Steam News

Empire: Total War Update Released

October 7, 2009, 10:35 am - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Empire: Total War

• Fixed issue with some artillery shot types
  

EMPIRE WEEK - Save 50% on Empire: Total War™ This Week Only

October 5, 2009, 10:17 am - Valve - General Announcement

Empire: Total War is now 50% off, in celebration of this week's release of The Warpath Campaign, the official expansion for the game.

Dominate the 18th century on land and sea in this strategy title PC Gamer calls "one of the most playable, important and accomplished games ever created." Plus, pick up a variety of Empire: Total War DLC to expand your gaming experience.

Empire: Total War™ - The Warpath Campaign DLC and Special Forces DLC Now Available

October 5, 2009, 10:14 am - Valve - Product Release

The official Empire: Total War™ expansion, Empire: Total War™ - The Warpath Campaign is now available on Steam.

Voyage to North America to explore the new campaign map which expands the Empire: Total War experience, with 5 brand new American Indian factions, new units and technologies. Experience battles in the new Warpath Campaign and lead one of the five new factions in an epic war to defend your lands and drive out the invaders. Or, take these units and their unique strengths into multiplayer battles.

Also released today for sale separately is the Special Forces Units & Bonus Content DLC, which includes the six units from the Special Forces Edition of Empire: Total War, plus three additional units previously unavailable for sale, including Death's Head Hussars, The USS Constitution and the Dahomey Amazons.

Empire: Total War Update Released

October 5, 2009, 9:39 am - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Empire: Total War

• Fixed a bug which which occasionally allowed factions who were not allied to be invited to join a war
  
• Improved campaign map performance
  
• Republics will no longer dispute a claim to a throne via a war of succession
  
• Fixed a crash when pathfinding for embarking/disembarking
  
• Fixed situation where balance-of-power bar on battle screen was not considering the correct set of reinforcements
  
• Made the decision of which third-party factions can be involved in a campaign battle slightly fairer
  
• Interceptions are no longer suppressed when blockading a port
  
• Fixed rare crash after naval battles
  
• Fixed rare crash caused by successful revolutionary armies containing units that were not permitted for the resulting government type
  
• Fixed crash in AI logic structures
  
• Reduced AI army clustering
  
• Improved AI invasion troop movement
  
• Various light infantry behaviour fixes
  
• Naval and Land unit balancing
  
• General AI improvements
  

Empire: Total War Update Released

September 22, 2009, 10:11 am - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

New Content

• Two (2) new historical battles: Battle of Rossbach and Battle of Fontenoy. Both available in single player and multi player
  
• Missile cavalry can now fire and reload whilst on the move
  

• Overhaul of naval balancing
  
• Dragoons are available from higher building levels and now have fire by rank
  
• Light Dragoons have gained longer range guns to allow them to skirmish better
  
• Reworked cavalry costs to better reflect their value on the battlefield
  
• Increase in cost to Windbusche Jaegers and Ferguson Rifles
  
• Some improvements to projectile balancing
  
• Balance improvements made to Road to Independence Episode 3
  

• Fix for auto unlimbering causing the attack order to terminate prematurely resulting in an inability to stop the unit from firing
  
• Fix for troops on fort walls not using fort gun range when judging when to fire on enemy troops
  
• Fix for fort guns using wrong targeting formula
  
• Fixes to fort pathfinding and use of ropes
  
• Multiplayer soft lock fixes
  
• Fix crash in quotes table
  
• Improved AI diplomacy
  
• Cumulative updates to improve AI invasion behaviour
  
• Added tooltips for alliance button in diplomacy
  
• Bug fixes and improvements to AI counter offers
  
• Improvements to AI diplomatic valuation of military access and alliances
  
• Fix for wind sounds not working in naval battles
  
• Fixed ship wakes not always working
  
• Fixed disembarking subsets of armies and agents from navies
  
• Fixed potential crash disembarking agents from navies
  
• Fixed armies not being booted out of regions when losing military access gained by joining an ally in war
  
• Improved AI diplomacy valuation of technologies
  
• Fix for bug where general's unit for an upper class rebellion was coming from the region owning faction rather than the faction rebelling
  
• Fixed reinforcements from unreachable positions
  
• Fixed bug preventing disembarking
  
• Balance of power fix for attack of opportunity
  
• Fixed bug that was causing issues with embarking an army containing multiple characters
  
• Minor tweak to stop some ship sails endlessly play furling sound
  
• Fixed path blocked bug
  
• Diplomacy counter-offer improvements
  
• Fix for fast forward not working as intended on some PCs. Will always speed up if camera is still, if camera moves fast forward will be as fast as possible on each PC
  

Empire: Total War™ - The Warpath Campaign DLC Now Available for Pre-Purchase

September 21, 2009, 8:10 am - Valve - General Announcement

The official Empire: Total War™ Expansion, Empire: Total War™ - The Warpath Campaign is now available for pre-purchase exclusively on Steam.

A new detailed North American Campaign Map expands the Empire: Total War experience, with 5 brand new American Indian factions, new units and technologies. Experience battles in the new Warpath Campaign and lead one of the 5 new factions in an epic war to defend your lands and drive out the invaders. Or take these units and their unique strengths into multiplayer battles. Pre-purchase now and get access to the Warpath Campaign the moment it releases on Steam.

Empire: Total War Update Released

July 1, 2009, 12:40 pm - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Empire: Total War

• Land Battles: Fixed exit crash which could occur when grouping/ungrouping
  
• Grand Campaign - Settlement battle: Fixed instances of invisible deployable defenses
  

Empire: Total War Latest Update and DLC Now Available

June 22, 2009, 8:00 am - Valve - Product Update

Empire is expanding. With its latest update now available on Steam, Empire: Total War from Sega and The Creative Assembly adds 14 free new units along with numerous updates and game enhancements (complete list below).

Additionally, the first downloadable content for Empire: Total War is now available on Steam. The Elite Units of the West DLC features an *additional* 14 new units from all the major Western factions. Featuring all new infantry and cavalry units, equipped with the best weapons and having undergone the most rigorous of training, this DLC is the perfect addition to your Empire's army. Expand your Empire with even more options on the battlefield as you improve your tactics and defeat your enemies.


Empire: Total War Update 1.3 Updates

This update includes the implementation of multi-threading in the game for multi-core processors and many optimizations that will also help increase performance on single core machines. Players will see huge benefits through increased frame rates particularly in land and naval battles.

Units

14 Free Units have been included in this patch, adding a large amount of diversity to the playable factions and the armies the player will face. These units replace 'generic' equivalents giving each faction a unique identity on the battlefield. Here is a description of each free unit available in the update:

• Prussian Grenadiers -Wearing a distinctive brass fronted mitre cap, the Prussian Grenadiers are an explosive force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.


• Spanish Guardias de infateria - These elite guard infantry are charged with protecting the monarch and are a potent force on the battlefield.


• Swedish lifeguard horse - This cavalry regiment forms part of the monarchs' household guard. Superbly drilled, they act as a shock force on the battlefield.


• Holland Horse Guard -Armed with heavy cavalry sabres, these disciplined cavalrymen represent the elite of the army.


• Prussian Garde Du Corp- The Prussian Garde Du Corp are a replacement for the Prussian standard Household cavalry. These heavy horse shock troops are best used to break enemy lines and overrun enemy positions. With a strong charge and fearsome attack, these riders make short work of those who would oppose a Prussian monarch.


• Prussian Life guard - The Prussian life guards are equipped similarly to line infantrymen. However their uniforms are altogether more splendid, marking them out as a superior force, in arrogance if nothing else. They do a good job as garrison troops and are dedicated to the crown.


• Russian Grenadiers - This new Russian unit is great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch!


• Spanish Guardias De Corp -The Spanish Guardias De Corp replace household cavalry for Spain. With almost unbreakable morale, on the charge they are almost unstoppable.


• Spanish Grenadiers - These are a replacement for the standard Spanish Grenadiers with a distinctive bearskin hat to mark them out as exemplary on the battlefield.


• Swedish 'Lifeguards of foot' - These are a highly trained replacement for the standard Swedish guard. They are often used as a force in a system that defends a monarchy and can be relied upon for utter loyalty and deadly accuracy in the field. Their professionalism is reflected in their fearsome battle reputation.


• Holland Guard - 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.


• Scots - The Scots are a Highland ex-patriate infantry used by the United Provinces, renowned for their deadly charge.


• Swiss Infantry - Very disciplined infantry of the United Provinces with quick reload and excellent marksmanship.


• Mamelukes - Mamelukes are fearless light horsemen, deadly when deployed against a broken or unsupported enemy.

Additionally the Spanish nation has had a new uniform design to better reflect its historical look.

Audio

Sound loading has been made asynchronous, so heavy disc access is reduced to a minimum. This makes loading times faster and reduces any instances of 'stuttering.' Unit group sounds have also been improved, for more realistic group movement. The primary sound library (Miles DLL) has been updated to stop occasional clicking. And we've added more sound variation for unit deaths and musket fire.

Campaign

• Several crash bug fixes in saves, movement, agents and logic.


• Various optimizations have been made to AI and path systems to reduce the campaign map turn times.


• When the pirates are destroyed and re-emerge they now maintain a status of at war with all and are unable to enter into diplomatic negotiations.


• Added small ships on domestic trade routes from the trade nodes to home regions moving in the correct direction, i.e. with the flow of trade.


• The AI should now no longer repeatedly sign a diplomatic agreement and then break it the next turn. Treaties are more valuable and adhered to.


• We've fixed some border trade agreements allowing greater numbers of bordering factions to properly trade with one another.


• Movement arrows now reflect the range of the selected units, not the whole army/navy.


• AI will no longer counter-offer and ask for more money than the player has available.


• Fixed commerce raiding taking money from blockaded trade routes.


• Fixed navies getting stuck when forced to retreat from ports (tactical retreat).


• Fixed rare inability to attack certain ports.


• Fixed middle mouse button camera drag stopping working occasionally.


• Made emergent factions be at war with the faction they emerged against if that faction is human.


• Fixed various movement extent crashes.


• Changed background income for minor factions.


• Fixed diplomatic relations with emergent factions.


• Tactical withdrawal will now always leave armies on the landmass containing the settlement of a region.


• Changed war score system to make the AI more likely to accept peace.


• Fixed crash when embarking and disembarking armies at ports.


• Fixed trade ships not being correctly registered in trade nodes after splitting forces.


• Fixed government change diplomatic effect.


• Improved commerce raiding display on trade screen.


• Faction specific text is now used in diplomacy.


• Prevent players cancelling the movement of fleeing agents.

Units

• Charge bonus generally increased across the board for all units and melee defence reduced.


• Greater diversification of stats between different unit types designed to emphasise differences and improve balance.


• Redone costs for all units for multiplayer to improve game balance which better reflects the actual battlefield worth of each unit.


• Mob formation added in for Native American, irregular and some skirmisher units.


• Spot distance for light infantry, skirmishers, irregulars, light cavalry and missile cavalry increased allowing them to spot hidden units at longer distances.


• Russian line infantry stats have been boosted to allow them to compete more with other faction's line infantry.


• Movement speed of all unit types reduced by 10%.


• Ammo for light infantry increased to 20, line to 15.

• Charge morale bonus reduced from 10 to 4.


• Recent casualties, extended casualties and total casualties morale penalties increased slightly for higher percentages.


• Rear and flank exposed morale penalties increased.

• Fatigue penalty for melee reduced from 18 per tick to 10.


• Running fatigue penalty for heavy and light cavalry reduced from -3/-2 to -2/-1.

• Calibration area for cannons and howitzers reduced. Accuracy of non-round shot shot types reduced to compensate.


• Muzzle velocity of round shot for cannons increased to make them fire lower and bounce more, accuracy also increased.


• Lethality of shrapnel pieces reduced to match canister shot, range also reduced to 350.


• Load time for special shot types for howitzers increased slightly, and range reduced to 350.


• Calibration area for mortars increased, accuracy of round shot increased to compensate. Reload time increased slightly.


• Accuracy of 18 lbr horse guard artillery restored to 65.


• Hit points of gun trains increased to 50, all guns and caissons to 25.

Weekend Deal - Empire: Total War 50% Off

June 19, 2009, 7:30 am - Valve - General Announcement

This weekend only, Empire: Total War™ and Empire: Total War™ Special Forces Edition are 50% off on Steam. PC Gamer calls it "One of the most playable, important and accomplished games ever created." This award-winning game from Sega and The Creative Assembly includes single and multiplayer modes, and the most requested addition to the acclaimed Total War franchise - full Naval combat. Dominate the 18th century on land and sea! Make Empire: Total War or Empire: Total War Special Forces Edition yours while you save 50% this weekend on Steam.

Empire: Total War Update Released

May 1, 2009, 10:15 am - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Crash Fixes

• Fix deployed for error with greyed out background and no interface selections being possible when clicking tick box on Failed to Join Game message in multiplayer