Gold demo impressions

[Lusted]

Post any feedback/what you think of the Gold demo in this thread please.

First thing i did when i got it was play Otumba. The graphics for the Aztecs and the city are amazing. Tried the battle only once so far and got beaten, just got overwhelmed by the Aztec numbers.

Next i decided to play Agincourt, see how that felt in the new demo. I suffered a lot more casualties this time despite doing everything like i did in the first demo when i suffered few casualties. Kill rates and movement speeds are definitely improved, and the variety in units is improved as well.

Overall the fps are improved, even though i've got a high spec pc, im playing the Gold demo on even higher settings that the first one. Im still in awe at the graphics, battles just look and feel so much better now.

I cannot wait for the full game.

[Laverick]

waht are the specs for you pc? because i think i have quite a high rating pc, here are my specs; Pentium 4 3.40Ghz, 1Gb of RAM and an Radeon X600 256Mb Hyper memory. When i get into the action so to speak (in other words zoom into the units fighting) if there is a large group then the framrates solow down loads. its inly truly 'smooth' when there are like no more then 20 units fighting. do you think the full game will have even better framerates or not?

[Lusted]

I have an Intel Conroe E6300 1.86ghz core duo, 2gb DDR 2 ram, Geforece 7900Gt 256mb. i play with bloom and shadows turned off out of personal preference.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Well after several tries I finally managed to win at Otumba.
Of the 1000 guys you have at the start, only 15 survived.
Damn those aztecs can put up a good fight.

Also there is a new kill-move as well for those with 2 handed weapons.
They hit the enemies leg so hard that they do a flip, looks cool actually.
Also the kill moves in general has improved, it's very rare that they stab the air now.
I noticed that several people can now join in on a kill-move on a target as well.
At the battle of Otumba one of my sword and buckler unit was attacked by the eagle warriors.
I noticed one soldier among the S&B unit that killed like 3 eagles, very nice.
However then I saw a eagle using his club just smacked him in the chest. The S&B turned bloody and crouched down and it looked like he was gonna die(I have seen other S&B do the same move). However then something happened.
The S&B turned slight to the left(still crouched together) and there another eagle stood and he too swung his club and because the S&B was crouched he got smacked in the head.
After that he died but it was just awesome to see.

Archers are more powerful so they do more damage.
Also kill rates seems to be down a bit as well.
Also the blood effects are different.
The unit doesn't turn red the same way but in a more "realistic" way.
And yes the frame-rates are better too.

Either way this demo is great and if the AI is anything like the unscripted AI then this will be the best TW so far.
2 more weeks

[Darkragnar]

Well after several tries I finally managed to win at Otumba.
Of the 1000 guys you have at the start, only 15 survived.
Damn those aztecs can put up a good fight.

Also there is a new kill-move as well for those with 2 handed weapons.
They hit the enemies leg so hard that they do a flip, looks cool actually.
Also the kill moves in general has improved, it's very rare that they stab the air now.
I noticed that several people can now join in on a kill-move on a target as well.
At the battle of Otumba one of my sword and buckler unit was attacked by the eagle warriors.
I noticed one soldier among the S&B unit that killed like 3 eagles, very nice.
However then I saw a eagle using his club just smacked him in the chest. The S&B turned bloody and crouched down and it looked like he was gonna die(I have seen other S&B do the same move). However then something happened.
The S&B turned slight to the left(still crouched together) and there another eagle stood and he too swung his club and because the S&B was crouched he got smacked in the head.
After that he died but it was just awesome to see.

Archers are more powerful so they do more damage.
Also kill rates seems to be down a bit as well.
Also the blood effects are different.
The unit doesn't turn red the same way but in a more "realistic" way.
And yes the frame-rates are better too.

Either way this demo is great and if the AI is anything like the unscripted AI then this will be the best TW so far.
2 more weeks

God Damn it, i curse my 64MB Card, damn this all to hell.
Could some one make a video out of this one, it would certainly be a nice show to watch.

[verena xeventus]

meh... runs a little smoother than the 1st demo I guess... I replayed pavia and found it was actually easier than the 1st demo. Im playing with medium shadows and a mix of high and medium everything else with 1280/1024 res and it seems to cope well. Just wondering how well it will cope with bigger armies on the field.

Wasnt too impressed with the Aztec demo tbh, just seemed to be a bunch of peasants and archers... saying that i lost cos my general cortez wouldnt follow bloody directions and got killed - NITWIT!

[bestantreas]

Any screenshot or a video from the new demo, so we can see the features?

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Any screenshot or a video from the new demo, so we can see the features?

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=66164
here you go

[Spiff]

So is the demo still packed up in the .pack file?

[Titus Atius Labienus]

Yeah, its still .pack, and granny.dll is still present. In reference to the post in the Alchemist's chambers, this perhaps is not a permanately bad sign.

[Boudicca]

If MTW 2 holds what those demos promise - touché - a perfect game. The battle with the Aztecs was by far my most intense Exeprience in total war ever. All my doubts concerning the new world begin to evaporate. The graphics are stunning - but hey - the way the battle plays and feels without those clone soldiers ist just so fine.

If CA did that kind of a job one experiences in unscripted battles in the full release I think I am in for a few more years with Total war and at TWC.

[Lou5je]

I managed to crush the Aztecs first time 'round, but I was stressed to the max for the entire duration of the battle, trying to will my musketmen to shoot a bit faster.
The reinforcements couldn't have come at a better time, although the fact that they had to walk quite a distance to get into the fray made the situation nice and tense for a while.
'Clear Victory' - about 500 men left. Left a lot of dead Spaniards on the field.

I agree with Boudicca. I was skeptical about the New World aspect of the game as well, but with this demo, CA has proved that going toe to toe with the Aztecs can be a lot of fun.

[wasaaabi]

Very impressed. Framerates significantly improved, kill speeds feel alot like RTR. Wow!

[warblah]

First try result

That battle does not run as smooth as the firs two though

Also, I notice that when two group of soldiers engaged in battles, the non-fighting soliders won't move as much as in the first demo(they pretty much just stand here), in the first demo they were constantly shaking when not fighting(eager to fight i guess), maybe this has something to do with the improved performance?

Agincourt is definitely harder, my king henry died on the first rear cavarly charge.
With boom on, everything looks better now comparing to the first demo. Seems they also changed the graphic when fire arrows hit the horses/men.

[Lusted]

Just tried Pavia on the new demo, i pulled all my troops back to a hill whilst my generals bodyguard dealth with last of the first wave of French troops. The ai engaged me in a prolonged missile exchange between my arquebusiers and crossbowmen before moving in with all is forces and flanking me. I managed to win the battle, but i am really impressed with the ai.

[Germanicus75]

VERY NICE is my first impression. As people said, FPS is a bit better and the options etc. are better and the settings remembering bug has gone (although I noticed it wasn't remembering my custom key settings).

Agincourt and Pavia both seemed about the same level of difficulty - Pavia maybe a little easier
Otumba is wonderful! Looks amazing and gives some fabulous variety and extra interest to the game. The battle seems the hardest of the three but I managed to scrape through on the first attempt.

Plays very nicely on 1600x1200 with shader1, bloom and shadows off, 2 AA, unit details high and textures medium.

It can be tricky especially on colourful battles like Otumba to figure out who are your men on the battlefield when zoomed out, especially if you've disabled markers and banners (banners need reducing in size IMHO). It was much easier in Rome to tell who was who.
The smiley face/heart thing is silly and I hope it is disableable. We did just fine in Rome without it.

A few issues I noted:

- units sometimes unresponsive - especially gunmen
- major probs with musketeers in Pavia and Otumba - will often stop firing for no obvious reason even when in range and on fire at will (saw this in first demo too)
- if musketeer unit gets split or disarrayed, it cannot fire. This happened in Pavia when for some reason some of the unit attacked an enemy unit, while the rest of the men stayed behind
- AI got behind my musketeers on the hill and then proceeded to stand idle about 15 yards from them! Nor did my musketeers attack them on fire at will mode. Good AI for flanking me but bad for not attacking. Perhaps scripting has to do with it though?
- saw a bug (?) several times in Pavia when men in a unit would run around in confusion like the whole unit was confused - wouldn't respond for a while
- when you order a charging unit to change direction or turn about face, it can look very jerky or happen at an unrealistic speed
- thought the cav were too fast

On the whole though I had the feeling the AI was better than Rome, even though mainly scripted.

A BIG thumbs up for this!!

Great to see javelin throwing units as well!

If they can fix a few of the mainly minor niggling issues, it will be THE perfect game ever as far as tactical battles are concerned I reckon :-)))

[Yuri]

- units sometimes unresponsive - especially gunmen

Noticed that aswell. On Pavia, my musketeers got shredded by enemy crossbowmen. They were reforming after every loss of a soldier and rarely shot at the enemy. This is a serious problem, imo. This happened to me in Otumba too.

And i agree, that it's sometimes difficult to destingush the own troops from the enemy. But i think i will get used to it. I definately prefer the "realistic" look of MW2 over the colorful soldiers in Rome though.

My computer is much over the reqs so why don't it work?? -.-

Tell us something about your system. What graphic card do you use? And what driver? You should try the omega drivers, esspecially with an ATI card.

[Panzerfaust]

This demo didn't work either, same problem as before, the screen just turn black.
My computer is much over the reqs so why don't it work?? -.-

[Panzerfaust]

Tell us something about your system. What graphic card do you use? And what driver? You should try the omega drivers, esspecially with an ATI card.

ATI Radeon 9800 pro

How do I see what driver I got? :hmmm:

[Yuri]

ATI Radeon 9800 pro

How do I see what driver I got? :hmmm:

I have the same card.

Download these drivers here:

http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php

There's also a weird thing that happens every time when the battle begins; pressing the side arrows rotates the camera and zooming in and out changes the camera view up/down.

Doesn't happen to me.