SUBSIM's totally awesome Empire: Total War thread

[Raptor1]

I do believe I can help both of you...*drags several crates of beer into view*

[Biggles]

I do believe I can help both of you...*drags several crates of beer into view*

I like the way you're thinking:yeah: Tell me more please?

[AJ!]

wow only 3 days left :o

Where does the time go?

[A Very Super Market]

Two words.

Three syllables.


FREEZE YOURSELF.

[Raptor1]

Two words.

Three syllables.


FREEZE YOURSELF.

No, AJ! meant that time moved fast, and that it wasn't the increasingly slow and painful hell it will continue to be for the next 3 days

To which I say: LYNCH VOTE!

[A Very Super Market]

Hear, hear!

Anyways, more interesting stuff extracted from the demo.

Infantry

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/78/infantry.png

Cavalry

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9602/cavalry.png

Artillery

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4903/artillery.png

Ships

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1368/shipsf.png

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/42991

[stabiz]

Aaaaaaaaargh.

[A Very Super Market]

Brain-dead from waiting? :doh:

[Raptor1]

Okay, with the waiting so close, yet so far to ending, I decided to let my madness run loose

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2072/etwmadness.jpg

Total numbers were about 16,000 troops for both sides, too bad my computer couldn't run it at more than 3 FPS...

[Morts]

Yeah, the Danes had us back then. *waves fist*

:)

Yeah? Oh I will change that! *waves two fists*
Think again !
*puts both of ya in a prison somewhere in jutland*
harharhar
anyway, i seriously hope you can play as denmark

[Morts]

oh my god, i just saw the available factions....bummer:damn: no danes

[A Very Super Market]

All that means is that there will be less authentic Danish stuff.

Mods will make every single faction playable within... hours.

So cheer up!:up:

[Raptor1]

oh my god, i just saw the available factions....bummer:damn: no danes

Shouldn't be long before someone mods Denmark-Norway and the rest of the minor factions in as playables

[Biggles]

oh my god, i just saw the available factions....bummer:damn: no danes

Even more time to play as swedes then:O:

[Morts]

oh my god, i just saw the available factions....bummer:damn: no danes

Even more time to play as swedes then:O:
i will NEVER play as the swedes:rotfl: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER

[stabiz]

I know who I am playing first. Not exotic at all... RULE BRITANNIA!

(And then France)

[A Very Super Market]

Bah, crazy people

I will play Prussia, and conquer Poland. It will become a German tradition.

Then, I will play as the dutch. They are sooooo cool

[Captain Vlad]

I know who I am playing first. Not exotic at all... RULE BRITANNIA!

I know too. And get the hell off my continent so I can steal it from the natives myself.:DL

[stabiz]

We will see about that!

After tea, of course. :) All in due time, good sir. Now carry on with your colonial doings, I have madams to entertain and foxes to hunt.

[A Very Super Market]

I'm rereading Das Boot after I won the contest prize.

Your post made me remember the bar madame, and it made me laugh.


And you Americans can go on your business, as long as you remember to step asid after we Prussians take a look around.:cool:

[Raptor1]

I think I'll be playing either Poland-Lithuania (Because of the crazy Winged Hussars) or Austria first...hmm...

[A Very Super Market]

I veel bury you!!!!!!

[Falkirion]

Any tips for a first time player of the Total War series? The game looks like it might actually provide enough substance for me to keep coming back.

[A Very Super Market]

The game will give a pretty in-depth tutorial, so I don't think you will have problems understanding how to play.

[stabiz]

Yeah, Road to Independence is a linear story driven tutorial that unlocks the grand campaign as the US.

Tips? Pay close attention to the financial summary at the end of each round. There you will see why (if) you are not making money. Cut back on armies in peaceful areas, and dont build every building in every town. (This is based on previous TW games, but I am guessing it applies in Empire too)

[Dowly]

Yeah, Road to Independence is a linear story driven tutorial that unlocks the grand campaign as the US.

Tips? Pay close attention to the financial summary at the end of each round. There you will see why (if) you are not making money. Cut back on armies in peaceful areas, and dont build every building in every town. (This is based on previous TW games, but I am guessing it applies in Empire too)

If it's going to be anything like the other TW games, build roads, farms, markets and ports to every city and you dont need to worry about your economic stuff anymore.

[stabiz]

Yeah, but this time there is also the trade routes. (With pirates)

IGN`s conclusions:

9.0 Presentation
Beautifully presented with only a few minor visual glitches. Excellent player guidance throughout. A few more cinematics during the Grand Campaign would have been welcome. 9.5 Graphics
Breathtaking visuals for both land and sea battles. The campaign map sports an impressive level of detail. 9.0 Sound
Quality musical score, booming cannons, snapping muskets, clanging steel and roaring battle cries. 9.5 Gameplay
The deepest, most compelling and varied strategy game experience ever, though a few minor irritants prevent gameplay from receiving top marks. 10 Lasting Appeal
A game of almost unrivalled longevity, with The Grand Campaign offering a truly epic experience alone. Additional modes extend replayability further.

Incredible OVERALL
9.5 (out of 10 / not an average) http://media.ignimgs.com/media/ign/images/rating_ecaward.gif (http://pc.ign.com/choice.html)

[Biggles]

oh my god, i just saw the available factions....bummer:damn: no danes

Even more time to play as swedes then:O:
i will NEVER play as the swedes:rotfl: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER

Too bad for you then. The Baltic Sea shall be an all swedish lake, mark my words!

[Oberon]

By the way, if anyone is interested, I stumbled across the guy who did some of the artwork for Empire on deviantart:

http://radojavor.deviantart.com/

I love his Channel Fleet one, Ironclads forever!! :rock:

[Dowly]

Anyone can give a list of new features over the other TW games?

[A Very Super Market]

Well gosh, Dowly, don't visit the official site or anything

Okay... um....
-Much improved AI and diplomacy
-The uh.... 18th century....
-No more generic rebels
-Extremely moddable to the max
-Naval battles RTT
-So many factions....
-More than just Europa

Uh... I forget the rest.

[Biggles]

The fact that you don't need diplomats running around the place to get traderights is just great...I mean it, it will make things so much easier.

Also, got myself a copy of PC Gamer Sweden today, with a 6 page review. They gave the game 94% (of 100) and listed the following:

+
Big
Beautiful
Sea battles!
The possibilities
Sweden (yes, they really pointed that out)
The details.

-
None.


Heheh....

[Morts]

oh my god, i just saw the available factions....bummer:damn: no danes
Even more time to play as swedes then:O: i will NEVER play as the swedes:rotfl: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER
Too bad for you then. The Baltic Sea shall be an all swedish lake, mark my words!
no, im gonna take over sweden as the brits and denmark just for fun

[Biggles]

oh my god, i just saw the available factions....bummer:damn: no danes
Even more time to play as swedes then:O: i will NEVER play as the swedes:rotfl: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER
Too bad for you then. The Baltic Sea shall be an all swedish lake, mark my words!
no, im gonna take over sweden as the brits and denmark just for fun

Well not in my game, hehe:O:

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

By the way, if anyone is interested, I stumbled across the guy who did some of the artwork for Empire on deviantart:

http://radojavor.deviantart.com/

I love his Channel Fleet one, Ironclads forever!! :rock:

Yeah his art is incredable, the painting titled "The Fire" is the load screen in the demo for the tutorals and battles. Oh and take a look at one called "Admiral", who does that remind you of ?:hmm2:

[AJ!]

By the way, if anyone is interested, I stumbled across the guy who did some of the artwork for Empire on deviantart:

http://radojavor.deviantart.com/

I love his Channel Fleet one, Ironclads forever!! :rock:

Yeah his art is incredable, the painting titled "The Fire" is the load screen in the demo for the tutorals and battles. Oh and take a look at one called "Admiral", who does that remind you of ?:hmm2:

I think his artwork is fantastic :yeah:

Its funny how somthing as simple as the loading screen art can make the game so much more enticing.

[stabiz]

Oh, Steam can burn in hell! The preloading is canceled, the game will be ready to download on release. Thats 15+ GB and will take a while, which kills the only reason to buy it from those muppets.:nope:

[miner1436]

Is steam required to play/download the game from the disc?

[A Very Super Market]

Yeah, it will only let you activate the gameon release day.

Then you can forget about it.

[Happy Times]

Im getting a copy today, it seems the game is playable from the box.
But the most important thing it is highly modable and the beta for multiplaying is coming out also so the potential is something we havent seen before.:yeah:
Shortcomings are some non playble factions, most importantly Portugal, and that the map doesnt cover the entire world.
But i think most will be corrected by mods in the future.

[A Very Super Market]

Just find the descr_strat file, and change it to include all the minor factions.

[Dowly]

~10hrs to go.:salute:

EDIT: Well, 10hrs for some, not for me. Thank you Steam for being a POS. Another reason to get this from "somewhere else". :shifty:

[Dowly]

Phew.. finally got the steaming pile of poo to work. But I still got something to rant. Why they dont use pre-download like they used to? Steam will come crashing down when the H-hour comes and everyone starts downloading it at the same time. :O:

[stabiz]

What did you get to work?

[Dowly]

STEAMing pile of poo.

[stabiz]

Ah, that crap. I normally dont have anything against Steam, but his time they pissed me off. They announced a pre load a while ago, and canceled it yesterday! Dont know why though.

PS: I had huge slow downs while downloading the demo, since everybody in Scandinavia suddenly decided to give the demo a whirl. This can be solved by going to settings/downloads/download region and try different areas. I settled on East Coast US last time, and maxed my broadband capacity the entire time it took to download.:)

Oh, and dont tell that to anyone. Not even at subsim.

[Dowly]

Thanks for the tip. :salute:

[Skybird]

Is steam required to play/download the game from the disc?

Yeah, it will only let you activate the gameon release day.

Then you can forget about it.

That is not totally correct. By needing to contact Steam and activate the game, you agree to give them legal card blanche to pick whatever data they want to retrieve from your system and hand it over to them. Steam automatically also keeps your game constantly updated, so your PC system is under constant surveillance by them.

People complainign about Starforce in the past, should not think that Steam is a lesser evil. IMO it is not. That must be the reason why half of the people at german Amazon site give it a one star rating only, all pointing at Steam for that. On two other german gaming sites I checked in the past days, the attacks on Steam are mounting as well.

I would not buy a Steam-game even if they pay me money. I remind of the controversy around HalfLife 2, which started this all.

[Arclight]

:timeout:

Are you saying you have to use Steam, even for a hard copy?

[Dowly]

:timeout:

Are you saying you have to use Steam, even for a hard copy?

Yes, I think so. AFAIK, it will the same deal as HL2 for example, Steam is installed when you install the game.

[Zachstar]

Skybird is completely wrong about Steam which is a huge disappointment considering his info in other topics.

That is Libel Skybird Steam does NOT phone home about your system unless you participate in the hardware survey which it shows EXACTLY what it is sending.

GEEZUS People you make Steam sound like the great evil around here when in practice its nothing more than a game list with an IM that auto updates.

Oh and about auto updating. Unlike some of the tin foil hatters here. It keeps it updated I learned by checking key files within the install (That folder only which happens to be INSIDE the STEAM folder)

Why the hell would you think Valve would want to waste bandwidth to tell them what you are browsing or what is in the "Other" drive? If the .gov wanted info they would go to the better source being Microsuck itself.

[Zachstar]

:timeout:

Are you saying you have to use Steam, even for a hard copy?
Yes, I think so. AFAIK, it will the same deal as HL2 for example, Steam is installed when you install the game.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that when you consider what you can do with Steam. And multiplayer will be MUCH easier.

[Zachstar]

Ah, that crap. I normally dont have anything against Steam, but his time they pissed me off. They announced a pre load a while ago, and canceled it yesterday! Dont know why though.

PS: I had huge slow downs while downloading the demo, since everybody in Scandinavia suddenly decided to give the demo a whirl. This can be solved by going to settings/downloads/download region and try different areas. I settled on East Coast US last time, and maxed my broadband capacity the entire time it took to download.:)

Oh, and dont tell that to anyone. Not even at subsim.


Well don't tell that to your fellow folks across the pond wondering why one of the undersea cables is completely saturated :P

[Dowly]

And if you REALLY dont want Steam "spying" your PC, you can run it on offline mode. Only the activation of the game requires steam to be online.

[Skybird]

I stick to it. every essay on Steam I ever read and every talking I ever listend to said that by acitvating the game, you implicitly have to agree on steam accessing your system, with no legal boundaries for that being detailed. It is one of the major criticisms of Steam that by activating their games you give them any right to access your system and do in there whatever they want - you will not know what they are doing.

Believe they only mean it well and will not reztrieve any data that are interesting for them in order to sell it , or make a profile of your internet habits, for example, or believe it not and call it paranoia. The news is more and more regulralry reporting about events showing how much "paranoia" these security concerns regarding data and privacy protection are. So believe what you want, but believing is not knowing. Better keep things not under hear-say, but under your own, personal control.

After all its just another game.

when you use payback-customer cards to collect points with everything you buy somewhere, do not be surprised if your mailbox gets increasingly cramped with adverts from shops and companies you never have heared of. Did you really think they give you those points for free if they do not make any form of solid profit by it? Selling and buying customer profiles with preferences on consumer habits as well as postal and email availability, even complete banking accounts, is a big business.

DRM is a plague, a real plague.

Do what you want guys. I just issue a founded warning. My own decision already has been made some time ago.

[Arclight]

I have no objections to Steam (apart from the fact it collects data, for whatever purpose). It's just kinda weird to be forced into using it for online activation of a hard-copy. I mean, FSX didn't need Steam for that. They could have just incorporated the feature in the installer. :hmmm:

As far as I've read now, you only have to use Steam for a 1x activation, and that's it. No need to keep it online for updates etc. if you don't want to. Seems CA has adopted some, but not all, functionality.

Whew, was afraid I had to put this one on my boycot list, along with "limited number of installs" games. :rolleyes:

BTW; I installed Steam for the first time a couple of days ago to DL the demo: not happy. DL tied up my connection, couldn't even browse Subsim. Installing it to C: drive was a bad idea as well, as the data was being written to my Win partition it basically seized. Programs in memory worked fine, but getting the properties of the drive to check available space was impossible. :nope:

[Zachstar]

That sounds like an issue with the windows install or the drive because unless you got a net speed reaching the speed of your hard drive then it does not load that much.

BTW Unlike this new trend of "Limited Installs" Steam has a flat policy of "1 game 1 account" Meaning wherever you can legally install and use steam and your account you have permission to redownload and use the game as soon as its downloaded. People have used this to great extent at parties and other places where all they have to do is move a steam folder around to not have to redownload all the time. No crazed DRM (Steam uses just basic encryption on the binaries to keep it from being easy to crack the game for the layman)

[Arclight]

That sounds like an issue with the windows install or the drive because unless you got a net speed reaching the speed of your hard drive then it does not load that much.Actually, I think it was because drive was nearly full (still 1.5GB free though). Shut down Steam, uninstalled some SDK I wasn't using anymore which freed up several GBs, continued DL without HD issues (that I noticed). But I still don't get why Steam kills my browsing? If I'm DL something at 800KB/s> no problem. Steam DL 700+KB/s> :nope:

[A Very Super Market]

You guys seem to be really pissed off at STEAM for the lack of pre-load. Frankly, it is more Sega's fault than anything, given that they distribute the game.

[Dowly]

You guys seem to be really pissed off at STEAM for the lack of pre-load. Frankly, it is more Sega's fault than anything, given that they distribute the game.

Dont really care who's fault it is, just saying it's stupid and will likely cause lots of problems on the initial release. Oh well, we'll see in an hour or so. :salute:

[Dowly]

:timeout:
So... umm.. why does Steam's release clock now say 1 day 5 hours?

EDIT: Nvm, closed & opened Steam and it is liiiive! :woot:

[Biggles]

In town....

Me- Hey, is this released yet!? (Holds up box of E:TW
Worker- Na, tomorrow.
Me- No chance to sell it to me one day early then?
Worker- Sure, if you're willing to pay the fine of 1 000 000 kronor if you're caught.
Me- ............


(I think I can wait one more day) :D

[Dowly]

(I think I can wait one more day) :D
You prolly get to play it earlier than me. Steam is really taking hammering atm, lots of ppl cant even log in and if they can, the servers are too busy to get the download started. Atm, getting it at ~500kb/s.

EDIT: Aaand my download stalled. :har:....:wah:

[Zachstar]

Restart steam. When it stalls usually you need to do a restart of it in order to get it going again.

Steam is not exactly the best download manager in the world.

[Raptor1]

In town....

Me- Hey, is this released yet!? (Holds up box of E:TW
Worker- Na, tomorrow.
Me- No chance to sell it to me one day early then?
Worker- Sure, if you're willing to pay the fine of 1 000 000 kronor if you're caught.
Me- ............


(I think I can wait one more day) :D

I'd pay a million kronor for it a day earlier...wait, how much is a kronor again?

[Dowly]

Nah, just need to pause & resume the download. Kinda reminds me of the time I bought Battlefield 2142 via EA Downloader when it was released. The download stalled every 3-4hrs and what was best about it... EAD couldnt resume the download from the point it stalled. Took me a farking 4 days to get the game. :har:

[Dowly]

In town....

Me- Hey, is this released yet!? (Holds up box of E:TW
Worker- Na, tomorrow.
Me- No chance to sell it to me one day early then?
Worker- Sure, if you're willing to pay the fine of 1 000 000 kronor if you're caught.
Me- ............


(I think I can wait one more day) :D
I'd pay a million kronor for it a day earlier...wait, how much is a kronor again?
A piece of toilet paper > Kronor :O:

[stabiz]

You guys seem to be really pissed off at STEAM for the lack of pre-load. Frankly, it is more Sega's fault than anything, given that they distribute the game.

Nah, a guy from CA said it was Steams decision.

[Biggles]

Nah, just need to pause & resume the download. Kinda reminds me of the time I bought Battlefield 2142 via EA Downloader when it was released. The download stalled every 3-4hrs and what was best about it... EAD couldnt resume the download from the point it stalled. Took me a farking 4 days to get the game. :har:

And that is why i NEVER buy games from Steam or the like. The shops in town are far more reliable:)

[Raptor1]

I'll be buying it boxed as soon as the stores around here have it, Steam always seems a tad too sloooooow for my likings

Then I shall lead Poland-Lithuania to conquer Sweden and Denmark-Norway and rule them with an iron fist forever...MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Biggles]

I would really like to see you try:O:

[oche]

Check this out guys...Empire has an additional 1st person camera view on the battlefield from a soldier's perspective!...and i think there are cameras on the deck of ships in naval battles too!...:yeah:...this is great eyecandy.

[oche]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx8yuoNIOnc

:up:

[Biggles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx8yuoNIOnc

:up:

This....


is epic awesomeness on a new scale.

[stabiz]

Biggles, let me know if you need some British aid in demolishing Poland-Lithuania.:)

[A Very Super Market]

Prussia will help defeat the Polish. As always.:O:

[stabiz]

:)


Gamespy likes it too:

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/empire-total-war/959077p1.html

[Dowly]

Just woke up and it's downloaded & installed. BIGGLES I'M COMING FOR YOOOU!!! :O:

[papa_smurf]

Will be getting my copy very very soon - I expect it to be here by midday:woot:

[stabiz]

Dammit, I am having a CTD about four hours into my first campaign, and it keep happening no matter what I do.:cry:

[Dowly]

Just had my first city battle, I like them. Was on the attacking side (Na na naa, Biggles! Stockholm is mine. :O:). Took me awhile to figure out that unlike in the previous games, the soldiers have rappel hooks they can use on the walls. So, I ended up losing quite a few men before I figured that out. But when you get to the walls and manage to fend off the enemies to the yard, you've won. It's like shooting fish in the barrel, you have height advantage and it's almost impossible for the enemy to recapture the walls. Nice game. :salute:

Oh and the first person camera is nifty, but it's obviously something they put together very quickly. It's useless, but can give some nice moments.

[Dowly]

Dammit, I am having a CTD about four hours into my first campaign, and it keep happening no matter what I do.:cry:

I've been spared of CTD, but I've had the game hang on me, mostly when changing the resolution during a battle. :shifty:

[Arclight]

Tired after a long night, I decide to stop by downtown and check if Empire is in stock. I walk in the store and quickly make my way to the games section. Where is it? Come on... nope, not there. :cry:

Disappointed, I grab Tom Clancy's End War in an attempt to ease my suffering (:rolleyes:) and make my way to the counter. Ofcourse, all personnel was busy helping other people. I probably waited 5 or 10 minutes, all the time almost keeling over because I desperately need sleep. Finally the couple before me is done selecting their prebuild POS (2GB mem for a new PC at this time?!) and leave. I put the game on the counter, but the guy says "I'll be right with you" and walks of to the back. Come on...

When he returns I ready my wallet and ask him if they happen to have Empire in stock anyway.
"Nope... should be here by friday".
Darn. Oh well, I survived untill now, I can wait till friday.
"Actually...", he continues, "head office hasn't got it yet, so it might turn out to be next week."

:o

Annoyed I ask him if I can be put on the pre-order list, and he does. After updating my current addres and phone number (since I recently moved), I head on home.

At home I slump down on the couch and turn on the TV. The first thing I see is a line of soldiers holding muskets... Of all the times, they're airing a documantary about Waterloo now! I could have sworn I heard Him chuckling...

Defeated I switch of the television, and shake my fist in His general direction.

"Why you little..."

:wah:

[stabiz]

:rotfl:That sucks!

Dowly, I have had no hungups, not the slightest glitch or bug seen, except the gamekilling CTD. The CTD refers too a text-file, so its probably the AI trying to do something impossible.

I did however have time to expand my British Empire slightly, take up trading in South America, fight pirates (YAR!), enter a large scale naval battle versus France (15 ships in total, barely won) and get convincingly smashed by a Preussian army.

I love this game, btw. The research is very cool, graphics are sweet (on ultra), the AI flanks, and the map is staggering. Oh, and the new diplomacy is way better than running around with a dimplomat.

[papa_smurf]

ITS ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:woot::woot::woot::woot:

[Boris]

It's ok to get a boner over a game right... right?

[Raptor1]

My game should hopefully arrive today, and my new computer either today or tomorrow, then I shall smash you puny littl...I mean, diplomatically defeat you all

[Dowly]

I did however have time to expand my British Empire slightly, take up trading in South America, fight pirates (YAR!), enter a large scale naval battle versus France (15 ships in total, barely won) and get convincingly smashed by a Preussian army.

Unlucky. I've been expanding my East Prussia, first (of course) attacked Sweden and liberated the fellow finns, after that though of starting to learn abit more about the structures, diplomacy etc. but Denmark had other plans and attacked me. Luckily I had both of my main armies in Sweden at the time, so it was a quick job to attack Norway and mainland Denmark. Now, I'm enjoying peace again.. except for the silly Netherland who declared war on me with the help of Great Britain and some other country, I made peace with the allies and now the tiny Neatherland is facing all my might on it's own. :haha:

I'm atm in the process of updating my main armies' artillery with mobile ones aswell as getting some grenadiers to join them before I go punch Hannover to the nose for not giving me military access. After getting rid of Hannover & Neatherlands, I think I invade Spain as I'm sure HunterICX had something to do with the Neatherlands' declaration of war on me. :hmmm:

[A Very Super Market]

Hoh-oh!

I've changed my mind about being Prussia first. I am now.....


RUSSIA!!!!!


And they kinda suck, from what I've heard.

[Raptor1]

Hoh-oh!

I've changed my mind about being Prussia first. I am now.....


RUSSIA!!!!!


And they kinda suck, from what I've heard.

Even better, St. Petersburg is right on the way to Sweden

[Dowly]

Hoh-oh!

I've changed my mind about being Prussia first. I am now.....


RUSSIA!!!!!


And they kinda suck, from what I've heard.
Even better, St. Petersburg is right on the way to Sweden

Russia is crying to let them have it (St.Petersburg), every 2-3 turns they come begging for it. And if that isnt annoying enough, I have Spain doing the same, but they want Amsterdam (more evidence that HunterICX is behind all this madness). :hmmm:

Oh well, my 1st army is being reinforced atm for a campaign down south, Spain is now controlling some cities in western France so might need to make a small detour and go get them first. 2nd army is on security duty, coming after 1st army to occupy the cities just for the time that I can recruit defenders. This way I should be able to move quite fast (few centuries later, a fella with funny moustache named this the Blitzkrieg tactic :O:).

Ow, why didnt no one tell me that I can research multiple things at the same time?! I think it was 1723 before I realised that. :har:

[Biggles]

Just woke up and it's downloaded & installed. BIGGLES I'M COMING FOR YOOOU!!! :O:

Installing as we speak, but I believe Finland is already under my control:O:




(oooooh, it hurts, doesn't it?):yeah:

[Raptor1]

IT'S HERE, MWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (Though the new comp will only be here tomorrow, eh)

Now you shall all feel my wrath...

[Biggles]

Biggles, let me know if you need some British aid in demolishing Poland-Lithuania.:)

I don't think I'll need it...but you are welcome to help, ofcourse:salute:

[Raptor1]

Damn, it seems an Anti-Polish Coalition has formed...

Dowly, you help me and I let you occupy Britain, ka?

[Zachstar]

Arc a perfect reason why you ought to have used Steam.

Tho frankly I think you are all nuts because you have no idea if your campaigns will be screwed up by the first patches that will obviously be here within a week or so.

[Dowly]

Damn, it seems an Anti-Polish Coalition has formed...

Dowly, you help me and I let you occupy Britain, ka?

Lol, sorry mate... it seems like your messengers arent bringing you the right info.. umm... I kinda conquered Warsaw just 2 turns ago. :88) But hey, it was you guys who started the war, so dont blame me! Besides, I get quite a nice of income from trading with GB, so I dont think I'll be attacking the very soon. :salute:

Darn, I love the 'Fire by rank' thingy, makes things alot easier. Also, I like how the towns are now a wee bit bigger than in the earlier games, adds a whole new level to the game. Just had my grenadiers set-up defenses to a town I was defending, the general was by the church and infantry covered every possible way into the church area, what a massacre it was. The enemy's reinforcements were pretty much useless as the buildings formed nice little chokepoints, so that when the enemy came to my line of sight, they were already in the range of my grenades. :yeah:

[papa_smurf]

Well, after installing the game I did the tutorials, and am now working my way though the Road to Independence campaign. Currently on chapter 2 giving the French a kicking:D. Not sure which faction to go for next after I finish this one.

On running the game, I've had no problems so far, and can run the game on high settings no problem.

[XabbaRus]

OK so we have the demo. Does it require STEAM? Also what are the system specs for this game. TW MTWII plays well on my PC.

[Zachstar]

Demo is on Steam and I suggest you get it first to see how well it reacts with your hardware.

To put it in comparison.

My 90nm Pent 4 from 5 years ago with 1.5 GB DDR Ram and ATI 4670 can play the demo at a lower resolution and with some settings turned down at a pretty good FPS.

I suspect with atleast a 65nm dual core and DDR2 ram the game will run MUCH faster.

[AJ!]

Wellll worth the wait :up: :up:

With all the content in this game plus the mods that will be coming out i can see this having one hell of a life span :yep:

was quite a wait on steam though. This game is over 15gb! Med 2 was only 7gb :o

[Raptor1]

Just won my first battle against the accursed Swedes in the Winter of 1701 (Note, they declared war on Russia first, so that dragged me into the war, not the other way around)

Decimated them by causing them to chase after my cavalry into a pike wall sitting right next to the other side of a bridge, which became a rather nasty killing zone, Lost a general, but they lost one too (One with a crazy amount of command ability too)

Also, somebody should tell me that plug bayonets aren't removable before I tell my only gun-equipped unit to attach them at the start

[Dowly]

Also, somebody should tell me that plug bayonets aren't removable before I tell my only gun-equipped unit to attach them at the start

Been there, done that. :down: But you get fixed bayonets, if you research them. :salute:

My campaign's been stalled by the darned Warsaw rioting all the time. The poles recaptured it after a short battle, a turn later it fell to my hands again as my 2nd army massacred the few defenders. I'm really starting to think that I just burn the whole city to the ground and leave it be. :hmmm:

[A Very Super Market]

Well, at least that means that conquering the world is a lot harder...

[stabiz]

It is damned hard, I just got raped by those darned Frenchies in Der Kanal, and now I need money for new ships. Anyone? I will pay you back when I rule the world.:)

Loooove, Empire:TW. Now I am launching a small invasion (one full stack) to take over one of the larger French harbours. Luckily Sweden agreed to stop attacking me for a while, that should give me a breather.

Oh, and the Spanish reply to my request for trade rights: "An acceptance would Imply we are of same worth.":rotfl:

[A Very Super Market]

Bloody Spaniards...

Don't trade with them!

Trade with us Russians.... we'll be nice... :D

[Raptor1]

Soooo, how about we all forget our differences (Except for you Sweden, I'm not done with you!) and all kill off Spain?

[A Very Super Market]

Nevah!

When we are done with you, Poland will be forced to be continously crushed between Russia and Prussia!

Mwahahaha!

[Raptor1]

Nevah!

When we are done with you, Poland will be forced to be continously crushed between Russia and Prussia!

Mwahahaha!

Technically Poland-Lithuania starts in an alliance with Russia

[A Very Super Market]

Pfft. Who else do I fight? :P

[Task Force]

How I wish bestbuy was near by.:wah:

[Zachstar]

How I wish bestbuy was near by.:wah:

No need! http://store.steampowered.com/app/10500/

[A Very Super Market]

Well, it depends on your connection speed.

[Task Force]

5mbps. hmm how long will that take.:hmmm:

[A Very Super Market]

Using US-east coast server.....


Shouldn't take more than a day?

Really, there is a huge margin of error.

[Max2147]

Has anybody tried to run the game on a less than minimum system?

I've got a 1.8 GHz processor and a 128mb graphics card. I can run SH4, although there are a few glitches and it crashes every once in a while. I can't upgrade the computer since it's a Mac running XP via Bootcamp.

[A Very Super Market]

You will not run ETW

256 mb graphics cards will chug by, but 128 just can't work it.

Neither will your 1.8 processor. Even if it was dual-core, I would doubt it could.


Minimum specs are usually so bare minimum that there is no guarantee of it working on those specs. Sorry mate.

[stabiz]

Hey, Raptor, I`m in, lets burn Spain to the ground. Apart from the cool refusal they are worthless scum! I will personally execute HunterICX. :arrgh!: After I`ll join you in pillaging Sweden. (The sneaky bestards just took one of my ports, despite our "agreement")

Oh, and France is now British. :) Long live me! Dont have any money though.:rotfl:

[stabiz]

Here are some juicy screens for those who are waiting for the game or cant get hold of it, etc. Most settings on ultra with 4xAA in 1680x1050 (scaled down to fit this site)

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0500-44-26-50.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0502-57-35-48.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0502-57-47-12.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0502-59-30-78.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0503-00-31-09.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0503-12-00-75.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0503-14-18-48.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0503-16-18-67.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0503-19-48-76.jpg

[Max2147]

You will not run ETW

256 mb graphics cards will chug by, but 128 just can't work it.

Neither will your 1.8 processor. Even if it was dual-core, I would doubt it could.


Minimum specs are usually so bare minimum that there is no guarantee of it working on those specs. Sorry mate.
Blast. Oh well, at least I won't waste my money on a game I can't run!

Thanks for the quick reply.

[A Very Super Market]

Gah, mine is still loading.

Nice screenies stabiz, but its a shame that they don't have different faces, or battlefield speeches anymore.

[Raptor1]

Had my first siege now, Riga's garrison of 240 men fell for my army of 1500

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8514/polishinfantry.jpg

Decided to use the traditional approach of bombing the fortification down with cannons instead of doing crazy stuff like scaling the wall

[A Very Super Market]

You should have just went British and led an insane bayonet charge...

[rubenandthejets]

You should have just went British and led an insane bayonet charge...

Two quotes spring to mind-

"Give 'em a taste of cold steel! They do not like it up 'em!" (Dad's Army)
"Nothing up the spout, lads, bayonet only" (Gallipoli)

Very big on the ol' bayonet, the Brits, even in the 20th century!

[papa_smurf]

Quick update, working way through 2nd chapter of Road to Independence. About to take Quebec and Montreal to get to next chapter.
Most battles I've had so far are quite small (about 800-1000 troops per side), all of which i have won and have been rather bloody affairs. Learned one important lesson - that is put skirmishing units on my flanks, in cover. They cause havoc against light cavalry.

Will post some pics when i get the chance.

[Dowly]

Stabiz, at what point you started getting the CTDs on your campaign? I'm at 1738 and keep getting CTD whenever I end my turn. :shifty:

EDIT: Aaand my campaign is officially porked. Nothing helps to the CTD. Frick Frick Frick!!!!

[stabiz]

Much earlier, probably 1708 or something, in "Long campaign" mode. I have started over in "world domination", since I just read a great review from a guy who played the British in "world domination". Hehe, it probably wont work, but I am way further than my first game.

PS: Patch will be released next week which fixes among other things a lot of stability issues.

Edit: Line fire is the coolest thing since sex.

[mengle]

Stabiz and Raptor1 great screens :up: i was wondering how do you play the campaign ? easy, medium or hard ?

[Dowly]

I tried it on easy and it was too darn easy. Especially the battles were ridiculous. Now playing on normal and the battles are much more enjoyable. :salute:

[A Very Super Market]

Imma gonna play on VH/VH to see what its like.


I will report my failing right after.

[Raptor1]

I'm playing on Normal, seems challenging enough

What I like now is that unlike Rome and Medieval, you can't have an all unstoppable army (Spartan Hoplites, I'm looking at you!) that can hold the line against hordes of cheap infantry without taking any serious losses, musketfire will mow down everyone no matter how experienced they are

[mengle]

i played the battles in medieval II on normal and the campaign on easy, normal was to hard, always out of money and to many enemies with proposals to become a vassal :shifty: (medieval II with deus lo vult mod)

[Captain Vlad]

I have a 2.4ghz dual core rig. I know 2.4 is 'minimum' (without dual core), but anyone have an opinion about how well that'll push Empire?

[Zachstar]

That depends wildly.

If its 90nm there wont be enough transistors to really push that much out of it but you can make sacrifices in graphics to get basic gameplay.

If its one of those wolfdale 45nm Intel dual cores you MAY have a chance at some serious graphics because you wont have as much as a bottleneck. If you had a 4850 or 2 4670s in crossfire that is.

[Captain Vlad]

Most of that...just flew right over my head.:DL Nm?

[Biggles]

What I like now is that unlike Rome and Medieval, you can't have an all unstoppable army (Spartan Hoplites, I'm looking at you!) that can hold the line against hordes of cheap infantry without taking any serious losses, musketfire will mow down everyone no matter how experienced they are

Aye, I like that too. And the unit takes losses at a realistic rate, no more of that shaking of the bullet hit, as they did in M II.

[stabiz]

Yes, it is almost impossible not to get hurt in battles, unless you fight citizen armies. I play Medium campaign and hard battles. I have lost around 50%, hehe. Particularly naval battles are hard on hard. And that is lovely. (Unless you admiral gets a freak cannon ball in the ammo storage:damn:)

Back to my empire!

[Raptor1]

Yay, my new computer is all set up, now to reinstall ETW...

[stabiz]

I have total control of France now. Finally! My armies quickly moved south and are harassing, burning and pillaging border towns in northern Spain. Hopefully those two full stacks I see down there will move north and meet my new, shiny howitzers. :yeah: (At the same time I must keep an eye to the east, where Der Germans are rattling sabers)

[Falkirion]

Got my copy last night. Looking forward to first install/play tonight after drinks with a couple of work buddies.

[A Very Super Market]

I just finished downloading!

Friends, I will join you in CRUSHING Poland-Lithuania!

[Zachstar]

Most of that...just flew right over my head.:DL Nm?

Whats the CPU model number. If you cant tell what is the PC model number?

[Captain Vlad]

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 ghz @ 6600? Can't find the model number.

You're dealing with someone for whom plug and play equipment is a challenge at times, keep that in mind.:)

[A Very Super Market]

:P

It really just boils down to graphics card, sometimes.

What's yours?

[Captain Vlad]

Geforce 8400 with 512K.

[A Very Super Market]

I'm fairly certain you can run it.

Unless you have a ridiculously low amount of RAM, the graphics card should make up for the minimum spec processor.

[Arclight]

As a bit of reference to performance;
Everything on ultra, 4xMSAA, all additional options enabled.
During battle (demo land battle):

Geforce 8800GTS 512: lowest FPS 25 (fully zoomed on a lot of units), highest 40+. Typically 30+
C2D E6750 (2.66GHZ): 50 to 55% usage. Highest load on single core ~80% (typically ~70%)
2GB DDR2 1066MHZ: ~75% used (Win XP)

Biggest concern, as with every game, is the graphics card.

This is in the demo, which I imagine isn't as optimized as the release.

[stabiz]

Boom!

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0513-45-09-46.jpg

That house had a unit of Spanish line infantry in it.:)

[Arclight]

I finally has it. :woot:

Special Forces edition too! :woot: :woot:
Just couldn't resist that printed campaign-map. :D

"Glory be to the Goddess of War, here come the Gorkhas!"


Nice shot, Stabiz!

[Raptor1]

A couple of screenies from a battle I had against the Swedes that resulted in the...uhh...liberation...of Finland

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6657/finland01.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8886/finland02.jpg
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9414/finland03.jpg

[stabiz]

Damned Swedes! They are pestering me now, but all my money is marching through Spain. 1734 and still no CTD in "world domination". Fingers crossed.:)

[Raptor1]

Just crushed the Swedes at the decisive Battle of Stockholm (Hell, even the game recognized it as a Decisive Victory, usually always says Close Victory), now I'm moving my newly conscripted fullstack to liberate Denmark through Prussia and Hannover (Which have thankfully granted me passage in exchange for slight financial persuasion)

I think I'm going to give Denmark back to the Danes (They were forced out to live in Iceland), but keep Norway for some access to the Atlantic

[Biggles]

How interesting...nowadays, we can consider the Baltic Sea as a whole swedish lake:P

[A Very Super Market]

Man, I wish I could take screenies, but the battles are really fast-paced.

I just won a battle against Courland last night, and it was such a close-run thing that I couldn't possibly take screenshots. D:

[Zachstar]

Geforce 8400 with 512K.


With lower settings maybe. And I don't know about the CPU but it matters less now that the video card is a bottleneck.

How about investing in a little somthin somthin like this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150351

The 1gb gives you ability to use AA alot easier than a 512.

[stabiz]

Yeah, the 8400 is not that good, unfortunately. A bit confusing that a 8xxx series card is weaker than most 7xxx cards, but there you have it.:cry:

8500 GT 256/512MB (450/900/800) (1.8/12.8) (PCIe) 128-bit DLDVI
- 16 unified processors – 8 TMUs – 4 ROPs
It’s about as fast as an X1600 Pro thus a bit slower than the 6600 GT.

[Biggles]

The Swedish navy on the move. Moments later, the Polish-Lithuanian "fleet" is no more.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/13/empire2009030621265950.jpg
I can tell you one thing: The 9600GT card is worth every penny. It's not the best out there, but the game can look like this without any problems. Probably better, I'll finetouch the game specs. later.

[Captain Vlad]

With lower settings maybe
Not that worried about 100% prettiness so long as it runs tolerably, which I suspect it will if Fallout 3's performance is any indicator (the 8400 is relatively new, and performs better than the card I had before on that game).

Thanks for the assistance.

[HunterICX]

Hey, Raptor, I`m in, lets burn Spain to the ground. Apart from the cool refusal they are worthless scum! I will personally execute HunterICX. :arrgh!:

Ha....get better informants...I'm the United Provinces of the Netherlands:salute:

HunterICX

[stabiz]

Traitor! Uh ... wait a minute, that means we are allies.:rotfl:

Just popping in to show some beautiful moments from this game. 1752 and going strong, Spain is just a pile of rubble, and Morocco is next:

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0622-39-52-45.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0622-40-10-56.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0700-41-55-01.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0700-43-52-96.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww1/stabiz1/Empire2009-03-0701-23-49-43.jpg

[A Very Super Market]

Gah, stop tempting me with your uber-graphics!

I can barely run low without having game-breaking lag... :wah:

[Dowly]

I'm playing on Normal, seems challenging enough

What I like now is that unlike Rome and Medieval, you can't have an all unstoppable army (Spartan Hoplites, I'm looking at you!) that can hold the line against hordes of cheap infantry without taking any serious losses, musketfire will mow down everyone no matter how experienced they are

It's a great thing, but at the same time, it makes new units useless. Before the CTD that made me start a new campaign, my 1. & 2. armies had only 6 line infantry units + 4 gredaniers. When you research the fire by rank thingy, it doesnt matter what you are up against aslong as they dont know the fire by rank crap. Line infantry are grrreat. :salute:

[A Very Super Market]

Its too bad that everyone already has them

Coldstream guards and lancers for me... :arrgh!:

[Dowly]

Yer lancers can charge as much as they want, two Prussian Grenadier units will shoot them before they can say "SWiss cheese". :O:

[A Very Super Market]

Prussians and English are friends! Bad Dowly...

Go beat up some Poles..

[Dowly]

Prussians and English are friends! Bad Dowly...

Go beat up some Poles..

I am friends with them Brits and I'm fighting them Poles. Alles Klar. :salute:

[mengle]

I was wondering who's wasting sleep :yawn:
And Stabiz wonderfull screens :yeah:

[Dowly]

I was wondering who's wasting sleep :yawn:

Well, it's 4:50am here atm, I tried to get some sleep but couldnt. Now, drinkinh my last beer and plying air guitar. :yeah:

[stabiz]

Noooooo! My first 2nd rate blew up after approx 30 seconds at sea. :cry: My naval landing in Morocco didnt go too well, either. My army (one full stack) was met by three full stacks. After retreating was depleted, I was shot and hacked to bits. Back to the drawing board.

******* fantastic game. Odd bits of retarded AI from time to time, but easily forgotten when I am charged from the rear without noticing the flanking manouver. Sieges are crap though, but they are luckily not very frequent. *dreaming of what modders can do to this game*

@Super Market: Sorry!:DL But it looks so shiny on ultra. (Not all ultra, though)

Dowly, did you start over in world domination mode? What year are you now? 1754 here.

[nikimcbee]

Whoa, how did I overlook this thread!:o Is this a Napoleonic, Rev war period game? This looks totally cool. I love the artillery!:salute: Down loading now.

[nikimcbee]

I've been playing cossacks II a lot, so I'm looking for a new game frome this time period to play.:hmmm:

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

I started my campaign as the English, and proceded to destroy the Huron Confederacy, went to war against Prussia for 10 year which ended in my forces capturing Berlin and then we declared peace. Now I'm in the process of crushing the Frogs, I took over New France and Upper Canada and the Windward Islands and blockaded their two of three ports. DEATH TO THE FROGS!!!:up:

[nikimcbee]

Downloaded demo...:yeah:
just got back from store....
instaling on laptop...

:salute:

Here comes Suvorov's Army!

[A Very Super Market]

Ooh, what are your specs?

[Arclight]

Stabiz (or anyone),

Do you have that SSAO option under "graphics" enabled? Darn thingy cuts my performance in half, I'm keeping it off for the moment. Does it make a big difference visually?

[HunterICX]

Noooooo! My first 2nd rate blew up after approx 30 seconds at sea. :cry: My naval landing in Morocco didnt go too well, either. My army (one full stack) was met by three full stacks. After retreating was depleted, I was shot and hacked to bits. Back to the drawing board.

Ow thought its a failure, you have to love them :DL

the one thing I hope for is the MP Campaign...even if its just for 2 players.

HunterICX

[papa_smurf]

Just started playing as Britain, and after a few turns its not going too bad. I've just captured Gibraltar from the Spanish, which means I can control access to the med. Going well in helping the 13 colonies mission, so they will be joining me soon. Pirates in the Caribbean not much of a problem as I have a decent sized fleet based there.
As Im at war with Spain and France, due to me capturing Gibraltar, I decided to raid there trade routes, giving me extra income:D.

Next on the list is to head out to India and bring a large part of it under British control.

[Dowly]

Dowly, did you start over in world domination mode? What year are you now? 1754 here.

Aye, started the WD campaign. Only in year 1710 or so.

[stabiz]

Stabiz (or anyone),

Do you have that SSAO option under "graphics" enabled? Darn thingy cuts my performance in half, I'm keeping it off for the moment. Does it make a big difference visually?

No, it bogs down my computer. It sure looks better with it on, the shadows in particular, but I sacrifice it for large armies and anti aliasing.

Super Market, if it was me you asked, I have a core 2 Duo E8500, 4GB DDR2 and ATI HD4870.

[Raptor1]

Noooooo! My first 2nd rate blew up after approx 30 seconds at sea. :cry: My naval landing in Morocco didnt go too well, either. My army (one full stack) was met by three full stacks. After retreating was depleted, I was shot and hacked to bits. Back to the drawing board.
Ow thought its a failure, you have to love them :DL

the one thing I hope for is the MP Campaign...even if its just for 2 players.

HunterICX

They said it will come into beta after the game comes out and will be released in a patch

I think

[Arclight]

Stabiz (or anyone),

Do you have that SSAO option under "graphics" enabled? Darn thingy cuts my performance in half, I'm keeping it off for the moment. Does it make a big difference visually?

No, it bogs down my computer. It sure looks better with it on, the shadows in particular, but I sacrifice it for large armies and anti aliasing.

Super Market, if it was me you asked, I have a core 2 Duo E8500, 4GB DDR2 and ATI HD4870.Man, you need one serious card to run this with all options enabled. :-?

About MP campaign; yeah, last I read it was to be patched in. Probably with the last one they release. :rolleyes:
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj2/EZatHome/Empire2009-03-0714-38-43-39.jpg
Nothing like a wall and some pikes to keep you safe. :D

[HunterICX]

I asked them kindly to return Flanders.....
this was their answer.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7864/etw.jpg

HunterICX

[Task Force]

How do ya think this will run on my machine.:hmmm:

Intel e 8400 3.0ghz
8800gts 640mb
3 gigs of ram.

[Biggles]

It will run, no doubt. The only cocern that I can see is your graphic card...

[AJ!]

Well so far my run with Prussia is going rather well, Ive had a scrap with Austria and Poland while expanding my boarders but i managed to get back in their good books thanks to my diplomats ;). At the moment im trying to reasearch mobile field guns as these immobile artillery pieces are stratigicaly useless to me.

The campaign is much better this time around with all the new and improved features. I can actualy trade and keep on good ground with other nations in this game without them back stabbing me the next turn. :yep:

One thing im not overly impressed with in this game is the naval combat. Dont get me wrong it does look beautiful. The way the ships sink and the boarding is a joy to watch. Problem is its so chaotic with too much micromanagment. The ships just cant follow orders properly and end up in a right state if left on their own... Also the way the ships move just doesnt give the feel that they are giant warships. I guess the god view just doesnt help justify the scale of these ships. Im not keen on the tracers on the cannon balls either.

The ground combat more then makes up for this though :up: :up:

[Task Force]

Thought my 8800gts would go good with this game. runs everything else nice. I dont see too much difference between theatre of wars graphics and this.

my card http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgr88640gtsoce.aspx

[HunterICX]

It will run, no doubt. The only cocern that I can see is your graphic card...

Nonesense,

I got the 8800GT 512
running everything at High , 4xAA
runs smooth

HunterICX

[Task Force]

Yea. the 8800s are pretty good cards.:yep:

BTW. nice shots everyone.

[Raptor1]

Finally got rid of Sweden in 1720, gave Denmark back to the Danes in exchange for becoming my protectorate

Now Britain decided to declare war on Courland, to which I responded by dropping a fullstack in England, which has been met by another British fullstack

Unfortunately my game crashed after that, but the autosave will probably drop me back into the same situation

I'm playing the Short Campaign because I forgot to switch it when I started the game, after that I'll probably play the full campaign as some other nation

[stabiz]

Make sure you choose "world domination", it have not crashed here yet, in 1762.

Task Force, the 8800 GTS 640 should run it at highish settings. The 8800 GT Hunter has is about 15% faster than your GTS. (these two have different cores, the later 8800 GTS is faster)

Here is a nice and to the point guide of the different GPU speeds:

http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php?showtopic=332246

[A Very Super Market]

Gah, I wish I could use gentlemen as military units!

There are 10 Prussian gentlemen roving around my 4 region empire, and it is getting absurd.

[Biggles]

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4844/empire2009030700573745.jpg
I love this game...

BTW, anytime I see a Rake I think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tr_jjs2LKQ

They do look alike,don't they?

[Zachstar]

Nvidia is VERY confusing when it comes to naming their cards.

But usually any GTS series is something to run VERY quickly away from.

GT series is fine. ATI kicks the crap out of them but atleast they aren't a total ripoff in my view.

With a game like this the only way to effectively max out the settings in my view is to remove as many bottlenecks as possible.

Say a 4670 x2 (Pay for a single card to remove more bottlenecks from Crossfire use) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102768

And you want a 45nm quad core.

Keep your CPU and GPU balanced tho. Don't get a 4670 for a Pentium 4..

[Biggles]

I have a 9600GT card, bought it two weeks ago. Works like a dream, some lagg sometimes during the campaign map, but strangely enough not in the battles.

[Raptor1]

Well, I won the battle but my army was weakened enough to be destroyed in another battle later on (Though I managed to inflict massive casualties on the Brits)

Now I made a peace treaty with Britain and quickly destroyed Prussia with invasions from both the east and the west

My next opponent is Austria, which will be a tough nut to crack, they're at war with France and Spain (As always), but Britain, Holland and half of Germany are allied with them...

[stabiz]

Gah, I wish I could use gentlemen as military units!

There are 10 Prussian gentlemen roving around my 4 region empire, and it is getting absurd.

Hey, put them in your schools or colleges, that speeds up research like hell.

[Zachstar]

I have a 9600GT card, bought it two weeks ago. Works like a dream, some lagg sometimes during the campaign map, but strangely enough not in the battles.

It is a good card. I think the HD 4850 Has more value but the 9600GT is a good tried and true card.

Well that is until the new budget GDDR5 cards come out in a few months.

[stabiz]

The HD4850 is faster than the 9800GTX, so yes, its more value.:)

[kenijaru]

were the loading times improved since the beta?

[stabiz]

Yes. For me it takes around 20 seconds to load a battle.

[antikristuseke]

Now someone reenact the battle of Karansebes and make a video. :D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karánsebes

[Raptor1]

Now someone reenact the battle of Karansebes and make a video. :D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karánsebes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kar%C3%A1nsebes)

I knew about this, but the battlebox showing the Austrian Empire as both belligerents is hilarious :rotfl:

Really should say Decisive Austrian Victory in there though

[kenijaru]

Yes. For me it takes around 20 seconds to load a battle.
and... how long did it take in the demo?

[nikimcbee]

Wow this runs awesome on my laptop with near maximum settings. (runs better than my desktop:oops: )

laptop: intel duo centrino 2.1
vista 64
4 gig of ram.

What a beautiful game. The guys came to a fence, and climed over it! Nice detail. And i love the artillery.:salute:

[Zachstar]

You must be one of the lucky ones with good laptop graphics like one of the newer ATI chipsets.

On a side note I wonder how well this will play on Nvidia Ion? My guess is it will with at the very best mid settings.

[stabiz]

Yes. For me it takes around 20 seconds to load a battle. and... how long did it take in the demo?

Dont remember, but longer for sure.

[A Very Super Market]

Hmm...

The demo load times were about... GWX load times! :P

[Biggles]

Hmm...

The demo load times were about... GWX load times! :P

Yeah, shorter in the real game though. For me at least.

[Dowly]

Gah, my campaign is going to hell. I'm out of money, no idea how, as I control more cities than in my last campaign and only have one big army (still not as big as the 2 armies I had last time). And on top of that, I have this nice little bug that tells me Poles are in peace with me, but they just keep attacking my cities.

Right, time to start all over. :shifty:

[HunterICX]

:D I love this game!

I took Flanders from the Spanish by winning the battle in that screenshot above, Le Frénch didnt like that I attacked their ally Spain so they declared war on me and tried to took Flander right after my victory....and did they pay dearly for that http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/6788/iconsmileevil.gif

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/810/etw1.jpg

HunterICX

[Falkirion]

Still easing my way into ETW, but I had some fun with RtI tutorial campaign. I attacked Louiseville with about half of my ideal set of units. Inflicted massive casualties on the French for only half of my forces getting wiped out. Narrow loss because I called the situation untenable and retreated.
They chased me with 8 cannons and 4 marine squads plus their commander. On the open fields my cannons had a field day with his marines, Washington wiped out the enemy commander, and my first line infantry mopped up what was left.

Looking forward to getting into the global conflict and taking over Europe and the Americas. Not sure which army I'll play as yet but I'm leaning towards France or Britain.

[Raptor1]

Finally knocked out Austria, and the rest of the German minors are falling quickly to the (almost) 2 fullstacks I have in the region (Even though Bavaria put up quite a fight...), after that I'll have to see if the United Provinces accept reasonable peace or I'd have to take them out as well

In the meantime I took the rest of my army (Probably the strongest in the world at this point, fueled by tax money from conquered provinces) and attacked Russia (My ally...), I always get the feeling they're waiting to backstab me at the wors't possible moment...

[HunterICX]

I always get the feeling they're waiting to backstab me at the wors't possible moment...

Thought at War, Le Frénch like to backstab me by attacking Flanders, I made a move to secure Luxembourg from enemy raids. and then a army attacks Brussels again which isnt that well defended (flanders)

but as you can see 1 of my soldiers is full with confidence and turns his back to the enemy :O:

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/9476/etw2.jpg

HunterICX

[NeonSamurai]

Gee your soldiers don't seem to care that the bullets are whizzing by

[Biggles]

I think he feels that he's being watched by some unknown force, a force that controls his destiny.... :03:

[A Very Super Market]

Of course they don't care!

They couldn't hit an elephant at this rang---

[SUBMAN1]

I'm playing on Normal, seems challenging enough

What I like now is that unlike Rome and Medieval, you can't have an all unstoppable army (Spartan Hoplites, I'm looking at you!) that can hold the line against hordes of cheap infantry without taking any serious losses, musketfire will mow down everyone no matter how experienced they are

In Rome TW, Spartan Hoplites are not unstoppable. I'd rather have a decent unit of Roman infantry. Hoplites break easy the moment they have to run.

-S

[Dowly]

I always get the feeling they're waiting to backstab me at the wors't possible moment...

Oh they do! Was about to just come and post what kind of gits they are. Twice I've made peace with them, both times it took only 2-3 turns for them to attack me again. Sooo, I took my 1. army to Finland and attacked the northern provinces, capturing all 4 of them, then made peace with them... seems like this time it lasts. 7 turns and counting, better last ffs, I have my hands full with the darn Poles in the center Europe and them stopid Danes trying take back sweden.

On the bright side, I'm propably the most advanced nation when it comes to infantry tactics, so I took down a 3x bigger danish force with my badly beaten 2. army. Gotta love the fire by rank thing. :salute:

Ow yeh and economy is going well too. :woot:

[Raptor1]

I'm almost to platoon firing, which is supposedly even better than fire by rank

@Subman, of course the Spartan Hoplites aren't unstoppable, I was just referring to the fact that they could hold the line against cheaper units and get away with minimal casualties

[A Very Super Market]

Stock RTW was unbelievably cheap with the Greek Cities, since you could take a bunch of armoured hoplites, make a gigantic triangle, and just walk over anybody in your way. Without a single casualty.

[HunterICX]

I really start to get annoyed with these French Raid's
they are easy beaten when they meet my army but the are an annoyance as they bite from south & east.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5519/etw3.jpg

HunterICX

[A Very Super Market]

Your army is rather small...

[SUBMAN1]

Anyone having these NVidia issues?

Nvidia Graphics Issues: A few people have reported problems with some Nvidia graphics cards when playing Empire. The latest Nvidia drivers, that is those released yesterday (Approximately) have not been fully tested with Empire, meaning we cannot guarantee their stability. We test as fully as we can but when drivers are released so close to our release date, there's simply no way we can put them fully through their paces before you guys get the game. Rolling back to older drivers seems to solve the issue in most cases, I can say we've tested driver version 7.15.0011.8206 on a huge range on Nvidia cards and had no significant problems. But we're still working to see if there's anything we can do.

As well as the driver work arounds one of our graphics gurus here recommends turning off volumetric effects for the time being, in case that's whats going wrong with the drivers. It might also be helpful to step through the other options too 'SSAO', VSync etc.


Just wondering if this will play on my laptop.

-S

[Raptor1]

Bah, raise a fullstack and march on Paris, they're already waving the drapeau blanc

[Dowly]

Anyone know in what format the texture files in ETW are? Standard TGA's or compressed to some god forsaken format?

[Raptor1]

I think it's either DDS or some kinda renamed DDS

[A Very Super Market]

From what the modders at the guild say, ETW is currently unmoddable. You can unpack the files, but changing them is impossible or something.

But you can play all factions in custom battles now, its only a matter of finding the faction codes.

Here is the link to get started on that.
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=114015

[Arclight]

Anyone having these NVidia issues?Nope, but I'm still running 182.06. No crashes, performance as expected. Task switch doesn't work though; game doesn't minimize. I open taskmanager (ctrl+alt+del) and minimize from there. :hmmm:

No idea on laptop, greatly depends on graph. chip.

2 days of playing, and only now I notice you can deploy defences on the field. :88) :haha:
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj2/EZatHome/Empire2009-03-0819-00-50-20.jpg
Gotta love the fire by rank thing. :salute:
You said it! Battles went from fair fights to slaughters. :yeah:

[Raptor1]

Sorry, Hunter, but...

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1775/boomheadshot.jpg

...they just refused to listen to reason and I needed to free up my fullstacks for the march on Moscow

[Dowly]

...I needed to free up my fullstacks for the march on Moscow

Dont you read the quotes in the loading screens? One says something like "Rule 1 on the page 1 of the book of war is you never march an army to Moscow". :O:

I've still let them dutchies live, tho, they did declare war on France, so dont know how long they'll stick around. I'm busy taking out the Russians, but should be done with them by the time my 2. army comes back from Iceland. Might make a quick stop and land to capture Amsterdam before continuing on to kick some Polish butt. :hmmm:

Sooo, anyone found any pirate treasures yet?

[A Very Super Market]

I've found the Flying Dutchman!

[stabiz]

Say what?

[Raptor1]

...I needed to free up my fullstacks for the march on Moscow
Dont you read the quotes in the loading screens? One says something like "Rule 1 on the page 1 of the book of war is you never march an army to Moscow". :O:


Ah, that be Montgomery when he said the Americans broke the 2nd rule of the book of war, which is to never fight on mainland Asia with your land army

[A Very Super Market]

It was a brig named the Flying Dutchman, and it moves insanely quickly.

I captured it too.

[Dowly]

...I needed to free up my fullstacks for the march on Moscow
Dont you read the quotes in the loading screens? One says something like "Rule 1 on the page 1 of the book of war is you never march an army to Moscow". :O:

Ah, that be Montgomery when he said the Americans broke the 2nd rule of the book of war, which is to never fight on mainland Asia with your land army

No no no, it was some other guy. The second rule was to never fight China by land or something like that.

[Dowly]

I've found the Flying Dutchman!
Ow ow ow ow ow ow, can I has a Black Pearl? Can I? Can I? Can I? Ow wait.. I can by renaming one of my ships to black pearl. :hmmm:

EDIT: Ah yeh, and the ostriches (Austria) are real dickheads too, darned twits took Warsaw just as I got my 2. army back from Iceland and was to attack it. Oh well, I got Russia & Dagestan + trade with them Machasomethings which I heard gives nice income. Need to start preparing for the attack by the Ottoman Empire, something fishy going on as they asked military access for 20 turns if they paid me 10 coins. :har:

[Raptor1]

...I needed to free up my fullstacks for the march on Moscow
Dont you read the quotes in the loading screens? One says something like "Rule 1 on the page 1 of the book of war is you never march an army to Moscow". :O:

Ah, that be Montgomery when he said the Americans broke the 2nd rule of the book of war, which is to never fight on mainland Asia with your land army
No no no, it was some other guy. The second rule was to never fight China by land or something like that.

Yeah, you're right, but it's still Montgomery

From Wikiquote (There are a bunch of different variations so I'll take it from there):


Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives.

[Biggles]

I would say rule 3 of war would be not to let the other side start it:salute:

[A Very Super Market]

A buggy version of minor faction unlocks is available.

Make a backup first, since it is extremely buggy.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=234240

So buggy.

[nikimcbee]

Is there any sort of tutorial for the campaign?

[A Very Super Market]

Yep, the Road to Independance.

First, the basics in Jamestown
Then, French and Indian Wars
Bunker Hill and independace,
Completing that unlocks the 13 colonies in campaign mode.

[nikimcbee]

Yep, the Road to Independance.

First, the basics in Jamestown
Then, French and Indian Wars
Bunker Hill and independace,
Completing that unlocks the 13 colonies in campaign mode.

Thanks! I'll check it out.:woot:

[nikimcbee]

Yep, the Road to Independance.

First, the basics in Jamestown
Then, French and Indian Wars
Bunker Hill and independace,
Completing that unlocks the 13 colonies in campaign mode.

Thanks! I'll check it out.:woot:

oooh have I checked it out!:salute: Those dumb Frogs decided to attack my fortified artillery position, uphill! Pour it on boys!:rock:

[stabiz]

Thats dedication. :rotfl:

[HunterICX]

Thats dedication. :rotfl:

:hmmm: it's that what they call it....
I was wondering what makes them attack with a minor newly recruited unit (160) men attacking one of my armies which have 2 or more units and are veterans.
and every turn they try it again, not that I bother they waste their men but mine barely get any rest to replenish and its costing me a bit too much so I think I take one of the French region on the east of Flanders after I discovered what's hiding in the capital.

HunterICX

[stabiz]

I am in 1770 now, and the game crashes if I click on a large fleet with a full stack in it. Damn it, thats a lot of money I cant free up or use. Just hope some poor sod attacks it.:DL Its 4-5 2nd rates, a few third rates, some mortar ships and two admirals.

[papa_smurf]

Well things are going really well for me, its now 1715 and the 13 colonies have joined me, making Britain a force to be reckoned with. Have just invaded India, and will be expanding there.

Now there's just the pesky Spanish navy to deal with in the Caribbean, and i'll be able to control those waters:D.

[Raptor1]

Has anybody tried to use Puckle Guns yet? Are they useful or should I just stick with the 24-pdr Howitzers I always take?

[HunterICX]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Puckle

HunterICX

[Raptor1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Puckle

HunterICX

I know who invented them and what they are supposed to be, just wondering how well they work in-game