Demo Discussion Thread

[jumpyg1258]

Hi everyone, decided to register today after watching this board for a while now waiting for the game to come out. The reason why I am posting is to display my huge disappointment in the demo for this game. You would think that after the delays in the release date for this game, that they could at least release a demo that was somewhat playable. I've never seen a game with a longer load screen in my life. You can your screen res, thats a 2 minute wait. Want V-Sync off, thats another 2 minutes. Then when you get into the game you get a screen like this...

And yes after getting this the first time I decided to update my drivers and that made no difference. It is not like I have a crappy machine either since the game recommended the Ultra settings.

Intel C2D 6750
ATI Radeon 4850 Toxic
2gb DDR2 1066Mhz

Anywho this demo gave me the worst first impression I think I have ever had with a game and I am right now regretting pre-ordering this game big time!

[TB666]

The demo is playable, easily.
However the problem isn't with the demo but with your hardware.

[jumpyg1258]

The demo is playable, easily.
However the problem isn't with the demo but with your hardware.

Sure, thats why I have no problems with any other games...

[TB666]

Sure, thats why I have no problems with any other games...

It's only a game problem if it happens on everyone, it does not happen on my computer and I have seen screenshots that are fine also.
And your screenshot clearly indicates a graphical card problem since I have seen that type of thing happen on my older computers with other games and the problem was always traced back to my graphic card.
So you have to wait and see if ATI will fix it with a update or get a card that don't have the problem.

[Greyblades]

Mayby its overheating. Has your computer been running quieter recently?

[NagatsukaShumi]

Mayby its overheating. Has your computer been running quieter recently?

Mine?

Well it runs EUIII and Footy Manager (with numerous nations selected) fine enough, and MTWII on full with no problems. If anything its been louder!

I was planning on paying off the rest of what I ower for this one and getting another, but heard a new Microsoft OS is in the works and figured I should wait for that.

[jumpyg1258]

Mayby its overheating. Has your computer been running quieter recently?

I have the fan set to 100% and I even tried under clocking the video card to see if heat was the issue. Still had the same problem with this demo.

[jumpyg1258]

Another curious thing about this demo is that this graphical glitch only occurs down near the battlefield and not when I am looking from above.

[jumpyg1258]

It's only a game problem if it happens on everyone, it does not happen on my computer and I have seen screenshots that are fine also.
And your screenshot clearly indicates a graphical card problem since I have seen that type of thing happen on my older computers with other games and the problem was always traced back to my graphic card.
So you have to wait and see if ATI will fix it with a update or get a card that don't have the problem.

If you go to this link and look at post 593 from a guy named TheHarbinger, you'll see that he is having the same problem as myself and he is using an NVidia card.

[jumpyg1258]

Forgot to add link...

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic...d.html?page=30

[TB666]

If you go to this link and look at post 593 from a guy named TheHarbinger, you'll see that he is having the same problem as myself and he is using an NVidia card.

And ??
Still a hardware problem, not a game problem.
Again, wait for ATI or Nvidia to fix these issue or get a new card.

[miniwally]

OMG i think ths is amazing shame i can't vote 5/5. Love the naval combat except boarding.

[ConnMon]

Sure, thats why I have no problems with any other games...

That depends on which games you play. Your computer might be able to handle WoW, but that doesnt mean that Empire will run smoothly. You might also be skimming bare minimum or something of that sort. I'd check all of your computer stats and compare that with Empire's minimum requirements. Good luck.

[Mongoose]

Sure, thats why I have no problems with any other games...

I also have a Radeon card, though not the same version, and the demo doesn't work for me either. I've seen people on other forums with Radeon cars having issues too, so I'm pretty certain that it is the card.

[Nelson]

Smoke trails on bullets and cannon shots were altogether nonexistent. I find them distracting and annoying. M:TW2 got them right. I guess they are there to remind players who is shooting at what but I would rather do without them. I hope we can turn them off somehow just like the big flags and green arrows.

[scipiosgoblin]

Smoke trails on bullets and cannon shots were altogether nonexistent. I find them distracting and annoying. M:TW2 got them right. I guess they are there to remind players who is shooting at what but I would rather do without them. I hope we can turn them off somehow just like the big flags and green arrows.

You could always play the game on the lowest settings. I don't see smoke trails at all. ;P

Just kidding. I'm really envious of everyone who can play this on the high settings. At least I'll have something to look forward to.

SG

[seireikhaan]

Erh...

Seems a tad wonky...

[pevergreen]

Smoke trails on bullets and cannon shots were altogether nonexistent. I find them distracting and annoying. M:TW2 got them right. I guess they are there to remind players who is shooting at what but I would rather do without them. I hope we can turn them off somehow just like the big flags and green arrows.

Much easier to turn those arrows and flags off now, from the options menu!

edit: impressions timeu!

I've played the Land battle tutorial and the Land battle.

Graphics were set to medium by the game, looks great. Units respond well, perform how they should and just look sooo cuuuute.

AI ambushed me and ran back a bit when it didnt look good. If I didn't have my general just behind my line of troops, I would have routed.

I ended up losing my general but I had about 300 infantry flank their artillery and melee them out. I lost about 150 to canister shot. Wow...so good. I saw one cannon shoot out and it ripped through 4 charging units. Killed about 15-20 per unit.

experience for melee units (only ones i checked) gives +1 to a few stats, like it used to.

My only issue at the moment is that when you zoom in, the game doesnt scroll fast enough.

For those of you who complain about poor performance, just think back to the M2TW demo. That was choppy as hell, must have been about 5 fps. The game came out and it was fine.

As for load times, the longest load ive had was about 50 seconds, and that was from tabbing out and in. Battles load and go back to menu in about 40 seconds, my computer aint no beast either, its a laptop.

[peacemaker]

argh. The demo died on me as soon as I tried to launch it, I guess I'll try to re-download it....

[Greyblades]

Ooh the ai are sneaky.
In the brandywine battle I had a arty duel going on, to decide wherther i was going to attack from the front or the rear, over the clearing west(i think) of the main ford and I had sent 2 guard units and one grenadier to the "back passage". Next thing I know a bunch of minute men has ambushed my troops, and thats not the sneaky part, while I was beating off the ambush 2 units of dragoons tore away form the ford while I was preoccupied went through a gap in my battle line and wiped out my artillery. Without battery support I quickly lost the battle in a near defeat.
I have to say i am starting to warm to the AI's abilities.

[NagatsukaShumi]

MASSIVELY disappointed by the demo, I just cannot play it on my PC, it takes an age to load, even on low graphics its sluggish and obviously the soldiers then just look terrible.

Looks like its time to look into the possibility of a new computer if I have a chance of playing ETW, gutting really. 2GB Ram and other decent enough specs I presumed would be enough to get it onto medium but evidently not unless the actual game is alot more PC friendly!

I say this as a TW vet, I honestly may have to miss the release date for the first time ever, which is gutting.

[Greyblades]

huh i havent seen that happen before in a RTS/TBS.
Maybe the download/install messed up?

[Ziem]

Intel C2D 6750
ATI Radeon 4850 Toxic
2gb DDR2 1066Mhz

Anywho this demo gave me the worst first impression I think I have ever had with a game and I am right now regretting pre-ordering this game big time!

Ah, the infamous ATI cards. I Never ever saw a game where people didn't complain about their ATI graph card. So, toptip, get rid of that ATI thingie and get an NVIDIA card. Personally I've always had NVIDIA cards and never had problems.

Hope it helps....


Z.

[Belgolas]

Hi everyone, decided to register today after watching this board for a while now waiting for the game to come out. The reason why I am posting is to display my huge disappointment in the demo for this game. You would think that after the delays in the release date for this game, that they could at least release a demo that was somewhat playable. I've never seen a game with a longer load screen in my life. You can your screen res, thats a 2 minute wait. Want V-Sync off, thats another 2 minutes. Then when you get into the game you get a screen like this...

And yes after getting this the first time I decided to update my drivers and that made no difference. It is not like I have a crappy machine either since the game recommended the Ultra settings.

Intel C2D 6750
ATI Radeon 4850 Toxic
2gb DDR2 1066Mhz

Anywho this demo gave me the worst first impression I think I have ever had with a game and I am right now regretting pre-ordering this game big time!

This is most definitely not the games fault. This is called artifacting and is usually due to heat. Although sometimes it is when you do a bad driver install. You said that you tried the latest drivers. Try uninstalling all the drivers then use a driver cleaning app like CCleaner. Then install the latest drivers. If you still have a problem then do that process again and revert to an older driver. I noticed I would get that a lot on my old 4870 X2. It can also mean a bad overclock on the CPU or Ram.

Anyways welcome to PC gaming where artifacting is common.