Excellent Patch update Thread!

[FEARLESS]

The daily update thread for the patch is a well thgought out idea by CA. I now feel something is being done about the game and we are informed each day of work in progress. It makes you feel more confident in CA and part of what is going on in their HQ.

[BigDuke6]

Just out of curiousity, what part of

"April 16th

We've had an interesting week so far. I've just come away from a meeting on the multiplayer campaign beta and things are progressing well.

Naturally the patches remain our focus, but the multiplayer beta is also being worked on. Please don't be confused with the gameplay upgrade currently in beta testing, these are two different things and the multiplayer beta is set for a later release.

For those that are interested Sensei and I spent Easter weekend in France presenting to the excellent LAN event in Poitiers. There were about 1000+ French fans there, playing loads of different games, we made an appearence at the opening ceremony and gave an update on what we were doing with increased threading and i7 support for Empire in the near future.

It's too early to put dates or numbers on things at the moment but some of the early work is yielding impressive performance gains...

Thanks again to everyone for tuning in and reading these, hopefully they give some insight into our day to day work. Right now, patches and the gameplay upgrade are our biggest focus."


make you "feel more confident" in CA? Its 6 weeks since the release and its "too early to put dates or numbers on things"? Please.

[Mikelus Trento]

I'm happy they enjoyed a nice weekend in France and are working on making the game playable.

I would also be happy if I could actually play their game without a CTD and with naval invasions. Or even connect to a MP server.

[Darkpriest667]

im surprised they werent massacred by disgruntled fans. They must have been playing games on CA's pre approved systems..

and just for the record it has now been 17 days since the last patch that fixed the patch before that... either they are playtesting these patches (finally) or this is a big patch... either way ive gone back to M2. This game is shelved until summer at least...

[SirVulf]

Basically it's a load of Marketing bullcrap.

All they're doing is feeding crap to the masses so they'll leave them alone. They've had so many visitors DAILY to their forums that they used up their monthly allotment of bandwidth. That's why they continuously had Ads pop up on the official forums. If that's not an indication of a crap release I don't know what is. By human nature people complain, they don't comment on a job well done.

They continue to feed everyone BS, but I stand by the belief that they half-arsed the release, they didn't have time to complete the game, released it way too early and now are having to fix all the crap they've left undone. Anything else, is just a line of horsepoo. Minimizing the damage they've done just discredits them, because most people can hopefully see through their BS.

I say they will release the update next week. I say Friday/Saturday timeframe. It'll have been a month at that point since they released the crap 3/25 sfx breaker patch.

[MyKingforahorse]

Ohh how soon we forget.

Anyone here want to remind the fine folks who complain how long it took before M2TW got fixed?

[Mikelus Trento]

Ohh how soon we forget.

Anyone here want to remind the fine folks who complain how long it took before M2TW got fixed?

That's very misleading. NONE of their earlier releases had the flaws this one does....not even close. Fully 40% of their fan base cannot finish a campaign without a CTD. And of the 60% that can, NONE of those actually played a real campaign, since without naval invasions, every campaign is meaningless.

[Darkpriest667]

That's very misleading. NONE of their earlier releases had the flaws this one does....not even close. Fully 40% of their fan base cannot finish a campaign without a CTD. And of the 60% that can, NONE of those actually played a real campaign, since without naval invasions, every campaign is meaningless.

i agree i could at least play M2TW and RTW on release... and the bugs were there but they didnt make the game entirely unplayable or unenjoyable

[Darkpriest667]

Basically it's a load of Marketing bullcrap.

All they're doing is feeding crap to the masses so they'll leave them alone. They've had so many visitors DAILY to their forums that they used up their monthly allotment of bandwidth. That's why they continuously had Ads pop up on the official forums. If that's not an indication of a crap release I don't know what is. By human nature people complain, they don't comment on a job well done.

They continue to feed everyone BS, but I stand by the belief that they half-arsed the release, they didn't have time to complete the game, released it way too early and now are having to fix all the crap they've left undone. Anything else, is just a line of horsepoo. Minimizing the damage they've done just discredits them, because most people can hopefully see through their BS.

I say they will release the update next week. I say Friday/Saturday timeframe. It'll have been a month at that point since they released the crap 3/25 sfx breaker patch.

when the expansion comes out.. i may not even buy it at this point vulf... after rome and med2 and now this... IF i was an athiest id have more faith in jesus christ than these people

[Omnissiah]

A good idea poorly executed.

They made the daily update thread as a way to try to placate the huge numbers of dissatisfied (and vocal) customers.

Sooo, it's probably not smart to fill that "update" thread with pointless babbling about marketing trips to France.

[DyerWolf]

Nerd rage.

I'm with the OP on this one. I think CA is doing a responsible job by not rushing a quick-fix patch. I'm glad they pulled together a team of players to play-test different versions of the patch, provide feedback, from which CA is continuing to update & improve the patch before it's released.

Like the OP it does give me confidence that when the patch finally hits STEAM that it will make playing Empire a rewarding experience.

[cherryfunk]

I'm with the OP on this one. I think CA is doing a responsible job by not rushing a quick-fix patch. I'm glad they pulled together a team of players to play-test different versions of the patch, provide feedback, from which CA is continuing to update & improve the patch before it's released.

Like the OP it does give me confidence that when the patch finally hits STEAM that it will make playing Empire a rewarding experience.

I agree that this is probably the best course of action, but the rub is that it should have been done before the game was released.

I love E:TW, but releasing the game in this state was a huge slap in the face to the fans. It's left a very bad taste in my mouth.

[english tyrant]

I'm with the OP on this one. I think CA is doing a responsible job by not rushing a quick-fix patch. I'm glad they pulled together a team of players to play-test different versions of the patch, provide feedback, from which CA is continuing to update & improve the patch before it's released.

Like the OP it does give me confidence that when the patch finally hits STEAM that it will make playing Empire a rewarding experience.

If you think that being unhappy with parting with 30 quid for a piece of is Nerd rage then you are off your rocker.

[Turbo]

All this daily update tells me is that the current version of Empire is a beta that never should have been released to the public. Its been 6 weeks since I bought the game and I haven't been able to play it yet. This is the last time I EVER buy a CA product upon release. I'll wait for it to hit the bargain bin.

[BigDuke6]

Call it nerd rage if you want, but answer the question. What is it thats giving you confidence? The fact that they're telling you that they STILL cant even estimate a date when their already released software will be done? Not trying to be argumentative, I'm asking an honest question. I see a LOT of posts about people being "happy CAs working to fix this" and "confident" they'll resolve it "soon". I am just trying to figure out what thats based on.

[MyKingforahorse]

Call it nerd rage if you want, but answer the question. What is it thats giving you confidence? The fact that they're telling you that they STILL cant even estimate a date when their already released software will be done? Not trying to be argumentative, I'm asking an honest question. I see a LOT of posts about people being "happy CAs working to fix this" and "confident" they'll resolve it "soon". I am just trying to figure out what thats based on.

Anyone who has been in software development can attest that giving any date is guess work at best.

Very often deadlines are set to meet certain criteria and items that don't or can't meet that deadline are dropped. At this point, they only have post software support and to be perfectly frank.. the fact that they actually are giving updates is leaps and bounds beyond what most developers these days do.

I'll give you an example of what could happen.

Say they give you a date of this friday for release. All is going well, the update is compiled and ready to be uploaded to the steam server for distribution and the FTP server has been prioritized for the inevitable rush of downloads.

Then a problem strikes, one of the beta testers finds a game critical bug in the update which breaks his version. A quick assessment finds out that his hardware platform is pretty standard and would affect at least half of your known customer base.

You pull the patch date... and then everyone nerd rages anyway.

[MehemtAli_Pasha]

who cares about deadlines any way.

i always supported the idea that CA should take as much time as they want to finish Empire. apparently, imo, the game was rushed and they should have had more time for finishing the game, instead working on Empire until the last second of release. people just kept asking for the game, but yet they fail to recognize that more time=better game. (i do understand it was CA's call though)

now the patch. i really think CA should take as much time as they want, so that when they finish working on it, the patch (assuming it will be as they promised) fixes the things they promised to be fixed. so that the blame will be on CA not doing their job right, IF the patch fails. after all, Total War games are, imo, one of the most complex games out there, and time is precious for making such games.

also putting a release date on the patch will, most probably put a stress on CA on finishing the patch, which might result a rush that will not be on our or their side. let's just be supportive, because we both will end up unhappy if the game fails.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Anyone who has been in software development can attest that giving any date is guess work at best.

Very often deadlines are set to meet certain criteria and items that don't or can't meet that deadline are dropped. At this point, they only have post software support and to be perfectly frank.. the fact that they actually are giving updates is leaps and bounds beyond what most developers these days do.

This shows the difference between developer and management and fortunately developers are not required to make executive decisions because theres no way in high heaven that any business would survive for any length of time with these kind of decisions.

A business needs project directors & team leaders to deliver a working product by an agreed date. If they are unable to do this then they are failing in their duties. Delivery dates are not something that can be reasonably delayed without serious consequeces. Distributers, retailers invest considerable capital into promoting an expected product and many supply contracts carry substantial financial penalties on delivery failure thats calculated daily. Any delay could also effect production, delivery & marketing etc adding further financial and resource loss. A serious consideration particularly in a suppressed economic environment.

Failure to deliver by a due date reflects poorly on management. Failure to deliver a working product (whether on time or late) reflects poorly on the business.

[cherryfunk]

Failure to deliver by a due date reflects poorly on management. Failure to deliver a working product (whether on time or late) reflects poorly on the business.

Failure to make sure your software works before release reflects poorly on the business.

A problem Blizzard hasn't had to deal with. Because they make sure their software works.

[Oliveira8]

Failure to make sure your software works before release reflects poorly on the business.

A problem Blizzard hasn't had to deal with. Because they make sure their software works.

But Blizzard doesnt have anyone to boss them around and put pressure to meet release dates. (No Activision wont raise a finger agaisnt its new cash cow.)

CA has Sega.