What is wrong with ETW?

[Akmatov]

I've been playing TW since Shogun, so I'm somewhat familiar with the TW series. I keep reading disparaging comments about Empire. The concept and the screen shots and number of people playing seem pretty good.
What is the problem?

[Ahlerich]

there is really no big problem left. it is now definately a good game. however i think many TW fans liked the fast paced battles and this time period makes it a bit slowpaced and maybe even dull after a while. lining up your units and watching them fire until the enemy is decimated and routs is not everybodys cup of tea i gues. it has a very extended campaign map gameplay compared to older tw games. with DM or DMUC you get the mechanics and grafical appearance fine tuned and that makes it a fairly good game i think.

[Archimonday]

The primary problem with Empire is that, yes, its an arcade game, but it still focuses too little on the accuracy in the depiction of the combat of the era. Unrealistic ballistic settings on the weapons coupled with loose formations and improper unit sizes makes the type of warfare being depicted impossibly broken.

[micheljq]

The primary problem with Empire is that, yes, its an arcade game, but it still focuses too little on the accuracy in the depiction of the combat of the era. Unrealistic ballistic settings on the weapons coupled with loose formations and improper unit sizes makes the type of warfare being depicted impossibly broken.

I heard this comment from other peoples as well, what do you mean when saying it's an arcade game? I play M2:TW, and wondering if I will get E:TW. Also heard that arcade comment from other people about Napoleon, makes me wonder.

[SonOfCrusader76]

The primary problem with Empire is that, yes, its an arcade game, but it still focuses too little on the accuracy in the depiction of the combat of the era. Unrealistic ballistic settings on the weapons coupled with loose formations and improper unit sizes makes the type of warfare being depicted impossibly broken.

It's not an arcade game, mods or no mods.

Edit: Unless you mean 'video game'. As to the issues you've mentioned, they're all solved by DMUC.

[Archimonday]

It's not an arcade game, mods or no mods.

Edit: Unless you mean 'video game'. As to the issues you've mentioned, they're all solved by DMUC.

I really beg to differ, I played 20 hours of Darth Mod last week and I really dont find it that amazing.

[daniu]

I don't think it's the game itself (anymore), it's the circumstances surrounding it.

First of all, many people are very much opposed to Steam and were frustrated by ETW requiring Steam.
Then, when it first came out, it was very, very buggy, which put a lot of people into a mood to begin with.
Several day one bugs, some of them obviously easy to fix, persist to this day (repair walls anyone?), which does not really calm waves.
Also, mods were less supported by the games design as was expected by the modding community. Also, mod tools that were initially promised never happened.
All in all, the community didn't feel too content about CAs communication with them.
Then, after some time, not entirely unrelated to Steam, DLCs came along, which is, let's say, not a concept loved by everybody.
Then, when Napoleon came out, many people were disappointed and felt left alone with an inferior product; the game was still patched afterwards, but that felt like breadcrumbs to some.

I think that about wraps up most of the reoccurring discussions on this forum since March last year.


EDIT: BTW, IMHO the game itself is great

[HomelessDepot]

I don't think it's the game itself (anymore), it's the circumstances surrounding it.

First of all, many people are very much opposed to Steam and were frustrated by ETW requiring Steam.
Then, when it first came out, it was very, very buggy, which put a lot of people into a mood to begin with.
Several day one bugs, some of them obviously easy to fix, persist to this day (repair walls anyone?), which does not really calm waves.
Also, mods were less supported by the games design as was expected by the modding community. Also, mod tools that were initially promised never happened.
All in all, the community didn't feel too content about CAs communication with them.
Then, after some time, not entirely unrelated to Steam, DLCs came along, which is, let's say, not a concept loved by everybody.
Then, when Napoleon came out, many people were disappointed and felt left alone with an inferior product; the game was still patched afterwards, but that felt like breadcrumbs to some.

I think that about wraps up most of the reoccurring discussions on this forum since March last year.

*nods*

-HD

[Humble Warrior]

I've been playing TW since Shogun, so I'm somewhat familiar with the TW series. I keep reading disparaging comments about Empire. The concept and the screen shots and number of people playing seem pretty good.
What is the problem?

You`ve played since Shogun and you can`t see what`s wrong with ETW?

Then there`s no point in telling you what`s wrong. Carry on playing your game.

[daniu]

You`ve played since Shogun and you can`t see what`s wrong with ETW?

Then there`s no point in telling you what`s wrong. Carry on playing your game.

The OP judging from "concept, screenshots and numbers of people playing" did not give you the impression that he may not actually have ETW?

Arrogance is seldom called for, but here it's ironically misplaced if you didn't even stop to think about that.

[Humble Warrior]

The OP judging from "concept, screenshots and numbers of people playing" did not give you the impression that he may not actually have ETW?

Arrogance is seldom called for, but here it's ironically misplaced if you didn't even stop to think about that.

I would say that you`re the one who fails to even comprehend what I wrote.

[daniu]

I would say that you`re the one who fails to even comprehend what I wrote.

...and thereby proving both your arrogance and self-imposed ignorance once more.

[eXistenZ]

Games get bigger and more complex so there is more risk that you get unbalanced games. The big problem with Empire is (like in rome and ME II): diplomacy. The backstabbing has gone down, but you sometimes have ridiculous war delaration, and you will find it very hard to make trade agreements or peace.

But on the whole i enjoy the game

[Odinarius]

And simply awful, awful sieges that no mod has of yet satisfactorily resolved...

[HomelessDepot]

It sounds like the OP's trying to decide whether to buy Empire, and is worried about the (justified) frustration some of the players feel. He's not trying to defend it (except to say that it looks fun), so you can put your knives away, Humble .

-HD

[pickelhaube]

Game is great, as any game it has some flaws though. But its still one of the best games you can play anyway.
Problem is with idealistic or immature fanatics who fail to realize that there will never be a "perfect" game.

[Tim_Ward]

The actual, specific problems still left in Empire:

- Weak campaign AI.
- Badly balanced diplomacy, especially the lazily implemented "territorial expansion" negative modifier can quickly result in the whole world hating you if you're not careful.
- Unbelievably rubbish siege battles.
- Broken reinforcement system: no AI control, opposing armies sometimes appear in the same spot which just s everything up.
- Utterly inexplicable retreat mechanics. I once lost Boston to the Iroquois because an army of theirs I'd defeated retreated forward, past the army that defeated them, and right next door to the city.
- Unable to repair city walls.
- AI can't retreat when outnumbered.
- Badly balanced naval tech tree results in most AIs with vast fleets of sloops and brigs and hardly any SoL. This is: rubbish.

None of these, with the exception of the weak campaign AI and the astonishing crapness of sieges, would really take that much work to resolve. But nope, CA just can't be assed. So you CA.

[rubenandthejets]

The actual, specific problems still left in Empire:

- Weak campaign AI.
- Badly balanced diplomacy, especially the lazily implemented "territorial expansion" negative modifier can quickly result in the whole world hating you if you're not careful.
- Unbelievably rubbish siege battles.
- Broken reinforcement system: no AI control, opposing armies sometimes appear in the same spot which just s everything up.
- Utterly inexplicable retreat mechanics. I once lost Boston to the Iroquois because an army of theirs I'd defeated retreated forward, past the army that defeated them, and right next door to the city.
- Unable to repair city walls.
- AI can't retreat when outnumbered.
- Badly balanced naval tech tree results in most AIs with vast fleets of sloops and brigs and hardly any SoL. This is: rubbish.

None of these, with the exception of the weak campaign AI and the astonishing crapness of sieges, would really take that much work to resolve. But nope, CA just can't be assed. So you CA.

What he said.

Stick to Med2-its got so many wonderful mods that take advantage of the ability to change the map.

[eleftherios]

All units (even infantry), reload on the move. That means you deploy, fire shots at enemy within range and retreat unitl you reload to do it again. Not exactly fair.
Line Infantry can form square formation (which is a real cavalry killer), even in combat.
Light Infantry spread formation sometimes doesn't turn right and also the skirmish ability doesn't work properly since they don't turn their facing towards their enemy after skirmishing away from them unless you manually ordered them to attack that unit before.
You need to manually tell your artillery (especially cannons & Howitzers with carcass shot), to attack a specific position around (usually in front of or behind) the enemy target. Otherwise the entire battery will ALWAYS fire at the leftmost or rightmost part of the enemmy unit losing a lot of accurancy and firepower.
Finally melee combat is even slower than M2TW, for example a unit when shooting kills twice as fast as fighting in melee.

[HomelessDepot]

Also, why, in the name of all that is holy, does my new protectorate stay at war with my allies? This makes no sense.

-HD