Empire: Total War Heaven

lol Daelon I'm pretty sure CA loves it when their fans just can't wait for their game, even a small demo of it, to come out...

lol rob why didnt you just buy a bigger HD?

Honestly though I just can't wait to play it lol. The game is coming out in a little more than 2 weeks and no demo yet?

It's three weeks, actually. That doesn't make this whole information/demo blackout any less annoying, though. I expect to hear something from them tomorrow or Wednesday, and maybe we'll get the demo on Friday.

Shame, twcenter doesn't seem to want to work on my computer, is anyone else having problems going there? Oh well, at least the weather's nice...

I think the the demo will come out no later then next Wednesday, which is like 3 weeks before the game comes out

Shame, twcenter doesn't seem to want to work on my computer, is anyone else having problems going there?

They are having server problems.

I'm philosophical. The demo will be out when it's out but once it is......

COME ON!

I think they've taken too long. What is this about making us subscribe to SEGA and then taking this long to release the demo. The anticipation is now turning into indifference...

The anticipation is now turning into indifference...

For you maybe

There are still 3 whole days left of the week.

The longer you wait in anticipation for the demo, the closer yoyu get to the release of the whole game......why complain.

I'm not sure if I will play the demo. It will probably be 1.5-2GB download (I only get 15GB a month and 10GB was used downloading 5 ghost recon games), and in the past I have only gone on to buy less than half a dozen games after playing the demo.

I want to play, but like a good wine, sometimes its better to wait.

Hey why do you only get 15 GB a month?

2 week ago I check mines email everyday now two day once

My bet is this Friday... anyone agree?
I mean most of us has Feburary vacation off from school (in the US)

I dont know about you people in GB and Australia though.

February vacation?... since when?

But anyway I don't think it will come out until next Wednesday (2/18)

Quoted from Kieran Brigden on the main TW forum:

Hello All.

Where to start? Well first of all yes we are aware a version of our incomplete demo code has been leaked via Steam. We had great fun watching it being played live on webcam, I can assure you.

The easiest way to address all this is to do a short QA style format, any subsequent questions please just ask and I'll answer.

i. If the demo was ready and on steam why didn't you just release it?

The demo was on Steam only for testing purposes, we knew there was a small chance it could become public if someone found the right way to get at it and someone did. It's since been removed. It wasn't ready for a public release and we have a bit more to do on it. We were testing to ensure that when a demo is released nobody has any problems accessing and authenticating it via Steam. It's slightly dangerous code security wise but at some point we had to test it.

ii. Why did you close all the threads and info on the demo?

The real answer is 'duplication'. Having a leak is embarrasing but it's not too bad. We just didn't want the method of 'how' to be shared. We're aware everyone wants the code and the demo but this isn't ready yet. It might look ready, but there is genuinly more to do. Hence we needed to ensure the 'how to' isn't rapidly duplicated before we can remove the code. We don't want thousands of you having incomplete code. I know it's maddening, but think of it like this: We take pride in polishing things at CA, even if its behind the code stuff that goes unseen, it's important to us that quality is our top priority (You may remember we even moved the release date for this reason) so please understand this is our love and we don't do 'just good enough', with demos or full releases.

iii. When will we get the demo we want?

I'm not toying with you when I say very soon. It really isn't too far away. Annoyingly I can't put a date on it, because development is not a quantative process. There will be a demo for general release and it will be soon, it's not a hype machine it's quality control.

iv. What about the guy that did it?

I want to say something a little controversial here. The exploit was our weakness, and as long as he didn't break any user agreements or laws in getting hold of the demo via Steam then there's no issue here, but that is for Valve to confirm not me. From CA's point of view I want to give the guy my thanks and respect that he's said he deliberately won't pirate the incomplete demo he's got out of respect for the game, I hope he stays true to that statement. He was also really rather complimentary in his commentary whilst playing live and whilst I can't condone or encourage what he did I would suggest that when demoing live one should always try grouping ships in custom formation (Organise then hit g on selected ships) and also account for the wind a little more when playing. In all seriousness, I can't speak about any potential legal issues but what I can say from the dev perspective is, we hoped you liked it (Those watching as well as him playing) despite it being unfinished and thanks for respecting our game and our community at large by ceasing broadcast and not redistributing. We'd ask that that be the end of the matter so we can leave it in the friendly spirit it's at now.

Now, let the questions and statements begin!

Kind regards,
Kieran


Apparently, someone got a hold of the demo when it was released very briefly on Steam, and posted some live feeds of it.

That guy is meh hero, WHEN HE SAID I'm not toying with you when I say it's coming very soon, HE BETTER MEAN IT OR ELSE I'LL BE D:<

I would never be lucky enough to be one of these people who come into possession of hotly anticipated demos.

Pretty cool news though, I main paged it for you Ibuprofen, well spotted.

I'm not toying with you when I say very soon. It really isn't too far away. Annoyingly I can't put a date on it, because development is not a quantative process. There will be a demo for general release and it will be soon, it's not a hype machine it's quality control.

I hate it when someone gives an overly optimistic date for completion of work, and then spends the next three months pushing back the date. This game was supposed to be completed last November, and here we are in mid February still waiting for a demo. With any luck, the project manager for ETW is getting reamed over this. In regards to the release date, they should have underpromised and overdelivered, instead of overpromising and underdelivering.

I appreciate the newsie, as always, Afty.

Strait from the Kieran's mouth, another missive:

Hello all,
The thread has run for a while so hopefully I can make a decent summary of response for you.
Before continuing I'd like to thank all of you who have shown us such patience and support, there's no such thing as perfect communication and your patience and appreciation for things like this is genuinly welcome in the studio. Now, please allow me to expand on some of your points.
i. Why can't you say anything more than soon, and how long is soon?
The reason I'm unable to give you a definite date is that we're still working on it, it's as simple as that. I appreciate soon is a relative term, so I'll give as much information as I can. There will be a demo before release. We release in early March. Therefore, the range of possible release dates is easy to discern and in game development terms, none of those are far away!
ii. Why did it take a crisis to talk to us?
Many of the team at CA browse the boards regularly and post as often as they can, but we are in the final stages of making a product we have been working on for over four years. We're working late nights, early morning and weekends to get this game finished, it's our one and only focus. Hopefully that love and attention will be evident to all of you when you get your copy.
Sadly this also means we're not able to respond to everything.

We're genuinely proud of having a community like you and honestly enjoy your passion and interest in Empire, it's part of the fuel that drives the engine of war so to speak.

Why did we respond to this? Because we needed to communicate what had happened, what we were doing and why. That way nobodys in the dark.

I recognise we can do more and where possible we will. Please continue what you're doing and hold fast with us for this last mile of development!
iii. Is the demo naval only?
Part of the reason the leaked code isn't intended for the public is that it isn't complete. I'm being deliberately vague here, as I have to be, but rest assured we want to make it 'broader'.
iv. Why can't we have more videos / pics or live streams of the leaked code?
We've asked that the member concerned respect the fact that this isn't for public release and treat it accordingly. The demo's not yet at a stage where its ready for sharing with the community, thats why it hasnt been officially released.

Naturally everyone's going to ask for written info and specs etc. That's natural and please go ahead, but please treat any written info you get about the game as subject to change and incomplete. As for screens and videos, I can only add that we take that very seriously because Empire's our product and it's important its given to you as you deserve to receive it. Polished.
I hope this goes some way to answering your concerns.

Yeah I don't blame them for posting in every thread that people make, they are very busy getting the game ready. The least they could do was look through various boards for fan feedback, as he stated.

iii. Is the demo naval only?
Part of the reason the leaked code isn't intended for the public is that it isn't complete. I'm being deliberately vague here, as I have to be, but rest assured we want to make it 'broader'.

Broader... I hope that means land battles.

I hope it has land battles. I'll be honest, Im particularly interested in the naval battles....that may change at release, but for now, Im more interested in musket fight and bayonet charges.

This isn't the first time CA software has been leaked accidentally. I presume that Steam will have "locked out" the leaked demo so that should ward off any potential piracy issues because distribution of this demo would in fact be piracy.

Can't wait for the real thing. Wish I was the guy who had played the leaked one lol, but yeah, can't wait.

Its gonna be on Valentines day for sure

I hope to god not. Bimbar will skin me if I even look at my computer that day!

Hey, let's all try to guess what day it'll come out. I'm guessing the 18th.

I hope to god not. Bimbar will skin me if I even look at my computer that day!

Same issue here. I pray it either comes out tomorrow or next week so I have a full day to play away at it. If its over the weekend it'll have to wait until Sunday night!

I'm guessing the 29th of February...

I'm guessing the 29th of February...

Why so? I say monday.

I'm guessing MArch 3rd 2010

Why so?

Because there isn't one this year, of course!

Congrats to the dude who found it on steam, he got only got the alpha build v0.2 lol

Well I id get an email from sega though today!

It was about some sonic the hedgehog thing...

As I've been saying for almost 2 weeks i will be on the 18th

I'm guessing it could be this Tuesday, but my real bet is for Friday. After that, there really won't be much point to it.

If it comes any later than say, the 25th, I won't bother getting it. I'll wait it out untill it comes out. That way the first time I play it, I get the full experience.

If it comes any later than say, the 25th, I won't bother getting it. I'll wait it out untill it comes out. That way the first time I play it, I get the full experience.

I plan to do just that. No point in hurling my own brain over the game when its about to be released.

Valentines day passed but soon we all have it

Well I sort of gave of up on it already anyways...

This is beginning to get me really annoyed. It better come ot this week or I will be really mad

On top of all this, twcenter is down, which makes me think something's up, but nothing is!

I think TWcenter is down because the servers are struggling to cope with all the spam that's been flying around complaining about the lack of information on the demo, and lack of the demo itself. The original demo discusion thread was 108 pages, half of which was spam.

They've either taken the site offline to clear out the spam topics (there's lots of them in the Empire forum) or the servers crashed, either way, it all boils down to the spamers there.

The demo 'should' hopefully be released in the next two weeks, between tomorrow and the 28th, excluding next weekend. That's my guess.

[This message has been edited by The_Assimilator (edited 02-15-2009 @ 02:52 PM).]

2 things:

if you go on TW wiki it says the Mughals will be a playable faction??

and also didn't they say there would 12 playable factions??

Thanks

Mughals?

I don't know if it was true but that's what I read

The demo has got to come out either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, it must! I have a feeling that the game will be delayed again if the demo doesn't come out on either of those days. It hasn't gone gold yet and it seems like they are doing a lot of last minute work, almost too much for a game that is supposed to come out in 2 weeks.

I really don't think the game is going to be delayed, they just released a Steam FAQ on the website which confirms the date. CA are working around the clock right now to make sure this game is as perfect as we all expect it to be and that it's ready on time. I suppose the demo has merely fallen by the wayside.

That said, I really don't think it'll come out any later than this weekend. After that, there really won't be much of a point to releasing one.

Yes I am sure the dev's at CA are working very hard day and night to get this game finished. In time my young grass hoppers, in time.

On a separate point, would it be worth changing the thread title to "Empire Total War Demo coming"? Just in case

Abusive post deleted - Gaius

[This message has been edited by Gaius Colinius (edited 02-17-2009 @ 05:47 AM).]