Demo Discussion Thread

[ConnMon]

Thanks peacemaker for your reply! I'm 25% into it after about 10-20 minutes of downloading. I'll post back when I have a chance to play.

[Tellos Athenaios]

When the options are cranked up to the max you get some very nice looking vegetation. The game play itself... I guess it's just no quite my cup of tea (or I just need to spend a day or so fiddling with custom battles to see if there's something hidden which will turn my opinion 180 degrees): like Oudysseos, I see that it can be awesome but on the whole I was kind of underwhelmed. Nice landscape though.

[Mailman653]

like Oudysseos, I see that it can be awesome but on the whole I was kind of underwhelmed.

That was my initial impression as well and I thought, this is a TW game, it's really a whole other level not just a prettier version of IG. After playing the game while longer the game has lots of potential and demo/hardware issues aside, I'm still looking forward to the game next month.

[Ibrahim]

I have obtained and played the download of the demo of Empire total war. now where do I criticize it?

[Megas Methuselah]

When the options are cranked up to the max you get some very nice looking vegetation. The game play itself... I guess it's just no quite my cup of tea (or I just need to spend a day or so fiddling with custom battles to see if there's something hidden which will turn my opinion 180 degrees): like Oudysseos, I see that it can be awesome but on the whole I was kind of underwhelmed. Nice landscape though.

I sort of liked it. I was dissapointed for the first 10 minutes, but in the end I sort of fell in love with it. You just gotta get used to this kind of warefare; it's a big change from EB.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

now where do I criticize it?

Here.

[quadalpha]

the options for manually switching graphics are greyed out or just not there, i figure my comp probably cant handle it anyway. Is there a way to play as the americans in the demo? cuz that would be cool\


The demo is most certainly worth the time, btw

Modding the demo:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=651

[Mailman653]

Ive been wondering where the Mod the demo threads were hiding. Some people even got Austria in there, facinateing.

[ConnMon]

I just played the land tutorial and land battle part of the demo. I had 2-3 minute wait times, without disabling steam's online connection. Didn't experience any lag during battle or tutorial. I liked the size and span of the battlefields. Tutorial artillery seemed to fare better than my battle's artillery did, which was annoying. AI had a blonde moment where one of their units placed stakes when I crossed the ford, which is fine. The problem was that the stakes they placed were placed in such a way that they were totally useless against my cavalry. The stakes later killed a ton of the American cavalry. What the heck?

[peacemaker]

gah modding is too complicated for lazy people like me. That's why i have my faithful internet aides who go and do it all for me and even if it's too complicated then(complicated for me is anything beyond clicking "install" then "next" then "next" then "finish". I'm so lazy that way

[Roy1991]

Each time I start the demo, it resets my graphic options :( Have to change them again every time, and then endure the long wait while it adjusts :(
Anyone else having this problem?

[Belgolas]

Each time I start the demo, it resets my graphic options :( Have to change them again every time, and then endure the long wait while it adjusts :(
Anyone else having this problem?

nope. Also my load times are closer to 30 seconds.

[Hooahguy]

i have played the demo and i have passed judgment:
the land battles:
a bit flawed. units dont react as well as id like them to. graphics are a bit flawed. one instance is the famous "zoom out and the color of the hats change" problem.

sea battles:
very nice. i liked it, and played the battle over and over. water and graphics looks nice.

[peacemaker]

the graphics in this game are reallly nice, even on the lower settings it still looks decent. One thing I really don't like is how the scroll wheel makes the camera move up and down vertically, not zoom in as in m2 and rome. It's also annoying how when fully zoomed in, the camera is soooooo slow to move around. I also miss the thing where you can double click on some point somewhere and the camera will zoom to that spot. It's too bad, really, how the camera controls became clunky. I figure i'll get used to it though.

[Ibrahim]

IMHO, the first thing that needs to be modded is how the files are organized. the purpose of course is to speed this stuff up.

there has to be some way of speeding things up. either that or CA figures out a way of doing this.

[quadalpha]

I also miss the thing where you can double click on some point somewhere and the camera will zoom to that spot.

Seconded!

[Zoring]

Is it just me or do the cavalry move at incredible speeds. So fast that they were out-running their running animation. You can't even keep up with them at ground level with the camera.

[peacemaker]

well at ground level the camera was unbearably slow, i couldnt even catch infantry...its kind of wierd and will take a while to get used to

[Polemists]

On Medium it all looked and worked crappy but when I clicked it low it worked pheniominally better.

Also low and medium look almost identical to me, so i'll be keeping it on low :).

Looked good and was fun.

[bloodshed]

I had a huge awesome linebattle. I lined up almost all my infantry across a huge plain so there was at least two or three rows of guys and the opponent AI mimicked me and we had a sweet battle (which I ultimately won ) cant wait for the game!

[Polemists]

I normally get in trouble because i'm to busy watching land animations to remeber I have another 2-3 battles on other sides of the maps going on at same time haha

I was so used to the old mtw2 idea of one line, one battle.

[therifleman]

My load times can be from 2-3 minutes. Probally because I have everything set on Very High. Loading times aside, it all still runs very smoothly on my comp when playing. I have noticed a slight bit of lag when in close combat though.

[Roy1991]

For everyone who has trouble with the loading times, try unpacking the files (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=227839)
Loading times dropped from over 3 minutes to less than 30 seconds after doing this.

[Polemists]

My load time is about a minute, sometimes less, but again I did it on low. Higher settings, longer load times I guess.

[Sir Beane]

My load time is about a minute, sometimes less, but again I did it on low. Higher settings, longer load times I guess.

My load time is on average 45 seconds. And I have the graphics set to high . I think it's having a powerful dual core that helps.

[Polemists]

Yea duo core is Nice, i have a duo core laptop, I don't have the graphics to do high, but it seems to cut down the load times a fair bit.

[Barkhorn1x]

I sort of liked it. I was dissapointed for the first 10 minutes, but in the end I sort of fell in love with it. You just gotta get used to this kind of warefare; it's a big change from EB.

Me too - I cannot wait to get my hands on the full version as the fixes and the addition of the Camp. level will be nirvana.

[KipDan]

I hated it to start with, felt very arcady and too fast paced, although they must have done osmething to make the maps look a lot bigger and rivers look beautifull. The naval battles are absolutely great, although if they improved the scale of the ships it would be great. I can imagine massive ships where you can zoom into the cannons and such. That would be superb.

[Barkhorn1x]

I hated it to start with, felt very arcady and too fast paced, although they must have done osmething to make the maps look a lot bigger and rivers look beautifull. The naval battles are absolutely great, although if they improved the scale of the ships it would be great. I can imagine massive ships where you can zoom into the cannons and such. That would be superb.

Try hitting "Insert" for a 1st person view.

[KipDan]

I knew that but I still feel the scale of the ships could be made bigger.