The (Old) Official ETW Criticism Thread

[Meateh]

No game is perfect, but I think Empire is still great despite some of the flaws it does have. To counter argue your points tho.

I fail to see why people get so upset about "clone armies". I mean yes it is quicker to design a generic skin and use it over. Considering you spend 95% of the battles zoomed out makes it a non-issue, for me at least. I dont expect a CA to design multiple facial features and looks when they hardly will get any notice.

They did limit alot of the factions but honestly, its a game about imperialism. So they are just going to just make the key players in that race playable. I bet CA decided that yes some people would play these but it would be a small minority. Not to mention they must be really difficult to play (which im not saying is a bad thing), but you would probably get owned by the AI most of the time and mainly focus on a small theater and not take advantage of the full game.

As for the historical battle yes there could have been more, but they had The Road to Independance. Which is probably the most important historical event covered in the time period and that alone probably took some work and CA figured more people would spend time on that not the historical battles.

And lastly the turns is a predicament because they cant really go into the deep 1800s, due to new tech and possibly touching on a expac? And if they made it 3 turns per year or even 4 turns thats a really long game and most hardcore people who would dream of playing that long have probably beat the victory conditions well before that.

Those are just my 2 cents I think its a great game but like I said earlier not perfect. I cant wait to get back to playing it.

[Bob the Insane]

Personally I quite like the new campaign map, yes there are less settlements in the traditional sense, but over time the other locations in each region build up and become targets for the AI. In a funny way they have turned the siegefest into a way to have more regular battles. The small towns and ports can be garrisioned and are frequent targets for the AI. However they are not siege battles, but rather normal field battles but fighting for an objective.

Over time individual regions can be come pretty well populated with small towns, so what is a pretty empty looking map becomes more crowded.

[gingerbill]

Personally I quite like the new campaign map, yes there are less settlements in the traditional sense, but over time the other locations in each region build up and become targets for the AI. In a funny way they have turned the siegefest into a way to have more regular battles. The small towns and ports can be garrisioned and are frequent targets for the AI. However they are not siege battles, but rather normal field battles but fighting for an objective.

Over time individual regions can be come pretty well populated with small towns, so what is a pretty empty looking map becomes more crowded.

definetly agree with this , thats a step forward for the series .

my main complaints are performance and unit varation , i think there's a great game hiding under the terrible engine.

[Watercress]

wow, you guys really to loosen up. you damn lucky the devs are even making this. if i was making the game and these were your comments, i'll quit instantly and leave you here to cry.

[random_samurai]

wow, you guys really to loosen up. you damn lucky the devs are even making this. if i was making the game and these were your comments, i'll quit instantly and leave you here to cry.

If that was your grand strategy, you wouldn't be a successful game developer, you'd be eating rotten tuna fish from the dumpster

[Sardonicus]

wow, you guys really to loosen up. you damn lucky the devs are even making this. if i was making the game and these were your comments, i'll quit instantly and leave you here to cry.

I'm NOT lucky the Devs are making this, and I wish you were a dev so this crap game wouldn't have been released, and I would still have my $75.00.

[Weehamish]

I'm NOT lucky the Devs are making this, and I wish you were a dev so this crap game wouldn't have been released, and I would still have my $75.00.

L:OLOLOLOLOLOL me 2

[Oddleif]

It was only ten years ago I was having tons of fun watching my lone trieme in Age of Empires shooting an arrow once a second at the enemies docks. I think Empire is wonderful. Give them some time it will get better and smoother. Back to the game.

[Chappy4756]

wow, you guys really to loosen up. you damn lucky the devs are even making this. if i was making the game and these were your comments, i'll quit instantly and leave you here to cry.

you would quit your job because some people didn't like the quality of a product you had been working on and been promoted for 2 years?

[Prof]

you would quit your job because some people didn't like the quality of a product you had been working on and been promoted for 2 years?

...for a bunch of ungrateful whiners who seem to only see the negative aspects of a game?

yes, I'd quit.

[ran22147]

the developers have to balance the game between history buffs like you and noobs like me that just want get start killing and pillaging. I didnt start playing total war until medieval 2. But the bottom line is, Is the game fun? most people dont need 60 factions and unique armys for the game to be fun as long as something blows up its FUN

[Sardonicus]

I couldn't agree more with the OP.
I spent my life savings of $730.00 to be able to play and still can't.
I feel like throwing this game in the trash.
My special forces units codes weren't even included in the box. I give up. and have uninstalled ETW and Steam.
This game is going to the dusty bin of games that never get played and it's back to M2TW for me

[SuperKyle]

the uniform thing isn't what I was referring to when I was talking about return of the clone army. by clone army I mean lack of diversity between the 12 major powers besides what tech will do, but you can't really tech in multiplayer matches...

pretty much the only graphic detail that's clone is the faces again which is a step backward from metw2.


And to those few who disagree with me, I DO like the game. I've been playing it all day. It just feels like it'll be a repeat of rome total realism and stainless steel, y'know?

[Meateh]

the uniform thing isn't what I was referring to when I was talking about return of the clone army. by clone army I mean lack of diversity between the 12 major powers besides what tech will do, but you can't really tech in multiplayer matches...

pretty much the only graphic detail that's clone is the faces again which is a step backward from metw2.


And to those few who disagree with me, I DO like the game. I've been playing it all day. It just feels like it'll be a repeat of rome total realism and stainless steel, y'know?

True, there isnt alot of variety in the tech. I am pretty sure all the nations have the same tech. Could you imagine the amount of time required to make somewhat unique tech trees for each major nation? Then balancing them? It would be pretty damn hard. Especially since they are bringing a multiplayer campaign into this version. There would be far more problems if the entire balance was messed up because all of MP would be borked.

[GustavusAdolphus]

True, there isnt alot of variety in the tech. I am pretty sure all the nations have the same tech. Could you imagine the amount of time required to make somewhat unique tech trees for each major nation? Then balancing them? It would be pretty damn hard. Especially since they are bringing a multiplayer campaign into this version. There would be far more problems if the entire balance was messed up because all of MP would be borked.

The variety lies in what you focus your research on. Military, economical or philosophical might.

[Berdiche Knyaz]

I found the tech, useless IMO, Gentlmen are pretty useless as well

[Meateh]

The variety lies in what you focus your research on. Military, economical or philosophical might.

True, I was a little vague in what a meant by variety. I meant each major nation having unqiue technologies when compared to the other nations in each category

[cptrios]

I don't know about all of this...I love the game so far. The only real problem I've seen is that the stupid "A reinforcement unit can only enter the battle once a unit already in the battle has died" thing is still going on...it allowed me to defeat an army twice my size (with terrible battle odds at the beginning) because the second half of it trickled in one by one.

[centurie]

why don't you trolls and whiners just give it a rest..this is a great game,iv never had it crash i play it ob ultra on a mid range system ,as for game [play you really need to learn the game,there is so much you can do it maks your head spin,have a few schools then you can research 3 or 4 things at the same time , place a gentlman inside the school and it cuts the research time by half,the battles are great you just need to learn how to move the peices around.

this is the best of all the tw games for me the deplomacy alone is worth the 30 quid i payed for it,at least its not like medieval where you team up with one nation ,then next move he stabs you in the back,you know and trust the ai in this game,all the other games were all over the place.

if you are having problems with playing this game then you have computer problems,as for the bugs ...what bugs i have not seen a bug in two days of playing ...only bug for me is a slight lag on the campaign map .

[SmurfDude]

There are quite a few rough edges, but these can and probably will be fixed in patches

As for most other things, they come down to user opinion. The so-called lack of unit variety doesn't bother me in the slightest, I think there is plenty for me to be getting on with, and I like the 6 elite units

Only 12 factions unlocked? I couldn't give a monkeys