The Daily Update at the Com

**Servius** · 04-29-2009, 18:02

Will someone post once they actually are able to download the patch? I assume CA means "later tonight" in GB, where it's 7:00pm now (on BST!), rather than "tonight" in the US. I would assume he means in the next 1-2 hours, but it would still be good to get a post from a player when it's actually out to make sure Steam is working.

**Lemur** · 04-29-2009, 18:10

Addendum:

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Dear All,

To reiterate, this patch is savegame compatible but you'll see a lot more of the gameplay benefits and AI behaviour if you start a new campaign. This is to do with the what we call 'start pos'ing' where the AI calculates a strategy at the outset.

Additionally, as with the recent note on naval invasions. The basic fix is in, meaning the AI can now choose this tactic and may do so. However, it will likely be rare until we've played with all the associated values (There are a lot). We started work on the next upgrade patch in parallel a few weeks ago and I can say for certain this area will continue to improve, so please stay with us.

Thanks again for being so patient, hopefully you'll find as our community beta testers did, that this patch really adds a lot to Empire.

Kind regards,
Kieran

**Slaists** · 04-29-2009, 18:18

So, no mention of a fix for the broken inter AI diplomacy? I mean, currently, AI factions never make peace with each other. By mid-game, pretty much everyone (in a theater) is at war with everyone else and the player faction is the only one that can trade in a meaningful way.

**Servius** · 04-29-2009, 18:35

FYI, Steam just informed me that it had finished downloading the update at 1:35pm EST

**mmk** · 04-29-2009, 18:46

Wow, no CTD anymore when disbanding those Prussian Pikemen west of Koenigsberg! What a nice surprise!

**Fisherking** · 05-08-2009, 15:31

I am becoming jaded as to the changes made.

The balance was better before they tweaked it. Now we are playing a game where Prussia Pawns All.

Game play is becoming tedious and unenjoyable unless you just love to blitz with Prussia…Win the game in 10 years and just expand for the next 90.

The upkeep costs prevent most factions from building an army worth the name or having a fleet even if you are a major trade power.

The balance now is terrible! No improvement, it has gone in the other direction.

So pardon my skepticism.

**Slaists** · 05-08-2009, 15:41

Originally Posted by Fisherking

I am becoming jaded as to the changes made.

The balance was better before they tweaked it. Now we are playing a game where Prussia Pawns All.

Game play is becoming tedious and unenjoyable unless you just love to blitz with Prussia…Win the game in 10 years and just expand for the next 90.

The upkeep costs prevent most factions from building an army worth the name or having a fleet even if you are a major trade power.

The balance now is terrible! No improvement, it has gone in the other direction.

So pardon my skepticism.

Let me disagree. The post-patch 1.2 game sure has many issues still, but it IS way better than it was before. Before the patch it was a foregone conclusion cake-walk for the player on any difficulty level, boring as hell. Now, at least, start to early mid-game is engaging.

Before the patch, the game-play was 'kicking a dead-man in the guts' from turn 4 or so... Now it's 'kicking a dead man in the guts' from turn 60 or so and onwards...

So, improvement is there but a lot needs to be done still.

By the way, the battle AI becomes quite deadly once they get shrapnel and percussion shells... I wish it happened earlier for them than in the 'dead man on the ground' late game stage...

**Devastatin Dave** · 04-30-2009, 05:39

Originally Posted by Slaists

So, no mention of a fix for the broken inter AI diplomacy? I mean, currently, AI factions never make peace with each other. By mid-game, pretty much everyone (in a theater) is at war with everyone else and the player faction is the only one that can trade in a meaningful way.

It is called "Total War" you know....

**Monsieur Alphonse** · 04-30-2009, 07:59

An extra note from CA on save game compatible:

April 29th

Dear All,

An additional point of note is that you'll find the most difference on the campaign map playing at normal difficulty or above with a new campaign. This is because we balance against the 'normal' value of AI.

For those of you having issues with older save games. Save game compatible, does not necessarily mean that you can load a previous save which has reached a critically bugged/flawed point and have it work as a result. If certain metrics are involved although the game will load (i.e. Is compatible) the new code cannot be applied as other conditions have already been set by your save.

The idea of save game compatability means that for the majority of players who have been playing without incident and saving, they can continue from their last save after patching.

Some saves with errors will be fixed, others will not. If yours is not, we'd urge you to start a new campaign if possible.

Kind regards,
Kieran

And they have started at update 1.3

April 30th

Hi guys,

With Update 1.2 released, the team have turned their attention to our next update which they are now busily working on.

Please continue to post any issues that you may find in our Empire: Total War Support section.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

**mmk** · 04-29-2009, 18:35

Originally Posted by Servius1234

Will someone post once they actually are able to download the patch? I assume CA means "later tonight" in GB, where it's 7:00pm now (on BST!), rather than "tonight" in the US. I would assume he means in the next 1-2 hours, but it would still be good to get a post from a player when it's actually out to make sure Steam is working.

Updating just now from Steam...