Patch 1.4

[Fisherking]

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]

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

[Beskar]

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]

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...

[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.

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]

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]

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]

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?

[Beskar]

urgh, damn AI keeps demanding Cylon for me, in return for a peace treaty. (early game UP)

Usually, I go to grab Flanders asap, then I usually offer a peace treaty and they take it. Now, they want Cylon in return. Damn gits, they aren't getting it.

[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)

[Peasant Phill]

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]

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...

[Beskar]

I take back what I said before, France did something new. It actualy built and fielded an army just for invading Flanders within a few turns.

I am enjoying a big battle in Flanders right now, my defense was weak as I never expected this attack, luckily however, they right out of movement points just infront of Flanders town, which allowed me a turn to move a garrison from Amsterdam to reinforce the position, which got intercepted, but luckily inrange of my army at Flanders to back me up. Using some tactcs, I managed to disable the French's artillery, and using the field, I turned what was a me = top+bottom versus France into the middle with a West versus East, with Terrain at my advantage.

So my gripe about Ceylon is gone now, because I thought the AI would have just stand there for ages and they would never accept peace, but now... they are fighting.

[Beskar]

Also, in-battle AI seems improved as well, I wasn't sure what the AI was going to do, for a moment, thought it was bugging, but instead, it is showing some intelligence. When I was moving troops into position, it kept attacking those on the flanks, etc, without the support and putting pressure on me, and it withdraw troops, and now they set up defensive line on the other side, it is kinda funny, because it looks like Trench-warfare (in this case, fence-warfare) just resulted from this battle opposed to American Civil War.

[Sheogorath]

The seals are broken, the trumpets sounded, and the horsemen have ridden.

I'll have to see how it works out for me. My biggest complaint is that my mods probably aren't going to work now.

[Fisherking]

I have not noticed peace between AI nations being made, but I didn't take a close look before so I can not be sure that they don't.

The serious player hatred seems to be gone though and I have nations coming to me asking for alliances and trade agreements.

I went from being at war with almost every bordering faction to being at peace with everyone (my choice). Even Russia made peace and gave up the Crimea and I got a trade agreement!

I actually have some cash and I am turtling in the game for the first time ever! The year is 1729.

Things are not all a bed of roses. My economy is improving but most regions are on the verge of rebellion and the only decent troops I had were the ones going at it with the Russians and the Persians. I don’t have any of the required regions other than the ones I started with and trade goods are at rock bottom prices. I may be able to build some trade ships now and see what the pirates are doing and get a glimpse of what the naval balance is now.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

You can now see the composition of enemy armies and fleets by clicking on them. You don't see their strength but at least you know what kind of units you are up against.

[Vlad Tzepes]

How about naval battles? Have they been... "overhauled" as promised?

[peacemaker]

These diplomatic results are promising and I'm itching to get my game downloaded so I can play. Has anyone tried sending fleets to the trade nodes? How are the pirates doing? I'm planning to try to turtle my way through a campaign again, but this time how will the trade be different?

Also, will the campaign be easier on VH like before(at least on campaign)? I remember always playing on VH resulted in me getting loads of cash.

Fingers crossed

[Servius]

I thought I had read in an earlier dev post that they were fixing the CAI such that, if an enemy nation put a ship in the AI's port, the AI would send a land unit to push it out. The Barbary Pirates have always been excellent at this. They often remember to leave at least 1 unit in the port to ensure I can't just slip back in the next turn. While I can still blockade the port, at least it keeps my ships vulnerable by being outside the port and prevents my ships from cause damage to the port.

Unfortunately, no other nation seemed to be able to figure this trick out. I'm hoping the Barbary Pirate's tendency has spread to all other AI factions.

Has anyone seen evidence of the AI sending land units to push enemy vessels out of its harbors?

[Durallan]

Has anyone seen if Protectorates are now counted as territories that you own?

[Graphic]

Has anyone else noticed the units yelling orders now? Like when you have fire by rank they say Ready, aim, FIRE, ready, aim FIRE. Really cool touch!

I haven't got far enough in a new campaign to notice AI making peace with eachother, but they do offer peace to me and they do make alliances with eachother now.

It's also a big eary for cross-theater invasions to be showing up but I'll keep an eye out.

[peacemaker]

Well, after a bit of troubleshooting after the patch not letting ETW boot up(crash at startup), it works okay now.

Has anyone else noticed the units yelling orders now? Like when you have fire by rank they say Ready, aim, FIRE, ready, aim FIRE. Really cool touch!

I booted up one quick 1v1 between two infantry. Mine were constantly yelling; it was as if they had their own cheering squad

What I've noticed after 1 turn of playing, the AI seems more willing with diplomacy-I got trade requests easily with the ottomans and the marathas(playing as the french), although the nations which seemed "hostile" were reluctant to agree.

From the end of the first turn, one DOW only-from the UP. Luckily, I grouped together the starting army (is it just me or did they change up the starting armies? I've noticed less pikemen than before).

Also, some of the starting tech is different. I remember France used to start with common land enclosures, and now they have physiocracy when I started. Am I wrong?

End of turn 2, and I get 2 more DOW's-from the native americans.
Sidenote:The starting menu is orange now, with a picture of some native americans and a little thing in the corner advertising the new expansion.
Anyway, turn 2 DOW from the native americans. The iroquois immediately send an army of a general, two bowmen, and two warriors versus my ragtag army of militia and a few cannons/cavalry. It's getting late so I stopped playing there but the auto-resolve seemed mostly fair, although slightly tilted in the enemy's favor.


Congratulations CA, so far you seemed to have fixed this game and if the game stays this great for the rest of a campaign I'll most likely be getting the expansion

[Graphic]

This patch is awesome. I've seen on other boards some dorks are talking about the supposed return of the dreaded "melee bug." Not even close, and all it takes is 5 minutes of testing to see what's going on.

The AI will shoot it out with you until it's no longer viable. If you're ripping them to shreds, they're not just going to stand there like idiots and drop dead one by one until there's only 10 guys left and they run away. They will rush in and try to cut it up.

I noticed something truly extraordinary when I gave an identical force 3 veterancy levels and left mine normal: Not only did they stand and shoot it out, but once the line unit in my center broke and ran, two units from their center immediately ran into the gap and exploited it, attacking the exposed flanks in melee! I'm not sure but I think the AI might have focus fired on the center unit in order to cause that gap. Truly awesome.

I'm so stoked right now.

[Durallan]

nice! what difficulty settin was that at?

[peacemaker]

Well, it turns out I had slightly more time so I continued playing. (playing as france)
I ended up having to fight off iroquois invaders immediately after their DOW.

My men:
1 general
1 cannon
2 citizenry
1 light infantry? whatever the french stuff is (coeurs de boix or something)
1 militia

Their army:
1 general
2 bowmen
2 native warriors

The first time, they charged one of my citizenry with everything, and then moved that charge to my next unit, and next unit, and so forth. I lost, but seeing as I hadn't played in a while and I was testing stuff out, I reloaded and set up this time.

The things I noticed about the second go at this:

-The cavalry and infantry were doing a good job of leaping over fences at angles, so there was only one stragglign pony.

-The light infantry didn't seem to want to hide, even though they were sitting around inside a forest.

-The enemy army was moving cohesively, working together to tie up extra units and shoot my guys in the back with arrows

-Enemy bowmen seemed to occasionally stop and form up into nice even lines, then continue firing

-Roundshot on cannons was completely useless against infantry; They were all bottlenecked to get through some buildings and I fired a few salvos straight into the mob. Not a single casualty. It seemed to do less damage to cavalry than before.

-After routing cavalry with some roundshot and a few shots from infantry, the Tribal Chief screamed RETREAT! in a very english accent. Just an observation.

-Here's the big problem so far. The enemy army seemed to love to chase my general, and they chased him around the map. I managed to get a few shots from infantry as I ran a circle, and then they were exhausted when I moved my cavalry behind my infantry. The infantry fired a volley and everyone routed.

-When the melee *almost* happened, I wasn't paying attention to my general who was standing still. The 2 units of bowmen took out about 8 of my cavalry within a few seconds.


After that battle was over, Wurtemberg DOW'd me. This made sense to me; They had around 5-ish units within walking distance of Alsace-Lorraine which was at the time undefended. They seemed reluctant, though, and decided against it. This of course gave me time to hurry reinforcements over there, and I feel as if a bloody battle for that territory will come in the next few turns.

On the dutch end, my army marching to seize the netherlands has shown that the netherlands have raised their original garrison by a large amount since DOW'ing me and Spain.


Miscellaneous stuff:

-There was no alt+tab that wanted to work

-in a 1v1 infantry fight, the enemy unit seemed to start, stop, start, stop, constantly.

-The barbary pirates immediately sent out some light galleys to capture my Mediterranean port as well as the Spanish port.

-Still a problem like the other games-If the barbary pirates (or any other fleet for that matter) were to invade your port, you need to send a ground unit to push them out. I think it's silly that a light galley can hold a port against 2 brigs. Similarly, a unit of pikemen should not be able to hold back an entire armada.



That's about it for 3 turns; I have to say I am very pleased with the patch. I haven't seen a single DOW between other nations except for the Russia vs Sweden one, which happened on turn 1 or 2.

[Graphic]

nice! what difficulty settin was that at?

Normal. I wanted it to be even except for the vet bonus.

[Durallan]

Yay! that sounds awesome :D

[Durallan]

I am Over the Moon with joy to announce that Protectorates now count towards your Victory Conditions! Hoorah! (not double post or post counting posted last post an hour ago)

[Peasant Phill]

Why would the 'melee-bug' be in again or why not?
What evidence is there to (dis)prove this?