Have you checked your firewall settings? It’s possible you are blocking some key ports. Also, do you have a soft firewall on your system? That can also cause a lot of problems. Same goes with your anti-virus program…it might be blocking you as well.
I’m sorry you can’t get a hold of tech support…I know that would be pissing me off to no end. I’m not a big fan of this Steam system (or Windows Live) either, so you have my every sympathy.
I’ve ran into some fairly serious bugs in the game as well. I’m playing through the US campaign and every time I try to move a general into a fort the game blows me out to desktop. I can take a fort with a stack and the General goes in fine, but when I attempt to send a general to a distant fort (just click on it even though the general can’t make it in a single turn anyway) the game blows up. I’ve also had it blow me to desk top several times during sea battles, and some of the larger land battles have dragged to the point where you can’t even move a unit on the battle map. I’m hoping this is all due to the laptop I’m trying to play this on, and is not a more general bug. If it is, it’s going to be a show stopper until they get it fixed.
It’s a REALLY cool game…but it’s highly flawed it looks like. Though again, this may just be the system I’m currently playing it on.
Of the error or just in general? I could probably do some screen shots of the game from the laptop but they would probably look much like what you would see on any gaming site. I don’t notice any difference in graphics from what I’ve been seeing either from the demo or from the screen shots I’ve seen on GameSpy.
As for the error, there doesn’t seem to be anything specific…the screen just goes white and I get a Microsoft popup box informing me that a serious error has occurred and dumping me to desktop. I just had it happen again in fact…this time when an Indian tribe declared war on me. I’m starting to think I’ll have to bag the campaign and see if the regular game works any better.
Just normal gameplay; I was curious to see if it looked any different on a normal machine than promotional screenies which have probably been taken on custom machines, so your reply fills me with hope.
Looks the same. I have the water and land details dialed way back and am running it at a lower resolution than at home, and it still looks pretty good. My issue is the blowing up part…just happened again so I’m getting ready to call it a night I think. I’m beyond the edge of bummed out at this point…this was THE big game of the year for me and judging by what I’m seeing right now it’s going to be a while before it actually works right.
Ok so I stopped playing for the night on what was my second night of playing. Some observations:
The AI, although a vast improvement on the Medieval II AI is still not that great. First, it’s too passive. Sometimes there are flashes of brilliance, like sneaking around a unit of calvary around to flank me, or sending a unit of hiding skirmishers to fire off some lead behind my lines. But it doesn’t commit any significant force to these types of maneuvers. If instead of one calvary unit it would send a division it would force me to turn to face the new threat, and then the AI would be able to hit me hard with it’s main army. But that never happens, it’s always one, maybe two units and they get slaughtered before any significant damage is inflicted on my forces. Also, it doesn’t seem to handle being outclassed very well. When it has a horde of non missile units, instead of either deciding that well there’s a lot of missile units against me, I can’t win, let me withdraw, or ok No missile units on my side but I can inflict some heavy damage by charging these colonials, instead it just sits there getting pounded by my rank and file. Either flee or attack!
I’m still on the Road to Independence Campaign so far, but I’m really liking both the design of the campaign map, and how the new zones of control work. It’s also easy to see the status of your lands at a glance as well as what places can be upgraded.
Siege battles are rarer now. Most conflict takes place out on the field since resource points can be damaged/taken over by enemy troops. I love this. I hated the fact that Medieval II turned into siege battle after siege battle.
I’ve experienced two crashes to desktop so far. Once while on the Campaign map. I think I was combining stacks. another time was while on a sea battle and tried to board a ship.
The graphics are great although the LOD on the troops switches to a very very low poly texture way too soon. It shouldn’t do this until the troops are farther away. I’m running the game at 1920x1200 (native monitor rez) @ 8x AF and 2X AA with everything on high except textures, sky, troops and water which I have at ultra, and shadows which I have at medium. I get a nice smooth frame rate on most battles.
System specs:
i920 CPU @ 3.4 Ghz
6 Gigs of RAM
GTX 285 @ 700 mhz/1300 mhz
Vista 64 bit.
I noticed this laptop has an older version of the NVIDIA drivers for the 9X series for laptops, so going to try and upgrade the drivers and see if that matters. It’s possible it’s a video problem. I’m not sure what version I’m running at home for that matter, but it’s probably a few months out of date.
I’m changing my impression to a hearty “meh.” The time between turns and battle loading screens take to long for my taste. Plus, it isn’t very impressive when I have battles between 40 and 20 guys, plus a cavalry regiment of 15 men.
I need to figure out how to upgrade my computer, then I think that’s when the game will shine.
Well my Road to Independence campaign on the customers laptop is totally hosed at this point. I was relying on the autosave feature and every reload I have a Native American diplomat attempting to declare war on me…and that blows out the game to desktop every time. Not that it matters as I’ll be home tomorrow to try it myself, but it’s kind of annoying and doesn’t bode well if the same thing happens on my computer as well. I started a grand campaign last night (American wasn’t available yet of course) as the Brits and that was fairly fun (no problems…yet). I’m not sure exactly what I’m supposed to do with some of the units or the strategy yet. There are units called Indiaman trade ships but havent figured out how to use them optimally yet. Also, at the beginning of the game they said I need to move into India asap but no idea how to accomplish that with my current income and force levels. I don’t have a lot of troops OR ships. Also, I’m unsure of what tech trees to research (though I think this is a great addition to TW, making it similar to Civ).
Anyway, I’m going to continue to play tonight and see how it goes.
And clueless too. Most of the preteens working at these retail stores wouldn’t know a PC game if it hit them in the face. but they know all about the latest wii fit peripheral or the newest plastic guitar out for Rock Band.
::Sigh:: so it goes.
Even with it’s flaws, I’m really liking this game. I find myself developing tactics and plans in my head through out the day. I just saw a short you tube video of a guy in a multi-player match with an interesting tactic:
The two main armies were arranged along a valley, each about three ranks deep. Whilst their calvary, artillery and some scout units fought each other in the peripheral areas trying to outflank one another the main armies traded fire across the valley at musket range.
The one guy though would constantly bring in his rear most line to the front, relieving his front line. This was done really easily through the movement keys at the bottom right of the screen.
It was really cool to watch as the first line would unload a couple of volleys while the third rank moved forward, and they unloaded and so on. It unfolded like an action scene right of some classic war movie.
I love the slow motion button as well, especially for ship battles. It’s sort of like the old TW games where you had a slider bar for speed instead of settings. I like putting the game in slow motion when I’m in close combat movement phase, then resetting to normal or even fast speeds for other things.
Some of this game is really great. In fact, a lot of it is…except the constant (for me) blowing out to desktop and the fact that my campaign is so hosed I’d have to start it again if I were actually playing it on my own system. I haven’t noticed that the load times for battles is excessive…seems about the same as for MTWII. The turned based part of the game for the computer turns does seem a bit long, and you have to pay attention to the computers movements throughout, especially if you are at war, as it seems troops can move a lot further than they could in previous games. I do like the way farms and mines can be attacked and rendered useless to the enemy…I’ve been using a lot of cavalry detatchments in the enemies rear to disable their resources. Usually they can run away from any heavy formations, and if it’s not a heavy formation I can fight it out fairly well. It’s worth the risk.
I also love the new recruitment and reinforcement system. I love that I can recruit troops directly to a general and they will build and then march across to meet the army. I also love that I can replenish damaged units while in the field. Also, I like how you can recruit new generals for your armies instead of having to wait to see who is born or who marries into your royal family. It gives you a bit more control of that aspect.
I just want to chime in about the Steam problems (no I don’t have a solution) I had a bit of a time getting it installed as well. I finally after a few attempts found it better to start steam and have it running before I started the install process. Seemed to work much better then when the install process attempted to start it.
Re-did Bunker Hill and won. I moved quicker to destroy the artillery and was more careful with my General. Still a pretty close battle. Clearly I don’t really understand gunpowder units yet. Too bad there’s not a achievement for that. “Alternative History Major” Or something.
It’s worth the risk of one of your cavalry units to take that Brit artillery unit out of action (though I managed to get mine back with only modest losses). I think when I re-do it again (I’ll have too when I get this on my own system) I can do it without losing the arty battery I lost in the center. I wasn’t paying attention and I ended up having a roving Brit cav unit come right up from behind to take the arty battery in the rear just as they were pushing up infantry in the center (before that the grape shot from the arty battery was keeping them pretty well suppressed).
I just hope I don’t run into the same issue with the game blowing me out to desktop in the campaign when I get this on my own system. I think you have to play through this campaign to unlock the US faction…and even if not, what I DID play of the campaign was pretty fun and I want to play it through to the end.
I’m having fun overall. Just reached Bunker Hill this morning. I guess I’m lucky that my only real problem was finding a retail store that carried it. The install tried to fake me out, but it worked out OK. I put the disc in and Steam brought up the “Buy it Now!” page. I closed Steam, tried again and it auto-installed fine. I can understand the complaints though. My Steam didn’t work for a while last year, and I’d be pissed it if hadn’t fixed itself.* I have only crashed 2-3 times, and nothing consistent. Although once was the only time I tried a MP quick land battle… so I’m a little worried about trying again.
My only complaint so far would be the campaign AI. The battle AI seems better (the only difficulty setting available is labeled something like “Battlefield Difficulty”). For every time I’ve been impressed by the battle AI, the campaign AI has pulled some self-destructive stunt. I did have some of the cavalry-spike trouble mentioned above though. (“wtf, how did my general die before anybody engaged?!”)
The nice part of Steam is that once you get through installing, you’re free. I like owning the disc but not needing it. Xtisme, I think you could install it on your home computer before buying, and just run your customer’s Steam ID. When you buy it for yourself, install your copy with your ID.
How’d you queue them that way? And I haven’t quite mastered Repairs yet. I guess you have to be in a fort to start them? And it takes 2 turns? What if I move the army? I had a couple situations where I paid for repairs but either due to timing or movement they didn’t work out. I haven’t figured out why.
*Steam was messed up due to the MSIE proxy settings being incorrect. I never use MSIE, so I would not have known why had Steam not told me how to fix it one day out of the blue.
I hope the cavalry charge impact feels more like rome and less like medieval 2. Medieval 2 cavalry kinda pranced up and lightly tapped on the enemy’s shoulder, as if to say “excuse me, is this seat taken?” Rome cavalry charges launched infantry a good thirty yards on impact.
Tye are built at the nearest fort or city, but you actually can create them right from your generals army screen. Just go to the recruit army tab (I don’t remember exactly what it’s called but it’s the same thing as in a city or fort) and you can queue them up exactly the same. They will then march off to meet your general and his army when they complete.
As for repairing, just click on the busted up unit and then click the top button on the right (don’t remember what it’s called…something like reinforce unit or repair unit). It takes a couple of turns to bring them back up to full strength but they do it automatically (assuming you don’t get into another fight in the mean time and get them all broken up again).
You should be able to move fine while units are under repair and, afaik, the units you buy directly from the generals army tab will move to meet you, even if you move the stack.
My advice is to start with the Brits. Since their core territories are protected by water you don’t have to worry about having someone over run you right off the bat. That will give you time to spin up in the main game which is fairly different than (at least my own) experience in the US campaign.
I can’t play it, I deleted it, now it says I cannot install it again. I can’t contact anyone to fix the problem, I can’t find any solution on the Empire message boards, I don’t even feel I should HAVE too.
I would scream at someone responsible, if they had a phone number.
