Hate to say that I do not like the game!

[Smellycat]

I am not making a thread i am posting in a thread about the game's faults because i have issues with it. What are you doing in this thread?

[TinCow]

Forgive My ignorance, but how does one obtain/use this first Patch, that can correct Navy CTD's ???

Patches are automatically downloaded and installed whenever Steam connects. If you're using offline mode, they will probably all install if you just do a manual connect.

[Fisherking]

Guys!

Don’t make anything personal!

Some my dislike features or the lack there of, others may have technical problems. We all have the right to read and offer opinions.

[rory_20_uk]

Well, at least I know I was right in not bothering to buy it for a good few months - possibly longer.

I'd rather not have loads of new options and features that show promise... but don't really work. I'd rather have a few that work really well (and for the love of god how many games are we at now? And still the AI on the tactical screen isn't great!)

Maybe I'm showing my advancing age, but I'd rather have the old method of ship combat where things are obviously fudged rather than have a system where you can constantly thrash the AI at sea as it is so poor.

So as soon as the modders descend on this pig iron and craft a steel rapier I'll have another look.

[Fisherking]

I didn’t know people were having trouble with the AI in Naval battles.

That is where most people admit to being often thrashed, especially by the pirates.

I have not experienced the AI always using the same tactics time and again if it has the units to do more with.

But then my most limited experience is in the land battles, as mine don’t complete loading often.

The game needs improvements in the way it is functioning, that is for sure. But I have enjoyed the play so far and only look forward to it getting better.

[Veresov]

Easy for me to dislike Empire as it either CTD's or lockups when I press the end turn button. It is also easy to dislike this game as the support is non-existant. Over a month and there still isn't a decent patch that fixes all these bugs.

It is simply crapware..

[Sturmwolf]

Patches are automatically downloaded and installed whenever Steam connects. If you're using offline mode, they will probably all install if you just do a manual connect.

Thanks for the advice. I had tried that, Steam says the Game is 100% and Ready, have attempted both online/offline Mode in Gameplay. Unfortunately same results ico Naval CTD's.

Rather disconcerting, but for now I will have to pack up the Game and let it sit upon the bookshelf, until an actual Patch/ Resolution/ something can be utilized.

[Fisherking]

That is tough Sturmwolf!

Will the game work for you in just the single battles from the menu?

It is worrisome that it is only in the naval portion that you have the trouble.

Have you asked in the Apothecary if there are any fixes?

[Sturmwolf]

That is tough Sturmwolf!

Will the game work for you in just the single battles from the menu?

It is worrisome that it is only in the naval portion that you have the trouble.

Have you asked in the Apothecary if there are any fixes?

Unfortunately, it is ONLY the Naval aspects/portions of the Game that will not work, EVER! Every other facet of the Game, e.g. Land Battles, Armies, Building, Diplomacy, etc. work just fine. The minute I utilize any existing Vessel, immediate CTD! !! Should I build a Ship and deploy it, once again, immediate CTD! !!! Armies boarding Vessel, again, CTD! !!!

This is beyond exasperation, as the Game was intended to employ Naval Forces, Theatre-wide, the very reason I had purchased the Game.

I had posed the Question before, if there were any Naval fixes, yet no response.


It is beyond Disappointment that such a Game with wonderful potential, was released prematurely with such disastrous Bugs/Crashes/ etc. prior to thorough testing. It is almost like sending a new vehicle off the assembly line without windshield or headlights! !!!!

I have never before had any other Game problems, STW, RTW, M2TW, all of them worked problem-free. Why this one???

The Game (ETW) has already been uninstalled, and sits upon the bookshelf, and there it shall remain until a Solution is found.

[Smellycat]

i used to have very big freezes when i used the ports in belgium and croatia any ships that came out of there made the game freeze for 20 secs but it got fixed with patches i guess its still noticeable that there is a problem but not as long

[gardibolt]

I do think CA sort of painted themselves in a corner by making this game require such a heavy-duty gaming system to even run it at all; my computer's barely a year old and it can't handle it with 3.0 dual core CPU, 4G DDR2 RAM and a 512MB video card--it's like a slideshow. There's no way the casual gamer can run this without a major hardware investment. The leap from M2TW is pretty startling---I can run that maxed out but ETW is no go.

Yes, I know, buy a new computer, loser. That's not really a practical solution every year.

[Fisherking]

Unfortunately, it is ONLY the Naval aspects/portions of the Game that will not work, EVER! Every other facet of the Game, e.g. Land Battles, Armies, Building, Diplomacy, etc. work just fine. The minute I utilize any existing Vessel, immediate CTD! !! Should I build a Ship and deploy it, once again, immediate CTD! !!! Armies boarding Vessel, again, CTD! !!!

This is beyond exasperation, as the Game was intended to employ Naval Forces, Theatre-wide, the very reason I had purchased the Game.

I had posed the Question before, if there were any Naval fixes, yet no response.


It is beyond Disappointment that such a Game with wonderful potential, was released prematurely with such disastrous Bugs/Crashes/ etc. prior to thorough testing. It is almost like sending a new vehicle off the assembly line without windshield or headlights! !!!!

I have never before had any other Game problems, STW, RTW, M2TW, all of them worked problem-free. Why this one???

The Game (ETW) has already been uninstalled, and sits upon the bookshelf, and there it shall remain until a Solution is found.

Go here and post:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=15

It sounds like there are conflicts some where but I have not had any of those issues and my system is no world beater.

My machine is just a little better than minimum specs and the land battles have been my bane from the demo on.

I found a couple of new updates that may fix my problems…fingers crossed…

But naval has always worked and worked well.

[CavalryCmdr]

I do think CA sort of painted themselves in a corner by making this game require such a heavy-duty gaming system to even run it at all; my computer's barely a year old and it can't handle it with 3.0 dual core CPU, 4G DDR2 RAM and a 512MB video card--it's like a slideshow. There's no way the casual gamer can run this without a major hardware investment. The leap from M2TW is pretty startling---I can run that maxed out but ETW is no go

My CP is about 1/2 yours and runs Empires fine at medium settings. The problem is Hardware incompatibility, not that your CP cant handle it. That, as has been stated, repeatedly, is an issue that is not really as common as it seems. I, for example, have a 3 year old middling system (although I do have a new graphics card) with only 2 GB ram and a single core 3.0 Pentium and an integrated sound card with Windows XP pro.

Game Play, out of the box, is certainly FAR superior to M2. The only MAJOR gameplay bug is that the AI is completely unable to launch a naval invasion. M2 had the SAME bug, on top of that Peasants were the most fearsome unit on the battlefield and the AI in battles would just stand there and let you shoot all your arrows at them with no reaction whatsoever. True, the battle AI in Empires is a disappointment after all the hype about it, but it's not nearly that bad. Hardware issues aside, anyone who thinks Empires is in a worse state out of the box then M2 dose not really remember the first 2 months M2 was out. (That said, M2 turned out to be a very good game IMHO, when all the bugs were finally fixed in the 1.2 patch.) I cant comment on Rome OOB, as I was still busy playing M1 at that point, and didn't get Rome until about 6 months after it came out.

[Sturmwolf]

The Game shall remain shelved. The Frustration was beyond intolerable! !!!

IT IS DEFINITELY THE GAME ITSELF! !!! My Machine can handle ANY System/Software, and with only the Naval aspect being the culprit of CTD's, I can only assume the Program/Software Developer for CA/SEGA was ex-Army! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gargravarr]

I do think CA sort of painted themselves in a corner by making this game require such a heavy-duty gaming system to even run it at all; my computer's barely a year old and it can't handle it with 3.0 dual core CPU, 4G DDR2 RAM and a 512MB video card--it's like a slideshow. There's no way the casual gamer can run this without a major hardware investment. The leap from M2TW is pretty startling---I can run that maxed out but ETW is no go.

Yes, I know, buy a new computer, loser. That's not really a practical solution every year.

OK, I got to get involved here.

Here is my PC spec before I start:

Cheap crappy Asus motherboard that cost less than £30 18 months ago.
AMD ATHLON 64 5200+ That I got 2 YEARS ago.
3Gig ddr2 800 memory 2 Years old
9800GT card 12 months old
Windows XP home (3 years old)

MAXXED OUT graphics settings in battles AND campaign map..... Runs min 25 FPS AT ALL TIMES!!!!

so.... with my old and useless PC I am getting better performance that your rig? hmmmm that sounds to me like optimisation/drivers/OS issue to me. I didn't expect to be able to run the game maxxed out but, there you go. I can and it does..... Without any major issues too. I appear to be one of the lucky ones. I have had the odd CTD when merging fleets in a harbour (The workaround is fiddly but it does work)

Sturmwolf, if it was the game everyone would be experiencing it. I suspect that, while the game may not be optimized for your rig and something in the game code as it is compiled may be causing the issues I would be more tempted to investigate your setup. I know that certain AV programs cause some issues with certain code. Fragmentation on the drive or even a corrupted windows update may be causing the issue. Also make sure you running the latest drivers for each part of your kit including motherboard(often missed yet can cause major problems) If that is still the case, and you not getting any errors when you CTD, send your DXDiag file and a description of what you do to cause the problem to CA and then they have something to work with to fix the problem.

The biggest issue with bugs like this in an environment like this is the "It's broke! fix it" syndrome. Without info it is like, for example, someone going into a restaurant and when given the menu and asked what they would like to eat answering "food" it doesn't help and only frustrates those trying to fix things. Moaning and making non-constructive statements doesn't help anyone and doesn't move things forwards. providing detail to those who need it means that something WILL be done in the next patch or the one after and you will be happy. Check those things out, send the info and be a little paitient after that and you should get results.

For those not buying the game on the off chance that it won't work, let me say this. Yes there are some issues (AI not attacking across water, some minor issues with the odd CTD with specific actions etc, etc) but I do think that the majority of those who bought the game are playing quite happily.(Oh boy am I gonna get flamed for THIS paragraph)

[mmk]

Never had so many CTDs! And it is definitely NOT my machine that is to blame.

[pevergreen]

Well, compile a list of what caused them, recent actions, the debug and your dxdiag and email it to CA, they love user feedback. If you can help them solve the problems, you are helping yourself and others.

[Turbosatan]

OK, I got to get involved here.

Here is my PC spec before I start:

Cheap crappy Asus motherboard that cost less than £30 18 months ago.
AMD ATHLON 64 5200+ That I got 2 YEARS ago.
3Gig ddr2 800 memory 2 Years old
9800GT card 12 months old
Windows XP home (3 years old)

MAXXED OUT graphics settings in battles AND campaign map..... Runs min 25 FPS AT ALL TIMES!!!!

so.... with my old and useless PC I am getting better performance that your rig? hmmmm that sounds to me like optimisation/drivers/OS issue to me. I didn't expect to be able to run the game maxxed out but, there you go. I can and it does..... Without any major issues too. I appear to be one of the lucky ones. I have had the odd CTD when merging fleets in a harbour (The workaround is fiddly but it does work)

Sturmwolf, if it was the game everyone would be experiencing it. I suspect that, while the game may not be optimized for your rig and something in the game code as it is compiled may be causing the issues I would be more tempted to investigate your setup. I know that certain AV programs cause some issues with certain code. Fragmentation on the drive or even a corrupted windows update may be causing the issue. Also make sure you running the latest drivers for each part of your kit including motherboard(often missed yet can cause major problems) If that is still the case, and you not getting any errors when you CTD, send your DXDiag file and a description of what you do to cause the problem to CA and then they have something to work with to fix the problem.

The biggest issue with bugs like this in an environment like this is the "It's broke! fix it" syndrome. Without info it is like, for example, someone going into a restaurant and when given the menu and asked what they would like to eat answering "food" it doesn't help and only frustrates those trying to fix things. Moaning and making non-constructive statements doesn't help anyone and doesn't move things forwards. providing detail to those who need it means that something WILL be done in the next patch or the one after and you will be happy. Check those things out, send the info and be a little paitient after that and you should get results.

For those not buying the game on the off chance that it won't work, let me say this. Yes there are some issues (AI not attacking across water, some minor issues with the odd CTD with specific actions etc, etc) but I do think that the majority of those who bought the game are playing quite happily.(Oh boy am I gonna get flamed for THIS paragraph)

What he said.

I'm in the same boat as you mate -- I'm running on an Athlon 3200 with a ATI 3450 512mb card. At medium it flies -- around 25FPS as you said. The only (possibly performance?) related issue is 3-5 minute battle loading times now I'm in the 1790s -- but with my outdated machine I expected that.

I've had a grand total of three CTDs, & lost far too much of my real life to this game over the last month.

[nafod]

OK, I got to get involved here as well.

Here is my PC spec before I start:

Comp is four years old.
AMD ATHLON 64 4800+ X2
2G Memory
Geforce 8800 Ultra two years old about
Windows XP Professional

I can run large unit sizes, High detail. gets choppy with pathing in towns but that's about it. Naval battles are seamless.

[Gargravarr]

well, three of us, three old AMD processors, three fully working systems, sorry, three fully working OLDER systems.... I wonder if the problem is with intel proc..... nahhhhh. Can't be.

(now to get flamed by the Intel supporters now, Actually I do want an intel processor when I replace mine.)

[nafod]

well, three of us, three old AMD processors, three fully working systems, sorry, three fully working OLDER systems.... I wonder if the problem is with intel proc..... nahhhhh. Can't be.

(now to get flamed by the Intel supporters now, Actually I do want an intel processor when I replace mine.)

Yep me too. Should be soon, although I'll have a wife that will complain about how much these gaming rigs cost.

At least I was wise enough to finish my rifle collection prior to proposing.

[Beskar]

The Game shall remain shelved. The Frustration was beyond intolerable! !!!

IT IS DEFINITELY THE GAME ITSELF! !!! My Machine can handle ANY System/Software, and with only the Naval aspect being the culprit of CTD's, I can only assume the Program/Software Developer for CA/SEGA was ex-Army! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never had a naval problem since the demo.

Only problem here is the campaign map AI.

[Phog_of_War]

If you have Steam in online mode it is automatic

[mmk]

Working on the list I intend to send to CA.

While doing that: Any of you experienced sound problems in battles? Apart from the fact that I have certain sound problems when in campaign mode (as others here, if I remember correctly) it seems that battle sounds are also bugged - or could that be a soundcard/driver problem? Any advice is welcome.

[Fisherking]

It is tough!

It is hard to know whether to blame the machine or the game.

I was having trouble with land battles as Sturmwolf was having it with naval…funny he was navy and I was cavalry, anyway, I downloaded some new updates to my drivers. That should have fixed it, right?

No! Sadly now it does not work…I don’t mean it has a CTD…it does a complete shut down! It turns the machine off about 20 seconds to two minutes into the game. If it does not do that than it has been a video crash… It says unexpected system over heating…

The game worked better before the updated drivers! Would that I could go back now to auto resolve land battles…

But who do I blame, besides me, and how the heck do I fix it?

[Gargravarr]

It is tough!

It is hard to know whether to blame the machine or the game.

I was having trouble with land battles as Sturmwolf was having it with naval…funny he was navy and I was cavalry, anyway, I downloaded some new updates to my drivers. That should have fixed it, right?

No! Sadly now it does not work…I don’t mean it has a CTD…it does a complete shut down! It turns the machine off about 20 seconds to two minutes into the game. If it does not do that than it has been a video crash… It says unexpected system over heating…

The game worked better before the updated drivers! Would that I could go back now to auto resolve land battles…

But who do I blame, besides me, and how the heck do I fix it?

It may be that your processor heatsink needs a clean out (might even be your graphics card) they build up with dust and these days that can cause a major problem with cooling. It is also possible you processor fan has failed and that means the heat isn't removed.

I would suggest running something like Speedfan or something like that to monitor temperatures (easier if you have a dual monitor setup) or opening up empire, loading the main screen and ALT-TAB out to watch speedfan. That way you can see fan speeds and temperatures in your PC while running things.

I hope this helps you. It is also possible to load older drivers. I have done this before myself. (sorry if my idea landed you in this trouble.)

[Veresov]

Well, compile a list of what caused them, recent actions, the debug and your dxdiag and email it to CA, they love user feedback. If you can help them solve the problems, you are helping yourself and others.

That is a complete waste of time. I've gone down that path and SEGA support suggested I buy a new GPU card and /or a new rig. Then I saw zillions of posts in the Technical help area - all unanswered about similar issues. What I got was a nonsensical canned reply.

I constantly read the technical help forum threads daily at .COM and I almost NEVER see anyone from CA post a reply or other any suggestions. That is a community self help group with CA visibily silent.

[Gargravarr]

And what is your rig? Does it need replacing? Is the OS clean? there are hundreds of reasons for all sorts of problems. Let me ask another question. You are sat there, in front of your computer, and the bulb over your head blows. Do you blame the electric company? Now, I am not saying that there aren't issues with the game at all BUT!! (There always is) blaming them for everything is a little harsh. Like I have said before, I have an old rig and it works perfectly fine on mine and as an engineer who has spent many years problem solving, jumping to a conclusion like you have is not beneficial at all. I mean, I could sit and complain that this game doesn't work on my second gaming rig. It won't even read the disks.. but the crucial missing piece of information is that my second gaming rig is a PS3. Any wonder it doesn't work?

[nafod]

And what is your rig? Does it need replacing? Is the OS clean? there are hundreds of reasons for all sorts of problems. Let me ask another question. You are sat there, in front of your computer, and the bulb over your head blows. Do you blame the electric company? Now, I am not saying that there aren't issues with the game at all BUT!! (There always is) blaming them for everything is a little harsh. Like I have said before, I have an old rig and it works perfectly fine on mine and as an engineer who has spent many years problem solving, jumping to a conclusion like you have is not beneficial at all. I mean, I could sit and complain that this game doesn't work on my second gaming rig. It won't even read the disks.. but the crucial missing piece of information is that my second gaming rig is a PS3. Any wonder it doesn't work?

As posted above my rig is old, needs replacing and the OS is pretty shot as I have a glut of errors on boot up, but yet experience no problems with ETW. I'm simply miffed at the problems others are having with, I presume, far superior systems.

[Gargravarr]

sorry, this was aimed at veresov and his comments. I do sympathize with people having problems (while enjoying the game and laughing I suppose) but feel that these comments need to be constructive to be any benefit. Also, as shown above, if I can offer advice and assistance to solve those outside of the game then so much the better. I for one have no intention of trolling or flaming in these forums I am here to gain information and to pass information to others. HOWEVER(another favorite word for these sort of things) it does get depressing with all the "this is crap" "this doesn't work" "this is a waste of money" "i can't" "not working"

even "I have this problem. Please help. Want to play and make it work." would be better the above comments make me wonder "if you had these sort of issues with other TW games like they usually say, why not go away, buy a console, and keep out of the forums for PC games!"

Sorry, it sticks in my throat a little all these negative comments.