The guns are on carriages that roll back when fired, just as land-based artillery of the time. This is actually used to bring the muzzle back inside the ship to facilitate reloading. While there are cables that limit the carriage movement, I doubt that there’d be enough recoil force left when the carriage hits the end of the lines for it to be an issue, even with a simultaneous broadside.
Both tactics were used. Sometimes a rolling broadside was used, sometimes a single massive broadside.
Looks like it’s still on for release tomorrow…though I won’t be in town to get my copy most likely. :(. Hopefully some of you will get your copies and let the resu of us know.
-XT
Well, it seems steam backpedaled on it’s pre-loading promise. No pre-loading for Steam buyers AND we get to activate the game almost a day after those who purchased retail.
Apparently this is pissing off the Europeans who payed more than they would have at retail (I still don’t understand why Valve doesn’t take into account exchange rates) due partly to the preloading and early activation that was promised in the adverts.
Oh well, I wouldn’t have had much time to play today and tomorrow anyway so it’s fine by me. I think 'm going to play as the British first and rule the waves!
And Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
I think I’m going to play as Prussia and grind Europe under the heel of my boots.
I played the demo a couple of times and was (more than) a little bit disappointed by the ennemy AI, as well as by my units making dumb things. For instance:
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I sent my cavalry chasing a routing unit which was completely alone. Easy kill, I thought. Now there happened to be a line of wooden pikes on the ground. Definitively meant to protect against cavalry. Well, what happened ? My cavalry went straight though it and half of them died on the spot ! Couldn’t you expect them to have enough common sense to either slow down or go around the pikes ? Cavalry units are tricky enough to control in TW: you have to be permanently checking that they don’t get isolated and attacked. But if you cannot even trust them to run 100 metres in an ennemy-free zone without impaling themselves, they are going to be impossible to use.
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I had some ennemies units doing aberrant things in the demo. After I cleared a field of a pack of ennemy infantry, I was regouping and bringing my artillery. when suddently an ennemy cavalry popped up from a forest, didn’t attack one of my units who turned its back to it but rather went marching in the middle of my lines ! Needless to say it was quickly dealt with. Another ennemy cavalry came and stopped in the middle of the field, all alone, just out of the range of my infantry lines ! Well, 10 s later my lines were 10 m forward and there was nothing less of the cavalry. And at this point, 2 ennemy artillery units arrived, pulled by their horses. One began to settle just out of range of my mousquets (again !), the other went marching right in the middle of my lines (ja again !). Both were dealt with very soon, at which point I won the battle.
So, was it just an accident ? Am I the only one who experienced that ? Did I distrurb the AI by dispatching its infantry (and btw, this was very easy to do) ? Did they put the AI on “miserable idiot” mode in the demo ? Of couse I don’t expect the AI to be the sharpes stratege in the world, and ridiculous attacks by isolated ennemy units were common in RTW. But with the firepower of muskets, it should be time for the computer to realize that you don’t come anywhere near 500 muskets when you are alone.
So, I’ll give the demo one more try and wait for feedback on the full version.
Ships some times fired rolling broadsides because firing all guns at once put too great a strain on the frame of the ships. This was true for older ships who might have been upgraded with larger guns than it’s design originally called for. Ships also might fire guns one at a time because they were firing at a moving ship that was coming in to their field of fire as it moved and finally some ships might fire a rolling broadside because they had smaller crews who were working more than one gun.
I noticed that it’s not going to be available on Direct2Drive until tomorrow afternoon. Anyone have a pre-order yet? I checked the local software store here in town and they don’t have any available…I haven’t seen if the GameStop in my town has my own pre-order yet since I won’t be able to pick it up until Friday.
-XT
I stopped at Future Shop who didn’t have it and had no idea when they might, and then EB where I was told it was delayed till the 11th. Dunno.
Well, D2D will have it for download tomorrow, so I doubt EB is correct there. THEY might not have it until the 11th, but I don’t think it was delayed. I’ll swing by the GameStop that is near my hotel on my way there tonight and ask them what the deal is.
-XT
Yep, M2TW has the same issue. I’ve lost generals because I’m trying to move him back behind my lines and his unit makes a beeline for MY OWN STAKES and kills himself on them.
The Creative Assembly just doesn’t learn.
I’ve actually never had that happen to me. Weird. I’ve mostly found the movement AI, aside from the cavalry charge thingy, fairly good.
-XT
I’ve always found that you have to be extra vigilint trying to move your cavalry away from spear or pike units because the AI will try to charge your cavalry right at them instead of retreating. Part of it may be due to the “impetuous” trait, but I’ve had it happen with garden variety cavalry.
Yes, I’ve had that happen as well. Seems fairly realistic too considering the French noble cavalry. I’ve just never had my guys run through my own stakes and kill themselves.
-XT
I called my local Gamestop where I have my copy preordered, and they won’t have them until about 11-12 tomorrow.
PC gaming is ghetto. 
I called the three nearest Gamestops and they all said “PC Game? Unless you ordered it, we won’t carry it.” (Same thing they said when GTA4 came out for PC, which broke many (all?) sales records at its console release.) Walmart told me “Nope, we won’t be carrying it”, in spite of having promo materials up with today’s date on them… I shoulda known better. I never go there, but heard they were selling it today. Target has signs up with March 5th on them. Did Creative Assembly botch the release or what?
I know, I know … Steam etc… But I decided I want to own the disc. They sure don’t make it easy. And I heard Steam wasn’t exactly on time either.
Oh well. At least the demo is still fun the 10th time.
ETA: Best Buy failed too. fuckers.
I think I’ll wait a bit and see if the game shows up at the Office Depot near my house. You know, for tax purposes.
Retailers usually get it the day after it’s official release, unless it’s a small shop catering to PC gamers who might have gone fr faster shipping.
The retail space for Pc gaming is very small. Consoles are the opiate of the masses and so more room is dedicated there because, for retail, at least, that’s where most of the money will come from.
That’s ok, online retailers will happily sell you a copy and even brick and mortar stores WILL carry the game, regardless of what clueless retail monkeys will tell you over the phone.
I think PC games are still the most popular around here. While you see a lot more console games around here than you used to, the wall at my nearby computer shop still has more computer games on it than everything else put together.
I bought it today from my local Game store. Installing it as we speak.
I’ve never had any problem getting games on the day of release (in England). The PC section of Game is definitely shrinking but it still has all the new releases and chart toppers.
PC games are still top dog in retail in Europe and Asia. It’s different in the states where downloads and online retail sales are growing more and more popular.