Empire: Total War Screenshot Thread

**Incongruous** · 09-02-2007, 09:55

I hope they keep if not increase the size and detail of the areas. If Austria is a three province faction, Ill be sad.

**ninjahboy** · 09-02-2007, 14:11

isnt the game about colonisation? Australia will be like a colony i guess! QLD will feature if we want to use it as an invasion platform for indonesia! :P

**Monarch** · 09-02-2007, 15:35

Originally Posted by Baba Ga'on

Indeed. I mean, how fun are the battles still going to be, what with two opposing lines simply standing around and blasting away at each other

Ye and MTW/RTW is just about lining them up and slashing at each other...I also used to share the same blinkered view, but then I played the Napoleonic Total War mod...

**Noir** · 09-02-2007, 18:24

Tactics mattered a lot as well as changing formations during the battle (in game terms that is control). The main way to win was by flanking and envellopment so most of the action (as in mp) was happening at the flanks often. Cavalry would play the vital roles of harrasing the flanks and key "weak" artillery units as well as having to perform charges on depelted and weavering lines and flank charges to advancing units.

The problem is not the absence of tactics in the period chosen, the problem is how the engine and AI will cope. Napoleonic Total War 1 SP is a very well done, but extremely easy mod, because the AI cannot realy cope with this sort of warfare since his shooters are on skirmish mode while the player's are on hold formation and position often. The same was true for STW and SWs at the periods wereguns are introduced the player consistently can outperform the AI due to this inherent weakness. On the other hand NTW 1 was popular for mp as NTW 2 that was made for mp only and STW is considered by many the most balanced gameplay for mp.

These things mean that there is plenty of potential in this sort of gameplay, but that the AI as we know it so far, can't really make it happen in the SP game.

All TW engines and AI's so far were having as their Achile's heel shooters; so going on to make a new game with also another completey new component (naval battles), on a new engine (more development time) and without having shown signs of TW AI being able to handle shooters correctly, in a period were shooters dominate is a very very big risk as i pointed out in the "Happy with the decision made" thread.

CA consistently bites more than it can chew and although SP players are satisfied as long as there are good visuals, flavor and variety, you can see how low gameplay has fallen in TW in the mp game and in the levels of participation. CA has good ideas but the implementation is often rushed and incomplete.

RTW & M2TW feel like "just about lining them up and slashing at each other" as Monarch says because the units and gameplay are unbalanced and rushings are the main way to go; it could be done much differently.

Noir

**Big King Sanctaphrax** · 09-03-2007, 01:02

That looks more like the House of Commons than a throne room to me. I find the former interpretation far more exciting.

**Celt Centurion** · 09-05-2007, 03:30

Originally Posted by Furious Mental

I am an Australian. I live in Perth.

I tried for 22 years to get to Australia while in the Air Force. Closest I got was Southeast Asia.

My sons enlist in the Navy and Marine Corps, and are both there in less than a year!

Go figure!

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

**Rodion Romanovich** · 09-05-2007, 15:41

Originally Posted by Bopa the Magyar

I hope they keep if not increase the size and detail of the areas. If Asustria is a three province faction, Ill be sad.

Seconded! I'm hoping for a map with >255 province limit, possibly with say 300 in the vanilla game and 500 in some mods

Thing is, if they lift the 255 limit, the next logical limit, programming wise, is 65535

Now, obviously it won't be fun to play 200 sieges in an average campaign either. Perhaps if garrisons would automatically surrender if certain conditions are fulfilled, such as:
- total size of remaining field army forces of the faction are way smaller than the forces the player has near or inside the territories of this faction AND
- the besieged garrison has odds worse than around 8:1 AND
- some diplomatical conditions relating to his previous treatment of prisoners of war and what promises he gives to the surrendering garrison.

**Azi Tohak** · 09-06-2007, 09:09

Originally Posted by Proletariat

I agree totally, NodachiSam. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll just rampantly autoresolve through a short campaign trying different building and taxing schemes. Have you seen any campaign map shots yet? I'd like to see it as well, but haven't stumbled across any yet.

Me three! The battles will always look nice, but the closeups are useless since I don't run battles in from the max-zoom setting. The campaign map is what I find the most interesting (e.g. with M2TW).

Azi