Hate to say that I do not like the game!

[pevergreen]

Although I am a huge and longtime fan of TW games, I must say that ETW has been a huge disappointment for me so far. I was expecting the usual minor bugs in the beginning but I wasn´t expecting a game from TW that has so many flaws that playing the game in campaign mode is both boring and annoying.

True, there is a lot of blingbling now on the campaign map but that doesn´t make the game experience any better.

There are so many things I have come across so far that I can mention only the worst without turning this rant into a novel.

1. What´s the use of playing a campaign of almost 200 turns when after turn 40 you have basically won the game?
a. Revolution: Funny how the game ends very suddenly when you chose the wrong side without being able to get any info on what results your choice might have.
2. What´s the use of diplomacy when diplomacy is a ridiculous, totally usueless feature in this game.
a. Minor nations: What´s the use in ally with them if you get no benefits? Apart from some cash when you´re protector.
b. What is it when Savoy can conquer France?
c. Why would the Moguls like to trade scientific research for East Prussia?
d. Why would Prussia like to trade East Prussia for Courland? Totally senseless.
3. Gentlemen and Rakes
a. Duelling: What is the benefit of a won duel apart from having an enemy gentlemen removed from the game? Since gentlemen are spawned anyways without costs for either your or the opposite side.

And on and on it goes....

I would expect that at least the diplomacy feature gets a major overhaul. I would opt for a totally new appraoch with the minor factions. E.g. if my side becomes a protector of a minor nation - why not including the minor factions military forces and their scientific research in the benifits?
I would also expect that the load of stupid requests my side gets (totally sensless demands for regions etc.) get removed from the ai.

1. Same for M2TW and RTW. ATPG and others won M2TW in 20 odd turns, taking every province. You cant do that in ETW
a: You make the choice, if you lose, you die. Realistic.
2: Diplomacy works much much better. No more "GET OFF MY LAND". You can see why their position is. massive improvement. Military/diplomatic AI isnt separate.
a: Same again, they are minor for a reason. Crush them if you want, keep them alive if you like the pretty colours on the minimap. My opinion is they take the place of rebels from previous games
b: What is it when Milan can take over Euorpe? When Persia can conquer all of egypt. When Brittania can take western euorpe. TW provides many many outcomes, some historically correct, some hilarious.
c&d: should be tweaked in patches, thats simply priorities gone wrong for the AI
3. What about them?
a: Stops them stealing your research, if you are stealing theirs, gives you a better chance, with the upcoming mp campaign, removes vision and stops their research.

[mmk]

1. Same for M2TW and RTW. ATPG and others won M2TW in 20 odd turns, taking every province. You cant do that in ETW
a: You make the choice, if you lose, you die. Realistic.
2: Diplomacy works much much better. No more "GET OFF MY LAND". You can see why their position is. massive improvement. Military/diplomatic AI isnt separate.
a: Same again, they are minor for a reason. Crush them if you want, keep them alive if you like the pretty colours on the minimap. My opinion is they take the place of rebels from previous games
b: What is it when Milan can take over Euorpe? When Persia can conquer all of egypt. When Brittania can take western euorpe. TW provides many many outcomes, some historically correct, some hilarious.
c&d: should be tweaked in patches, thats simply priorities gone wrong for the AI
3. What about them?
a: Stops them stealing your research, if you are stealing theirs, gives you a better chance, with the upcoming mp campaign, removes vision and stops their research.

Thank you for reminding me. ;-)

Maybe I was just expecting too much of the new TW game.

I stick to my point though, that the power of the minor nations is nor very well balanced and that better use could have made of the fact that they play part in the game.
And I do not see any improvement in the diplomacy features at all.

I guess it is wait and see what the next patch will bring.

[Fisherking]

To me M2TW was a disappointment. It was just blitz. Everyone is going to war with you at some point anyway so just have at it.

This game is different. There are a lot of things still to learn and the tactics both land and sea have some depth.

Everything is not working perfectly but I think it will be much better than the past games in the end.

Granted it has more starting issues then the others but it is also more complex.

Diplomacy is improved. Some times factions will make peace when they should…not always of course, but sometimes.

I don’t find Rakes of much use. Maybe they just don’t work as well as advertised. Gentlemen do research and that is a big deal. If you can kill the enemy it does slow him…though usually it has been my men who went down in flames.

I know it can be improved and I hope that I like what they do…in the past I went back to the older versions. Something we can’t do this time. So I hope they keep the AI balanced and don’t make it a bunch of aggressive warmongering mad men.

[Ardri]

My main problem with diplomacy is that you cannot intercede between 2 AI nations. An ally you go to war with to defeat a common enemy should also go to peace if you broker a peace deal with the enemy nation. Other than that the diplomacy is much improved over previous TW games. Most of the other points are pretty much spot on though.

[MikeV]

Diplomacy is improved.

Twice nothing is still nothing.

[Tsavong]

I think Empire Total War is a fine improvement over M2TW and RTW wall still being a Total War game which is what it is and I assume was set out to be from the start.

Would it be as fun if it was imposable to expand in an a historical way? Probably not it is a sandbox to play with after all.

Twice nothing is still nothing.

Do you not think that not having to run ambassadors around the map is an improvement? Its certainly more than nothing.

Btw you can answer more than one question per post, unless you want to spam your post number up ;)

[MikeV]

Maybe I was just expecting too much of the new TW game.

But it's so pretty (if your box has enough graphics horsepower) ...

[bluenu]

problem with empire tw is they made it to complicated....

...for the ai

despite all the flaws, they did add a lot of new features.... but if the ai cant utilize them properly wtf is the point?

[DisruptorX]

Well, it does have flaws, and its not for everyone.

At least are actually addressing the major problems, though. Remember when they fixed the passive AI bug in MTW 2, and then made two handers not suck? Me neither!

[Fisherking]

For anyone wishing to just dislike the game, great. You have the purgative.

But if all you want to do is complain then there is little reason to discuss the issue.

No one wants to change your mind.

We all have aspects we would have improved but if you would rather not play then fine.

Complaining for the sake of complaining is just flat boring.

If there are suggestions for improvement or what you would change then perhaps there is value in talking about it.

From my view point this thread is going no where and may have a very short life.

[Smellycat]

problem with empire tw is they made it to complicated....

...for the ai

despite all the flaws, they did add a lot of new features.... but if the ai cant utilize them properly wtf is the point?

no they just forgot to include an AI and went for the point they knew would sell : eyecandy

[Fisherking]

Empty criticism is pointless!

Of course there is AI.

And if you don’t think it is improved go back an play M2 for a while.

[Sturmwolf]

I dont necessarily hate the Game, but am disappointed with endlesssssssssssssss Navy CTD's , regardless of Theatre. Even without use of Fleets, all of Europe is under Prussian control, with the exception of Great Britain, Denmark(Iceland) . The disadvantage being involved in a long, drawn-out LAND Battle, slowly conquering the territories, one by one without the use of Navies is a major setback.

When CA/ SEGA/ Whoever gets the patch to fix this Naval glitch, then I'd love to play as the Game was intended.

[Fisherking]

Those are good points!

But you know, I don’t have those issues.

My Land battles all hang instead. The Naval Game works great….

Sometimes it is Prussia and sometimes not.

I don’t know if it just acts differently on some systems or what but it does not make fixes easy when the problems are not all the same.

I know I hate having to auto resolve my battles. And CTD in Naval Battles would be just infuriating.

I hope something can be done soon!

[darrin42]

''d. Why would Prussia like to trade East Prussia for Courland? Totally senseless.''


Haha I found this funny to. I feel almost all of Empire must be scripted. The same offers always seme to be put to me, by the same Nations on the Exact same years. Depending on who I play as. Has anyone else found this? In RTW it was a different experience everytime. Would the Romans conquer France? Or would the Britans wipe out the Germans? It was random. A lot of what happens in Empire seems to be scripted. Though that would not bother me so much.


My main problem with the game is the sheer buggy-ness of it. It always crashes before I can even half finish a campaign. If this was resolved, I would be content with it.

[mmk]

My main problem with the game is the sheer buggy-ness of it. It always crashes before I can even half finish a campaign. If this was resolved, I would be content with it.

That would be a start!

[kitbogha]

Having looked forward to this game for what seems like forever, I am pretty disappointed. I have spent a small fortune on new (2nd hand) pc, new graphics card, extra memory etc to even get it to work. Still I get frustrating ctds every time I try and have a battle in campaign (I can manage a battle in custom though...). Big disappoitment. So much so, that I have gone back to Kingdoms. The good side of it is that with my new system, Kingdoms runs like a dream.