Hate to say that I do not like the game!

[mmk]

Although I am a huge and longtime fan of TW games, I must say that ETW has been a huge disappointment for me so far. I was expecting the usual minor bugs in the beginning but I wasn´t expecting a game from TW that has so many flaws that playing the game in campaign mode is both boring and annoying.

True, there is a lot of blingbling now on the campaign map but that doesn´t make the game experience any better.

There are so many things I have come across so far that I can mention only the worst without turning this rant into a novel.

1. What´s the use of playing a campaign of almost 200 turns when after turn 40 you have basically won the game?
a. Revolution: Funny how the game ends very suddenly when you chose the wrong side without being able to get any info on what results your choice might have.
2. What´s the use of diplomacy when diplomacy is a ridiculous, totally usueless feature in this game.
a. Minor nations: What´s the use in ally with them if you get no benefits? Apart from some cash when you´re protector.
b. What is it when Savoy can conquer France?
c. Why would the Moguls like to trade scientific research for East Prussia?
d. Why would Prussia like to trade East Prussia for Courland? Totally senseless.
3. Gentlemen and Rakes
a. Duelling: What is the benefit of a won duel apart from having an enemy gentlemen removed from the game? Since gentlemen are spawned anyways without costs for either your or the opposite side.

And on and on it goes....

I would expect that at least the diplomacy feature gets a major overhaul. I would opt for a totally new appraoch with the minor factions. E.g. if my side becomes a protector of a minor nation - why not including the minor factions military forces and their scientific research in the benifits?
I would also expect that the load of stupid requests my side gets (totally sensless demands for regions etc.) get removed from the ai.

[pevergreen]

Although I am a huge and longtime fan of TW games, I must say that ETW has been a huge disappointment for me so far. I was expecting the usual minor bugs in the beginning but I wasn´t expecting a game from TW that has so many flaws that playing the game in campaign mode is both boring and annoying.

True, there is a lot of blingbling now on the campaign map but that doesn´t make the game experience any better.

There are so many things I have come across so far that I can mention only the worst without turning this rant into a novel.

1. What´s the use of playing a campaign of almost 200 turns when after turn 40 you have basically won the game?
a. Revolution: Funny how the game ends very suddenly when you chose the wrong side without being able to get any info on what results your choice might have.
2. What´s the use of diplomacy when diplomacy is a ridiculous, totally usueless feature in this game.
a. Minor nations: What´s the use in ally with them if you get no benefits? Apart from some cash when you´re protector.
b. What is it when Savoy can conquer France?
c. Why would the Moguls like to trade scientific research for East Prussia?
d. Why would Prussia like to trade East Prussia for Courland? Totally senseless.
3. Gentlemen and Rakes
a. Duelling: What is the benefit of a won duel apart from having an enemy gentlemen removed from the game? Since gentlemen are spawned anyways without costs for either your or the opposite side.

And on and on it goes....

I would expect that at least the diplomacy feature gets a major overhaul. I would opt for a totally new appraoch with the minor factions. E.g. if my side becomes a protector of a minor nation - why not including the minor factions military forces and their scientific research in the benifits?
I would also expect that the load of stupid requests my side gets (totally sensless demands for regions etc.) get removed from the ai.

1. Same for M2TW and RTW. ATPG and others won M2TW in 20 odd turns, taking every province. You cant do that in ETW
a: You make the choice, if you lose, you die. Realistic.
2: Diplomacy works much much better. No more "GET OFF MY LAND". You can see why their position is. massive improvement. Military/diplomatic AI isnt separate.
a: Same again, they are minor for a reason. Crush them if you want, keep them alive if you like the pretty colours on the minimap. My opinion is they take the place of rebels from previous games
b: What is it when Milan can take over Euorpe? When Persia can conquer all of egypt. When Brittania can take western euorpe. TW provides many many outcomes, some historically correct, some hilarious.
c&d: should be tweaked in patches, thats simply priorities gone wrong for the AI
3. What about them?
a: Stops them stealing your research, if you are stealing theirs, gives you a better chance, with the upcoming mp campaign, removes vision and stops their research.

[mmk]

1. Same for M2TW and RTW. ATPG and others won M2TW in 20 odd turns, taking every province. You cant do that in ETW
a: You make the choice, if you lose, you die. Realistic.
2: Diplomacy works much much better. No more "GET OFF MY LAND". You can see why their position is. massive improvement. Military/diplomatic AI isnt separate.
a: Same again, they are minor for a reason. Crush them if you want, keep them alive if you like the pretty colours on the minimap. My opinion is they take the place of rebels from previous games
b: What is it when Milan can take over Euorpe? When Persia can conquer all of egypt. When Brittania can take western euorpe. TW provides many many outcomes, some historically correct, some hilarious.
c&d: should be tweaked in patches, thats simply priorities gone wrong for the AI
3. What about them?
a: Stops them stealing your research, if you are stealing theirs, gives you a better chance, with the upcoming mp campaign, removes vision and stops their research.

Thank you for reminding me. ;-)

Maybe I was just expecting too much of the new TW game.

I stick to my point though, that the power of the minor nations is nor very well balanced and that better use could have made of the fact that they play part in the game.
And I do not see any improvement in the diplomacy features at all.

I guess it is wait and see what the next patch will bring.

[Fisherking]

To me M2TW was a disappointment. It was just blitz. Everyone is going to war with you at some point anyway so just have at it.

This game is different. There are a lot of things still to learn and the tactics both land and sea have some depth.

Everything is not working perfectly but I think it will be much better than the past games in the end.

Granted it has more starting issues then the others but it is also more complex.

Diplomacy is improved. Some times factions will make peace when they should…not always of course, but sometimes.

I don’t find Rakes of much use. Maybe they just don’t work as well as advertised. Gentlemen do research and that is a big deal. If you can kill the enemy it does slow him…though usually it has been my men who went down in flames.

I know it can be improved and I hope that I like what they do…in the past I went back to the older versions. Something we can’t do this time. So I hope they keep the AI balanced and don’t make it a bunch of aggressive warmongering mad men.

[Ardri]

My main problem with diplomacy is that you cannot intercede between 2 AI nations. An ally you go to war with to defeat a common enemy should also go to peace if you broker a peace deal with the enemy nation. Other than that the diplomacy is much improved over previous TW games. Most of the other points are pretty much spot on though.

[MikeV]

Diplomacy is improved.
Twice nothing is still nothing.

[MikeV]

1. What´s the use of playing a campaign of almost 200 turns when after turn 40 you have basically won the game?
And after turn 50 you consistently get game-ending CTD (http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=72779&title=dee-dee-dee-song)s, no matter which faction? :tomato:

[MikeV]

Maybe I was just expecting too much of the new TW game.
But it's so pretty (if your box has enough graphics horsepower) ... :laugh4:

[bluenu]

problem with empire tw is they made it to complicated....

...for the ai

despite all the flaws, they did add a lot of new features.... but if the ai cant utilize them properly wtf is the point?

[DisruptorX]

Well, it does have flaws, and its not for everyone.

At least are actually addressing the major problems, though. Remember when they fixed the passive AI bug in MTW 2, and then made two handers not suck? Me neither!

[Fisherking]

For anyone wishing to just dislike the game, great. You have the purgative.

But if all you want to do is complain then there is little reason to discuss the issue.

No one wants to change your mind.

We all have aspects we would have improved but if you would rather not play then fine.

Complaining for the sake of complaining is just flat boring.

If there are suggestions for improvement or what you would change then perhaps there is value in talking about it.

From my view point this thread is going no where and may have a very short life.

[Tsavong]

I think Empire Total War is a fine improvement over M2TW and RTW wall still being a Total War game which is what it is and I assume was set out to be from the start.

Would it be as fun if it was imposable to expand in an a historical way? Probably not it is a sandbox to play with after all.


Twice nothing is still nothing.
Do you not think that not having to run ambassadors around the map is an improvement? Its certainly more than nothing.

Btw you can answer more than one question per post, unless you want to spam your post number up ;)

[Smellycat]

problem with empire tw is they made it to complicated....

...for the ai

despite all the flaws, they did add a lot of new features.... but if the ai cant utilize them properly wtf is the point?

no they just forgot to include an AI and went for the point they knew would sell : eyecandy

[Fisherking]

Empty criticism is pointless!

Of course there is AI.

And if you don’t think it is improved go back an play M2 for a while.

[Sturmwolf]

I dont necessarily hate the Game, but am disappointed with endlesssssssssssssss Navy CTD's , regardless of Theatre. Even without use of Fleets, all of Europe is under Prussian control, with the exception of Great Britain, Denmark(Iceland) . The disadvantage being involved in a long, drawn-out LAND Battle, slowly conquering the territories, one by one without the use of Navies is a major setback.

When CA/ SEGA/ Whoever gets the patch to fix this Naval glitch, then I'd love to play as the Game was intended.

[Fisherking]

Those are good points!

But you know, I don’t have those issues.

My Land battles all hang instead. The Naval Game works great….

Sometimes it is Prussia and sometimes not.

I don’t know if it just acts differently on some systems or what but it does not make fixes easy when the problems are not all the same.

I know I hate having to auto resolve my battles. And CTD in Naval Battles would be just infuriating.

I hope something can be done soon!:sweatdrop:

[Dayve]

I just don't understand how people are getting so many hangs and CTD's... I've only ever had 2!

Intel Core2 6600 @ 2.4 gigglehertz
2 gigglebytes of RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4800 series (one of the most unstable cards on the market!)
Windows XP home

[TinCow]

ETW's state out of the box is vastly superior to that of both RTW and M2TW (can't comment on STW/MTW, as I didn't play them when they first came out). There are many annoying aspects to the game, most significantly with the AI, battle pathfinding, and CTDs, but it's a definite quality improvement over the previous titles when they were at the same level of patching. I think a large part of this is due to major improvements in the engine which have removed a lot of the problems in the RTW/M2TW engine.

I admit that the lack of naval invasions has essentially made me stop playing the game, but I am hopeful for the future with patching. A expect a patch-polished ETW with released mod tools and the promised multiplayer campaign mode to be the best TW game released so far. Let's just hope that the patches and improvements needed to get it there are released before we all get tired of waiting.

[Smellycat]

ETW's state out of the box is vastly superior to that of both RTW and M2TW (can't comment on STW/MTW, as I didn't play them when they first came out). There are many annoying aspects to the game, most significantly with the AI, battle pathfinding, and CTDs, but it's a definite quality improvement over the previous titles when they were at the same level of patching. I think a large part of this is due to major improvements in the engine which have removed a lot of the problems in the RTW/M2TW engine.



LOL no it isn't we're had 4 patches now out of a box i couldn't even start the game.

[TinCow]

LOL no it isn't we're had 4 patches now out of a box i couldn't even start the game.

I don't think your experience out of the box is typical. My game ran fine out of the box, except for very annoying CTDs when boarding during naval battles. That CTD was fixed in the first patch, though I still get a few random ones. If you are finding that you are having technical problems that are not often reported by other people, it is probably because your computer is the problem. Sometimes it's hardware, but more often it is OS configuration or driver problems. Failure to update VPU drivers, failure to update your OS, and general incompatibility problems aren't really ETW's fault. Sometimes you just need to format and make a clean OS install. It's annoying, but it's part of life as a PC gamer.

If you're having problems, I find it important to try and get a feel for how often other people are having the same problem. If the problem is common, then it's likely a game software issue. If it's uncommon, then it's likely an issue with your own machine. Being unable to start the game out of the box is definitely an uncommon problem.

[Smellycat]

I don't think your experience out of the box is typical. My game ran fine out of the box, except for very annoying CTDs when boarding during naval battles. That CTD was fixed in the first patch, though I still get a few random ones. If you are finding that you are having technical problems that are not often reported by other people, it is probably because your computer is the problem. Sometimes it's hardware, but more often it is OS configuration or driver problems. Failure to update VPU drivers, failure to update your OS, and general incompatibility problems aren't really ETW's fault. Sometimes you just need to format and make a clean OS install. It's annoying, but it's part of life as a PC gamer.

If you're having problems, I find it important to try and get a feel for how often other people are having the same problem. If the problem is common, then it's likely a game software issue. If it's uncommon, then it's likely an issue with your own machine. Being unable to start the game out of the box is definitely an uncommon problem.

I can play the game after 4 patches so i doubt it is my computer and if you check the readme's to each patch they mention ctds being fixed. I have a vivid memory of playing RTW and M2TW out of the box for months (untill the patches came fixing the secondary weapon in RTW and the peasant army zerg being better than knights in M2TW) without major hiccups. I am not alone in having technical issues just go to the official forums

[A Very Super Market]

We know you are not alone, but TinCow is saying that it is still uncommon that you have these problems. I for one have not had any CTDs, and thus, I have no reason to post a thread about how I my game is fine.

[TinCow]

Part of the issue is that there are so many different possible PC configurations, that it's impossible for the devs to test them all prior to release. Once a game is released, a lot of new bugs (particularly hardware bugs) pop up, simply because suddenly there's a much wider base using the software. For this reason, I personally don't consider these uncommon incompatibilities to be major faults of the dev. It would be unreasonable to expect them to test every possible hardware configuration, so some are going to slip through.

What I do blame the devs for are things like the lack of naval invasions. That exists in everyone's game, and is a clear bug that should have been noticed prior to release. There's no way that one wasn't pointed out in testing, so its presence OOB is irksome.

[Smellycat]

If you read my comment you will see i am disagreeinf with the view that ETW's state out of the box is vastly superior to that of both RTW and M2TW . If you followed the drama on the official forums as well as TWC (yes the org has shrunk a lot) you would see that lots of ppl think that CA botched this release. Adding to the annoyance is the fact that we had to pay extra to get all the units (lucky noone came up with the idea to make the unplayable factions part of dowloadable content they could charge for). I like the game but i regret buying it for the first time in the series. Its been shelved 2 weeks now waiting for an AI. consider the enthusiasm in the posts pre release here : is it really the players/posters that are to be blamed for the lack of it now?

[Fisherking]

The other two had the same issues with CTDs, memory leaks, AI issues, and so on. It took much longer to get fixes and some of them came from the mod community prior to the official fixes…which for both games took a while, but for M2 in particular it seemed to take ages. For what ever reason 3 months seems to stick in my mind. That I believe was about twice the wait for the RTW patch. (6 weeks I think)

This game has not even been out that long!

Most of the changes have fixed technical glitches but most have not been aimed at game play, I don’t think.

I know with RTW I was making saves sometimes twice a turn or more.
I had a bleeding edge system at the time and still had to go and get THE best graphics card on the market to get it to work half way!

I know with the system I have at the moment that the land battle hang-up seem to be more to do with the locations on the map than the inability of the system to handle battles. (Something I noticed about a week ago but haven’t brought up until now)

The level of hate and discontent is even much milder than I remember from past releases.

If you think I am wrong you can always go and check the archives and the back of the threads.

[Smellycat]

We know you are not alone, but TinCow is saying that it is still uncommon that you have these problems. I for one have not had any CTDs, and thus, I have no reason to post a thread about how I my game is fine.

Yes but why do you feel you have to post in a thread about how the game is not fine? I for one wouldn't troll that thread if i had no problems- I would be too busy playing the game

[A Very Super Market]

How am I trolling? Have I insulted you in some way?

[Smellycat]

OK:1 you have no problems = no thread ;= makes sense
2 I have problem = no thread because of 1 ;= not same thing because having a problem is a bigger reason for starting a thread than not having one in my opinion, besides i doubt anyone would object to you starting one

[A Very Super Market]

No, that logic doesn't work. And anyways;

I'm not trying to stop you from making a thread, I'm trying to say that the fact that these threads exist doesn't mean that the game is completely glitched for everyone.

[Sturmwolf]

I don't think your experience out of the box is typical. My game ran fine out of the box, except for very annoying CTDs when boarding during naval battles. That CTD was fixed in the first patch, though I still get a few random ones. If you are finding that you are having technical problems that are not often reported by other people, it is probably because your computer is the problem. Sometimes it's hardware, but more often it is OS configuration or driver problems. Failure to update VPU drivers, failure to update your OS, and general incompatibility problems aren't really ETW's fault. Sometimes you just need to format and make a clean OS install. It's annoying, but it's part of life as a PC gamer.

If you're having problems, I find it important to try and get a feel for how often other people are having the same problem. If the problem is common, then it's likely a game software issue. If it's uncommon, then it's likely an issue with your own machine. Being unable to start the game out of the box is definitely an uncommon problem.



Forgive My ignorance, but how does one obtain/use this first Patch, that can correct Navy CTD's ???

That is the ONLY issue I seem to have with ETW, every other aspect of Gameplay runs just fine. I have enjoyed every other Game since STW came out years ago, and have never had any problems until I purchased ETW. I had seriously looked forward to Naval interaction personally, being a former Naval Officer and Merchant Mariner, as I would LOVE to see how the Navies play/interact on the Game, but alas, " das geht nicht" ! !!!

Any advice/suggestions would be Welcome.

[Smellycat]

I am not making a thread i am posting in a thread about the game's faults because i have issues with it. What are you doing in this thread?

[TinCow]

Forgive My ignorance, but how does one obtain/use this first Patch, that can correct Navy CTD's ???

Patches are automatically downloaded and installed whenever Steam connects. If you're using offline mode, they will probably all install if you just do a manual connect.

[Fisherking]

Guys!

Don’t make anything personal!

Some my dislike features or the lack there of, others may have technical problems. We all have the right to read and offer opinions.

[rory_20_uk]

Well, at least I know I was right in not bothering to buy it for a good few months - possibly longer.

I'd rather not have loads of new options and features that show promise... but don't really work. I'd rather have a few that work really well (and for the love of god how many games are we at now? And still the AI on the tactical screen isn't great!)

Maybe I'm showing my advancing age, but I'd rather have the old method of ship combat where things are obviously fudged rather than have a system where you can constantly thrash the AI at sea as it is so poor.

So as soon as the modders descend on this pig iron and craft a steel rapier I'll have another look.

~:smoking:

[Fisherking]

I didn’t know people were having trouble with the AI in Naval battles.

That is where most people admit to being often thrashed, especially by the pirates.

I have not experienced the AI always using the same tactics time and again if it has the units to do more with.

But then my most limited experience is in the land battles, as mine don’t complete loading often.

The game needs improvements in the way it is functioning, that is for sure. But I have enjoyed the play so far and only look forward to it getting better.

[Veresov]

Easy for me to dislike Empire as it either CTD's or lockups when I press the end turn button. It is also easy to dislike this game as the support is non-existant. Over a month and there still isn't a decent patch that fixes all these bugs.

It is simply crapware..

[Sturmwolf]

Patches are automatically downloaded and installed whenever Steam connects. If you're using offline mode, they will probably all install if you just do a manual connect.

Thanks for the advice. I had tried that, Steam says the Game is 100% and Ready, have attempted both online/offline Mode in Gameplay. Unfortunately same results ico Naval CTD's.

Rather disconcerting, but for now I will have to pack up the Game and let it sit upon the bookshelf, until an actual Patch/ Resolution/ something can be utilized.

[Fisherking]

That is tough Sturmwolf!

Will the game work for you in just the single battles from the menu?

It is worrisome that it is only in the naval portion that you have the trouble.

Have you asked in the Apothecary if there are any fixes?

[Sturmwolf]

That is tough Sturmwolf!

Will the game work for you in just the single battles from the menu?

It is worrisome that it is only in the naval portion that you have the trouble.

Have you asked in the Apothecary if there are any fixes?

Unfortunately, it is ONLY the Naval aspects/portions of the Game that will not work, EVER! Every other facet of the Game, e.g. Land Battles, Armies, Building, Diplomacy, etc. work just fine. The minute I utilize any existing Vessel, immediate CTD! !! Should I build a Ship and deploy it, once again, immediate CTD! !!! Armies boarding Vessel, again, CTD! !!!

This is beyond exasperation, as the Game was intended to employ Naval Forces, Theatre-wide, the very reason I had purchased the Game.

I had posed the Question before, if there were any Naval fixes, yet no response.


It is beyond Disappointment that such a Game with wonderful potential, was released prematurely with such disastrous Bugs/Crashes/ etc. prior to thorough testing. It is almost like sending a new vehicle off the assembly line without windshield or headlights! !!!!

I have never before had any other Game problems, STW, RTW, M2TW, all of them worked problem-free. Why this one???

The Game (ETW) has already been uninstalled, and sits upon the bookshelf, and there it shall remain until a Solution is found.


:thumbsdown:

[Smellycat]

i used to have very big freezes when i used the ports in belgium and croatia any ships that came out of there made the game freeze for 20 secs but it got fixed with patches i guess its still noticeable that there is a problem but not as long

[gardibolt]

I do think CA sort of painted themselves in a corner by making this game require such a heavy-duty gaming system to even run it at all; my computer's barely a year old and it can't handle it with 3.0 dual core CPU, 4G DDR2 RAM and a 512MB video card--it's like a slideshow. There's no way the casual gamer can run this without a major hardware investment. The leap from M2TW is pretty startling---I can run that maxed out but ETW is no go.

Yes, I know, buy a new computer, loser. That's not really a practical solution every year.

[Fisherking]

Unfortunately, it is ONLY the Naval aspects/portions of the Game that will not work, EVER! Every other facet of the Game, e.g. Land Battles, Armies, Building, Diplomacy, etc. work just fine. The minute I utilize any existing Vessel, immediate CTD! !! Should I build a Ship and deploy it, once again, immediate CTD! !!! Armies boarding Vessel, again, CTD! !!!

This is beyond exasperation, as the Game was intended to employ Naval Forces, Theatre-wide, the very reason I had purchased the Game.

I had posed the Question before, if there were any Naval fixes, yet no response.


It is beyond Disappointment that such a Game with wonderful potential, was released prematurely with such disastrous Bugs/Crashes/ etc. prior to thorough testing. It is almost like sending a new vehicle off the assembly line without windshield or headlights! !!!!

I have never before had any other Game problems, STW, RTW, M2TW, all of them worked problem-free. Why this one???

The Game (ETW) has already been uninstalled, and sits upon the bookshelf, and there it shall remain until a Solution is found.


:thumbsdown:


Go here and post:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=15

It sounds like there are conflicts some where but I have not had any of those issues and my system is no world beater.

My machine is just a little better than minimum specs and the land battles have been my bane from the demo on.

I found a couple of new updates that may fix my problems…fingers crossed…

But naval has always worked and worked well.

[CavalryCmdr]

I do think CA sort of painted themselves in a corner by making this game require such a heavy-duty gaming system to even run it at all; my computer's barely a year old and it can't handle it with 3.0 dual core CPU, 4G DDR2 RAM and a 512MB video card--it's like a slideshow. There's no way the casual gamer can run this without a major hardware investment. The leap from M2TW is pretty startling---I can run that maxed out but ETW is no go
My CP is about 1/2 yours and runs Empires fine at medium settings. The problem is Hardware incompatibility, not that your CP cant handle it. That, as has been stated, repeatedly, is an issue that is not really as common as it seems. I, for example, have a 3 year old middling system (although I do have a new graphics card) with only 2 GB ram and a single core 3.0 Pentium and an integrated sound card with Windows XP pro.

Game Play, out of the box, is certainly FAR superior to M2. The only MAJOR gameplay bug is that the AI is completely unable to launch a naval invasion. M2 had the SAME bug, on top of that Peasants were the most fearsome unit on the battlefield and the AI in battles would just stand there and let you shoot all your arrows at them with no reaction whatsoever. True, the battle AI in Empires is a disappointment after all the hype about it, but it's not nearly that bad. Hardware issues aside, anyone who thinks Empires is in a worse state out of the box then M2 dose not really remember the first 2 months M2 was out. (That said, M2 turned out to be a very good game IMHO, when all the bugs were finally fixed in the 1.2 patch.) I cant comment on Rome OOB, as I was still busy playing M1 at that point, and didn't get Rome until about 6 months after it came out.

[Sturmwolf]

:skull: The Game shall remain shelved. :skull: The Frustration was beyond intolerable! !!! :wall:

IT IS DEFINITELY THE GAME ITSELF! !!! My Machine can handle ANY System/Software, and with only the Naval aspect being the culprit of CTD's, I can only assume the Program/Software Developer for CA/SEGA was ex-Army! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gargravarr]

I do think CA sort of painted themselves in a corner by making this game require such a heavy-duty gaming system to even run it at all; my computer's barely a year old and it can't handle it with 3.0 dual core CPU, 4G DDR2 RAM and a 512MB video card--it's like a slideshow. There's no way the casual gamer can run this without a major hardware investment. The leap from M2TW is pretty startling---I can run that maxed out but ETW is no go.

Yes, I know, buy a new computer, loser. That's not really a practical solution every year.

OK, I got to get involved here.

Here is my PC spec before I start:

Cheap crappy Asus motherboard that cost less than £30 18 months ago.
AMD ATHLON 64 5200+ That I got 2 YEARS ago.
3Gig ddr2 800 memory 2 Years old
9800GT card 12 months old
Windows XP home (3 years old)

MAXXED OUT graphics settings in battles AND campaign map..... Runs min 25 FPS AT ALL TIMES!!!!

so.... with my old and useless PC I am getting better performance that your rig? hmmmm that sounds to me like optimisation/drivers/OS issue to me. I didn't expect to be able to run the game maxxed out but, there you go. I can and it does..... Without any major issues too. I appear to be one of the lucky ones. I have had the odd CTD when merging fleets in a harbour (The workaround is fiddly but it does work)

Sturmwolf, if it was the game everyone would be experiencing it. I suspect that, while the game may not be optimized for your rig and something in the game code as it is compiled may be causing the issues I would be more tempted to investigate your setup. I know that certain AV programs cause some issues with certain code. Fragmentation on the drive or even a corrupted windows update may be causing the issue. Also make sure you running the latest drivers for each part of your kit including motherboard(often missed yet can cause major problems) If that is still the case, and you not getting any errors when you CTD, send your DXDiag file and a description of what you do to cause the problem to CA and then they have something to work with to fix the problem.

The biggest issue with bugs like this in an environment like this is the "It's broke! fix it" syndrome. Without info it is like, for example, someone going into a restaurant and when given the menu and asked what they would like to eat answering "food" it doesn't help and only frustrates those trying to fix things. Moaning and making non-constructive statements doesn't help anyone and doesn't move things forwards. providing detail to those who need it means that something WILL be done in the next patch or the one after and you will be happy. Check those things out, send the info and be a little paitient after that and you should get results.

For those not buying the game on the off chance that it won't work, let me say this. Yes there are some issues (AI not attacking across water, some minor issues with the odd CTD with specific actions etc, etc) but I do think that the majority of those who bought the game are playing quite happily.(Oh boy am I gonna get flamed for THIS paragraph)

[mmk]

:furious3: Never had so many CTDs! And it is definitely NOT my machine that is to blame.

[pevergreen]

Well, compile a list of what caused them, recent actions, the debug and your dxdiag and email it to CA, they love user feedback. If you can help them solve the problems, you are helping yourself and others.

[Turbosatan]

OK, I got to get involved here.

Here is my PC spec before I start:

Cheap crappy Asus motherboard that cost less than £30 18 months ago.
AMD ATHLON 64 5200+ That I got 2 YEARS ago.
3Gig ddr2 800 memory 2 Years old
9800GT card 12 months old
Windows XP home (3 years old)

MAXXED OUT graphics settings in battles AND campaign map..... Runs min 25 FPS AT ALL TIMES!!!!

so.... with my old and useless PC I am getting better performance that your rig? hmmmm that sounds to me like optimisation/drivers/OS issue to me. I didn't expect to be able to run the game maxxed out but, there you go. I can and it does..... Without any major issues too. I appear to be one of the lucky ones. I have had the odd CTD when merging fleets in a harbour (The workaround is fiddly but it does work)

Sturmwolf, if it was the game everyone would be experiencing it. I suspect that, while the game may not be optimized for your rig and something in the game code as it is compiled may be causing the issues I would be more tempted to investigate your setup. I know that certain AV programs cause some issues with certain code. Fragmentation on the drive or even a corrupted windows update may be causing the issue. Also make sure you running the latest drivers for each part of your kit including motherboard(often missed yet can cause major problems) If that is still the case, and you not getting any errors when you CTD, send your DXDiag file and a description of what you do to cause the problem to CA and then they have something to work with to fix the problem.

The biggest issue with bugs like this in an environment like this is the "It's broke! fix it" syndrome. Without info it is like, for example, someone going into a restaurant and when given the menu and asked what they would like to eat answering "food" it doesn't help and only frustrates those trying to fix things. Moaning and making non-constructive statements doesn't help anyone and doesn't move things forwards. providing detail to those who need it means that something WILL be done in the next patch or the one after and you will be happy. Check those things out, send the info and be a little paitient after that and you should get results.

For those not buying the game on the off chance that it won't work, let me say this. Yes there are some issues (AI not attacking across water, some minor issues with the odd CTD with specific actions etc, etc) but I do think that the majority of those who bought the game are playing quite happily.(Oh boy am I gonna get flamed for THIS paragraph)


What he said.

I'm in the same boat as you mate -- I'm running on an Athlon 3200 with a ATI 3450 512mb card. At medium it flies -- around 25FPS as you said. The only (possibly performance?) related issue is 3-5 minute battle loading times now I'm in the 1790s -- but with my outdated machine I expected that.

I've had a grand total of three CTDs, & lost far too much of my real life to this game over the last month.

[nafod]

OK, I got to get involved here as well.

Here is my PC spec before I start:

Comp is four years old.
AMD ATHLON 64 4800+ X2
2G Memory
Geforce 8800 Ultra two years old about
Windows XP Professional

I can run large unit sizes, High detail. gets choppy with pathing in towns but that's about it. Naval battles are seamless.

[Gargravarr]

well, three of us, three old AMD processors, three fully working systems, sorry, three fully working OLDER systems.... I wonder if the problem is with intel proc..... nahhhhh. Can't be.

(now to get flamed by the Intel supporters now, Actually I do want an intel processor when I replace mine.)

[nafod]

well, three of us, three old AMD processors, three fully working systems, sorry, three fully working OLDER systems.... I wonder if the problem is with intel proc..... nahhhhh. Can't be.

(now to get flamed by the Intel supporters now, Actually I do want an intel processor when I replace mine.)

Yep me too. Should be soon, although I'll have a wife that will complain about how much these gaming rigs cost.

At least I was wise enough to finish my rifle collection prior to proposing.

[Beskar]

:skull: The Game shall remain shelved. :skull: The Frustration was beyond intolerable! !!! :wall:

IT IS DEFINITELY THE GAME ITSELF! !!! My Machine can handle ANY System/Software, and with only the Naval aspect being the culprit of CTD's, I can only assume the Program/Software Developer for CA/SEGA was ex-Army! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I never had a naval problem since the demo.

Only problem here is the campaign map AI.

[Phog_of_War]

If you have Steam in online mode it is automatic

[mmk]

Working on the list I intend to send to CA.

While doing that: Any of you experienced sound problems in battles? Apart from the fact that I have certain sound problems when in campaign mode (as others here, if I remember correctly) it seems that battle sounds are also bugged - or could that be a soundcard/driver problem? Any advice is welcome.

[Fisherking]

It is tough!

It is hard to know whether to blame the machine or the game.

I was having trouble with land battles as Sturmwolf was having it with naval…funny he was navy and I was cavalry, anyway, I downloaded some new updates to my drivers. That should have fixed it, right?

No! Sadly now it does not work…I don’t mean it has a CTD…it does a complete shut down! It turns the machine off about 20 seconds to two minutes into the game. If it does not do that than it has been a video crash… It says unexpected system over heating…

The game worked better before the updated drivers! Would that I could go back now to auto resolve land battles…

But who do I blame, besides me, and how the heck do I fix it?

[Gargravarr]

It is tough!

It is hard to know whether to blame the machine or the game.

I was having trouble with land battles as Sturmwolf was having it with naval…funny he was navy and I was cavalry, anyway, I downloaded some new updates to my drivers. That should have fixed it, right?

No! Sadly now it does not work…I don’t mean it has a CTD…it does a complete shut down! It turns the machine off about 20 seconds to two minutes into the game. If it does not do that than it has been a video crash… It says unexpected system over heating…

The game worked better before the updated drivers! Would that I could go back now to auto resolve land battles…

But who do I blame, besides me, and how the heck do I fix it?

It may be that your processor heatsink needs a clean out (might even be your graphics card) they build up with dust and these days that can cause a major problem with cooling. It is also possible you processor fan has failed and that means the heat isn't removed.

I would suggest running something like Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php) or something like that to monitor temperatures (easier if you have a dual monitor setup) or opening up empire, loading the main screen and ALT-TAB out to watch speedfan. That way you can see fan speeds and temperatures in your PC while running things.

I hope this helps you. It is also possible to load older drivers. I have done this before myself. (sorry if my idea landed you in this trouble.)

[Veresov]

Well, compile a list of what caused them, recent actions, the debug and your dxdiag and email it to CA, they love user feedback. If you can help them solve the problems, you are helping yourself and others.

That is a complete waste of time. I've gone down that path and SEGA support suggested I buy a new GPU card and /or a new rig. Then I saw zillions of posts in the Technical help area - all unanswered about similar issues. What I got was a nonsensical canned reply.

I constantly read the technical help forum threads daily at .COM and I almost NEVER see anyone from CA post a reply or other any suggestions. That is a community self help group with CA visibily silent.

[Gargravarr]

And what is your rig? Does it need replacing? Is the OS clean? there are hundreds of reasons for all sorts of problems. Let me ask another question. You are sat there, in front of your computer, and the bulb over your head blows. Do you blame the electric company? Now, I am not saying that there aren't issues with the game at all BUT!! (There always is) blaming them for everything is a little harsh. Like I have said before, I have an old rig and it works perfectly fine on mine and as an engineer who has spent many years problem solving, jumping to a conclusion like you have is not beneficial at all. I mean, I could sit and complain that this game doesn't work on my second gaming rig. It won't even read the disks.. but the crucial missing piece of information is that my second gaming rig is a PS3. Any wonder it doesn't work?

[nafod]

And what is your rig? Does it need replacing? Is the OS clean? there are hundreds of reasons for all sorts of problems. Let me ask another question. You are sat there, in front of your computer, and the bulb over your head blows. Do you blame the electric company? Now, I am not saying that there aren't issues with the game at all BUT!! (There always is) blaming them for everything is a little harsh. Like I have said before, I have an old rig and it works perfectly fine on mine and as an engineer who has spent many years problem solving, jumping to a conclusion like you have is not beneficial at all. I mean, I could sit and complain that this game doesn't work on my second gaming rig. It won't even read the disks.. but the crucial missing piece of information is that my second gaming rig is a PS3. Any wonder it doesn't work?

As posted above my rig is old, needs replacing and the OS is pretty shot as I have a glut of errors on boot up, but yet experience no problems with ETW. I'm simply miffed at the problems others are having with, I presume, far superior systems.

[Gargravarr]

sorry, this was aimed at veresov and his comments. I do sympathize with people having problems (while enjoying the game and laughing I suppose:laugh4:) but feel that these comments need to be constructive to be any benefit. Also, as shown above, if I can offer advice and assistance to solve those outside of the game then so much the better. I for one have no intention of trolling or flaming in these forums I am here to gain information and to pass information to others. HOWEVER(another favorite word for these sort of things) it does get depressing with all the "this is crap" "this doesn't work" "this is a waste of money" "i can't" "not working"

even "I have this problem. Please help. Want to play and make it work." would be better the above comments make me wonder "if you had these sort of issues with other TW games like they usually say, why not go away, buy a console, and keep out of the forums for PC games!"

Sorry, it sticks in my throat a little all these negative comments.

[Veresov]

And what is your rig? Does it need replacing? Is the OS clean? there are hundreds of reasons for all sorts of problems. Let me ask another question. You are sat there, in front of your computer, and the bulb over your head blows. Do you blame the electric company? Now, I am not saying that there aren't issues with the game at all BUT!! (There always is) blaming them for everything is a little harsh. Like I have said before, I have an old rig and it works perfectly fine on mine and as an engineer who has spent many years problem solving, jumping to a conclusion like you have is not beneficial at all. I mean, I could sit and complain that this game doesn't work on my second gaming rig. It won't even read the disks.. but the crucial missing piece of information is that my second gaming rig is a PS3. Any wonder it doesn't work?

I have a dual core extreme, nvidia 8800GTX's (768) in SLI, 4 gig ram, raptor disk as 'c', 2 x 1.5TB Sata Hard drives, all driven by a silverstone 1200W power supply. It is a Cool-master case with 6 cooling fans and the system is watercooled to boot. Each graphics card has a zalman waterblock. I have temperature monitors visible at the desk level. OS = Windows XP - all updated. Drivers all current. System defragged once a week, anti-virus, malware, and antispyware programs running and updated. System scans once a week.

The OS was just reinstalled thanks to Empire's lockups. FDisk'd and reformatted last week.

I am an IT professional with over 20 years experience and this instability is due to poor software coding. I even tried installing it on a new i7 desktop system I got from Alienware week before last and it still crashes on it. I await your thoughts on what is wrong with my hardware since you are convinced thats the root cause...

[Dayve]

The problem can't be with Intel processors, i have one. I played for 8 hours today, 6 huge battles (2,000+ units on each side in each battle) and no CTD's at all. None for over 2 weeks and i play at least 4 hours every day.

[Lord of the Isles]

sorry, this was aimed at veresov and his comments. I do sympathize with people having problems (while enjoying the game and laughing I suppose:laugh4:) but feel that these comments need to be constructive to be any benefit. Also, as shown above, if I can offer advice and assistance to solve those outside of the game then so much the better. I for one have no intention of trolling or flaming in these forums I am here to gain information and to pass information to others. HOWEVER(another favorite word for these sort of things) it does get depressing with all the "this is crap" "this doesn't work" "this is a waste of money" "i can't" "not working"

even "I have this problem. Please help. Want to play and make it work." would be better the above comments make me wonder "if you had these sort of issues with other TW games like they usually say, why not go away, buy a console, and keep out of the forums for PC games!"

Sorry, it sticks in my throat a little all these negative comments.


Welcome to the Org Gargravarr.

I can sympathize with your views on negative comments to some extent. Try to ignore the extreme ones (the phrases "class action law suit", "CA has stolen my money" and "If I bought a car.." are good clues :beam: ). But remember there are unreasonable and extreme posts on both sides. Think of it this way when you get frustrated at a silly whining post: the poster has to put up with reading unreasonably extreme pro-game posts (as you do with negative ones) but in addition, unlike you, many of them can't even play the game. And they get told by some that it is their fault (which it may be in some cases but that doesn't ease the frustration any).

It is very hard to track down the causes of problems in a piece of software the size of ETW, and figure out why some of us have problems and others don't (as I suspect you know). For a start, many of us are playing different games. Some only play multiplayer, some set battles, others are still on RtI and the US campaign. Of those who play the Grand Campaign, some will play as GB all the time, other european powers, some only in India. Some use huge unit sizes, some small, some will autoresolve all battles. Some will build large trading empires, others just fight wars local to their home area, some will build huge navies, others won't. The point I'm labouring is that some bugs will only show up for some people because of their game styles.

That's before we come to the vast number of combinations of game option settings and peoples' hardware. Add that we are dealing with a game with multiple problems as released, some with similar symptoms, and ... well, I don't envy CA their current work and at least they have the source code, which we on the forums don't.

Two observations to finish with. I know all PC games are released with problems/bugs. In ETW's case, I still have confidence in CA to fix most of them but I think it pretty clear by now, 6 weeks after release, that ETW has more issues with it than most games.

And the second one is one that concerns me a little. Fans on sites like the Org are in some ways the cream of game buyers (stop preening in the corner there!). To get here you have to be clued up to a certain extent on the net and to carry out some of the workarounds that have been discovered you need a certain level of computer competence. Hell, to even install the game properly using Steam you need some skills. There are many people out there who will struggle with all this hassle over ETW. It will go back on their shelves and never be seen again, and they will be a little less likely in future to buy a PC game.

I find that sad at a time when the PC gaming industry is struggling, and it is one of the reasons I get a bit frustrated at the current state of the game.

[darrin42]

''d. Why would Prussia like to trade East Prussia for Courland? Totally senseless.''


Haha I found this funny to. I feel almost all of Empire must be scripted. The same offers always seme to be put to me, by the same Nations on the Exact same years. Depending on who I play as. Has anyone else found this? In RTW it was a different experience everytime. Would the Romans conquer France? Or would the Britans wipe out the Germans? It was random. A lot of what happens in Empire seems to be scripted. Though that would not bother me so much.


My main problem with the game is the sheer buggy-ness of it. It always crashes before I can even half finish a campaign. If this was resolved, I would be content with it.

[mmk]

My main problem with the game is the sheer buggy-ness of it. It always crashes before I can even half finish a campaign. If this was resolved, I would be content with it.

That would be a start!

[Wandarah]

Yes but why do you feel you have to post in a thread about how the game is not fine? I for one wouldn't troll that thread if i had no problems- I would be too busy playing the game

Have you made a positive post, about anything, ever? What about candy man? Do you like candy? Moonlight? A good book? What's up bro - do you need a hug?

[kitbogha]

Having looked forward to this game for what seems like forever, I am pretty disappointed. I have spent a small fortune on new (2nd hand) pc, new graphics card, extra memory etc to even get it to work. Still I get frustrating ctds every time I try and have a battle in campaign (I can manage a battle in custom though...). Big disappoitment. So much so, that I have gone back to Kingdoms. The good side of it is that with my new system, Kingdoms runs like a dream.

[Kasagi Yabu]

:skull: The Game shall remain shelved. :skull: The Frustration was beyond intolerable! !!! :wall:

IT IS DEFINITELY THE GAME ITSELF! !!! My Machine can handle ANY System/Software, and with only the Naval aspect being the culprit of CTD's, I can only assume the Program/Software Developer for CA/SEGA was ex-Army! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Amen brother. I've had four systems in my life. PII(?) pentium-120 circa 1996, P-260 circa 1998, P-III 500 circa 2000, and a PIII 360 (or is it a Pentium IV) in 2002 or so, and my new one...AND I HAVE NEVER HAD THIS MANY PROBLEMS PLAYING A GAME!!!!!, including Shogun and Medieval I.

I played the demo of Shogun back whenever. I made several mods for it including the "Brother Genko".
I loved Shogun, even with it's suicide generals and the Hojo Horde.

I played Medieval and loved it; even with its suicide generals and crappy AI. I also made MODS for the demo.

I admit, I bought Medieval II the first day it was out and played it for about 3 hours and quit. (2006?).

Four months ago, I bought a new sytem JUST TO PLAY EMPIRE TOTAL WAR. Well, to be honest, I was wanting a new one anyway and I thought just go for it. But I was lucky that I had forgotten about the developement of Empire and was exicted about playing it.


Cyberpower
Intel Core i7 920@ 2.67
Memory: 6.00 BG
System: 64-bit
Nvida GeForce 260
Not the most powerful system: but be honest; technology wise it will suck most of yours through the wall. If you haven't had any CTD's, then, god bless you. Before, when I read topic dealing with problems regarding the game, I always though, "Well, their system sucks." Well, I'm sorry for that.

CTD. CTD. CTD.That's it. I tried three campaings; Great Britian, Prussia, and Russia. It didn't mater. CTD. Old Nivida, new Nvidai drivers; didn't matter. I hope they can fix it, but as one reviewer has said, "CA has made a game it's AI can't play." So true.

[micspqr]

You are correct. The game is only bling. The battle engine is nice after you install the Darth mod. I am tired of the modder community having to make total war games into something approaching reality years after the game has come out.
Imagine my dismay when I found out that the First Nations People of North America had cannons. As I live with them I will make a point out of asking them where they have hidden their cannot foundry's of old.
I find myself really wanting The Creative Assembly to measure up to the quality of game that the modding community is capable of producing. It is however becoming quite apparrent that the only intrest they have in history is to see how much money they can make distorting it.

[Fisherking]

You are correct. The game is only bling. The battle engine is nice after you install the Darth mod. I am tired of the modder community having to make total war games into something approaching reality years after the game has come out.
Imagine my dismay when I found out that the First Nations People of North America had cannons. As I live with them I will make a point out of asking them where they have hidden their cannot foundry's of old.
I find myself really wanting The Creative Assembly to measure up to the quality of game that the modding community is capable of producing. It is however becoming quite apparrent that the only intrest they have in history is to see how much money they can make distorting it.

Welcome micspqr!

That is a wonderful city you come from.

As to the tribes having cannon, that did happen. Some even built forts and put them on the parapets.

While I don’t know of any examples of them making cannon they were certainly capable of using those they acquired. One group in particular build earthworks and withstood a French siege.

The southern tribes represented by the game by Cherokee had a gun making industry as well as blacksmithing.
It is not unreasonable to allow them to capture artillery.

With all that said, their grasp on history is quite loose at best. In some areas they are very limiting and in others very generous in what they seem to allow some factions to achieve.:smash:

[mmk]

CTD. CTD. CTD.That's it. I tried three campaings; Great Britian, Prussia, and Russia. It didn't mater. CTD. Old Nivida, new Nvidai drivers; didn't matter. I hope they can fix it, but as one reviewer has said, "CA has made a game it's AI can't play." So true.

After an estimated 12 hrs I spent on checking my machine (including tests with several Nvidia drivers and playing the game with several graphic options) and still having the odd CTDs in campaign mode, the "CA has made a game it's AI can't play." quote does not sound unreasonable to me.

[Sturmwolf]

What should have been a wonderful, interesting Game, is now forced to collect dust! !!!

My Enthusiasm is Boundless, for the next disastrous installment of the Total War series.

[abdecken5]

as one reviewer has said, "CA has made a game it's AI can't play." So true.

does anyone know who that reviewer was? I would like to read more of his thoughts

[Gargravarr]

I have a dual core extreme, nvidia 8800GTX's (768) in SLI, 4 gig ram, raptor disk as 'c', 2 x 1.5TB Sata Hard drives, all driven by a silverstone 1200W power supply. It is a Cool-master case with 6 cooling fans and the system is watercooled to boot. Each graphics card has a zalman waterblock. I have temperature monitors visible at the desk level. OS = Windows XP - all updated. Drivers all current. System defragged once a week, anti-virus, malware, and antispyware programs running and updated. System scans once a week.

The OS was just reinstalled thanks to Empire's lockups. FDisk'd and reformatted last week.

I am an IT professional with over 20 years experience and this instability is due to poor software coding. I even tried installing it on a new i7 desktop system I got from Alienware week before last and it still crashes on it. I await your thoughts on what is wrong with my hardware since you are convinced thats the root cause...

OK as an IT specialist in both hardware and software with 30+ years experience there are several things I notice. With all that watercooling are you overclocking the PC??? Otherwise you are wasting a lot of money on a waste of time there. Running 8800's in SLI has always been unreliable due to the internal coding conflicting when running two cards in parallel, especially the early 8800's like you have there. The new ones have 512 or 1gb mem, the early ones had 340 odd and 768 meg mem). You make no mention of the make of your motherboard (rather a fundamental error for an IT specialist) Are the 2 SATA disks in a raid array (another basic thing that is relevant.) If you are such a specialist you will be aware that one of the common things we both have in common (I run an AMD system, Spec Below) is the software. Mine runs OK, your's doesn't ergo, it is likely to be the system. Simple. Pure logic. (Probably wrong but good first point)

(AMD Athlon64 5600+
3Gb Corsair800 memory(2x1gb matched, 2x512mb matched)
Asus Motherboard
Earthwatts 550W PSU
BFG Geforce 9800GT(512Mb) Graphics Card
2x500Gb Sata HDD non raid,
1x250Gb Sata HDD
1x160Gb Pata HDD
1x80Gb PATA HDD(OS Drive split 30/50)
Air cooled and stock speeds (OC Starts next week)

On a final note you are rude! Truly rude. I had no idea of your background, offered freely advice and assistance to you based on my experience and you turn round and shove that back in my face. Next time I won't bother!

Oh and I only suggested it MIGHT be a hardware issue not that it WAS there is a damn big difference there. I do find it odd though that the majority of those having issues are using Intel with XP now, call me odd but that looks like a link right there

[disamen]

The thing I hate with the game is that you can't have your king in battles

2. There is regions that are to big. Example... Spain, France, Sweden, Russia region. The hole size of the Sweden region, is big as all of the poland regions. I want the regions more equal.

3. Some countries miss some units. For example Sweden: Carolines.

4. Some countries miss historicall stats.

5. I want more land. Such as south america.