Petition: No more fancy loading menu

**General Maximus** · September 25, 2012, 05:49 AM

Those who have played Shogun II and/or Fall of the Samurai will easily get my point.

Most of the time, that menu doesn't even appear. It is a rare thing when I get to play the game. When it does, it is a party, a very rare party...

Now before you say that it is my problem, I have to state that I have my audio driver regularly updated to the latest.

Secondly, it causes the 1:30 / 2 minute loading time that we get BEFORE we get to the main menu. It is very painful in my opinion.

I think I had enough of a menu that looks fancy but fails to run properly, and causes users to wait much longer than it should. I am sure many of you might have noticed this thing by now.

So here is my petition: Make a simpler menu like in previous Total War titles that doesn't use up much resources, can run on every computer without sound-card problems, AND doesn't cause the huge and agonizing loading times just to load 'itself'.

Note: It was the simplicity of the previous menus that made them efficient. They didn't rely on other things to run.

**Colonel Dax** · September 25, 2012, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by General Maximus

Those who have played Shogun II and/or Fall of the Samurai will easily get my point.

Most of the time, that menu doesn't even appear. It is a rare thing when I get to play the game. When it does, it is a party, a very rare party...

I've actually never had that problem. The only issue I've ever had with the new menu screens is the occasional bout of dizziness brought on by the FotS-spinning-ship-effect-thing.

**sleepyx732** · September 25, 2012, 07:04 AM

Fancy? Whats fancy?

It takes me like a minute and a half to load up the game. Why? I don't know. But what I do know, is it freezes within that minute and a half. I use OSD. GPU/CPU temp/usage never changes but with every other game it does. Every time I do something on the main menu it freezes for a good 3-5 seconds. Why? I don't know.

Surely CA had this problem during testing. Why is this freezing still there? I don't know. But there's nothing fancy about it.

**General Maximus** · September 25, 2012, 08:15 AM

Originally Posted by sleepyx732

Fancy? Whats fancy?

It is the fancy and 'stylish' menu of Shogun II that takes much longer time to load, and sometimes it may not even start for some.

I've actually never had that problem.

That's why I said, some people may have this problem while some people may not.

Just download Sekigahara Campaign.

But that is not for FoTS, is it?

**Erwin Rommel** · September 25, 2012, 07:14 AM

Its there to stay. Its been a trend ever since 2004 with Star Wars Empire at War to Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth.

Those who have played Shogun II and/or Fall of the Samurai will easily get my point.

Just download Sekigahara Campaign. (I know, it solves almost anything, even to gripes on the menu)

Why? Coz it replaces the heavy dose of buildings showing in FOTS with sweeping view of the flood basin in Sekigahara, all empty fields, less work for your work weary PCs, you can even see Mount Nangu and Mount Sasao. (ok fine, it just shows the historical battle map of Seki.

)

**A Barbarian** · September 25, 2012, 08:04 AM

S2 loading time doesn't have anything to do with the menu but all with the graphics engine. Esp. in DX11 mode, the game precalculates a lot graphic resources which takes a lot of 'single core' CPU time. If you switch to DX9, loading times will go down to half or one third.

We can only hope that R2 will have better multicore support/more clever loading algorithms.

**Alpha TWC** · October 19, 2012, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by A Barbarian

S2 loading time doesn't have anything to do with the menu but all with the graphics engine. Esp. in DX11 mode, the game precalculates a lot graphic resources which takes a lot of 'single core' CPU time. If you switch to DX9, loading times will go down to half or one third.

We can only hope that R2 will have better multicore support/more clever loading algorithms.

THIS. THIS. THIS.

THIS is the thruth. the real one.

**alQamar** · October 23, 2012, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Alpha TWC

THIS. THIS. THIS.

THIS is the thruth. the real one.

second that!

**Erwin Rommel** · September 25, 2012, 08:20 AM

Yes but the mod still modifies the menu.

**A Barbarian** · September 25, 2012, 09:10 AM

You should rephrase your request to 'Reduce load times' (for the game itself, campaigns and battles)'. The menu itself doesn't have anything to do with the load times (i probably loads in 1/10th of a second or shorter).

**windsupernova** · September 25, 2012, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by A Barbarian

You should rephrase your request to 'Reduce load times' (for the game itself, campaigns and battles)'. The menu itself doesn't have anything to do with the load times (i probably loads in 1/10th of a second or shorter).

Pretty much this.

**Ichon** · September 25, 2012, 11:46 AM

It takes about 30 seconds to enter into the game after opening it in Steam but then can just hit 'Esc' to speed thru all the videos and the menu is ready to load campaign in about 5 seconds after that for me. Witcher 2, some other games take even longer.

**ngr** · September 25, 2012, 01:26 PM

I'm not sure about this menu issue, but I really hate the loading in TW

So CA, please, reduce loading time!!!

**TheSwordofRome** · September 25, 2012, 04:07 PM

I kind of agree, I recently bought Shogun 2, and to this day, It takes like 2-3 minutes to get to the main menu, not even counting the cinematic video at the beginning. Seriously CA, please make the loading time faster

**Aeneas Veneratio** · September 25, 2012, 04:45 PM

Don't really see a problem with the loading menu. I use a laptop that wasn't bought for its capacity to play games, but its long battery life (for written exams), and it has absolutely no problems opening or running a TW game.

**oppaiO_O** · September 25, 2012, 04:47 PM

i think the main menu takes time because of the little window at the bottom that if you click on it it takes you to some website about total war games.... you know what i mean?.... anyways, i think if you get rid of that the menu wont take as much time...

**Invictus XII** · September 26, 2012, 01:52 AM

What's wrong with the simplicity here: Nothing - If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

**krisslanza** · September 26, 2012, 05:31 AM

Nowadays people expect fancy menus. The only things that have gotten "simpler" are instruction manuals, which are more like information brochures nowadays.

**Magefsx** · September 26, 2012, 05:40 AM

Someone should add a poll.
I vastly prefer the silhouetted menu screens we had from RTW to NTW. The new system makes things a lot more "busy" which isn't something I want to deal with when going through options or whatever, and don't allow for the "dramatic" themes of all past menus. Not to mention the camera tracks aren't great in the FotS screen; but I've never found performance an issue. Loading time is far too long, but I don't think that's just down to the menu.

The most annoying thing though is the advertising box and ribbon down the bottom, which really should go. I doubt they serve much of a purpose with regards to higher sales figures.