Patch 1.4

**Fisherking** · 09-22-2009, 15:12

Well, I was expecting it first thing this morning but maybe it is an evening release...or steam and CA are not on the same page again.

Anyway, if anyone knows where all the fix/change info is, and once it is loaded we can all discuss what we think of it...

edit: over on shogun they said it comes out at 3 or 4 GMT, when ever turns on the faucet...then they locked the thread...

**Mechman** · 09-22-2009, 18:16

Patch is out right now, it started updating as I read the thread.

**Beskar** · 09-22-2009, 18:27

Here you go:

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

New Content

Two (2) new historical battles: Battle of Rossbach and Battle of Fontenoy. Both available in single player and multi player

Missile cavalry can now fire and reload whilst on the move

Balance Changes

Overhaul of naval balancing

Dragoons are available from higher building levels and now have fire by rank

Light Dragoons have gained longer range guns to allow them to skirmish better

Reworked cavalry costs to better reflect their value on the battlefield

Increase in cost to Windbusche Jaegers and Ferguson Rifles

Some improvements to projectile balancing

Balance improvements made to Road to Independence Episode 3

Fixes

Fix for auto unlimbering causing the attack order to terminate prematurely resulting in an inability to stop the unit from firing

Fix for troops on fort walls not using fort gun range when judging when to fire on enemy troops

Fix for fort guns using wrong targeting formula

Fixes to fort pathfinding and use of ropes

Multiplayer soft lock fixes

Fix crash in quotes table

Improved AI diplomacy

Cumulative updates to improve AI invasion behaviour

Added tooltips for alliance button in diplomacy

Bug fixes and improvements to AI counter offers

Improvements to AI diplomatic valuation of military access and alliances

Fix for wind sounds not working in naval battles

Fixed ship wakes not always working

Fixed disembarking subsets of armies and agents from navies

Fixed potential crash disembarking agents from navies

Fixed armies not being booted out of regions when losing military access gained by joining an ally in war

Improved AI diplomacy valuation of technologies

Fix for bug where general's unit for an upper class rebellion was coming from the region owning faction rather than the faction rebelling

Fixed reinforcements from unreachable positions

Fixed bug preventing disembarking

Balance of power fix for attack of opportunity

Fixed bug that was causing issues with embarking an army containing multiple characters

Minor tweak to stop some ship sails endlessly play furling sound

Fixed path blocked bug

Diplomacy counter-offer improvements

Fix for fast forward not working as intended on some PCs. Will always speed up if camera is still, if camera moves fast forward will be as fast as possible on each PC

**Slaists** · 09-22-2009, 19:02

ahem. just at a rough glance, in that list I, do not see any mention of fixing three major flaws:

1. there is no mention of fixing the AI's inability to retreat (on the campaign map and during the battle)
2. there is no mention of fixing the skirmish (skirmishing units stay with their backs to the attacker)
3. there is no mention of fixing the light infantry facing the wrong direction after moving
4. there is no mention of fixing the diplomacy relationship hits being applied when a player joins an ally

#4 was explicitly promised by CA pre-patch. Currently, not only one gets a diplo-hit for joining an ally (a design flaw), but also the whole diplo-hit trigger system is flawed. Example, Country B is a vassal of country A. Country C has a trade agreement with country B. Country C has NO agreement of ANY kind with country A. Some time in the game, country C attacks country B, breaking their trade agreement wit B. A joins the war, defending B and... gets a whooping, global diplo hit for "dishonoring treaties". Note again that A had no treaty of any kind with C...

**John Churchill** · 09-22-2009, 20:07

Slaists, regarding #4, it was a massive gripe for me too. In my first game since 1.4, as GB, Prussia declared war on Austria, and I accepted the chance to side with the Austrians. No global diplomatic hit for 'dishonouring alliances', the only damage was with Prussia for the state of war and the breaking of the trade agreement. Is that the bug you meant? (I might have misread what you posted)

**Peasant Phill** · 09-22-2009, 20:16

I've not played it yet but I started the game up once and noticed 2 things:

- The main menu has now an Indian theme. Wether this is permanent or just some advertisement for the warpath DLC is yet to be determind.

- The start-up movie played fluently for the first time since I bought the game.

With the comments so far on diplomancy, I'm actually quite hopeful.

**Slaists** · 09-22-2009, 20:21

Originally Posted by John Churchill

Slaists, regarding #4, it was a massive gripe for me too. In my first game since 1.4, as GB, Prussia declared war on Austria, and I accepted the chance to side with the Austrians. No global diplomatic hit for 'dishonouring alliances', the only damage was with Prussia for the state of war and the breaking of the trade agreement. Is that the bug you meant? (I might have misread what you posted)

No, if you had a trade agreement with Prussia and you broke it by going to war with them and that damaged your relations with Prussia only, not with Austria as it would have been pre-patch, then it's working fine now.

The bug I was talking about was the player getting a diplo hit for a trade agreement being broken among third parties. Check out the North American theater. Cherokees have a default trade agreement either with Lousiana or with the 13 Colonies (I do not have the game handy right now, so I cannot do it). If Cherokees have a trade agreement with the 13 Colonies, play as Britain and declare war on Cherokees right away; If they have it with Lousiana, play as France and do the same (declare war on Cherokees). At least in 1.3, this action would result in a global "dishonoring treaties" diplo hit (-49 or something) for Britain/France respectively despite them having no agreement of any kind with Cherokees.

The really screwed up part was that it worked in the reverse too... If Cherokees declared war on the 13 Colonies or Louisiana, Britain and France would still get the penalty when they joined their protectorates...

**KHPike** · 09-22-2009, 19:25

These are my first impressions:

1. Sadly, diplomacy is still not as ideal. The -200 penalty on declaring war on allies has instead been increased to -350! It's still quite hard reasoning with the AI at times. On the plus side, the AI seems more willing to barter peace deals with you now, and won't drive itself to suicide...On turn 10 the Barbary States offered peace for 1700 gold.

2. The game has a new revamped feel. The main menu has received some minor changes. However, what's pleasant is the game music, which has been switched to classical music (for European nations at least I think), which I feel is more fitting as music of that era.

3. The game appears to be more stable this time...it doesn't lag as much and I've had no crashes in the battles I've fought so far.

I've only played about 12 turns into version 1.4, so everything I say here may or may not be entirely correct or complete. For example, I've not yet discovered if assisting a defending ally in a war against an attacking ally will cause the increased -350 diplomatic penalty to come into effect.

The above things are simply first impressions and are intended to give the reader a feel of what to expect.

**Slaists** · 09-22-2009, 19:36

Originally Posted by KHPike

These are my first impressions:

1. Sadly, diplomacy is still not as ideal. The -200 penalty on declaring war on allies has instead been increased to -350! It's still quite hard reasoning with the AI at times. On the plus side, the AI seems more willing to barter peace deals with you now, and won't drive itself to suicide...On turn 10 the Barbary States offered peace for 1700 gold.

Well, that does not sound bad to me. One should cancel the alliance before declaring a war on an ally. Getting into a war because one ally attacks the other: that's a different matter. Europa Universalis solves that elegantly. If you join the side that has "Casus Belli", you do not get any diplo-penalty. If you join the side that does not have the "Casus Belli", you get the penalty.

**Fisherking** · 09-22-2009, 19:40

After the download completed I went in and continued a game I have as the Turks.

After the end turn I received three peace offers. The first I just excepted, the second I asked for a region and got it, the last one I asked for a trade agreement and got it. Now I don't know if anything else may be improved but at first glance this seems monumental.

**Slaists** · 09-22-2009, 19:44

Originally Posted by Fisherking

After the download completed I went in and continued a game I have as the Turks.

After the end turn I received three peace offers. The first I just excepted, the second I asked for a region and got it, the last one I asked for a trade agreement and got it. Now I don't know if anything else may be improved but at first glance this seems monumental.

Try to follow what the AI's do amongst themselves. Do they finally make peace with each other?