First Impressions

[IsItStillThere]

The thing is you'd research about four technologies the entire game. To get the naval tech tree to any sort of size they had to change things a little.

I can certainly see your point. Its like they decided to have a big tech tree first, then made adjustments to accommodate it. Instead, they could have decided what kind of game they wanted first, then determine the tech tree. I personally would have gone with the latter option. Is there some law that says a big, complicated tech tree is a necessity in a game such as this? Especially since the naval techs are only one branch.


Speaking of the tech tree, is there somewhere that it is posted? Its not in the manual and only the building tree came with the game. Thanks!

[A Very Super Market]

The tech tree is laid out in full in-game.

[Lord of the Isles]

Very First Impression - in shop

CELLOPHANE WRAPPED BOX! OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY... <- all games create this feeling in me

Next Impressions - on installing

I had a activation code problem for a couple of hours, drove me crazy but partly my fault.

First Worthwhile Impressions - on playing first day

So many little hassles, and a few bigger ones. A small selection:

-- manual too small to be useful
-- deleting save games - not possible in-game, took me an hour to track down where CA saves them
-- cannons need micromanaged - friendly fire - overriding targets I choose - aarrgghh
-- CTD around turn 19, reload repeats CTD, load from earlier save, another CTD at turn 34, restart game
-- tracing a new location for a group move while at x4 speed regularly doesn't work - group sits where they are
-- have mapped Pause key to 'toggle pause' along with the default 'p', but it doesn't work as well, needs 2 or 3 hits sometimes
-- diplomacy offers cannot be minimized so I can go check on info regarding offer
-- stretching out a new formation should use unit frontages proportional to remaining men in unit - this stopped working from RTW onwards
-- no autosaves before current turn?
-- troop movement too fast in battles - only played mods of M2TW for so long I had forgotten the soldiers on speed effect
-- annoyed at trade zone problem till I found evidence in forums it was a bug they are working on
-- had to downgrade graphics driver for nvidia 8800 GTS since recent one may interact badly with ETW

I don't remember so many little niggles in a TW game before, nor so many posts in the fan forums with problems on the first day of a release (though Steam has undoubtedly increased this number). And I could go on. But I won't because of:

Final First Impressions - after leaving computer on first day

AARRGGHHH! MY NECK AND BACK REALLY HURT!

I couldn't believe how sore I suddenly was. Because I'd just spent hours without moving perched awkwardly on the edge of my chair, hands clutching the mouse and keyboard trying to get the most out of my country and its troops, wondering what was going to happen next. So for all the moans and issues I have with the game, that's one day of damn enjoyable gaming (excepting the odd few wasted hours) that I didn't want to end.

So the game clearly has potential. Too early to say whether it will live up to that potential but we'll see. Now you must excuse me: I have to go land some troops and find Mughal Empire territories to conquer. This time, having restarted my game as Britain, I've got there before the Maratha Confederacy has taken over most of the continent.

[quadalpha]

-- tracing a new location for a group move while at x4 speed regularly doesn't work - group sits where they are
-- have mapped Pause key to 'toggle pause' along with the default 'p', but it doesn't work as well, needs 2 or 3 hits sometimes

Those seem to be related problems that happen when you don't have a high frame rate; they are probably due to the game's not having a keypress buffer.

[andrewt]

I can certainly see your point. Its like they decided to have a big tech tree first, then made adjustments to accommodate it. Instead, they could have decided what kind of game they wanted first, then determine the tech tree. I personally would have gone with the latter option. Is there some law that says a big, complicated tech tree is a necessity in a game such as this? Especially since the naval techs are only one branch.


Speaking of the tech tree, is there somewhere that it is posted? Its not in the manual and only the building tree came with the game. Thanks!

Pretty much every strategy game needs a pretty big tech tree and have sides be underdeveloped at the start. Otherwise, the player has nothing to spend gold on except more units and there's no trade-offs involved. The trade-off between units, technology or economy or any combination is central to any strategy game.

If the game was completely realistic, armies would be the same size and have almost the same capability in 1700 as in 1800, which would make it boring.

[IsItStillThere]

Pretty much every strategy game needs a pretty big tech tree and have sides be underdeveloped at the start.

Did shogun total war suffer from not having a tech tree? MTW? M2TW? Not in my opinion.

Total War games aren't meant to be "civilization". To me, they should be: Here is a historically realistic sandbox. Go change history.

[andrewt]

Did shogun total war suffer from not having a tech tree? MTW? M2TW? Not in my opinion.

Total War games aren't meant to be "civilization". To me, they should be: Here is a historically realistic sandbox. Go change history.

Building requirements were the tech tree in previous Total War games. It took forever to upgrade to the top line castles, armores, stables, etc. You couldn't build your top soldiers early on in any campaign.

200 turns using the same type of weapons and units would be boring. I like the progression of starting out each campaign with smaller battles that get bigger as the game progresses.

[ArtillerySmoke]

Building requirements were the tech tree in previous Total War games. It took forever to upgrade to the top line castles, armores, stables, etc. You couldn't build your top soldiers early on in any campaign.

200 turns using the same type of weapons and units would be boring. I like the progression of starting out each campaign with smaller battles that get bigger as the game progresses.

Same...

The gradual ascent leading to the climactic battles near the end of a campaign are what it's all about.

[IsItStillThere]

Building requirements were the tech tree in previous Total War games.

Yeah, but the pure tech tree is a new feature. So why not start the tech tree at a historically accurate level? Its arbitrary anyway, so why not let history be the guide? It seemed about right in MTW and M2TW, you were starting in the dark ages (1100's) and your starting units seemed to reflect that. So why pretend that the foremost navies of the world in 1700 had nothing larger than a frigate just for the sake of making the tech tree deeper? If your making a history-destroying design decision like that, you better be getting a heck of a lot more benefit than just a few more techs to research.

I really don't see why CA couldn't come up with a perfectly reasonable tech tree starting from the actual technology available to each faction in 1700!