| Archive for The Warriors of Troy The Warriors of Troy are a TotalWar clan that abides by the stances of.Honour,Loyalty and Respect |
| General_Vladimir |
Empire: Total WarHail to everyone!!!Firstly, this is the information www.totalwar.com gives about Empire: Total War. 
* Empire: Total War will be the greatest and most awe-inspiring Total War experience ever. This is a total revolution of the Total War series, featuring a brand new graphics engine and technology. The new, advanced graphics engine will include staggering real-time seascapes, new advanced landscape and flora systems, dynamic weather and new battle choreography and occupy-able and destructible battlefield buildings. * Empire: Total War will not only be the most visually stunning Total War game, it will also feature a huge array of new features and gameplay. These add rich new layers of grand strategy to the formula and yet, despite this, E: TW will be the most accessible Total War game in the series. * The game is set in the years 1700 to the early 1800’s, a turbulent age of gunpowder, revolution, discovery and Empire Building. This period has all the ingredients for a great Total War title: fascinating changes in warfare and its technology, a large number of competing factions hungry for power, and gloriously exciting and colourful battles. This is a time when an old world is being swept away at a tremendous rate by the juggernaut of the industrial age. Revolutionary ideas are in the air, and at least one monarch meets a bloody end! * Against a backdrop of key historical themes such as the French Revolution and the American War Of Independence, the player’s aim is to create the greatest Republic or Empire the world has known, spanning not just a continent but the world! Can you hold on to lands in the New World, or establish a rich trading empire in the Indies? * Empire: Total War contains a revolutionised Total War campaign spanning 3 continents and featuring new, enhanced systems for Trade, Diplomacy, Missions and Espionage. There will be an all-new fully animated campaign map with all buildings and upgrades visible. The campaign will also feature a huge cast of historical figures including Peter The Great, Malborough and Charles XII of Sweden. The game will include 10 playable factions including Britain, Prussia, France, Spain, America and the massive Ottoman Empire. * New Real-Time 3D Naval Warfare takes Total War’s unparalleled battle action to the high seas with players commanding single ships or vast fleets. These will be the most exciting and realistic sea battles ever seen in a PC game. They will feature a realistic sailing model, cannon and musket fire, boarding actions, fully destructible sails, rigging and hulls and a full range of weather effects to influence battles. These will play out on stunning, ultra-realistic seascapes, as cannons and muskets blaze away, cutting through the smoke and fog to splinter, pierce and shatter hulls, sails and masts, laying waste to crew members and sending them to Davy Jones’ Locker. * Empire: Total War’s revolutionised graphics engine will be put to work on land battles that will feature heavy artillery in the form of cannons, mortar and early rocket launchers, with bouncing cannonballs slicing through drifting gunsmoke to tear up lines of infantry. Bagpipes, drummers, flautists and trumpeters will fill the air with play out over the crack of musket fire, the boom of artillery and the thunderous charge of cavalry. Generals will bark out orders to their regiments as the player orchestrates the battle utilizing formations, unit abilities and drills. Weapons will jam and misfire, cannons will seize up and explode as the field of conflict becomes strewn with the bodies of wounded and dying men, lacerated and dismembered by pike, bayonet and shot. * Empire: Total War will be the most accessible Total War game ever. Enhanced auto management, revolutionized UI, improved advice system and tutorials all combine to introduce new players to the concepts of Total War, quickly and easily. * Empire: Total War will boast a full re-write of the AI with a wider range of strategies and tactics, providing a formidable opponent on land, sea and on the campaign map. * A brand new multiplayer component will include player rankings, leagues and ladders and completely new gameplay modes. Now that was from www.totalwar.com The Next Article I am posting on here is a preview from IGN, August 23rd. Not Much new information has come from that date GC 2007: Empire: Total War Creative Assembly surprises us with a brand new sequel! by Steve Butts US, August 23, 2007 - Given the spate of recent industry events, many of our meetings at the German Games Convention have been somewhat predictable. Loads of developers are simply showing the same demos and trailers they've shown us over the last couple of months. So it was very gratifying to discover that Creative Assembly had an entirely new, and entirely exciting announcement to make. The celebrated developer is nearly halfway through development of a new game that makes use of a new engine, a new setting, a brand new gameplay mode, and plenty of small additions and improvements. Empire: Total War will bring the series into the Enlightenment and show players just how exciting war during the Age of Reason could be. Set during the period between the early 1700s and the early 1800s, Empire: Total War tracks the increasing projection of European power throughout the world, from Spanish settlements in the Caribbean to French colonies in North Africa to English trading posts in India. According to studio director Mike Simpson, the new setting fulfills Creative Assembly's three criteria for Total War games. First, it represents an era of profound technological advancement, particularly in terms of military science. Second, it contains a large number of factions of relatively equal power who find themselves in direct competition. Finally, it has loads and loads of cool content. The Grand Campaign in Empire: Total War features a wide range of factions, from British Colonists/Americans in the west to the Mughals in India. In between will be all manner of power and prestige players, like Britain and the Ottoman Empire, and smaller groups like Native Americans and Africans. In the Grand Campaign, players will try to extend their power into a variety of areas, from the Americas, through North Africa, through to India. Previous Total War games have included naval warfare in only the broadest and most abstract terms. Given the depth of the strategic and tactical games, it was easy to forgive the absence of equally robust sea battles. But given that this game takes place during the Age of Sail, there's really no excuse not to include full naval battles. Naval battles will benefit from ship-specific formations and admiral traits. With each ship taking up a single unit space, players can field fleets of up to 20 ships at a time. You'll have a variety of choices to make when engaging in naval combat. Your cannons can be directed to aim for the hull to sink an enemy, for the decks to clear the way for boarding action by your marines, or for the masts to reduce the enemy's speed and maneuverability. Obviously, the new emphasis on naval battles doesn't mean that there's any less going on with the land battles. Having already worked with ancient and medieval warfare, the team is ready to take on the challenge of rendering the battles from the 18th century with ranks of infantry firing in line, cavalry officers in bright uniforms and well-organized batteries of cannon. There's more of an emphasis on fire in Empire, but that doesn't mean that shock isn't also a vital component of battle. (Most of your fire units will have a shock attack as well.) The rock-paper-scissors approach to unit design works even better in this era than in previous eras used in the series. Having infantry that can form lines to mass their fire, or squares to defend against cavalry charges, or spread out in loose formation to minimize damage from cannon fire are all excellent tactics that the player will have to keep in mind. Empire also allows players to garrison their units in buildings around the map now. You'll need to be careful however, because artillery can destroy buildings. With the addition of naval battles and a much larger strategic map, Creative Assembly is doing their best to keep everything else as uncomplicated as possible. To begin with, the game won't start full tilt with access to every single feature. Players will the chance to wade around in the shallow end of the pool for a while before having to contend with all the options the game has to offer. Even when the other options start opening up, the team has reduced many of the management hassles that are present in the series. Recruiting big armies in Medieval II or in Rome require you to issue individual production orders in a number of different provinces. Empire will allow you to build large armies simply by recruiting units at your general. He'll then translate that request into production orders in nearby provinces. Similarly, players of previous Total War games have had to balance each of their provinces individually to maximize tax output and minimize unrest. Now, the game makes use of a more comprehensive tool to manage things across your entire empire. Given the time period, managing unrest is going to be a relatively important concern. As your society advances, your citizens will demand more and more freedom, which can definitely put a crimp in your own policies. You can choose to liberate them and become a modern enlightened state, or you could hold on to your power a little longer by crushing your people under an oppressive regime. Where previous games saw peoples aligned by religious affiliation, Empire will tend to focus more on this concept of political freedom as a component of happiness. The team also hopes to improve the strategic AI with regard to diplomacy. In current Total War games, the diplomatic AI and the military AI don't talk to each other as clearly as they should. With Empire, the AI will take your diplomatic relationship into serious account when considering military action against you. That doesn't mean that you won't still get stabbed in the back by a good friend, but it should happen less often. The new game will use a brand new engine, preserving Creative Assembly's record of only ever using an engine twice. We haven't seen anything in action yet but if the screenshots are anything to go by (which they should be), this is going to be even more fantastic than the already stellar Medieval II Total War. OK THAT IS FROM IGN, Now is the one from Gamespot GC '07: Empire: Total War First Look Sega and Creative Assembly reveal the fifth game in the acclaimed Total War series, which is set during the Age of Sail. By Jason Ocampo, GameSpot Posted Aug 22, 2007 10:28 am PT LEIPZIG, Germany--After years of countless requests from fans, Sega and Creative Assembly are set to finally deliver a Total War strategy game with guns. Sort of. The two companies revealed Empire: Total War, the fifth game in the popular Total War strategy series, and the biggest leap in the series to date. First of all, the game will introduce real-time naval battles, which is something that's long been missing in the series. Next, it will introduce a ton of new technology. Third, it will be set during the Age of Sail, so it will introduce rifles and firearms. Empire will span the 18th century, the dawn of the modern world, from about 1700 to somewhere past 1800. This period encompassed a lot of revolution and warfare, including the Seven Years' War, a conflict that could be considered the first true world war because it was fought all around the globe. The game will run right up to the cusp of the Napoleonic Wars, but it doesn't sound like it will cover that epic conflict. If that's truly the case, it's not too hard to imagine that the Napoleonic Wars, a popular request by Total War fans, could easily be implemented in an expansion or a sequel. The game will cover much of the planet, including the New World and India. This will allow for many new factions, though the US will probably be the biggest and most important addition, not to mention the most popular one with North American gamers. Like all Total War games, it will feature a strategic layer and real-time land-based battles, but the important new additions are the real-time naval battles that will have large formations of vessels. In the example given to us, you will be able to command about 20 ships in combat, a number similar to the number of units you can actually command in land-based battles. But because ships, like regiments, are composed of hundreds of men each, you can still have a large number of personnel in a naval battle. There will be various classes of vessel, which will essentially vary by maneuverability, speed, and firepower. The naval warfare of this period was dominated by ships-of-the-line, which were massive floating fortresses, but there were also frigates and nimbler, speedier combatants. You'll be able to conduct a wide range of naval warfare tactics, including boarding enemy vessels. Land battles will introduce new features, such as the ability to garrison men in buildings. They'll also introduce the use of cover, such as walls, which is required for the introduction of rifle combat. At the same time, because the weapons of the era were wildly inaccurate at long range, engagement distances will still be similar to those seen in existing games. This was an era when formations of men marched rigidly and precisely around the battlefield, while armies lined up opposite one another to trade fire until one side broke. There will still be cavalry charges and melee combat in the form of bayonet charges as well. We are also excited that Creative Assembly is incorporating improvements into the gameplay, as well as streamlining it. After four Total Wars, there's no shortage of suggestions as to how to improve the game, and some of the stuff we heard is encouraging. For instance, the game will gradually introduce you into the campaign. You'll start with only a few things that you can do, but more and more options will slowly begin to unfold, which should help with the learning curve. Even better, the designers realized that players were spending too much time building units and then marching them around the map just to merge into a single army. So now you'll be able to designate a general to be the nucleus of an army, and new units will assemble around him. Thus, a lot of tedious micromanagement is easily eliminated. Creative Assembly uses its engines twice. The game engine for Shogun: Total War was enhanced for Medieval: Total War. Then the gorgeous 3D engine introduced in Rome: Total War was enhanced for Medieval 2: Total War. Empire will introduce a brand new graphics engine, which is an exciting development considering that last year's Medieval 2 still looks like a cutting-edge graphical game. We were told that the game will capture naval combat like no game before it, and judging from the early screenshots released for Empire, that certainly seems the case. Empire is still early in development, which was highlighted by the fact that Creative Assembly didn't have any gameplay on hand to demonstrate the game. We can expect more details and an actual first look at the game in the coming months. When it will ship is another mystery because apparently, it's also still too early to give any kind of release date. Still, Empire sounds like a huge leap forward for Total War, and we'll look forward to learning more about what should be another epic strategy game from Creative Assembly. -GameSpot Then there is WIKIPEDIA  Remember though, Wikipedia is a source that is an author, could be anyone not a proper journalist. Most of the information could be correct but with Wikipedia its not guaranteed 100%, but I still use it alot Who else has a shot at what its really about??
Empire: Total War From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article or section contains information about an unreleased video game. The content may change substantially as more information becomes available. Please do not add speculation to this article, and remember to cite a published source for details. Empire: Total War Image:
Developer: Creative Assembly Publisher: Sega Designer: Mike Simpson (Studio Director) James Russell (Lead Designer) Released: TBA 2008 Genre: Real-time tactics, Turn-based strategy Mode(s)" Single player, Multiplayer Platform(s) Windows, X-Box 360 (TBA) Input methods: Keyboard, mouse Empire: Total War (commonly abbreviated to E:TW) is an upcoming game in the Total War series of video games that is being developed by the Creative Assembly at the UK branch, by the team that developed Rome: Total War. Contents * 1 Gameplay o 1.1 Features o 1.2 Campaign map o 1.3 Press o 1.4 Screenshots * 2 References * 3 External links Gameplay Empire: Total War is about exploration and conquest, founding colonies and fighting wars away from home, and is an epic strategy game spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, in which you direct your nation to dominate Europe, North Africa, America, India and South East Asia.[1] The player will use both complex strategies on the campaign map and fierce commands on the battlefield—both on land and sea. The game will feature gameplay correlating with that of the previous games in the Total War series, but with major additions to the campaign map and battlefield. More than fifty factions will be included in the game, nine of which are expected to be playable. The confirmed playable factions are: * The British Empire * The Kingdom of France * The Ottoman Empire * The Kingdom of Prussia * The Spanish Empire * The Thirteen Colonies * The United Provinces (Dutch Republic) * The Swedish Empire * The Russian Empire Other confirmed factions, that may or may not be playable, are: * Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth * Republic of Venice * Zaporozhian Cossacks Features Total War: Empire will feature 3D naval battles, a feature new to the series, as well as large land battles with muskets, cavalry and artillery. Buildings and structures can be garrisoned, and there is a plethora of new formations and strategies to be mastered. The naval battles feature destructible sails, realistic cannon fire, grape shot and boarding action. Not only is naval warfare a change in the battle system; the battles on land have been given a major makeover too: * The firing of cannons, and arrows and muskets is made more realistic. * Music makes its way into the battlefield in the form of bagpipes, drums, fifes and trumpets. * Weapons may jam and misfire, and cannons can explode. * Generals shout orders at their troops as the regiment goes into combat or fires at enemies. * The battlefield becomes strewn with dead, dying and dismembered bodies, which uses ragdoll physics to add to the chaos. A full list of confirmed features can be found in the frequently updated TotalWar.org forum summary thread. Campaign map The previous title's diplomacy and military AI have been given major changes and have been completely refined. There are also new systems in place to draw armies out of cities, by the inclusion of barracks and mills outside the city walls to defend. The all-new animated campaign map features a huge cast of characters, and shows every single building and upgrade, rather than just the cities and castles of previous games. The auto-management system is greatly improved along with the advice system, and the game itself will feature better tutorials that makes the game much easier to learn. There will also be an added focus on managing unrest in the player's empire, and the degree to which the player expands or denies political freedom to the population.[1] Press * At the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, GameSpot released some of the earliest information on Empire: Total War as it was announced. [2] * The November 2007 issue of Total PC Gaming Magazine (UK edition) published an exclusive Empire: Total War preview. It included an interview with lead designer James Russell and some never before seen screenshots. However, Creative Assembly denies the magazine's printed release date for Empire: Total War as March 2008 as well as the suggested 75% completion estimate. [3] Relevant Website and/or References (1.)Butts, Steve (2007-08-23). GC 2007: Empire: Total War. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-08-24. http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/815/815233p1.html (2.)GameSpot - GC '07: Empire: Total War First Look http://au.gamespot.com/pc/strateg...iretotalwar/news.html?sid=6177177 (3.)Total War Website: http://www.totalwar.com/index.htm...rums/empire.html&nav=/en/6/8/ (4.)Wikipedia: The Free Encyplopedia - Empire: Total War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire:_Total_War (5.)Empire: Total War.uk - Nice Website  If you can help them out be sweet. More of a fansite, I didn't get any info there http://www.empiretotalwar.co.uk/
Here are some screenshots I found over the net 
The High Seas!! ARRR  On a fine sunny day, clear sky's, LETS DANCE!!! 
That's pretty wicked!! The god of the sea on the front of the boat, Poseidon See those musketeers? I'm guessing thats how the units will be ingame. I am also guessing (because you can grapple hook, as seen on the picture down, where you can board ships) that they are patrolling the boat and are part of the batallion on the ship!
A crazy and tough naval battle. See the American Flag?? I'm guessing that its the American Civil War or the Revolution??
A British Ship, as seen by the flag, just sailing lazily on the sunset Ohhhh 
Broadside attack from a Battleship. I encourage all Warriors of Troy to read up and have a bit of knowledge of naval battles, because on both sides of the ship, The broadside is one of two sides that holds the most cannons, thus devistating in attack. I am guessing Naval Tactics will be on what ships fight which, and how; similar to Battlestations: Midway 
This is a picture of a crew onboard a ship, my guess they are French, that is firing their cannons towards the enemy ship 
THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING!!! This is how the game I think is going to be set up. Take note of all the options in the toolbars. 
I am thinking this is a port, and it is a pretty important one because you can see the fort in the distance. I think its a fanart, maybe a loading screen, or a screen when it gets built, or maybe just a picture  Its nice though 
Well everyone, thats about it!! Enjoy it, and if anything else happens just post and give us some more information, I would be glad if any more information comes through for you guys to post it If I see any new information, in magazines, I'll scan it and post it, or if it is on the internet I'll do the same!!
Cheers!!!  AND ARRR!!!! ENJOY YE ALE YE SCURVY DOGS!!!
[WOT]{Emp}General_Vladimir |
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| Tybalt |
very interesting information (rubbing my eyes of soreness...) i only wish they could include pics of the ground forces and things as such... i am very intregged at to what they will look like and how they will operate when i use them i know you have mention some ways they are operated but i mean when im using them... | ||||
| Cossack |
WERE IS PORTUGUESE EMPIRE | ||||
| General_Vladimir |
Empire: Total War Information ReplyHail all!!!Yes Choas indeed!! It's pretty Good atm I'll keep my eyes peeled because I really want to see that as well. That is all the screenshots at the moment, but I agree they should start really knuckling out some nice screenshots for everyone to work with. I think I saw ONCE a picture of it, but I cannot remember where 
I Can't wait, but any further Information I find, or anyone finds, I or you's shall post here!!!
To Cossack:
We shall see Cossack I am sure, that there is going to be somewhere Portugal, for it was a major force throughout history. If not, I am sure it will be somewhere. It might be part of the Spanish Empire. But remember its historically correct, so whatever they were in back then thats where they will be
All the best guys, and take care!!!
[WOT]{Emp}General_Vladimir |
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| General_Vladimir |
New Information in TotalWar.com e-mailHail all!!This is some more information regarding Empire: Total War that came into my inbox from www.totalwar.com. Here it is: EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR ARTIST INTERVIEW Mark O’Connell from TotalWar.com recently had the chance to speak to Michael Kutsche about his Empire: Total War artwork which has graced the covers of GameStar and PC Gameplay magazines in Europe. TotalWar.com:Did you work from any in-game references from Empire: Total War when drawing the grenadier? MK:There were some historical book illustrations of grenadiers for costume reference in the beginning, but no in-game references. TotalWar.com:How did you decide upon the pose that the character is in? MK:On a magazine cover there’s only some space where the image is fully visible, you have to find a composition that fits perfectly between the text and headline. In most of the cases the briefing demands eye contact of the character to the viewer. The challenge is to meet these requirements without losing the natural, loose feel. I wanted to catch the mood of a movie-like shot but still keep everything stylised somehow. TotalWar.com:Did you come up with any other concepts before going ahead with what became the final design? MK:The first sketch had the muzzle of the rifle reaching out of the page.I started again and turned the pose a little. It’s often that the first sketch is the best approach; from there I do little changes and proceed to finalization. 
TotalWar.com:Is the face based on / inspired by a real-life person? MK:As you can see in the pic above, I took the chance to expose myself on the cover? :)Usually I paint without taking reference photos; since I can think, that’s the way I paint, but in this case it was a good solution. TotalWar.com:What techniques and programs were used to create the artwork? MK:Sketches with pencils on paper. Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Corel Painter X with a Wacom Cintiq 21UX. TotalWar.com:Can you talk us through each of the following work-in-progresses, and how they got to each stage: 
1 
2 
3 
4 MK: 1. The first thing I did was a line drawing to become aware of the silhouette, proportions, posing etc. 2. Going over to colorizing in Photoshop and painter. 3. Working on details and changing mood of colour. 4. As I said before, I restarted again on the character, ‘cause the muzzle had to be in focus. TotalWar.com:Were any artistic styles from the time period of influence? MK:Yes, I had some old master paintings of battle scenarios in mind, but I didn’t want to just copy that style. I’m a big admirer of all periods of art, but mostly contemporary art. TotalWar.com:Do you have a background in working with traditional media? MK:When I find some time between projects, I often shut down the computerand enjoy playing around with oil paint. It’s always good to hold something in your hands that exists only once in this universe. TotalWar.com:How long did the Empire artwork ultimately take, from concept to completion? MK:5 days. TotalWar.com:Finally, what is it like to see your artwork published on the front cover of a magazine? MK:Of course it fills me with pride! I remember myself drawing a world of knights, skeletons, robots and cowboys when I was 5, so it’s cool to finally make a living with it. TotalWar.com:Thanks for your time! MK:You’re welcome! ____________________________ Cheers guys!! Hope that gave some more insight. Pretty sweet I think. The art should be great!!
[WOT]{Emp}General_Vladimir |
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| General_Vladimir |
CVG News and Awesome Art of Empire: Total War and Dev. DiaryHail all!!Thanks to CVG for this information. It is an article about Empire: Total War. It also has some really good screenshots of the Art that is encompassed with Empire: Total War. Enjoy!!
_____________________ Empire: Total War Developer Diary #1 Mike Brunton, writer and designer Just so you know, Good Sirs, I have worked in the games industry since the reign of George II (1727-1760) and, as a result, boast of a fine collection of wigs, steenkirks, and tricornes. In these lesser days my speech and creative work are of a largely meteorological nature, consisting as they do of an enormous amount of wind. I've also worked on most of the TW games to date and if you've ever tittered at a general's speech before a battle the blame must be hurled in my direction, like unto the manner of a dead cat (and one man was so popular that people did hurl dead cats at his funeral cortege in 1732 - gosh, what fun we had). Advertisement: One of the small pleasures of coming to work each morning at Creative Assembly is the chance to read all the email that comes in from chaps who are very keen to help me in all kinds of ways. Each day, I'm given the chance to invest in all kinds of sure-fire share deals, enlarge my reproductive organs, spend money on the charms of comely young ladies, buy medicines that are guaranteed to cure all kinds of ills I never even dreamed that I had, and a hundred other services that I never even knew I needed. This, strangely, is a very 1700s start to a day. And it helps with the mindset of the Empire: Total War period too. Had I been walking down a street in London on my way to some sort of gainful employment in, say, 1720, I would have faced much the same barrage of dodgy offers. Jobbing stock dealers would have been keen to part me from my guineas in exchange for investments in mad schemes to gather moonbeams, or plant colonies in the Americas (I know, the America idea sounds mad, but apparently it worked). Young and not-so-young "actresses" (of both sexes) would have been willing to let me sample their bosomy charms, for a financial consideration. Apothecaries and physicians would have vied for my money to cure all manner of afflictions (and if I wasn't ill to start with, I would be when they finished). The main difference between walking down the London byway and cleaning up the spam would have been the smell: the stench in 18th Century London was enough to wilt your cravat. The smell was appalling even before William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781 (come on, bottom jokes are always funny). Oh, and I could have popped into a coffee shop to meet my fellows and indulge in a dish or two of very expensive, and highly fashionable, coffee. In other words, the 18th century sometimes looks rather modern. When we started looking at the Empire period this was one of the things that struck us. We were also struck by the fact that people spent quite a lot of effort and most of the century trying to kill each other in wars, or in inventing better ways to kill each other. This is very Total War. Wars were fought for national honour, vengeance, control of natural resources, and for what is now called "regime change". This is also very Total War. Science and the whole "Enlightenment thing" got going, and were immediately condemned by some as ungodly. And nearly everyone in Britain must have been very drunk. This last point is quite interesting and, if you are a liver, rather scary. Given the amount of drink they threw down their throats, it is a wonder the Georgians could stand up, let alone go out and conquer the world! The population of London - including children - seems to have drunk around 4 pints of gin each, week in, week out. That's on top of the other tipples like ale, claret, port, porter, beer, sack, rum, brandy, cider, untaxed "gin" (well, they called it that) from backstreet gin mills, and (had they been around at the time) brake fluid, aftershave and surgical spirit. When Londoners got gin, they rioted. When Londoners ran out of gin, they rioted. In between, they threw cobblestones at passing Frenchmen. This did not count as proper rioting, just patriotism. Actually, you have to blame the Dutch for all the gin. William of Orange was on the British throne in 1700 so it became patriotic to sink a glass or two of Dutch gin. William himself was fond of a bucket of the stuff himself, and he didn't mind when stones were hurled in the general direction of a French fop. Frenchmen were always fops and dandies and prided themselves on their fashion sense. Even French peasants wore stylish rags and called themselves the "sans culottes". Only in France would a lack of trousers be class warfare! When they weren't fighting each other (and that wasn't very often, to be honest), the Europeans packed their booze and set out to see the world, and then conquer it. They took their wars with them, and European armies fought each other in every corner of the globe with and without local allies. The Seven Years War, for example, was a global conflict, and saw battles in the Americas, in India and in almost every sea between. And now, according to the nice doctors (pah! Quacks and poxmongers, the lot of them!) from the Home for Mildly Confused Gentlefolk, that's enough. Do you know that once I could have had them whipped round the fleet for such impertinence? Or put in the stocks? Ho hum, the modern world... Next time round, we'll have a look at some of the colourful characters who changed the world, and take in a bit of corruption, consider trade, look at a robot tiger (no, really) and briefly discuss life, the universe and everything. Pictures: 
Seeming that was the work of the Developer Diaries #1, these are number 2 & 3: Number 2 Empire: Total War Development Diary By Pro-G Staff - 11/01/2008 - 2:11pm GMT Pro-G Staff The words of Mike Brunton, writer and designer on Empire Total War at The Creative Assembly. This is the second bite of the cherry of history in Empire: Total War. It's time to look beyond Europe, and then briefly consider the Enlightenment. Don't worry, though, this isn't going to be a history lesson - at least not like some of the history lessons that I remember. I think I'd sooner nail my own tongue to the rear bumper of a Trabant than go through some of those again. Yuck. Advertisement Europe developed a global reach in the Empire period: there were fortunes to be had in the Americas, in the Caribbean and, above all, in India. A man could make a fortune in Madras or Bengal, New France and Jamaica - if he survived disease, European rivals and hostile natives. In the meantime, many carved out an Empire in the name of their respective monarchs, with an eye to royal favour, of course. The period was one where lining one's own pocket was an accepted, if not quite respectable, part of serving the nation: John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, thoughtfully appointed himself as one of his army's chief supply contractors. The money helped build Blenheim Palace - not bad for someone who started out as a gigolo! And during a century of warfare, there was a tactical and strategic revolution in the way that war was conducted. In 1700 some men still carried pikes in European armies mostly, it has to be said, because it was very expensive to give them muskets. Within the space of a few years, the infantryman had been given a musket, a bayonet (that stopped him firing), a better bayonet (so he could shoot as well as stab his enemies), a completely new drill book, and (as the old joke has it) the chance to see the world, meet interesting people and kill them. Wars in Europe and in the distant colonies caused changes in tactics, equipment and strategy throughout the period. You'll see these in Empire: Total War. Yes, there were powerful Empires in the world when the Europeans "arrived": the Ottomans and Mughal India. Yet it was the apparently minor powers like the French, British and Dutch who sailed away to make money, by trade, warfare and outright theft. No Mughal admiral ever dropped anchor outside Rotterdam or London and demanded trade rights. Then again, to be fair, the Mughals had more money than they could ever spend. Trade with India actually caused a silver shortage in Europe because the Indians quite sensibly wouldn't take crappy European products for their shiny, lovely stuff. The Europeans really lowered the tone in India: Sultan Tippu of Mysore hated the English so much that he had a tiger automata made that gored an equally mechanical Englishman to death, just so he could laugh at it. This really is the century where the modern world starts. Apart from the wars that barely stopped during the century, it was a time of tremendous intellectual vigour. The Enlightenment is well named, even if it did look like a bunch of be-wigged gentlemen thinking about life, the universe and everything. They were doing that, and they were having great ideas. They were colourful, clever and downright odd. A quick selection illustrates the point: Isaac Newton, for example, invented calculus (the basis of quite a lot of mathematics) but then didn't really bother telling anyone until Gottfried Leibniz claimed to have done it too. Without them: no difficult maths, no computers, no computer games. Yet Sir Isaac was also an alchemist, trying to find the secret of immortality and turn base metals into gold. The word "millionaire" appears in France, thanks to the efforts of a banker, gambler and con artist called John Law. Before him, no one had ever had enough cash to count it in millions! Adam Smith accidentally creates the modern world of work by showing that dividing jobs up into repetitive tasks makes money. Thanks for that, Adam, and the 9-to-5 working day. Benjamin Franklin showed that genius and gormless stupidity are but a heartbeat apart by flying kites in thunderstorms to see what lightning did. And Carl von Linné created a system of labelling plants and animals so cunning it's still in use today. You are a "Homo sapiens sapiens" and not just a lumpy collection of bone, muscles and floppy bits thanks to Carl. If you're not a Homo sapiens sapiens and you're reading this, then welcome to Earth! It is quite nice, apart from all the bits we've buggered up. So, although you might not believe it just yet, Empire: Total War is set in a world that's going to seem strangely familiar and then different too. It's dramatic, world-spanning, bloody-minded and just plain fun. And there's plenty of stuff that's just interesting. Consider, for example, this piece of oddness: Londoners rioted in 1752 when Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar and skipped 11 days to get the date into line with the rest of Europe. People went to bed on September 2, and awoke on September 14. The old-style Julian calendar was wrong, but the "new" Gregorian scheme caused outrage for two reasons: people had (obviously) had their lives shortened by this daylight robbery! It was the work of foreigners and Catholics! I think the hard drinking led to the trouble: too many people just thought the latest hangover had lasted 11 days! And so, as Samuel Pepys would have it, to bed. Next time round, I'll try to find something to say vaguely interesting about warfare in what I've come to think of as the Age of Enormous Wigs and Big Hats. In the meantime, where's the gin? Number 3 Empire: Total War Development Diary By Pro-G Staff - 11/01/2008 - 2:11pm GMT Pro-G Staff The words of Mike Brunton, writer and designer on Empire Total War at The Creative Assembly. It's now time to turn a bleary and gin-sodden eye (drinking gin is a large part of "method designing" for Empire Total War) to matters military in the 18th century and in particular land warfare in the period. I can promise that the next few instalments are not going to be a detailed history lesson - hurrah! - but more a gallop through the subject - huzzah! - while backhanding matters of interest with a sabre - swish! - from time to time. Advertisement So what happens to armies and warfare during the Empire period? That depends on the army, and even the continent, involved in warfare. The French and English/British still fought like two cats in a sack, but where they fought was very different. Their soldiers would face each other in the Rhineland, the backwoods of America and the steamy heat of India. This is a function of what today is termed "power projection" (or "putting your army in some other blokes' country and making an awful mess over there"). This was what the Europeans learned to do during the 18th century: they could ship troops halfway round the world and fight on their own terms. Doing this involved naval power (so that's why there are naval battles in Empire: Total War!), and that's a subject for another day; here we're looking at land warfare. Firstly, don't run away with the idea that the 18th Century is one of unbridled expansion for the Europeans, backed up by muskets, bayonets and the guts to use them effectively. The effectiveness of European armies varied from decade to decade as lessons in warfare were learned, copied by enemies, and then discarded in favour of a new idea. European armies didn't always have it their own way. In the Balkans, the Turks may have been slightly old-fashioned but their Janissary armies were no laughing matter for anyone facing them, even if they could be beaten. In India, more than one nasty shock awaited the Western invaders as elephants (and what's a Total War game these days without some heffalumps?), rockets and imported European artillery (along with imported European gunners) were turned against them. The cannons made by Indians weren't all that bad either, even if they did go in for a lot of decorative fiddly bits. The use of massed rocket attacks impressed the British so much that they copied them as the Congreve rocket system, and then turned them on their own enemies in later wars (without, it has to be said, very much success). In North America a completely new style of light skirmishing warfare was required for success in the dense forests of the eastern seaboard. In short, depending on where you're fighting, you'll have a different experience in the game. Not only had the nature of warfare changed, but its context and purposes too. Any medieval monarch could have understood the "why" of the War of the Spanish Succession: to stop the French Bourbons putting one of their relatives on the throne of Spain. Less than a hundred years later, the Bourbons' problems, guillotine-wise, brought their power to a sudden, painful and cravat-ruining halt. Once they were gone, the French Republic was engaged in a very different kind of war of survival. Other powers (for which read "the rich, powerful and well bred") wanted the infection of revolutionary Republicanism cut from the European body politic before it could do any more damage (the bloody progress of events shocked supporters of the infant Republic). Napoleon Bonaparte's seizure of power (and his conscious aping of Roman precedent) merely confirmed the view that a new, dark tyranny (of the unwashed masses, if nothing else) that threatened the natural order of things had arrived. The concept of a war of ideas - republicanism, liberty, patriotism, tyranny, equality, freedom - had arrived. If the French Revolution hadn't happened in France, the rest of European civilization probably wouldn't have been so bothered by the whole business. Hang on, then it would have been the French Revolution... Still, revolutions are going to be possible; you might even be able to engineer one. Back to the point: It was almost an article of faith that the French were the pre-eminent experts in war, and fielded the finest army in Europe. The French army did suffer defeat on occasion, but it remained a mighty instrument of policy. It defined "soldiering" for generations: young men who wished to be soldiers went to France to learn the serious business of killing. Both of Britain's greatest generals, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough (yes, same family as Winston), and Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington (yes, the boots man), had French connections early in their careers. Churchill even received a commendation from Louis XIV for his bravery in leading a forlorn hope. He might have purchased his first commission from his profits as the Duchess of Buckingham's toy boy, but John had guts! Young Arthur was quite a bit more respectable (or a stuffy prig) as he attended a French military academy after his schooldays at Eton. We'll return to this gallop across land warfare in the next part of this developer diary. In the meantime, I'm off to polish my Patriotic Fund sword. Here's to a bloody battle, or the pox! _________________________ All the best and take care!! I hope that was some fun and real interesting. Was for me. Here are the links for the websites: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=179303 http://www.videogamer.com/pc/empire_total_war/preview-728.html http://www.videogamer.com/pc/empire_total_war/preview-729.html [WOT]{Emp}General_Vladimir |
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More images of Empire: Total War. Including an IN BATTLE ONEHail Everyone!!I was surfing the internet today and I stumbled across some pictures of how the actual battles in Empire: Total War will be like. As such the case their are also more fan art and one looks like an ingame prototype of how detailed the battle will be. Enjoy!! I will also add at the end FAQ 1, 2, 3 and 4 off the Total War Blogs (www.totalwarblogs.com). 
THIS PICTURE IS UNAUTHENTIC!! I FOUND OUT TODAY ON THE 05/02/08 FROM THE TOTAL WAR FORUMS THAT IT IS A MOD!!! SAME SIMILAR I AM QUITE CERTAIN THE 2 SHOTS BELOW THAT LOOK LIKE THEY'RE NEW!! THE ITALIAN WEBSITE STATED IT WAS EMPIRES BUT IT WASN'T!! 
Anyone who knows what this says you'll have some clue.. Its in Italiano 
Thank you to VGCLUB.IT for the pictures Friday Jan 25, 2008 Empire: Total War FAQ 4 Hi guys, Welcome to our fourth Empire: Total War FAQ. This month we are once again setting sail on the high seas to answer more of your Naval warfare questions. Q: Is there a deployment stage for naval battles and if so, what exactly can be set during this phase? A: Yes, there is a deployment phase but what can be done during the phase is still in development. We do know about the formations and tactics of the period and their benefits and drawbacks. It’s just a question of which ones actually make most sense in a gameplay environment. As we develop the game the best formations will be added to the mix. Like everything “in development”, what we have right now and what we’ll have on release may change. Q: Can naval battle formations be set during battle? A: They can, but it’s not always that useful. In the 18th Century, once a battle commenced, changing formations and tactics was very unlikely unless you had a lot of time and sea-room. Communication was only possible by signal flag and by sending boats. In the swirling smoke of battle both of these became impractical methods of communication. It’s a bit like forming up a “Big Wing” (for those of you familiar with WW2 air tactics) for a dogfight when the battle has already started. Changing formations can leave your ships vulnerable to attack while you try to sort yourself out. There’s nothing stopping you doing it, but you’ll need to be aware that it can all go horribly wrong - just like the real thing, in fact. Q: Will naval battles incorporate a morale system and if so, how will this work? A: Yes naval battles will have a naval battles morale system. It will be different in a number of ways to the land battles. We will provide more detail nearer release. Q: How dynamic will the weather conditions be during a battle. Will wind speed and direction change regularly? A: Wind speed and direction will change but not dramatically. You won’t suddenly find yourself in the middle of a storm, for example. You are more likely to get changing conditions from battle to battle in the same area. Q: Will varying weather conditions affect range and accuracy? A: Yes. The intensity of the weather will determine how much effect. We won’t allow battles in full-on storms as it just wasn’t wise or often even viable to open the gun ports in conditions above sea state 5 on the Beaufort Scale (to be a trifle anachronistic for a moment). That’s waves up to around six feet high. Fighting in a sea rougher than that risks swamping when opening the gun ports. Q: Will the damage model include critical hits? A: Yes. A ship struck in a particular location, will show those effects at the point of impact. So if you somehow mange to hit or set fire to the ships gunpowder stores the results will be spectacular to say the least. Q: How will ship damage in your fleet be displayed in the user interface? A: Through our very handy, clear and useful UI, damage will be indicated in a number of ways: per side of the ship’s hull, to the sails and to the guns. Even if you don’t bother with the UI and just look at the ship itself you will have a reasonable idea of how much trouble it is in. Q: How will range be incorporated into the naval battles and how will it be communicated to the player? A: Range will be indicated using feedback from positioning the cursor over valid targets Q: Will naval battles include a waypoint system to allow the player to set a series of movement orders? A: Yes. The player can set waypoints that will be clearly visible. Q: What range of camera controls and views are you looking to include in naval battles? A: This is an element that is still in development. Lots of people have different ideas about what they want. What we are doing at the moment is looking at how many of these are useful and practical. Q: How much control will the player have over the speed at which naval battles are played out? A: At present it is planned to allow the player to speed up and slow down time in battles as well as pause the game. Q: Will reinforcements be included in naval battles as they are on land? A: Yes. Although that may not be what you think it is, as we have changed the campaign map and the methods of reinforcement from Rome and Medieval 2. Q: Can any military ship be used for troop transportation or are there specific transport ships for this purpose? A: Troop transportation will involve commandeering transport ships as needed, filling them with troops and shipping them with a protecting naval convoy. Transports can’t defend themselves, so you’ll probably want to send a defending naval vessel with them. Q: Can crew be trained to be more efficient and effective via campaign game upgrades? A: Yes there are items and systems on the campaign map that will effect the quality of your ships and crew. Q: Will there be night battles for naval combat and if so, is this an option presented to player at engagement in the campaign game? A: Yes. They will normally be more like dusk and dawn battles than true night-time warfare. Finding a ship in the dark at sea isn’t easy unless there is enough moonlight and a clear sky. Even then, it’s hard. Q: How will naval officers be rated and affect crew and ship performance? A: There will be Admirals, Commodores and Captains. Commodores and Captains have a set of fixed effects and Admirals are of variable quality. Admirals, like generals, will have their own set of character traits and ancillaries that can add to their skills. Q: Can crew from sinking ships be rescued? A: No. The poor souls drown horribly and the sharks feed with gusto! Q: How are lost crew numbers replenished post-battle? A: Two ways. Either by pressing captured crew from ships captured in battle or by heading back to friendly ports for more men. Next time we will be dropping anchor to discuss a different area of Empire: Total War, so keep your questions coming on our official forums! Take care, Mark O’Connell Friday Dec 21, 2007 Empire: Total War FAQ 3 Hi guys, Just in time for Christmas, we are pleased to bring your our third Empire: Total War Q&A, featuring more of your questions from the official forums. This month we are taking the fight to the seas with an indepth look at Naval warfare. Q: Will naval battles be fun and easy to command? A: Where possible we have tried to use intuitive and easy to grasp controls. There are a fair number of elements of control and game play that are shared with the land battles in Empire. Most people who have played Total War or another RTS game will select units, give basic orders and be able to move the camera around without a tutorial. We have also been working extremely hard at making naval battles fun to play from the first minute, while leaving room for depth in the gameplay. The variety of ships available just adds to that depth and enjoyment. The user HUD is going in the right direction, but is still undergoing refinement and development. It’s a good sign that the fans over at the Total War Center were able to work out the functionality of a lot of the prototype interface in one of the screenshots, and all with a little guesswork and no help from tooltips. Q: What’s the maximum number of ships we’ll be able to command in battle? A: The number of ships that will be commanded by the player is still subject to development. There are gameplay issues being resolved. It’s very likely that it will not be more than 20 per player. More than that could make battles too tricky to control, certainly for most “normal” people (or “us”, to use the shorthand term). Experts will, of course, scoff at our uselessness, but then we only have the standard number of fingers having not stitched on extra ones to give us an advantage in WOW. What has to be remembered is that most ships have two broadsides to fire, as well as boarding actions to fight. When you mix in the effects of wind, waves, shot type selection, timing of broadsides, hull and sail damage, and the crew being killed… Well, the experience is already epic and engaging. With too many ships to control, battles could be overwhelming rather than fun. Q: Will ships gain experience and associated bonuses and, if so will, they be gained by ships sunk or men killed? A: Ships crews will gain battle experience and this will have gameplay effects. We’ll talk more about this another time. Q: How are the Physics of naval combat going to work - are there going to be factors to do with the wind/weather? A: That’s cheeky, more than one question in a question? It’s a taste of the cat, for you! Not easy to answer in a short Q and A either. Where do I start? In this game we are looking at trying to create the best and most realistic environment and sea battles you will have ever seen, running in real time, in a game. Golly. Ships have buoyancy models that effect their motion through and across the waves. Get a big hole in your hull and you will sink. All ships have location modelling of hull damage too. The wind itself is modelled using simplified physics acting upon the ships, the ships sails and the sea. Rain, fog and snow are also weather that will be present in battles. The projectiles fired from cannon each have their path and velocity tracked individually and so will cause varying amounts of damage to anything (sails, masts, rigging, hull, decks and men) that block that path. Obviously a big first-rate ship of the line is going to be able to take a pounding; a sloop, on the other hand, is going to have to rely on keeping out of the way of the big guns. As part of creating a realistic sea battle, the sea will be using statistically accurate waveforms found in seas in the real world. These waveforms are animated using a Fast Fourier Transform. The sea surface itself is rendered using the Fresnel equation to blend between reflection and refraction. This sea acts upon the ships that sail on them, causing them to roll and pitch. This roll and pitch then effects the accuracy of the gunnery. Have we baffled you with technical terms yet? Good. Hope that answers your question. Q: Will ramming be a last ditch tactic that can be employed in naval battles? A: You can certainly attempt to ram but, as you probably know, ships of this period were not really designed for ramming. The damage that you might do to your ship definitely makes this an act of despair! Ships of the line are not lightweights, and a few thousand tons of wood, steel and men colliding will cause havoc! Having said all that, a sloop should do everything it can to avoid getting in the way of a first-rate: failure is not pretty for the sloop. Q: Will merchant ships be part of your fleet, so that the warships need to guard the merchant ships in a battle? A: There are two types of merchant activity in Empire: trade routes and trade fleets. These can be guarded by your navies. There is a boatload to say about this so I think we are going to leave that for another time. Q: Will you be able to see men jumping off the ship when it is sinking? A: Yes. Some will be holding on for dear life as the ship slips beneath the waves and visits Davy Jones’ Locker. As most sailors of the 18th Century weren’t good swimmers, this is a very sad sight to see. The designers are still angling for ambient sharks (but without frickin’ laser beams on their heads). Q: Will we be able to use captured ships in our own naval and merchant fleets? A: Yes. There is a whole chapter that can be written about this but that’s for another time Q: Will the ships be very expensive or take some time to build, so that recovering ships or taking ships has a real effect? A: Yes. Building ships is a large investment of time and money. The bigger they are, the more they cost and the longer they take to build. For example; HMS Victory took 6 years from the laying of her keel, in 1759, to her completion in 1765. They are also a drain on your resources once constructed. Achieving a balanced but effective naval force will be one of the challenges of the game. Q: Will my faction’s navy be able to take on repairs at neutral or allied ports? A: No. There are a number of issues involved in allowing the player’s warships to enter friendly/neutral ports that don’t really add anything good to gameplay. One of the challenges in Empire will be to maintain a fleet at sea and have sufficient ports around the world to carry out repairs and replacement of lost crew and ships. If you want to do well, you’re going to have to emulate the Royal Navy! Q: Will Pirates/Privateers play any roles in the game? Can we hire them to harass ports of call or go after enemy nations merchant ships to disrupt their trade? A: Yes. They will raid your trade routes and on occasion attack ports that are poorly defended. If they think they can outgun an isolated naval vessel they will give it a go too. The player can raid the trade routes of enemy factions and also blockade enemy ports with their naval vessels during wartime. Q: How will we get to India? Will you incorporate a ‘warping’ system where you warp around the map or do we sail around the Cape of Good Hope? A: We have a cunning plan but we can’t give too much away just yet. Keep an eye out as we reveal more in the fullness of time. You will like it. On behalf of the entire Total War team we’d like to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Take care, Mark O’Connell Tuesday Nov 27, 2007 Empire:Total War FAQ 2 Hi guys, Welcome to our second Empire: Total War Q&A, where we provide more answers to some of your most burning questions! Q: How many factions will there be in the game? And will [insert name of home country here] be included? A: These two related questions are two of the most popular, particularly the “Will my country…” bit. People also wondered how we end up with the faction list. Surprisingly, nationalism and irrational prejudice do not drive our choices. If they did, then Yorkshire, Dorking, the Kingdom of Bognor, Chicken Madras and the Democratic Workers’ Republic of Woking would automatically be factions. In every game. Naturally, not all factions are equal. This has always been the case; it is far harder to win as the Western Romans, big though the faction is, than the Saxons in R:TW Barbarian Invasion. We tend to define factions as being potentially playable (or not), by their culture, whether they are major or minor, and whether they might be “emergent” when we look at the candidate list. We then look at getting a good mix in terms of culture, national unit and army lists, and gameplay potential. We use “culture” as a way of collecting similar factions together and sharing resources: you’ll find Western European nations all share a lot of the same cultural baggage, so it make sense to have a common set of game resources for them. Sometimes this means we can sneak in extra factions because they are similar to something we have already done (hurrah!): it is relatively easy to add Mysore if the material for the Mughals and the Maharattas already exists. The major/minor split is our take on whether a faction starts the game with more than one region (e.g. France = major; Hanover = minor). When we are considering who to include a minor faction is less likely to make the cut than a major one. Some potential factions end up as rebels early on because the nation in question simply did not go anywhere during Empire’s historical period. Often these were considered for full faction status before they were assigned to the rebel category: it is not sensible, for example, to do a full faction work up on the Republic of Genoa. Emergent factions (these, you might remember, were in RTWBI) are those nations that did, or might, come into being during a game’s historical period, or could have come into being. The most obvious one in the Empire period is the United States of America. There are no guarantees that the USA will appear, but if there is a rebellion in the right sort of area, at the right sort of time and other factors are appropriate, then rather than seeing rebels, you will see the Continental Army marching off to war. So, the Empire: Total War factions have yet to be finalised. There will be at least 10 playable factions in the game, but we’re currently engaged in a free and frank exchange of views about the candidates for inclusion on that list. Some, like France and Prussia, have guaranteed places as playable factions because they were significant in the wars and politics of the time. The powers that changed status (waxing and waning) are the ones that cause us problems! The full faction list is much longer, and it includes all the AI-controlled factions that we don’t think are that rewarding for a human to play. So, we are currently looking at around 50 factions and scratching our heads to decide which ones make the cut as being interesting both historically and in terms of game play. The final point is that what we’d like to do with the factions and what’s practical are not always the same thing. Often we’ll have to exclude a faction for time reasons. If we’re going to have to create a completely new set of buildings, units, animations and on-screen messages for a minor (and therefore relatively obscure) faction, the chances are that it won’t make it into the game. And sometimes more does not automatically equal better. It can mean that the development marmalade is spread too thinly over too many slices of conceptual toast. Q: Will famous characters such as Wellington make an appearance in the game, and will they have special abilities to reflect their historical importance? What new character traits are there? A: Famous and some not-so-famous characters are present in the game, yes. However, because the unfolding of a TW game isn’t a fixed path, there is not going to be a guarantee that an Arthur Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington eventually), a Napoleon Bonaparte, a George Washington or anyone else will *always* appear when the game is played. If they did, then camping on their spawn points until the right date would not make for a very interesting game. This, by the way, is all part of the larger counterfactual-historical debate in Total War games: history probably won’t repeat itself exactly as you play. We’re having to be quite disciplined about the famous people that we include as characters and ancillaries, simply because there could be thousands of them, all with their own claim to a place in the game. Should we include Mozart as a famous composer, Thomas Slade, a naval architect of some genius, Lancelot “Capability” Brown, the man who completely reshaped the English countryside, Jethro Tull, the folk rock band and agriculturalist, or Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a right royal pain in the neck? They’re all interesting people, and made their contribution. The traits system is being revised for Empire: Total War; the Rome/M2TW system could “spam” traits sometimes and we need to address that. We’re not going to give you a list of the new character traits because it (a) would be a bit boring done like that; and (b) the list isn’t finalised, so that if we tell you there’s a trait called “Sausage” might not ever make it into the finished game. There is a trait called Sausage, by the way, but it’s not really the kind of thing you want to talk about in polite company. However, just to whet your appetites there are two interesting traits: “American General” and “Indian General” that have potentially interesting effects. These are gained by Europeans fighting in the relevant parts of the world and represent “going native” in terms of skills and attitudes. If everything goes to plan, the American General trait will even give a general and his unit some stealth ability on the battlefield. It’s also possible for generals to develop a complete dislike of the two continents too - not everyone likes curry or burgers, after all.
When the list has firmed up at beta, we’ll return to the subject of traits and historical characters in another FAQ or as a developer diary. Q: The bayonet was invented in this period, so how will the various types be used on the battlefield? Will key technological inventions like this be events on the campaign map? A: The bayonet is quite an interesting technology that directly impacts on battlefield behaviour in units. Before it arrives, musketeers have to reverse their muskets and use them as crude clubs to beat down opponents. The plug bayonet is a big step in the right direction, but once it is fitted (like a cork in a bottle neck) it prevents a man from firing and reloading his gun. It does give a musketeer a short “pike” for hand-to-hand fighting, and that’s useful. Incidentally, the bayonet was seen as a substitute pike and accordingly pike drill was used after its introduction. The ring bayonet allows fire and slow reloading, but isn’t very secure in its fixing to a musket; it’s better in a fight, but not that much better. Finally the socket bayonet slides onto the musket and then locks on a barrel lug. The blade is offset, so that the musket can be loaded and fired easily, and it won’t come loose when thrust into an enemy’s guts. This kind of practical, brutal weapon made it possible to introduce “modern” bayonet fighting as a drill. And no, we’re not handling technological advances as set historical events. We’re giving you more control over the game than that, but as to how -that’s for another day.
Q: Won’t the rampant expansion of European powers over less developed countries unbalance things in Empire? Won’t players be able to simply sweep aside native populations and establish colonies? A: No, not necessarily. This is where the art of the game designer comes in, at least in our opinion. It’s our job to make sure that the game isn’t just a predictable rush for colonies. The question also ignores the number of wars that went on across Europe during the 18th Century as well. There was “rampant” European expansion during the Empire period, but the European nations and their trading companies weren’t guaranteed to have things their own way at all. In India, for example, the Europeans fought against each other and used proxies in a series of vicious little wars that could have seen the Europeans driven out on several occasions. That they weren’t is more a tribute to cunning diplomacy, bribes, and the fact that some local princeling was always willing to cut a deal. Interestingly, native populations weren’t always swept aside. At least part of the sense of grievance felt by the American Colonials towards the British government was fuelled by the agreements that London had struck with the native tribes to restrain their colonisation efforts. In India the Europeans were in no position to sweeo “the natives” aside. Instead, they mounted a “hostile takeover” and left the senior and middle management in place; the poor old peasants at the bottom of the heap probably never realised that they were now farming “colonial” land. Q: Will the game be totally different from M2TW? A: Firstly, Medieval 2: Total War was a development of the Rome: Total War engine. For Empire: Total War we’ve started again with new game and graphics engines. Apart from anything else, we needed to do this for the naval combat system. This follows our revolution-evolution pattern of game development at The Creative Assembly: a new game engine, an evolved version of it, rinse and repeat. Secondly, the Empire period requires a different approach to the medieval era. Warfare, politics, and technology have moved on. We have a “palette” of game mechanics that we can use to bring these to life, and we must pick and choose the right ones for the subject matter. Naturally, some aspects of a Total War game are “givens”: a turn based strategy game and real time battles. We won’t - and wouldn’t want to - change that. Within that broad constraint, though, we hope to use mechanics that are appropriate to the period. Papal sanctions are important in the medieval world, but they don’t matter so much during the Enlightenment. Therefore, the Pope doesn’t need to be simulated in detail in Empire. The choreography of musket fire is important, so that gets a lot of attention. And then there’s the naval game: not to blow our own trumpets too much, but some developers would publish that as a separate game in its own right! And finally, the development team on Empire is not the M2TW group. The Empire people did Rome: Total War, and some of the core team have been on TW games since Shogun: Total War. Chrysler don’t just have one team working on all their different car models, you know! Keep your questions coming on our official forums, and stay tuned to TotalWar.com for all the latest Empire: Total War news and updates! Take care, Mark O’Connell (aka SenseiTW) Wednesday Oct 24, 2007 Empire:Total War FAQ Hi guys, We recently offered our forum community the chance to submit questions about Empire: Total War to the team. Here we’ve tried to address some of the most common themes. Will the emergence of new governmental systems be reflected in the game? Will we be able to play as a monarchy or republic and will that affect the gameplay? Revolution is a key theme of the era. In Empire there are three different potential forms of government. Players will have to decide how to contend with social changes as their society “progresses”. This is a really exciting area we’re currently developing at CA. Ruling a monarchy with an iron fist involves different challenges from governing a republic. The three government types have their own advantages and disadvantages and as pressure for reform grows, revolution and civil strife can occur, and players will have to deal with the consequences of that. Will religion play an important role in Empire: Total War? It’s clear that the Enlightenment caused a few headaches for some of the clergy of the time. With that in mind, religious issues are still relevant in Empire, but less important than in Med II. The Pope won’t be dropping Lord Nelson a line asking him to retake the Holy Land, but religion does play a part in social order and diplomatic relations. Will diplomacy be improved? The 18th century was a little more civilized than some periods we’ve covered in previous Total War games. To reflect this we’re giving our diplomatic AI a complete overhaul. Previously in Total War the diplomacy AI and the campaign map AI were separate entities but in Empire we’ve unified these two aspects so they work more harmoniously. Diplomatic relations are now much more closely linked to your activities on the campaign map. And you probably won’t get your ambassador’s head back in a bag. Will trade be more important than previous Total War games? Absolutely. Empire is a game about war AND colonialism. The expansion of trade was a driving force of the European colonial effort. Trade is the both the impetus for and the engine that powers imperial advancement so we’re obviously paying a great deal of attention to this area of the campaign system. Combined with the new naval battles, establishing and protecting your trade routes have become a very exciting new aspect of strategy. Will you try to improve the computer AI during battles? Again, the changes in the period require a massive shift in AI. This is as true of warfare as it is of diplomacy. The tactics of the 18th century battlefield require a completely different mindset to the largely simple tasks of running one bunch of men with sharp objects into another bunch of men with sharp objects. Winning the day on an Empire battlefield will require a more intricate tactical awareness than in previous centuries. It was less about pure brawn, more about brains. Our AI routines have had to change radically to reflect this fact. War in the 18th century? Won’t troops just line up in front of each other and fire away? Um, no. It’s a bit of a paradox that the “romanticized” idea of the warfare is one that can be interpreted as dull. Men did not line up in orderly queues to be shot while singing their national anthems (apart from anything else, there were no national anthems). Muskets are not modern assault rifles, and once you’d fired your gun you had to close with the enemy and use cold steel. There’s nothing tame about a battlefield of any era, and hand-to-hand fighting was still a major part of any engagement. The bayonet is invented during our period! Melee fighting was as vicious in the 18th century as it had ever been. Cavalry played an important role on the battlefield too, not only in some famous charges but as a vital harassing force, constantly menacing the enemy into formations which were vulnerable to artillery. Formation discipline was crucial to victory so players will have to learn and master these, making more intelligent use of formation and maneuver than before. Add to that the importance of finding cover from enemy fire plus the ability to occupy and defend buildings and you have an environment more diverse and tactically challenging than any previous Total War battlefield. How are the physics of naval combat going to work? Are there going to be factors to do with the wind/weather etc. Naval battles are one of the most exciting new things for us in Empire. We’ve wanted to do proper naval warfare for ages but this is the first time that the era and our technology have been up to the standard we’ve demanded. Those high standards had to include factors like wind and weather. The sea battles in Empire are not just lip-service to naval conflict, we’re as serious about them as we are about our land battles and that means, wind, weather and of course water. We’ve had one guy just working on getting the water to behave realistically for two years! We’re doing stuff like modeling every cannonball so we can map accurate damage to masts and sails, things that will make Empire’s naval battles feel truly authentic. Will the game be moddable? Of course. We’ve always wanted to encourage our modding community and help them out. There’s been a lot of great work created for previous Total War titles and we’ll be looking to encourage more of the same for Empire. Will land battles suffer and lose attention, from the incoming sea battles. Not a chance. As we’ve already mentioned the change in land warfare is so dramatic in this period that if anything we’ve had to concentrate on that aspect of the game more this time around than ever before. All previous Total War games have dealt with a largely similar style of combat. This time around we’re having to work and think extra hard to get authentic land battles that accurately reflect the period. Will naval battles be fun and easy to command? We’re working hard to get a balance between ease of use and depth in naval combat. We’re confident that we’re heading in the right direction and it’s already fun to play naval battles in the office, even roping in members of the CA staff who haven’t been working on the naval stuff, so it can’t be that hard to pick up! Will multiplayer actually be considered when the game is created? Multiplayer is very important to us this time around. A lot of the team are long-term multiplayer fans and we felt it was time to address their needs more openly. We’re trying some things out in multiplayer that are completely new to Total War which we hope players will find interesting. Thanks to everyone for your questions, and stay tuned to TotalWar.com for all the latest Empire: Total War news and updates! Take care, Mark O’Connell (aka SenseiTW) Thank you to http://www.totalwarblog.com/. Its very interesting everyone should check it out!! I'll keep my eyes peeled from what else I can find. Cheers!!! In no time we'll be shouting "YARRR FULL BROADSIDE YE SCURVY DOGS!!"
[WOT]{Emp}General_Vladimir |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Mmm fantastic thread Vladimir!!
Ive been reading trough thewhole thing for about an hour and all this information is just amazing. Gamespot compared to this thread sould hang their heads in shame. Id ave to say this has 20 times the info iI last saw that they had. Great job
-[WOT]{Consul}MehmetTheGotherd |
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| made-in-the-uk |
those in game screenshots look fake
i've already preordered empire just need a new computer aswell   
madeintheuk |
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| confused_johnny |
Fake or not, it whets my appetite something tremendous!
Great post Vlad!!
Man i CANT WAIT till ETW comes out, i can see it now..... *Yaarrggghhhh haaaarrrgggghhh, i be Confused_Johnny Blackbeard, now walk the plank, ye scurvy dog*
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Indeed it looks good!
Theres a trailer out now, land screens, and 3 podcasts
Go to totalwar.com for the latest! http://www.sega-australia.com/games/?g=238 for the trailer! |
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| General_Vladimir |
Updating shortly....Hail Warriors of Troy, allies, emmisiaries and guests!How is everyone? I'm well. I will update this as soon as I have some posting time
I will gather all the podcasts, trailers, screenshots and recent FAQ's and post it here.
 UNIVERSITY TIME GOT TO GO
Emperor Vladimir EDIT: WAS IN SUCH A RUSH I FORGOT TO PUT [/i] I PUT [/i[ |
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| confused_johnny |
Until Emporer Vladimir updates the info, i thought you all might want to check this out. http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strateg...gsupdates&tag=updates;title;2
Its the link to Gamespots E3 2008 ETW coverage, including brand new official videos and screenshots. |
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| General_Vladimir |
COMING SOON!Hail Warriors of Troy, and other fair noblemen/women!Thanks Johnny I mucho appreciate your input!
I am on a very tight timetable now guys. I'll be posting it up for everyone to see. I have set times for playing games and admin while I am on my uni weeks. Holidays are whatever
Anyways Great work and It'll be up soon when I get some more free time! And Ready your muskets, your bayonets armed for the lurking release of here Empire: Total War
Emperor Vladimir |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Re: COMING SOON!
And new computers and upgrades! :p (Weekend after next I WILL have my new computer for sure) |
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| confused_johnny |
Okay, whilst scouring the net for fresh info, i come across this at, none other than, GAMESPYS website. There reporters were shown an ACTUAL naval battle, as well as videos of other stuff. Here is their report, including screenies!!
The Creative Assembly's Total War series has taken gamers from feudal Japan and medieval Europe to ancient Rome... and tossed in some Vikings for good measure. The company's current project is Empire: Total War, a game that is the natural progression for the series as it moves things out of the Dark Ages and into the era of wooden ships and iron men known as the Age of Napoleon and the Age of Sail. We didn't get to see a ton of gameplay. In fact, the ground combat was shown as simply a series of screenshots. We did get a detailed look at naval combat, which is a first for the series, and it looked absolutely stunning. Granted, it helps knowing the company's track record for developing games in this series, and when you consider that the Creative Assembly knows what it's doing, combined with the awesome E3 demonstration, it's very easy to get excited about this early 2009 release. The demo showcased a naval battle between Great Britain and the United States in the late 1700s. There are roughly 40 ship types in the game from sleek sloops to massive ships of the line. Controlling these ships is very intuitive; you play the role of Admiral, which is a lot like being a General in the other Total War games. You can form ship groups, build custom ship formations, or use one of many preset formations before a battle. As Admiral, you need to worry about wind, morale, and other common sea battle conventions. 
As the sea battle between the Brits and the Yanks raged, we noticed the ship's crew running about manning stations. It was then that we were informed that every man on the ship is an individual with responsibilities like a real seaman. A cannon crew, for example, requires more than one man as it prepares to fire chain or grape shot, and you can scan the gun deck and look to see if every gun is being properly managed. There's no micromanagement involved, but it's just cool to see that level of detail. This spills over during boarding actions. You see your men grapple an enemy ship and storm the enemy's deck. Again, these are individual soldiers and they'll actively seek out other men to fight. There are no canned or abstracted units -- these are your soldiers down to the man. The crew also has real-life awareness. For example, as the battle continued, a ship's deck caught fire after being hit by a rocket ship, which basically launches small incendiaries that look like fireworks. Men started to leap into the water while the gun crews below deck were completely unaware of the danger above and kept firing the cannons until it was too late and the magazine caught fire, causing a massive explosion killing all inside. During this epic battle it was impossible to ignore just how gorgeous it all looked. The sea itself stood out as waves rolled up alongside ships and sea spray covered the decks. The water alone took over a year to code using an in-house physics engine, and the work definitely shows. The ships are also meticulously detailed and historically accurate and sea battles support up to 20 ships per side. It's a sea dog's dream game. The kicker of course is that naval combat is but a small part of the overall package. Ground combat is a huge component, just like in any other Total War game, and even though we didn't get to see any of it, the new goodies the team has in store sound great on paper. As with naval combat, the level of detail is exceptional. Little things like cavalry using various breeds of horses, this is something that most people will never notice but it displays what the game is after. The goal is visual and historical detail. When it rains, for instance, uniforms get dirty at various times; terrain degrades depending on how often it gets trampled upon. Rain also causes gunpowder to get wet increasing the chance of misfire, and if it rains too much the mud slows down artillery, causing a Waterloo effect. The terrain is generated using NASA satellite info so nothing has been left to chance. When fighting in France, you are fighting over accurately modeled French soil. The combat interface is a lot like that of Rome: Total War, so players familiar with the series will be able to jump right in and play (on land, anyway). Speaking of which, there are some new features in land combat that stand out. Units will now take cover automatically behind solid cover and you can even garrison buildings with infantry. Again using Waterloo as an example, you can actually simulate the fort defense in that famous battle. 
The screenshots were great at showing what combat is going to look like and just like in the naval combat each soldier is now an individual. Each soldier is fighting as a single entity and this becomes very clear during bayonet charges when it's hand-to-hand and every man for himself. The notable figures from the period are in the game, from Wellington to Napoleon and everyone in between, from subordinates like French General Ney to famous units like the Imperial Guard. Playing the Grand Campaign allows you to alter history, though. You can make moves and conquer territory throughout the game that causes Napoleon to fail to show up and take command of France. If France is under English control it's hard for Bonaparte to do much. The Grand Campaign supports up to 12 playable nations and while the list wasn't divulged, you can expect the prominent nations of the time to be represented, including Austria, Prussia, Portugal, Spain, etc. In addition to the Grand Campaign, which will be familiar to Total War fans, there is a new "story mode" that was briefly touched upon that revolves around the United States' quest for independence, starting at the Jamestown colony and running through the years of the Revolution. How this will work is still under wraps. Sega is showing more of the Grand Campaign and the ground combat later this year at the Leipzig game conference in August; we'll be there waiting to get a deeper look at this extremely promising entry to the Total War saga. Garrison in building!! Every man on a ship has a purpose!! Different breeds of horses for Cavalry units!! The way that ship explosion was described!! Can you tell im excited??
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| confused_johnny |
And here is some more screenies, that were released this month!!
And this little beauty is the OFFICIAL TEASER TRAILER that was released this month!! |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Ah yes Johnny i read that preview, and a few others similar to it.
CA had a booth in E3 and everyone got to try it (jelous)
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| confused_johnny |
Hail Warriors!!
Whats this, you're suffering withdrawel symptoms from ETW info!?! Let Dr Confused prescribe a healthy dose of BRAND NEW VIDEO Brand new video that is OFFICIAL AND SHOWS ACTUAL NAVAL BATTLE TAKING PLACE, INGAME!. Enjoy it as much as i did, this is to my knowledge the first video of actual naval battles taking place. If you go to Sega's official TW site, they have a link there to the brand new ETW Website (Official). |
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| made-in-the-uk |
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| confused_johnny |
My thoughts exactly when i first saw it!! Looks absolutely top notch, i cant wait!
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| confused_johnny |
I recently foraged into ETW land again, and these screenies are what i brought back with me! Someof them might have been posted already, apologies if they have, others i know fact are brand new, so enjoy!
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| confused_johnny |
OK, this is a report from IGN, who's staff were shown an actual land battle taking place, it includes some new screenies.
Creative Assembly is doing things a little differently with Empire, the latest entry in its long-running Total War series. There's sea combat, sure, but we've heard about that before. At GC 2008, they showed off a controlled demo of the land battles, which has been tweaked rather significantly. Since the game spans the 17th and 18th centuries, much of the combat will center on ranged combat with rifles and long-distance artillery fire. Units will actively take cover when it's nearby, pressing against low-lying walls or other structures, and you'll need to be conscious of moving infantry in columnar formations to minimize their exposure to incoming bullets. For the demo, which was controlled entirely by Creative Assembly, we saw the Prussians trying to wrest Leipzig from British control. They'd brought along riflemen and artillery to pound the town from afar, but the British had cavalry which, if it managed to close range, could wipe out the artillery pretty easily. Fortunately the Prussians had laid down a type of land mine in an arc surrounding their artillery, so that while the cavalry could easily skirt around the range of the bullets to find an easy avenue to assault the guns, they couldn't escape the mines. In the demo we watched as Creative Assembly instructed the Prussians to trigger the mines just as the British horses charged forward and crossed into the active zone, which killed a majority of their numbers and sent the survivors fleeing in terror. We're told this kind of mine defense is a high level technology, so it wouldn't be available until much later on in the game. 
The British eventually moved their way across the field of battle in long, narrow lines, taking up cover positions behind a low stone walls and engaging in a firefight with the Prussians. Eventually they affixed bayonets and moved out into the open field with the intention of engaging the enemy at close range. This turned out to be not such a good idea, as the Prussians were still firing their rifles and many British soldiers hit the dirt. Instead of simply fleeing the field, however, Creative Assembly says their new AI system allows for the computer-controlled soldiers to make a better assessment of the overall battle situation. In this case, they survivors simply fell back and regrouped in Leipzig and garrisoned a few buildings there, as well as a farm house a little further out into the field. To combat this, the Prussians aimed their artillery at the farm house to smash it to bits, but held off on aiming their guns at the city center, for several reasons. First off, the Leipzig area's brick and mortar buildings were more resistant to the shot the Prussians were throwing up. It's possible to upgrade to different kinds of ammunition, including heavier rounds for more of a devastating effect, but there's another reason you might not want to smash a town simply to eliminate the enemy within: the consequences. By breaking apart structures, you have to pay to build them back up should you take the town over. And if you raze the town, the populace won't exactly be receptive to the idea of your rule. 
So Creative Assembly, controlling the Prussians, directed the artillery to cease fire and moved their infantry in for some hand-to-hand combat on the city streets. For Empire, the development team has added in plenty more fighting animations to make battle seem more chaotic, as troops lock into one-on-one encounters, whack each other with rifles, and plunge bayonets into the chests of downed members of the opposition. Visual variety within units has been enhanced as well, with details like different breeds of horses within cavalry groups and different face textures. Of course not all of Total War's gameplay takes place on the battlefield – you still have the overworld map on which to order unit and building construction and move around your armies. Wherever you wind up engaging the enemy in battle on the overworld map will more accurately correspond to what the battle map looks like. If you're fighting near the foot of the Andes, for instance, you'll see that represented once you zoom into combat. To make for more of a challenge, Creative Assembly said they've linked the campaign and battle map AI to allow for better strategic awareness, essentially allowing opponents to assess whether or not a battle is essential and worth fighting to the last man or whether it's better to simply flee with as many remaining units as possible. Depending on the type of weather during a battle, players will also notice different sorts of behaviors for ammunition. If it's hot and dry, artillery rounds will bounce off the ground when they hit, whereas they'll behave differently if it's raining. 
It appears the developer is trying to make the game a little more user-friendly this time around with the addition of an episodic campaign, which focuses on the American struggle for independence against the British. This special game mode is being designed to more gradually introduce the types of upgrades and build options Total War vets are undoubtedly used to, giving players smaller chunks of content to digest with focused objectives, such as 'destroy this settlement,' or something to that effect. For anyone who prefers the more wide-open gameplay of the standard campaign, that'll still be there as well. Empire: Total War just got out of its alpha testing phases, and if the trailer run before the demo began is to be believed, the game is being readied for a February 6, 2009 release date. 
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| made-in-the-uk |
if it's anything like combat in the napoleonic era the way to win a battle will be shootin down the flanks.
you need to overlap the enemy without stretching to thin. i hope the mines dont appear online, everyone will probably ban them but there are always rulebreakers but i hope they don't ban artilery as that had a lot more importance in that era than in roman and medieval times. the battles will hopefully be longer as two army line up and shoot the  out of eachover then when you sense the enemy is about to flee CHHAAAAAAARRRGGGGEEEE. for me the worst case scenario will br if like rom eand mdieval the fastest clicker wins.
also although every ones banging on about naval battles if theyre historicaly accurate it will look ike this: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ one line _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ another line and they pummel eachover until one fleet runs away. the winner being the one with the most guns the person who changed this was nelson who launched surprise attacks etc, unfortunately on total war theres no such thing as a surprise attack. |
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| confused_johnny |
MORE ETW NEWS YOU SAY!!
Allow me!
This is a preview, writen by a journalist who attended the GC games Convention in Germany. Empire will be the first Total War game made by the series-founding Creative Assembly team since Rome four years ago, and will be twice as big. While the three years of effort poured into Empire may not be as immediately apparent as Rome's jump from 2D to 3D, there are some meaty and if not more impressive leaps made beneath the surface. And for a series that's earned 9/10 for every major instalment (including Medieval 2 - developed in Australia) that makes us ever so excited. The Total War series can be a little off-putting at first glance. The grand idea is a marriage between a turn-based settlement-building campaign map (think Civilization) and real-time land battles (think Command & Conquer). To win, the player must dominate, by force, the largest amount of the map. The series is also steeped in history; each aspect, from units to buildings to characters, are extensively researched and recreated. And that is Total War in a nutshell. Well, that was Total War in a nutshell. This time things are slightly different. Geographical domination still plays a key role, but win conditions have been expanded and encompass political and economical strategies, although a powerful army will still be of interest. To achieve these ends, different styles of government can be adopted, and this ruling body sets the unique goals of the faction based around its needs. Mess up, however, and rebellions and even revolutions may occur. This could be a result of over-taxing the rich while being lenient on the poor, for example, although when push comes to shove there will be a choice of joining either the loyalists or the revolutionaries. It's another step closer to producing a campaign map with the level of depth expected from a series like Civilization. Trade is perhaps the most dramatically-altered non-battle aspect to Total War, and has been opened up on a global scale and split into three trade theatres: the Indies, the Americas, and Europe. Capturing valuable trade routes will be vital to a successful campaign, as will depriving other factions of theirs. And to achieve all this, of course, you need some of them boats. And herein lies the "third game", and possibly the most eye-catching feature of Empire: Total War: naval warfare. The computer previously auto-resolved battles on the high seas, but this time players order the ships about as they would on dry land. Gigantic floating fortresses will slowly manoeuvre to unleash thundering broadsides, choosing either round shot ammunition to devastate the opposing boat, chain shot to snap the masts, or grapeshot to decimate the crew. Get close enough and vessels can be boarded - there's even pirate ships to capture and use as your own, or burning armada tactics to employ. But to truly master the seas is to master the weather, which will rage and sleep and keep Admirals on their toes. Flotillas must be varied and made of fast and small as well as big and large ships, just as an army needs varied troops on the ground. Clearly, there's been lots of effort invested, and we're promised as much complexity on the sea as there is on the ground. Which, of course, is not to say the rest of the game has been standing still; quite the opposite, and the changes are both broad and minute. The broadest is the AI, which has become one entity rather than be split into a campaign-brain and a battle-brain. The effect is opposing battle generals acting according to an overarching campaign goal, which can be as subtle as not wasting effort on a strategically unimportant area, or as drastic as drawing players into dummy battles; distracting them from the real threat or forcing them to divide their attention. The battle AI itself has also been completely rewritten, and now reacts in a plan-based rather than state-based way, which prevents predicting that the computer will do A if attacked with B. Plus, these decisions adapt to suit the overall battle plan, which in turn is bossed by the overarching campaign plan. Even the generals have unique personalities that set them apart. The combined result is an AI that feels eerily human, and one that sparks battles with the element of surprise and unpredictability. Meaty changes have been made to the campaign map side of things, where the tile-based layout has been scrapped, allowing players to move freely over terrain. Buildings have been ripped from settlement lists and visually scattered over the surrounding land, so one look should tell you what capabilities a settlement has. Then, if you need a ship, simply click on the port and order one to be built. Upgrades can be visually picked out, too. And these upgrades are tied to another new and key area: technologies. These can be researched and applied across the board; to alter government types, build economic infrastructures, expand trade, even enhance education to speed up the research itself. Also, of course, bigger guns. Military advancements can be as intricate as permanent bayonet attachments allowing riflemen to shoot and stab, or as obvious as town-wrecking artillery. Another obvious change, and a rather important one, is the historical period, which takes place between 1700 and 1800. Crucially this welcomes in the age of gunpowder, and its ramifications on the battlefield are enormous. Tactics become more about protecting hulking ranged guns that can batter cities in an instant. That is, of course, presuming you don't want to settle in the city - flatten it and the population will hate you, unsurprisingly, and it will need to be rebuilt. Cavalry also no longer flattens infantry, and the effect is hefty blurring of the paper, scissors, stone unit hierarchy. Empire, it's fair to say, presents an ideal more akin to paper, scissors, stone, tree, bird, apple and bucket. Riflemen and snipers can be garrisoned or hide behind cover for the first time in the series, and there are all sorts of period tactics employed by your opposing numbers and factions. Take storming a city, as you want to settle there and increase your empire. If the defenders decide to garrison in the many houses then your advancement will be slow and bloody. Add to this a heavy downpour and terrain mashed into mud and your advance becomes even more treacherous. And morale in Empire is more prevalent than ever; men will lose belief in many more stages before fleeing, but flee they will if you make foolhardy decisions to embark on a Russian campaign in mid-winter, or stomp into the tropics during monsoon season. Historic events such as the French Revolution will also play out around you. These are not set in stone, but rather will be triggered if the conditions are right, so history can be altered. In total there are 12 playable factions at launch, with 50 out there to encounter. All of which sounds bafflingly complex and time-consuming. Only, it isn't. Because another star feature of Empire is accessibility. Tutorials and on-screen advice have been vastly improved to ease newcomers in and returning fans back. More exciting is the extensive streamlining done to cut-down micro-management and enormously time-consuming turns. So, tax and trade are handled by a tab and split into theatres (Europe, Indies, Americas), as is diplomacy. Incidentally, gone are wandering scholars and assassins to keep an eye on. Instead, the special units have been merged into just two: Gentlemen and Rakes. The former handles diplomatic pursuits, and the latter does the underhand jobs. Gentlemen, brilliantly, can engage in duels to politely dispose of key members of opposing factions, and can enrol at foreign universities and pinch research, all in the name of study. Anyway. Armies are built through generals who recruit from nearby settlements - no longer grown all over the map and then moved to meet a leader. Even commands are streamlined so that orders are issued and then moves made, thus speeding up turn time. Clearly lots of effort has been poured into the new engine underneath all of this, which is the most visually spectacular of a visually spectacular series so far. Little soldiers can be zoomed into and exhibit extraordinary detail (even varying faces and uniforms to other members of the unit), especially considering there can be up to 10,000 on the screen firing the same number of projectiles - themselves individual physical objects. Buildings crumble, ships creak and crack and explode, and bodies litter the battlefield as a silent reminder of the carnage witnessed. Animation has significantly improved; motion-captured cinematic actions have been applied to the units likely to get into hand-to-hand range, and generally units exist and clash much more naturally and believably than before. And, surprisingly, the minimum system requirements will be fairly low; a decent machine from two years ago should do the trick. And the engine is scalable for those that can handle the extra effects. Perhaps the only rock left unturned is multiplayer. We were told Empire would be the "most moddable" instalment in the series when we asked if there would be a toolset shipped with the game, and there would be "more modes of [online] play" than ever before - some inspired by fans, others to attract newcomers. Creative Assembly will reveal all in the lead up to February 2009, but the feeling in the room was that something special lurks in the wings. The series has only ever let us face off in land battles against each other online. Perhaps Empire will finally gift the Total War series with an online campaign map mode. We certainly hope so. If it does, then there is so much both at first glance and second that Empire may do what no other in the series has: earn 10/10. ALSO HERE IS THE LATEST VIDEO, SHOWING ACTUAL GAME FOOTAGE OF LAND BATTLES, PLUS THE CAMPAIGN MAP! [url] |
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| Dafuge |
-DROOLS- | ||||
| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Wowawiwa! Very nice!
Thankyou Johnny for keeping this very exciting thread up to date! When you think about it, only 4 months! Omg omg omg! |
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| confused_johnny |
OK this is a report by Jim Rossignol, of Rock, Paper, Scissors. He was speaking to the LEAD DESIGNER of ETW.
Not all empires are built in intergalactic space, you know. Some are built in history, and that’s the subject of this latest interview: matters pertaining to the latest strategic behemoth from the British studio, Creative Assembly. We chart some of the major differences between this and previous games, with particular attention paid to the turn-based campaign map and the radical changes brought about by the new game’s battle engine. Crucially, Empire: Total War drags the Total War series a couple of centuries closer to the modern age. The 18th century setting is one of ranked, musket-heavy land armies, rip-roaring sea battles, complex revolutionary politics, and colonial ambition. It’s these two elements, as well as a desire to reflect some of the social changes (hiring generals rather than relying on hereditary feudal heirs, for example) of the 18th century, that motivate the designs implemented by Creative Assembly’s lead on the project, James Russell. We were lucky enough to be able to put some questions to Russell. You can read his rather detailed responses below. RPS: How are the political changes of the era (I actually said 17th century, but I meant 18th century. Sigh!) reflected in your gameplay? Russell: It’s the 18th century: the 1700s. It was a time of tumultuous social change and upheaval, including the American Revolution and the French Revolution. We’ve put a lot of effort into enhancing how public order works, and the game includes unrest due to industrialisation, religious differences and intellectual advances, and different government types which have differing effects on each social class. Each government type has to be played differently if you are to avoid rebellion or revolution and the overthrow of the old order. RPS: What kind of changes have you made to the campaign map when compared to the previous games? Russell: The most obvious difference is the sheer scale of the game world. This was the time when Europe was extending its power across the world, and when the first truly global wars were fought. As well as the European theatre, the campaign map stretches west to include the Caribbean and much of North America and east to include the whole of India, as well as special trade areas such as the East Indies and the Ivory Coast. Another big change is the fact that regions have towns and other resource buildings spread around the landscape, unlike previous Total War titles where all a region’s buildings were contained inside a single settlement. This means you can interact with each region building directly on the map - it also means you can attack enemy towns, farms and other buildings without having to besiege the region capital. Because you can raid and damage a region like this, it becomes more important for defenders to use their armies in defensive manoeuvres rather than just camping inside the city. This also helps improve the variety of battles by reducing the frequency of siege battles. We’ve also centralised some features at the national rather than regional level, which streamlines management for the player by reducing repetition. This allows us to deepen the gameplay at the same time as reducing the management burden. For example, we’ve added a lot of depth to the trade system, and tax levels can be set separately for the ruling classes or the people, with different consequences - but policy is conducted at a theatre level: the player no longer has to make a decision for every single region. RPS: What’s so exciting about all this ship-to-ship combat then, eh? Russell: Naval combat is one of the biggest additions for Empire: Total War. The game is set in the 18th century - the great age of fighting sail, the ideal period in which to introduce naval battles to the series. Battles on the high seas with fleets of ships offers a whole new gameplay experience. Ships play very differently from land units: they have to be manoeuvred with the wind in mind, they fire massive broadsides at right angles to their direction of movement. Ships have hulls, crew, guns, masts and sails, all of which can be damaged separately with different effects, crippling the ship’s ability to move or fire or repel boarders - even sinking the ship, setting it on fire or causing its magazine to explode. We have lots of different types of ships that work in different ways and are suited to different uses. There is a whole set of new tactics to get to grips with to master the naval battles, with lines of battle attempting to ‘cross the T’ and devastate the enemy with raking fire. It all feels very distinct from the land battle gameplay. RPS: And how has combat on the terrestrial battlefield changed for Empire: Total War? Russell: The land battles in Empire have moved on a great deal, and they play and feel very different from previous Total War titles. The most obvious development with 18th century warfare is the growing emphasis on ranged gunpowder weapons: cannons and muskets. The player needs to carefully consider fields of fire and cover. Buildings became very tactically significant on the battlefields of the period because of the cover they provide and in Empire, land units can be positioned inside buildings during battle - though you need to take care as these can be destroyed by artillery. Of course, melee remains an important (and visceral!) part of the combat all the same. We have tried to reflect the development of military technology throughout the century, and you will see soldiers improve their firing drills, and artillery able to fire more devastating high-tech ordnance in battle as a result of your research efforts on the campaign map. Units that are dug in on the campaign map will also (if defending against attack) be able to deploy a variety of defensive features that each offer unique tactical advantages. RPS: When I saw the game in June you mention that the role of generals changed somewhat? Russell: The most distinct change those familiar with previous Total War titles will notice is the new ability generals have to order recruits to reinforce their armies. Instead of having to build armies at different cities and then manually assemble them, you can now order troops directly at the general and they will automatically be recruited at the optimum nearby city and then sent out to join your army as ordered. Of course, you can still do things manually as well. You can also choose to promote a new general from the ranks. RPS: It seems like AI was a big issue for players of Medieval II, can you explain how AI changes will improve play Empire: Total War? Russell: We’ve put a lot of effort into improving how the player’s behaviour impacts diplomatic relations with different AI nations, and into making the AI behave in an intuitive manner. It’s very important for the player’s sense of immersion in a believable world of rival countries that other nations respond in a way that makes sense in terms of how the player has been behaving. For example if you back-stab your allies, the whole world will see you as dishonourable and you will lose friends quickly. Religious and political differences will all impact how the AI views you, as will your alliances and wars with other nations. In addition, different nations will have different personalities with preferences for different kinds of activity - for example a preference for naval power or for research and building up economically. The battle AI has also been much improved and is aware of the significance of the battle in terms of the campaign map context - is the battle a vital fight to the death? Or might a tactical withdrawal be the best tactic if the battle starts to go the wrong way? Different nations will also use different tactics and strategies, which gives battles more variety and makes the AI less predictable. RPS: What aspect of Empire: Total War do you think mainstream coverage will miss out on or ignore? Russell: A lot of coverage is inevitably focused on the graphical advances made by the new engine, and how beautiful the game looks - especially the spectacular naval battles. But in many ways, it’s the multitude of small details that make the game more immersive. Generals developing certain traits as a result of the way you use them. Flag bearers and officers shouting orders on the battlefield. The way your population gets unhappy if you attack a friendly nation but patriotic if you attack a hostile nation. The way a country can become hostile if you’re caught spying, or if you go to war with someone they like; or the way their hostility might soften if you go to war with a country they dislike. These little touches that can really add to the player’s response to playing the game. Even the most cunning player will have lots of interesting new strategies and tactics to explore. Empire: Total War is set for release in February 2009. |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Ah yes, that was one of the FEW=\ updates on the ETW home page.
Thanks Johnny for keeping the forum up to date
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| confused_johnny |
Yeah, the new info releases have been pretty dry on the ground lately.
I think its something to do with xmas perios coming up, companies want people spending there money on whats available, not savin git for whats coming soon. Soon as xmas is gone, guarenteed there will be a steady stream of new info all over the place, as early versions are released to reporters, and the release date looms, CA will try to whip us all into an ETW frenzy. |
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| Dafuge |
http://www.sega.co.uk/empire/gallery/videos.php
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL |
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| General_Vladimir |
Empire Total War: CONTINUED! HOLIDAYS!Hail Warriors of Troy
I am on HOLIDAYS!
So I shall continue this thread with ALL information, previews, screenshots, videos from the past months. But here is a bit of information about the multiplayer which is absolutely fascinating. This shows that it will be run by STEAM NOT GAMESPY!!
WOOOO! Victory! I bet you they saw our petition!
We shall continue the petition, for Rome: Total War and the rest need fixing. I have heard Medieval: Total War 2 has been fixed but still its warranted. Here is the information:
Well guys, all the best and take care, and I shall continue this post-haste now I'm on holidays! I also would like to give a huge thank you to all other Warriors of Troy and friends who posted here while I studied so hard
Emperor Vladimir of the Warriors of Troy |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
We've seen 3 gameplay preview videos (found on the official ETW website): Naval, Land, and Campaign.
Can we speculate on what gameplay videos 4/5 and 5/5 will be? Im thinking Multiplayer/Historic/Non-campaign battles as perhaps one category, but Im stumped about what else they could show us. |
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| Godfather_Arkan |
What Factions are in ETW? and is the multiplayer any different? | ||||
| Godfather_Arkan |
is Serbia a Faction?
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Factions I can think of off the top of my head: Spain, Portugual, The 13 states (USA), Great Britain, France, Holland, Prussia, Sweden, Russia, Zaporizhian Cossacks, Ottoman empire, Germany
There might be a Serbia if it was a major power in the 18th century
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| confused_johnny |
I think the one video left to show will be of the customisable features.
Sega have already said that ETW will be even more moddable than RTW, and will be shipped with modding tools as standard, so maybe they will show a vid of whats included and how it works. Sort of like battle editor on RTW! |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
From the official ETW website
December 12, 2008 Empire: Total War Release Date! We can confirm that Empire: Total War's release date has been moved to March 2009. "The extra development time will allow us to finalise and polish Empire, making it the most accomplished and epic of the Total War series." said Kieran Brigden, Studio Communications Manager at The Creative Assembly. "There is a great deal of anticipation around Empire Total War and we want to ensure that it is the benchmark for strategy games upon its release." Significantly the additional time will also allow us to implement the underlying technology for a much desired feature (thanks to your feedback!); a multiplayer campaign mode. An opportunity to participate in the 1 versus 1 multiplayer campaign mode beta will be made available to all Empire Total War buyers post release. In my opinion this is an overall good thing, I'm happy to wait so this game gets released as good and polished as possible. |
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| confused_johnny |
I hate delays!!!
Youd think they have had long enough to "polish" everything. Also using the excuse of listening to customers demands and including a multiplayer campaign mode at this stage seems shallow. Surely they were listening to customers earlier than this in the development stage. Seems like a lame excuse but, id probably moan more if it was released and it wasnt as good as it could be so........ ROLL ON MARCH!! |
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| General_Vladimir |
Empire: Total War updateHail Warriors of Troy!Thank you for your many posts and updates. I shall now make a comprehensive review of all the things that have been posted about it officially, instead of early hearsay, and thus make a picture of what it will most likely be like. I indeed agree with you Johnny, the more longer they make it and polish it, the better it'd be. I'd hate to buy a total war game that hasn't been polished to perfection
So here goes it. This is the information firstly from the Official home of Empire Total War (http://www.sega-australia.com/empire/):
Information from Wikipedia
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Hail WOT!
Well, on the Empire: Total War official website there have been no updates for over a fornight. However, using the power of telepathy and Google your local Emperor's Consul is here to bring you a bit of gold
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57285 |
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| General_Vladimir |
Awesome movie!Hail Warriors Of Troy, allied Emissiaries, guests, etc.!How are we all? I am well. Wow this movie is absolutely superb!
Thanks for posting it Mehmet! It is absolutely amazing.
I found the movie on youtube so people can watch it directly in this post, so here it is: Link I look forward to Empire: Total War! Only a few weeks now!!! The tactics look superb. The units look they can be commanded much more better then in the previous total war games. It looks fundamentally the same sort of basic tactics - High ground wins the day, flanking but the units look superb. The flashing unit cards put great emphasis that they are being attacked! Soon I shall be putting up some tactics of 18th century armies, and a big one on Napoleon and the research I've done on him during my scholarly studies. I got some really nice pictures as well
Well all the best, get ready for Empire: Total War and keep your basic tactics in superb condition! Emperor Vladimir of the Warriors of Troy |
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| General_Vladimir |
Empire: Total War DemoHail Warriors of Troy, guests and emissiariesThe Empire: Total War demo has come out!
As Quintus has said, the link is here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/10620/ Download it and enjoy! I find it quite awesome, both at land and sea! The skills that can be learnt are immense. I encourage all Warriors Of Troy to download it and train on the tactics. The Infantry tactics are different then the past games because of the gunpowder infantry. It takes a keen eye to see which one fits where. The broadside menouvre at sea is very handy, and the different types of ammunition. All Warriors Of Troy must be proficient in the handling of shipcraft before ETW comes out. Enjoy, train up and let your Hussars charge free, and your artillery shred the dreged enemy with our perilous seeds of Honour! 
Emperor Vladimir of the Warriors Of Troy |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
Hail WOT!
A few minutes ago I found the EuroGamer review of Empire: Total war! For some reason it said it was posted in Febuary 27, but I couldn't find it before =\ Anyway, here it is! http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/empire-total-war-review?page=1 It was generally a great review, however apparently some bugs in stuff like seiges kept it from a 10/10. |
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| MehmetTheGoatherd |
http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/957/957883p4.html
And here's the IGN UK Review! - The video review can be found there too 9.5/10 and editors choice award! And I think we know how stingy IGN is to game reviews xD Looks awsome! |
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| General_Vladimir |
EMPIrE TOTAL WAR IS OUT!Hail Warriors Of Troy!
EMPIRE TOTAL WAR IS OUT!!!
Wooo! It is absolutely stunning and awesome!. I hope everyone gets it. It has been officially added as a game of the Warriors Of Troy on the xfire guild I also made a steam group named The honourable Warriors Of Troy. Check it out
Troy will also be announcing a new rank, I shall be announcing it soon. The New Rank will be: Admiral. This rank will be in the Head Command Auxilliary, on par with General. General will take care of the land battles, and Admirals will take care of the Sea. Admirals of course can take high command of land battles on par with Generals when playing other total war games. Warriors Of Troy will have a choice of which one they would like, as it is at the pinnacle of the Head Command Auxilliary; the only ranks before the Round Table!
Anyway, have fun, keep shooting, and I hope you enjoy this most awesomeness of a game! I know I will try to amidst my 54 hours of study.... Emperor Vladimir!
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| SirSparhawkI |
Hail WOT
I've seen Quitus and Mehmet playing ETW does anyone else play ? add me on steam WOT_Vet_SirSparhawkI look out for Jamesi and russ7165 also - old time WOTs also who are playing ETW regularly |
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