NTW: Special Forces Edition. Why?!? CA, why... :(

[Durallan]

same as braden, and not buyin NTW day one, sorry CA! I felt burned after pre ordering empire. Still having too much darn fun playing dragon age lol, I might get it so the SF copy of empire on my shelf doesn't look lonely but its still disappointing, Even Red Alert 2 gave me a poster, soundtrack cd, nice big box, Pewter model! Hell my 1990 (92? don't remember) Edition of Ultima 7 comes with a REALLY nice cloth map and a small medallion thing, My Ultima 9 Collectors edition (which unfortunately got damaged in a fire sigh) came with a poster, a signed certificate by Lord British AKA Richard Garriott, a small Ankh Medallion, a soundtrack CD, Ultima Cards of the 7 virtues, and it came with a cd of all the old previous Ultima's!

Beat that CA and I'll Pre Order your collectors edition of NTW, but note, there has to be a good game inside aswell!

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

The grand battery sounds the most attractive special offer unit, IMO. "Of the convention" does that mean French? The idea of a grand battery as a "unit" is a little odd though, as a grand battery was just an battlefield formation rather than a distinct unit like a regiment of Hussars or a named ship.

Perhaps they mean the battery that Napoleon used to "disperse" the crowds in his rise to power.

[caravel]

I remember the days when you got the whole game, in a decent box, with a manual, a map etc and you didn't have to pay any extra for it as there was only one edition of the game anyway.

[antisocialmunky]

"Boy, the way that Starcraft played. Games that really made the grade.
Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.
Didn't need no steam update. Every game pulled its weight.
Gee, our DOS games ran so great. Those were the days.
And you knew what they were then, games were good and hard to win.
Mister, we could use a man like John Romero again.
People seemed to be content. No Safedisk to circumvent.
Those games wouldn't make a cent. Those were the days.
Heal up at the local inn, explore where you haven't been.
Crawl through the dungeons fight the boss and save the world to win.
Now reviewers play along. On shelves so few games belong.
I don't know just what went wrong. Those Were The Days."

[Beskar]

Is anyone able to clarify this? You cannot get the “Elite Regiment” Special Unit Pack if you buy the game on Steam?

[Peasant Phill]

There was an interesting (although hardly original) discussion on DLC and mod tools just prior to ...

I wanted the hat edition too, complete with a big hat box as the packaging. And given that I'm taller than our marketing people, I thought I'd win the argument.

Unfortunately, it would have cost far, far, far, FAR too much to manufacture, let alone store, ship and retail. Nice hats are not cheap.

Another idea shot down over the coast of conceptuality by the flak of reality.

I'm not one to verbally attack CA/SEGA but seriously. This thread gets 'graced' with a reply from a CA member and all he can comment on is about someones joke. Common you're chance was right there. Sell your product, or try at least. Any info/opinion is better than nonsense.

I'm actually hoping this may catch Captain Fishpants' attaention so that we can actually start some discussion on NTW/ETW and any related corperate strategies.

[pevergreen]

Looks at Fishpants' signature

[Sheogorath]

I remember the days when you got the whole game, in a decent box, with a manual, a map etc and you didn't have to pay any extra for it as there was only one edition of the game anyway.

Personally, I don't mind 'special editions', provided they don't have exclusive GAME content in them.

Look at Oblivion's special edition. It came with a DVD with dev information, production info, and so on, an AWESOME 'Guide to the Empire' and a septim coin. That was a good collectors edition. Plus, with mods, I still play Oblivion :P

The concept of holding bits of the game 'hostage' annoys me endlessly, especially since, I'm willing to bet, all of those units are already on the game discs and only need to be 'unlocked'.

The units themselves are, as was mentioned, rather meh. I guess they're saving the 1st Rifles, Pavlovsk Grenadiers, and Red Lancers for future DLC.


Without in any way implying that anybody here would do so, I ask, do you think this sort of thing only encourages people to pirate the game? To me, it seems like it does. When you charge 1/2 again as much for bits of things that you can get online for free, well...

If you want to get people to buy a collectors edition, give them physical objects. Not a crappy 'timeline of Napoleon's life'. A little cannon would be nice, or maybe a map of Europe at the time, or as mentioned, a hat.

[Forward Observer]

I don't know. Depending on how much other cheap stuff you stuff it with like a Napoleonic map, a fold-out unit reference sheet, posters, the extra units, special menu design, OST - you could mark it up enough to include a hat. I'd pay extra for the hat if I were buying the game.

Its a HAT for crying out loud. The reviewers love that sort of functional extra thing when they review special editions. :) Usef

Just as a point of reference--quality reproduction military headgear--especially for this period is quite cost prohibitive. There is not a huge demand, so most of these items are custom built by small shop milliners and hat makers. Decent Napoleonic bi-corns made of basic quality felt start in the $250 range and go up based on the quality of materials and construction.

Anything less going to be some crappy Halloween costume piece that will fall apart shortly after it is removed from the box.

Would you pay $300-$350 for the game just to get a hat? BTW, reproduction dragoon and cuirassier type helmets can run well over $1000 US.

However a small statue or bust of Napoleon done in pewter, resin, or some plastic that simulates stone or marble might work.


Cheers

[econ21]

Regarding the grand battery of the convention pre-order unit from Amazon:

Perhaps they mean the battery that Napoleon used to "disperse" the crowds in his rise to power.

Good thinking about "of the convention" bit. Apparently it has double the guns of a normal artillery unit so the "grand battery" part is the important one for gameplay.

According to a CA e-mail, the Steam pre-order unit is the Scots Greys. That makes it a hard choice between the Amazon and Steam pre-order for me. Ironically, the two units faced off against each other at Waterloo, resulting in something approaching mutual destruction. I guess they will make all the pre-orders available in a DLC at some time in the future, as they have done with the ETW ones. I'd like a disc, so I guess the Scots Greys will have to wait.

[al Roumi]

It's the purpose or business case for DLC which is interesting for me. For example, CA have given their marketing strategy full license to sqeeze as much extra revenue out of their game releases. Compare that to Bioware's DLC policy with DA:O and (as far we know at the moment) ME:2 which focuses on driving revenue from 'new' purchases of the game and mitigating losses through piracy or "lost" revenue in used-game resale.

Personaly, as a consumer I much prefer Bioware's strategy. Although I have paid extra for the "Warden's keep" dlc and also bought the ETW special forces edition, i'd rather not feel so openly exploited as the poor quality of the original product I purchased from CA made me feel.

I am not buying NTW in any form untill I hear good things about it from players, especially relating to program stability and AI.

[Durallan]

and yet people on the DAO forums are screaming blue bloody murder about the DLC's in dragon age in general and also about releasing them for sale on day 1 because the game was delayed. I have to say so far the only DLC's worth purchasing so far in the games i've been playing have been the ones from fallout 3. Theyve added quite a bit of extra content to the game, didn't really give you anything game breaking, and just great value all round. Empire Total war, its really hard for me to see how they can justify selling extra units in a game, that feels like blizzard trying to sell extra units for starcraft 2. In Dragon age they also have decided to continue this stupid bleeding ingame item DLC stuff.

I don't understand what they don't get,

We don't want exclusive units/objects/items to be the main focus of a DLC, I must say though that the armor in anchorage was nice, but you had to reallly earn it, and go through alot of stuff. I haven't played the Dragon age wardens keep, but from what people have been saying, it doesn't sound overly impressive exceptfor some nice looking armor I've seen some people wearing, so maybe I'll have to give in and get it.

CA, please please please, I don't want anyone to go bankrupt or lose their jobs but please really put the game throughits paces and get that AI shinin, if your going to release DLC, I dunno besides units and factions what else could they release as DLC? I really think the best way for CA would be to do maybe smaller expansion packs that add entire regions to the game, I would seriously have paid some money if CA had bothered expanding say america to the whole thing in the grand campaign and adding in africa (not interested in short campaigns in games like these), if people tell me NTW is amazing and fun, I'll get it. Goodluck Captain Fishpants and CA, I would like you to be a success this time round.

[Beskar]

Only problem with the DA:O DLC is that you have to be logged in and connected just to use the DLC. It is great as long as the faulty connection software they use actually allows you to download and use the DLC. (which it doesn't for me)

[NimitsTexan]

My real question is, how do I get the Imperial Edition (boxed) in the US. Everything I've seen so far just talks about UK retailers.

[Fisherking]

My real question is, how do I get the Imperial Edition (boxed) in the US. Everything I've seen so far just talks about UK retailers.

Amazon.com is much slower to make the offers available for some reason than Amozon.uk.

Don't sweat it too much. They did the same thing last time. They will offer it.

Last time I think it was only like two weeks prior to the original release date, but by then it had been delayed for a month.

[antisocialmunky]

I think the only arcing thing for DLC is that the base game need to be good enough already and the DLC must be of high quality such they compete with the high end mods. Like DLC would have to be of EBII quality or TA:TW. Otherwise its going to suck. Its not just easy money. The units packs would be something that was released for free by Valve.

Really the only thing that CA could do and still sell as DLC would be scripted campaigns like RTI. That way you are paying for a specific experience rather than something that could be modded in IF THE COMMUNITY ACTUALLY HAD MODDING TOOLS.

I wonder how well ETW would have been recieved if modders could have tweaked the AIs.

[A1_Unit]

I wonder how well ETW would have been recieved if modders could have tweaked the AIs.

Very well.

I think Darthmod Empire has edited the AI as much as it can be edited at the moment...

[Wausser]

Very well.

I think Darthmod Empire has edited the AI as much as it can be edited at the moment...

And it's good, have been enjoying the game last few days..


Go Darthmod

[antisocialmunky]

Seriously, he really should get some official recognition for what he's done with CA's limited AI modding.

It would be quite nice if there was a scripting for TW like AoE2 had. Though Mr. Mike Simpson seems to have some sort of strange dislike of script bots. Actually I would be in favor for a C++ API instead. If you want something revolutionary, do that so people who want to can make whatever crazy AI they want.

[KLAssurbanipal]

I am very sorry for it with all of Thursday did not answer private messages and your posts. I am in the French capital, Paris. I'm going to a lot of sightseeing. On Tuesday, I plan to see the tomb of Napoleon. I will try to do a lot of pictures and show you. After returning to home I will add replies to all your posts and private messages. Please be patient and understanding.
Best wishes,
KLA

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Seriously, he really should get some official recognition for what he's done with CA's limited AI modding.

I think they gave him a job, actually.

[A1_Unit]

I think they gave him a job, actually.

Really? Is he on the employee page?

[pevergreen]

I think they gave him a job, actually.

You might be thinking of Lusted? (Now Jack Lusted) Creator of TE for R:TW? Him and Darth were two of the biggest modders around.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I tried DarthMod for M2 and the page for it said CA gave him a job, unless I misread it.

[pevergreen]

Cool.

Wonder how long ago it was, and if he was the AI guy that walked off.

[Captain Fishpants]

I tried DarthMod for M2 and the page for it said CA gave him a job, unless I misread it.

Darth came to CA for an interview a long time ago. He was not offered a position after the interview. It would be highly unprofessional for me to comment in any way on why that might have been. So: don't even think about asking. If you want to, you can read his version of events here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=113546.

Jack Lusted is currently beavering away on Napoleon. Nice man, appalling taste in hats.



ps: Jack has just beaten me with the hat.

[pevergreen]

Jack Lusted is currently beavering away on Napoleon. Nice man, appalling taste in hats.

I see that there is always one person in every office with that vice.

[antisocialmunky]

It would be fun to see a CA random employee picture post or something. :-p

[Captain Fishpants]

There was an interesting (although hardly original) discussion on DLC and mod tools just prior to ...

I'm not one to verbally attack CA/SEGA but seriously. This thread gets 'graced' with a reply from a CA member and all he can comment on is about someones joke. Common you're chance was right there. Sell your product, or try at least. Any info/opinion is better than nonsense.

I'm actually hoping this may catch Captain Fishpants' attaention so that we can actually start some discussion on NTW/ETW and any related corperate strategies.

Oh, nonsense has its place in the great scheme of things, you know. The "hat edition" was a serious discussion in the office: there was a case to be made for doing a pack priced in the hundreds rather than tens of pounds, providing the right extras could be included. However, this is all moot now.

As to saying much else, I don't think that would be a very good idea. Apart from anything else, I don't feel particularly qualified to talk about ETW and I tend to stick to subjects that I know about. This does make my posting style and frequency look a little whimsical, I know, but better that than I create any misleading impressions.

NTW is currently playable, is moving towards completion, and will either be to your taste or not. If you choose to buy it, then you'll have fun with it: there's plenty to keep everyone occupied.

As to corporate strategy, that's definitely not my area of expertise any more. And such things would not be discussed in a public forum anyway.

[Braden]

Oh, nonsense has its place in the great scheme of things, you know. The "hat edition" was a serious discussion in the office: there was a case to be made for doing a pack priced in the hundreds rather than tens of pounds, providing the right extras could be included. However, this is all moot now.

As to saying much else, I don't think that would be a very good idea. Apart from anything else, I don't feel particularly qualified to talk about ETW and I tend to stick to subjects that I know about. This does make my posting style and frequency look a little whimsical, I know, but better that than I create any misleading impressions.

NTW is currently playable, is moving towards completion, and will either be to your taste or not. If you choose to buy it, then you'll have fun with it: there's plenty to keep everyone occupied.

As to corporate strategy, that's definitely not my area of expertise any more. And such things would not be discussed in a public forum anyway.

More than fair enough...pity you can't ask someone more "in the know" the reasoning behind these extra units (why pick/make up these ones?) rather than the stratergy behind them as we all know that's about the Bengi's.

I'm upset not to have historically accurate elite regiments to enjoy and hence won't bother with a purchase as it's not going to add enjoyment to my N:TW game.