Empire: Incomplete?

[Malkut]

I mean, not only does all the western factions have the same generic 'Line Infantry' (except France, for whatever reason), but they all wear the same uniforms!

"Hello, my name is Dismounted Feudal Knight. I am the same generic infantry that all western factions have, and I wear the same uniform no matter who I'm working for! Only there's no tech tree to upgrade me with, so I'm even more boring."

When it comes to unit rosters, Total War isn't exactly Starcraft. Never has been, never will be. I guess that's just how it goes.

[Subotan]

I'd like to see someone attempt to Zerg Rush a country with Peasants....

[Polemists]

Starcraft? Really? Someone is a fair bit behind the current sleu of RTS's, about a decade behind

That said, I think tw has plenty of color and flair, along with faction differences.

[Malkut]

Starcraft? Really? Someone is a fair bit behind the current sleu of RTS's, about a decade behind

Hmm yes, how dare I reference a game with diverse units to illustrate a point about unit diversity. Back to my cave to try and invent fire.

My point is that factions having units in common is a Total War staple. Rome had it's similar factions divided into cultures (Romans factions had legions, Greeks had phalanxes, barbarians had warbands). ME2 had it's western knights and eastern horse archers.

Now, we have line infantry, and it's suddenly a big deal. Why?

[Belid Hagen]

I think CA had some problems meeting the launch dealine (as all software developers do), having spent the better part of the last two days playing I've found bugs, most of which I can live with. But being anal attentive to detail, I keep seeing information messages that are outright wrong.



I mean, seriously, how difficult is it to type up the definition of celcius correctly, and there are loads of factual mistakes like that.

[Sir Beane]

I think CA had some problems meeting the launch dealine (as all software developers do), having spent the better part of the last two days playing I've found bugs, most of which I can live with. But being anal attentive to detail, I keep seeing information messages that are outright wrong.



I mean, seriously, how difficult is it to type up the definition of celcius correctly, and there are loads of factual mistakes like that.

Actually that was the original scale, before it got reversed.

In 1742 Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created a "reversed" version of the modern Celsius temperature scale whereby zero represented the boiling point of water and one hundred represented the freezing point of water.

Thats from Wikipedia by the way, but I've seen that fact pop up in more reliable places.

[pevergreen]

I had a feeling it was like that then got reversed.

CA did their homework

[Ishmael]

I mean, seriously, how difficult is it to type up the definition of celcius correctly, and there are loads of factual mistakes like that.

I remember thinking when I read this that a horde of people would probably go and complain to CA about bugs...
Ill second the other fellow by the way, I read it in Bill Bryson's 'A short history of nearly everything' (though admittedly thats probably less reliable than wiki)

[Subotan]

I read it in Horrible Science as well (Even though that's probably less likely than both of them)

[Polemists]

Oh yes, Starcraft with it's blue space marines and orange fire space marines, the differences were endless No game before it had ever done Space marines before (Sorry had to, GW fan club go)


In other news,

I still think the game has alot of potential.

[Discoman]

"Hello, my name is Dismounted Feudal Knight. I am the same generic infantry that all western factions have, and I wear the same uniform no matter who I'm working for! Only there's no tech tree to upgrade me with, so I'm even more boring."

When it comes to unit rosters, Total War isn't exactly Starcraft. Never has been, never will be. I guess that's just how it goes.

There's one big difference between Total War games and Blizzard games, one tries to be historically realistic(to an extent anyway) and fun, the other just wants to be fun. Besides CA spent so much time implementing new units and features that they just didn't have the time for it. I mean you really can't compare Starcraft or Warcraft 3's AI to Total War. In Craft games the AI just needs to collect resources, build units, and attack. In Total War games the AI needs to take into account many factors regarding enemy troop types, weather, and terrain. Besides if there wasn't diversity in games like Starcraft or Warcraft.... would people play the game? In ETW nations are different based on what they start with and where they are, among other things.

[Belid Hagen]

argh. DAMN YOU CA, now i have to recheck all the "mistakes" to see if they actually were. OCD is a evil mistress

[Graphic]

"Hello, my name is Dismounted Feudal Knight. I am the same generic infantry that all western factions have, and I wear the same uniform no matter who I'm working for! Only there's no tech tree to upgrade me with, so I'm even more boring."

When it comes to unit rosters, Total War isn't exactly Starcraft. Never has been, never will be. I guess that's just how it goes.

Very on point.

(Dismounted) Feudal Knights
(Dismounted) Chivalric Knights
Feudal/Chivalric Men-At-Arms
Sergeants/Armored Sergeants
Mailed Knights
Peasant Archers

etc. etc. etc.

M2 did have noticably more unique units in the late era, but almost all the Euro powers were still 90% carbon copies of eachother.

Yesterday browsing through the late era unit rosters, there only seems to be a couple factions that are quite generic: United Provinces, Sweden, Prussia. But even their "copy" units have different stats, plus United Provinces gets access to many colonial units in America and India (probably the case too with Sweden and Prussia if you make it that far).

England has a nice set of units, France has many unique units too. Spain too IIRC, U.S., Austria, Russia. Ottomans are totally unique, as are the Marathas.

Come to think of it, I wholeheartedly reject the notion that ETW's unit roster is generic at all.

[Subotan]

Very on point.

(Dismounted) Feudal Knights
(Dismounted) Chivalric Knights
Feudal/Chivalric Men-At-Arms
Sergeants/Armored Sergeants
Mailed Knights
Peasant Archers

etc. etc. etc.

M2 did have noticably more unique units in the late era, but almost all the Euro powers were still 90% carbon copies of eachother.

Yesterday browsing through the late era unit rosters, there only seems to be a couple factions that are quite generic: United Provinces, Sweden, Prussia. But even their "copy" units have different stats, plus United Provinces gets access to many colonial units in America and India (probably the case too with Sweden and Prussia if you make it that far).

England has a nice set of units, France has many unique units too. Spain too IIRC, U.S., Austria, Russia. Ottomans are totally unique, as are the Marathas.

Come to think of it, I wholeheartedly reject the notion that ETW's unit roster is generic at all.

From what I've heard though, it would be nice if the generic infantry had different uniforms.

[Graphic]

From what I've heard though, it would be nice if the generic infantry had different uniforms.

To be honest it seems to me like European/American uniforms were pretty standard in this time, but with different colors between the nations of course. Garish uniform colors and designs didn't really show theirself until the Napoleonic era.

They all basically wear similar jackets, pants and hats, with the white "belt" things crossing eachother over the torso (making an X). Just searching for uniforms on google, it looks like just color swapping British/U.S.-type uniforms from the period is pretty accurate.

The state of the unit roster is simply because that's the way the period was.