Demo Discussion Thread

**Monk** · 02-20-2009, 18:59

What a horribly optimized demo you've decided to give the masses, CA. I'd have rathered listened to the complaints of everyone who wanted one than played this. My experience is the same as Greg's, however my specs are much better than his.

3ghz CPU
GeForce 9600 GT
4gb RAM
Windows Vista

With these specs I was experiencing load times of 5 min. The battles ran great, but the load times were horrid. Loading into battle, loading out of battle, changing graphics options, getting to the main menu. It didn't matter, it all took a solid 5 min.

I finished the download around 12pm and have been wrestling with it for the passed 45 min. I didn't play the land battle to it's finish because quite frankly by the time I got into the battle I didn't care anymore. getting out of battle is just as much of a fiasco. If anyone knows what's causing this and how to fix it, i'm all ears. If its simply the game...

What about battles, you may be asking. Well, combat animations are really sloppy. Cavalry charge into a unit, but if the cavalry charges and envelopes the unit, sometimes the horsemen who didnt hit the line just keep riding instead of stopping to fight. As if they are chasing a ghost they'll go on for a long time. Melee animations look unfinished. Artillery crews get stuck in animations while they move back around the cannon to get out of the way, gliding around. Were these things seen in M2? Maybe. But not to this extent.

I couldn't tell you how the AI performed, i was too distracted by the buggy animations.

I really hope this was some sort of earlier build, CA. This was ridiculous.

**pyradyn** · 02-20-2009, 19:10

The animations I have to say yes were sloppy, as for long load times I am having lag which is really sad because my computer is not some little rinky dink,

Specs:
AMD 64 Duel Core Processor 3.2 GH 6000+
Geforce 9800
2 GB RAM
Windows XP Pro

**Discoman** · 02-20-2009, 19:10

I have 2.8ghz and a double core
Nvidia XFX 8600 GTS (512mb)
2 gigs of Ram

The loading screens were too damn long! I got 5 minutes the first time and later it took around 2 minutes. I was a bit annoyed at the camera controls as When I zoomed it then got horribly slow and my constant zooming in and out didn't help. I didn't really notice the animations mainly because I was too preoccupied looking for a way to flank those bloody yanks. The AI seems all there.... except when my men decided to go in one straight line by accident.

I really loved the Ship Battle, except for the sudden turning of the ship...

**ToeAndno** · 02-20-2009, 19:12

Quick reminder:

These are historic battles and so the AI is scripted mostly. This will not give a clear view on how the AI will be in the full game

**Vuk** · 02-20-2009, 19:18

Originally Posted by ToeAndno

Quick reminder:

These are historic battles and so the AI is scripted mostly. This will not give a clear view on how the AI will be in the full game

BS, things like fighting animations, the way that soldiers switch formations, etc is not scripted. I am very disappointed.

**ToeAndno** · 02-20-2009, 19:20

I wasn't talking about animations

**The Fuzz** · 02-20-2009, 19:23

Well, my computer barely meets minimum specs, so...

*cancels download*

Gonna play me some Broken Crescent.

**Alexander the Pretty Good** · 02-20-2009, 19:34

OK, my impressions.

Loading times were bad, which is a bad way to earn a first impression.

Played the land tutorial - piece of cake, but fairly well made. It might have skimped a bit on the tactics part of the fight - it mentioned nothing of flanking. It did illustrate how effective cover could be though. Nice introduction to land battles.

Then the naval tutorial - also very little meat in the "how to win" department. There should be something that skips the camera controls if you've played the other tutorial (and vice versa).

Then the naval battle - I felt like I wasn't doing a lot to affecte the battle. If my ships were faster (stupid battleship slugfest :/) I could've crossed the T's of the two french navies right off the bat. Lost 2 ships of 6, sunk or forced to surrender all 7 French ships. Graphics look great. I'd prefer frigates. ~:P

Then finally the land battle. I figured I'd do what I was supposed to and flank the Americans using the other ford to the left. Marched out, no problems started taking fire from American skirmishers, but my light infantry put them away. (Sidenote, there's a "skirmish" button for them but it didn't seem to make them spread out or do anything). Then ran into the main force of infantry (I think the AI shifted them over after it saw I moved to the other ford, which may or may not be scripted). Put my line up against theirs while I worked their flank with my grenadiers and light infantry, eventually forced them back.

Some time during this point the enemy arty took out all my horse artillery (which seem useless) and my general (guess I shouldn't have left him in the open). My cavalry was also pretty beat up.

With my British and Hessian line infantry shot ragged but the Americans essentially done, I sent my cav and light infantry against the remaining American dragoons and arty. Mopping up took some time but was just annoying.

didn't like:
>hand to hand animations seem weak. When a line of infantry crashes into another, it doesn't seem to do much - I would imagine the defender would lose many at the onset, when stuck by a whole bunch of bayonets. The defender doesn't. :/
>the light infantry of both sides can deploy anti-cav stakes. That's all fine and good, but it will apparently kill cavalry that walks through it, even if they're fully aware of it. Lost most of a hussars unit this way (though only realized a while after when I zoomed in on the stakes for chuckles. :/)
> useless tissue-paper horse arty

did like
> AI doesn't seem awful, though it's hard to tell in scripted fights.
> It's cool lining up infantry to fire at each other, though expensive really quickly.
> small crackling skirmishes between a few units

**Sheogorath** · 02-20-2009, 19:43

And now the server issues begin.

I got to %30 before my download stopped. Now it says it's 'updating' and went down to %0

My friend over in Scotland reported a similar thing happening at almost exactly the same time.

ITS AS IF A MILLION FANBOYS SUDDENLY CRIED OUT IN PAIN

**peacemaker** · 02-20-2009, 19:48

gah. i warned myself not to visit this thread till ive played the demo since i want to try and get this thing all by myself before seeing your strategies...the demo is SO SLOW!!! or maybe it's just my internet connection...Steam said there was a demo and a big button "play now!" but i just closed that and am hopefully resuming the original demo from this morning. 29% so far after a few hours...hopefully it'll be done by tonight.

**Sir Beane** · 02-20-2009, 19:54

Originally Posted by Sheogorath

And now the server issues begin.

I got to %30 before my download stopped. Now it says it's 'updating' and went down to %0

My friend over in Scotland reported a similar thing happening at almost exactly the same time.

ITS AS IF A MILLION FANBOYS SUDDENLY CRIED OUT IN PAIN

Same problem on my end. How can it be updating if it hasn't even downloaded? Anyone got any ideas on what's going on?

**Vuk** · 02-20-2009, 19:47

I have cancelled my preorder. The game does not run correctly and stinks. That is why I said CA should have spent more time developing it. I could tell by what the reviews said that it was an unfinished product. I realise that I posted the thread pretty late, but I think that they should have made the decision and delayed it a month or two more. It is not close to complete.