A New Patch, New Problems

[d1ng0d0g]

Well I just got the new patch and the first few problems already arose, that were not present in the last patch.

* Loading times are like the unpatched version. Slow and tedious. But I can live with that, I'm patient.

* Resource hog. The game is incredibly slow.

* No Alt-Tabbing. It crashes the game horribly.

***

Good point, cannons actually seem to be able to hit the broad side of the barn now. And the range of fire is indicated in a red outline, so you won't stare yourself blind when trying to figure out whether a unit can shoot. That's all.

[FactionHeir]

Never mananaged to alt+tab/ctrl+esc ever in ETW once you have ended the turn or played a battle. Only works right when you load a campaign and haven't done much. Very annoying.

[Marquis of Roland]

1st crash, 1704 Prussian 1 general and 6 line infantry vs. P-L 1 pike, 1 regiment of horse, 1 general, and 1 militia in an open field with a few walls. Appears to be a memory leak

[jsberry]

When was the patch? All last weekend, I couldn't finish a turn without a crash. Is it just me?

[d1ng0d0g]

The patch came out roughly today, spread out all over the world. I think that I could get the patch around 17:30 CEST. But I heard that others got it at different times.

[Didz]

I give up, its impossible to get a decent game out of this AI, I've just wasted another 4 hours trying to dodge the random DOW's and I've had enough.

[Sheogorath]

Good point, cannons actually seem to be able to hit the broad side of the barn now. And the range of fire is indicated in a red outline, so you won't stare yourself blind when trying to figure out whether a unit can shoot. That's all.

I've noticed this too. Instead of killing 1 unit per ten shots, cannons now seem to take out at least one unit per shot.

Not exactly ideal, but small steps are good, even if giant leaps would be better.

@Beskar
I think it's 'stop blaming Steam and CA and start blaming Sega.'

[Wausser]

Since the new patch, the game hangs on me after 5-10. My screen just turns black and the sound freezes. The only thing I can do is reset.

[Delosian]

I can't load my saved games without it crashing. It only just happened, the 1.3 patch was already installed and then I saved it, now I cannot reload those games (the saved games before 1.3 patch was installed load perfectly). I don't have the DLC unit pack installed.

This is the crash message:

AppName: empire.exe AppVer: 1.3.0.0 ModName: empire.exe
ModVer: 1.3.0.0 Offset: 00798d52

[Beskar]

@Beskar
I think it's 'stop blaming Steam and CA and start blaming Sega.'

Hah, while I might accept that Sega's idea to have DLC, I think CA are the ones who programme the game, thus, they are the ones not sorting the bugs out.

Empire: Total War is the only game, I admit, I have seen where there are so many problems. Most games are usually over-hyped saying they got more than what is there but Empire: Total War isn't necessarily have that as the case, it has been all the break downs and other things that occurred.

[Daveybaby]

Finally got around to trying the new patch last night. Have to agree with the OP, the loading times seem to have increased, and the game actually feels less responsive than it did before, e.g. there is now a noticable delay between clicking the turn button and anything actually happening. Same thing with telling units to run in battles, so that i end up doing it twice and they end up walking again. This is weird, because pre-patch everything was running just fine, with pretty much everything on highest settings.

Also after about 10-15 minutes play my PC will suddenly just shut down, no warning. Although it does play that nice little windows shutdown jingle so it's obviously doing it properly and not crashing. And there aren't any errors in the system logs. This is very weird. And very, very annoying.

Gameplay feels much improved though. Well, combat does, anyway. Difficult to tell if the strategic/diplomatic game is any better, because i havent managed to keep the game running for long enough to find out.

[Sheogorath]

Hah, while I might accept that Sega's idea to have DLC, I think CA are the ones who programme the game, thus, they are the ones not sorting the bugs out.

Empire: Total War is the only game, I admit, I have seen where there are so many problems. Most games are usually over-hyped saying they got more than what is there but Empire: Total War isn't necessarily have that as the case, it has been all the break downs and other things that occurred.

Aye, but it's (to my knowledge) accepted that it was Sega that had the game thrown out on its head, ensuring that not only did it not get a running start, but was a bit stunned when the starting gun went off.
I gather CA wanted to delay again, which, all things considered, wasnt a bad idea :P

[Husar]

I hear one of the problems is that they have to reserve shelf space in stores etc, it's not like they can just hand a few packages around when they want to release a game, a Steam-only release might make such things a bit easier but I hear some people aren't very fond of Steam and certainly more were not before they got ETW...
And then of course Sega does other calculations we may not be that aware of.

[Luddite]

I haven't installed the latest patch yet, as it has been out for a few days is it worth getting or is there not much point upgrading from 1.2?

(I am not bothered about the free units as I guess they are still going available in subsequent patches)

[Skott]

Aye, but it's (to my knowledge) accepted that it was Sega that had the game thrown out on its head, ensuring that not only did it not get a running start, but was a bit stunned when the starting gun went off.
I gather CA wanted to delay again, which, all things considered, wasnt a bad idea :P

Funny how short people's memories are. M2TW had many bugs at launch. RTW had many bugs at launch. Now ETW has had many bugs at launch. CA has a long history of a buggy game launching. Its not just Sega IMO that is the problem. I'm sure Sega isnt helping the situation with their supposed deadline demands but if the developer (CA) is passing on a buggy or unfinished/polished game then they need to stand up and take responsibility for it.

[Skott]

One thing I've noticed during battles is that when using the fast forward to speed things up it all just seems like its not as fast as it used to be. At first I just thought it was just me but the more I use FF post patch the more I'm convinced its been changed. Anyone else notice this? Maybe the units movement speed has been lowered and thats what makes FF seem slower?

[Sheogorath]

Funny how short people's memories are. M2TW had many bugs at launch. RTW had many bugs at launch. Now ETW has had many bugs at launch. CA has a long history of a buggy game launching. Its not just Sega IMO that is the problem. I'm sure Sega isnt helping the situation with their supposed deadline demands but if the developer (CA) is passing on a buggy or unfinished/polished game then they need to stand up and take responsibility for it.

MTW2 was nowhere NEAR as bad as ETW on launch. Yes, CA does release imperfect products, but generally they work. It's the difference between a Ford and half of a Ford welded to half a Hyundai.