The Update in Empire: Total War Forum

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The Update

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TW Rehab

#21

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Posts: 229

May 12 09 7:16 AM

CA Staff

May 12th

For today's update, Paul on the campaign team has kindly shared the following information on one of the issues we've just got fixed:

Kind regards,
Kieran

---

As many of you will be aware there is currently an issue causing consistent CTDs when selecting certain navies on the campaign map. This is due to a problem with the calculation of the movement extents. Many people are also experiencing substantial pauses when selecing armies and navies on the campaign map. For patch 1.3 substantial parts of the movement extents algorithm have been redesigned and rewritten. This should eliminate the majority of pauses and crashes when selecting armies and navies on the campaign map.

We have started running automated testing on these changes - overnight a script teleported a british brig (joint-highest movement points in the game) to over 270 000 random positions on the campaign map, calculating the movement extents for each point. This was done with all tech researched so the movement extents were as large and as complicated as possible and no crashes were found. Such testing will continue for a while yet - forum reports have focused on first rate ships of the line. Our understanding is that the issue should be slightly worse with brigs than first rates, but we'll be repeating the automated tests with first rates just to be certain.

Just to give a bit of technical information and explain why this issue has taken so long to resolve, Empire as you know uses a completely different movement system to earlier Total War games. Rome and Medieval II used a grid-based campaign system, meaning that every piece occupied exactly one grid square and in one turn could move to one of upto a few hundred other grid squares. Empire is completely free-form. A piece in Empire has on average a couple of hundred trillion (ten to the power of twelve) unique possible destinations it can reach in a turn. As you can imagine, this requires a completely different approach and required us to design and implement a brand new system from scratch with no prior knowledge of where it may be suceptible to failure. We thought we'd addressed all the issues by launch but there's nothing quite like having a few hundred thousand people hammering your systems to highlight the weak spots. So sorry it's taken so long to address but hopefully by patch 1.3 all your fleet selection problems will be solved.

Edited 1 time by TW Rehab May 12 09 7:19 AM.

Jack Lusted

#22

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Posts: 834

May 12 09 8:22 AM

CA Staff

May 12th

For todays second update, just a quick note that I have posted a detailed thread about the next patch land battle balance changes in the multiplayer forums here and at TWC, CSS and .org. Head on over to the multiplayer forums to check them out and to provide feedback.

Thamis

#23

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Posts: 93

May 13 09 6:58 AM

May 13th

Over the last few days I've been playing the game and tweaking economics values. In essence, I've slightly reduced the administration cost and made the economic game a little bit easier on "normal" and "easy" difficulty levels. Also, I've tweaked the AI's economic bonuses so that they will have a more money to spend on an army.

Also, I've tweaked the effects of technology: Some technologies were reducing the upkeep cost of units a little bit too much.

Additionally the diplomatic effect of the faction leader's qualities has increased a little bit.

Jan

Edited 1 time by Thamis May 14 09 9:20 AM.

Thamis

#24

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Posts: 93

May 14 09 9:20 AM

May 14th

We've tweaked the economic situation of minor nations so that you won't see Westphalia parking four 20-stacks in its region anymore. Essentially, minor nations are getting less base income to reflect their actual power.

The problem before was that they got the same base income as other factions, but due to their small size they ran out of buildings to construct and spent all their money on army recruitment. Now they won't be able to do this to ridiculous extents anymore (even though at higher difficulty levels you'll still find them fielding sizeable, but not so ridiculous) armies.

I've just finished a play-through and I have to say the improvement is definitely there.

Jan

Edited 2 times by Thamis May 14 09 9:25 AM.

Jack Lusted

#25

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Posts: 834

May 14 09 9:26 AM

CA Staff

May 14th

Just a short note today on some fixes that have gone in recently for the next patch.

- Various fixes for incorrect audio and for sound problems in general.
- Fix for rotate right and left hot keys not working.
- Fix for battle autoresolving if player exists battle after clicking continue battle.
- Improvements to AI use of fleets and naval invasions.

Edited 2 times by Jack Lusted May 15 09 12:08 AM.

Jack Lusted

#26

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Posts: 834

May 15 09 7:40 AM

CA Staff

May 15th

Hello everyone. For todays update I just want to clarify some things and talk again about some fixes that will be in the next patch.

I have noticed in many forum threads that some people have not picked up on some of the fixes and improvements we have mentioned in previous Daily Updates. This really relates to the following 3 points:

- Fix for majority of pauses/crashes on selecting fleets/ports in late part of campaign.
- Fix for battle AI ending up in melee too often.
- Improvements to how the AI uses naval invasions and wages wars.

I am bringing these fixes up as people may have missed them in the longer previous Daily Updates they were in.

And I would also like to say that the battle AI and campaign AI issues listed above are not the only work we have done on those for the next patch. We are making and will continue to make improvements in all areas of both. We also have a lot of other fixes that will be in the next patch.

Edited 1 time by Jack Lusted May 15 09 7:44 AM.

TW Rehab

#27

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Posts: 229

May 19 09 1:41 AM

CA Staff

May 18/19th

Apologies for the delayed update, we had a migration of our code servers yesterday resulting in some time to get all the code moves sorted.

The multi-threading gains on naval and land battles are now very noticeable. Large scale naval battles have benefited by almost 50% in some cases and land battles are also seeing significant framerate increases, this is because the way the logic and frame drawing interact has been fundamentally changed to take place in parallel.

Another addition in the last day has been the ability for the AI to 'tactically withdraw' during a battle. Before the AI troops rout they are now able to pull back in stages to regroup and attack, rather than than fight to the death or flee once committed. This results in more realistic battles in the sense the AI 'stages' these attempts, so we're now in the process of balancing this. Just to repeat the AI 'melee attack bug' has also been fixed, meaning you no longer have all AI units committing to melee.

More tomorrow.

Kind regards,
Kieran

SenseiTW

#28

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Posts: 1887

May 20 09 9:13 AM

CA Staff and Admin

May 20th

Hi guys,

We will shortly be releasing a number of free new units for Empire: Total War. Today I would like to reveal the first of these - Russian Grenadiers. This new Russian unit is great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch!

The team is still working hard on the next update, and will be implementing many new fixes.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

Edited 1 time by TW Rehab May 21 09 8:48 AM.

Jack Lusted

#29

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Posts: 834

May 21 09 8:12 AM

CA Staff

May 21st

Hello everyone,

Yesterday we announced the first free unit. Today I would like to talk about them. The aim of the free units is to increase the graphical and unit variety of several factions rosters. We will also be using them to introduce more balance variety between factions as well. Some are new, some are replacement for existing units in some factions rosters. There will be 11 free units that have brand new models and textures, there are also several units that already exist in-game but are not used in the release version that are being added into rosters, and some factions will be gaining access to units they currently cannot get.

Some people have been asking why we are working on these free units whilst there are still fixes to be done. The work on the free units is not taking away time for fixes, the free units do not require any work from coders just work by artists and by a designer(me). So we can, and are working both on fixes, and on this extra free content for you all.

TW Rehab

#30

[-]

Posts: 229

May 22 09 8:47 AM

CA Staff

May 22nd

We're currently experimenting with a new campaign AI technique called 'faction focus'. This causes the AI factions to assess certain nations as a threat at startup and then focus their efforts on eliminating or defending against that country. This makes the aggression process more streamlined and more 'proactive' on the part of the AI, in the sense that it makes a judgement on its national neighbours and others and focuses aggression based on that and subsequent world events.

This is in very early stages and is really a test tech at this stage, so we can't say with certainity whether it will make it into any forthcoming update.

We're now entering a British bank holiday weekend which means the next daily update will be posted on Tuesday 26 May. Naturally some of us will be working on fixes and issues over that time. We continue to focus the majority of our effort on addressing the remaining issues with Empire whilst increasing performance.

More details of the free units will appear shortly.

Enjoy your weekends!

Kind regards,
Kieran

TW Rehab

#31

[-]

Posts: 229

May 26 09 9:04 AM

CA Staff

May 26th

Several smaller fixes today including:

1. Battle - Routing units will now no longer seek to garrison structures if they have utterly shattered. This was caused by conflicting priorities.

2. Campaign diplomacy - Repeated make deal/break deal actions by the AI have been eliminated. This was caused by a similair logic issue as the repeated region attempts issue.

3. Campaign diplomacy - Added weight/potency to the 'backstabbing' variable. When AI/player makes an alliance and breaks it shortly afterwards this now has a more significant effect.

4. Campaign map - Trade route bug where small ships indicating trade animations 'jumped' across theatres has now been fixed.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Kind regards,
Kieran

TW Rehab

#32

[-]

Posts: 229

May 27 09 8:05 AM

CA Staff

May 27th

Today's fixes include:

1. Campaign AI - The campaign AI now properly garrisons towns after capturing them, reducing the likelihood of the captured region immediately falling into rebellion. Thereby increasing expand and hold tactics from the AI. This issue was originally caused by improper balancing of future unrest values.

2. Audio - Updated the miles dll in order to fix an issue causing 'popping' sounds on the low pass filter.

3. Audio - Group movement and unit melee sounds fixed so that noticeable phasing is reduced.

4. Campaign AI - Crash bug on AI turn identified and fixed.

There's also a point to be made on AI peace making. It can appear at current that the AI isn't making peace with neighbours. The AI does in fact make peace with other nations, but the player is not notified directly of these events. The status of relationships between AI nations can be found in the diplomatic screens, and AI nations are in fact making peace as well as declaring war. However there is no 'event message' for this.

The balance at which AI nations do this is also being examined, in line with previous updates about 'backstabbing traits' and the like.

Kind regards,
Kieran

TW Rehab

#33

[-]

Posts: 229

May 28 09 8:46 AM

CA Staff

May 28th

Two bigger fixes today:

1. Campaign AI - Turn time resolution has been sped up. We found a logic block in the AI's use of land bridges and removed it. This has resulted in faster end turn times during the AI move calculation phase.

2. Campaign AI - We solved a start state issue where one smaller state started attempting an alliance with another state that didn't recognise it. This resulted in incorect behaviour between the two nations at startup, which has now been fixed.

Naturally this is all inline with everything else being done. We also hope to be able to reveal more details about the upcoming free units shorty.

Kind regards,
Kieran

TW Rehab

#34

[-]

Posts: 229

Jun 1 09 9:49 AM

CA Staff

June 1st:

- Some signficant work on multiplayer campaign beta code today, with some synching issues fixed and UI/game options being 'wired in'. Allowing players to select turn time properly.

- Further additions include new game unit art being integrated into the latest build for the new free units. The replacement units will now override default units for their given faction, giving different nations more variety.

We're also working to get you further details of the free units which will all be released shortly via Steam, they will be worth the wait.

Kind regards,
Kieran

Thamis

#35

[-]

Posts: 93

Jun 2 09 2:33 AM

June 2nd

Testing a multiplayer campaign game...

SenseiTW

#36

[-]

Posts: 1887

Jun 2 09 7:31 AM

CA Staff and Admin

June 2nd:

In other news, the latest version of Update 1.3 has gone into internal testing today.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

Thamis

#37

[-]

Posts: 93

Jun 3 09 8:12 AM

June 3rd:

I've changed the effects of government types in order to balance the game a bit more. We felt that Absolute Monarchy was too strong (due to your ability to perfectly choose and balance your ministers) and Republic too weak (because you can't change your ministers freely). Here are the new government type effects:

**Government Type Effects**
Government	Effect	Value
Absolute Monarchy	Active Lower Class Happiness	-2
Absolute Monarchy	Active Upper Class Happiness	+2
Absolute Monarchy	Land Unit Recruitment Cost	-5%
Absolute Monarchy	Repression	+5
Absolute Monarchy	Research Rate Modifier	-10%
Absolute Monarchy	Town Wealth Growth	-5
Constitutional Monarchy	Clamour for Reform Modifier	-25%
Constitutional Monarchy	Active Lower Class Happiness	+1
Constitutional Monarchy	Active Upper Class Happiness	+1
Constitutional Monarchy	Repression	+3
Constitutional Monarchy	Town Wealth Growth	+5
Republic	Clamour for Reform Modifier	-80%
Republic	Active Lower Class Happiness	+3
Republic	Active Upper Class Happiness	+1
Republic	Repression	+2
Republic	Research Rate Modifier	+5
Republic	Town Wealth Growth	+12

We're currently testing these values and they are unlikely to make it into the next patch.

Jan van der Crabben

Edited 2 times by TW Rehab Jun 3 09 9:05 AM.

SenseiTW

#38

[-]

Posts: 1887

Jun 3 09 9:12 AM

CA Staff and Admin

June 3rd:

Hi guys,

Today we'd like to reveal the second of the free units that we will shortly be releasing. The Holland Guards from the United Provinces are superior line infantry units. Carrying smoothbore muskets, they were traditionally chosen to protect the royal family and have an incredibly high morale, often making them the last troops to break in a fight.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

Edited 1 time by TW Rehab Jun 3 09 9:15 AM.

TW Rehab

#39

[-]

Posts: 229

Jun 4 09 10:40 AM

CA Staff

June 4th:

There's currently a bug in the economic information that's causing a client to desynch with host in the multiplayer campaign but we're close to getting it fixed.

Seperately, Sensei and I managed to play a multi campaign today where we fought together as France and Spain (He Spain, me France) quite succesfully. We had strong early success by ganging up on Portugal, whilst being constantly harassed by the Barbary States and the Pirates.

I dispatched a land army to Spain from Paris to assist in his storming of Lisbon and we lay siege to the city together. Sadly, Morocco took the opportunity to invade from the south and we ended up storming Lisbon, taking casualties in order to free up for the defence of southern Spain.
At this moment the United Provinces declared war on me in Europe, I asked for his assistance and he duly agreed. The meagre forces I had left in Paris rushed to defend Brusells but it was lost to the maruading Dutch.

By clever building I'd managed to access one of the new free units who I pulled into a grand armee and threw at the Dutch, just to hold them from the gates of Paris.

At this stage Sensei deigned to inform me he'd almost lost control of Portugal to rebellion thanks to fleeing to Madrid to see off the Moroccans. Britain inadvertantly assited us by landing an army in Northern Africa and invading Tripoli, halting the Barbary aggression for a while.

But with the United Provinces at the gates of Paris, The Moroccans within spitting distance of Madrid and a turbulant Porutgal we're in for a heavy fight tomorrow. We tested out the save/load facility and will hopefully get a chance to resume our campaign on Friday.

Tomorrows update will be more technical in nature, we just wanted to share a story for this one.

Kind regards,
Kieran

Jack Lusted

#40

[-]

Posts: 834

Jun 5 09 8:09 AM

CA Staff

June 5th:

Hello everyone, today we would like to give you an update on how the next patch beta test is going.

The beta testers have reported much improved battle AI as we have fixed the problem that was resulting in it getting into melee too much in 1.2.

On the campaign AI side they have reported AI getting into less wars, making peace more, keeping allies and when it does wage war doing so more sensibly. This confirms various improvements we have made since 1.2 in our continued effort to improve the AI.

Big performance improvements have been reported thanks to some changes that are in the next patch.

They've also been enjoying the various free goodies that are going to be in the next patch.

Hope you all have enjoyed this update and have a good weekend.

Edited 1 time by Jack Lusted Jun 5 09 8:28 AM.

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