Informative Screenshots (Taken from HD Trailer)

[Sir Beane]

Another thread started by Sir Beane! When will he stop??? Can he be stopped?

No. No he can't.

And now onto the juicy, delicious main topic.

In this thread I present to you information I have gleaned through years of analysis, study, and some recent work with tarot cards and a crystal ball.

Or possibly I spent some time watching promotional videos in high definition and taking screenshots? Who knows?

Anyway I present to you the information I have gathered. All screenshots were taken and edited by me (edited to remove windows media player). You could say these are exclusive

Screenshots from Vid 4/5 Road to Independance

(Vid 4/5 is first. Vid 3/5 will be next, and so on.)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Firing in ranks two men deep.

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Playable Austria. Saxony and Hannover as confirmed factions. (Look at the colour coded city or province names)

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India Map Close Up. Note the gem mine and the fort. If you look closely you can see the flags in the bottom right are those of the Maratha. It appears they are playable and not the Mughal Empire.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The diplomacy menu, Maratha again. Note that trade partners and enemies are already in place at the beginning of the game,

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Mughal Empire diplomacy screen. Provinces of India.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Colonists. Powhatan Confederacy a faction.

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Powhatan bowmen. Note the values for range and reload speed.

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The Med.

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Unit sizes and icons.

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General's Bodyguard!

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Britain Close-up.

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Screenshot from a cinematic.

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George Washington. In America.

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Closeup of the battle.

[Azlahn]

Ah, nice to see some evidence of my observation on the Maratha. I wouldn't say it makes the Mughals unplayable though. Campaign map and diplomacy certainly looks a lot more detailed and advanced than previously. Good job, Sir Beane.

[Sir Beane]

Here's the rundown on video 3/5. Personally I think this is the best video with the best info.

Screenshots from Video 3/5 The Campaign Map

Anatolia and the Holy Land.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The UK and Northern France. Not 0.9 million poulation size.

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It's the baltic!

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The best holiday spot so far covered by a Total War game. Well known for Hollywood style piracy.

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Good old blighty, land of football, binge drinking and violence related to both.

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Interesting provincial info.

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John Churchill. Unit sizes of 160.

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Line infantry apparently cost 700 gold.

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Diplomacy. Note that both factions seem to have allies in place at the beginning on the game.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

French units and the Spanish Netherlands.

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You need to declare war to enter another factions province now.

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Boston, and the Powhatan Indians (Top left) Also Moose factory.

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A zoomed ou tview of the East coast of North America.

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French ships attack Britian.

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Spain, Venice, and the flag of the Papal States.

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Goold old lists scroll. Also Spains holdings at the start of the game. Note the tooltip in the top left about ungarrisoned cities producing militia.

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It's mexico! Looking pretty deserted.

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National Summary for the UK. Note the Victory conditions

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Central Europe, with Austria in the spotlight.

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Buildings, type of building and level of building. Nice!

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Good old basic farm land.

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The cannon foundry. Essential if you want to make things that go boom.

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Poland-Lithuania.

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Unit icons and sizes.

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Different kinds of fort. Building a fort to capture a trade resource.

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Star fort.

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James Whitston. The mask means he is either a dastardly rake or an eighteenth century superhero.

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More of France.

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More of India.

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[Discoman]

Very nice work Sir Beane.

The game looks nice, I'm surprised units cost so much and have a large upkeep. I'm also surprised New York City is in the middle of the water when in reality it is much closer to the mainland as seen here.

[Thermal]

i only knew about half of that info, very interestin, please continue sir beane

[Mailman653]

Very nice work Sir Beane.

The game looks nice, I'm surprised units cost so much and have a large upkeep. I'm also surprised New York City is in the middle of the water when in reality it is much closer to the mainland as seen here.

Where is NYC? I only see Albany and it's location inland seems about right to me. I like the Confederation of NE, goes to show how "united" the 13 colonies were

Overall, excellent screenshots

[Megas Methuselah]

Nice work, Sir Beane!

However, about the two-man-deep firing line picture, they were previously marching in a long column through a narrow forest path before being ambushed at the flanks. I wouldn't exactly fall for it...

Also, most of the pics aren't working for me in your second post.

[Sir Beane]

Nice work, Sir Beane!

However, about the two-man-deep firing line picture, they were previously marching in a long column through a narrow forest path before being ambushed at the flanks. I wouldn't exactly fall for it...

Also, most of the pics aren't working for me in your second post.

I had the same problem. When I waited for a while they all appeared eventually. They are pretty high resolution so the load times can be nasty if you have a slow connection. Sorry 'bout that.

I'll get the other two videos done sometime tomorrow probably. But the further back you go the less interesting and relevant the info becomes.

If you look closely you can see how the campaign map evolved from Viedeo 3 to video 4. You can also see some placeholder text and info in the screenshots for video 3 .

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Very nice, Sir Beane. I'm curious if those Polish cavalry have lances or carbines (the ones holding what look like either). They don't have the ammunition bars that the infantry and general do - but neither do the cannons (!). I wonder if artillery will have ammunition limits (I would've thought that would be a no-brainer if infantry have them).

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Well, I'm happy that Estonia(although not an independent country ) is in the game and our capital is there too but what have happened to our 2 large islands?? Why did CA 'melted' them together with the rest of Estonia??

[Sir Beane]

Very nice, Sir Beane. I'm curious if those Polish cavalry have lances or carbines (the ones holding what look like either). They don't have the ammunition bars that the infantry and general do - but neither do the cannons (!). I wonder if artillery will have ammunition limits (I would've thought that would be a no-brainer if infantry have them).

I figured that the lack of an ammo bar simply means the unit has not yet expended any of its ammunition. Or perhaps it has expended all of it's ammunition. The first is more likely though.

Artillery will almost certainly have an ammo limit, as will all ranged units. Maybe a little higher than we have seen in previous games though. After all steel balls and powder takes up less room than arrows.

Like in all games I imagine we can turn the limits off or on at will.

[Fondor_Yards]

1. The UK and Northern France. Not 0.9 million poulation size.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

2. Diplomacy. Note that both factions seem to have allies in place at the beginning on the game.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

3. You need to declare war to enter another factions province now.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4. Boston, and the Powhatan Indians (Top left) Also Moose factory.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

5. Goold old lists scroll. Also Spains holdings at the start of the game. Note the tooltip in the top left about ungarrisoned cities producing militia.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

6. Different kinds of fort. Building a fort to capture a trade resource.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

7. James Whitston. The mask means he is either a dastardly rake or an eighteenth century superhero.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Your a glorious bastard Sir Beane. The numbers in your quote relate to my questions/comments.

1. Does Britian control Paris in this first pic? If so, interesting to note the Minimap says France still owns it, which would confirm just controlling the city doesn't give you the province.

2. Who is the faction both are at war with? It's so dam tiny it's hard to tell, but looks like the Ottomans, or less likely the Mugals.

3. Nice find. I know it really annoyed me when the AI would small 2 unit armies to wander my lands, which would cause our relations to fall and war for no dam reason.

4. Moose factory??? What?

5. Interesting new feature with the auto spawning milita that can't leave. This will make blitzing harder, no undefended cities now.

6. Hmm I wonder what the difference in forts is? The 2nd is the star fort, so what is the 1st? Maybe it allows you to get more money from that resource then the star fort, but at a cost of reduced protection? Would make it useful for core regions that won't/can't be attacked, while star forts get put on border and enemy resources.

7. What is really interesting here is the "Command on Land" part. Maybe you can have both command on land and sea?


Edit:

I figured that the lack of an ammo bar simply means the unit has not yet expended any of its ammunition. Or perhaps it has expended all of it's ammunition. The first is more likely though.

Yea but the battle hasn't even started yet, so they can't be out of ammo, nor could have the infantry used up some of theirs.

[Sir Beane]

Your a glorious bastard Sir Beane. The numbers in your quote relate to my questions/comments.

1. Does Britian control Paris in this first pic? If so, interesting to note the Minimap says France still owns it, which would confirm just controlling the city doesn't give you the province.

2. Who is the faction both are at war with? It's so dam tiny it's hard to tell, but looks like the Ottomans, or less likely the Mugals.

3. Nice find. I know it really annoyed me when the AI would small 2 unit armies to wander my lands, which would cause our relations to fall and war for no dam reason.

4. Moose factory??? What?

5. Interesting new feature with the auto spawning milita that can't leave. This will make blitzing harder, no undefended cities now.

6. Hmm I wonder what the difference in forts is? The 2nd is the star fort, so what is the 1st? Maybe it allows you to get more money from that resource then the star fort, but at a cost of reduced protection? Would make it useful for core regions that won't/can't be attacked, while star forts get put on border and enemy resources.

7. What is really interesting here is the "Command on Land" part. Maybe you can have both command on land and sea?


Edit:


Yea but the battle hasn't even started yet, so they can't be out of ammo, nor could have the infantry used up some of theirs.

1. I don't think they do, at least they shouldn't. All pics are from the start of the game so France should definitely be in control.

2. The Maratha screen shows them at war with Spain. The Mughal screen shows them at war with the Maratha. Not sure quite why that is.

3. Yeah it will be great that we won't have neutral and allied armies wandering around our lands now.

4. Moose factory? Best town name ever! Wikipedia says it's a real place to.

5. It will be interesting to see how many militia spawn and how powerful they are. I imagine it will be determined by population size and level of barracks. I also wonder if militia will still spawn even if a city is garrsioned.

6. The first fort is a basic wooden (maybe stone) fort, the second is the more expensive but sturdier star fort.

7. Since the character in question is actually an agent the command on land bit doesn't make sense. I imagine for real generals they may have both sea and land command ratings.

[Megas Methuselah]

I wish we could make more out of the militia units. I imagine it can be easily moddable, though; in the EDU, maybe?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I figured that the lack of an ammo bar simply means the unit has not yet expended any of its ammunition. Or perhaps it has expended all of it's ammunition. The first is more likely though.

Artillery will almost certainly have an ammo limit, as will all ranged units. Maybe a little higher than we have seen in previous games though. After all steel balls and powder takes up less room than arrows.

Like in all games I imagine we can turn the limits off or on at will.

I'm just suspicious because in that shot the battle was still in deployment phase, before ammo should be able to be expended...

[Sir Beane]

I'm just suspicious because in that shot the battle was still in deployment phase, before ammo should be able to be expended...

It could just be that the game was a little buggy back when the video was made. After all it still isn't finished.

That goes for anything odd looking in the videos. If it's out of place and weird it might just be a glitch of placeholder. Don't read too much into things like that.

@Methuselah

Since Empire is meant to be more moddable than previous games I imagine we should have no problem messing with the values for the militia units. If we want to make the game really hard we can set an empty city to spawn 20 units of the best militia.

It's the sort of thing perfect for realism and difficulty mods.

[pdoyle007]

If you have ammunition levels for cannons and ships will it be a certain number of shots or a certain number of each type of ammunition?

Would be interesting to run out of roundshot and be forced into closer combat with grapeshot. Or will it be a specificed number of shots and you pick how it's divided?

[maestro]

I am rather excited - no... I am wetting my pants.

Where are these videos from?

[Sir Beane]

I am rather excited - no... I am wetting my pants.

Where are these videos from?

I got them from here, for the high definition version. You can find them here as well.

[maestro]

Arr thank yea, sir

[Discoman]

Where is NYC? I only see Albany and it's location inland seems about right to me. I like the Confederation of NE, goes to show how "united" the 13 colonies were

Well the city isn't shown (Or in the Campaign for that matter), but you can see the port. I'm presuming the picture is of the main campaign considering the year is 1700 and looks very much like the starting map. I'm sure New York, among other cities, will spring up in the Road to Revolution campaign.

[Sir Beane]

Due to some unexpected work popping up I won't be able to post shots from vid 2/5 and 1/5 until some time tomorrow. Sorry for the delay guys.

[sassbarman]

I like the new smaller battlefield field u.i. in the pics it seems to be a nice blend between minimal and standard u.i.

[Martok]

If you have ammunition levels for cannons and ships will it be a certain number of shots or a certain number of each type of ammunition?

Would be interesting to run out of roundshot and be forced into closer combat with grapeshot. Or will it be a specificed number of shots and you pick how it's divided?

I've been wondering about this as well. I'm quite curious to see how CA has addressed the issue.

[pdoyle007]

Technically on land there wouldn't be as much of an issue. Ammunition limbers could be shared so if a cannon was destroyed, or self-destructed (which apparently can happen) the remaining ammunition could be shared out - that is how I would get round any potential issue.

At sea I would presume that what you start with is all you get (similar to archers in previous games). I would welcome the idea that during a prolonged fight you may have to change your tactics because of a lack of ammunition, ultimately meaning a ship that is totally out has to try and board a ship that can still fire on them

[CBR]

I really doubt captains in this era ever worried about running out of ammo during a battle. It would take some pretty long(-range) fights to not to be decisive before running out.

Even in land battles infantry would run out a lot faster than artillery as they had less ammo and took less time to reload. If CA has decided not to worry about ammo for artillery at all I certainly don't blame them.


CBR

[ConnMon]

Did catapults and trebuchets and such run out of ammo in M2TW? That's how I think they would have the ammo system done. I never had sieges that were long enough that my siege stuff ran out of ammo. Also, will riflemen run out of ammo like archers? Because then I'll definetely invest in bayonets.

[Sir Beane]

Did catapults and trebuchets and such run out of ammo in M2TW? That's how I think they would have the ammo system done. I never had sieges that were long enough that my siege stuff ran out of ammo. Also, will riflemen run out of ammo like archers? Because then I'll definetely invest in bayonets.

I have had catapults and other seige equipment run out in Medieval 2, but only because I was using it to try and snipe as many enemy soldiers as possible before attemting to take the walls.

Musket and rifle armed troops will almost certainly run out of ammo at some point. I'm not so sure about artillery.

[Caius]

I couldnt see any image, it says 'bandwidth excedded'

[Sir Beane]

I couldnt see any image, it says 'bandwidth excedded'

Unfortunately I think everyone is having that same problem now. Photobucket is free, and I've obviously used up whatever limit it set for bandwidth. Unless I actually pay to upgrade my membership there isn't really a lot I can do about this.

Suggestions are welcome, if anyone thinks they have a solution?