Napoleon: Total War (Official Expansion Thread)

[Tsavong]

I found a link to this at the TWCenter, GameSpot Napoleon: Total War Impressions

Best of all, owners of Empire will be able to upgrade their existing game with the new Napoleon engine, giving Empire a new visual lease on life.

If true it seems good news.

[Fisherking]

Whoopee, so you can see the men’s faces now. How very exciting in a game add-on when the game is still very lacking in function and more importantly, enjoyment...

Fix what’s wrong without breaking more stuff before you hype another title to us, okay.

[antisocialmunky]

I found a link to this at the TWCenter, GameSpot Napoleon: Total War Impressions



If true it seems good news.

Okay, that's alot better since we won't have a split mod community and hopefully any new AI enhancements and naval combat features carry over too.

[Sol Invictus]

I won't believe anything until I read about it actually being in the released game. All these vague promises and possible features mean nothing.

[Beskar]

I remember when all the reviewers were giving E:TW 100/100 before patch 1 when the game didn't even load for 90% of the player base.

[Sheogorath]

I remember when all the reviewers were giving E:TW 100/1000 before patch 1 when the game didn't even load for 90% of the player base.

I think %10 might be considered a very fair review by some people :P

But I'd say it was more like 1/3 of the user base that couldn't load the game at all.

[pevergreen]

The vocal ones came and complained, for those that it worked, they didnt.

How it has been, how it always shall be.

[Mailman653]

So.....are we going to have to still buy NTW to update ETW to the newer graphical improvements, or will this be featured in a 1.5 or 1.6 patch?

[Monk]

L4D2 will be compatible with L4D. Obviously not new content, but still.

As my post above yours somewhere says, the IGN article states it is a new game, the evolution in the series.

So this thread title is wrong.

A stand-alone expansion can still add content to the original game (Dawn of war and Dark Crusade, for instance). The stand-alone aspect just means it comes with the core files so people won't need to buy ETW to have it, they will just sacrifice in content in some areas if they don't. "Stand alone addons" are still considered expansions, so the title is fine.

I think it's telling the reactions of many within the community, I've already outlined my feelings as to why in the "How much would you pay" thread and my feelings have not changed. When I bought ETW i knew it was buggy, but I stuck with it because I knew how much potential it had. CA, you surprised me by keeping at the patching process despite the difficulty and pledged to continue to patch. But when you made that pledge I didn't expect to be facing down the reveal of (what amounts to) a $40 patch hardly five months later. IMO making N:TW a stand-alone when E:TW is still so new was a huge mistake.

Also, I'd like to post a friendly reminder to my fellow Orgahs. Lets keep the focus on ETW and N:TW and not CA, putting words in their mouth and putting specific devs on the spot won't get us the answers we seek.

[antisocialmunky]

I don't think that they could get away with this sort of thing withey didn't hold such a monopoly on the niche genre.

Oh well, depending on how it connects together, it might work out pretty well. Supreme Commander had the same thing with a standalone expansion and that completely fixed a ton of things and made the game balanced.

[pevergreen]

Napoleon Total War will build on the engine and framework of Empire Total War, but will add a whole host of new features and extra touches that the developers didn't have time to include in the first game. Kieran Brigden, Communications Manager at Creative Assembly, explains: "The way that Total War development works is we do a kind of evolution-revolution cycle. We create revolutionary technology for one title - in this case Empire, which had a brand new engine written from the ground up - and all new AI. Then, for the next game, we take that technology and evolve it - in this case with Napoleon. We've taken everything we've achieved with Empire and Empire's engine and just pushed it to the limit. Napoleon is essentially the culmination of what we wanted to do with Empire, given the time to take it further."

Bold is what I'm referring to, underline is the part that will anger people.

[edyzmedieval]

Lovely, a 50$ patch after 5 months. Great job CA. *applauds ironically*

[Nebuchadnezzar]

The vocal ones came and complained, for those that it worked, they didnt.

How it has been, how it always shall be.

Actually you have it reversed. Most that have problems never bother to register on a forum and just toss it aside and move on to another game. Thats how it is with items costing less than $100. Thats how its always been and always shall be.

I think %10 might be considered a very fair review by some people :P

But I'd say it was more like 1/3 of the user base that couldn't load the game at all.

Online polls seem to suggest otherwise, that is if they lasted long enough to be meaningfull before being removed by mods. They vary from between 40 - 50% but in reality this figure would most likely be higher.

[Beskar]

I think %10 might be considered a very fair review by some people :P

But I'd say it was more like 1/3 of the user base that couldn't load the game at all.

I meant 100/100, add an extra zero by accident. What I am saying, the reviewers knew nothing of what they were doing.

[Sheogorath]

Online polls seem to suggest otherwise, that is if they lasted long enough to be meaningfull before being removed by mods. They vary from between 40 - 50% but in reality this figure would most likely be higher.

%50 or %33, both are unacceptable, but all too common these days. I wasn't suggesting that CA was in the clear for making a broken game, just that %99 was a bit hyperbolic.

I meant 100/100, add an extra zero by accident. What I am saying, the reviewers knew nothing of what they were doing.

I know, I was just playing around. And I agree. I have to ask myself if there was something going on behind the scenes in that case.

Of course, just about any hyped game is going to get at least a 90 in every major review forum, so it doesn't matter much :\

[Beskar]

What was funny was the IGN Prototype review. You must really think there are sometimes backhanders or something, because in the review, it sounds like they didn't give any at all and the reviewer was pretty much:
"I don't even review this genre."
"I wish I could put this down and walk away, but I have to review this as part of my job"
"going around mincing civilians into bloody mess, it is just a tad too much fun for me."

To make it even funnier, Activision used the quote "...a tad too much fun." to sell their game.

[antisocialmunky]

Its official:

Napoleon is a standalone game due out in February 2010, but it will also integrate into Empire, adding units and new tech trees appropriately as the timeline progresses. The first video can be found on Eurogamer TV.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/na...preview?page=2

Its a $20-30 patch. That's not too bad. Still won't buy it day one though.

PS. Did anyone rewatch the trailer and realize it was alternate time line where Napolean defeats Russian and invades Britain? He's burning HMS Victory :-p.

[pevergreen]

This is ok then, its a Dark Crusade to Dawn of War. A stand alone that is really an expansion.

We can relax. It wont be $100 for pever.

[Furunculus]

Jack, what i really want to know is whether this new "standalone" expansion will upgrade the ETW?

I want to know this because i hate being dependent on Steam for updates and patches, so what i really want is an ETW Gold Edition with all patches applied on install.

Will this be the case?

Cheers.

[pevergreen]

Define upgrade.

See the post two above your own for a likely answer.

[Veho Nex]

Is anyone else disturbed by the lack of a french accent until he said his name?

[Martok]

Not nearly as much as I am by the (as yet) unfixed Black Knight AI. Until the game's major flaws are corrected, I won't worry about the minor ones (however irksome they may be).

[pevergreen]

Man, no one reads my posts.

[Monsieur Louris]

Even if they manage to resurrect Napoleon himself, use his brain to code NTW's AI out of it and slap 100,000 troops on screen I'd still find it difficult to get NTW. ETW showed the direction that they are taking so my consumer trust as well as gaming preferences are worlds apart from what I've seen.

[antisocialmunky]

Perhaps we should do waht the Lordz did and make our own studio :-p.

[HopAlongBunny]

If Lordz are still producing mods, I'll wait until they get it.

A CA title reworked by them is something to get excited about.

[pevergreen]

You do realise it will be completely their own engine, and will not be Total War like E:TW.

Reverse engineering is not a good thing.

[Meneldil]

Will I find some of the complaining a bit too harsh, I'm also puzzled by the annoucement.

ETW hadn't been shiped with the MP campaign. It's definitely not the most moddable TW game ever. The AI ranges from bad (battles) to freaking horrible (diplomacy). The naval battles are lame.

Now, we learn that NTW is soon to be released, and that it will be freaking awesome, fix all that was wrong with ETW and what not? It almost look like ETW was a beta test for NTW.

And please, don't get rid of India and the America. The US played an important role diplomatically and economically, and Napoleon's grand scheme when he invaded Egypt was to get a foothold in India. And I'm not even talking about the 1812 war (which is widely regarded as a part of the napoleonic conflicts), Louisiana

[antisocialmunky]

Don't forget about Jamaica, mon.

[Sheogorath]

It'll be interesting to see how they price NTW. If it's full price, I will, of course, be suitably outraged. I might consider it for $20, though.

What I'd REALLY like to see would NTW made available at greatly reduced price to people who already HAVE ETW. Like, %50-%75 off. Just sell the game in two editions, one with all the required content for the game, the other with just the files required to mod ETW to Napoleon.

I dunno if that's doable, but it'd be nice and would help alleviate some of the 'ETW was a beta test and now CA wants to rip us off again.' feeling.