Thoughts on Empire Total War

Lockstep

What do people think of it?

It seems cool and all but there are some things I dislike:

The lack of character to units. In TMWII each unit had a short history to it which really gave you a feeling for each unit. ETW has units being bunched together all of whom share the same description. This I really dislike.

Shipcombat is very frustrating

No Irish faction.

B0X

kickoutthejams wrote: »

No Irish faction.

In fairness, we weren't really Kings of Europe at the time (we are now of course ). There's no reason for us to be there.

The ship combat just takes a bit of getting used to i'd say.

pablomakaveli

I like the ship combat. Takes a bit of getting used to but it's really satisfying when you sink an enemy ship.

I'v only played the Road To Independence campaign so far but i like the game so far. Shame they did'nt include more of Africa and Asia. Although maybe they might include more of these continents in an expansion.

Sephiroth_dude

I dunno if any of ye encountered the bug where it crashes when its the A.I turn?I had to restart my game cuz of that :rolleyes: I hopeing they fix it in a patch.ship combat will be cool once I get use to it.other than that I prefer it to the previous installments.

Ardscoil Ris

kickoutthejams wrote: »

No Irish faction.

They are in the game.

Kiith

There's almost too much going on for my liking. I havent had a chance to really have a good go yet, but its tough enough to keep track of the whole map, especially when you have small colonies in America and India.

Ship combat is great though. Tough but fun. Had a great 5-5 fight against the Swedish (global naval superpower i tell ya!) and just barely managed to win. My flagship managed to get theirs in the last few minutes or so.

Lockstep

Ardscoil Ris wrote: »

They are in the game.

Srsly?


I couldn't find them. I just found Ireland as part of Britain's faction.

Can you play as them?

Ardscoil Ris

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Srsly?


I couldn't find them. I just found Ireland as part of Britain's faction.

Can you play as them?

They're an emergent faction. I don't think you can play as them though. You can side with them though in the rebellion

Cunny-Funt

Well if you can do that much it'd be nice if you could go that extra bit and play as them

Kiith

Can you not unlock them like you used to be able to do with other factions in the previous games? There was an ini file that had a list of locked/unlocked factions, and i always unlocked them straight away. Generally picked the Scots.

PirateShampoo

Kiith wrote: »

Can you not unlock them like you used to be able to do with other factions in the previous games? There was an ini file that had a list of locked/unlocked factions, and i always unlocked them straight away. Generally picked the Scots.

Theres a Irish regiment that you can play in the Special forces version

Sephiroth_dude

they mite include them in an expansion?

Ardscoil Ris

Kiith wrote: »

Can you not unlock them like you used to be able to do with other factions in the previous games? There was an ini file that had a list of locked/unlocked factions, and i always unlocked them straight away. Generally picked the Scots.

No CA hard coded the files.

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

they mite include them in an expansion?

No, they will never be a playable faction. (For this period I mean.)

PirateShampoo wrote: »

Theres a Irish regiment that you can play in the Special forces version

Probably the best unit in the game in my opinion.

Outkast_IRE

Finding the naval combat hard but the land battles are really rewarding !!!
Any body got any tips for naval combat im just doing a quick battle against a equal strength AI and i cant beat it i get close defeats and play it in half speed quite a bit that helps !!!

Lockstep

Ardscoil Ris wrote: »

They're an emergent faction. I don't think you can play as them though. You can side with them though in the rebellion

Do they have their own unique units etc?

I bought the Special Forces version as I wanted the IRish mercanaries in the French army, I was really disappoined that all the foreign legion type soldiers have the same description and no extra background is given.

Ardscoil Ris

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Do they have their own unique units etc?

I bought the Special Forces version as I wanted the IRish mercanaries in the French army, I was really disappoined that all the foreign legion type soldiers have the same description and no extra background is given.

No idea. I haven't seen them emerge yet. It's close though so I will let you know what they are like soon.

PaddyTheNth

Regarding playing emergent factions, keep an eye on this thread.

nhughes100

As a first timer into the total war series I think the game is pretty good and appears to have plenty of depth. I've only played the road the independance and am nearly finished it.

The AI so far doesn't appear great although I've only fought against the native americans so their tactics are fairly consistent. Sound effects are very good but I'm struggling a bit with the bigger battles even though the biggest battle I've had so far was about 2000 combatants. Although heavily outnumbered in one battle I got all my men to the top of a hill, formed a defensive square and fairly whopped the natives as they just kept charging. Some of my forces kept running after routed units so had to keep looking for rogue English flags out of position.

I bought the special forces pretty much for HMS Victory but am also struggling with the naval side of things, however the visuals of the water and ships looks really good.

I'm looking forward to taking on a major land battle against an evenly matched enemy just to see how the AI is then. I don't think Ireland should be a playable faction, it just wouldn't be historically accurate.

It took an age to install and download from steam and mysteriously I lost my rights to "documents and settings" on my hard drive after I installed.

Wonda-Boy

TBH, When the game is fully patched it will be really brilliant. Far too many crashes and lockups. And some very bad trade route problems etc, I am playing Sweden ATM and I have taken all or Russia and most of Europe and its only 1755...But I have no trade routes due to th bug..well one default one I think....

But its a good game all in all.

TwoShedsJackson

It could be great but badly needs a patch, there's a seperate thread re. the terrible AI - have discovered another one which is that the AI cannot or will not use ships to transfer units, pretty daft when you need them to move between the theatres etc.

There's no way that could have got through QA so it seems to me that they pushed the game out anyway to get sales and decided to patch later.

Ri_Nollaig

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

It could be great but badly needs a patch, there's a seperate thread re. the terrible AI - have discovered another one which is that the AI cannot or will not use ships to transfer units, pretty daft when you need them to move between the theatres etc.

There's no way that could have got through QA so it seems to me that they pushed the game out anyway to get sales and decided to patch later.

pretty much the industry standard with PC games these days

Cunny-Funt

nhughes100 wrote: »

I don't think Ireland should be a playable faction, it just wouldn't be historically accurate.

So everything you and everyone else does in the game is historically accurate?

kencleary

To be honest what I'd really like to see is the strategic front end of Total War thrown out and replaced with Europa Universalis 3. Which then zoomed into the tactical battles of Total War. Now that's a game I really would play from now to eternity!

Ardscoil Ris

kencleary wrote: »

To be honest what I'd really like to see is the strategic front end of Total War thrown out and replaced with Europa Universalis 3. Which then zoomed into the tactical battles of Total War. Now that's a game I really would play from now to eternity!

No, I have to disagree there. It would be too complicated. EU only is a great game, but only applies to a niche market because it's so complicated.

To people complaining about the bugs. I think this is the least buggiest release of a Total War game. For anybody here who remembers the unpatched versions of Rome or Medieval will know what I'm talking about. MTW2 was practically unplayable when it was first released.

SeantheMan

Im doing the Road to independence thing, and there are one or two options in the construction menu at certain points , like at mine i think...i need some Tech thing. Can't remember,,,,,but when or where do you purchase these tech upgrades ???

Also, I had just taken over Montreal I think it was , and needed to rush to work, but it loaded the Battle at Boston and i had to quit...prob gonna have to go through loads again now

I didn't even notice ol George passing away or natural causes till i realised i didnt have a general in battle :P

Sephiroth_dude

I cant get over how bad the A.I is it just sits there most of the time and does nothing :eek:

Ardscoil Ris

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

I cant get over how bad the A.I is it just sits there most of the time and does nothing :eek:

I take it your playing on hard? Anything below that the AI is shockingly bad.

nhughes100

Cunny-Funt wrote: »

So everything you and everyone else does in the game is historically accurate?

Why would you have a country that had no military power and was a basic agricultural economy supplying the UK as a potential military power in 1700-1799? Ireland was effectively part of the UK anyway. If it makes you feel better loads of the guys in redcoats were Irish. Sure why not have nuclear weapons in it ffs? It's based on 1700-1799 and Empire has always prided itself on being accurate.

Dumbest post I've read on boards in a long time.

Ri_Nollaig

nhughes100 wrote: »

Why would you have a country that had no military power and was a basic agricultural economy supplying the UK as a potential military power in 1700-1799? Ireland was effectively part of the UK anyway. If it makes you feel better loads of the guys in redcoats were Irish. Sure why not have nuclear weapons in it ffs? It's based on 1700-1799 and Empire has always prided itself on being accurate.

Dumbest post I've read on boards in a long time.

The second you select a nation and do something you have just changed history, the game is set in a historical setting with realistic units and nations for the time. But the entire point of the game was to select a nation (any nation) and conqurer, who gives a shít if it wouldnt have been possible in real life?

And while the Irish economy was entire based on agriculture, forests used in the royal navy and men used as cannon fodder (well not all). This was down purely to been seen as only second class compared to England. Who is to say due to different circumstance there couldn't have been a massive trade economy similar to the dutch...

nhughes100

1 we had no navy, 2 we had no effective army, 3 Ireland was seen to be under the British sphere of influence and would have been totally kept down by the superpower of the day. I accept that history compared to any one campaign could be different but there is still an historical context. You can't research machine guns or chemical weapons but the American revolution might turn out differently - Context and setting is key.

Ri_Nollaig

nhughes100 wrote: »

1 we had no navy, 2 we had no effective army, 3 Ireland was seen to be under the British sphere of influence and would have been totally kept down by the superpower of the day. I accept that history compared to any one campaign could be different but there is still an historical context. You can't research machine guns or chemical weapons but the American revolution might turn out differently - Context and setting is key.

ok, you are seriously missing the point.
the nations that came to power in this time where often the result of alot of luck and right time and place.
Ireland (along with ALOT of others) where not so lucky. Lets say for example England did not come to rule all of Britain and Ireland and instead only remained a local power. This could (notice the word could) have left room for another nation to exploit the very nice position we have here. It may have been Scotland or Wales too for that matter, but thats besides the point. The point is this is a game, where you use a historical starting point to do whatever you want.
Hence, the lack of a navy, army etc is besides the point.
You can use this in any way, such as conquering all of America (or Galway) with Indians or taking over all of Europe with the Ottomans. Last time I checked nethier of these things happened but thats the fun of the game.

nhughes100

I'm not interested in splitting hairs on this one. Ireland should not and is not in the game and that's fine with me.

BlitzKrieg

SeantheMan wrote: »

Im doing the Road to independence thing, and there are one or two options in the construction menu at certain points , like at mine i think...i need some Tech thing. Can't remember,,,,,but when or where do you purchase these tech upgrades ???

Build schools to access the tech tree and put gentlemen in them to speed it up, and you work your way through each tech tree to unlock new units, buildings and bonuses etc.

Sephiroth_dude

can you only research 1 tech at a time?

Ri_Nollaig

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

can you only research 1 tech at a time?

1 tech per university and the more gentlemen you have in it the faster it goes.

BlitzKrieg

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

1 tech per university and the more gentlemen you have in it the faster it goes.

are you sure on the 2nd part. I thought its a max of 1 gentleman per school boosting the research rate? Any other gewntlemen just do nothing for the research rate.

humanji

I was playing last night (and to be honest hadn't a clue what I was doing), but I'm fairly certain that the more gentlemen you have in a school, the faster the research, but that also depends on their skills. Some will have a bonus for industrial research, but maybe a penalty for military research, so they speed up industrial and slow down military. At least that's what I thought it meant.

How do towns work? Not sure if I'm missing it completely, but when a region prospers, do villages appear, which then grow into towns? And if so, is there any way of deciding what type of building will go there, or is it pre-defined?

And is anyone else having trouble selecting agents in cities? Any time I do, I try to move them out of the city, and the garrisoned army marches out instead. I'm just hoping this is a common problem and that I'm not the moron I think I may be.

But all in all, I'm lovign the game so far. I'd only one crash, but that was due to my computer, and not the game. I've also had no real problems with the AI because, to be honest, I'm just terrible at the battles section so even sh*t AI is proving a match for me.

Griffin87

yes gentlemen to stack so get them into your colleges. also make sure that the schools are bult in separate regions otherwise its hard to keep the population under control.

PaddyTheNth

Griffin87 wrote: »

yes gentlemen to stack so get them into your colleges.

Pretty sure it's a case of diminishing returns though.

BlitzKrieg

How do towns work? Not sure if I'm missing it completely, but when a region prospers, do villages appear, which then grow into towns? And if so, is there any way of deciding what type of building will go there, or is it pre-defined?

Every region has a preset number of villages, and the growth rate of the region affects the speed at which these villages turn into towns.

click on your region capitol to see the growth rate near the bottom and under that you will see how many turns until the named village turns into a town/port.



there are 3 types of villages:

villages which can be turned into a tavarn, church, school or industrial building (the industrial building varies depending on region and resources, can be textile or Ore processing) each one give specific bonuses and penelties, so building too many in any region is a big risk.

And Ports which can be turned into commercial for economic boost and access to some ship types shipyard for war ships and fishing port for a growth boost.

Finally Farms etc, i'm not sure about these cause I played Prussia and all my farms etc were already founded when I conquered new lands. But they depend on resources not growth and can be built from the get go, what you can build depends entirely on the resource they are on (fur, grain, suger, cotten, coffee etc) and some can be on multiple resources so you must choose one with the better economic value.

Growth is affected by Taxes and food. So better farms = better growth when you want to speed up growth over economic wealth, exempt the region from tax for a few turns to cut the number of turns in half.


I tested the genltlemen thing last night and I saw no change in research when I had 1 in a school or 3. So I am still iffy about that.

humanji

Thanks for that. I'll try again tonight. It could be that the gentleman has to only be in the region, and not necessarily the school. But who know's. It's strange, I remember the old TW games tutorials explaining everything fairly well. This one has left me clueless.

PaddyTheNth

New mods look interesting, looking forward to trying them.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=236135
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=235623