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Dear All,

We have indeed been watching and reading all the threads, including this one. And it is a good example of constructive criticism and feedback. If we havn't been as attentive of late it's because the majority of CA staff are working on the patches and overseeing the community beta testing process too. However threads like this one do get read and, if you'll allow me, responded to.

Let me say right off the bat that Empire: Total War is a pretty good game. Great, even, at times. The tech tree, regions, towns, diplomacy, tactics etc. are all good ideas. There is a lot to like, and a lot of promise. But let me immediately follow that with this: It is unfinished, it was rushed, and you (CA, SEGA), know this. The evidence is clear, but I'll post some of the things I've noticed, read, and found just in case there are some who don't know. Consider this "constructive" criticism, I guess.

Thank you for the balance in this statement, we appreciate the feedback on the elements you like or would like to see further developed. I'd like to expand on a few points if I may: Empire is not, 'unfinished'. The features we intended to include upon release are all there, and we've got a good spread of the things we wanted to include for the project overall. There are balance, gameplay and bug isues to address. There is no point denying this, and there's no point in hiding the fact that Empire has some code hitches. We are addressing these as fast as we possibly can, and trying to take in as much feedback from the community as is possible in allowing us to test and fix these issues. What I would stress, and relevant to your later point, is that it is a minority of people experiencing these issues. That minority is naturally more vocal as they have good reason to be. However just because it is a minority does not mean we take the issues any less seriously. We are working as hard on this as if it were all of our fans experiencing issues. At risk of turning this into a soundbite I'd like to say again that as far as CA's concerned a game sold is not a game forgotten.

-Playable "non-playable" factions. What's this mean? Well, people have been poking around in the files, unlocking nations, and have found at least two surprising well-done nations. The Mughals for instance, have their own advisor voice-over/intro, many unique units, a video all to themselves (for their demise), and generally it looks like they could easily have been made a playable faction, indeed, were intended to be, but for whatever reason were not finished. The Italian states are another example, though they are not as robust. They have a unique unit roster, very well done units, a good setup, etc. Practically all that is missing is the advisor intro that the playable nations have.

This is quite correct. A number of extra nations where playable at the outset but these choices were later reduced, not for time reasons but for gameplay reasons. When we design a TW game, each faction must be unique enough that it feels different, that it plays its own story (According to your hands). We don't want any faction to feel like a carbon copy of the other, or to upset the balance by being poorly introduced to the game world. Design decisions were made at various stages in the project not to include factions who had had work put into them as they would not fit this criteria. We recognise some may disagree or just want 'more choice' but Empire is a labour of love and we didn't just want all these nations playable out of the box if we couldnt apply individual balance and a unique experience to each of them.

-Gameplay Features that are there, but just not implemented. Finding a workable family tree with an icon for a button that should be on the campaign map and plenty of code in the game files pertaining to it would fall under this category. We've probably all seen the message about "a new heir has been born securing the line to the throne blah blah blah", and wondered…."What….? Where….?" Well, it's all in there! There's code for successions to the throne, family feuding, assigning a different heir. What fun! There are others but that one takes the cake for me.

This is as above. There are features that were removed for gameplay and design reasons. Where we felt something had been implemented but perhaps didn't properly 'fit' the experience or did not add anything to it, whilst adding another layer of difficulty it was made redundant. There are some examples of features that went in very early into Empire's creation that were later dropped for gameplay or time reasons, but these are deliberately ommitted. Nothing here is 'half finished' or 'incomplete' these features or factions are deliberately not in place. This is because of decisions made at a project level.

-Game ruining bugs. Any graphics problems, sound problems, Steam problems (I love Steam btw…TF2 anyone?), CTD problems, etc. can and have ruined the game for many people(see all the posts). It wouldn't even matter if the sheer volume of posts ends up being a minority, it is still a problem that could have been avoided, sorry. I've had a relatively stable time of E:TW and yet have had some crashes and reboots that inevitably kill my immersion and can ruin the game(until I start playing later, that is).

This is a sensitive issue and one we don't wish to pretend doesnt exist. Does Empire cause issues for some players and not others? Yes. Empire went through testing at every stage of development, every internal build of the game (Right from the beginning) that was created was tested on a large variety of hardware and software. We have a large QA team inside CA itself, and an even larger one is used at SEGA. Both of these teams worked very hard (Overtime and Christmas included) to test Empire prior to release. There are several reasons for Empire containing issues upon release and we'd like to outline some of these, none of these are excuses and you'll see in a moment how we intend to address these problems, but we'd like to clarify how some of these came about.

i. Compatability vs depth - Empire is a massive game. A massive, massive game. With trade systems, AI, naval, land and campaign systems, diplomacy, graphics and the like it is several projects in one. Every single one of these things is a variable. When you add in all the potential variables and potential hardware combinations they can run on you come out with a massive potential issue list. This is impossible to test fully before release. For example on a Vista 64 system using Winzip and with Steam running whilst Word is open on a blank macro with France in turn 112 when a Dutch ship raids a Spanish port and a Bavarian rake assasinates an Austrian general called Claus the game CTD's. (Please note thats a hypothetical example) but the point there is the potential interplay between game factors and user software/hardware combinations is massive. We do our utmost to examine all game related issues and indeed test across hardware but a truly exhaustive test is simply impossible.

ii. Future technology - One thing people sometimes forget when dealing with computer games over movies, or other entertainment products is their attempts to push technology forward. You'll often see many comparisons such as 'I wouldnt see an unfinished film'. Firstly, as you're all aware, games are interactive. The interactivity of entertainment media adds an entirely new and infinite depth to them. Potential user actions: some people will duly follow tutorials and behave in expected patterns others will stick the mouse up their nose, press windows constantly and turn the screen on and off, expecting it to do something. I'm being fecetious, but serious in the main message. Add to this that Empire genuinly attempts to do more than technology has done before. One of the most exciting things about working in games on PC at this time are the possibilities. The programmers here are CA are incredibly talented people who constantly come up with new ways to draw this or that object faster, or present this shadow more fully or have the general behave more realistically, the ocean surface and so on. We could play it safer, thats true. We could not try for the next thing, we could not aim to push the boundaries forward in how bouyancy is calculated or what waves should look like, but if we did that, ultimately we're not challenging ourselves or entertaining you. We recognise that this push for the next thing can cause unexpected results for some people, but again we test fully as we go and any isues that come about we are dedicated to fixing as soon as we physically can.

-Annoying Bugs. I never know if boarding will work properly so I avoid it now. After losing a fully manned fourth rate to a half manned sloop in boarding action(numbers remained static for about two minutes then my fourth rate broke away, routed, lost half its men, and sank). That's a huge part of sea battles that I don't even try anymore because of a bug. No sea invasions by the AI. AI way too defensive at all times unless you have a city with nobody in it (even if they couldn't see from FoW), and then they suddenly find a will to live. Trade spamming (I want your city this turn….and the next….and the next, ad infinitum). ETC. you get the idea.

A number of these smaller bugs have already been addressed or are being addressed currently, specifically the boarding issues, Naval Invasions are also being fixed and the campaign AI, well, the beta testers are reporting a huge change in their aggression on the next patch. We appreciate there will always be people who take the stance that 'these things should have been done before release' and thats a valid viewpoint. All we can do as a developer here is ask for your understanding as a community based on all the things we want to achieve and hope you'll stay with us for. Critically I'd ask that you judge us by our actions. We have been working very hard to support Empire post release and this will continue, with large gameplay upgrades followed by hotfixes followed by upgrades and so forth. The first major gameplay upgrade is currently in beta testing and we're seeing very positive results.

So before I get carried away and post the little bugs, or the other annoying bugs, or the minuscule bugs, I'll stop myself and get to my point. Why did you let this happen CA? You already delayed the game before because presumably it wasn't done, and yet all these things must have been known by you, and you released it anyways (even with a day 0 patch!). I think the problem might be SEGA and arbitrary deadlines. The inane marketing of the Special Forces, was most likely SEGA. They probably wanted it out by Christmas but thank goodness someone at CA had the kahones to delay them. It's too bad they couldn't delay them until the summer to release a proper TW game.

This is an understandable reaction and I'd like to do my best to explain it if possible. Essentially we didn't let this happen as it appears. We thoroughly tested Empire on a huge range of computer specifications and software setups. Empire was tested in house right up until the minute of release, and was passed by both SEGA and CA QA authorities. This doesn't mean the game is bug free, it just means it's not been recognised to have critical issues across a variety of platforms. Post release we became aware very quickly that there were problems on certain hardware setups, that's when the technical support of hotfix-patch cycle was put into action. We are all gamers. We know how frustrating it is to pick up a new title, one that you've waited for, and get it home only to have it not work as you hoped. We won't ignore that there have been issues on certain platforms since release, and we're working hard to fix these. What I can say is that Empire was not pushed out the door or forced out by SEGA or CA. We need to focus on supporting Empire now it's out, and that's what we intend to do. Again, please, judge our actions on this one and hopefully you will not find CA wanting.

So now instead we have a good game that makes us all scratch our heads and wonder what could have been. You've lost some customers, even if I don't truly believe most of the "I'm returning this game right now!" posts, but more importantly you've lost respect…..again. MTW2 was pretty bad, but Kingdoms made up for it and people forgave. You promised an awful lot with E:TW and at least for the time being, have dashed many peoples' hopes for "game ultimate strategy game". So, was it SEGA? If not then why did you do it CA? Trust me, your fans wouldn't have cared if the release were delayed a few months if the end result had everything that seems to be missing. What maybe these companies don't understand, is that the backlash of the community towards an unfinished product is far greater than the annoyance and anxiety of a delayed release.

In an ideal world we would develop forever, a game would have infinite funding and an eternal development cycle, we could explore everything we ever wanted to do and create it, but the ultimate purpose of a game is to be released and enjoyed. We know there are those who feel that Empire wasn't at the standard they expected and as such have decided not to support CA further. What I would say is as above, we would like to be judged by the way we support Empire after release. Your investment in our game is still valuable to as, our time and lives went into it and so did your money. We will continue to support it, therefore if you feel you can stick with us then thank you.

So in closing, and reading back, I didn't nearly cover all that I wanted to but it was getting a little long in the tooth, so meh. I just want to say that the game is good, but I am not naïve. I can read, I can look around, and I see that there is a lot of work to be done. There are already grumblings from the community of "Great, now we have to fix CAs mess again." Is that the legacy this company wants? Look at Firaxis games (Civ 3, Civ4), some of the greatest strategy games ever made and some of my favorite games of all time. Yet, they are horrible at patching their games(on time, and in full). Colonization doesn't even have a patch yet and it's approaching a year old! The Civ4 expansion BtS was notorious for community made patches and fixes, and still is. Don't go down that route. I really think you should ditch SEGA and get back to a 3rd party publisher like Activision used to be. Don't let the deadline or focus on wealth rule your product, or you will lose your product.

SEGA have bought Creative Assembly, we are a studio owned and operated by SEGA. Our approach with Empire has been to aim for the sky, I appreciate in some peoples eyes we've got as far as the horizon or perhaps even the field, but we won't stop just because the game has been released. We think it's great now, but that it could be magnificent in time. Therefore for those of you who are still concerned, please treat this as stage 1 of the launch, the booster rockets fall away and we now drive stage 2 with the fuel of patching and support. A clunky metaphor but one that hopefully indicates that we're as dedicated to seeing Empire succeed post release as we were beforehand.

For those of you who decide you don't wish to be part of TW's journey any longer our thanks for your time to date and your support, it means a lot. For those of you who have shown constructive criticism and are still supporting Empire and working with us, thank you, we owe our continued effort and employment to you and we won't forget it.

Kind regards,
Kieran