What Are You Looking Forward To Most In Empire?

[Sir Beane]

It's been a while, but here is another hot topic freshly baked by your host Sir Beane.

The thread title says it all really, what feature of Empire Total War appeals most to you? Why?

Hopefully it will give us all something to do other than thinking of new and creative ways to work the word demo into a post.

Personally I'm looking forward to virtually everything. I pray every day to the great camel god in the sky that thw game lives up to the hype.

[Wausser]

Dragoons
England
Mughals
Ottoman Empire











To be serious, Naval Battles, new goverment system and the warfare in genaral during that period...




edit: lol you added a polll....

[Sir Beane]

Dragoons
England
Mughals
Ottoman Empire











To be serious, Naval Battles, new goverment system and the warfare in genaral during that period...




edit: lol you added a polll....

The poll took a while to make, given that it has eighteen options .

[Fisherking]

You left one out…

I am most looking forward to completing the install…

[seireikhaan]

An integrated military and diplomatic AI.

[Merak]

oh the first thing i can think of is battles in the big water holes with the floating fortresses (water battles)

and the other thing is the pretty colors (the grafic updated) and the UI (user interface)

[Durango]

An integrated military and diplomatic AI.

Hear Hear!


Being that I can't vote yet, I'll just write:


Tricornes!

Scottish Highlanders!

Larger map!

Smoke and the *kaboom* of cannons!

Subtle and elegant interface!

Marching music!

My country represented finally!

Snobbery and arrogance!


This is just what we can see, at the moment. Regarding AI, only speculation is possible, but I have my hopes up. I love this time period. After all, Total War at its very core is about formations of men fighting. And you can't have more emphasis on formation than in the 18th and early 19th century - with the exception of phalanxes during Alexandrian times.

[Freedom Onanist]

The time priod

Ehm.............

That's it really. TW was meant for this period from the start, everything we've had to date was just groping around in the dark. Let the Enlightnment shine a light in the darkness of religiosity and superstition!

[ollicompolli]

I'm looking forward to: Naval battles
Bigger map ( our good old elephants in India)
Better bribery options (in Rome too easy, in Medieval impossible)

What other time period will CA take then? Rome 2? 'Cause i'm not seeing WW2: Total War.

[Quintus.JC]

Enhanced Diplomacy and Politics for the win!

They'd better

[Phog_of_War]

I cant vote yet so...

I am very intrested in the new naval battles.

Also the development of new and different tactics on the battlefield. TW players are not used to just lining up infantry and letting them blast away at each other. IMO, lines of infantry just look like big, fat targets for my cannon.

[General SupaCrunk]

All.

[Polemists]

Speaking as someone who played HRE in MTW, Carthage in RTW, Western Rome in BI, and France in MTW2, most of the time, I have to say a improved diplomacy and military is the win.

It's not the trade rights, map information or techs that will do it in for me.

It's the idea that in the past, there were seiges against me the likes of which the world had never seen before.

At times I'd have 6 to 7 factions all fighting me, while barely fighting each other, sending 2 or 3 stacks of troops against me, a turn, while just blockading ports of other foes. Then when I'd finally hold 4-5 of these factions off and finish off one, lo and behold suddenly Milan or Vandals or some other random faction just "Suddenly" attacks.

So if the unification AI against the player will end, and factions will start acting like independent factions. I'll be VERY apprecative.

[Ishmael]

Guns, Graphics and New AI! Mostly AI.
I have to agree with Polemists here, it really ticked me off when factions ignored their mortal enemies just to attack little old me. But im really looking forward to the (supposedly) good AI, which will actually use all the fancy new features. Im hoping it'll be realistic and a challenge now.
And of course, the fact that my new PC (yay!) will be able to run the graphics will give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside...

[bloodshed]

Muskets! Oh how I love muskets. The time period also. Being able to play as the 13 colonies in the War of Independence. Man its been awhile since ive been this excited for a game.

[Sir Beane]

Muskets! Oh how I love muskets. The time period also. Being able to play as the 13 colonies in the War of Independence. Man its been awhile since ive been this excited for a game.

I agree with the excitement thing. It's been a long, long time since I've been looknig forward to a game this much. March cannot come fast enough.

[Sic semper tyrannis]

Naval combat! I am a huge fan of the late Patrick O'Brian. Other games mangle naval combat terribly through a collection of small factors such as trivializing the weather gauge (sailing directly into the wind? Please!) and firing the cannons on a side all at once.

Perhaps rather than wish I could vote in these, I will see how many posts I can get away with as a Junior Member.

[Krasturak]

*opens coffin*

*creeps out of coffin*

Gah!

Krast sees ... guns!

Lots and lots of guns!

Gah!

*creeps back into coffin*

*closes coffin*

[Sir Beane]

Naval combat! I am a huge fan of the late Patrick O'Brian. Other games mangle naval combat terribly through a collection of small factors such as trivializing the weather gauge (sailing directly into the wind? Please!) and firing the cannons on a side all at once.

Perhaps rather than wish I could vote in these, I will see how many posts I can get away with as a Junior Member.

If you hate those two things then oh boy are you going to be disappointed

In ETW you can sail directly into the wind, albeit slower than going with the wind. Apparently the fastest your ship can go is when it is at a slight angle to the prevailing wind, which is good.

Tacking is present in game however and does work if you want to go against the wind more quickly. So that's something at least.

[Colovion]

The new AI looks interesting. Also, the new artwork and look of the game is enticing.

I also hope that there are no pathing and unit glitch issues with battles in urban areas; RTW and MTW both turned into Total Siege where you were forced to fight most battles inside glitchy cityscapes where very little fighting occured once you broke the walls, merely a death-charge into the center square where you were forced to sit and attack a bugged AI.

Suffice it to say, I'm trying not to look forward to the game too much. RTW and MTW2 had great things about them, but the replayability was much less than MTW1 which remains my favourite of the series.

[Monk]

The AI of course.

Oh, and Revolutions!

...And Multiplayer!

AND GUNS!

I have to say I was skeptical of the gunpowder era at first, but the closer that ETW comes and the more shots and videos we see of combat I can't help but really want to try my hand at the era's warfare.

[Durango]

Suffice it to say, I'm trying not to look forward to the game too much. RTW and MTW2 had great things about them, but the replayability was much less than MTW1 which remains my favourite of the series.

QFT.

But you just have to use a different part of your brain when playing the newer games. A part that ignores any expectations regarding a challenging AI and subtleness. Instead, the "five-year-old-on-christmas-eve" mode will serve you well.

[Sir Beane]

The new AI looks interesting. Also, the new artwork and look of the game is enticing.

I also hope that there are no pathing and unit glitch issues with battles in urban areas; RTW and MTW both turned into Total Siege where you were forced to fight most battles inside glitchy cityscapes where very little fighting occured once you broke the walls, merely a death-charge into the center square where you were forced to sit and attack a bugged AI.

Suffice it to say, I'm trying not to look forward to the game too much. RTW and MTW2 had great things about them, but the replayability was much less than MTW1 which remains my favourite of the series.

If you belive what CA have stated in interviews then ETW has fewer seiges and a greater number of field battles. They have also mentioned that city fighting will no longer take place in the city centre, which might mean fewer pathing problems.

QFT.

But you just have to use a different part of your brain when playing the newer games. A part that ignores any expectations regarding a challenging AI and subtleness. Instead, the "five-year-old-on-christmas-eve" mode will serve you well.

Is it bad that that mode seems to be my brain's default mode?

[Durango]

Is it bad that that mode seems to be my brain's default mode?

Certainly not, to each his own and I enjoy pure spectacle too. I'm actually looking into some other games for the serious cerebral activities, such as the Take Command series and Europa Universalis

I was just over at the TW Center, and read a few topics there were they discussed graphics. Jeez, every post seems to be filled with ill-hidden boasts about how they can max out this and that, how their daddy's new rig is better than somebody elses and so on and so on. I get the feeling that they just like to use the Total War games as benchmark tests...

Appreciating graphics is natural, but you can tell when it goes overboard.

[Megas Methuselah]

CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK REPORTING:

MULTIPLAYER WILL BE SO AWESOME! CAN YOU GUYS EVEN IMAGINE ITS AWESOMENESS? IT MIGHT EVEN BE ALMOST AS AWESOME AS ME!

But seriously, I'm actually going to give multiplayer a try this time around. Sir Beane, I'm speaking directly to you: Let's buy the game as soon as it comes out, and duke it out online, learning on the go, aight? The extent of the battle on the field will be amazingly large, oooooh I can't wait to see how many factions/rebels are playable.

[Polemists]

The excitment over at TW center forums is a bit on fully tilt, even more so then here (no 9 page threads here).

That said the game looks very good and lots to be excited about, each day that ticks away is one day closer to the glorious game :)

[Monk]

The excitment over at TW center forums is a bit on fully tilt, even more so then here (no 9 page threads here).

That said the game looks very good and lots to be excited about, each day that ticks away is one day closer to the glorious game :)

More like rabid. You could lose an arm over there in their demo thread!

The more I think about it, I'm really looking forward to the AI and the merging of the diplomatic and military AI schemes. Not having a faction being torn between trying to do two conflicting things at once would be nice, and then there's the battle AI which I'm itching to test. Unfortunately the only way to truly test them both is to get my hands on the retail product so i'll just have to wait.

[Polemists]

More like rabid. You could lose an arm over there in their demo thread!

Yes....that's not me in that thread......that's that OTHER Polemists in that demo thread....lol

I'm really looking forward to the AI and the merging of the diplomatic and military AI schemes.

The more I look at the maps the more excited I get about trade theatres and the possibilities.

Unfortunately the only way to truly test them both is to get my hands on the retail product so i'll just have to wait.

Yes....unless you know CA provided us with something, perhaps a small set of files that would help DEMOnstrate how the game works properly.

[Colovion]

In the end, I'm looking forward to playing Total War because Creative Assembly is one of the only development teams I fully respect and admire both for their work as well as the way they treat their fans. I've played their games for years and they always get me to come back when their new incarnation of lovely historic entertainment. I was talking with my father recently about when I began playing video games and how without games like Civilisation, Age of Empires and Total War I'd not have been drawn into the intrigue and spectacle that history holds.

Past games may have frustrated me at times but truth be told, many of those annoyances were likely born from the over-skeptical viewpoint the internet fosters. Heck, I still don't enjoy playing RTW without the EB mod; perhaps I'm too picky now that I've been indoctrinated into the mindset that the game has to be a certain way, a certain balance, flawless, etc. Anyway, I'd likely not even notice various flaws in the game if I played it first before shuddering at the threads of issues declaring "XYZ is unbalanced! ABC is glitchy!" because only once I've read such things do I peer at them in a new, negative light, where they were once nearly imperceptible. Kind of like that squeaky door you barely noticed until someone mentioned it to you and now it grates on your nerves.

In short, I'm looking forward to being enveloped in the atmosphere of the campaign map, marching my troops into battle, smiling at the drifting smoke of freshly fired muskets and relishing the lingering echoes of fleeing foes!

[knoddy]

Yes....that's not me in that thread......that's that OTHER Polemists in that demo thread....lol



The more I look at the maps the more excited I get about trade theatres and the possibilities.



Yes....unless you know CA provided us with something, perhaps a small set of files that would help DEMOnstrate how the game works properly.

you sir are a god amongst demo fanatics BOOOWWWWWW DOWNNNNNNNNNNN


hehe

i must endeavor to the TWC forums to view this monstrosity.

EDIT: btw im lookin forward to an end to the speculation and worrying, all these people posting threads about how there worried bout certain features cos of 1 bad line in a review or 1 bad thing in a vid they saw. wait for the game b4 u start trashing it shesh!