Same villages?

**Rt. Hon. Gentleman** · August 20, 2009, 01:29 PM

I just had a look at this screenshot the other day:

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but is that or is that not the same generic town that is repeated all the way across Europe in Empire? For me, that is one of the biggest turn-offs of the game. When a five year old game has accurately modelled cities, and a three year old game has cities and castles of the beauty of M2 and Kingdoms, it is utterly unacceptable that Empire should have those graphically inferior, generic clone villages.

Now, in Empire it is sort of passable to have London, Paris, Brussels, Strasbourg, ad nauseam as the same geometry of town, because you barely ever do the sieges, right? In Nappy: TW, we are supposedly going to see way more detailed campaign map, with more provinces and thus by extension towns and cities. Not that I currently plan on buying the game, but I can think of few bigger turn-offs than every single village/town/city in the whole of Nappy's "Mastery of Europe" Northern European section, as the same generic outlying village, with the stone church in the middle and the poor attempt to combine regency housing from all areas of Northern Europe.

What do you think? Am I worrying prematurely? Might we be seeing the alpha towns make a re-appearance from Alpha ETW? If we do, I might actually be tempted to buy it. If not, then I stick to my current position. Your thoughts?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**miniwally** · August 20, 2009, 01:32 PM

very good point there it does just look like the clone ones we may see unique ones in the episode campaigns (like we did in RTI) but seems like the still smae in Napoleon however it's still in pre-Alpha stages so i can always hope however i doubt it'll bhe changed

**Rt. Hon. Gentleman** · August 20, 2009, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by miniwally

very good point there it does just look like the clone ones we may see unique ones in the episode campaigns (like we did in RTI) but seems like the still smae in Napoleon however it's still in pre-Alpha stages so i can always hope however i doubt it'll bhe changed

There were unique towns in RTI? I never played it, so I don't know. Well, I think I have a shrewd idea where the modelling time that should have gone on the GC map went!

**lordhedgwich** · August 20, 2009, 01:40 PM

I like the games little genaric villages on the GC map that are dotted all over the game (not buildings) like for example you just fight in some random open field and there are fields and little houses around it all looks very nice imo, but i would like to see urban combat for example lets say you attack Berlin or vienna Instead of seeing 2 or 3 buildings i would like to actaully manover my troops into a city and make the town hall the key point to take like hold the town hall for 2 min for victory

**miniwally** · August 20, 2009, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by Rt. Hon. Gentleman

There were unique towns in RTI? I never played it, so I don't know. Well, I think I have a shrewd idea where the modelling time that should have gone on the GC map went!

Yep there's a thread somewhere showing all of them i really like New France one.

**mahatma shandi** · August 23, 2009, 09:26 AM

i think theyre slightly different but that town is the one used tin in the original trailers reversed

**Ebusitanus** · August 23, 2009, 09:35 AM

They have said several times, Jack Lusted amongst them, that the current despicted units and overall landscape is a placeholder for the new units and background being developed for February. In fact what we see there is just ETW units reskinned and that town looks terribly similar to the trailer we saw before ETW release of the Spanish charging across that field towards French artillery.

**MehemtAli_Pasha** · August 23, 2009, 10:05 AM

CA has confirmed that towns will not be the same as ETW in the IGN preview.

Architecture has been updated to reflect turn-of-the-century Imperial style too - towns on the campaign map are very different from their Empire counterparts. These towns will come in three variations, each with an accompanying speciality and bonus.

i doubt that they will make intellectual, economic and industrial towns clone to each other. they will probably throw schools and universities in the intellectual towns, markets in the economic, and some factories in the industrial.

**Sigma** · August 23, 2009, 10:45 AM

Ya I didn't like the little colonial villages for every town either in E:TW I want at least a few battles in a large urban setting. It would make things interesting.

**A1_Unit** · August 23, 2009, 10:48 AM

I want a city inside of a star fort!

**General_Meevious** · August 23, 2009, 11:19 AM

I want a city inside a fort inside a city! No, I want multiple cities inside forts inside cities!

To be honest, I would prefer to have no buildings than the current E:TW system. Monotony is a dish better served less blatantly.

**johncage** · August 23, 2009, 12:14 PM

i never understood the problem with alpha towns. they say they removed it because it was impossible to navigate within it.

why not just restrict access to it then? perhaps allow only the front row of the buildings to be occupiable.

in reference to meevius's quote. monotony is a dish best not served.

**Relic** · August 23, 2009, 12:52 PM

Indeed this is also a strong fear of mine, but as said, that image isn't actually N:TW, just Empire reskinned.

**General_Meevious** · August 23, 2009, 01:03 PM

You make the presumption that the two are not one and the same.

**Rt. Hon. Gentleman** · August 23, 2009, 02:06 PM

Architecture has been updated to reflect turn-of-the-century Imperial style too - towns on the campaign map are very different from their Empire counterparts. These towns will come in three variations, each with an accompanying speciality and bonus.

THREE variations. Think of that, three whole variations. Think of the joy that will bring!

/sarcasm.

This is absolutely ridiculous. That seals it, not going to be buying the game if there are only going to be three bloody towns copyed and pasted through the whole map.

"Oh look, this is Toulouse! It's exactly the same as Nice, Bordeaux, Paris, Marseilles, Amiens and Strasbourg, but trust me, this is Toulouse."

Way to go for variation, CA! I mean, c'mon, I remember when people were complaining that Venice had no canals in M2TW, and while they had a point, this is just ridiculous. It might not be so bad if they were towns, but nope, all villages, all with the same church in the middle.

Architecture has been updated to reflect turn-of-the-century Imperial style too

What? Architecture in Empire was bloody Regency anyway! It ought to have been Queen-Anne/Georgian borders, but instead, its Regency. So what is this (Regency) game going to have? Victorian, no doubt.

(Excuse the English periods, I can't recall their continental equivalents.)

Pffft, count me out. (I studied European architecture of the 18th and 19th centuries many years ago, incidentally, so that is probably why it rankles me so much.)

**S-te-Fan** · August 23, 2009, 02:09 PM

The game is pre-alpha, the new towns might not yet be included?

**Rt. Hon. Gentleman** · August 23, 2009, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by stefaneke

The game is pre-alpha, the new towns might not yet be included?

This is from an IGN preview. Mehmet Ali_Pasha found the quote:

Architecture has been updated to reflect turn-of-the-century Imperial style too - towns on the campaign map are very different from their Empire counterparts. These towns will come in three variations, each with an accompanying speciality and bonus.

(Emphasis mine)

Three variations are not good enough for me, I'm afraid.

**S-te-Fan** · August 23, 2009, 02:43 PM

Ehrm... he refers to the campaign map villages/towns, not to the battle map.

**Archimonday** · August 23, 2009, 02:47 PM

To be honest i've never seen that Village in the actual game itself, just in the trailers. This fact alone says to me that the village in these Screenshots is a test map for new features, not an official map.