There it goes, fun factor low.

[Unhinged_Loon]

I'm looking forward to the economy tweaks Lusted talked about to make the game harder.

Lower income and higher upkeep will force the player to worry about the cost of war. There'll be complaints, I'm sure, but it sounds right to me

[Namarie22]

The difficulty does little imho for the campaign dullness, the basic thing is still that the AI is flawed.

I might be unlucky, but as for the most action on the campaign map and in battle, all settings on medium seemingly makes the AI do more stuff.. on any other setting on my computer, the AI does very, very little. In my last campaign, as Sweden again, Poland declared war on me without me really starting wars, I hopped over and found city after city without garrisons, on VH/VH (I'd given the baltics away to Spain for fun.. :P), then Russia declared war, and sent half a stack army over to the baltics, and the rest of Russia was undefended and quickly fell from a invasion via Finland.... .. .. . This is where I quit.

Glaring issues like that doesn't help.

And yes, will look forward to the income/cost changes, on the last few campaigns I make myself not go for the trading regions, because the later 50K income make things even easier.. :D

[Daevyll]

So, to date, youve gotten several weeks worth of enjoyment out of your 50 euro purchase.
Sounds like a good deal to me.

[Smellycat]

It is not a good deal if you consider we played the previous games for years. It is the first TW game since MTW that i have shelved after 2 weeks. Posting about this game is more fun than playing it. I am not saying it is like that for everyone but it is like that for me mostly because I know that i can not lose and that takes a lot of the fun away.

[Namarie22]

So, to date, youve gotten several weeks worth of enjoyment out of your 50 euro purchase.
Sounds like a good deal to me.

I wonder if thinking like that isn't why the gaming industry is what it is, nowhere else would we accept halfbaked products, except with a outrage... my first computer game that I really liked, Dungeon Master by FTL, I still play with a emulator on my PC... Carrier Command, Elite IV, EOTB, Dark Sun, Powermonger, all SSI's games hung around, then there were fewer and fewer games as the years passed like that, up comes the 2000's and games started hanging around for a half a year or so, and later, be happy if you get a few weeks worth out of games.. :P

Dungeon Master came out in 1986, I still play it.

I played Shogun until last year, R:TW and M:TW1+2 until, well, haven't really stopped, they are still installed, just taking a break.. I sincerely hope that E:TW will last more than a few weeks.

OH, there is ONE gem that I started playing during alpha, and bought, and still play, that gem Mount and Blade.. it's excellent, with it's flaws, but nothing glaring... Guess I can go and continue my campaign there until a few patches has arrived for E:TW.. :D

Hm.. complete ramble now.. lol

[Schiltrom]

I love Mount and Blade!
I find the game boring for the exact opposite reason: I'm a PATHETIC player and without cheats I've no hope of getting anywhere. Just having downloaded RTR can't have helped either.

[maestro]

Keep at it Schiltrom - you're lucky that the game is at least challenging. Us TW vets often find new TW games waaaay too easy and have to rely on after-market mods to spice things up a little. I have to say, contrary to what all the reviews and previews said, E:TW is the easiest one I've played for a long time. Still - plenty of factions and styles still to play

You'll get better and better with every turn and soon enough you'll be in the sweat-spot where it's about right. Not too hard and not too easy, but a good, enjoyable challenge. I envy you :(

[jsberry]

It hit me today too. The weariness, the boredom. It's just about buying another stack of troops to go take another enemy capital - way too easy.

The essence of 1700s diplomacy was that nobody should be allowed to get too powerful. That should be very easy to hard-wire into the AI diplomatic choices. Likewise, nobody went for the jugular. Frederick's conquest of Silesia (ONE province) took two major wars and was considered "great." He never came close to taking Vienna. Only one major power was removed (Poland) and it took three concerted invasions by other powers, in the LATE half of the century.

This game is the other extreme. Any game that allows Hollard to conquer and annex France (and England... and Prussia...) is fundamentally flawed.

Here's a no-brainer that the developers could easily implement: Certain regions (France, England, most home nation capitals) CANNOT be conquered - the major powers CANNOT be removed from the game. If capitals are taken, the loser must agree to terms (X regions, Y money, Z techs). That would keep the game both balanced and grounded in a 1700s context.