So what are your thoughts on how 1.5 is performing?

[Slaists]

For Slaists' points 1 and 2 i think the difficulty setting is why diplomacy is still "broken" for him. I bet he's playing on VeryHard campaign AI. I play Hard and i get way better results, no suicide nations and i can make peace deals if i am clearly stronger than my enemy.

For point 3 i too see a BIG improvement since 1.4 which is still there in 1.5. The cannons on the wall now work properly and while not killing entire squads, they do make a 120-men line infantry unit a 100-men line infantry unit which is a big advantage when they climb up the walls. And my men can shoot over the walls with their guns now, so defending a fort now really IS an advantage over fighting in the field. Also i cannot confirm that the enemy rushes straight to the center flag. I just had a defensive fort battle where the britains even attacked from multiple sides, opening the opposing sides fort doors so that their cavalry could come in.

Points 4 and 5 doesn't really bother me. Chain shot really is stronger since 1.4 but i think its okay. For me the sea battles play a lot more fluent and comprehensible.

Point 6 works perfectly on my pc. I play on relatively slow graphical settings but everything works great that way. No scroll-lagging and such...


So for me 1.5 is great so far and further improves the "tide-turner" patch 1.4. ;)

Nope, that campaign I played on the Hard setting, not Very Hard. I replayed that turn in which, after annihilating Wurtembergian army, I offered them different peace deals. In all the replays except one, I got foam-mouthy refusals. The exception was: I offered them to become my protectorate in exchange for all the cash I had at the beginning of the turn. The reply I got: we'll become your protectorate IF you give us New France!... Right... A brilliant diplomatic maneuver when a full stack of French line infantry is standing right next to Wurtemberg's capital and they have no troops left.

For the forts: I'm surprised so many people mentioning the AI attacking the fort from different sides as being an achievement of 1.4/1.5. The AI definitely WAS doing that in 1.3. Whenever the AI had sufficient manpower they came down from all the ramps (and doors). The problem was, the AI's units that hit the wall first, would be coming down first while the rest of their troops would be marching along the walls towards the back of the fort. The AI is still doing the same in 1.5 and that makes the mouse-trap possible. The player has to arrange his troops in such a manner that the AI has free access (while being shot at) to the "magic flag" from all the ramps and all the doors. By the time the AI units reach the flag (piecemel), they're already wavering or routing. Unfortunately, this definitely is still the most efficient use of forts for defense.

As to the chainshot: last night I annihilated (captured actually) the whole Dutch fleet (a 5th rate, several 6th rates, several Fluyts + some brigs) with a single 5th rate while getting only one cannon knocked out on my ship. I never had to touch the 'round shot' option. That's the same kind of CA's "battle fluency" that allows sailing ships to cruise against the wind.

As to campaign map choppiness: I have a great, new rig and I play on all ultra settings, except the unit size which I have on large. But that's not the point. I played on the same ultra settings in 1.3 and NOTHING was choppy... 1.4 erased some of the cross cpu optimization (and potential move area calculation) that was fixed wonderfully in 1.3...