Has anything really changed from CA?

[Dayve]

Whew, I've been waiting a week for my ban to be lifted so i could post this.

No. Nothing from CA has changed. I haven't played Empire for more than 20 minutes per session in about a month now. I see my neighbours declaring war on me simply because we share a border, and i see them sending army after army, despite them being thoroughly destroyed each time. I see enemies accepting peace and trade, only to declare war by occupying one of my towns or farms with a unit of militia the very next turn. I see allies, who my nation has been the best of friends with, has given gifts to, has helped them in their time of need (which is always, because the AI is dumb, and when they're your allies it seems to be even dumber), declare war on me for no apparent reason, and absolutely refuse peace, no matter what.

I see my enemy throwing its cavalry at the front of my line, or sacrificing every single unit of cavalry it has, including its general, trying to take out a single unit of useless Sakers or Demi-Cannons that don't even have canister shot, i see my enemies sending single units of infantry at my line to be ripped to shreds from a volley from 4 units, then sending another single unit when that one runs away decimated, i see it wasting all its money on gigantic navies of trash ships like sloops and building high level shipyards but never having the money to build decent ships because it doesn't know how disband the crap ones now it no longer needs them, good heavens, i could sit here all day and whine.

Honeymoon period with this game has well and truly wore off for me, and I'm 100% dissatisfied. I'm absolutely convinced they have ported the abysmal AI over from Rome and Medieval II and thrown it into this games code, because it's absolutely no improvement whatsoever over those games, and in many cases mimics the AI of those games, as even you die hard fans of this game will have to admit.

I honest to god hope that 6 months, or 10 months, or 1 year from now, this game will be patched and will resemble what we were promised we would be given, but I'm going to say it won't. And now they're trying to buy people off with adding new units. There are more pressing issues than new units. At this point i wouldn't give a damn if each faction had totally identical units wearing the same colour uniforms and speaking in the same accent if CA would just fix the ******* game!

[AussieGiant]

Thanks for sharing Dayve.

[Didz]

I have to agree with Dayve here, as far as I can see very little has improved other than the graphic's and a lot of things have actually got worse such as the 'fire at will' not working, the random declarations of war, and more recently I notice the fog effects are actually less convincing in this game than they were is Shogun.

I'm still playing it and looking for work arounds but it needs a lot of work from CA to bring it up to a decent standard as a stategy game.

[Dayve]

Thanks for sharing Dayve.

I don't hang around your diehard fanboy posts that defend every aspect of the game and make sarcastic comments about them, so i would be grateful if you returned that favour.

I wonder if i would have the right to sue CA for my money back on the grounds of advertisement fraud, and me not receiving the product that was advertised. I'll have to look into this.

[Didz]

I wonder if i would have the right to sue CA for my money back on the grounds of advertisement fraud, and me not receiving the product that was advertised. I'll have to look into this.

You're welcome to try but I attempted something similar against Blizzard over the misrepresentation of the World of Warcraft European Collectors Edition and didn't get very far. Both the UK and European trading standards departments agreed that the product was faulty and that Blizzard had deliberately sold me the product knowing it didn't work and were therefore guilty of fraud. Even HMV who I bought the game from agreed that it was a faulty product and offered me my money back. But nobody would take any action against Blizzard and doing so alone would have cost too much money. In the end I left it with the consumer protection agencies and never heard a thing back.

[Dayve]

Yeah, game companies bank on the fact that the regular player, no matter how disgruntled, don't have the money to take serious legal action against them, and i certainly don't have the money to take any legal action whatsoever, but CA have committed gross advertising fraud with this product, and what i bought was certainly nothing like what was advertised and what was promised i was getting for my money, so I know for a fact that i am entitled at least to my money back.

It's no different to me buying a brand new, never worn T-shirt from eBay, then getting it and it's 2 sizes smaller than the advertisement, has worn fabric and stains all over it and has clearly been worn. False advertising, or advertisement fraud.

[AussieGiant]

I don't hang around your diehard fanboy posts that defend every aspect of the game and make sarcastic comments about them, so i would be grateful if you returned that favour.

I wonder if i would have the right to sue CA for my money back on the grounds of advertisement fraud, and me not receiving the product that was advertised. I'll have to look into this.

Me, a diehard fanboy, defending every aspect of the game??

Get of the grass Dayve.

You went on a rant and I chose to bait you a bit, which you took, so sorry for that.

To sue CA will not do much, I'd recommend simply not purchasing their next product or any of their products. That's the best solution.

They've certainly not delivered on one major point, and that was the AI's ability to fight retreats and correlate the strategic situation with the tactical situation which they said they were going to deliver.

As for the rest, they've given it a fairly good shake and are currently still working on it. I'll wait to deliver final verdict until the last patch is out. Seems only fair to me.

However, I just can't see certain people here ever being satisfied with the game no matter what happens.

[Dayve]

No, i knew you were baiting. If I'd took it and said what i wanted to say, i'd just get banned again, there are mods here who are watching every little thing i say right now and are simply dying to ban me for life.

Of course i went on a rant. CA have committed advertisement fraud and i feel scammed. I want my money back damnit.

[Dayve]

Also, sorry for double posting buy junior members can't edit posts but i know there are people here who will never be satisfied with the game, and seem to bash CA as if it's a hobby of theirs, and I'm not one of those people. If you look back at my posts here from the day ETW was released until present you will see that i have both defended and criticized the game, and even told people who were exaggerating their criticism to tone it down and be realistic, otherwise nobody will take any notice of them.

And I'll continue to do that. There are improvements on this game from Rome and Medieval, such as diplomacy. There are more options, diplomacy is overall much better than Rome and Medieval, the problem is that the AI doesn't know how to use it, so the diplomacy overhaul is entirely pointless. That's just one example.

However, like i said, the honeymoon period for me has well and truly wore off, and my attitude toward this game is becoming more sour by the day, no matter how many things i tell myself have improved from Rome and M2.

[Didz]

My advice would be to do one of two things.

a) Take the game back to the shop and demand your money back. It clearly doesn't perform to specification and the shop doesn't have a leg to stand on. If they give you any hassle demand to know the name of the manager, then write to him explaining why the product doesn't meet spec and ask for a refund.

b) If he doesn't give you your money back, or if you don't want to part with the game report then report the whole thing to Trading Standards. Thats what I did. Remember to contact both your national consumer protection organisation and the European Trading Standards agency. I actually found the EU one more interested, but that might have been because Blizzard were based in France.

Remember to keep copies of all correspondence, just in case it goes to court, and remember to get the names of the people you talk to on the phone or by email and always confirm conversions in writing afterwards.

If it does go to court remember that you are not just entitled to your money back, but you may also be able to claim damages, so don't forget to ask. A judge forced to try one of these cases is going to be pretty annoyed and in my expereince they will award hefty damages against any company that makes them sit through a trial, just to get their own back.

I had a friend who took a shoe shop to court becuase they would not give her a refund for a £50 pair of shoes, and the judge was so annoyed he awarded her £500 pecunary damages, just for wasting his time. You should have seen the shop managers jaw drop.