Hey, I look at car wrecks when I drive by, as well. :)
At least staring at car wrecks doesn’t cost you $60.
I have a multiplayer campaign going, actually!
Glad you liked it, eliandi. It’s interesting to go back and look at Empire after playing Shogun 2. Shogun 2 is so much better as a game, with more polish, much more user-friendliness, fewer bugs, diplomacy that goes beyond merely “functional” to “excellent”, and a game structure that leads to a decisive endgame showdown, rather than the usual Total War problem of fizzling out as your empire gets bigger and bigger. But for all that, it didn’t quite win my heart the way Empire did with its emphasis on trade and seapower, and its era (the Enlightenment shading into the Industrial Revolution).
REPORTED
In all seriousness, I hate to hear things that make my resolve wavier. I have great affection for the period but it seems really difficult to do well. At least in this context. And by that I mean this game was terrible. Sorry for thread-pooping. It was a day one purchase that didn’t see many more than that of play. I am certainly glad someone enjoyed it. Perhaps DarthMod will do the trick? No, can’t give in. STOP TAUNTING ME BY THREATENING TO BE NOT TERRIBLE. Then 12gb or whatever later, disappointment.
I’m not playing it but according to Steam people still are. I don’t know how much of that is the multi-player vs. the single player campaign, though. I found Shogun 2 to be much superior.
I will probably get Shogun 2, but like Elemental the setting doesn’t pull me as strongly as Empire. Glad its so much better as a game, however. I’m starting to getthe mid-game big-empire fizzle in my first game as the Russians right now, but it was a dang good ride getting to this point. Spent many hours on it, pushing back Islam from the Black Sea area. Probably going to pick on Poland a bit before I try another nation. Want to redo the American Revolution campaign I started but then quite when I got the Darthmod, then maybe try Prussia or maybe Spain. Then on to TW: Napoleon (got the Empire package w/ both games)
How do you play MP? Do you do it all together online, because that would seem to take forever!
shakes fist at Dan
I installed Napoleon with my new PC. I can’t get a smooth framerate maxing it out so I turned one or two things down. I also ran into the bug with jerky unit animation. You have to turn particle effects to medium or something to fix it.
Yeah, both players (you can only have 2 in a MP campaign) have to be online at the same time.
You know, Shogun 2 actually made me sad for all the wasted potential in Empire, even in its FULLY PATCHED AND OPERATIONAL state. I can only imagine what Empire must have been like at launch.
A
Giant
Bag
of
Shit
;)
Of course, an early “patch” prevented me and many others from being able to play the game for around 3 months, which was probably a blessing in disguise.
I found the best fix was to exit the game and play Shogun 2, lol.
A nightmare from the second I bought it on Steam. Everything, including the Steamworks didn’t work.
Glad I did not live through the launch crap, but the game is scratching all the right itches right now. Had a great naval battle last night as the Russian fleet worked to open up a French blockade on trade to the Black sea. I had 4 newly launched 4th rate ships supported by 7-8 smaller ships. The French had an edge in numbers and experience, but had smaller ships. I was able to partially cross thier T, and use chain shot to slow them. When it turned into a close range slugfest, I knew i would have the upper hand with the larger ships.
You know what else was fun? The glitch that caused the AI to build fleets upon fleets (I’m talking multiple stacks, here) of brigs. And then attacking my fleet of first rates with them. I just…don’t even…gah.
So if anyone’s interested, here’s the AAR of our multiplayer campaign in progress (Britain vs France)! We’re currently about 20 turns in, and we’ve already seen naval battles in the Channel and the Caribbean, an epic fort siege, and some not-so-epic military disasters…
Introduction
Episode I: The War Begins
Episode II: Havoc on the High Seas, Losses in the Low Countries
I’ll keep reading that.
The first player pairing seemed a bit odd though, with Britain proclaiming that the AI is weak, and France saying he has a five to zero loss ratio against the AI… :P
Well, I think I found the AI weak precisely because I was playing as Britain (in SP as well as MP) and didn’t have to worry about overland invasion. The patched AI most definitely does launch naval invasions (in one SP game, I saw the French AI take out the Dutch with an amphibious landing!), but its heart is still in land warfare.
Thanks Elemental!
Quickie AAR as the Russians:
My overall goals: Secure sea access on both Black Sea and Baltic, and establish lucrative trade network to fund development. Limit expansion of the big European powers such as France and Prussia, while teaching the Ottomans a few lessons.
Phase 1: The Middle East, 1700-1725ish
Began at war with Ottomans and a couple of other pesky 1 region countries (Crimea, etc). Ottomans wanted a sitscreig (no peace, but no invasion?), so I took the Crimea. A couple of other little countries also wanted some of me, like Dagestan, so I had to take them too. At this point, the Ottomans get racy and invade, so I take Constantinople, Greece, etc seal my hold on the Black Sea and limit them to the Med area. Finally they give me peace!
Phase 2: The French, the Revolution, and Stagnation 1725-1750
About the same time as I get peace with the Ottomans, my buds the Poles drag me into a war with the French. As an experienced TW player, I know this will mean little or othing to me. Wait, my budget is all red! In Empire, trade is so much more important even to a land empire like Russia and now my economy is in shambles. This deficit problem combined with all the great universities I got with conquered areas provokes revolutions all over. OK Peter, you are a reformer. I’m reforming Russia, and you are out old boy! It takes seeming forever to get my new republic straightened out a bit, but then I create a little fleet and go hunting the French to reopen my trade lines. That works, and after they fail in an invasion of the St. Petersburg area do they settle for peace. Basically this was 25 years of stagnation for the whole Empire, and we fell behind in all areas of development.
Phase 3: World Trader, until the Sudden but Inevitable Betrayal! 1750-present (1760 or so)
So this phase starts with me rebuilding a trade network, and using the surpluses to get my infrastructure to spec. I then start planning an invasion of Sweden, when the Ottomans declare war on me! Dump the big coats, men, we are going south!
eliandi, that sounds pretty cool! I’ve always loved the revolutions/systems of government in Empire: Total War, even if playing as the Brits means I’ve never had to worry about them. Interesting to hear about your Russia going Bolshie 150 years early…
I could have possibly prevented the revolution by tearing down the extra colleges/schools I conquered and build church schools. Given the area was Greece and Constaniople and solidly Orthodox, I imagined the revolution as more of a new burst of democracy from the historical seat of democracy. Even after the revolution, I’ve kept and built a bunch of Orthodox churches, so I’m imagining this as a Orthodox Republic, with Moscow as the 3rd Rome.