Total PC Gaming Preview

[Templar Knight]

Did anyone see the preview/interview in this months Total PC Gaming?

No new land battle screens but some nice naval ones.

Also there appears to be a new 'throne room' in the form of a parliament, your government gives you missions.

They also said, wait for it..... a release date of March 2008, and they said that Empire is 75% complete, however TotalWar.com has announced this is rubbish.

Maybe March 2009....

www.totalpcgaming.com

[Mailman653]

Ooooh...prototype interface, looks nice to see what an ingame shot looks like those ships look amazing.

As for March 09.......

[Cecil XIX]

I'd be happy if they took their time. Lord knows MII:TW could have used some more.

[Captain Fishpants]

We're still trying to work out where March 2008 and "75% complete" came from. Yes, the game looks quite good (so that might have caused a little confusion), but it's still early days yet. Perhaps we should put this down to enthusiasm on someone's part, somewhere in the great editorial chain of being!

[Templar Knight]

I posted the question at their forums Captain Fishpants, he claims sources in Sega told him Q1 back in October.

[Vuk]

We're still trying to work out where March 2008 and "75% complete" came from. Yes, the game looks quite good (so that might have caused a little confusion), but it's still early days yet. Perhaps we should put this down to enthusiasm on someone's part, somewhere in the great editorial chain of being!

Or either that, it is what you are hoping for and someone slipped with the info.
Oh well...

[Templar Knight]

Here is the exact words:

...according to my trustworthy sources at Sega and CA, they're aiming for a Q1 release, which is why I plumped for as late in Q1 as I possibly could.

Sure, you have to take that with a pinch of salt as details like that are always subject to change, but then that's the nature of a preview.

I quoted the news on totalwar.com that said the mag was wrong and he said:

Ha! I stand officially corrected then!

Seriously, I wrote this about a month ago with the information I was given at the time. Embarrassing, but understandable, surely?

[Jack Lusted]

Or either that, it is what you are hoping for and someone slipped with the info.
Oh well...

The game is still pre-alpha atm, we are not aiming for a March release date, that info is not true.

[Vuk]

The game is still pre-alpha atm, we are not aiming for a March release date, that info is not true.

lol, k. ;)
That is good to hear. Take as long as you need. :) (looking at those screens, I'd think you would have to be rushing it out pretty quickly to make that release date. :P)

[Shahed]

Did anyone see the preview/interview in this months Total PC Gaming?

No new land battle screens but some nice naval ones.

Also there appears to be a new 'throne room' in the form of a parliament, your government gives you missions.

They also said, wait for it..... a release date of March 2008, and they said that Empire is 75% complete, however TotalWar.com has announced this is rubbish.

Maybe March 2009....

www.totalpcgaming.com

Is the link correct ? It's giving me a 404.

[marrow]

Is the link correct ? It's giving me a 404.

Under construction, apparently. Cheers

[Templar Knight]

Hmm, its working for me

[Captain Fishpants]

Or either that, it is what you are hoping for and someone slipped with the info.
Oh well...

Is there any point in coming here - as one of the developers who is actually working to create this game - to post information that corrects a rumour if I'm then second-guessed about what I really mean?

Thought not. Carry on believing whatever you want.

Sigh.

[TinCow]

Is there any point in coming here - as one of the developers who is actually working to create this game - to post information that corrects a rumour if I'm then second-guessed about what I really mean?

Thought not. Carry on believing whatever you want.

Sigh.

Don't be offended. I think it's a natural bias against people with fish in their pants. I knew a guy once with a mackerel in his trousers and no one trusted him either.

[methoz]

not in anouncet - 2008 ??? omg

[Divinus Arma]

Captain Fishpants:

I think I can speak for almost every loyal fan of the series, please take your time!!!

This is a HUGE change in the series, and while most of us are thrilled, we want to see the amazing potential of this new era realized.


I for one can wait as long as necessary. End of 2008? Great. 2009? No problem. It'll just give me time to save for yet another new computer to play this one.

[hellenes]

Captain Fishpants:

I think I can speak for almost every loyal fan of the series, please take your time!!!

This is a HUGE change in the series, and while most of us are thrilled, we want to see the amazing potential of this new era realized.


I for one can wait as long as necessary. End of 2008? Great. 2009? No problem. It'll just give me time to save for yet another new computer to play this one.

RTW was released 1 year later than it was supposed...the devs stated themselves in an interview...didnt improve the 1.0 version at all...

[ninjahboy]

wow, the new screenies are looking great so far!

[Vladimir]

Is there any point in coming here - as one of the developers who is actually working to create this game - to post information that corrects a rumour if I'm then second-guessed about what I really mean?

Thought not. Carry on believing whatever you want.

Sigh.

Welcome to the internet?

[Dutch_guy]

I think that following the trend of the game releases, with M2 being released Q4 of 2006, and Rome Q4 2004, we can safely assume Empire will be released around Q4 of 2008, or sometime in Q1 of 2009. Needless to say, the aforementioned is deduced from previous experiences, and is by no means certain. I imagine the addition of Naval warfare, and with that the need to significantly change the engine in its current form, will take up a lot of time - which can of course push the release back to somewhere in 2009.

[Puzz3D]

I'm not certain of the division, AU or UK, but as I recall:

STW UK Q2 2000
MTW AU Q3 2002
RTW UK Q3 2004
M2TW AU Q4 2006

The release dates have been slipping about 2 months with each release. RTW had a large patching effort which might impact the release date of ETW.

[Shahed]

Hi guys, can someone please post me a link to the screenshots in that totalpcgaming link. It's not working for me, maybe some DNS issue or I dunno what. Tried clearing the cache and all. Would appreciate it.

[Templar Knight]

Try this Sinan: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/media_screenshots.html

[Shahed]

Thanks Templar ! That worked ! It looks BEAUTIFUL.
Hope it has DEPTH as well as good looks.

Captain Fishpants, I'm guessing you guys have gone through all the naval games. If you have'nt one I'd highly recommend trying out is Silent Hunter 3, unmodded first, for simplicity. Then modded with the GWX (Grey Wolves X) unofficial modification expansion pack. The reason why I'm mentioning this is that you can get a lot of ideas about hydrophysics (bouyancy etc) from this game and particulary form this modification to that game. Even though the game is set in WW2, the basics of the physics engine can probably be of help to you.

Best of luck with the new title !

[Csargo]

Sinan your sig is HUGE.

[Shahed]

Same as always, 400*150 <10Kb. Maybe looks larger because of the subject.

[Csargo]

Looks fine now. Wonder if it's because I'm on a different computer.

[HarunTaiwan]

Why worry about release dates? I did for RTW and was disappointed.

For MTW2, I ignored the hype and waited to about 9-12 months after release...then I could get an actual finished product with the 1.5 patches they begrudge us, plus the fan created mod that makes the game somewhat playable. (LTC)

Still like the series, but now I am wiser in when I purchase and thus avoid much of the disappointment.

[Puzz3D]

That prototype interface pictured gives you less tactical control of your ships than the interface in Privateer's Bounty.

[brandybarrel]

I checked out the naval interface and studied it for some time. Granted it is a prototype or pre-alpha, I would still like to pose some questions and make a few comments.

1. The black and gold icons are really intuitive. I really like them. For example, I can see that you can select your type of shot: ball, chain, and grape. I am assuming that the purpose of selecting ball is to sink the enemy ship, chain is to de-mast and still the ship for boarding and the grape is to clear the enemy deck of personnel. Is this correct? Will the relevant guns automatically fire (e.g. elevate) for each type of shot?

2. I have noticed that there are icons to fire port and starboard deck guns. Is this just to set them at fire-at-will as former missile units? I would like to know if there would be more options such as (a) firing a broadside volley and (b) if we could actually time the broadside?

3. Will there be different kinds of units (or officers) that can be added to the ship to enhance its performance (as in navigation, rate of fire, boarding) or will there be a standard ship with a standard compliment and the ship’s performance will improve with experience and go down as men get killed off? It appears the latter when looking at the interface.

4. Also, I was a little surprised by the amount of ships the naval interface represented. I was expecting naval engagements to be limited to a handful of ships and this portion of the UI to be more descriptive about the ship and its composition. A lot of people may prefer quantity but I’m hoping for a more tactical, controlled, naval engagement.

Although Empire: Total War will be mostly about land battles, I am looking forward to how navies will be implemented and contribute to our TW experience. I expect the gaming community is too so I hope this goes off with a loud bang.