My review from PARIS, meeting with CA

I will expose here what I heard and saw in CA 's presentation of the game in Paris, today.

I will try not to repeat the others reviews that others gamers have done.

There were Kieran Bridgen and the player for the demo was Tom Jarett.

They showed us first the battle of Lodi.
Tom Jarett played the all battle for us. He had the french troops and the IA played the austrians. What I saw it's that there was no "bug melee", the Austrians shot towards the french troops a lot of times during the demo without charging. A few minutes after the beginning of the battle in the town, there was a lot of smoke. Kieran said that troops can not shoot in good conditions because of that, and that it could have some effects on their morale too.Some Austrians were staying in a house where they were more protected : Tom made his cannons fire, after 8 or 12 hits, the house was entirely destroyed, all the austria unit died. I saw the IA trying to turn the french army, Kieran precised that The new IA was abble to do that, if it couldn't manage to break the ennemy army in a frontal assault.
Tom showed us that there 's a new zoom, a horizontal one, allowing you to see the battle in first person, much closer than in ETW, that was very impressive.
Tom beats the austrians in the city but a part of the troops were on the other side of the river, with their general. Battle at this time seemed to be won by the french. The IA had 2 big units keeping the bridge and four cannons on the right side of the bridge. Tom was not abble to take the bridge, every unit he sent was defaited with heavy fire. I think he ought to use his artillery. He tried to rally troops with napoleon's unit, with his aura. Then the austrians crossed the bridge and began to engage french troops, and there were all defeated.
With the last video we saw on internet, I was afraid of the fact that artillery could be overpowered, but in this battle his effects on the troops appeared to me well balanced (they used only cannon balls, no explosive shots). I saw on the ground the cannon shots, in reality it would make a 2 or 3 meters lenght.
I saw when the battle finished that austrians troops were most numerous: 2882 austrians versus 1476 french (more elite troops I think). It would have been better if IA and player had have the same number of troops, but I think battle of Lodi was made like this, more austrian troops to have challenge.

Then they showed us the campaign, There's a special cinematic scene for each (italy, Egypt...).
You begin with the "armée d'Italie" which is demoralized at the beginning, you have to liberate piedmond-Sardaigne first. You have no allies at the beginning, austrians have the piedmond people.

The campaign map has a lot of details compared to ETW, we see much more things, the rivers, the valleys...

They showed us a naval battle. The ships looks better than in ETW. You see marine soldiers and crew, it has to be confirmed but I think the uniforms of the marine soldiers were the same for the french and the english (one with blue, one with red colour). Ships seemed to go faster, I am not sure. I asked Kieran after if we can zoom more on the ships, he told that you can zoom to be on the level of the desk, of the cannons. The battle didn't impress me, I didn't find a lot of differences with ETW, but they only showed it for 2 or 3 minutes.

Then they were several questions asked to kieran, I only put what I didn't heard before:
- About the uniform editor: finished now, will be available soon for free and will allowed you to create you own units, changing the colours for example.
-Elite units are longer to recruit in the campaign.
- there are forts, with IA behaviour improved, for sieges.
-Part of the CA staff prepaired the new technology of NTW during 4 years and the historical research took more than 5 years.
-For lower configuration computer, it's possible to desactivate much items. The configuration needed for pc is the same that for ETW but with more improvments.
-the game will be moddable but creators still haven't decided how much it will be moddable, they are thinking about what quantity of the code they will give...



.

Thanks, did you hear any marching music?

thanks for the preview very informative + rep

No, I didn't hear one. What appeared to have been improved is the sound of the cavalry, of the horses sound on the ground.

I'm disappointed the Austrian troops in the house didn't exit when they realized it was being bombarded. Their deaths are an example of a lingering amount of AI stupidity.

As for the battle itself, we must remember that it is likely a scripted battle...

Originally Posted by Megas Methuselah

I'm disappointed the Austrian troops in the house didn't exit when they realized it was being bombarded. Their deaths are an example of a lingering amount of AI stupidity.

As for the battle itself, we must remember that it is likely a scripted battle...

How can it be scripted, when the battle of Ligny was fought between the French and the Prussians by memory! No Austrians in sight!

Originally Posted by Marshal Beale

How can it be scripted, when the battle of Ligny was fought between the French and the Prussians by memory! No Austrians in sight!

Austrians, Prussians, same thing, right? They're not British so it doesn't matter.

Thanks for that clear review. I hope they stick to their promise of a unit editor without having to wait too long.

i just wanna know if the AI is capable of winning a custom battle where the Human army just sits there. this is an objective way to measure the AI.

Thanx for the preview

If people who bought NTW come on here with videos of improved AI, I wonder how many will still claim they're just "scripted battles"

Where did CA get the idea that what was wrong with Empire and needed to be improved upon was the graphics?

Originally Posted by King Edward III

Where did CA get the idea that what was wrong with Empire and needed to be improved upon was the graphics?

Well, since the graphics 'could' be improved, why not improve them? I mean, the guys who make the AI and the guys who make the graphics are two different sets of people.

Originally Posted by Thoragoros

Well, since the graphics 'could' be improved, why not improve them? I mean, the guys who make the AI and the guys who make the graphics are two different sets of people.

Still no one seems to understand this. A year later and it still needs to be explained.

The guys who write the dialogue don't design the units, the guys that design the units don't design shader effects and smoke physics, and the guys that design the shader effects and smoke physics don't program the AI, etc.

Everyone went to a different school, everyone has a specific job.

Originally Posted by Graphic

Still no one seems to understand this. A year later and it still needs to be explained.

The guys who write the dialogue don't design the units, the guys that design the units don't design shader effects and smoke physics, and the guys that design the shader effects and smoke physics don't program the AI, etc.

Everyone went to a different school, everyone has a specific job.

that's true but that doesn't explain why CA has chronically misallocated resources towards graphics and away form the AI.

if i have 1 million dollars to make a game, and i spend 500,000 on the graphics and 100,000 on the AI, and 400,000 on the rest. I'll have 5 graphics guys to every one AI guy. That's just poor management (or a keen awareness that piss poor AI hasn't stopped people from purchasing in the past).

You have any evidence for that? Because from the previews circulating on this forum the AI is still pathetic.

Originally Posted by panzerschreck

I will expose here what I heard and saw in CA 's presentation of the game in Paris, today.

-Part of the CA staff prepaired the new technology of NTW during 4 years and the historical research took more than 5 years.

Wow 5 years to find that finally Moscow is the Russian capital, anyone with an internet connexion could find better in less than 5 min.
I won't be surprise if their "historical research" during more than 5 years was to rewatch indefinitly the Sharpe serie.

Originally Posted by Darsh

Wow 5 years to find that finally Moscow is the Russian capital, anyone with an internet connexion could find better in less than 5 min.

Gameplay decision.

Originally Posted by Darsh

Wow 5 years to find that finally Moscow is the Russian capital, anyone with an internet connexion could find better in less than 5 min.
I won't be surprise if their "historical research" during more than 5 years was to rewatch indefinitly the Sharpe serie.

There's a nice French bird in one of them.

It wasn't the battle of Ligny it was the battle of Lodi.