Empire patch out tomorrow and new expansion announced.

[Trash]

Empire Total War will have the 1.4 patch coming out tomorrow. It's supposed to massively improve on siege warfare, improve the campaign AI and battle AI and changes a lot in the way sea battles are waged. Apart from that CA promised that we will now finally see cross theater naval invasions. Meaning that America and India will finally become interesting. If this does what it's supposed to do it might finally make ETW into another good TW game.

CA has also announced a mini expansion for ETW which will be out somewhere in October.The mini expansion will be a new campaign set in America with 5 new playable native factions, new units, new buildings and technology tree. It seems the new factions won't be playable in the grand campaign however and the new units, etc probably won't show up there either. Also why they decided to focus on a native American campaign in a game like Empire is beyond me. (If I were a cynic I'd think it is because they already decided to make the Napoleon mini campaign into a stand-alone game.)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/10606/

 

[Panthera]

It seems the new factions won't be playable in the grand campaign however and the new units, etc probably won't show up there either.6

Until about 48 hours after the modders get a hold of it.

 

[MapMan]

The bad AI ruined the game for me. I skipped every single battle I could.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Good news that they are continuing to support Empire.

I would have preferred to have seen Napoleon made an expansion to Empire, rather than a new game in itself. If they had extended the Grand Campaign in Empire to, say, 1815 (final defeat of Napoleon), it would have been very interesting.

 

[BlitzKitchen]

Finally. I just want good campaign AI. Time to repair my computer so I can play.

 

[JarlFrank]

So I finally have a reason to buy it, even though it has the steam protection.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

So, the game should actually work now? Ridiculous that gamebreakingly large bugs like these can last more then a week after release.

 

[Lingwe]

Will this new patch make the game actually run? Because patch 1.3 broke the game for me and doesn't let me get past the first loading screen.

 

[Trash]

Patch is out and I've been playing around with it. Loading times are defenitely improved. Stability seems to be up. No crash in over an hour. Still some wierd sound issues in battles. Game also seems to run a bit smoother.

Just started a new game as Sweden on H/H. In 1702 Poland declared war on me. The next turn Russia declares war on me. The turn after that Austria, GB and Denmark declare war on me. It seems a bit over the top.

The campaign AI still seems unable to defend its homelands. I invaded a Polish province and kept my army waiting there for two turns. The third I attacked the provincial capital which still wasn't reinforced with troops. Attacking seems to be done with more gusto though. Several Russian armies have invaded my territory and are making rapid advanced towards the provincial capitals. Still haven't seen any smaller forces raiding however, which puzzles me because this seemed to work perfectly in version 1.0

The battle AI seems more cohesive this far and can be just as agressive as the campaign AI. Big niggles so far are that my troops now seem unable to use walls for cover and is it me or do enemy units once again engage in melee immediately instead of using their rifles?

EDIT: Just checked several tw forums. More people report the return of the melee bug. others however claim it is just the AI charging when it feels it will win that way and the AI also using rifles and skirmishers. Last two battles I played against a stronger opponent had full head on charges by the AI, but I also remember the AI holding back units. The first battles were against smaller forces and there the AI actually held back. The melee bug might not be a bug after all. :wink:

EDIT 2: Mayor fail! CA seems to have locked all sorts of files that the modders used. Including the ones where you can edit the stats of the land and sea units. WTF?

 

[BlitzKitchen]

Seen any AI naval invasions?

 

[Difera]

Seems like Empire TW Beta is almost over...

Just started a new game as Sweden on H/H. In 1702 Poland declared war on me. The next turn Russia declares war on me. The turn after that Austria, GB and Denmark declare war on me. It seems a bit over the top.

The old TW diplomacy fail...

 

[Trash]

Seen any AI naval invasions?

Yup and plenty of them. Cross theater as well. Empire seems to be shaping up quite well. Will play a bit more to check some other stuff out, but I'm quite positive so far.

 

[thesheeep]

This looks like I'll wait another half year perhaps...

 

[Trash]

Game runs a lot better and stable. Officers from both armies can be heard shouting orders in battle, which really makes it more atmospheric. Diplomacy seems to be massively improved. The AI constantly is wheeling and dealing in an effort to get what they can. Failure to meet AI demands for several turns can and will now often lead to the AI declaring war on you. Cross theater invasions are now common. Battle AI seems massively improved. The so called "melee bug" seems to be no bug but the AI deciding that their troops wouldn't do as good in a shootout and thus deciding to charge in. Proof for this is that AI usually holds back some troops to continue giving fire or charge in later. Battle AI so far has had a wide range of behaviour and battles are defenitely more difficult to win. Fort sieges still suck, but not because of poor AI or bugs. The way the fort sieges are implemented just isn't that much fun. Enemy will now also often surrender when besieged and heavily outnumbered.

CA finally managed to get Empire out of the beta I guess. There are still plenty of niggles to be found (like troops often not being able to hide behind small walls, many notifications from AI to AI interactions on the campaign map being removed and almost all the mayor powers declaring war on me after three turns on H/H) but overall it's a huge improvement.

I was also bitching about a lot of important files being locked to modders. Apparantly the only thing that happened is that CA added a lot of extra stuff in there which the unpacker as it is can't handle. Expect them to get their grubby hands on all the good within a day or so. :wink:

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Hmm, ETW is currently half price on steam (until Monday, 12th Oct.).

I was going to wait for a couple more patches - maybe early next year - but from posts in this thread, and at that price, might pick it up now. Worth it or wait?