Exclusive ETW Q&A with CA

[jarnomiedema]

will artillery be able to fire at a general area on the map, or will it be limited to firing at specific units/buildings?

I wanted to ask this as well..

Two additional questions to my earlier ones:
- Will we be able to target areas rather than units or buildings?
- Will there be a way to see the maximum range / lethality of the fire of our units other than the cursor indicator? Cossacks II had a good indicator that caused some tense moments trying to shoot at just the right moment and I'm hoping Empire: TW will have that as well..

[bollard]

My questions.
a) What will the minimum, medium pc spec be and what will play the game in all its glory.
I think it only fair we have this information as from the fan sites people are spending large sums upgrading machines with little or no feed back on this one.
b) Will there be a demo released before Christmas?

c) Will you use your fan base to pre test the game as last time around the forum was clogged with negative remarks from the hardcore who thought testing had not been carried out properly for bugs etc.

PS - Total war games rock - only reason i ever spend money on my pc graphics or upgrade for. However 4pc'S on now - spent 3.5k since Shogun and wife and kids will kill me if ETW causes me to spend much more.

[Soryn Arkayn]

1.) Will there be pirates ships (similar to "rebel" pirates in previous TW games)?

2.) Can the player recruit/build privateer ships to attack other factions' ships without declaring war?

3.) How fast can ships travel? Can they travel to other regions (ie. from Europe to North America) in one turn?

4.) Will there be limits imposed on the number of units a single ship can transport (ie. in previous TW games a 3000-soldier army
could be transported by a single warship)?

5.) Will Admirals be independent units, like Generals or Governors; or will they continue to be trapped aboard their ships?

6.) Will a faction's government determine who becomes the new faction leader (ie. hereditary rule or election)?

7.) a.) Can the player choose who their faction heir will be?
b.) Can the player choose a different faction heir whenever they want?
c.) When the faction leader dies and the faction heir becomes the new leader, can the player choose who the new faction heir will be -- instead of the game automatically choosing -- to prevent an ex-faction heir receiving an unnecessary "disinherited" trait?

8.) a.) Will there be Dragoons?
b.) Will Dragoons be able to dismount (and re-mount) their horses in battle?

9.) Can cavalry soldiers be knocked off their horses and continue to fight on foot; or will horse and rider always die together?

10.) Can the player de-mobilize professional soldiers (and warships) in peace-time -- making them inactive reserves -- to reduce their upkeep cost?

11.) How deep will diplomacy options be? Can the player influence another faction's ruler/government? For example, instead of just bribing an AI faction member into joining your faction (like in previous TW games), can the player bribe an AI faction member to instigate a revolution against the faction leader?

12.) Can revolutions happen to any faction or will they limited to historical revolutions such as the American War of Independence and the French Revolution?

[Blau&Gruen]

1) Will (physical) wind directions be a feature on the maritime combat map?
2) If not: Will every side in a naval encounter receive just one optimal/ideal wind direction?

[CrayonVonCaesar]

lots of people are asking (as was I) if dragoons will be able to dismount before battle. In the empire faq on the blog: http://blogs.sega.com/totalwar/category/ca-updates/ It says even better than that,

Better than that - dragoon units will be able to dismount and mount during battle. Dismounting is a unit ability that won’t be available to all units and must be selected through the tech tree. This opens up many strategic possibilities - dragoons can for example, ride to buildings or areas of cover on the battlefield, then dismount and fire from the cover they’ve seized. Before battle there will also be a few units that can choose to fight on foot or horseback (but can’t change during battle).. Guns will also be able to limber and unlimber on the battlefield; this means that horse artillery will gallop to where they are most needed.

[Guerero]

Hi guys

1. Can CA tell us more about the multi ? Will there be a leaderboard or something like that to add excitation in multi ?

2. Will CA still gonna use GameSpy for the multi ?

[Alkarin]

Since this game is historically accurate will we see the emerging factions of the velociraptor Empire or the Waffle Republic?

[Azim]

In MTW 1, every unit leader was a full-fledged character with traits and attributes. Considering the greater social mobility of the period of ETW, will unit leaders become full-fledged characters again?

[Mathais]

Will land units have more than one unqiue ablity they can perform?
Will the battles on land or on sea effect the land scape such as cannon ball fire make a hole in the ground?

[DarkArk]

Will there be dismemberment and ragdoll physics with infantry?
How high up does the tech tree go? Trains? Large factories using an assembly line? Mass use of rifling?
How will sieges against star forts work?
How much of the world is going to be on the map? All of it?
Will we be able to decide how a general fights in a battle?
Will natives be able to Europeanize? (I think someone has already asked this)
Will disease factor into the population levels of native Americans?
Will Russia control St. Petersburg at the start or not?
Can the Rake assassinate?
Can you put cannonades and mortars on ships?
Is it required to take the capitol of a province to capture pieces of it (say a port or barracks)?

[Chevalier IX]

Has the final end date for the campaign been changed from the originally quoted 1815??if this is still the intended end date will we see fully realised napoleonic units??

[Zap Brannigan]

How will diplomatic side of game work?

Specifically in relation to wartime/alliance diplomacy such as:

• How will an alliance behave? - will allies ask for help to end invasion / co-ordinated attacks on a province etc (i.e can you attack Paris within next 3 turns) OR will it be as in prevoius games 2 factions independently at war with another faction.
• If your ally is attacked and during the war loses a province but you then defeat the attackers will the province return to your ally - in previous games you had to offer to gift the settlement back. - would you lose your ally and get a bad reputation with other factions if you kept it?
• If an ally lost all settlements during the war but your side won, can you bring them back?

Keep up the great work CA - expectations are so high only because you have produced the benchmark game.

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

Will there be proper *Civil Wars*, like in Medieval 1?

[Zap Brannigan]

Will buildings in your empire affect the rate of technology research instead of unlocking improvements - for example would an extra university allow an extra tech to be researched (2 at once) or increase the speed of research. How would this work?

[Aradan]

Ladies and gents, submission time is over. We'll now make a nice list of the best ones and send them over to CA.

Thanks all for your input, it has been really great!