after testing. Instead they seemed to have done it the way I do my chores... at the last possible moment. And got it wrong.

[TB666]

TB666, Phog_of_War, is that even true or are you saying it to make yourself look cooler by comparison?
I wish I was joking.

I mean, the patch was ready Friday, probably earlier.
While true the patch was ready friday indeed however they didn't know that and took the weekend to test the patch and make sure there are not issues.
Luckily there doesn't seem to have been any issues but they didn't know that at the time.
Better to be safe then sorry I suppose.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I wish I was joking.
I reckon you were over egging the pudding, painting anyone exasperated over the sound bug in a bad light. Atleast Phog had the good sense to apply his statement to the nebulous "some". You applied a blanket statement that I am confident doesn't bear scrutiny.



While true the patch was ready friday indeed however they didn't know that and took the weekend to test the patch and make sure there are not issues.
Luckily there doesn't seem to have been any issues but they didn't know that at the time.
Better to be safe then sorry I suppose.
Uhm, the "better safe then sorry method" was to upload the patch in advance, continue QA, then flick the switch to activate Steam update on the desired date. That way you don't get any last minute surprises.
Or, if the test found something, do not to flick the switch, fix, then re-upload.

[Phog_of_War]

TB666, Phog_of_War, is that even true or are you saying it to make yourself look cooler by comparison?

Not in the slightest.

I am in total agreement that the communication between CA and their customers is better than it was during the RTW days, by the way.


The point that I'm trying to make is that some people at the .Com and here at the .Org (not as bad as at TW.com) are.....overeacting (sp?)


As far as your previous post Elmar regarding Steam, I am on the fence, but am leaning towards agreeing with you. I personally LOVE Steam but, it was easier to get patches "early" before CA/SEGA decided to go with Steam. However, I for one think the benifits we recieve from Steam outweigh the necessity of us having to have it. (I had it anyway so it was a moot issue for me) I am going to guess that the delay had to do with a scheduling conflict or something of that nature.

All in all, it wont matter in a few hours when the patch is available far and wide. :birthday2:

[TB666]

I reckon you were over egging the pudding, painting anyone exasperated over the sound bug in a bad light. Atleast Phog had the good sense to apply his statement to the nebulous "some". You applied a blanket statement that I am confident doesn't bear scrutiny.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned or atleast implied that I was naturally not refering to everyone.
The people doing this is just the minority however they are unfortunately the very loud minority.

[Phog_of_War]

Some people still think that the "squeaky wheel gets the grease".

But on the internet, the vast majority either want you to shut up and go away, or simply ignore said squeaky wheel.

[Husar]

Downloading a patch exe from a developer and double-clicking it to install the patch is pretty easy.

Have you ever seen topics like "do I install 1.12 before 1.13 and then can I install 1.6 right away or do I need 1.5 first?" or maybe even "help, I tried to install 1.8 before 1.7 and now I can't start the game anymore!!!"?

Well, now you say patches that include all previous versions are the best option, so you get topics like "Why are they not respecting us 56k users?" "Can't they offer it in like 500000 seperate zip files?".

So you say releasing it both ways is the solution so you get topics like "I want to download patch 1.5, do I need to download just patch 1.5.exe or do I also need 1.5_0.zip, 1.5_1.zip, 1.5_2.zip.....?"

And let's not forget "my virus scanner says patch 1.5_234.rar contains a virus, can anyone confirm this? Why are CA trying to infect us?!?!?!".

So i guess it just sounds easy but in practice it might cause even more problems than Steam's automatic process, though that isn't perfect either. ~;)

[Servius]

Back on topic, CA is based where? When they thought the patch might be out yesterday, they said it might be out at 1900 GMT, which is 7:00pm in England and 2:00pm on the US east coast. Do you think that, if it comes out today (or whenever it comes out), that it will be released around the same time?

I need to know, you see, because I was going to get married at 1:00pm EST today, but now that the patch might be coming out, I may have to reschedule :-)

Actually, I got married on the 18th!

[maestro]

Actually ... it's 20:00hrs in the UK :dizzy2: just thought i'd point that out in case any Brits start to get upset at five past seven :sweatdrop:

We're on BST (british Summer Time) so an hour ahead of GMT :inquisitive:

[Slaists]

Back on topic, CA is based where? When they thought the patch might be out yesterday, they said it might be out at 1900 GMT, which is 7:00pm in England and 2:00pm on the US east coast. Do you think that, if it comes out today (or whenever it comes out), that it will be released around the same time?

I need to know, you see, because I was going to get married at 1:00pm EST today, but now that the patch might be coming out, I may have to reschedule :-)

Actually, I got married on the 18th!

Well, my presumption is that originally they were planning to post the patch on close-of-their-business in the UK (7 PM, GMT) yesterday because they had to do some pre-posting work on the batch files. If the "distribution issues" was the real cause for the delay, then my simple mind would suggest they should have ALREADY been able to resolve those with Steam and the patch should be available as we speak.

However, it's drawing closer to COB in the UK TODAY but the patch is nowhere to be seen. So why do I have that cold-sweat producing, nagging suspicion, it actually was NOT a distribution issue that caused the delay. So, now you can throw stuff at me.

:hide:

[Grumfoss]

Servius1234 - Congratulations on your wedding ~:)

Me, i'm looking forward to the patch, however I won't become crazy and froth at the mouth if it doesn't happen today ~:)

it would be nice to have it today but not the end of the world.

[Lemur]

Hope I'm not stepping on any toes by reprinting this here:

---------------------------------------------------------

Hi guys,

Update 3 for Empire: Total War will be available to download later tonight. In the mean time, below is a list of all the major fixes included with the release.

Many thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

CRASH FIXES
- Fixed crash when disbanding generals unit.
- Fix for crash on trying to merge ships from port into ships next to port.
- Fixed rare crash relating to boarding.
- Fixed crash to do with reinforcing armies.
- Fixed crash on revolution video attempting to play.
- Fixed crash for double clicking on sinking ship on campaign map.
- Fix for crash on merging units but moving into fort before army arrives.
- Fixed several crashes related to rakes.
- Fixed crashes relating to battles when running Czech or German versions of the game.
- Fixed crash on moving army into region of faction player has military access and then cancelling military access.
- Fixed crash on trying to exchange ships between 2 fleets.
- Fixed crash on spamming move orders to puckle guns locked in melee combat.
- Fixed hard lock on inviting host to their own MP game.
- Fix to prevent loading of mod causing crash post patch.
- Various end turn crash bugs fixed.
- Fixes to crash bugs relating to completion of revolutions.
- Some fixes relating to merging and disbanding.
- Fix for several crashes in land battles.
- Several crashes relating to attacking cities fixed.
- Several load save game crashes fixed.

CAMPAIGN
- Armies now placed correctly on battlefields in relation to campaign.
- Fix for nearby ships sometimes not being included as reinforcements for battles.
- Fix for incorrect numbers sometimes showing on trade routes.
- Units with limits on how many can be recruited now show how many are available.
- Various fixes relating to rakes and infiltrating.
- Fixes relating to problems moving armies/merging into army's right next to settlements.
- Various trade bug fixes.
- Fix for moving agent from settlement moving army instead of agent.
- Fix for several bugs relating to military access and armies being in regions.
- Fix for tattered flags appearing on fleet/armies even when at full strength/fully repaired.
- Fix for sallying out armies breaking siege at times even when losing the battle.
- Fix for bugs relating to capturing ships on returning to campaign map from naval battle.

LAND BATTLE
- Improvements to path finding have been made.
- Some fixes to units not garrisoning buildings.
- Fort gate ownership made clearer with faction flags appearing at the gatehouse.
- Fix for problem relating to artillery unlimbering after being ordered to limber.
- Fix for puckle guns moving on their own in some circumstances.
- Fix for big slowdown in unit movement on some battle maps in the Road to Independence episodes.
- Fix for missile cavalry not reloading when out of combat.
- Jaegers now have muskets instead of incorrect rifles, Prussian Jaegers keep rifles.
- Quebec episodic land battle fixed ground type in deployment area
- Fix for unrealistic numbers when ending a land battle by quitting on the battle results screen.

NAVAL BATTLE
- Several fixes for ships clipping into each other.
- Improvements to boarding have been made. Crew is more fluid in attack and more resolute in defence. Men survive long fall and officers join in the boarding attack.
- Crew uniforms improved to make identification of the crew type and faction easier.
- Defending ship is not allowed to fire cannons anymore during boarding procedure.
- Improved naval grouping UI and group movement made.
- Improvements made to ship collisions to reduce chance of ships getting stuck.
- Fix for sail damage not being shown when volumetric effects turned on.

MULTIPLAYER
- Various fixes for joining games/game lobby issues.
- Fixes for problems relating to spectators being kicked/locking up on other players joining games in certain instances.
- Long riflemen and winged hussars removed from early era battles.
- Fix for insufficient funds always showing on unit cards even when enough money is available.
- Player name is now displayed on unit tooltips.
- Team chat is now displayed in a different colour.

AI
- Basic fix for AI being unable to move army by fleet.
- Aggression of factions in campaign improved, as well as tweaks to diplomacy.
- Improvements to campaign AI relating to its waging of wars, recruitment and movement of armies.
- Improvements made to battle AI to make it more reactive, use buildings better as well as squares and rakes.
- Siege battle AI improvements made.
- Improvements to naval AI to make it bunch up less, its use of galleys and long range units such as bomb ketches.

MISCELLANEOUS
- Delete save game button added to save game list.
- View replays button added to single player Play Battle menu.
- Various sound fixes and improvements.
- Various incorrect text messages fixed.
- Fixes to various graphical glitches with display of walls.
- Fixes made for stuttering videos.
- Fix for several game option settings not being saved correctly, including settings such as floating flags.
- Fix for unit voices/attack confirmation being heard for all units in an alliance instead of just for the player's army.
- Armour and shield values are now added into melee defence value shown on unit cards.
- Lots of other small and minor bug fixes.

BALANCING
- Land unit recruitment cost in campaign has been increased, with higher cost on higher difficulty level.
- Ship recruitment and upkeep costs have been increased in campaign.
- Various balancing and cost adjustments to improve multiplayer land battle balance.
- Ship costing improvements made for both campaign and multiplayer.
- Economic tweaks have been made to campaign to reduce amount of money made in later part of campaign.

EXTRA NOTE:
- We are aware of an issue with community created maps that results in a crash when someone without the map tries to join the game. This crash will be fixed in the next patch.
- Further work is being done on improving AI Naval invasion behaviour and this will be included in the next upgrade patch.
- Please also note that this update is save game compatible but you should start a new game to see all of the benefits.

[johnhughthom]

That's a nice, long list. :beam:



- Armies now placed correctly on battlefields in relation to campaign.


The main one I was looking for.

[Majora1988]

These are all great news, especially the improvements to boarding, and reinforcements.

[Barkhorn1x]

A very nice list of items. This combined with the testing to get it right has me very optimistic about the future.

BTW, on the subject of TWC posters, TB666 was NOT exaggerating one iota. I was over there yesterday and it was surreal.

[johnhughthom]

Yep, they are already complaining about what is not on the patch list. I usually just check the EB forum when I go there, the rest is depressing.

[Servius]

Will someone post once they actually are able to download the patch? I assume CA means "later tonight" in GB, where it's 7:00pm now (on BST!), rather than "tonight" in the US. I would assume he means in the next 1-2 hours, but it would still be good to get a post from a player when it's actually out to make sure Steam is working.

[Lemur]

Addendum:

-------------------------

Dear All,

To reiterate, this patch is savegame compatible but you'll see a lot more of the gameplay benefits and AI behaviour if you start a new campaign. This is to do with the what we call 'start pos'ing' where the AI calculates a strategy at the outset.

Additionally, as with the recent note on naval invasions. The basic fix is in, meaning the AI can now choose this tactic and may do so. However, it will likely be rare until we've played with all the associated values (There are a lot). We started work on the next upgrade patch in parallel a few weeks ago and I can say for certain this area will continue to improve, so please stay with us.

Thanks again for being so patient, hopefully you'll find as our community beta testers did, that this patch really adds a lot to Empire.

Kind regards,
Kieran

[Slaists]

So, no mention of a fix for the broken inter AI diplomacy? I mean, currently, AI factions never make peace with each other. By mid-game, pretty much everyone (in a theater) is at war with everyone else and the player faction is the only one that can trade in a meaningful way.

[mmk]

Will someone post once they actually are able to download the patch? I assume CA means "later tonight" in GB, where it's 7:00pm now (on BST!), rather than "tonight" in the US. I would assume he means in the next 1-2 hours, but it would still be good to get a post from a player when it's actually out to make sure Steam is working.

Updating just now from Steam...

[Servius]

FYI, Steam just informed me that it had finished downloading the update at 1:35pm EST

[mmk]

Wow, no CTD anymore when disbanding those Prussian Pikemen west of Koenigsberg! What a nice surprise!

[Devastatin Dave]

So, no mention of a fix for the broken inter AI diplomacy? I mean, currently, AI factions never make peace with each other. By mid-game, pretty much everyone (in a theater) is at war with everyone else and the player faction is the only one that can trade in a meaningful way.

It is called "Total War" you know....

[Monsieur Alphonse]

An extra note from CA on save game compatible:


April 29th

Dear All,

An additional point of note is that you'll find the most difference on the campaign map playing at normal difficulty or above with a new campaign. This is because we balance against the 'normal' value of AI.

For those of you having issues with older save games. Save game compatible, does not necessarily mean that you can load a previous save which has reached a critically bugged/flawed point and have it work as a result. If certain metrics are involved although the game will load (i.e. Is compatible) the new code cannot be applied as other conditions have already been set by your save.

The idea of save game compatability means that for the majority of players who have been playing without incident and saving, they can continue from their last save after patching.

Some saves with errors will be fixed, others will not. If yours is not, we'd urge you to start a new campaign if possible.

Kind regards,
Kieran

And they have started at update 1.3


April 30th

Hi guys,

With Update 1.2 released, the team have turned their attention to our next update which they are now busily working on.

Please continue to post any issues that you may find in our Empire: Total War Support section.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

[crpcarrot]

I understand the anti-piracy advantage of steam, and I can see how it might offer an advantage in patching in making sure everyone who plays has the current patch, but it doens't make patching easier or faster.

Downloading a patch exe from a developer and double-clicking it to install the patch is pretty easy. In this case, the use of Steam causes a delay in patching, even if it's (hopefully) only for 1 day.

well i jsut wanted to say i found steam much simpler than this cos when i got home last night the patch was already doeanloaded and ready to go with no user intervention at all.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

More news from Mark.


May 1st
Hi guys,
There will be discussions opened up next week on the forums regarding balancing changes for the next update. Jack Lusted will keep you posted on these and we are keen for your feedback.
For those wondering, the issue where you cannot recruit the Grenzers or 18-lber Horse Guard Artillery in the Campaign just missed the update 1.2 deadline. This will be fixed for the next update.
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. FYI - Monday 4th May is a bank holiday the UK, so we will be back in the office Tuesday with your next daily update. In the meantime, I have posted a short video of some of the outtakes during the production of Empire: Total War. Click here to check it out!
Take care,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

[maestro]

[-]May 1, 2009 - Empire: Total War Update Released

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Crash Fixes


Fix deployed for error with greyed out background and no interface selections being possible when clicking tick box on Failed to Join Game message in multiplayer

Nice to see they're still busy :clown:

[Lemur]

More news from Mark.
Here's the video link he refers to in that post, the outtakes from Empire Total War (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHWqUJ3Ds64).

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Nice to see they're still busy :clown:

Yup. Six updates already. I love steam.

[Fisherking]

No update yet today! ?????????

Maybe they forgot.

[Fisherking]

Here is todays



May 6th

Hi Guys

We've worked on improving the multi-threading in the game for multi-core processors and made many optimisations that will also help out single core machines. You will see the benefits through increased frame rates particularly in land and naval battles.

SFX loading has been made asynchronous, so heavy disc access is reduced to a minimum. This was causing program execution blocking when multiple sounds were being requested at once across pack files.

Various optimisations have been made to reduce the campaign map turn times.

Windows error reporting included. This will help us greatly in eradicating any existing crashes after the release of this patch. It will require users to make sure crash report logs are sent to us via the windows dialog box.

Cheers

The Shogun

[TB666]

Ah the windows error reporting sounds good.
Hopefully it should fix the remaining crash bugs for those that have them.

[Veresov]

No kidding. It's pretty scary over at TWC. Some of the posters there seem to be genuinely deranged. I'm not joking. You'd think CA had murdered their entire families or something. I've never seen anything quite like it.

You must be new to the internet and its forums. Angry posts and contention are a trademark of game forums particularly when a game is released in an unfinished and buggy manner. There are enough acknowledgements from CA on .COM on this to ensure that no sane person argues that point.

TWC is more of a hardcore gamer site than the .ORG in fairness. You can see that by the huge number of mods and posts over there. At any time there can be hundreds of users on there. There are more veterans there and a high percentage of them are unhappy with Empire. They have high standards and higher expectations. A lot of the issues and clamour being raised have merit. I myself couldn't play the game until the latest 1.2 patch.

[TB666]

You must be new to the internet and its forums. Angry posts and contention are a trademark of game forums particularly when a game is released in an unfinished and buggy manner.
That is more correct.
Just look at the left4dead forum when they released the free expansion pack.
People were whining all over the place demanding their money back.
It looked exactly like TWC and yet Left4dead is a well-made game.

[Marquis of Roland]

W00T, there it is, the SFX loading thing, if they fix that I'll have no more crashes! Frickin' Awesome :2thumbsup:

[Fisherking]

May 7th

Dear all,

The new multi-threading support was made more stable today, resulting in proper four core utilisation in large naval battles. This has yielded some great performance boosts. We've also edited the way farm structures are handled for land battle loading, shaving a few seconds off of loading times for battles using these objects.
The graphics team are also working on restructuring the underlying code framework that handles unit variation, resulting in a possible move from 8 varities to up to 64 on ultra settings.

All of these things we hope to feature in the next patch, or the one beyond that making Empire more stable, more rich and more fun.

Kind regards,
Kieran



today's

[Servius]

Excellent, excellent news. I like the windows error reporting thing a lot. I hope that tool is able to provide useful information about crashes. Also keen to enjoy any improvement in stability, better use of multi-core processors, and shorter load times.

The last patch sorta fixed the cursed unit bug for me. While I will still occasionally CTD with the WSOD when clicking a unit, a simple restart of the game allows me to continue (whereas before any action involving the cursed unit would cause another CTD). I think I may be able to finish a campaign now. Only once the game is completely stable will I start inquiring about things like greater randomization in troop skins and more faction-specific units at the lower tech levels. First things first.

[NimitsTexan]

Still no sign that they have considered reimplementing selectable AI control of reinforcement armies so nations can have multiple 20 unit stacks on the field at once, as in RTW and M2TW. That is my one biggest wish/issue.

[TB666]

May 8th

For the first part of this update I would like to clarify an issue that seems to be causing confusing and talk a bit about the AI.

Technical v game play patches

Some people seem to have got the impression that we are going to do a cycle of game play patch then technical patch then game play patch etc. So as 1.2 was a game play patch 1.3 won't have any game play improvements in it. This is not true. All patches will include bug fixes and game play/balance improvements. Hot fixes of course are done for specific issues we feel need to be addressed more quickly. So there is no wait for a long time between balance improvements or for bug fixes, patches will include both.

Patch 3/1.3/Patch 4

There has also been confusion about the naming/numbering of patches, which really stems from the disconnect between our internal branch names and the version number you see in game.

1.2, the large that came out on the 29th of April was referred to as Patch 3 on the forums for a while before being called 1.2. Now the next patch has been referred to as Patch 4 in some places leading some people to think we are talking about 1.4. Patch 3 and Patch 4 are simply the internal project branch names for what was patch 1.2 and what will be patch 1.3. Of course this has caused confusion and is merely a result of devs referring to internal branch names instead of using the version numbers that will be used for the patches on public release.

AI

One of the hot topics on the forums lately have been discussions about several battle and campaign AI issues, and people have been asking whether we are going to address them or make any further improvements to the AI. I would like to repeat something I said in the first Daily Update I posted (exactly one month ago in fact). There will be continual work and improvements done to the AI with each patch.

The big topic of discussion in relation to battle AI is a new problem people have spotted where the AI units constantly try to move out of the way of each other resulting in them just walking into the player's line and engaging in melee instead of sensibly standing at range and shooting. This has occurred as a result of a change we made to try and prevent the AI from blobbing its units together presenting a nice easy target for the player. Obviously it has not worked as well as we would like, but rest assured improvements are being made so this problem will not exist in 1.3.

We do not want to put out a hot fix for this as we want to do thorough testing of this issue; both internally and with the beta testers so as to make sure there have been improvements. Battle AI will have a bigger testing focus amongst the beta testers for the next patch.

For the campaign AI, the big issues are AI factions making peace with each other and naval invasions still as whilst they do now occur, they are rare as we said they would be pre-patch. There have been improvements to both of these made for the next patch, and as said earlier the campaign AI is constantly being worked on.

Balancing Changes

The second part of this update is about the balance changes for land battles that will be in the next patch.

I know there were some discussions amongst the multiplayer community who wondered why some changes were made when balance was already decent in the release version of Empire and they felt that only slight changes were perhaps needed.

It is precisely because the balance was decent, and not good or great that balancing changes are continuing to be made, as Empire can and will be better balanced.

So, what is changing?

This patch pretty much covers every aspect of land battles to improve game play and balancing. Summed up, the changes are as following:

- Slight slowdown in unit movement speed.

- Increased differences between unit types.

- Balancing improvements made to morale system to improve battles.

- Big changes to projectiles to provide more diversity between shot types and to make more shot types viable.

- Better survivability for guns and carriages in artillery units.

- Better balancing and costs for units.

- Addition of mob formation for native infantry, skirmishers and some irregulars and light infantry.

So as you can see quite a lot is changing.

Unit Diversification

A big part of the balance changes have been more about trying to give clearer differences between unit types through both stats and other changes.

For an example of a change, light infantry, skirmishers, irregulars, light cavalry and missile cavalry can now spot hidden units at longer distances making them more useful for scouting on the battlefield.

I will be posting threads in the multiplayer forums here, at TWC, CSS and at .org for more detailed discussion of these changes as there are a lot and I don't want to bog this post down with statistics.

Shot Types and Artillery

Currently, some shot types are very useful and some are not very useful at all. Artillery is also very vulnerable and it is too easy to knock out guns. Round shot for foot and horse artillery has been improved to make it more useful, range of shrapnel has been decreased, howitzer range has been decreased. Mortars have also had the accuracy of their more exotic shot types reduced.

All the changes are aimed at making all shots have their use and to encourage the use of different shots within a battle. And to make sure artillery is no longer very easy to take out; their survivability has been increased a lot.

Morale

At the moment it is very difficult to break most units unless they have taken a very large amount of casualties, resulting in some melees lasting too long and decisive rear/flanks charges not having the impact they should. No I'm not saying long melees shouldn't happen, and that combat should be over really quickly, just at the moment it is a bit too long. So some morale factors have been tweaked to improve the flow and feel of combat.

This is just a brief summary of the changes that have been made, as said earlier I will be posting threads in the multiplayer forums here, at TWC, CSS and at .org for more detailed discussion of these changes as there are a lot and I don't want to bog this post down with statistics.

[anweRU]

I hope the campaign AI improvements will include more than just inter-AI peace making and naval invasions.

As for the battle tweaks - I auto-calc 9 out of 10 battles anyway, so I hope they reflect those modifications in the auto-calc routines as well. While technology research impacts auto-calc, I'm not sure that the unit special abilities have any effect on auto-calc battles.

[Fisherking]

I am becoming jaded as to the changes made.

The balance was better before they tweaked it. Now we are playing a game where Prussia Pawns All.

Game play is becoming tedious and unenjoyable unless you just love to blitz with Prussia…Win the game in 10 years and just expand for the next 90.

The upkeep costs prevent most factions from building an army worth the name or having a fleet even if you are a major trade power.

The balance now is terrible! No improvement, it has gone in the other direction.

So pardon my skepticism.

[AussieGiant]

I don't want to come across as too much of an optimist...but these updates give me the impression we are collectively looking at this entire year being allocated to E:TW updates.

I'd say people need to be careful what you wish for. Because if the ai is constantly worked on the bitching and moaning about the game being too hard will be heard all the way to Timbuktu.

Great update for the next patch...should be a cracker.

[Slaists]

I am becoming jaded as to the changes made.

The balance was better before they tweaked it. Now we are playing a game where Prussia Pawns All.

Game play is becoming tedious and unenjoyable unless you just love to blitz with Prussia…Win the game in 10 years and just expand for the next 90.

The upkeep costs prevent most factions from building an army worth the name or having a fleet even if you are a major trade power.

The balance now is terrible! No improvement, it has gone in the other direction.

So pardon my skepticism.

Let me disagree. The post-patch 1.2 game sure has many issues still, but it IS way better than it was before. Before the patch it was a foregone conclusion cake-walk for the player on any difficulty level, boring as hell. Now, at least, start to early mid-game is engaging.

Before the patch, the game-play was 'kicking a dead-man in the guts' from turn 4 or so... Now it's 'kicking a dead man in the guts' from turn 60 or so and onwards...

So, improvement is there but a lot needs to be done still.

By the way, the battle AI becomes quite deadly once they get shrapnel and percussion shells... I wish it happened earlier for them than in the 'dead man on the ground' late game stage...

[anweRU]

My only complaint with patch 1.2 is the going back to METW2 style "AI declares war on neigboring human regardless of relations" diplomacy. That makes the game tedious, and the diplomacy screen essentially moot.

My H GB campaign has proven to be more challenging than my cake-walk pre-patch H GB campaign. I'm finally somewhere in the early 1720s, but I'm gathering steam and finally managed to complete the 13 colonies mission.

So balance-wise, GB is much better now than it was pre-patch.

[Fisherking]

Please get this straight. The game is not too hard for the most part. It is to a certain extent easier.

The minors and especially the NA Tribes lack the units to be on the attack. The DoWs are just a silly annoyance for the largest part.

The player just has to slug through until there is some money if you are a trade nation. Meanwhile three land based factions have an easy time just marching from one region to the next.

The trade game is now tedious and not having money for ships means you are seeing red every few turns. There is no enjoyment in that. If the money were there it would be just like Prussia. No one is a real threat to the player, just an annoyance.

Before the tribes could be a threat. Now only to other AI factions.

Before, it was a matter of balancing troops and development. Now most development other than farms and second level upgrades is way too much to warrant the investment. It is a good turn when you have 2200 to 2500. But that will get you four line infantry and use up half the amount in upkeep the next turn.

That is not entertaining. There is only so much you can do besides hit the return key.

Combat is improved and the game runs smoother. But I have not seen anything in the early game that I would call fun.

[AussieGiant]

Please get this straight. The game is not too hard for the most part. It is to a certain extent easier.

The minors and especially the NA Tribes lack the units to be on the attack. The DoWs are just a silly annoyance for the largest part.

The player just has to slug through until there is some money if you are a trade nation. Meanwhile three land based factions have an easy time just marching from one region to the next.

The trade game is now tedious and not having money for ships means you are seeing red every few turns. There is no enjoyment in that. If the money were there it would be just like Prussia. No one is a real threat to the player, just an annoyance.

Before the tribes could be a threat. Now only to other AI factions.

Before, it was a matter of balancing troops and development. Now most development other than farms and second level upgrades is way too much to warrant the investment. It is a good turn when you have 2200 to 2500. But that will get you four line infantry and use up half the amount in upkeep the next turn.

That is not entertaining. There is only so much you can do besides hit the return key.

Combat is improved and the game runs smoother. But I have not seen anything in the early game that I would call fun.

Fisherking,

why don't you just stop playing if things are so bad in your opinion?

I think everyone can see your point and I certainly got it sometime ago. I'm not sure repeating and repeating is going to get anywhere.

[Slaists]

Please get this straight. The game is not too hard for the most part. It is to a certain extent easier.

The minors and especially the NA Tribes lack the units to be on the attack. The DoWs are just a silly annoyance for the largest part.

The player just has to slug through until there is some money if you are a trade nation. Meanwhile three land based factions have an easy time just marching from one region to the next.

The trade game is now tedious and not having money for ships means you are seeing red every few turns. There is no enjoyment in that. If the money were there it would be just like Prussia. No one is a real threat to the player, just an annoyance.

Before the tribes could be a threat. Now only to other AI factions.

Before, it was a matter of balancing troops and development. Now most development other than farms and second level upgrades is way too much to warrant the investment. It is a good turn when you have 2200 to 2500. But that will get you four line infantry and use up half the amount in upkeep the next turn.

That is not entertaining. There is only so much you can do besides hit the return key.

Combat is improved and the game runs smoother. But I have not seen anything in the early game that I would call fun.

I am playing Ottomans on VH right now. Fighting for the trade spots (and capturing AI's indiamen in the process) with a nation that has very little sea advantages (none actually once Persia declares war and blocks the Indian Ocean access of Ottomans) was quite fun. Fighting multiple enemies off the borders of the huge starting empire with very little finances was quite fun too.

I am now at a point in late midgame when I can generate 20K of profits per turn with 3 large armies + a dominant fleet and that's exactly the point when the game has become boring (for me) despite me still having to take 10 provinces to win and face Austria that has 'eaten up' all of Prussia, Poland and half of Russia.

So, I disagree, the starting game now is quite engaging for certain factions. I agree, it's quite boring for GB though.

[Fisherking]

Fisherking,

why don't you just stop playing if things are so bad in your opinion?

I think everyone can see your point and I certainly got it sometime ago. I'm not sure repeating and repeating is going to get anywhere.

I want to see the game meet its potential.


Certain parts of the game are not that great. I don’t want to see it go in that direction.

People made noise that the tribes were too strong. They got nerffed.

They were not to strong at the time. I saw it as a challenge. If you lost it was usually due to lack of funds for troops.

People complained that it was too easy to make money. So trade was reduced.

People complained that the minors were too strong. (same as with the tribes only not as massive) and they became weak.

Some said the AI didn’t declare war enough. We know what it is like now.

I can go on and on but the bottom line is that all those complaints got addressed and if you thought things were not so bad and kept quiet then you kind of lost out.

At the present time everyone is poor except a few factions. Troop upkeep is prohibitive and the building costs seem exorbitant.

Now granted I have not made it into mid game as I have been looking at all the factions. But if it is tedious to start out how many people are you going to loose due to lack of interest?

Shouldn’t the game be engaging at all points? Some factions are saddled with never ending DoWs, but after a time it becomes apparent that none of them have any more troops than you do and are unlikely to attack.

If you have a ship or two at sea you will be attacked almost every turn by some one. But if you mishandle it that diversion is soon gone.

With so little resources most factions have too little to do in a turn. Most felt much more engaging when there was a bit of money to do something with.

I will eventually get into a mid game campaign and things may look different from that point but still the beginnings should not be tedious and strained.

[Slaists]

I want to see the game meet its potential.


Certain parts of the game are not that great. I don’t want to see it go in that direction.

People made noise that the tribes were too strong. They got nerffed.

They were not to strong at the time. I saw it as a challenge. If you lost it was usually due to lack of funds for troops.

People complained that it was too easy to make money. So trade was reduced.

People complained that the minors were too strong. (same as with the tribes only not as massive) and they became weak.

Some said the AI didn’t declare war enough. We know what it is like now.

I can go on and on but the bottom line is that all those complaints got addressed and if you thought things were not so bad and kept quiet then you kind of lost out.

At the present time everyone is poor except a few factions. Troop upkeep is prohibitive and the building costs seem exorbitant.

Now granted I have not made it into mid game as I have been looking at all the factions. But if it is tedious to start out how many people are you going to loose due to lack of interest?

Shouldn’t the game be engaging at all points? Some factions are saddled with never ending DoWs, but after a time it becomes apparent that none of them have any more troops than you do and are unlikely to attack.

If you have a ship or two at sea you will be attacked almost every turn by some one. But if you mishandle it that diversion is soon gone.

With so little resources most factions have too little to do in a turn. Most felt much more engaging when there was a bit of money to do something with.

I will eventually get into a mid game campaign and things may look different from that point but still the beginnings should not be tedious and strained.

Well, you definitely seem to be on the opposite end of the 'game enjoyment spectrum' relative to me, for example. I find that the beginning of the game is the most enjoyable part now (post patch 1.2); arguably, early mid-game too. Once I am generating enough money to get all the armies I want the game just becomes boring for me, lol.

So, for my part, I definitely pray the game does not go in the direction you suggest :sweatdrop: rather I hope they can make the end-game as engaging as the start of the game struggling is now.

[FactionHeir]

So if artillery becomes even more survivable (its difficult enough to kill and tends to result in the loss of your unit you send across the field), I guess we can completely ignore cavalry outside of dragoons...
They should rather make the AI defend its artillery better than just buff it up to the extent of M2TW artillery crews who can take down your heavy cavalry in melee and refuse to rout.

[Jack Lusted]

The survivability of the guns and carriages is being increased, not the crew.

[FactionHeir]

Ah ok, that's better then :grin:

[Fisherking]

Well, you definitely seem to be on the opposite end of the 'game enjoyment spectrum' relative to me, for example. I find that the beginning of the game is the most enjoyable part now (post patch 1.2); arguably, early mid-game too. Once I am generating enough money to get all the armies I want the game just becomes boring for me, lol.

So, for my part, I definitely pray the game does not go in the direction you suggest :sweatdrop: rather I hope they can make the end-game as engaging as the start of the game struggling is now.

The trouble is that all you can do is defend with what you have and there is so little you can afford to build. Other than fiddling with the ministers it just seems to be hit return and pray.

2000 per turn is not enough to do much with. If you build and unit then the next turn you have too little to do anything with.

How is that entertaining? Teching up is slow for most factions and some of them increase costs. It is an either or proposition and the AI seems to automatically pull something if the income rises.

The first couple of times you think, Oh! that is interesting! But it is always the same. There is no variance.

Once you have played more campaigns you may see what I mean. It just gets stale.

There are 4 factions that don’t do all that suffering but that is a different matter. They seem to have almost too easy a time of it.

There is no way to turtle the game now and build up slowly at peace. Only a few factions can start out in a blazing blitz. But the real problem is that you don’t see much progress from turn to turn, or if you do there is some unrelated AI counter strike that wipe it all out. So with about 2/3rds of the factions it is just tedium fallowed by frustration.

It is just my opinion of course, but a little more money for most of the factions would make them a bit more fun.

Building costs are too high to warrant building them until you are filthy rich and just want to use up money. I am sure that these could be more balanced. Perhaps coupling them with some added techs?

There needs to be more campaign differenced between difficulty levels. Easy and Very Hard all seem to play the same.

Upkeep costs and recruitment costs should be faction based rather than pool based. This way those with too easy a time making armies can be limited with out making it impossible for other factions to raise troops or navies. A cost modifier for each faction may solve this.

The minor factions could use strengthen, especially those in North America. Perhaps not so strong as pre patch but most now are just not difficult to walk over. Even the Pirates lack for everything. If you block their ports they become pretty helpless.

A few more techs might be fun and end the tendency to destroy schools when everything is discovered around mid game. And please don’t make the ones we have longer to research!

The AI needs to be toned back a bit so it is not so stupidly aggressive. All of the indifferent and even friendly nations going to war with out pretence is just absurd.

I don’t think the game has gone in the wrong direction exactly. It just may have gone a bit too far and needs to come back just a bit.

[Slaists]

The trouble is that all you can do is defend with what you have and there is so little you can afford to build. Other than fiddling with the ministers it just seems to be hit return and pray.

2000 per turn is not enough to do much with. If you build and unit then the next turn you have too little to do anything with.

How is that entertaining? Teching up is slow for most factions and some of them increase costs. It is an either or proposition and the AI seems to automatically pull something if the income rises.

The first couple of times you think, Oh! that is interesting! But it is always the same. There is no variance.

Once you have played more campaigns you may see what I mean. It just gets stale.

There are 4 factions that don’t do all that suffering but that is a different matter. They seem to have almost too easy a time of it.

There is no way to turtle the game now and build up slowly at peace. Only a few factions can start out in a blazing blitz. But the real problem is that you don’t see much progress from turn to turn, or if you do there is some unrelated AI counter strike that wipe it all out. So with about 2/3rds of the factions it is just tedium fallowed by frustration.

It is just my opinion of course, but a little more money for most of the factions would make them a bit more fun.

Building costs are too high to warrant building them until you are filthy rich and just want to use up money. I am sure that these could be more balanced. Perhaps coupling them with some added techs?

There needs to be more campaign differenced between difficulty levels. Easy and Very Hard all seem to play the same.

Upkeep costs and recruitment costs should be faction based rather than pool based. This way those with too easy a time making armies can be limited with out making it impossible for other factions to raise troops or navies. A cost modifier for each faction may solve this.

The minor factions could use strengthen, especially those in North America. Perhaps not so strong as pre patch but most now are just not difficult to walk over. Even the Pirates lack for everything. If you block their ports they become pretty helpless.

A few more techs might be fun and end the tendency to destroy schools when everything is discovered around mid game. And please don’t make the ones we have longer to research!

The AI needs to be toned back a bit so it is not so stupidly aggressive. All of the indifferent and even friendly nations going to war with out pretence is just absurd.

I don’t think the game has gone in the wrong direction exactly. It just may have gone a bit too far and needs to come back just a bit.

I understand, one of the factions you complain about is Spain. Well, I just started my first Spanish campaign on VH. In 10 turns I went from +2500 to +6000 florins in profits & was building (slowly) along the way & I have 'reserved' 2 slots near Madagascar & 2 slots near Indonesia with sloops + 2 slots are already trading with an Indiaman & one of the starting galleons on them.

Yes, I sold Lombardy on the first turn to the Austrians and French offered to exchange Newfoundland for Flanders on the second turn. I know, both (Lombardy and Flanders) are needed to win the long campaing, BUT - they are needed in 1799 not in 1700. Given the Spanish resources, their starting position is just too stretched out to be maintained that way in a successful campaign. One just needs to prioritize with this faction.

And, let's be honest, the Spanish New Spain quest is the easiest of all three maritime empire factions. Once that is done, Spain has an excellent consolidated position in Americas and can go back to getting Lombardy and Flanders back.

Nothing impossible and not nearly a 'defend only' faction.

[Servius]

The changes to AI aggression should be undone or tweaked. I don't mind an aggressive AI, but their aggression should not be counter-productive to their own interests. I also think the unit costs (build and upkeep) should be undone. The AI changes have made the game less logical and more frustrating, and the cost changes have made me poor which I also agree is unfun.

[TinCow]

Has CA said anything about fixes to two specific naval bugs?
1) Bug which causes major slowdowns and crashes when selecting fleets with very high movement range due to teching.
2) Bug where fleets get stuck on top of one another and cannot move.

I've had to abandon my UP campaign just as I was about to get heavy first rates for the first time because I now have two fleets completely immobilized by #1, one of them with a full army on it. Clicking on either of these fleets results in a game crash, which means I can't move them or disband them.

[Fisherking]

I understand, one of the factions you complain about is Spain. Well, I just started my first Spanish campaign on VH. In 10 turns I went from +2500 to +6000 florins in profits & was building (slowly) along the way & I have 'reserved' 2 slots near Madagascar & 2 slots near Indonesia with sloops + 2 slots are already trading with an Indiaman & one of the starting galleons on them.

Yes, I sold Lombardy on the first turn to the Austrians and French offered to exchange Newfoundland for Flanders on the second turn. I know, both (Lombardy and Flanders) are needed to win the long campaing, BUT - they are needed in 1799 not in 1700. Given the Spanish resources, their starting position is just too stretched out to be maintained that way in a successful campaign. One just needs to prioritize with this faction.

And, let's be honest, the Spanish New Spain quest is the easiest of all three maritime empire factions. Once that is done, Spain has an excellent consolidated position in Americas and can go back to getting Lombardy and Flanders back.

Nothing impossible and not nearly a 'defend only' faction.

Spain is playable. But I find your figures amazingly high.

The AI seems to counter any increase in wealth by some belligerent action or other. By about turn 12 or so Mexico emerged…as a protectorate of the Pueblo. In another campaign Columbia emerged early so be looking for it. check the post on the post patch Spain..

As to the rest…

I am not having a contest in play styles or accomplishment.

The game needed some changes and it got some. Some went a bit too far and other things need changed also.

The game plays the same on VH or E…don’t you think that should change?

The game should accommodate different styles of play and be enjoyable to all.

Everyone should expect and receive some enjoyment from the experience.

I am not crying about it. I am just trying to point out problem areas as I see them.

It is just hard at the moment for me to say, I love this part so don’t change that. But if you have positive aspects you can think of and love, please be sure to bring it up.

[Servius]

I may not be a very good player, but I play GB at Hard/Normal and and the unit build/upkeep costs seemed well balanced. Even in the late game, when I had ~14 trade partnerships, I had to be careful with my army and navy so as to have enough revenue each year to reinforce my armies and continue to upgrade my provinces.

However, when I tried Prussia on the same difficulty setting, it SUCKED! Prussia has so few natural bottlenecks that their entire border is open to attack. Every nation around you is allied to someone or the protectorate of Austria or Poland. I chose my enemies carefully, attacking those little German nations that only had one region so I could knock them out in one battle, and those that had few, weak allies. However, every time I knocked one out and reduced the number of nations I was at war with, a Very Friendly neighbor would suddenly attack me for no reason. Since the whole diplomacy system was completely useless now, I had to maintain armies along my ever-expanding borders. Prussia's position offers no opportunities to reduce the length of your front line, and the broken diplomacy system means you can't reduce your threatened borders through friendly relations anymore either. Eventually I got to a point where the cost to reinforce my depleted miilitary units and repair raided towns was continually more than I could bring in in revenue each year, so I quit. Not fun at all.

Gonna stick with GB for now.

[anweRU]

"He who tried to defend everything defends nothing", by the Prussian king Frederick the Great.

It applies to Spain, as well as anyone else. As for GB, I finally hit turn 41 now. I am still able to blitz (6 provinces in two theaters in one turn was my max, three captured, and the other three peace trophies). But I still need to pick and choose my targets. The Mughals have a full stack ready to attack one of my three neighboring provinces, I need my half stack in Hyderabad to defend against Mysore's incursions - and my 3/4 combat stack is replenishing in Ahmadnagar. So I need to decide - pull back to fight the Mughals, or destroy the Marathas in a single turn?

Strategic decisions like these are entirely realistic. The GB campaign is more challenging then before - and much better balanced. As for the others, some nations should be harder than the others. I can't speak for the rest, but giving up several of Spains starting regions is a good strategy.

[Fisherking]

I may not be a very good player, but I play GB at Hard/Normal and and the unit build/upkeep costs seemed well balanced. Even in the late game, when I had ~14 trade partnerships, I had to be careful with my army and navy so as to have enough revenue each year to reinforce my armies and continue to upgrade my provinces.

However, when I tried Prussia on the same difficulty setting, it SUCKED! Prussia has so few natural bottlenecks that their entire border is open to attack. Every nation around you is allied to someone or the protectorate of Austria or Poland. I chose my enemies carefully, attacking those little German nations that only had one region so I could knock them out in one battle, and those that had few, weak allies. However, every time I knocked one out and reduced the number of nations I was at war with, a Very Friendly neighbor would suddenly attack me for no reason. Since the whole diplomacy system was completely useless now, I had to maintain armies along my ever-expanding borders. Prussia's position offers no opportunities to reduce the length of your front line, and the broken diplomacy system means you can't reduce your threatened borders through friendly relations anymore either. Eventually I got to a point where the cost to reinforce my depleted miilitary units and repair raided towns was continually more than I could bring in in revenue each year, so I quit. Not fun at all.

Gonna stick with GB for now.

Everyone has a slightly different style of play and what they are comfortable with but some factions require a different approach.

You are not going to get far as Prussia as the game stands now by being a turtle. I found no one who would ally with me first turn but you may get lucky and you might get some trade agreements.

It is not the best idea to wait with Prussia. You have so many advantages at start it is best to come out swinging. You start with military technical advantages in bayonets. You also have strong forces and enough income until you expand.

You have the forces to take Poland on turn one. With a little building you can take West Prussia and Saxony on turn two or three if you want just a little edge. They will soon declare war on you anyway.

From there you only need worry about buildings that help stabilize unrest and keep expanding when someone declares war on you.

You have advantages in research and the best troops in the game. In 20 turns you can control central Europe and then you can make improvements for 90 years.

[FactionHeir]

Has CA said anything about fixes to two specific naval bugs?
1) Bug which causes major slowdowns and crashes when selecting fleets with very high movement range due to teching.
2) Bug where fleets get stuck on top of one another and cannot move.

I've had to abandon my UP campaign just as I was about to get heavy first rates for the first time because I now have two fleets completely immobilized by #1, one of them with a full army on it. Clicking on either of these fleets results in a game crash, which means I can't move them or disband them.

Haven't read anything about it. Both annoying bugs, I agree. Though I still hope that someone at CA has been reading my bug list at their forum.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Has CA said anything about fixes to two specific naval bugs?
1) Bug which causes major slowdowns and crashes when selecting fleets with very high movement range due to teching.
2) Bug where fleets get stuck on top of one another and cannot move.

I've had to abandon my UP campaign just as I was about to get heavy first rates for the first time because I now have two fleets completely immobilized by #1, one of them with a full army on it. Clicking on either of these fleets results in a game crash, which means I can't move them or disband them.

Did you try adding a sloop to these fleets? It is usual the work around for fleet related CTD's

[Lemur]

New stuff:

May 12th (http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/53425/t/The-Daily-Update.html?page=2)

For today's update, Paul on the campaign team has kindly shared the following information on one of the issues we've just got fixed:

Kind regards,
Kieran

---

As many of you will be aware there is currently an issue causing consistent CTDs when selecting certain navies on the campaign map. This is due to a problem with the calculation of the movement extents. Many people are also experiencing substantial pauses when selecing armies and navies on the campaign map. For patch 1.3 substantial parts of the movement extents algorithm have been redesigned and rewritten. This should eliminate the majority of pauses and crashes when selecting armies and navies on the campaign map.

We have started running automated testing on these changes - overnight a script teleported a british brig (joint-highest movement points in the game) to over 270 000 random positions on the campaign map, calculating the movement extents for each point. This was done with all tech researched so the movement extents were as large and as complicated as possible and no crashes were found. Such testing will continue for a while yet - forum reports have focused on first rate ships of the line. Our understanding is that the issue should be slightly worse with brigs than first rates, but we'll be repeating the automated tests with first rates just to be certain.

Just to give a bit of technical information and explain why this issue has taken so long to resolve, Empire as you know uses a completely different movement system to earlier Total War games. Rome and Medieval II used a grid-based campaign system, meaning that every piece occupied exactly one grid square and in one turn could move to one of upto a few hundred other grid squares. Empire is completely free-form. A piece in Empire has on average a couple of hundred trillion (ten to the power of twelve) unique possible destinations it can reach in a turn. As you can imagine, this requires a completely different approach and required us to design and implement a brand new system from scratch with no prior knowledge of where it may be suceptible to failure. We thought we'd addressed all the issues by launch but there's nothing quite like having a few hundred thousand people hammering your systems to highlight the weak spots. So sorry it's taken so long to address but hopefully by patch 1.3 all your fleet selection problems will be solved.

---

For todays second update, just a quick note that I have posted a detailed thread about the next patch land battle balance changes in the multiplayer forums here and at TWC, CSS and .org. Head on over to the multiplayer forums to check them out and to provide feedback.

[TinCow]

Thank god...

[AussieGiant]

Thank god...

LOL. Perfectly weighted statement there TC :egypt:

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Posted by Thamis


May 13th

Over the last few days I've been playing the game and tweaking economics values. In essence, I've slightly reduced the administration cost and made the economic game a little bit easier on "normal" and "easy" difficulty levels. Also, I've tweaked the AI's economic bonuses so that they will have a more money to spend on an army.

Also, I've tweaked the effects of technology: Some technologies were reducing the upkeep cost of units a little bit too much.

Additionally the diplomatic effect of the faction leader's qualities has increased a little bit.

[TinCow]

Good to see that they're working to make the different difficulty levels mean something.

[Fisherking]

Wow! All that sound great except the part about upkeep. Particularly on ships.

Now the economic tweaks may have made some difference but that is still some way off in the future.

Some of you are reporting some amazing economies still, and I don’t doubt you but I sure have not had one.

It would seem that perhaps economies only boom once you take most of India. If your campaign does not take you in that direction or you don’t choose to monopolies all trade then it is a much more limiting game.

Several of the factions require taking regions which have extreme unrest and schools which you can not afford to demolish. These require a full stack garrison for ever. Each of these cities require a garrison costing 7,000 or more per turn and maybe extra troops to deal with rebellions. War ships to deal with trade lanes are going to cost you about 500 upkeep each for anything with staying power. This is just too expensive for most economies I have been able to develop.

Worse yet are the other changes to reduce money. The town watch is always going to cost you. In this French campaign I have a 9 star justice minister but still I am paying for town watch to abut 600 per turn.

So of the rest is most odd. I captured two regions and added ports and trade goods, built no new troops to accomplish the task, and made no other changes. The regions less trade good are worth about 6000 without tax revenue, which I exempted to avoid rebellion. Well, I lost money!

I checked the screens before taking the regions and I was expecting to get just under 2600 for the next turn. Now it is only 1588. I went from 12 regions to 14. All tax is coming from only 2 regions which I can tax. The rest either need the growth or are too restless to tax. A few turns later when I took Hanover, because they were destroying every thing I owned in Rhineland every turn, I lost just short of 1500 (1493 if you want exact figures). I checked the totals just before I attacked and just after tax exempting the region. I lost quite a few troops which would reduce upkeep, so as you can see it is a bit lopsided. Without the tax exempt status I still loose just over a thousand.
With so little money and everything costing so much now, explain how to grow an economy.

I would gladly reduce troops, but you see I am at war with every faction near me and I dare not. I have only one full army and it is on garrison duty. My upkeep costs are actually minimal. The army is under 10000 and the navy is under 3000, while the town watch is near 600.

This is frustrating in the extreme! It is hardly worth continuing. This level of economic difficulty is not fun. What ever happens costs go up and money goes down.

Now a few of you are so great that you always have tons of money, and that is great for you. (And I don’t care to here how great you are.) But the average player is just going to get frustrated by this.

Another thing that had to do with the last change!

I think it was a mistake to take away the two rifle units that could be made before the research of machined rifling. Austria and the US had them and rightly so. Bavaria should too but I have never looked at the minor factions and don’t think they had it anyway.

Before machined rifling they were hand made. The rifle was know long before and those two units reflected it. Austrians Jägers need not have rifles but they should have an early rifle unit.

I thought that the original line up was well thought out and made some historical sense. That has now been done away with.

[Prodigal]

Good to see that they're working to make the different difficulty levels mean something.

The downside is that it looks like they're only going to give the AI more cash, which means assive armies very early in the game rather than after the first 10 years or so :(

Quite pleased with the AI being more game on, & the cash flow has actually made the game alot more interesting; rather than simply going into brain dead mode until I can afford to steamroller multiple cities with stacks of troops I've found myself wondering where to deploy my few troops...Even shipped my national army (an 8 troop stack) to the US to try and hold the seemingly overwhelming tide of indians, (american not the MC)

[Fisherking]

Here is today‘s




Jack Lusted
05/14/09 09:26:38
CA Staff
May 13th

Just a short note today on some fixes that have gone in recently for the next patch.

- Various fixes for incorrect audio and for sound problems in general.
- Fix for rotate right and left hot keys not working.
- Fix for battle autoresolving if player exists battle after clicking continue battle.
- Improvements to AI use of fleets and naval invasions.


http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/53425/t/The-Daily-Update.html?page=2












I just wondered why you would spend so long to ship those troops when it was quicker and cheaper to disband and rebuild them there?





The downside is that it looks like they're only going to give the AI more cash, which means assive armies very early in the game rather than after the first 10 years or so :(

Quite pleased with the AI being more game on, & the cash flow has actually made the game alot more interesting; rather than simply going into brain dead mode until I can afford to steamroller multiple cities with stacks of troops I've found myself wondering where to deploy my few troops...Even shipped my national army (an 8 troop stack) to the US to try and hold the seemingly overwhelming tide of indians, (american not the MC)

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Nice to have the Org back online

todays quote from Jack

May 15th

Hello everyone. For todays update I just want to clarify some things and talk again about some fixes that will be in the next patch.

I have noticed in many forum threads that some people have not picked up on some of the fixes and improvements we have mentioned in previous Daily Updates. This really relates to the following 3 points:

- Fix for majority of pauses/crashes on selecting fleets/ports in late part of campaign.
- Fix for battle AI ending up in melee too often.
- Improvements to how the AI uses naval invasions and wages wars.

I am bringing these fixes up as people may have missed them in the longer previous Daily Updates they were in.

And I would also like to say that the battle AI and campaign AI issues listed above are not the only work we have done on those for the next patch. We are making and will continue to make improvements in all areas of both. We also have a lot of other fixes that will be in the next patch.

[Servius]

I hope they fix the bug that caps you at 11 trade routes. I can have more trade partnerships, and all of them show up in the Diplomacy screen, but only 11 max appear in the Trade window, and only the 11 that show up in the Trade window generate Trade Revenue.

There's also an additional discrepancy between the Trade Revenue that shows up on the Trade window and the Trade Revenue that shows up on the National Summary window. The Trade Revenue that shows up on the National Summary window is always less than what shows up on the Trade window. At first I thought perhaps that blockaged ports or raided trade routes was responsible for the discrepancy, but then I noticed that those things decrease the Trade Revenue in the Trade window, so I can't discern a good reason why the Trade and National Summary windows shouldn't show the same Trade Revenue.

[Fisherking]

There are so many oddities in income that it is hard to know what is what.

As is stands there are ever more ways to loose income than to make it. A lot is undocumented and a big portion is just confusing.

There is also the matter of unlearning the way it worked in the original version of the game.

I will wait an see on the AI changes.

Gosh! Every AI change seems to result in it getting dumber and more belligerent.

I hope that the naval invasions make sense and are mostly directed toward the player rather than taking out all the minors or sending everyone in Europe to India.

[Slaists]

There are so many oddities in income that it is hard to know what is what.

As is stands there are ever more ways to loose income than to make it. A lot is undocumented and a big portion is just confusing.

There is also the matter of unlearning the way it worked in the original version of the game.

I will wait an see on the AI changes.

Gosh! Every AI change seems to result in it getting dumber and more belligerent.

I hope that the naval invasions make sense and are mostly directed toward the player rather than taking out all the minors or sending everyone in Europe to India.

Well, the other day I saw a sensible AI naval invasion for the first time. Playing as Russia, I had Anatolia. Austrians declared war on me. Having no common border with them, I had not borthered leaving a garrison in the province's capital.

Two turns later, an Austrian fleet captured one of my Anatolian trading ports and unloaded an army in the port. That army (4 line infantry, two canons, some cavalry + gen) proceeded straight to the undefended province capital and promptly took it: no lingering around in the fields, or near the coast, etc.: just straight, decisive blow to the province capital.

Nicely done, AI!.

[loony]

regarding naval invasions: the AI unloads troops in ports only. therefore, you need 1 sloop in each port to make sure the AI never invades from sea...

[Slaists]

regarding naval invasions: the AI unloads troops in ports only. therefore, you need 1 sloop in each port to make sure the AI never invades from sea...

Actually, Indiamen are cheaper for that purpose: only 50 upkeep versus 150. ;)

[Fisherking]

Actually, Indiamen are cheaper for that purpose: only 50 upkeep versus 150. ;)

Those take two turns to build.

Usually you need it right away. So sloops or galleys if you can get them.

[Servius]

No update today yet?

[loony]

Actually, Indiamen are cheaper for that purpose: only 50 upkeep versus 150. ;)

True. I somehow cannot keep and indiaman in port while it can trade and BRING ME THE CASH!! Who cares I pay more on upkeep :shame:

[Discoman]

May 18/19th


Apologies for the delayed update, we had a migration of our code servers yesterday resulting in some time to get all the code moves sorted.

The multi-threading gains on naval and land battles are now very noticeable. Large scale naval battles have benefited by almost 50% in some cases and land battles are also seeing significant framerate increases, this is because the way the logic and frame drawing interact has been fundamentally changed to take place in parallel.

Another addition in the last day has been the ability for the AI to 'tactically withdraw' during a battle. Before the AI troops rout they are now able to pull back in stages to regroup and attack, rather than than fight to the death or flee once committed. This results in more realistic battles in the sense the AI 'stages' these attempts, so we're now in the process of balancing this. Just to repeat the AI 'melee attack bug' has also been fixed, meaning you no longer have all AI units committing to melee.

More tomorrow.

Kind regards,
Kieranhttp://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/53425/t/The-Daily-Update.html?page=2

So, improved framerate in battles and AI retreats.

[antisocialmunky]

Hopefully they've done the correct checks so the AI doesn't try to do fighting retreats in no retreat siege battles or off a bridge of something equally silly...

Looking forward to the next partch none-the-less.

[Lemur]

Latest:

————————————————————————————

Hi guys,

We will shortly be releasing a number of free new units for Empire: Total War. Today I would like to reveal the first of these - Russian Grenadiers. This new Russian unit is great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch!

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Lemurmania/HQRussianGrenadiers_med.jpg

The team is still working hard on the next update, and will be implementing many new fixes.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

[AussieGiant]

Lovin it!!!

Give me a Big Mac!!

[Marquis of Roland]

Oh god, more crazy Russian guys with bombs? It's bad enough they have those grenade launching bastards, you gotta love the range on those :2thumbsup:

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Pavlov grenadiers, by the look of them.


*edit to add*
I hope the Dutch get a infantry and/or cavalry unit. They were IMHO rather hard done by when it came to making faction specific units.

[Slaists]

A nice picture but... no word about a huge breakthrough in regards to CAI or BAI...

:hide:

[FactionHeir]

Throwing kids some candy huh? :grin:

By the looks of it, just your standard grenadiers with a different hat.

[TB666]

But it's a cool looking hat tho.

[mmk]

Very nice! Like the grenadier caps!

[Servius]

Last night I hit my first campaign-killing CTD bug. I almost made it to 1799, by far the furthest I've been able to get in a campaign. Before the most recent patch, I'd encounter one of the CTD bugs much ealier in the campaign. After the patch, I encountered them much less frequently, and I was always able to get around them by simply restarting. The CTD that got me last night happens at the end of the AI turns, and there's nothing I can do to get around it. I know a few of the Daily Updates early after the most recent patch said they had identified a few other causes and had fixed them, plus better utilization of multi-core processors should prevent other CTDs too. I have high hopes that I'll actually be able to finish a campaign perhaps after the upcoming patch :-)

Oh, and the grenadier's hat looks cool.

[Slaists]

Last night I hit my first campaign-killing CTD bug. I almost made it to 1799, by far the furthest I've been able to get in a campaign. Before the most recent patch, I'd encounter one of the CTD bugs much ealier in the campaign. After the patch, I encountered them much less frequently, and I was always able to get around them by simply restarting. The CTD that got me last night happens at the end of the AI turns, and there's nothing I can do to get around it. I know a few of the Daily Updates early after the most recent patch said they had identified a few other causes and had fixed them, plus better utilization of multi-core processors should prevent other CTDs too. I have high hopes that I'll actually be able to finish a campaign perhaps after the upcoming patch :-)

Oh, and the grenadier's hat looks cool.

This has happened to me too a couple times post patch 1.02. Interestingly enough, reloading an earlier save-game does not solve the problem. The crash happens once the same turns reached during the AI cycle.