The Daily Update at the Com

[Sheogorath]

The diplomacy triggers seem to be the same in IS. I guess, those are "under the hood" and the modders cannot do much about it. The game is much more engaging and in general harder than vanilla though. Beware though, that one of the ways IS achieves it is by letting the AI's army upkeep be about 50% of the player's (and less) on medium settings.

Yup, but even that vastly improves the game. The AI fields actual armies (and uses them). They've made some changes to the AI, though. It doesn't sally out against overwhelming force and will, if possible, attempt to siege you to surrender rather than assaulting. It also tends to go for cities with it's main armies, rather than raiding everything for thirty years.

I too am waiting for the patch to start another campaign. I haven't tried Imperial Splendor yet, might have to check that out. My biggest beef is the AI, particularly the Diplomatic/Campaign Map AI. If/when that gets fixed, next on my wishlist will be the MP campaign.

IS's VISIBLE changes are mostly to combat...units use mass fire now (everybody fires at once, until you develop fire-by-rank, anyway), and range affects accuracy. The AI is a little smarter, too.

As an example, as the Ottomans I tried invading Georgia. I found myself up against a horde of horse-archers/gunners. Easy enough, right? Except the AI apparently learned how to move horse archers out of musket range. Oh dizzam. They pretty much thrashed the first army I sent in. I send another army, this time with cannons and that nicely took care of the horses.

Cannons have been changed a bit too. Much longer load times, but they're MUCH more deadly. Cannonballs sort of skim just about the ground now, rather than, you know, flying up into space. Grapeshot is also more deadly, and expands as it really did, in all directions. Cannons basically fire an expanding 'square' of shot that'll kill one or two men at maximum range (which is about x4 that of vanilla's grapeshot.) Up close it'll wipe out a while company, especially since cannons will no longer fire at the edges of a formation.

[Martok]

Like so many others it seems, I put ETW in the fridge until 1.4 comes out. Here's to hoping that It'll become enjoyable again.

Seconded. I haven't been able to bring myself to play in at least a month or two now, as I can only take so many absurd/insane DoW's and overall rubbish diplomacy before I go mad. I sincerely hope 1.4 fixes this, but I dare not allow myself to become optimistic; I've been disappointed by this game too many times already.

[antisocialmunky]

...

[18:06:13]ETW:> Play with me!
[18:09:23]Me:> Sorry, I'm busy with something else.
[18:09:45]Me:> BBL
[18:09:46]--------------------------------~@Me is now Playing: TATW@~------------------------------
[18:09:55]ETW:> ...
[18:10:04]ETW cuts himself

[Discoman]

I stopped playing ETW since I started a Prussian campaign that ended way too soon. I've been waiting for patch 1.4, for about 2 months now.

[Servius]

Any update on when this patch is actually coming out? Last I heard was on Sept. 2 when CA said it had entered final testing with their public beta group.

[peacemaker]

They mentioned it would be before NTW....I would guess it's been soon since they haven't given us updates in a while so hopefully they're working hard

[Seyavash]

they said end of September so probably another week to week and a half.

[batemonkey]

Latest update:



?????

[Tsavong]

May be there thinking "Lets show them a axe see that they make of it... might be funny"

[Discoman]

I'm thinking that it's a hatchet or tomahawk. Maybe they're adding new Native American nations?

-edit or its telling us to ready the hatchet, CAUSE THE NEW PATCH IS COMING OUT SOON. Well I hopefully think its both.

[Fisherking]

It is a pipe tomahawk, which was a popular trade item of the time. It is possibly also a metaphor for an ax... So what have they axed?

Does it mean that the next patch is not coming???

[Servius]

Hopefully it does not mean layoffs.

[Vlad Tzepes]

Maybe it's "bury the hatchet" with the players.

Or they just dug it up.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Well... I'm sure we have got plenty of volunteers to grind that axe.

[antisocialmunky]

Maybe its suggesting the best way of disposing of ETW.

[Xipe Totec]

Heap good sign. Medicine men say patch will come soon. Paleface speak with forked tongue.

[Servius]

So it looks like 1.4 comes out tomorrow (Tuesday) and the axe is a teaser for the 1st expansion that primarily focuses on 5 NA tribes.

[peacemaker]

sweet. waiting for the patch then I'm gonna go get empire going. No way I get the expansion until the game is nice and happy diplomacy :)

[Durallan]

The only thing that concerns me about the patch is the Naval changes! but i suppose I MUST get the new patch for the diplomacy... Ah well so long well balanced naval play! Diplomacy is more important :D

[Peasant Phill]

The only thing that concerns me about the patch is the Naval changes! but i suppose I MUST get the new patch for the diplomacy... Ah well so long well balanced naval play! Diplomacy is more important :D

It won't take long for the community to get a mod out undoing the 1.4 naval changes. Maybe with a bit of luck, there will be a stand-alone naval mod that goes beyond that (maybe making it impossible for sailing ships to sail directly into the wind).

You know what the worst part is? I first saw the announced release for 1.4 yesterday (different time zone) so I'm already anxious for the first comments on the new patch for more than a day now. I know I won't be able to play tonight and chances are I won't be able to read comments either.

[Servius]

I'm downloading the patch now, but the initial player comments seem all around positive.

[peacemaker]

GAH! I'm dying to play this now and it freezes at startup...

[Durallan]

did you find out if it was because of your anti virus?

[peacemaker]

This time it wasn't my antivirus-it was a combination of Vista not wanting to let stuff edit my program files as it patched. I did a verify-ing of the game files and then tried again and SUCCESS!

I only had time to play a turn or two but on the whole I am happy with this game and it seems that the AI is more or less fixed- after the first turn there was only one DOW between other nations (russia vs sweden).

Nations seem to want to play nice when I tried to make some trade agreements, it seems that whether or not a nation likes you has an effect now.

[Durallan]

sounds good! still waiting for my patch to download (at 90%) I have vista as welll, hopefully i don't have that problem too :S

[peacemaker]

XD yeah, I had to wipe my hard drive and now in order to do anything you have to get admin permission. Steam doesn't activate at startup like it's supposed to, and starting games makes me wait for a window to pop up. Silly vista

I'm definetely excited for tomorrow since I want to keep playing

[Lexio X]

I only had time to play a turn or two but on the whole I am happy with this game and it seems that the AI is more or less fixed- after the first turn there was only one DOW between other nations (russia vs sweden).

Nations seem to want to play nice when I tried to make some trade agreements, it seems that whether or not a nation likes you has an effect now.

Ah, that's sound good. Maybe this time I'll have time to do something and let the cpu react rather than vice versa. So here's hoping to finishing at least one grand campaign instead of just playing around in battles and laughing at the ridiculous glitches.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Some news from Kieran

25 September:

Dear All,

In response to several questions and queries we'd like to address a few points.

The new Menu screen 'WTF'??

There are a number of you who dislike the new Warpath menu screen, it was implemented temporarily in order to let everyone know that a new DLC was coming shortly. Whilst those of you who read the forums regularly and follow Total War developments (thank you) will be aware of the expansion, many players at home will not. The menu screen is a good way of letting those players know that an expansion is coming and that it'll be of a native american theme.

And on that note...


When is Warpath coming out?

Very soon. It's gone into our public beta program so it's not much longer of a wait.


Will there be any more patches?

When Warpath is released a patch will be made available symultaniously with it. Patch 1.4 made a great impact on the AI and the feedback we're getting is generally positive, so hopefully you're enjoying it. The patch that arrives with Warpath is really the coup de grace as far as the campaign AI is concerned. It makes a massive difference in the AI's ability to wage war and completes the changes we've begun in 1.4.

Obviously to see the full benefits of the new AI changes in the upcoming patch it's recommended you start a new campaign, however it will be compatible with old save games.

An important point of note so there is no confusion: You do not have to buy Warpath to benefit from the upcoming patch, you will get it automatically. It's release alongisde Warpath is simply for ease of distribution.


Why should I be excited about Warpath?

In all honesty, my favourite thing about Warpath is that it's like 'old Total War versus new Total War'. You start out with axes, horses and bowmen and you must fight against cannon and musket. It's really great to play the two styles agianst one another, plus the new Native American tech tree and agents make for some interesting tactics.


Where the bl**dy hell is the multiplayer campaign beta?

It's also about to go into our public beta group, just behind Warpath, so it's not long now. And it's proving to be great fun. We've held onto the beta for a while in order to implement all the AI changes, so that when you and a friend (Or enemy) get your hands on it, it's really a fun experience. And we're almost there. Of course as it's a beta, it won't be perfect, but the intention is to have as many of you experience it as you wish and feedback via these forums.


Hopefully this has addresed a few of the regular issues appearing here.

Thank you all for your constructive feedback, we listen to what's said politely and it's nice to hear many of you are enjoying Patch 1.4. The next one is even better...

Kind regards,
Kieran

So a new patch is coming and it will (hopefully) improve the AI even further.

[Fisherking]

That is good news, but I hope it doesn’t mean there are no patches after that. The MP campaign is not out and some times (it seems like a lot of the time) changes made make other things that need changed.

By the way have Grenzers made it into the game yet or are they still fouled up...and I guess I will need to start an Austrian campaign to see if they are still a mess as far as units go...

[peacemaker]

With all these cool campaign changes, I've almost forgotten about the multiplayer campaign. It's nice to hear that they're still fine-tuning the game and I'm considering buying the expansion, especially since I prefer having games with melee fighting as opposed to running around with guns.