Yes they are. No more "home free" once your trade ships are on the trade spot.Quote:
Originally Posted by anweRU
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Yes they are. No more "home free" once your trade ships are on the trade spot.Quote:
Originally Posted by anweRU
yep! I've had to "re-calibrate" my UP starting strategy... fewer galleons though in the starting pirate fleets. phew!
I'm getting absolutely pawned on the trade nodes. Pirates and other nations are trashing anything they can reasonably handle, either en route or on the trade nodes themselves.
I'm scrambling to introduce an escort system!! :2thumbsup:
Yea on my new Prussian campaign, I was forced to re-route trade ships from Africa to South America, where apparently someone's navy sank the Pirate fleet.
On my new British campaign however, my frigates are going to town on those galleons :2thumbsup:
Am i going crazy or do pirate fleets respawn in the trade theatres?
I just cleared the starting fleet of Xebecs and a 5th rate and 2 turns later, a fleet of 2 Fluyts and a brig or two just appeared! ouch!
The er, "Pirates of the Carribean" seem a bit nerfed though. Their recruitment seems more consistent with the low budget you'd get from thsoe two islands. Not really got past 1706 yet though!
I'm playing on H and bloody hell if it doesn't seem like I am playing on hard... so far so good for v1.3 :2thumbsup:
The pirates spawn a galleon or fluyt (Over powered in their own regard) every few turns, and bunch them together in massive fleets.
Uhh.....
This post is a mirror image of one of my other ones, but I don't care. Pirates need to be nerfed. They should at most, have a sixth rate, and not an entire fleet of them. Frankly, as Venice, I had to use all my naval bases to make third-rates in order to defeat that massive stack of galleons in the strait of Madagascar.
They're building them on the caribbean islands, grouping them up, and sending fleets into the trade theatres. I've seen them do it. Unless you have a fleet parked over by their islands you won't notice it.Quote:
Originally Posted by alh_p
You know what would be more realistic (but A LOT more annoying), is rather than grouping up in huge fleets, Pirates should group in 2's and 3's and spread all over the map, raiding ports and indiamen. Man, that'd almost force you to build a squadron of frigates to deal with that.
That wouldn't be bad, but I like how they provide nice naval battles as it is already.
And I don't find galleons and fluyts overpowered at all, the galleons are designated as warships with a little trade capability, which doesn't even pay for their own upkeep though from what I've seen.
I haven't had any big problems dealing with them once I got access to third rates and above, you can get a drydock relatively early if they bother you that much. :shrug:
The entire point is that you need to group Galleons and Fluyts with indiamen for protection. I'm not complaining that pirates are kicking my ass in trade theaters as I am Prussia, but when I chose to retreat, my fleet sank immidietly and another time I reatreated but portuguese ships on the node next to me blocked my escape route and pirates attacked again... :D
Zark, If you're blockading or I guess on a trade spot & want to run, fight, (retreat in these situations always seem to mean fleet loss), run your ships to the edge of the battle map & hit retreat, you will get to keep your fleet. Also doesn't take as long as it sounds.
Not really Prodigal - even if you withdraw/flee that way, your ships often just end of completely lost (usually when they already withdrew once and its their second engagement) Doesn't happen to land armies on the other hand.
Yep, I'm afraid I've tried what prodigal said and it doesn't work for me. After the first retreat of a given fleet in a turn, any further engagement int hat turn that you don't win results in your fleet being completely lost.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Whats the trade income like when balanced with maintaining the fleets to protect the trade spots?
That's very difficult to say given the variability of trade profitability. Remember you've got factors such as quantity of supply, price of goods, number of trade partners and importantly, their population and level of development/enlightenment.
The easiest thing to do is a turn by turn analysis of how much trade is costing you (upkeep of trade ships & escort) and how much you are making from specific goods (harder), or trade as a whole (easier).
Well, when you hover the mouse over a certain ware in the trade screen, it shows you how many units you get and how much they're worth at the currenty market price, if that value is considerably lower than what your trading fleet in the respective theater costs, I'd say you're not really earning a lot with that fleet, unless you could somehow sell more units of that ware than the ships ship to your homeland.
With galleons and fluyts only you'd probably make a big deficit while indiamen generate some nice profit, usually I'd put two to four of the former and four or more of the latter onto a trade spot, too many of them and the market price goes down too much I guess but I haven't experienced that much with it either.
Based on that I would think that; when assessing cost and time of producing trade and escort fleets, balancing against the loss of early invetsment in other economic infrastructure, probably means that trade spots come to be profitable mid to late game with the rises in population and tech.
Do the trade spots cause DoW with AI factions, just wondering whether they are a general killing zone or mainly conflict there is with pirates and conflict drops once they are knocked out? Just wondered whether it is better to focus on dominating one arena or spread across the theatres to reduce the effect of over-supply.
Guess if it is combat heavy it can be profitable in prize money if nothing else.
I have not got DoWs for trade spots but other factions attacked me like Prussia and the Maratha. It seems though that neither the pirates not the other factions seem to refill their depleated fleets and thus the fleets will wear down with time, thought the pirates will send in new ones. So if you want trade your first step should be definitely capturing the pirate islands on the Carribean.Quote:
Originally Posted by Luddite
Its too bad you can't bribe the pirates to attack your opponents instead and vice versa.
Okay, newest update!
Quote:
June 29th:
First, apologies for the delay in updates. With the release of the recent patch, the PDLC and the work that's currently going into the hotfix, it's been rather busy here.
On that note the hotfix to fix the game crash caused by the asynchronous sound issue for a few of you is currently in beta testing and we hope to have it out shortly.
Providing all goes well with it, we can then look to our next patch.
Kind regards,
Kieran
I wonder if it would be possible to implement a system like in Sins of a Solar Empire where you can put bounties on your enemies ships...Quote:
Originally Posted by antisocialmunky
Hmm hope that sound problem is the same as the problem I'm curently having
Here is the update for today.
Quote:
June 30th:
Technical fixes are ongoing today, and we're looking at the list of priorities for the next patch. It looks like it will be a big one, but more on that as it develops.
Today I'd like to share a short story about the multiplayer campaign Sensei and I are currently fighting.
We started as Prussia and the United Provinces, with Sensei playing the Dutch, world power.
We initially built a strong network of trade and alliances, however this soon dragged the Dutch into trouble. Several of their allies declared war on one another and bitter recriminations at lost agreements ensued. As the tiny state of Prussia I was intent on building good relations with my neighbours and focussing on a strong economy in order to build the mighty Prussian war machine to its zenith, before unleashing it into Europe.
A combination of pirates and Barbary raids soon began to take their toll on Sensei's Dutch fleets and we were left with little in the way of Naval power. In this weakened position the Swedish, who had conquered much of what was Danish territory undertook a daring raid against Senseis remaining fleets. Sinking a small contingent of trade ships bound for the indies was a declaration of war.
Pulled into a fight with an enemy so close, I provided Pruissian military might whilst the Dutch fleets efectively blockaded the Swedes channel and disrupted their trade income. After a combination of a swift land grab and such income destruction the Swedes sued for peace and the first co-operative war for us was over.
Our economioes began to grow and neighbouring nations eyed us with greed.
Bearly two years later the Austrians declared war on Prussia and moved a massive army to the outskirts of Brandenburg. I managed to hold the Austrians off, but was left with little more than a garrison force in my capital region. Sensei dilligently signed an access agreement with money I sent him and marched an army via Saxony into Austrian territory.
As I surged forth to beat back the Austrians side by side with the Dutch forces, we rode out onto the battleifeld against their cities together. A glorious day as Dutch cannons pounded the walls of the Austrian defences and Prussian troops flooded the gap to engage the Austrians in brutal hand to hand combat, their most beloved method of fighting.
Fresh from our victory over the Austrian city, we felt a chance of demanding peace. Our war effort was overstretched and economies suffering badly.
In a heartbeat Courland invaded from my north east and sent a massive force into Eastern Prussia.
Stretched thin in the south against the Austrians, Great Britain broke its alliance and trade agreements with both the Dutch and my own, Prussian, forces. Within moments it had begun sinking the remaining Dutch fleets and blockading Amsterdams port.
With Eatern Prussia in reach of aggressive Courland, Great Britain at war with the Dutch at sea and a resurgent Austria on our southern doorstep our campaign is in a very fragile place...
For those of you who will find such a tale interesting but not of merit for a daily update, we located and fixed a CTD on startup as a result of this and made improvements to the battle loading handling and have also identified an issue with battles causing de-synching, so the storytelling serves a purpose!
Kind regards,
Kieran
I sincerely hope "big patch" doesn't mean a month or more before we see it. The Black Knight routine with the AI factions has pretty much killed my enjoyment of the game for now.
lol... black knight routine...i love it.
I hope this hotfix comes very soon. Atm I can't play ETW longer than 5 minutes before it crashes, my screen turns black and the sound begins hanging.
Hmm, sounds like the usual rabid AI.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fisherking
:laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur
That's a great way to express it. :2thumbsup:
Definetly, thats deserving of a :balloon2:
I have to say that watching that video for the first time in awhile and thinking of the black knight as the AI... you really cannot see it as anything but the AI against the player! lol, utterly hilarious and so true to fact (you've lost both your arms! Thats just a flesh wound... come on you pansy!) that it should definetly be called the Black Knight Routine!
on the latest update... are we playing the same game? it sounds so exciting there! not to mention an AI suing for peace?? lol I don't believe I've had my economy be stretched (to go in the red, then again don't play on vh) or lost my fleets intentionally (don't know whether I'm exploiting sea battles or just being smart) but if great britain had decided to ally with austria against both of holland and prussia because it seemed a better deal then okay, but it does sound a bit black knightish atm
Today two updates
Quote:
1 July:
Dear All,
A small update today, one of the more impactful fixes that went in was the AI now has the ability to properly garrison blockaded ports. Therefore on the campaign map when the AI has a port seized by an enemy it will now move troops in to push out enemy ships.
A behaviour that was too rare before.
Kind regards,
Kieran
1st July:
Hi guys,
A hotfix will be released later this evening for Empire: Total War that fixes the following:
•Land Battles - Fixed exit crash which could occur when grouping/ungrouping
•Grand Campaign - Settlement battle - Fixed instances of invisible deployable defenses
Thanks,
Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)
Eh, invisible defences are on field battles too, not just settlement battles....
In fact, the artillery emplacements are invisible too
Well, it's nice they fixed the invisible cavalryslaughtering sticks of terror, but what about the psychotic AI and massive penalty for even the slightest breach of any treaty, ever?
EDIT:
I think those would be far more 'impactful' than the AI garrisoning ports. Frankly, I have to sit through the 'tug of war' between two factions garrisoning/raiding a port way too much.
That's it, hotfix wise? My campaign CTDs to a halt all of a sudden.
Sure hope the next patch to fix isn't 2 months away, as it's completely pointless to play if the game grinds to a halt again. They seemed to have had this fixed in 1.2, what happened?! Hopefully a few more hotfixes get deployed along the way. That was the whole upside of going with Steam in the first place.
Well that massive penalty applies in some interesting instances, not always. For example, I (France) decided to side with my protectorate (Wurtenberg) when my ally (Spain) attacked it. The next thing I noticed: I got HUGE -200 relationships with every Western faction INCLUDING my protectorate I was defending...Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheogorath
Definitely, seems like some faulty logic implemented here, especially that latter part.
I reloaded the game and instead of siding with my protectorate, I sided with Spain (the aggressor). There was no global penalty (none whatsoever) in that case... The only penalty was that my former protectorate started hating me.
It seems, the game considers 'protectorate' alliances differently than regular alliances, valuing the latter more.
Yes and that's what is fixed.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Quote:
Originally Posted by TB666
:book:Quote:
Originally Posted by CA
No that is not quite it. I had a huge penalty for siding with the Dutch rather then Hanover. Now every single European faction is hostile toward me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slaists
This may have sounded like a good idea when it was thought up but the implementation leaves a great deal to be desired.
When two allies go to war you are in a loose/loose situation. Some times I think the game goes looking for your allies and protectorates just to cause those situations.
It needs changed ASAP and so does the “Monty Python’s Black Knight” AI.
The only way to off set any of the penalties is with the state gift which has a max of 100 points and not other gifts or considerations have any impact at all.
The AI no longer asks for peace nor will it except it. This is exactly counter to what some of the CA staff posted in the updates.
Fine! they fix some stuff and then go and totally foul up things that should be easy!
What is it all about? :wall:
considering that it's either fort battles or field battles, which do you think it is ??Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Was Hannover your protectorate? The case I described involved my protectorate and my ally attacking my protectorate. When I sided with the protectorate I got -200 to my relationships with all of Europe (including the protectorate I was trying to protect). When I reloaded the game and sided with the aggressor, I got no "diplo-hit" whatsoever... So, either this is an inconsistently implemented feature, or CA considers "protectorate alliances" inferior to "regular alliances"... Of course, this is not documented so we have to learn about it "the hard way". My "hardship" was to replay a long battle that preceded the Spanish DOW on my protectorate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fisherking
Playing on VH I have had AI accept ceasefire several times. I did not offer much in exchange neither: just returned a province, or paid some (1000 or two) cash or, in several instances', just offered ceasefire right after having trashed the AI in a battle or taken a province from them. True, it does not seem to work always. Some factions seem to be in a 'berserk' mode and would accept no peace, no matter what. Maybe it's due to randomly generated 'province psychological profiles'. Not sure they are in ETW, but they were present in the previous TW games.
Just had a field battle against the Brits. The British light infantry deployed stakes who were visible on the battle map
Does anyone know if a hotfix requires a new game to get the changes in?
Yes. No. The update was downloaded while playing the game. I noticed that my game was updated and that the fix worked because the stakes were visible during a battle.Quote:
Originally Posted by AussieGiant
So that's a "no", it doesn't require a new game to take affect?Quote:
Originally Posted by Monsieur Alphonse
Doesn't seem to
http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/srepl...ly-Update.htmlQuote:
1st July:
Hi guys,
A hotfix will be released later this evening for Empire: Total War that fixes the following:
Land Battles - Fixed exit crash which could occur when grouping/ungrouping Grand Campaign - Settlement battle - Fixed instances of invisible deployable defenses Thanks,
Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)
Indeed. You don't have to start a new game.Quote:
Originally Posted by AussieGiant
Excellent!!
My problem wasn't solved by the hotfix :no:
Well here is today’s new update. It explains a bit...
Quote:
2nd July:
Dear all,
Todays update concerns the 'fast forward' problem that several people have reported. Hopefully this information will give you some background as to whats occuring and why.
With the introduction of multi-threading in battles the game logic and the display of the game now updated simultaneously. This has had an effect on the time speed up. Previously on 4x speed the game logic would do 4 logic updates before the display would render a single frame, meaning movement of the camera and animation became jerky.
With multi-threading this logic speed up occurs whilst the display is still rendering, the advantage of this is that the camera moves smoothly, so you can survey the battlefield whilst the game is running faster, the downside is that the logic must sync with the display every update, meaning that your display frame rate effects the amount of speed-up and that running with 4x speed-up with multi-threading on may result in a battle lasting longer than with multi-threading turned off, even though your frame rate may be (significantly) higher.
You're still in fast forward, but it's tied to a different maximum meaning in some cases this may appear or actually be slightly slower.
Hope this sheds some light on the issue.
Kind regards,
Kieran
wait what? I am not sure I get this. All I know is that when I click fast forward the game goes at EXACTLY the same rate, there is no speed up what-so ever...... :dizzy2:
I am not a computer expert at all, could someone explain this to me?
Here's as I understand it.
It used to be that if you fast forwarded the game for every time the game updated your screen (your FPS) the game would make it's calculations as if four screen updates took place. So for four moments of game calculation it can draw one screen. So a total of 5 tasks on the CPU.
With the multi-threading, the game calculations and drawing the screen are now linked together to make them more efficient in normal play. But a side effect is that you can't have one without the other. So if you want four moments of game calculations, the game now has to draw four screens too. That's 8 tasks the CPU for the same length of time that previously need 5. If that's too much for your computer too handle, the game has to slow down the action, resulting in little or no acceleration.
Basically, the multi-threading means the game can no longer "cut corners" by dropping screen updates in favour of game updates.
thanks that makes sense.....
stills annoying when you have to sit and watch your 4th rate chase after a sloop and you cant fast forward.
So...basically they're ignoring the AI and diplomacy issues?
AI campaign is probably considered 'game balance' there fore not important for them to look at until theyve fixed crashes and the like, so itll probably be fixed last if they think it needs fixing at all.
Yes, that's exactly what they said. Posting a fix for one problem definitely means that they arent going to fix any other problems. I can't see any other way that this could be interpreted. :dizzy2:Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheogorath
Thats's how it certainly went for M2TW
Oh, were there hotfixes for M2?Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
No, but hot fixes seem now to be used to clear up bugs created by new patches.Quote:
Originally Posted by Daveybaby
I'd be happy to download patches and not run through Steam if it meant not having to play with so many glitches and bugs. That's not an actual trade off though, so I don't think waving hot fixes around like a flag is much use. IMO.
Apologies if that seems a little blunt.
Has ANYBODY seen/had a sea invasion since the patch?
Does anyone know what was changed for the Russian Line Infantry in the patch?
They were supposed to be improved to bring into line with other factions, but the stats seem the same to me so far. Accuracy is still less (35) than others (40-45) and nothing else seems to stand out to me.
They have a higher mêlée (attack) and charge value.Quote:
Originally Posted by webadr31
Yes, as Prussia the British landed nearby.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prodigal
Ta, started to freak after reading the update muse, (can anyone at CA spell M-E-M-O-R-Y L-E-A-K), then realised that I hadn't seen one invasion since the patch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Quickening
Yup. Seems much more frequent this time. Not having seen a single one in a campaign and a half in 1.2, I'm now frequently seeing fleets with troops on them travel to and fro. Only saw three landings as I obviously don't have eyes everywhere so can't be sure what most of those loaded fleets eventually get up to.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prodigal
But I reckon naval invasions are about where they should be now.
Today's update is from Jack Lusted
Quote:
3rd July:
Hi everyone,
Several topics on the forums have been issues related to sieges and battles in general. With 1.3, the battle programmers were hard at work on the multi-threading which resulted in the big performance gains many of you have seen. With 1.3 out, the battle programmers are now focused on fixing bugs and improving battle AI and siege AI in particular. There have already been improvements made to siege pathfinding, use of ropes, how the AI approaches the walls and attacks the centre. The battle programmers are also working hard on other priority issues in battles, and you'll hear more about those as they are fixed.
Not personally, but in one of my campaigns the British have taken over Tripoli.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prodigal
Quote:
Originally Posted by webadr31
I've noticed that, unlike all other factions as far as I know, Russian line infantry still use the militia marching/idle animations. :inquisitive:Quote:
Originally Posted by Monsieur Alphonse
Russian line are more or less the same but other line had their accuracy reduced.
Seems it's best not to ally with or become a protector of any nation. The AI seems to deliberately pit one of your allies against the other just to screw you, no matter whether that war makes any strategic sense or if they have a common border. My carefully crafted alliance with Sweden & UP in my Prussian campaign has just blown up in my face, and the huge negative diplomacy penalty with the other factions on the continent, some of whom should be happy that I've sided with one or the other, have cancelled most all of my trade agreements and totally borked my campaign. Doesn't matter if I reload and chose option B to see if there's a better outcome to allow me to continue. This campaign is dead and stinking.:wall:
Yes, I was coming to that conclusion even before 1.3. Is there a penalty to cancelling an alliance in peacetime? As I am tempted to do that on turn 1 and revel in splendid isolation. (Well, maybe keeping ONE ally or protectorate...)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hosakawa Tito
It's a shame, as standing by your allies or using alliances to maintain a balance of power are much more appealing to me than going it alone and conquering the world.
Back on the June 3rd update, the mention was on cahnged effects for governments. What it doesn't mention is something I just noticed with AM:
Supposedly (!) early buildings are cheaper with AM. No idea if thats true or not tho. Anyone got stats?
I've stopped making alliance since my ally France (I was spain) declared war on me and didn't when i reloaded and cancelled the alliance. :inquisitive:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hosakawa Tito
It's not like I'd even need allies in the first place and when they're likely to declare war on you anyway that makes them even more useless. :shrug:
Britain took Paris in my game, then I took it and gave it back to France lol!
http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/reply...l#reply-775700Quote:
7th July:
A new fix is going to the beta group tonight which should fix the hang in the menu, possibly caused by audio/hard drive issues. If we get the all clear on this one we can roll it out in good time.
We're also looking to future PDLC items and potential packages.
As per Jack's post above all other major issues, naval invasions and siege AI are receiving ongoing attention.
There will be a next patch, and we're currently planning our list of 'achievables' for it.
Kind regards,
Kieran
That'll be another 2 months before the next patch then...
"There will be a next patch..."
Hmm I think most of us assumed that went without saying. The fact that it has to be stated worries me slightly.
Yup, quite worrysome indeed... Given, the game is nowhere near complete (yet).Quote:
Originally Posted by Quickening
Or he simply stated it because some people assume that they will stop supporting the game.
So they're fixing the naval and siege AI, but not the strategic AI.
:wall:
The Campaign AI is much more important at this stage than the siege and naval AI. It leaves the most to be desired.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheogorath
It is now nearly imposable to get a peace settlement of any kind from the game. AI factions still remain at war for the whole game or until eliminated. Diplomatic Status still counts for nothing. Some of the diplomatic penalties are outrageous. The game does not consist of 50 or so AI factions. There is the Game vs. the player and the rest is just window dressing. The factions don't really play the game the AI god is just out to screw the player and makes use of the factions, both friendly, hostile, and neutral to hinder the player. It is all rather ludicrous.
For crying out loud, if two countries are still at war after 15 years someone should be looking for a way out of it! Five years of war is a very long time. And countries only excepting death to peace is utterly foolish. Every single faction except the pirates should be seeking peace before they are totally wiped out!
Have you tried Imperial Splendor? The modder has done pretty good job with the CAI. I don't like his unit changes though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fisherking
As Prussia I was just attacked by an army belonging to Poland Lithania at a city. Aside from the fact that the battle ran like treacle when it really shouldn't, and that even on fast forward I sat there bored for fifteen minutes waiting for the enemy to arrive, they all just huddled round a corner of my fort and lamely tried to climb the walls.
Victory was inevitable of course, but it would require me sitting there for about an hour until enough of them had died to convince them that their approach was stupid and they should probably just run away. What's the point of this? Despite the fact that I think Empire is a massive step in the right direction in terms of the campaign map, it really does suck hard in a lot of respects. Moreso than Medieval 2 ever did.
Edit: Just to clarify the treacle bit, I can have two gigantic armies ranged against each other and the game will run perfectly but as soon as buildings come into play, even if it's a handful of units fighting, the game just crumbles for some reason. I don't know if it's connected to the glitch that causes the buildings to flash.
I have to say the major problem with sieges is that the enemy doesn't let me range them at all, they just send all their units to scale the walls, they run around the sides and climb up the walls and then run to the flag in the middle, Now I don't know how else the enemy should go about it but it means your fighting off his units one at a time and there must be a more efficient way for the AI to attack and win, theres only so much you can do against a fort but yea, I wanna be able to pound him with alot of mortars before he attacks :P ruins my fun just rushing everytime, and then sometimes the artillery won't do anything and sometimes he won't do anything except shoot his artillery at the indestructable parts of your fort... it certainly can be improved.