Is Empire Total War fixed?

[Northern Lawn]

It's on sale on Steam, $25. Loved Rome: Total War but heard too many bad things about Empire.. buggy etc. But if it's finally fixed maybe it's worth buying?

 

[NYHoustonman]

I didn't personally have any problems, but I started playing well after its release so I'm not entirely sure what I should have been looking for. Managed to get through the campaign content okay. Definitely worth that price IMO.

 

[TehMac]

Yes, its definitely as polished as it'll get afaik. The AI is still a bit bloody useless, but its better, the rest of the game has been polished nicely.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Like others I've heard the core game isn't very buggy anymore, but the AI is completely incompetent. If you are any good at the Total War games you should steam roll the game.

 

[Zenoth]

Since 1.4 and a little more since 1.5 the A.I is not "incompetent" anymore. It has its problems still, Naval invasions, path-finding issues during sieges (a lot less than before though), but overall it's much better (yes, much) than it was at release, that's for sure, the one thing I really like now is the flanking maneuvers based on the situation (dynamically, or so it seems) rather than by pre-sets, for instance, before 1.4 when I placed Grenadiers as my second line and Line Infantry as my first line and made all of them walk towards the enemy in a straight line then the enemy A.I would always try to flank me the same way. If I do that in 1.5 now sometimes they hesitate, they split their forces, they move back, they change between walking and running stances, and sometimes they send cavalry charging WITHOUT their general, which is perhaps the first time I've seen that happen in a Total War game (that means their general is usually surviving much longer in 1.5 than before, which in turn means better overall troops morale and more challenge for the player).

But, despite all of the improvements I still believe that both Rome and Medieval 2 are generally better. I just prefer their respective context and time periods. I thought about buying Napoleon, but I decided to go for other games instead, Borderlands and two others, I've had my fill with the 1800's time period and the generally boring battles it "offers", I just prefer to see melee clashes with shields and swords between two armies like raged animals instead of lined infantry standing still and falling like little statues one after the other, as a "spectator" it ain't very exciting compared to the others, but that's just me. I don't "regret" buying Empire anymore (I did regret it before 1.4), I played it recently on-line, it was... ok, I guess. I'll keep it installed but I don't think it will remain so very long, I need more space for Borderlands in about two weeks.

 

[datalink7]

It is much much better than release and is actually pretty fun to play. But I agree with Zenoth that the time period for Rome and Medieval is much better.

However, I am currently playing a campaign.

 

[TheVrolok]

I bought this when it went on sale months ago and still haven't had a chance to play it.

 

[Sylvanas]

The AI is alot better than what it was, and i enjoyed it back at release. Right now i have a campaign going, about halfway through as GB and Maratha's have invaded me in Europe and America so it goes to show the AI is finally competant at waging war across theatres. Technology trading isn't quite there but thats a minor thing, it's the campaign AI that counts. I agree with Zenoth for the most part, however I love Empire:TW 18th century time period and look forward to Napoleon coming out which seems to be what CA have learned from Empires' release and polished the genre.

 

[StinkyPinky]

The time period is boring to me. Muskets and cannon....yawn. Give me Roman legions duking it out with Germanic barbarians any day.

 

[Bateluer]

While a fan of the TW franchise, Empire dealt a near fatal blow to the series for me. Both its lack of polish and poor choice of time periods really make it pale when compared to Rome and Medieval 2. I'll be keeping an eye on Napoleon, and if its a bug ridden mess as well, than I won't both tracking future TW games.

Has anyone bought the Warpath Campaign yet?

 

[brblx]

unlike some of the others, this is my favorite time period that they've used so far.

the game, however, is still crap. i still can't play it because of the campaign map that lags like crazy despite how fast your machine is or what the graphical settings are at. scrolling around to manage my shit makes me friggin' nauseous. and yes, the AI is completely retarded. diplomacy is worthless and everyone will hate you no matter what you do, also. unless you play as maratha, then everyone will love you. i've given up any hope that the devs will ever remove their heads from their asses and will not be buying any more TW games.

 

[TehMac]

Campaign map for me has not lagged. Diplomacy, yea sort of. I am in an alliance with Austria right now, as a Republican Sweden, and as much as they dislike my government, we're still pretty good buds. As an experiment, I gave them a buttload of cash and they really have been going to town lol. The Maratha Confederacy has boomed out of India and has absorbed several states in its way including the Ottoman Empire, Georgia, and some other civs.

 

[Northern Lawn]

I forgot about the time era issues I had. I also HATE muskets and powered wigs... I think the only game I liked in the era was Age of Empires III. I think I'll pass on Empire, I never heard of this borderlands, I'll have to read up.

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: brblx
unlike some of the others, this is my favorite time period that they've used so far.

the game, however, is still crap. i still can't play it because of the campaign map that lags like crazy despite how fast your machine is or what the graphical settings are at. scrolling around to manage my shit makes me friggin' nauseous. and yes, the AI is completely retarded. diplomacy is worthless and everyone will hate you no matter what you do, also. unless you play as maratha, then everyone will love you. i've given up any hope that the devs will ever remove their heads from their asses and will not be buying any more TW games.

That's odd you are having those problems. With the latest patch, I'm having none of the above (outside of the AI not being the best ). No map lag, have several alliances, etc.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Northern Lawn
I forgot about the time era issues I had. I also HATE muskets and powered wigs... I think the only game I liked in the era was Age of Empires III. I think I'll pass on Empire, I never heard of this borderlands, I'll have to read up.

I have a hankering for another Empire Earth, Age of Empires style game set in the Ancient world, pre-gunpowder/industrial age.

On the plus side, Empire Earth 1+Expansion are on GOG for 5.99. May pick that up just to have a digital version instead of my CDs.

 

[Northern Lawn]

You probably played Age of Mythology so I won't mention it... oops. I played that one to death also.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I have a hankering for another Empire Earth, Age of Empires style game set in the Ancient world, pre-gunpowder/industrial age.

Me too.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I'd wish they just would do a Rome 2: Total War.

Perhaps make it over a larger time period. Say from its founding in the 8th century BC. Use the same engine as Empire so they can focus on improving diplomacy and gameplay.

Would sell well imo.

 

[Cheeseplug]

With the right mod, it is a blast. I like Imperial Splendour. I would avoid vanilla like the plague

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
I'd wish they just would do a Rome 2: Total War.
Use the same engine as Empire so they can focus on improving diplomacy and gameplay.

Would sell well imo.

Not unless they fix its problems, it won't. And I love that time period.

 

[Sylvanas]

In my experience, I had a CTD with some of Nvidia's drivers so makesure you have the latest, 191.06 or something, whatever the latest WQHL is has worked best for me- so before you blame the game makesure you are up to date. I don't know where you people with the Diplomacy problems have come from because that sounds more like 1.2 to me- in my current campaign I own a ton of regions and still have like 4 allies that are happy with me. I agree that making peace is still hard if you've been at war for a long time (I'm at around 1750 and France and Spain have hated me since 1700 despite numerous offers of peace) but with 1.5 sometimes they'll counter offer with some interesting deals (usually the smaller states-the Barbary states are making peace with me in every campaign).

On another note, I think this game could really benefit from some fancy tech like GPU accelerated physics or something because I'm on a 4GHZ i7 and if I have a sea battle with say, 10 ships vs 10ships the framerate crawls along just enough to make it bearable and this is after they released their 'multithreaded' patch (which helped alot btw).

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
I'd wish they just would do a Rome 2: Total War.
Use the same engine as Empire so they can focus on improving diplomacy and gameplay.

Would sell well imo.

Not unless they fix its problems, it won't. And I love that time period.

Well yea...tbh though, ETW is fixed, the question is whether or not it really performs, and the answer to that is, not really to my skill level.

The naval battles are fuck hard, I can't figure them out for the life of me, and have not won a single one with me playing.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: TehMac

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
I'd wish they just would do a Rome 2: Total War.
Use the same engine as Empire so they can focus on improving diplomacy and gameplay.

Would sell well imo.

Not unless they fix its problems, it won't. And I love that time period.

Well yea...tbh though, ETW is fixed, the question is whether or not it really performs, and the answer to that is, not really to my skill level.

The naval battles are fuck hard, I can't figure them out for the life of me, and have not won a single one with me playing.

I'm no expert in Naval battles but what I try to do at first is position my ships perpendicular to theirs (they usually all come in a line) so you can unload a broadside and they can't reply. Then once it gets messy and there are ships everywhere I just try to makesure I keep up a quick rate of fire, sometimes they means unloading one broadside then swiveling the ship around to unload the other side (it's sometimes quicker to do this than to wait for reload). Also to keep in mind is chain shot got a huge buff this patch so demasting the enemy is very doable after a few tries and when they've lost a mast it's cake to shell them out or board them.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
I'd wish they just would do a Rome 2: Total War.

Perhaps make it over a larger time period. Say from its founding in the 8th century BC. Use the same engine as Empire so they can focus on improving diplomacy and gameplay.

Would sell well imo.

Agreed. I'm playing Medieval 2 right now and I miss the Greek phalanxes, Roman legions, etc. It was just so damn cool. I feel like Medieval 2 is a bit too simple - have some decent spearmen to defend against cavalry charges, back them up with heavy infantry.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Agreed. I'm playing Medieval 2 right now and I miss the Greek phalanxes, Roman legions, etc. It was just so damn cool. I feel like Medieval 2 is a bit too simple - have some decent spearmen to defend against cavalry charges, back them up with heavy infantry.

medieval 2 sucked balls man. It was dev'd by the Ozzies, and it shows. Fucking wanks can't make a good game at all.