The heart&soul of ETW? Where'd it go?

[fanatic_]

First off, i'll just point out that i'm a new member of the forums... as you can see by my post count, although i browse through them quite often

I just wanna see if there's anyone like me who just doesn't get the same feeling playing ETW as in MTW2 or RTW...

I love both of the games listed above... A LOT. I've played hours on top of hours on MTW2, and many more on RTW. I was super stoked on ETW, but my computer couldnt play it then Christmas came around, and i got a shiny new laptop. Within the hour, i was downloading ETW off steam. I started with the 13 colonies campaign, forget the name.

It was fun, but right off the bat I noticed how confusing and intricate this game was in comparison to its predecessors. I figured I'd get used to it... but I never really did in that short campaign, and IMO the computer did a bad job of explaining it. So I expect to start the grand campaign and feel right at home - but I dont. I started with Prussia, as all the other countries have like 7 regions spread out over 3 continents and I felt like that was a little much to handle for my first campaign.

To make it a bit shorter, I'll just say that I sucked. And even now, since christmas, I've maybe only logged 10 hours of play time. Maybe its just the fact that I DESPISE GUNPOWDER BATTLES. They're just so monotonous. Ok, start off by beating the balls off of your enemy with artillery... alright good good. now line up all your men... perfect! Now engage your enemy for a volley of fire... ahhh! now here they come, without shooting, to charge your men with their damn bayonets. The only question, is why dont they just give them a fking sword instead of a rifle? I'm supposing this is the infamous 'melee bug'? well its annoying as hell.

Anyways... i just dont get the same feeling at in the other titles. I dont stay up late saying 'one more turn...' instead, i play about 2 turns, say this is gay and get off. ugh. whateeeverr. maybe NTW will be better, but its still gunpowder. RTW2 pl0x?

[Leatherneck918]

Well you’re not the only one, to let you know. I felt the same way and still do about different things, but my friend there is hope. Download Darthmod and some other mods and use them. I will tell you this ever since I down loaded Darthmod lite. I have experienced a 110% improvement in the battles of ETW. The CAI still is funny and so is Diplomacy, but there is hope on the way do to Experienced Modders are trying their best to fix it... I been playing ETW none stop for three weeks after downloading Darthmod alone. I had not touched it for months before this. So give it a try and see if it helps. Just so you know try playing a weak faction on H/H long campaign and see if it helps you get around the (say this is gay and get off) problem of ETW. ETW will in my book will never be in the same category as MED2 or Rome, but like I said there is hope the modders will fix it, like they did for Rome and Med 2 AI...
P.S. Join the Darkside Give into your hate and let it consume you....

[Cap'n Ahb Veeus]

Rome and Medieval 2 had something this lacked, sure, but now that I've gotten used to the intricacy of all the features this game has me hooked. I admit that I don't particularly enjoy gunpowder battles, but it seems a bit more realistic and there are some very cool moments in the game. I enjoy having more theaters to go to, I like how my city production isn't dropping to the negatives simply because an enemy army looked at it funny, I like how they brought unit cohesion back (something M2 sorely lacked) and while none of the European factions seem at all different there is better balance. I just wish that I could get rid of that bug where the game freezes up and whatever tooltips you mouse over spread across the screen. Less bugs please..

[brandbll]

Why would you buy the game if you're going to piss and moan this much about gunpowder weapons being the focus of the game? Of course the battle strategy isn't the same as RTW or MTW and takes some time getting use to, it's a completely different era of battle. I mean seriously, what were you expecting? You said it yourself, you "DESPISE GUNPOWDER BATTLES." So why in the hell would you buy the game in the first place?

And yes the melee bug is retarded, but that doesn't seem to be your main gripe.

[GaMMwl]

I think the family tree and the possibility to "heal" your intire army in two turns kills much of the immersion...You dont care about your little generals as you did in earlier games and your role have gone from a thing between god and king to just god which connects you less to the game. And I dont know why but I do not feel like being there with my soldiers. You know in med2 or rome, when you invade a distant land you can imagine how it is to meet these exotic armies and environment. I dont get that excitement in Empire...
Besides, your armies, if grand enough, are almost invincible because of the bad AI and the healing of your army anywhere in just two turns. So you rarely encounter battles with high stakes like when your highly damaged veteran army faces a huge but green enemy and you will not see your super army die because its the pride of your kingdom...

[Leatherneck918]

"And the possibility to "heal" your entire army in two turns kills much of the immersion" Well try to make some hardcore rules for yourself. Like do not heal your troops in Enemy territory. I do not heal my armies if they are in Enemy Territory. Try all so, you can only heal your troops if you put them in one of your cities. I use different rules to help bring out ETW a little more. One rule I uses sometime is if my general dies I make all my forces Retreat, in tell I can get a new one for them. That means recruiting one from a city with in my territories and that army cannot attack in tell the general gets to them. When playing on H/H or VH/VH it makes for some very interesting games.

[demowhc]

I felt the same way as the OP at first, but after a while I have grown to love ETW more than ME2, so many improvments imo.. I needed a couple mods to get me into the game at first though, but now that the game has a had a few patches the only mods I use are the added units mod and the smoke & blood mod, also the Amercian revolution mod is pretty sweet with it's own campaigns.

[tarer97]

I too had experienced the "this is gay" and quit stage till about 2 weeks ago(had the game the day it came out) and it was partly because if the gunpowder's tactics, they seemed to lessen the game, but now it's different for me(I'm playing un-modded) and it's more fun, iv put in about 20 hours in the past two weeks and I havnt touched anywhere but Europe, so what I'm saying is stick in there, u will find it enjoyable,

[Jihada]

I've played all TW games since Shogun but to get the most out of any (except Shogun,never saw a mod for that) you need to play the mods. I liked EB for RTW, Broken Crescent for MTW2 and one I forget for MTW1. In ETW Darthmod is excellent and I 've played IS and the American Revolution one too.

[Pantz Master76]

First off, i'll just point out that i'm a new member of the forums... as you can see by my post count, although i browse through them quite often

I just wanna see if there's anyone like me who just doesn't get the same feeling playing ETW as in MTW2 or RTW...

I love both of the games listed above... A LOT. I've played hours on top of hours on MTW2, and many more on RTW. I was super stoked on ETW, but my computer couldnt play it then Christmas came around, and i got a shiny new laptop. Within the hour, i was downloading ETW off steam. I started with the 13 colonies campaign, forget the name.

It was fun, but right off the bat I noticed how confusing and intricate this game was in comparison to its predecessors. I figured I'd get used to it... but I never really did in that short campaign, and IMO the computer did a bad job of explaining it. So I expect to start the grand campaign and feel right at home - but I dont. I started with Prussia, as all the other countries have like 7 regions spread out over 3 continents and I felt like that was a little much to handle for my first campaign.

To make it a bit shorter, I'll just say that I sucked. And even now, since christmas, I've maybe only logged 10 hours of play time. Maybe its just the fact that I DESPISE GUNPOWDER BATTLES. They're just so monotonous. Ok, start off by beating the balls off of your enemy with artillery... alright good good. now line up all your men... perfect! Now engage your enemy for a volley of fire... ahhh! now here they come, without shooting, to charge your men with their damn bayonets. The only question, is why dont they just give them a fking sword instead of a rifle? I'm supposing this is the infamous 'melee bug'? well its annoying as hell.

Anyways... i just dont get the same feeling at in the other titles. I dont stay up late saying 'one more turn...' instead, i play about 2 turns, say this is gay and get off. ugh. whateeeverr. maybe NTW will be better, but its still gunpowder. RTW2 pl0x?

Why did you buy a game based off of gunpowder battles, then complain about how much you hate these kind of battles? You then continue to beg for RTW2? Go to the RTW section and post about it there.

[Lord Nova]

I've never had a problem with the content in ETW, I think CA did a great job with it.

I do have a problem with it's bugs and AI performance.

So the heart & soul of ETW is there for me, it's where the brain of ETW went that bothers me.

[evigsiz]

I've never had a problem with the content in ETW, I think CA did a great job with it.

I do have a problem with it's bugs and AI performance.

So the heart & soul of ETW is there for me, it's where the brain of ETW went that bothers me.

Couldn't agree more!

[LinoraN]

I agree, there's definetely something that's missing from ETW. I've just begun playing Rome again and it has so much more depth and gameplay to it, even though the sea battles don't exist. It's just plain and simple more fun to play.