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[Slackbladder]

Patch doesn't help me. Uninstalled and reinstalled, same crash. I can only assume it's to do with unlocking new Factions in my Grand Campaign menu that's causing the problem.
What I need to know is, is there a way to completely start from fresh? I can't find my saves and uninstalling obviously didn't change the data the game already had so the new install started up with all my saves etc. Maybe if I can get rid of them all the data and do a uninstall/reinstall, maybe, maybe it'll work....
Otherwise it looks like the game will just have to be put on the shelf gathering dust until CA get it working. And I am by no means alone.
And what's even more annoying is that this is the only PC game I have bought and used on my current PC that's crashed so badly. DoW II, FEAR II, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Crysis Warhead, and Medieval II, all been fine. Such a shame Empire looks like it's stillborn, at least for me.

 

[Phoenix]

Are there any fort assault/defenses in the game? I know they did a lot with siege weaponry in the previous installments, but what did they do for this one?

 

[platypotamus]

Are there any fort assault/defenses in the game? I know they did a lot with siege weaponry in the previous installments, but what did they do for this one?

There are indeed. I had defend a city from attack last time I played. Your troops on the walls will man the cannons automatically. Assaulting ground troops can throw ropes/grappling hooks to climb onto the walls apparently.

They had no artillery, so I'm not sure what it could have done to me.

I pulled off a heroic victory, apparently.

 

[Slackbladder]

Well, went to the forums and found a work around for the crash. So far, so good. The next patch is scheduled for next week. I hope that puts it right permanently.

Once you get the Military technology advanced enough the battles start getting really fun.

 

[Phoenix]

There are indeed. I had defend a city from attack last time I played. Your troops on the walls will man the cannons automatically. Assaulting ground troops can throw ropes/grappling hooks to climb onto the walls apparently.

They had no artillery, so I'm not sure what it could have done to me.

I pulled off a heroic victory, apparently.

I hate to support Steam DRM... it is REALLY paining me to have to deal with this garbage to play this game, but I want to support these developers because they make the kinds of games I want to play and I don't want to penalize them for something I'm sure their publisher forced them to do.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Tom Chick and Bruce Geryk just destroyed this game on today's episode of the Three Moves Ahead podcast . Ugly stuff. My coworker (longtime CA fan) said he got the game over the weekend and called the AI as dumb as ever, which was really disappointing.

I'm waiting for that magic $25 shipped for a new copy price point regardless. CA deserves some scratch for at least trying, I just wish they'd spend less on motion capture and finding ways to shoehorn more strategic elements into their game and actually make the game use the mechanics to fight back competently.

 

[Proc]

It's taking me forever to properly optimize this game. The performance isn't anywhere I'd like it to be at 1360x768. I wanted to play it at high with no aa and other fancy effects. Still chugs when I move near large bodies of enemy units I'd hate to drop down to medium because it looks rather poopy on those settings.

 

[Nemo]

So, virgin to the Total War series, I decided to try out Rome first, was only a few bucks anyway. I've played the tutorial for a few minutes but I got really put off on how you're playing on this boardgame looking map. I thought it would be very much focused on real time strategy. Is Empire the same way?

I'll give it a another try tomorrow and stick through it, hope my view changes because it did seem to get very, very high praise.

 

[platypotamus]

So, virgin to the Total War series, I decided to try out Rome first, was only a few bucks anyway. I've played the tutorial for a few minutes but I got really put off on how you're playing on this boardgame looking map. I thought it would be very much focused on real time strategy. Is Empire the same way?

I'll give it a another try tomorrow and stick through it, hope my view changes because it did seem to get very, very high praise.

Turn based strategic map, real time battle maps. That's the way the whole series is, including empire, so if you aren't digging it, you will probably want to steer clear.

 

[Phoenix]

Turn based strategic map, real time battle maps. That's the way the whole series is, including empire, so if you aren't digging it, you will probably want to steer clear.

Unless, of course, you just want to play through all the scenarios and then multiplayer the whole time.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Unless, of course, you just want to play through all the scenarios and then multiplayer the whole time.

I still can't believe Empire apparently shipped with three land battles and one naval battle. That's just absurd.

 

[nib95]

Ordered this through Amazon UK yesterday. With Amazon Prime (Free Trial) next day delivery, it should be with me today! Can't wait. Ordered a brand new XFX GTX 260 216 (55nm core) GPU to go with it!

 

[MrPing1000]

The best battles are being outnumbered but having a defensive postion smack bang inside a field using the walls as cover. Surrounded on 3 sides but shooting the shit out of anything that comes close enough. And 2 mortars pounding them as well. Fun.

I've nearly finished my first 100 year game as the Brits and I won't get the victory objectives. Mad rush to do them but I haven't even touched India, Egypt is proving a problem as my long term allies the ottoman empire had 4 huge armies there. I took 2 over, wasn't expecting that much resistance, maybe they saw me coming lol.

 

[Doytch]

Tom Chick and Bruce Geryk just destroyed this game on today's episode of the Three Moves Ahead podcast . Ugly stuff. My coworker (longtime CA fan) said he got the game over the weekend and called the AI as dumb as ever, which was really disappointing.

I'm waiting for that magic $25 shipped for a new copy price point regardless. CA deserves some scratch for at least trying, I just wish they'd spend less on motion capture and finding ways to shoehorn more strategic elements into their game and actually make the game use the mechanics to fight back competently.

Tom basically thinks the turn-based and real-time parts are divorced from one another, and he doesn't like that. He can't see how each part relates to another. I think that's a personal opinion. I still remember how the battles in my main Rome:TW campaign changed as I moved from Rome through Greece and then down south towards Egypt.

I think the battles and campaign maps are pretty well intertwined. The battle maps change, the mercs change, which troops are gonna be best in this stretch of your campaign (if you're moving from grassland to desert). Tom's criticism would work for Storm of Zehir; in that game it really didn't matter where you were, the battle maps may have looked different, but they didn't play differently at all.

And I don't see where his argument goes from there. He says to stop focusing on the campaign map, but his basis behind that is basically that they should just work on battle AI, instead. I don't get this. I'm not gonna comment on tactical AI (though Troy said it was much better) since it still hasn't shipped, but why do you have to rip out elements of the campaign map just to help battle AI? Sure there's a finite amount of time to work on stuff, but that doesn't mean you need to remove elements.

Essentially, I think both Tom and Bruce, they don't want both the campaign/battles in the same game. I never really got into the historical battles and multiplayer because there's no context, and stripping out the campaign removes the context. If they strip out the battles, then they'd have to focus on the campaign, and then you'd just have a regular TBS and it'd be like EU3. Why would I want to play another game just like EU3?

So, each individual part might not be as good as if they focused on each one, but that's not the point, at least for me. TW offers a kind of game that is not available anywhere else, and that's good enough for me.

 

[Phoenix]

but why do you have to rip out elements of the campaign map just to help battle AI? Sure there's a finite amount of time to work on stuff, but that doesn't mean you need to remove elements.

And with absolute certainty, the developer(s) that are working on the AI are certainly not the same one(s) that are working on the campaign engine. Software developers in a gaming shop are not interchangeable, they have specific skills and specialization. If you want to get better AI - you need to get better AI developer or get him better tools/engines with which to do his job.

 

[ghst]

Tom Chick and Bruce Geryk just destroyed this game on today's episode of the Three Moves Ahead podcast . Ugly stuff. My coworker (longtime CA fan) said he got the game over the weekend and called the AI as dumb as ever, which was really disappointing.

I'm waiting for that magic $25 shipped for a new copy price point regardless. CA deserves some scratch for at least trying, I just wish they'd spend less on motion capture and finding ways to shoehorn more strategic elements into their game and actually make the game use the mechanics to fight back competently.

judging the core a.i, both tactical and strategic, is extremely difficult right now. because, to be frank, the game is unfinished.

i won't just spurt them out to ruin the emperors new clothes for people enjoying the game as it is, but there are a couple of extremely prominent and obvious a.i flaws that cripple it's ability to make any kind of offensive action.

it's the era of overseas colonial warfare, where opportunism, alliances, proxy wars and diplomacy are often more profitable than steamrolling europe, and while the a.i does seem to operate with these intentions (as diplomacy hints at) the game breaking ai flaws entirely emasculate it's ability to carry these intentions out.

i listened to this podcast, and i've lost some respect for tom's opinion from doing so. as doych said, the context is absolutely what makes the tactical battles interesting. cause let's be fair, you are essentially comp stomping. even if ca managed to create some revolutionary new form of rts ai that could match a humans ability click for click on the battlefield, this point remains.

the trade theaters, new diplomatic options, colonial networks, research trees and such make the strategy portion far more engaging than it's ever been, while centralizing micromanagement and keeping janitor duties to a minimum. and the prestige system giving cause to building an overbearing, but respected global empire. rather than a fast tyrannical land grab.

my advice, give it atleast a month. see if these major ai flaws are genuine bugs, restriction of the coding, or just that they simply ran out of time. which given that the game shipped with certain features relatively gutted (historical scenarios, multi core optimization), i'd assume the third. it wouldn't surprise me on dot if sega's clinical misunderstanding of the nature of the pc strategy market was at the core of this.

you can still play the game now and soak up breathe taking technical side of the engine, but don't expect much challenge in the grand campaign, especially as a major colonial power. i'll continue to play it, but with the mindset of a beta tester.

 

[EatChildren]

Finally got the game. Too bad Steam is ignoring the disks and wants to download 15 gig worth of came data.

Does anyone know a way around this? Disconnecting the net when it begins to install doesn't help, as it's not detecting the game disk at all. I cant download as a) I'd rather not, and b) my monthly data limit would take up the game entire.

Anyway for me to bypass this?

 

[Doytch]

Finally got the game. Too bad Steam is ignoring the disks and wants to download 15 gig worth of came data.

Does anyone know a way around this? Disconnecting the net when it begins to install doesn't help, as it's not detecting the game disk at all. I cant download as a) I'd rather not, and b) my monthly data limit would take up the game entire.

Anyway for me to bypass this?

Just got it today...the way I did it was by running an exe on disc 1. I had Steam open, and I think it was setup.exe. It'll ask for a language right away. That's how I did it. Oh, and make sure you delete all data that it's managed to download so far. Just right-click, delete local data in Steam.

 

[EatChildren]

Got it working. Thanks mate. Uninstalled and deleted the local game cache, but it still wanted to download, so I clicked "Reinstall" instead of the usual and it copied from the disks. I cut the network during the install though as I noticed some data usage, and after finding FEAR 2 downloaded a mystery gig of crap I avoided it happening again.

Now its just updating.

 

[Caesar III]

Finally got the game. Too bad Steam is ignoring the disks and wants to download 15 gig worth of came data.

Does anyone know a way around this? Disconnecting the net when it begins to install doesn't help, as it's not detecting the game disk at all. I cant download as a) I'd rather not, and b) my monthly data limit would take up the game entire.

Anyway for me to bypass this?

I had the same problem and I tricked Steam on this one

I copied all of the dvd content to a hdd folder and put in the steambackup.exe as well which is created when you backup any game you own. Then I started the steambackup.exe and it asked me to install Empire. So I did and it worked great

 

[scottnak]

Hey guys, my brother is totally in love with this game...
I was wondering if there are any other games that he would like that are in the same 'feel'/style of this game (he's played the hell out of the total war series already, heh). Something new within the last few months or so... Thanks

 

[timetokill]

Okay, so I've never played the Total War games, and I'm a little gun-shy about picking this one up, especially with all of the issues I've been hearing about it with Steam.

For those in here that are long-time fans, which of the earlier games does this one feel most like? I feel like I want to maybe try one of the previous ones on the cheap and if I like it go in on this one.

 

[ghst]

Okay, so I've never played the Total War games, and I'm a little gun-shy about picking this one up, especially with all of the issues I've been hearing about it with Steam.

For those in here that are long-time fans, which of the earlier games does this one feel most like? I feel like I want to maybe try one of the previous ones on the cheap and if I like it go in on this one.

rome: total war is a decent primer, dirt cheap too if you find it in the right place.

creative assembly have said some encouraging things on the boards (usually a empty pr statement, then a couple more heartfelt replies from lower level guys mid thread) and are supposedly sticking to a weekly patching regime. this is as well as stating that they are aware of and in the process of correcting the major ai issues i alluded to in my post.

the major patch next week will surely be an indication of things to come. i suggest waiting until the end of the month then potentially picking up empire off the bat, as the road to independence campaign is an ideal primer for the series.

 

[Zeliard]

i suggest waiting until the end of the month then potentially picking up empire off the bat, as the road to independence campaign is an ideal primer for the series.

I've never been a big Total War player, and I have to second the recommendation to play the Road to Independence campaign if you're new to the series. It's an incredibly good primer, and it's paced exceptionally well. They give you bigger and greater responsibilities as it goes on, taking what it's already taught you to teach you something new, and then combining it all together. It's also moved along by a specific storyline. It's very well-done, and if anyone feels overwhelmed by the series, give Road to Independence a try and you might not feel so anymore.

 

[ghst]

I've never been a big Total War player, and I have to second the recommendation to play the Road to Independence campaign if you're new to the series. It's an incredibly good primer, and it's paced exceptionally well. They give you bigger and greater responsibilities as it goes on, taking what it's already taught you to teach you something new, and then combining it all together. It's also moved along by a specific storyline. It's very well-done, and if anyone feels overwhelmed by the series, give Road to Independence a try and you might not feel so anymore.

also, the rti campaign is relatively free of many of the bugs that plague the grand campaign.

 

[EatChildren]

So, after getting the game working I jumped straight into the Grand Campaign and hit up World Domination mode.

I think I'm going to need a Total War refresher because damn was I confused. There's a few things here and there that weren't in Medieval 2 or Kingdoms. Maybe I should give Road to Independence a whirl first.

 

[Hari Seldon]

How do you defend a fort properly? Half the time my troops on the wall will shoot down and man the canons when I click attack, the other half they start climbing down the damn walls. This seems buggy as hell.

 

[xabre]

I think I'm going to need a Total War refresher because damn was I confused. There's a few things here and there that weren't in Medieval 2 or Kingdoms. Maybe I should give Road to Independence a whirl first.

Yes that is a great help.

 

[Steeven]

How do you defend a fort properly? Half the time my troops on the wall will shoot down and man the canons when I click attack, the other half they start climbing down the damn walls. This seems buggy as hell.

Sieges have always been buggy in Total War games.

 

[Windu]

Downloaded the Demo off of steam the other day. Fun game. If I ever get un-broke then I might buy this game.

 

[spwolf]

Hey guys, my brother is totally in love with this game...
I was wondering if there are any other games that he would like that are in the same 'feel'/style of this game (he's played the hell out of the total war series already, heh). Something new within the last few months or so... Thanks

not really... Total War should last you for years, not months

 

[Puck]

How much shit is this supposed to download?

What a fucked up installation of a game.

I have spent the last few hours trying to install it, following various guides like this:
http://howdoiinstallempiretotalwar....ing-how-to-install-empire-total-war-from-dvds

It says / shows it is installing from discs (even puts in disc 2) but then after it is done installing it starts up a download that appears to be many gb large.

The "patch" is apparently big as it estimates more than 7 hours downloading at 130kbs.

fuck. this. game.

 

[web01]

Surprised so many people are having troubles installed fine for me no problems on Vista on release day. Great game too.

 

[EatChildren]

How much shit is this supposed to download?

What a fucked up installation of a game.

I have spent the last few hours trying to install it, following various guides like this:
http://howdoiinstallempiretotalwar....ing-how-to-install-empire-total-war-from-dvds

It says / shows it is installing from discs (even puts in disc 2) but then after it is done installing it starts up a download that appears to be many gb large.

The "patch" is apparently big as it estimates more than 7 hours downloading at 130kbs.

fuck. this. game.

Cancel the installation. Right click on your Empire: Total War in Steam and go to properties, then delete the cache. Put the disk in and click "Reinstall", rather than "Uninstall". When the installation looks like its working disconnect your internet.

Thats what I had to do.

 

[ghst]

a patch has just been released which claims to fix the prominent crashing/tech issues. i'd still wait for the forthcoming gameplay patch before investing heavily though.

 

[Scotch]

a patch has just been released which claims to fix the prominent crashing/tech issues. i'd still wait for the forthcoming gameplay patch before investing heavily though.

Same here. I've finished campaigns with the Dutch and Prussia and I love the game, but at the same this is one of the most broken pieces of shit I've ever played. Whoever decided to release this needs to lose his job.

 

[Slackbladder]

Not sure what good the patch has done as I am still suffering from a few of the same old CtD's. But it also looks like some people have had all their saves deleted which has obviously pissed them off. I got to say I have never read so many angry and accusative posts in a forum then I have there. It's vitriolic!

 

[Druz]

In the middle of my Prussia campaign I came across a corrupt save file.. it would happen the same way every time. I'd fight a massive battle, take the territory, save and quit. The it was corrupt again.. repeat the process once or twice. Second time around I clicked End Turn and saved the turn after the battle and I haven't had to deal with corruption since.

 

[Slacker]

Loving this game. I'm a newb to the series, but I'm slowly figuring it out. I'm going to watch the vids linked in the OP tonight to learn some tactics.

Also, here's a good "missing manual" that someone put together:

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/48849/t/Spraetter-39-s-Guide-to-Empire-Total-War.html

Reading that explained a LOT to me, so if any other noobs are struggling, check it out.

 

[ghst]

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/53425/t/The-Daily-Update.html

ca are providing daily updates in regards to the big gameplay/bug patch in the works. there have been a few hot fixes, but i wouldn't invest too heavily in the game till this is released. it's not worth compromising the experience just because sega rushed the product to market.

this patches release date for all intensive purposes is the unofficial release date, with the game effectively still in beta.

 

[Fragamemnon]

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/53425/t/The-Daily-Update.html

ca are providing daily updates in regards to the big gameplay/bug patch in the works. there have been a few hot fixes, but i wouldn't invest too heavily in the game till this is released. it's not worth compromising the experience just because sega rushed the product to market.

this patches release date for all intensive purposes is the unofficial release date, with the game effectively still in beta.

Just wanted to say thanks for this (and the other) posts about Empire from you, ghst. I'm a pretty cynical bastard when it comes to TW games but do intend on picking it up once it's a bit more polished up, and you've done a really nice job in this thread of letting everyone know where the game's at currently.

 

[Waikis]

Just wanted to say thanks for this (and the other) posts about Empire from you, ghst. I'm a pretty cynical bastard when it comes to TW games but do intend on picking it up once it's a bit more polished up, and you've done a really nice job in this thread of letting everyone know where the game's at currently.

The core gameplay is fine if you don't mind installing some of the mods released, especially darthmod. I've also fixed the crashes by tweaking the .exe to allow more than 2GB address.

 

[RyanDG]

I heard that people with 256MB cards are fucked with Medium settings; they can't change it to high or ultra, even if their card > 512MB or more cards. CA better fix this with a patch because this is lame.

Yep, this is absolutely correct. My laptop doesn't want me to play on higher settings than medium, despite being able to crank out high on most other games released this year... Fortunately my desk top loves me...


And with that said, I picked up the game finally this past weekend and I have been playing it since then... I hate to be 'that guy', but Empire Total War is just another reminder of why I love MTW and MTW:Viking Invasion more and more (so much so that I keep it installed alongside EB RTW for my Total War fixes)... Fortunately Creative Assembly has a great community behind it responsible for some pretty impressive (and exhaustive) mod projects for nearly all of their games, so I know its only a matter of time before someone cranks out something that spices up Empire a bit more for my liking.

Until then though, I'll finish out my current campaign and spend the rest of my time in multiplayer battles which are rather enjoyable despite a few flaws.

I'm not a big fan of naval battles though... I just can't grasp my head around them yet I guess in multiplayer mode.

 

[Waikis]

Yep, this is absolutely correct. My laptop doesn't want me to play on higher settings than medium, despite being able to crank out high on most other games released this year... Fortunately my desk top loves me...


And with that said, I picked up the game finally this past weekend and I have been playing it since then... I hate to be 'that guy', but Empire Total War is just another reminder of why I love MTW and MTW:Viking Invasion more and more (so much so that I keep it installed alongside EB RTW for my Total War fixes)... Fortunately Creative Assembly has a great community behind it responsible for some pretty impressive (and exhaustive) mod projects for nearly all of their games, so I know its only a matter of time before someone cranks out something that spices up Empire a bit more for my liking.

Until then though, I'll finish out my current campaign and spend the rest of my time in multiplayer battles which are rather enjoyable despite a few flaws.

I'm not a big fan of naval battles though... I just can't grasp my head around them yet I guess in multiplayer mode.

How to override the graphic setting.

 

[RyanDG]

How to override the graphic setting.

Great stuff! Thanks for the link. When I get the inkling for breaking out some more ETW on my laptop i'll have to give it a shot.

 

[Doytch]

CA guys have been posting daily updates about patches/what they're working on over at Shogun. Sounds like the big gameplay patch might come next week, they pushed it to the beta testers today.

April 24th

The final version of the patch has gone into beta community testing, and we're going to test it over the weekend. We had hoped to have it on general release tonight but it was felt there should be longer dedicated to international version testing.

There are over 70 bug fixes in this upgrade, plus a tonne of balance and feature tweaks.

Some of the key game breakers that were fixed include: Fixing the crash caused by AI capturing a ship after naval combat. Fixed the 'port selection' crash when selecting a port in North America as Great Britain, we fixed a crash on building capture notification, we fixed the 'stuttering loading bar' issue and the mid-battle crash related to audio. We fixed the garrison outisde playable area crash during land battles. We also fixed the crash caused by certain factions attempting to assasinate gentlemen inside a school. We also addressed the hang loading into battle problem.

We hope to have this gameplay upgrade out the early part of next week following the weekend's testing, meaning hopefully, you'll all see a marked improvement.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to talk about Naval invasions if I may. The technology behind naval invasions is actually really rather heavy and is still causing some issues. The gameplay upgrade will make naval invasions possible but they will be rare. The AI now has a proper mechanism for the planning involved and can execute that mechanism when required, however increasing its frequency is a balance issue we haven't been able to get fixed in time for this upgrade. So in short, naval invasions are now possible and may occur, but they will not be frequent, which means we have to up that likelihood.

As a ray of hope to those concerned with this issue, I've seen the work we're doing on the AI for the next patch coming on leaps and bounds. There are a large amount of significant performance fixes that we're working on for the upcoming upgrade, this included. The primary purpose of the gameplay upgrade that will be released next week is to fix the AI aggression issues, remove the vast majority of game breaking crashes and tweak the unit behaviour whilst laying groundwork for naval invasions.

Again, many thanks for your patience. Hopefully you'll all be discussing these changes next week.

Kind regards,
Kieran

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I just wanted to drop in and mention how much I have been enjoying this game. I am new to the Total War series, although I did pick up the complete sets of both Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War on Steam earlier this month. I have been dabbling in those games and they are both great, but they didn't hook me like Empire has.

Maybe it is the graphical details, improved interface or camera controls (being able to use mouse 3 to control the camera freely is awesome), but Empire just feels a lot better to play. I still haven't played much, and only just started on my first real campaign. I decided to play a nation with relatively few territories so I wouldn't be overwhelmed immediately so I picked Prussia. So far I have managed to almost claim all of Austria's territories and I am starting to work northeast to take out Sweden and its protectorates. I just got the technology Fire by Rank which made my militia units ridiculously powerful (at least until my enemies learn the technology).

I have a pretty good computer (Vista Ultimate 64bit, Core 2 Duo E8500, 4GB Ram and a 4870 1GB), but the game honestly runs a lot better than I expected considering how good it looks and how many units are displayed in battles. I have the graphical settings all maxxed out (except AA which is at 2x) in 1920x1200 and it is very smooth. I haven't experienced any of the CTD problems that some people seem to be having either, but I haven't played the game for more than 2 hours at a time.

Anyway, the game is awesome so if you are on the fence and like strategy games then I would definitely recommend picking it up. Give the demo on Steam a try first to see how well it runs first.

 

[Doytch]

Patch TODAY

April 27th

Dear All,

Today's update is very short. We're finishing the testing of the patch at SEGA's in-house QA and verifying the weekends results with our beta group. Provided they are content we should be able to sign the patch off for general release and distribute it tommorrow evening (28/4/09) around 1900 GMT. Naturally if there are any unforseen problems this might move a little, but it's looking strong at the moment.

We're currently writing up the full changelist which we'll include with the patch, so you'll all be able to see the full extent of the problems addressed and features added/tweaked.

Today saw the regular SEGA/CA annual conference take place at which we discussed Empire's future and the future of the TW series in general.

I appreciate today's update isn't technical in nature, as hopefully, all this information will be released tomorrow evening.

Kind regards,
Kieran

OR NOT

April 28th

I have to start this one by saying 'and this is why we don't normally put dates on things'.

The patch will now go live tomorrow (29/4/09), rather than today as there have been some last minute technical issues to do with distribution. I should stress the patch itself has been through the CA, SEGA and external Beta group test phases and has done well, so we don't expect any hitches with the code itself. That said we're unable to bring it you this evening due to a technical problem with uploading/distribution.

My apologies to those of you who have cancelled appointments/meetings/dates/operations/weddings as a result of this change, this upgrade will make a genuine difference to the way Empire plays and of course address it's stability issues.

Kind regards,
Kieran

 

[Scotch]

Patch is coming tonight, here is the list of changes and fixes:

CRASH FIXES
- Fixed crash when disbanding generals unit.
- Fix for crash on trying to merge ships from port into ships next to port.
- Fixed rare crash relating to boarding.
- Fixed crash to do with reinforcing armies.
- Fixed crash on revolution video attempting to play.
- Fixed crash for double clicking on sinking ship on campaign map.
- Fix for crash on merging units but moving into fort before army arrives.
- Fixed several crashes related to rakes.
- Fixed crashes relating to battles when running Czech or German versions of the game.
- Fixed crash on moving army into region of faction player has military access and then cancelling military access.
- Fixed crash on trying to exchange ships between 2 fleets.
- Fixed crash on spamming move orders to puckle guns locked in melee combat.
- Fixed hard lock on inviting host to their own MP game.
- Fix to prevent loading of mod causing crash post patch.
- Various end turn crash bugs fixed.
- Fixes to crash bugs relating to completion of revolutions.
- Some fixes relating to merging and disbanding.
- Fix for several crashes in land battles.
- Several crashes relating to attacking cities fixed.
- Several load save game crashes fixed.

CAMPAIGN
- Armies now placed correctly on battlefields in relation to campaign.
- Fix for nearby ships sometimes not being included as reinforcements for battles.
- Fix for incorrect numbers sometimes showing on trade routes.
- Units with limits on how many can be recruited now show how many are available.
- Various fixes relating to rakes and infiltrating.
- Fixes relating to problems moving armies/merging into army's right next to settlements.
- Various trade bug fixes.
- Fix for moving agent from settlement moving army instead of agent.
- Fix for several bugs relating to military access and armies being in regions.
- Fix for tattered flags appearing on fleet/armies even when at full strength/fully repaired.
- Fix for sallying out armies breaking siege at times even when losing the battle.
- Fix for bugs relating to capturing ships on returning to campaign map from naval battle.

LAND BATTLE
- Improvements to path finding have been made.
- Some fixes to units not garrisoning buildings.
- Fort gate ownership made clearer with faction flags appearing at the gatehouse.
- Fix for problem relating to artillery unlimbering after being ordered to limber.
- Fix for puckle guns moving on their own in some circumstances.
- Fix for big slowdown in unit movement on some battle maps in the Road to Independence episodes.
- Fix for missile cavalry not reloading when out of combat.
- Jaegers now have muskets instead of incorrect rifles, Prussian Jaegers keep rifles.
- Quebec episodic land battle fixed ground type in deployment area
- Fix for unrealistic numbers when ending a land battle by quitting on the battle results screen.

NAVAL BATTLE
- Several fixes for ships clipping into each other.
- Improvements to boarding have been made. Crew is more fluid in attack and more resolute in defence. Men survive long fall and officers join in the boarding attack.
- Crew uniforms improved to make identification of the crew type and faction easier.
- Defending ship is not allowed to fire cannons anymore during boarding procedure.
- Improved naval grouping UI and group movement made.
- Improvements made to ship collisions to reduce chance of ships getting stuck.
- Fix for sail damage not being shown when volumetric effects turned on.

MULTIPLAYER
- Various fixes for joining games/game lobby issues.
- Fixes for problems relating to spectators being kicked/locking up on other players joining games in certain instances.
- Long riflemen and winged hussars removed from early era battles.
- Fix for insufficient funds always showing on unit cards even when enough money is available.
- Player name is now displayed on unit tooltips.
- Team chat is now displayed in a different colour.

AI
- Basic fix for AI being unable to move army by fleet.
- Aggression of factions in campaign improved, as well as tweaks to diplomacy.
- Improvements to campaign AI relating to its waging of wars, recruitment and movement of armies.
- Improvements made to battle AI to make it more reactive, use buildings better as well as squares and rakes.
- Siege battle AI improvements made.
- Improvements to naval AI to make it bunch up less, its use of galleys and long range units such as bomb ketches.

MISCELLANEOUS
- Delete save game button added to save game list.
- View replays button added to single player Play Battle menu.
- Various sound fixes and improvements.
- Various incorrect text messages fixed.
- Fixes to various graphical glitches with display of walls.
- Fixes made for stuttering videos.
- Fix for several game option settings not being saved correctly, including settings such as floating flags.
- Fix for unit voices/attack confirmation being heard for all units in an alliance instead of just for the player's army.
- Armour and shield values are now added into melee defence value shown on unit cards.
- Lots of other small and minor bug fixes.

BALANCING
- Land unit recruitment cost in campaign has been increased, with higher cost on higher difficulty level.
- Ship recruitment and upkeep costs have been increased in campaign.
- Various balancing and cost adjustments to improve multiplayer land battle balance.
- Ship costing improvements made for both campaign and multiplayer.
- Economic tweaks have been made to campaign to reduce amount of money made in later part of campaign.

EXTRA NOTE:
- We are aware of an issue with community created maps that results in a crash when someone without the map tries to join the game. This crash will be fixed in the next patch.
- Further work is being done on improving AI Naval invasion behaviour and this will be included in the next upgrade patch.
- Please also note that this update is save game compatible but you should start a new game to see all of the benefits.

 

[Slacker]

I got the game after the first two patches came out. Does Steam get 'em quick or is it a download-'em-yourself kind of situation?