SEGA community event, Munich

[Prof]

By reinforcement issue I meant how many armies the player can bring to a battle and how they are controlled. In RTW either the ai totally controlled the allied army or they were added to your army one unit at a time. In MTW2 after the patch you could issue basic commands to the ai controlled army (or reinforce your army one unit at a time).

There has been information or at least claims that there will be no ai controlled player armies in ETW. This has led many to conclude that we can never field more than one army in a battle and that it will only be reinforced one unit at a time. If true, this would seem to potentially diminish the scale of battles and/or place the player at a significant disadvantage if the ai enemy shows up mith multiple armies/stacks.

Sorry I did not explain in full.

in my biggest campaign battle so far there were only about 10 units involved (5 per army). And like in MTW 2 I could just control them all, so I can't give you a statement about that.

Any news on hotseat in ETW? I hope CA didn't take it out as i would rather dislike buying multiple copies for some Multi Campaign play in which i can literally spit on the other human player.

My guess would be that they are still in, but we haven't tried that one out. We were to busy finding other stuff out.

[Froggie5]

in my biggest campaign battle so far there were only about 10 units involved (5 per army). And like in MTW 2 I could just control them all, so I can't give you a statement about that.

thank you for your reply

[Froggie5]

in my biggest campaign battle so far there were only about 10 units involved (5 per army). And like in MTW 2 I could just control them all, so I can't give you a statement about that.

Aha! I just reread this and it does seem to answer our questions regarding reinforcements.

If I understand you correctly you *were* able to bring two separate armies (of 5 units each) to a battle and controlled the secondary army as in MTW2 (aggressive/defensive stance, move to designated point). The worry was that the player would always be limited to one army (max 20 units) that could only be reinforced on a unit by unit basis.

So, the 20 units a time is a bit beside the point, the real issue was whether or not we could bring multiple armies/stacks to a battle (of our own faction, not allies). It would seem that they simply dropped the option to have additonal stacks completely controlled by the ai as opposed to the shared control established with the MTW2 patch.

[Prof]

Aha! I just reread this and it does seem to answer our questions regarding reinforcements.

If I understand you correctly you *were* able to bring two separate armies (of 5 units each) to a battle and controlled the secondary army as in MTW2 (aggressive/defensive stance, move to designated point). The worry was that the player would always be limited to one army (max 20 units) that could only be reinforced on a unit by unit basis.

So, the 20 units a time is a bit beside the point, the real issue was whether or not we could bring multiple armies/stacks to a battle (of our own faction, not allies). It would seem that they simply dropped the option to have additonal stacks completely controlled by the ai as opposed to the shared control established with the MTW2 patch.

No. Since I only had a total of 10 units I could control all of them directly. I do not know how it will be working with 21+ units.

Yes, I'd love to have some more info on the campaign map, and the movement of armies. Is it easier and more intuitive in ETW to set up your armies in an advantageous spot for a battle, like on high terrain, in the woods, or across a river.

Did it seem like, due to the new interception zones and better AI, that your allies will join you in battles more often? It rarely happened in RTW or M2TW in my experience. Would you say the interception zones for armies are "bigger" than the 8 tiles around armies in RTW and M2TW? Does the size of the interception zone increase if you have a larger army with more units?

Thanks!

I have not tried ambushing enemies or provoking them to start battles with me having a huge advantage over them, if that is what you mean. But I think that is well possible now. Also I think, although I have not experienced this, that battles you fight together with your allies will be a much more common thing due to the new diplomacy and the interception zones. And the interception zones are bigger. (I can't describe it to you though)

In your guys opinion,

Is Empire Total War a finished product, in desperate need of modding, or is it first day + patch = ready?

It is not entirely finished, but CA has confirmed that they will use Steam to give us frequent updates.

[Froggie5]

No. Since I only had a total of 10 units I could control all of them directly. I do not know how it will be working with 21+ units.

Okay thank you for the information. Again, however I think that the question should not be posed in terms of total units (under/over 20) but how many separate stacks you can bring to the battlefield. For example, in previous TW games if I had two stacks of 8 units next to each other and I was attacked I would have complete control of one and partial (MTW2) or no control over the other (RTW). This would apply if I had 6, 15, or 20 units in each.

This is the real crux of the question/confusion - can we bring multiple stacks (of any # of units) to a battle and if so, how are the secondary stacks/armies to be controlled?

[snuggans]

You should keep the naval battles small (at least for now) or else they will be lagging like hell (with 30+ ships)


Thamis couldn't give me much information about this, but it seems the game won't be as easy to mod as previous games.


In the version we got to play there were still some minor glitches

._.

i guess i had seen this coming from a mile away, except the difficulty of the modability.

[JJPHATX]

Prof,

Thanks for all your help - one small question

Most of us experienced massive delays in loading the battle. Will this be fixed in the retail version off of steam. It seems the problem was caused do the files remaining packed....will the steam version install and unpack this time?

[Sander Cohen]

Prof,

Thanks for all your help - one small question

Most of us experienced massive delays in loading the battle. Will this be fixed in the retail version off of steam. It seems the problem was caused do the files remaining packed....will the steam version install and unpack this time?

I assume your refering to loading times? He already adressed this a few pages back:

"they are still working on them. They have decreased a bit for the retail version, but they want to decrease them even further with the first patch on the release day ^^"

[ParthianWarrior]

What's the 12th playable faction?

[linuss]

What's the 12th playable faction?

USA.

[AlfonsoVIII]

Thamis or Lusted should talk to us about the modding aspect and define the word "hard". We do know how they define "soon".

[Cougman21]

Were the sound problems in the demo fixed (static when zooming in on drummers and soldiers marching etc). Also, are the loading times still kinda long?

[Prof]

Thamis or Lusted should talk to us about the modding aspect and define the word "hard". We do know how they define "soon".

they don't know that for sure themselves yet.

Well, first of all thanks for the info, Prof.
I do have few questions:hmmm:
1. Reinforcements & recruitment of the land armies. How do you reinforce armies after battle? Are their numbers automatically replenished next turn or do you need to garrison them in city in order to retrain them?
2. Which faction did you play? What units were available to you at the beggining?
3. Do you start campaign without any alliances or not? Are some factions allied or in war right from turn 1?
4. How big were AI armies & navies? Average 5unit, 10 or full stacks?

1. I didn't replenish the armies after my battle, but you can do this in the field now.
2. I played Sweden. I had some militia musketeers, cavalry units and some pikemen (they are quite fun now ^^)
3. No alliances, but there are some factions that like you and others that don't
4. they were similar to the armies in rome and medieval...between 5 and 10 units...but this was still an early stage of the campaign.

Were the sound problems in the demo fixed (static when zooming in on drummers and soldiers marching etc). Also, are the loading times still kinda long?

I haven't experienced any of those problems. And I think, that the demo was really really old. It seemed quite outdated compared to the full game.

[Valbruch]

I haven't experienced any of those problems. And I think, that the demo was really really old. It seemed quite outdated compared to the full game.

That sounds very promising

[Barkhorn1x]

I haven't experienced any of those problems. And I think, that the demo was really really old. It seemed quite outdated compared to the full game.

Good news and thank you for your feedback. Rep to you.

I must ask one more question, tho' - from your comments it sounds as tho' changes are still in progress and yet - the game is due for release one week from Tuesday in Europe. Do you have any reason to suspect that another delay is in store?

[Prof]

Good news and thank you for your feedback. Rep to you.

I must ask one more question, tho' - from your comments it sounds as tho' changes are still in progress and yet - the game is due for release one week from Tuesday in Europe. Do you have any reason to suspect that another delay is in store?

No more delays. The retail version is already done. You'll get the first patch on the 4th via steam.

[TreffdatTornet]

Hi,

* what is the max size of one unit on huge?
* which difficulty did u play?
* had u have heavy or normal casualties of your armies compared to the enemy in the battles?
* have u lost any battle?
* and how reacted the AI as u besieged the fort?
thx.

[Barkhorn1x]

No more delays. The retail version is already done. You'll get the first patch on the 4th via steam.

That is HUGE news - need to spread the word.

[zligor]

Well, first of all thanks for the info, Prof.
I do have few questions:hmmm:
1. Reinforcements & recruitment of the land armies. How do you reinforce armies after battle? Are their numbers automatically replenished next turn or do you need to garrison them in city in order to retrain them?
2. Which faction did you play? What units were available to you at the beggining?
3. Do you start campaign without any alliances or not? Are some factions allied or in war right from turn 1?
4. How big were AI armies & navies? Average 5unit, 10 or full stacks?

[Centurion Alfirien]

thank you Prof for giving us all this wealth of knowledge as i always had full confidence that ETW would be as good as CA said it would be

little upset about not being about to play as native americans... but with modders and wonderful as they are im sure we can change all that

i have a question, you said that you could build a ship and then name it? is that actually possible within the game?

many thanks, Alfirien