Empire: Total War - New Total War Coming

<strong>[ Announcement ]</strong>

<p>While Medieval 2: Total War was somewhat of a revisit of past glories for<a href="http://www.creative-assembly.com/" target="_blank"> Creative Assembly</a>, their latest project is a fresh start for the team. Today they announced <a href="http://www.totalwar.com/index.html?page=/us/newsandpress/index.html&nav=/us/5/" target="_blank">Empire: Total War</a>.</p><blockquote><p>SEGA® Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc. today announced Empire: Total War&trade;, the revolutionary new instalment of The Creative Assembly&rsquo;s wildly successful, multi award winning Total War&trade; RTS franchise. Empire: Total War&trade; will maintain the series genre leading 3D battles, grand turn based campaign map and rich historical flavour while for the first time introducing 3D naval combat into the series.

Empire: Total War&trade; is set in the 18th century a turbulent era that is the most requested by Total War&rsquo;s&trade; loyal fan base and a period alive with global conflict, revolutionary fervour and technological advances. With themes such as the Industrial Revolution, America&rsquo;s struggle for independence, the race to control Eastern trade routes and the globalisation of war on land and sea, Empire: Total War&trade; promises to be amongst the richest and most dynamic PC RTS games of all time. </p><p>Empire: Total War&trade; will see the debut of 3D naval combat within the Total War&trade; franchise. PC Gamers will be able to intuitively command vast fleets or single ships upon seascapes rich with extraordinary water and weather effects that play a huge role in your eventual glorious success or ignominious defeat. After pummelling your enemy with cannon fire, close in to grapple their ship and prepare to board taking control your men as they fight hand to hand on the decks.

Along with the revolutionary introduction of Naval Combat, Empire: Total War&trade; will see further enhancements to the Total War&trade; series signature 3D battles and turn based campaign map. Real time battles will pose new challenges with the addition of cannon and musket, challenging players to master new formations and tactics as a result of the increasing role of gunpowder within warfare. And the Campaign Map &ndash; for many the heart of Total War&trade; &ndash; will see new improved systems for Trade, Diplomacy and Espionage with agents, a refined and streamlined UI, improved Advisors and extended scope taking in the riches of India, the turbulence of Europe and the untapped potential of North America.
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Now that's something to look forward to.

 

Cool, the series has been begging for an official gunpowder age extension.

 

I am pleased.

 

dude, I came

 

Yes, it sounds good.

But then again, so did RTW. Then the release came and the AI sucked. Then the expansion came and the AI still sucked. Then MTW2 came and the AI still sucked. Then the expansion to that came and the AI still sucked.

Not to mention the bugs that don't end up getting fixed due to the "limited #s of patches" policy.

So, in other words, I'll just wait and see on this one. Gunpowder age sounds fun, but if they had trouble getting the AI to work with swords and bows, then I have doubts they will pull it off with guns and cannon. And that's just the tactical AI. Strategic AI with importance on naval action? Hmm, good luck...

 

Even with the stupid AI, Rome and Medieval 2 still managed to be tons of fun.

I just hope naval combat doesn't try and pull some Sid Meier's Pirates! BS like that one napoleonic gunpowder age game whose name I forget.

I hope you guys know what I'm talking about. It was like Total War with less provinces, and sea battles were kinda fun unless you had to control multiple ships.

So, at least they're trying. (maybe)

 

You mean Imperial Glory right?

And yeah I'm also optimistic now that I heard they are building a new engine. Still though I'm a bit worried the campaign map will be a piece of shit as the way CA have described it sounds a bit iffy, although the no tiles thing sounds interesting. I'm also glad they've confirmed it won't be coming out for consoles.

 

Bingo.

Indeed. Either it's gonna be way too big, or have 2 provinces for countries like France.

I figured they'd go the Kingdoms route, with maps for different campaigns across the continents.

 

They never really made a game as good as Shogun again, so maybe this title will change that.

 

So we can exploit Africa, or can we send waves of hundreds of spearmen at London?

 

Agree, there's just something 'bout Shogun. Never got into any of the follow-up games.
Perhaps it was the Eastern setting, perhaps the paired down simplistic grit of Shogun vs the cartoony feel I got playing Rome etc (I blame the Asterix and Obelix books).

 

The TW team is on my shitlist, and I'm not going to apologize for it. They got the kick-ass concept right, they got the real time battles right, they CERRTAINLY (as in this is where they devoted all their energy and resources) got the pretty, pretty graphics right.

And yet... they sure F'd up the gameplay.

Now, F'd up is too harsh, I know. But to be so close to super mega-awesome, and to make such dumb decisions and repeat them in sequal and expansion, that's going to take your grade down from pretty great (which M2TW is) to F'd up. Why? Wasted potential, AND they've had plenty of years to fix it.

The AI doesn't work. I'm playing M2TW with the latest patch, and the AI is braindead. I run out of my castle to attack a besieging force, and they all pull back, leaving their siege weapons behind. Not just the ladders and towers, but the catapults and ballistae and trebuchets (and when I get to gunpowder, I'm sure the cannon as well). Why? Got me. But it sure makes it easy to break a siege.

Worse, there are just so many times when you can maneuver into position and just blast the AI forces from range, and they don't do a damned thing. No pulling back out of range, no charging forward to engage.

The strategic AI I find so loathesomely random. What's that, we've been allied nearly the whole game AND I'm 3X as militarily powerful as you and your biggest trading partner? Well I guess you'd better arbitrarily attack me. Better yet, no matter how much of your shrinking empire I conquer, never EVER agree to any kind of peace treaty, no matter how much I offer you just to stop the fighting. That would be silly.

And wow! You know, moving armies around the map of Europe is fun; know what the TW folks thought would be even more fun? Moving 68 kinds of other stupid little meaningless units all over the place every single turn. Oh, want to make a deal with Poland? That'll take 8-12 years because you have to march some diplomat sloooowly over there turn by turn. And hey, were you having a good time building up that general and fighting in battle after battle? Well, sorry he just got assassinated. I wonder how stupid the real europeans were that they didn't just send in 4 or 5 assassins after Napolean? Because killing a famous military leader is a real piece of cake. Yeah, I didn't want to FIGHT the other powers on the battlefield; no I just want some 40% or 60% behind the scenes dice roll to determine whether my general lives or dies. Duh. At least I can use the same tactic on the enemy. So long, Holy Roman Empire; you've got no family members left. Thank god I didn't have to fight you in combat. Because that's not why I play TW.

And princesses! Of course, that's what I was looking for. And priests! Yay!, move them all together in a big group, and watch the middle east turn Christian. Sweet, I've put all that unrest behind us. I'm like Coke teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony.

And spies! Wow, thank god I have no way of knowing if France conquered London 20 or 30 years ago unless I actually go look myself. Because everybody knows that word doesn't get around about stuff like that. I'm just going on and on, aren't I? I'm just saying thank god the TW team made every single element of running your empire physically present as a pretty little piece on an incresingly cluttered game map, because if these elements had been abstract, man that would have blown. If I had to once per turn visit a small, abstract map or worse yet just a list of empires, and just assigned agents to the coutries where I wanted them to go, allowing ONE turn to get there (since I'm pretty sure that even in the 1200s, you could get where you were going in TWO YEARS), well that would have just sucked.

Anywho, It's the fact that the game is so nearly perfect that makes TW's refusal to do anything more than pretty up and add (lots and lots of beautiful) new units in each sequal and expansion so grating. I know this is crazy, but why not refine the gameplay just a bit?

 

Why on earth the map of the old world starts off unrevealed is beyond me. It's not like people in the middle ages travelling to the holy land would have discovered Italy for the first damn time.

I'm pretty sure I remember Shogun having the map of Japan fully revealed from the start.

 

I agree with the sentiment that they did so much really well, and then tend to let the game down with bad ai and some weird gameplay decisions.

I think the biggest mistake was changing from the Risk style map of the earlier versions and moving to a "tile based" map. It didn't add too much to the game and the ai really struggles moving its units around effectively. The ai in Shogun for example did a reasonable job of positioning its forces on the campaign map.

And the list goes on and on..

My preference would be for a "three kingdoms" era Chinese version. Something along the lines of Romance of the Three Kingdoms but with tactical battles in the TW engine. But I think the western market isn't interested enough in this theatre.

 

If the AI is too dumb for you, try some mods. Try Europa Barbarorum. It's one of the best Rome mods around. It adds realism, historical correctness and general badassness in the battles. Also, the AI is a lot better than in vanilla. A lot. Apparently the AI of the mod also overwrites the one of the vanilla game, so you can play vanilla Rome with an improved AI that actually knows some tactics, and builds some big empires on the campaign map. [Yeah, the mod doesn't overwrite the original Rome files, it's run seperately, like an expansion.]

For Medieval 2, try the Stainless Steel mod. Basically it adds 3 factions to the game, lots of units, and most importantly improves gameplay and AI. Greatly. The AI in that mod can manage to truly pwn you, especially on the campaign map. The battles also become harder, no more winning a battle against twice as many enemies without using some really superior tactics.

Rome and Medieval 2 should never be played without AI mods.

 

I've been meaning to check out Europa Barborum for a while now so I've just got it installed. But from the looks of it the AI is the same as vanilla? From their FAQ - "Q: Do you have improved the AI in any way? A: No, the AI is completely hardcoded, and cannot be altered."

But hopefully it's an improvement in other ways.

 

I hope they read some history books this time.

 

Reading? What, you mean accurate information? Elwro, Elwro, what unfounded hopes!

Everyone knows the Romans were famous for their burning swine.

 

The AI seems a lot more intelligent since I've installed EB, really. Also, for Medieval 2 at least there are several mods which improve the AI radically. It's worth trying out, if only for the setting, which is a lot more historically correct.