New hot fix

[Marquis of Roland]

I don't mind starting a new campaign, I've already played the first 50 years of GB several times due to unrecoverable CTD lol.

If the fleet CTDs are still happening, I found a few not so great solutions. Firstly, never repair your ships in a shipyard, always repair at trading ports and fishing ports. So far I've never had a fleet CTD in a non shipbuilding port yet. Secondly, if a fleet freezes in the open ocean, I solved it by sending a new ship to join the fleet. However, sometimes when I scupper the new ship, it CTD again. Sucks if you have to replace an experienced ship with a green ship, but at least you can still keep playing your campaign.

[bloodshed]

Yeah Im still crashing. But there random for me no really certain setting that makes it stop working. Done it during battles and after I auto resolved some battles. Still a few more patches to go and Im sure it will be a fun game to play and not have to worry about random crashes.

[Marquis of Roland]

Well I'm getting that save/load screen bug too. I just messed up on my new campaign and I'm trying to load a game but the game files aren't showing up, and in place of the picture of my king there's a picture of the Duke of Wellington instead.

[Bornslippy]

I knew this game was going to be buggy when it was released and so did everybody else. You weren't forced to buy it and play a buggy unfinished game, you weren't forced at all, the choice was yours. You could have waited an extra 6 months until it was fully patched up to buy and play.

Sorry Dayve, but that has to be the stupidest comment I have heard in a while. Maybe you might have a case if the marketing had said "here it is, doesn't it look great, pay us your money now and we promise to give you a decent product in six months", but of course it didn't, oh no.

(In this country at least) you are supposed to sell products of merchantable quality, and this is borderline. I would probably have a case for returning the software, if I really hated the game as well, but of course I won't (as I am a fan). I do resent having my time wasted - its really disappointing spending hours on a campaign only to find that it becomes unplayable.

Is it too much to expect that CA would have tested the game on a number of different platforms and got rid of showstopper bugs ? I have a new I7-based GTX 295 system running Vista 64Bit which I put together especially for this game. This is certainly one the systems they should have tested, but my experience suggests that they didn't, as the game looks awful. That is of course quite apart from the major playablility bugs which are independent of the platform.

Of course venting on this forum does nothing except perhaps make me feel a bit better, and maybe, if noticed, CA may do a better job next time, but I doubt it. I love the concepts of the whole TW series and have a been a fan for a long time, but releasing code (especially patches) with obvious major bugs is just unprofessional.

[loony]

Instead of invading india, my two army stacks sit in two stacks of second rates right near the shore. I cannot move them, because if I try to click on the fleet or click on it through the list menu the game crashes
Ok, so I have some cash and I can afford to keep those idiots there forever, it is very annoying, though. Screwed up my grand strategy for good and prolonged fights in indian theater

[Grumfoss]

Well I'm getting that save/load screen bug too. I just messed up on my new campaign and I'm trying to load a game but the game files aren't showing up, and in place of the picture of my king there's a picture of the Duke of Wellington instead.

Hehe I'm getting the same, i'm so glad its not just me. I thought I was going a bit mad I had to click on resume game and then load game a few times just to make sure!.

The quick load still works but all of my other saves are missing

I didn't even know that steam had updated my game until I looked at the forums this morning I will check when I get home to see if I can continue my campaign or if i'll have to restart. ho hum the joys of PC gaming.

[Dayve]

Sorry Dayve, but that has to be the stupidest comment I have heard in a while. Maybe you might have a case if the marketing had said "here it is, doesn't it look great, pay us your money now and we promise to give you a decent product in six months", but of course it didn't, oh no.

(In this country at least) you are supposed to sell products of merchantable quality, and this is borderline. I would probably have a case for returning the software, if I really hated the game as well, but of course I won't (as I am a fan). I do resent having my time wasted - its really disappointing spending hours on a campaign only to find that it becomes unplayable.

Is it too much to expect that CA would have tested the game on a number of different platforms and got rid of showstopper bugs ? I have a new I7-based GTX 295 system running Vista 64Bit which I put together especially for this game. This is certainly one the systems they should have tested, but my experience suggests that they didn't, as the game looks awful. That is of course quite apart from the major playablility bugs which are independent of the platform.

Of course venting on this forum does nothing except perhaps make me feel a bit better, and maybe, if noticed, CA may do a better job next time, but I doubt it. I love the concepts of the whole TW series and have a been a fan for a long time, but releasing code (especially patches) with obvious major bugs is just unprofessional.

Doesn't matter that it was released or not, you can't rate an unfinished product. If there was an option to rate the company that made the game, CA, out of five, then there would be a case for giving them 1 star for releasing buggy software, but the game itself is amazing, it just needs to be patched and tweaked.

I should also add i've only ever had 1 campaign ruined by bugs, which was 15 turns into a French campaign. I've also played the game over 8 hours a day since its release, because i have no life, and only ever had 2 CTD's. It's not as bad as people are making it out to be.

[Bornslippy]

My experience of the last hour or so is that it is worse after this patch - two new bugs including a CTD, plus the aforementioned <load> anomalies.

Of course it matters that it was released - I've done enough beta testing in my life already :-)

[anweRU]

Doesn't matter that it was released or not, you can't rate an unfinished product. If there was an option to rate the company that made the game, CA, out of five, then there would be a case for giving them 1 star for releasing buggy software, but the game itself is amazing, it just needs to be patched and tweaked.

The game was released and sold. It is finished. We have every right to complain. Heck, those who want their money back have every right to get it back.

I had so far not had any problems (except for the don't separate a fleet on a trade node bug). But yesterday's patch has messed up my save games - they don't appear any more, even though they are still on the hard drive.

As far as I'm concerned, CA is doing a much worse job with their incremental patches then with METW & METW2.

[Dayve]

But the polls represent the game itself, not the bugs or the stability. In this regard, the game gets a 5, no doubt.

Problem is, there isn't a seperate poll for the quality of the software, there isn't a poll to represent how buggy or polished the game was. If there was, then it would be fine to give this game 1/5, but there isn't, so don't vote.

[IRONxMortlock]

The game was released and sold. It is finished. We have every right to complain. Heck, those who want their money back have every right to get it back.

I had so far not had any problems (except for the don't separate a fleet on a trade node bug). But yesterday's patch has messed up my save games - they don't appear any more, even though they are still on the hard drive.

As far as I'm concerned, CA is doing a much worse job with their incremental patches then with METW & METW2.

Don't get too worked up mate. You did notice his location and descriptor?

What I can't figure out unfortunately, is how you add certain people to the ignore list on this forum; anyone know?

Back on topic, very disappointing to hear about this patch... is there some way not to install it if you have the steam version?

[Heinrich VI]

nope you are stuck with it. at least CA has noticed that their last patch made the game completely unplayable for some of their customers and have started to collect feedback regarding new problems that came with the latest patch: http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/51588

lets hope they fix this messy excuse for a patch ASAP!

[Lord of the Isles]

Doesn't matter that it was released or not, you can't rate an unfinished product. If there was an option to rate the company that made the game, CA, out of five, then there would be a case for giving them 1 star for releasing buggy software, but the game itself is amazing, it just needs to be patched and tweaked.

I should also add i've only ever had 1 campaign ruined by bugs, which was 15 turns into a French campaign. I've also played the game over 8 hours a day since its release, because i have no life, and only ever had 2 CTD's. It's not as bad as people are making it out to be.

It's rare to find a troll with such delicacy of touch.

It is hard to judge just what proportion of people are having serious problems with the game, since the sufferers tend to scream loudly and those playing away quite happily just get on with it in peace. Even the second group are missing out the full potential of ETW mind you, since gameplay issues like no naval invasions remain for the moment, but as I know myself from previous TW titles, as long as the game doesn't crash you can usually find a way to live with those sorts of problems until they get fixed or modded.

Over years of PC gaming, I think I've learned to be more patient at times like these. With CA in particular, I owe them the chance to sort things out, since I've had much fun with their games. That doesn't mean I won't point out silly things that only increase the frustration of their customers. I won't do the whole list here but let's look at just those things that this latest hotfix has highlighted:

-- Steam sometimes resetting its "do not automatically keep the game updated" setting, so people who don't want a latest patch/hotfix get it anyway. BTW, I now run Steam in offline mode all the time, and try to always check the update setting before and after I go online like last night to get the patch. Check every time in case it has reset.
-- Steam not allowing rollback to previous versions for those whose game gets worse with a hotfix/patch.
-- Insufficient information to know what version of the game you have (Version Numbers please)
-- Customer information generally - it would be good to have advice from CA about the save-game compatibility of this patch. I'm guessing that it is supposed to be but given the lack of stability of the game, I personally have moved all pre-March26-hotfix saves somewhere else and started a new game from scratch. If I had any mods, I would have removed them first, reinstalling the game if necessary to be sure it is vanilla. Just experience from these sorts of situations in the past.

Note that I'm not trying to list all the problems - just those that seem to me to be much less forgivable than the inevitable ones that can be expected from a complex and new game. I think the main reason I have been so annoyed at times this last three weeks is that I had (and still mostly have) a great deal of respect for CA (and I should add, for the TW fan community) and a lot of things over these three weeks have made me embarrassed for them. I expect better.


Ok, having said all that, my experience with the new hotfix has been positive. In all 7 of the Grand Campaigns I've attempted since ETW came out, all have ended with repeatable white screen CTDs (the 'Empire.exe has encountered a problem and cannot continue' kind), shortest turn 10 and longest turn 108. I started a new one as Sweden last night and have managed about 6 hours of play, about turn 40, with no CTD so far. Also have noticed no sign of the pauses when I select new units/towns. Hadn't run FRAPS for a while so don't have relevant pre-hotfix figures, but battles rarely change from 30-60 range and campaign map good too. No sound problems that I noticed but will check more closely now I know some people have them). Have noticed at least one new problem but it isn't major and I want to test some more before mentioning it.

Far too early to make a proper judgment but for now I'm glad I tried the hotfix. My sympathy to everyone for whom it has made things worse.

[IRONxMortlock]

nope you are stuck with it. at least CA has noticed that their last patch made the game completely unplayable for some of their customers and have started to collect feedback regarding new problems that came with the latest patch: http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/51588

lets hope they fix this messy excuse for a patch ASAP!

DOH

That "support" thread is embarrassing. I can't believe they are expecting people to copy and paste their DXDIAG into a forum post!

This a well known developer with a big publisher and THAT, is their support system!?!?!?

[Heinrich VI]

Maybe it is just for show - so that the frustrated masses (i.e. their customers) feel looked after while they are frantically (at least I hope so) trying to fix their newly introduced game breaker.

Ah yes the big publisher - try contacting their customer support!

[Veresov]

The latest patch has apparently introduced a sound bug for many soundcards and at least for me didn't fix the end of turn CTD. I've reinstalled Empire 4 times to date -- everytime that there has been a patch and started a new game. Updated drivers. XP updated.

CA is so clueless about these bugs that now they are asking people to post their configurations. From what I am seeing there is no specific soundcard or system to blame. Seems across the board. There are problems with both XP and Vista. Now I can understand if maybe a couple of odd soundcards might have problems but most of these rigs seem to have run of the mill equipment.

Conclusion: This is a buggy game that was not adequately playtested.

[Marquis of Roland]

Hehe I'm getting the same, i'm so glad its not just me. I thought I was going a bit mad I had to click on resume game and then load game a few times just to make sure!.

The quick load still works but all of my other saves are missing

Let this latest patch be rechristened the Duke of Wellington's Own Patch!

[Fisherking]

post land- and naval battle CTDs. wow thats a new one...

on the positive side so far i have experienced no click-on-fleet-CTDs and no corrupted savegame *fingers crossed*.

but the new post battle CTDs render the game completely unplayable now.

EDIT: got the game to progress by replaying the same naval battle three times. at last! encountered a new gem during the next naval battle: the game just froze and forced me to reboot the computer. it has done this to me during AI turns previously but never during battles. :/

For what ever reason I had two CTDs at the end of Naval Battles but the third time it worked.

The videos seem to work also as does the entro for the first time.

I started from a previous save game, so those should be ok too.

I didn’t take any risks with the trade fleet bug so I don’t know if that is working ok no.

I was having problems with land battles loading but that seems to be gone too.

Sorry some of the rest of you seem to be having troubles but it seems most of the problems I was having are gone.

Maybe defrag and change some settings and try again….

[quadalpha]

DOH

That "support" thread is embarrassing. I can't believe they are expecting people to copy and paste their DXDIAG into a forum post!

This a well known developer with a big publisher and THAT, is their support system!?!?!?

People seem plenty happy to post less useful information than DX in forum posts.

[JRCDave]

Steam downloaded the patch on my system as soon as I started up. I assume it installed the patch close to the same time. I have had 2 CTD in two differnt campaigns. One ona prussian campaign that wiped 20 years as the save in that game caused a CTD as soon as I ended my turn and last night as after a small sea battle during the computer turn. (I won a 3 ship to 4 ship contest that went to naught) The auto save loaded up but I will have ot wait and see if the whole campaign is corrupted after 30 years. I am wondering if playing the GC in Steam Offline mode might improve the game.

[Beskar]

Another disappointment! This hot fix fails to fix a lot of hardware incompatibilities with Empire. Despite a full reinstall, Empire still has the crash fleet issue and disbanding a general still CTD's. The game still crashing at the end of the turn with the Microsoft error "Empire has stopped working...".

I been disbanding generals with no problems at all. I do have a couple of games with theend of turn being Empire has stopped working though.

[bloodshed]

lol i just went to try and play again and poof all my saved games are gone and it froze at the load games screen. super.

[TB666]

New patch is out
Empire: Total War


Issue with save games disappearing from the save game list if fixed

Updated of the Miles dll to fix some random crashes in sound

[MikeV]

BTW, I now run Steam in offline mode all the time

Me, too. Makes their decision to marry it kind of pointless, doesn't it?

[Marquis of Roland]

Huzzah! I swear if I ever see ol' Nosey in game again, it'll be too soon

[crpcarrot]

@tiberius

i had tis happen prepatch. havent tried the game after patch yet. during end turn one of my armies that was to move into a city walked upto the city and then the end turn process stopped nothing was happening. i still ahve control of the mouse though i couldnt move the screen so i just selected the army/unit and right clicked on the city and the end turn process continued. this was after reloading a couple of times and trying other stuff. maybe its the same sort of problem.

[Zatoichi]

Well, the new hotfix (March 26) seems to have fixed the crash that the March 25 hotfix caused in my campaign - I was able to fight 4 battles manually in a row during the AI turn and carry on merrily. When I tried this using the 'old' one (darn I wish they had version numbers!) my game crashed after the 2nd battle first time I tried it (fighting the battles manually), and then at the end of the AI turn the second time I attempted it (having autoresolved all the battles).

Still too early to say that it's totally fixed whatever the 25th March hotfix did though, but it's nice to be able to report some success at least! I'll know more when I'm able to devote some serious play time this evening - stupid work!

[Marquis of Roland]

Anyone had a unavoidable CTD on the latest patch yet? I only had 1 CTD during the AI's turns, but reloaded and it was ok the 2nd time. Clicking on fleets still cause some lag, but so far no CTD. It's still early in my new campaign though, 1725.

I had 1 new bug where I sailed a fleet to pirate Antigua. There was a pirate fleet docked in the port. When I sail into his intercept zone, my fleet is stuck in place; even after I landed my troops, took over the port, then took the region capital itself, fleet still stuck. Reloaded and sailed in from a different direction, problem solved.

[Meneldil]

Stop talking about giving a game 1 star because it's a bit buggy, or using it as a coaster. The only reason this game is so buggy compared to other games that are released, lets compare it to, i don't know, DOOM 3, is because DOOM 3 is a mindless shooter with no substance, and a game like that takes only a few months to put together.

This game is absolutely massive, and even with several years to work on it it still isn't enough time, but 3-6 months from now it will be fully patched up and working fine.

I knew this game was going to be buggy when it was released and so did everybody else. You weren't forced to buy it and play a buggy unfinished game, you weren't forced at all, the choice was yours. You could have waited an extra 6 months until it was fully patched up to buy and play.

Games like Europa Universalis or Heart of Iron are much more complex than TW will ever be, and not as buggy.

[gollum]

And also the companies that make them regard their fans better and are more fine tuned with what they like in-game...