Demo Discussion Thread

[Monk]

how do you install demo i press install now but nothing happens

Try restarting your steam client, as in completely closing it down and then reopening, not just logging off.

[Polemists]

This is actually kinda depressing. My AMD turion x2- dual core 2.1 ghz laptop can run empire swimmingly. Load times are around 45 seconds -1 min. And no i'm not joking

This is actually good news as I have a dual core labtop and was worried it may only run on desktops. Huzzah :)

[Captain Trek]

Frankly, I'm not sure why everyone's having so much trouble with the naval battle... The first time I played it, I throughly trounced the French fleet, forcing three or four of their ships to surrender and sinking the rest, losing none of my own ships (though the admiral's first rate and the second rate took substantial damage)... I guess it may partly have been to do with the fact that I was taking a " chain shot, just sink the bastards!" approach, using nothing but standard cannon fire...

[Monk]

I'm actually loving the naval battle. It's crazy amounts of fun and somehow much more satisfying than the Land battle.

This is actually good news as I have a dual core labtop and was worried it may only run on desktops. Huzzah :)

I'm not sure what it was really. At first my lappy was having horrible load times too, and I almost gave up, but once I tinkered a bit and lowered a few things it ran it can now run it even better than my desktop can. Using much higher settings!

Optimization is a problem that can be fixed, which is the good news. Just look at The Witcher, a game who's loads were longer than this demo's were. Those problems are a thing of the past and it's actually a largely better game because of it. Here's hoping the final product has had a bit more optimization, or if not let's hope CA introduces some fixes in the future.

[miniwally]

how lonjg do you have to wait until you can play it mine said updating for 5 minutes and no progress up a progres bar if there is one

[Polemists]

Well that's why I think it's good the demo is out now because they still have ten days to try and tweak it, and even if that is far to short of a time (aka the copies already sent out to distributors) they can hopefully get a patch up with some quick fixes shortly :)

Hopefully CA is scouring these threads so they know what to fix when the game goes live :)

[miniwally]

wow 7 hours 32 mins updating :O

[pevergreen]

Info on my download: 30 minutes.

[Captain Trek]

OK, played the naval battle again and once again I trounced the French fleet without taking a single loss, this time forcing all but one French ship to surrender... Actually, if forcing a ship to surrender means that you take control of it on the campaign map regardless of wether you actually board it or not, then it would seem there is little point in boarding actions... On the other hand, if you don't take control of a surrendering ship unless you board it, then you need to be able to board ships that have surrendered, because in the demo you can't...

[Vlad Tzepes]

First thoughts:

Register with Steam, download and installment - things used to be much more user-friendly in my good 'ol days.
Controls/land battle - switched to MTW style and I'm on familiar ground again.
Terrain is of high importance, nice improvement.
Enviroment looks strange and artificial, buildings quite sketchy. Maybe I'll get used with those?
Shooting range for infantry is shorter than I would have imagined.
AI reacts to flanking, but it wasn't convincing. I moved my entire army over the creek through the ford (Brandywine battle) and AI sent in troops to counterattack one by one (or at most two at a time).
Cavalry dies at frightening rates. Different role from now on.
Grenades make nice video effects but seem to be filled with confetti.
US artillery had sniper abilities. Tried to move mine on higher ground and it was shot to pieces immediately.

Unit icons a little difficult to comprehend, switching through modes (melle, shoot, grenades, un-limber etc) not very intuitive for now (but I assume it's only a matter of my learning curve).
Couldn't figure yet how to occupy a building - is it even possible to storm it?

All in all - I'm pretty sure the final game will be much better. Former TW demos weren't great, either, but I enjoyed the games very much.

Thank you CA and SEGA for your hard work. I'll buy the game.

[Miracle]

Couldn't figure yet how to occupy a building - is it even possible to storm it?

Switch to melee mode and right click on it.

To get out of the building, deactivate melee mode and right click on the ground outside.

[pevergreen]

I didnt have to do that. I just selected a single infantry unit and clicked the single building on the map with the door and and an arrow pointing into symbol above it.

[Zatoichi]

It seems like I suck at being an admiral - lots of poor English sailors hanging around Davey Jones' Locker thanks to me.

Do you do the broadside thing, or let your ships fire at will? I've been trying to micromanage the broadside for my ships, but I end up missing or not quite getting the angles right. Either way, I seem to end up being sunk. A lot.

On the land battle side, I'm faring much better (I guess it's because it's so much more familiar after nearly 10 years!) I haven't had the problem with my horse drawn guns not firing like I did first time round - I think it was a minor bug with them being too near trees or something. Now that they are firing, it's such a joy to zoom in and watch them! Ah well, what can I say, I like eye candy.

As for AI tactics in the land battle, I've not see them do too much wrong that overly worries me. So far I've not had them come at me one at a time except when they rally and come back for more punishment. I wish they'd move their cannons when they're in danger though. I've had some very intense fire fights - the grenadiers seem a touch powerful - it's certainly more fun throwing grenades than having them thrown at you.

I've had 2 crashes (1 in each battle) - these occurred right at the start while it was 'setting the scene' before I took control of my units, and were apparently caused by me deciding my rig could handle 2 X anti-aliasing. Turns out I was wrong. Changing it back to 0 stopped the crashes.

So, other than needing to bone up on naval engagements and learning how to manoeuvre my ships, I think I'm ready for the full game now!

[miniwally]

Try restarting your steam client, as in completely closing it down and then reopening, not just logging off.

still not working

[miniwally]

now it's working :P OMG it's there do i dare try and go on it?