Steam FAQ's now on website

[ToeAndno]

Those who have ordered the game on Steam should find this answers their basic questions:

totalwar.com/empire/gameinfo/faq.php

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

# Release Dates and Activation Times
If you have purchased Empire as a digital download...
You will be able to activate your digital copy and play Empire on Tuesday 3rd March from 18:00 CET / 09:00 PST. Pre-load will begin 48 hours prior to this time and date, where available.
If you have purchased a boxed copy...
You will be able to activate your boxed copy of Empire and play on Wednesday 4th March.

# When & where do these units appear in the game? (Single player)

* 3 pre order units
o USS Constitution: this unit is available when playing as the USA and your technology has sufficiently advanced. It may also be captured by opposing factions.
o Death’s Head Hussars: this unit is available when playing as Prussia and your technology has sufficiently advanced. Prussia must also hold Brandenburg.
o Dahomey Amazons: this unit is available when holding territory in North Africa.
* 6 special forces units
o Bulkeley’s Regiment: this unit is available when playing as France and/or controlling Ireland.
o Ghoorkas: this unit is available when controlling the Kashmir territory provided the territory requirements are met.
o Corso Terrestre Guerillas: this unit is available when playing as Spain and your technology has sufficiently advanced.
o HMS Victory: this unit is available when playing as Britain and your technology has sufficiently advanced. It may also be captured by opposing factions.
o Ottoman Organ Gun: this unit is available when playing as the Ottoman Empire and your technology has sufficiently advanced.
o Rogers Rangers: this unit is available in American theatre when playing as Britain and your technology has sufficiently advanced.

# When & where do these units appear in the game? (Multiplayer and single player battle modes)

As long as you have properly unlocked these exclusive units through Steam, they will be available in multiplayer and single player battle modes when playing with the appropriate factions.

What???

[KozaK13]

So if i buy empire the game in the box, i cannot play empire at all without activation on steam?

[Barkhorn1x]

So if i buy empire the game in the box, i cannot play empire at all without activation on steam?

Correct.

[KozaK13]

Thats abit stupid..what of any people who buy the game but have no interent? or the many who won't understand steam? Seems they are cutting out a chunk of the market...surely single player you wont need activation for?

[Belgolas]

Thats abit stupid..what of any people who buy the game but have no interent? or the many who won't understand steam? Seems they are cutting out a chunk of the market...surely single player you wont need activation for?

This is the future of PC gaming. Either people adapt or they will fall behind. Plan and simple.

It is a one time activation so you should be able to get internet at least once.

[Lusitani]

Thats abit stupid..what of any people who buy the game but have no interent? or the many who won't understand steam? Seems they are cutting out a chunk of the market...surely single player you wont need activation for?

Thats actually making me have second doubts on this....its really annoying to be "forced" to do something.

Back to Arche Seleucheia i guess... lol


V.

[Belgolas]

Oh if you can't unerdstand how to run steam then you can't understand how to run a computer.

[Sir Beane]

By choosing to release the game only on PC CA are cutting out console users. By choosing to give the game high graphics they are cutting out those without a powerful PC. By charging £35 for the game they are cutting out those who cannot afford to buy luxuries. The game will be on a DVD, cutting out those who own a CD player only. They have made a series of decisions that cut out certain parts of the market, and they probably know exactly who their target audience is and how to get the game to them.

At this point not having any access to internet at all is rare. It sucks, but if you are unable or unwilling to get internet access then you'll find that more and more games and programs will cut you out.

The army of technology marches on gentlemen, you have to struggle to keep up with it or be left behind for the vultures of obsolescence.

And I have to agree with Belgolas. If you cannot understand how to use Steam then you are going to struggle with a computer, let alone Empire. I doubt you'd be posting on these forums either.

While I don't necessarily agree wit CA's decision to make an internet connection mandatory, I do understand it.

[Merak]

and there are DRM:s that need to be on internet every 10 days or it will not funktion and thus you can not play the game. so steam seem like a better solution

[Sir Beane]

and there are DRM:s that need to be on internet every 10 days or it will not funktion and thus you can not play the game. so steam seem like a better solution

Don't go down the DRM discussion route . It's a dark path and at the end lies only despair and sadness.

That goes for everyone posting in this thread. Keep the discussion relevant to Steam only, discussing DRM and similar issues is not allowed (in this paticular forum at least).

DRM keeps popping up and every time it does we have flaming, falling out and circular arguments with no clear end in sight. If you need to vent about it do so in the Backroom.

Thank you, and we now return you to your regular discussion.

[Merak]

o sorry did not reallice i did go down the dark path of the force (eh i meant rules) sorry i can edit it out if you want to it does not matter to me..

and on topic it does not matter to me i i purchase the game on dvd and get to play it 1 day later then those on steam. they need one big incentive downloading 15 gb at the same time everyone else is doing it. :)

[Sir Beane]

o sorry did not reallice i did go down the dark path of the force (eh i meant rules) sorry i can edit it out if you want to it does not matter to me..

and on topic it does not matter to me i i purchase the game on dvd and get to play it 1 day later then those on steam. they need one big incentive downloading 15 gb at the same time everyone else is doing it. :)

Don't worry about it, it was just a friendly warning to try and stop trouble before it starts.

[Husar]

Thats actually making me have second doubts on this....its really annoying to be "forced" to do something.

Yes, you may have to move on from your 486 CPU with 4MB of RAM and your 500MB HDD, it's unbelievable.

[pevergreen]

Oh don't go down that route Husar, my High School IT teacher (finished last year) kept going on about he was the first person in Australia to set up the internet, and how his awesome computer had, get this, 16kb OF RAM. WOW.

[Ituralde]

You know the more I read about those Special Units the less I like the whole concept. They should have just thrown those units in and be done with it. I can only imagine what a nightmare multiplayer will be. You just want to have a jolly good sea fight and suddenly have to face off against five USS Constitutions, or ten HMS Victories with no way of ever being able to field them yourself. The same goes for the land battles where the system will be more skewed.

I've made up my mind and I don't like this "Special Unit" system one bit. There's no place for something like this in a Strategy Game. Imagine Starcraft 2 shipping with special units if you preorder it.

[Fisherking]

There are lots of special units in the game...

The ones from SF are extra...

[Ituralde]

Well, call them "Extra Units" then, it remains the same thing. Although it's good to hear that there are Special Units in the game aside from the Extra Units.

[Lusitani]

Yes, you may have to move on from your 486 CPU with 4MB of RAM and your 500MB HDD, it's unbelievable.

The point is...if i pay 50 euros for something (not the end of the world but...thats money, for me anyway) I expect to get the "finnished" product when i purchase it. Its not the lack of internet connection that worries me or anything (even the african hell hole i am in has it....otherwise i wouldnt be writting this), its the principle of having to subscribe this or that to use a product i bought.


V.

[Crazed Rabbit]

As long as you have properly unlocked these exclusive units through Steam, they will be available in multiplayer and single player battle modes when playing with the appropriate factions.

What???

Yeah, that's a real **** move.

CR

[Zenicetus]

This is the future of PC gaming. Either people adapt or they will fall behind. Plan and simple.

There's an alternative to "falling behind." People aren't forced to buy the game. Those bothered by this sort of thing will simply go to another company that offers games with less hassle. If enough people do that, then the game companies will have to adapt, or go out of business. Plain and simple.

I'm taking a position between the extremes of blind acceptance and total avoidance. If a game is really good, I might put up with invasive and insulting DRM. But it has to be that good. It means I won't pre-order a game like Empire without seeing a ton of user feedback first, and that's something I wouldn't have done in the past. It would have been a no-brainer to buy the game on release, based on reputation of the game content, not the DRM wrapper around it.

[Zenicetus]

You know the more I read about those Special Units the less I like the whole concept. They should have just thrown those units in and be done with it. I can only imagine what a nightmare multiplayer will be. You just want to have a jolly good sea fight and suddenly have to face off against five USS Constitutions, or ten HMS Victories with no way of ever being able to field them yourself. The same goes for the land battles where the system will be more skewed.

There's something I've never understood about this crazy mix of special units. Aside from multiplayer issues, how can the game be balanced so the AI plays a challenging campaign both with, and without the addition of these units? If the special units are powerful enough to be worth having (and not just eye candy), then it will tilt the balance of power in a certain direction, and the campaign will play out differently than a vanilla game without the units.

I'm used to seeing strategy games that add extra units, usually in an expansion, but it's done in a way where all players (and AI factions) get the new units and the game remains balanced. It just seems wacky to have all these different permutations and expect the game to be as well-balanced as the vanilla version, unless they're just eye candy that doesn't affect the game.

If this has already been discussed somewhere else, please point me to the thread so this one doesn't get derailed.

[Fondor_Yards]

# When & where do these units appear in the game? (Multiplayer and single player battle modes)

As long as you have properly unlocked these exclusive units through Steam, they will be available in multiplayer and single player battle modes when playing with the appropriate factions.

What???

What indeed. Isn't this counter to the last several months of them saying the 'elite' units WON'T be available for multiplayer?

After a little checking, it seems this isn't breaking news.

Blah

[scipiosgoblin]

There's something I've never understood about this crazy mix of special units. Aside from multiplayer issues, how can the game be balanced so the AI plays a challenging campaign both with, and without the addition of these units? If the special units are powerful enough to be worth having (and not just eye candy), then it will tilt the balance of power in a certain direction, and the campaign will play out differently than a vanilla game without the units.

First, I don't agree with CA providing special units to only a few factions in the Special Forces edition. I think it is a marketing gimmick that is quite obviously having the result of annoying a lot of gamers.

However, I don't think these units will be that dominant in the game. I don't think they will be uber-units that can destroy stacks by themselves. I think that they will be slightly better than the unit that they are based on. For example USS Constitution is based probably on the 4th Rate. It will be slightly stronger / more experienced than the generic 4th Rate. It will still get blasted by a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Rate since it is not a ship of the line.

I would have preferred CA to give each faction a unique unit. I don't think these units will tip gameplay balance all that much though.

SG

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I suspect what will happen is there will be a small but noticeable number of people who will run around with only the special edition units, which will prompt "no specials" matches (either through modding or just naturally through the community).

So while I don't like the idea, I think the community will be able to deal with it (as long as the multiplayer is otherwise good, of course).

[Greyblades]

I’m assuming that the powerful special units, like the two ships Rogers rangers and maybe the organ gun, are either going to be "1 unit only" or overly expensive to balance them. The rest don’t sound too powerful for multiplayer use.

[Sir Beane]

Alright guys (and possibly gals), back to topic please . This thread is for discussion of Steam and the Steam FAQ. We seem to have gone off on a bit of a tangent and (interesting though it is) it isn't related enough.

Further discussion of this important topic deserves its own thread, if anyone wishes to make one.

[USS Providence 1972]

So if you buy the download you can activate on the 3rd but a boxed copy isn't available until the 4th? Why would that be?

[Sir Beane]

So if you buy the download you can activate on the 3rd but a boxed copy isn't available until the 4th? Why would that be?

Depends where you live. The UK and Europe get it on the 3rd. I imagine its because packaging and shipping takes longer than just releasing a file online.