Overall stability of ETW now?

**Gauloisier de la Gauloiserie** · April 28, 2010, 11:31 PM

Hi there
If someone plans to play a 100/200 or more turns campaign of ETW, do you think it's doable, will the game be stable enough to allow you doing so? Any risk of having corruped saved games like in the past?

**Humble Warrior** · April 29, 2010, 02:53 AM

ETW is very solid for me. I have played to about 1810 with the latest patch, no CTDs.

However... everyone`s PCs are different, these are not consoles (I wish some people would understand this). I take a lot of care of my machine, so there`s not loads of internt rubbish clogging it, am fully updated with drivers and have lots of Ram. many kids don`t even think about this and so get problems. Just because mine runs fine doesn`t mean other will.

What I`m saying is, best way to find out is try playing for yourself. Oh and if you have silly little amounts of Ram get more. Try getting 2 gig at least. This prevents a lot of problems with ETW siezing up and crashing.

**Reiver** · April 29, 2010, 03:51 AM

Originally Posted by Humble Warrior

ETW is very solid for me. I have played to about 1810 with the latest patch, no CTDs.

However... everyone`s PCs are different, these are not consoles (I wish some people would understand this). I take a lot of care of my machine, so there`s not loads of internt rubbish clogging it, am fully updated with drivers and have lots of Ram. many kids don`t even think about this and so get problems. Just because mine runs fine doesn`t mean other will.

Ah. so it's my "kiddie disregard for my PC" not shoddy coding and poor QA that has caused all the crashes. Oh well i suupose across the 3 different OS i've run it on and the multiple HW combos as i constantly tinker and tweak my machine i should have realised that it's my ineptitude not the wonderful CAs that was causing the frequent CTDs.

What utter bollocks. Yes the game performs badly across different systems and, occasionally, it's a result of the user but mostly i'd imagine its the games problem. I play a lot of games and this one was the most unstable and gave me the most headache since the original Hidden and Dangerous. At least that games quality redeemed it.

On the flip side NTW i had no crashes or problems of a technical sort in the 50 hrs+ i played it.

**morteduzionism** · April 29, 2010, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Reiver

Ah. so it's my "kiddie disregard for my PC" not shoddy coding and poor QA that has caused all the crashes. Oh well i suupose across the 3 different OS i've run it on and the multiple HW combos as i constantly tinker and tweak my machine i should have realised that it's my ineptitude not the wonderful CAs that was causing the frequent CTDs.

I'm a technomoron so keep that in mind...

I've had no problems with the game. However, I did notice in some instances (based on posts I read) that people aren't as smart as they think they are.

Don't get so offended at comments not directed at you and...

Keep an open mind that just maybe if you "constantly tinker and tweak" your machine you may cause problems with some programs...I'm not implying that's what happened in your case but...it is possible.

What utter bollocks. Yes the game performs badly across different systems and, occasionally, it's a result of the user but mostly i'd imagine its the games problem. I play a lot of games and this one was the most unstable and gave me the most headache since the original Hidden and Dangerous. At least that games quality redeemed it.

Why?

I know when I was having problems with Fallout 3 I noticed a lot of other people's problems was due to trying to run the game on inadequate hardware.

On the flip side NTW i had no crashes or problems of a technical sort in the 50 hrs+ i played it.

Which automatically proves that there's a problem with Empire?

**Humble Warrior** · April 29, 2010, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Reiver

Ah. so it's my "kiddie disregard for my PC" not shoddy coding and poor QA that has caused all the crashes. Oh well i suupose across the 3 different OS i've run it on and the multiple HW combos as i constantly tinker and tweak my machine i should have realised that it's my ineptitude not the wonderful CAs that was causing the frequent CTDs.

What utter bollocks. Yes the game performs badly across different systems and, occasionally, it's a result of the user but mostly i'd imagine its the games problem. I play a lot of games and this one was the most unstable and gave me the most headache since the original Hidden and Dangerous. At least that games quality redeemed it.

On the flip side NTW i had no crashes or problems of a technical sort in the 50 hrs+ i played it.

Calm down.

yes, there have been issues with ETW and I also had CTDs in the very early days too. But one must still check their system first before instantly assuming it`s the Devs and if anyone knows me, they know I have no problem blaming CA. I just like to make sure everything on MY side is done. ETW was badly optimised, but it`s a lot more stable now is the simple answer.

**Reiver** · April 30, 2010, 02:10 AM

Originally Posted by Humble Warrior

Now go untwist your knickers.

No thank you. I like them to press on all the right spots.

I find a tacit insult and a big headedness to your post so no wonder i took slight offence at its tone I can understand that when a game works fine for you it can be hard to see that, through no fault of their own, the game can run poorly for someone else.

Again i'll reiterate my experience. I add to and change my PC frequently to the extent that everything, including monitor and keyboard, changed over the course of the year i had ETW and yet the CTD problem persisted. It was tried on both 32 and 64 bit systems and the problem remained. I got so fed up I tried it on my second which has totally different hardware (AMD rather than main PCs intel and Nvidia) still problems. The variance of hardware and software over which i played it and the stability of the machines it was played on say to me it was the game.

I know when I was having problems with Fallout 3 I noticed a lot of other people's problems was due to trying to run the game on inadequate hardware.

I'd say that my system is over the requirements. Likewise the specs of people who posted of CTD problem,s at the same time as i cared enough about the game to bother trying to fix the problem, seemed to be above the recommended by some distance.

Which automatically proves that there's a problem with Empire?

Does it? I don't know. It does show that my system is more than capable of running a game using that engine without issue though.

**pefwin** · April 30, 2010, 05:59 AM

It works fine but I do have a high spec PC, often played 200 turn games.

**Shabby_Ronin** · April 29, 2010, 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by Humble Warrior

ETW is very solid for me. I have played to about 1810 with the latest patch, no CTDs.

However... everyone`s PCs are different, these are not consoles (I wish some people would understand this). I take a lot of care of my machine, so there`s not loads of internt rubbish clogging it, am fully updated with drivers and have lots of Ram. many kids don`t even think about this and so get problems. Just because mine runs fine doesn`t mean other will.

What I`m saying is, best way to find out is try playing for yourself. Oh and if you have silly little amounts of Ram get more. Try getting 2 gig at least. This prevents a lot of problems with ETW siezing up and crashing.

Huh, I haven't come to these forums in a while, last I read you still had beastly rage for ETW and had forsaken this forum and went to live in the woods or something. Was there some kind of magic patch? I've been doing other things, if it's improved maybe I'll play a campaign.

**Humble Warrior** · April 29, 2010, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Shabby_Ronin

Huh, I haven't come to these forums in a while, last I read you still had beastly rage for ETW and had forsaken this forum and went to live in the woods or something. Was there some kind of magic patch? I've been doing other things, if it's improved maybe I'll play a campaign.

Actually, I still live in the woods, as it`s far better than the city, and I do still have a beastly rage that`s locked away deep inside and...is always... struggling.. to... surface... Must... not.. let it loose!

There was a 1.6 patch that made the BAI better. I use better loosely as now the BAI stays apart more in shooting and accidentally melees less. It also uses some lite tactical moves like pulling back forces and regrouping for a second try which makes a difference. I also think they`ve tried to optimise ETW a little better as i`ve had no CTDs yet (though that could be just cos I keep a clean system).

I am still unhappy because CA did the barest minimum only because people complained a lot and CA were scared that this could affect NTW profits. So what we have is done is done only in their best interests and not tocomplete ETW to what it should be. There are still many things wrong in ETW and, now, that NTW is out they care no more. Like shoddy cowboy builders.

**War&Politics** · April 29, 2010, 09:50 AM

On my setup ETW has gone from unstable before the first patch to very solid after all the patches. I'd say go for it!

**Tidybeard** · April 29, 2010, 12:19 PM

Seems nice and stable for me on the minimal 2Gb/Vista 32-bit.

**Geordie-warlord** · April 29, 2010, 12:38 PM

I've never had a crash for months now, it seams stable enough.
If you are having problems then it very well may be your system that causes CTD's.
I used to have the odd crash now and again but after a few patches all is now good and i can play without the fear of my game giving up the ghost at the drop of a hat.

**Tango12345** · April 29, 2010, 01:33 PM

Mine is certainly stable-haven't had a random crash since about 2nd week of January...

**Abspara** · April 29, 2010, 07:15 PM

It's stable enough. After one year of being on the market, it should be.

That said, be sure your gear has updated drivers and meets the minimum specs on th le box. Oh, and having at least 2 gig of RAM isn't a bad idea as well.

**Ahlerich** · April 30, 2010, 02:07 AM

its as stable as a german oak

doubt you ll stay awake for 200 turns but thats a different story

**Pikemen** · April 30, 2010, 07:35 PM

Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm fine with my game.

I am playing a game with 12 tpy (turns per year) and as of now, I am on the year 1872 (4th RTI chapter).

Only thing is, after a while, AI nations get to become SOOO rich they are recruiting new stacks every turn (making turns take 45 mins+)... To solve that, I went into the Unit_Stats via the PFM, and made EVERY unit 10 times more expensive. Me and every other nation went bankrupt (even with that AI money giving script). I was able to recover well enough, but other AI nations lost all of their armies and had a series of bloody rebellions. Now they are making a good recovery, and turns take 30 seconds about

Also, killing enemy soldiers is a lot more "satisfying" now that I know every single man on the battle field is 10 times more expensive. Muhahaha

Also (again lol), trying to recover from such a financial crisis is fun. makes you need to really think about what you need.

**Jaketh** · April 30, 2010, 09:12 PM

its worked flawlessly after the 1.2 patch

**Mercury199** · May 13, 2010, 09:28 AM

Works fine on my old knackered unkempt compter and have had no CTD's since 1.2 fixes.

Win XP
1 GB RAM (yes 1)
Intel Duo crappy processor 2.4Ghz
Nvidia 8600

Let's face it, if it works on that, it's safe to assume it's stable. Hell, it's probably the only thing holding my computer together!

**dutch81** · May 13, 2010, 09:40 AM

No crashes but did suffer my first ever corrupted save well into my campaign ... I had 2 saves for this campaign but somehow they both got corrupted. All other saves were fine.