Empires Total War speculation and info

For you guys who dont already know, I thought I should update you. All quotes are taken from posts made by CA staff members on the totalwar forums news and announcements section. http://www.totalwarforums.com/



"Hi guys,

There has been a lot of speculation throughout the community about our forthcoming announcement at Leipzig, and how big the news will actually be. I can confirm that it will be bigger than any announcement we have ever made before, and it WILL involve a new Total War game. And when I say new, I mean NEW.

Stay tuned to TotalWar.com!

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW) "



Its about the next TW game (obviously), and it wont be RTW2 ...



"Hi guys,

I am excited to announce that The Creative Assembly will be at Leipzig on August 23rd with some HUGE news - and it won't be about revisiting Rome...

Take care,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW) "



They've also been droping alot of hints about water...


MikeB wrote:
"I'm kind of intrigued. At last, I'll find out what we're working on! What is it with all the sharks? "

Thamis wrote:
"Yeah, those sharks are freaking me out. Every morning when I enter the office, this huge fishtank full of sharks... :-P "

MikeB again:
"You're going into the wrong office. I wondered where you'd been disappearing to. Our office has the mutant triffids. The "Lithe as a Weasel" office has sharks.

(psst: do you think we've muddied the waters enough yet?) "

SenseiTW wrote:
"And it's a nightmare trying to iron the wrinkles out of my scuba gear..."


Ect... I hope its not a ship based game. They'd really be missing the mark in my opinion. Hopefully that are just tring to throw us off track. Maybe its a WorldTotalWar heehee. What do you guys think? What game would you like to see?
August 23 cant come soon enough!! Then Kingdoms on the 28th...

cool man. I wonder what it could beeee

totally new means totally new, or if totally new they mean totally new rendition of something old. I actually heard somewhere it would be rtw2... but I would love to see shogun more then anything else

I'm thinking actually the next tw will be more modern. Maybe you can be general bush and invade Iraq

I dunno, imo, it'd be nice to finally be able to control naval battles instead of leaving it up to your computer double, which manages to screw most things up. But I'd also be dissapointed if they did NOT include land units.

Well, anyway, I'd like to see Napoleonic Total War. Some poeple don't like the idea of mostly gun units in a total war game. But, the they could compensate by adding beyonet charges, and having some more specialised ranged units with sabers, etc. Maybe they could even include pikemen, I think they were obselete but I'm sure they were still used once in a while, or put on guard duty
But cavalry in that era still mostly used melee weapons in combat, though dragoons and other ranged cav would be a nice addition. That's what I would want, I'd be interested to hear what everyone else wants.

Yeah, Napoleonic era would be sweet. I know I loved the NTW mod for RTW. I bet it will be a Napoleonic Total War with naval battles so they can recreate Admiral Nelson's destrution of the french fleet at Aboukir Bay (Egypt 1799) and the Battle of Trafalgar (England 1805). Both play pivital roles in halting Napoleons expantion across the seas.

Well here it is! Empire Total War. They've been working on it more than a year and should be out in 08. Check it out. Looks amazing. I cant wait.

http://www.totalwar.com/index.html?page=/us/newsandpress/index.html&nav=/us/5/

http://www.totalwar.com/index.html?page=/us/communityandforums/empire.html&nav=/us/6/8/

thats pretty cool, but i was thinking of China, but ships are in it. Am not a guy that like to use guns, and only guns. thats a bummer

Looks like my wish came true
Looking at the images, naval battles will definitely be the highlight. I'm especially happy that you can see the men in the ships, it will be fun to watch them run around while dodging cannon fire!

Well i my change my mind as soon as the demo come. I can change

More info:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/815/815233p1.html

And still more:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/empiretotalwar/news.html?page=1&sid=6177177

that looks amazeing to me.I will get it for sure.I wont give up on mtw2 or kingdoms but its nice to have a choice.

This looks awesome ...I would like to try it.

Whoa! Check out these sweet pre-alpha sreenshots from a german web site.






Check out these men garrisoned in a three or four story building.



Ship interface.



Some colonial units.



Even if you dont know german you might want to take a look. Heres the site. http://www.gamestar.de/magazin/heft/thumbnails/

Hmm, if the total war series continues the way it does, perhaps we will see some WWI and WWII action in a few years...YAY

Maybe the next evolution will be to take the units out of the rank and file formations of all the previous eras and into the more moble, more spead out and take cover nature of modern wars. That would be cool. Did anyone play any of the close combat series? I think it went up to IV but I'm not sure. It was like that and alot of fun but it was all from a top down perspective.

I remember peasants, gladiators, and other of those kind of units used to be a spread out, round formation, something more like modern infantry uses to move about.

However, when moving in large formations, even our modern infantry uses filed formations of 4 ranks of 12 men deep, with a commander of some-sort. So, they need different formation options, I agree.

Well, I got my issue of PC Gamer, and they cover Empires
So, while I can't just copy it all onto here, I can just give out the important facts.

:New engine will use ragdoll physics
Cannonballs will go through men
People will be thrown around, leave bloodsmears, etc.
Hints that horses may be thrown into men (as in killed while charging)
New physics allow you to watch buildings be brought down, one cannonball at a time.

:Campaign will focus more on GLOBAL domination.
Emphasizing trade and the like may be more important then just dominating your neighbors.
To go with the above, instead of just dominating your neighbor you could take India and gain all the goods and wealth instead.

:Fighting will have a different "Rock paper scissors"
Formations will be the counters instead of unit types.
Block beats cavalry charges, while line beats block, but column beats line, while cav charges beat both block and column.
Timing is also very important.
Shooting at the right time will define your volleys effectiveness.
Quote "Let off muskets too late in the face of a cavalry charge and you've got every chance of being crushed by a flying dead horse."


:Naval Combat!!!
As mentioned, you will be able to board enemy vessels, but you will also be able to target individual aspects of the enemy ship. You can fire at the sails/masts, the hull, or the men on the deck. You also have the ability to chose the type of shot your using.


:Civilizations.
Haven't mentioned the smaller ones, but they have mentioned the obvious choices.
Great Britain, Spain, France, The German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Colonial Army (America).
The game will also depict slavery, but since it could possibly be a sensitive matter, you won't be able to use it as a gameplay feature....It will be included though.'


Hope this answers some questions

-TNA
P.S. By the way, inactivity is due to the lack of players still playing the original MTW2, so I probably won't be joining on any multiplayer fighting with you guys, I'll just hang around the forums till Empires is realeased.

That Empires is looking better and better, I will definatley get it.

p.s TNAdd, many still play the normal mtw2 and when we see you or any others on we can jump off kingdoms to join you.

Check out this three minute interview http://uk.gamespot.com/video/942966/6191130/empire-total-war-interview-1

good stuff.

AH YA! Winter '08!

More info from this article. http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=242108

Some of the highlights..

"The broadest (change) 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."

"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."

And my favorite..
"And, surprisingly, the minimum system requirements will be fairly low; a decent machine from two years ago should do the trick."

Minimum System Specs!
By popular demand, here are the minimum specs for Empire: Total War:

2.4Ghz single core processor
256MB Gfx card (DX9 compaitble)
1GB RAM (For XP, 2GB if using Vista)

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.

An interview about the online campaign beta and the single player campaign http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/947/947399p1.html