nwg

So, as we all have long suspected:

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17th August:

Hi guys,

For those of you reading about Napoleon: Total War, an official announcement will be made this week. Please stay tuned for further details at www.totalwar.com.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)
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http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/53 ... tml?page=4

Unofficial at the moment, but snippets like the above smell like something coming eh?

Regards,
Moopere

I cant believe it! Is this an expansion to Empire or a single release!
Yes! A Napoleon: Total War. Still I have my bets it won't be as historically accurate as NTW2.

look at these screens from a french magazine!
http://www.grognards.org
Their will be 3 campaigns, Napoleon in italy, napoleon in Egypt and napoleon's Russian campaign. So far. If you speak french please translate all vital infomation!

Not at all clear MB. There is almost nothing out there in the webisphere to either deny or backup the existence of Napoleon: Total War by CA.

I see that today there is an additional notice on the 'daily update' site (link in OP) relating to CA's commitment to continue to patch and support Empire: Total War with a specific mention of patch 1.4 .... I guess we shouldn't infer too much but I'd not be making bets on too many more patches after 1.4 for ETW.

Given no hints except previous history of how CA releases product, my guess would be that N:TW will be an add-on for ETW and that those expecting additional engine fixes and other nice stuff will essentially be forced to buy N:TW in order to benefit from further development which will be focused on the new title.

Why put out patches and fixes for free when you can charge for them eh? Anyway, I'm not really complaining. If we get a basic set of Napoleonic textures and a few new models it won't hurt the chances of NTW3 turning up quicker.

Interesting how we still don't seem to have access to any official modding tools or the MP campaign. I guess if we were easily able to make NTW3 today then there would not be any N:TW from CA right?

As with most CA add-on packs I'd expect this to be a reasonably minor piece of work - a few dozen new textures re-coloured to extend their use in generic form throughout the game and perhaps a dozen models perhaps a bit of an engine tweak which perhaps we'd have seen anyway as a future patch to ETW all available at maybe 2/3 of the original price of ETW.

In any event, I'll buy it, and probably on the first day because I'm a Napoleonic junkie (and quite the idiot!). We'll then have a rather nice foundation to work with, 1700 right through to 1815 with lots of scope to build mods and have battles right through a really interesting horse and musket era.

Cheers, Moopere

Your probably right, i do hope it is more than that but it probably won't!
As I said at the lordz, this will make an excellent base to mod on! imagine how many mods could come out of this! Maybe a Napoleon: tactical warfare! and even the NTW3! Still, i will also buy it but not when it first comes out. (Dumb arse!)

Still, maybe CA has been reading the complates and released this to counter attack ETW and balance things. Maybe they will put some real effort!

It crossed my mind for a few moments that perhaps Napoleon: Total War won't simply be an add-on for ETW but will instead be presented as a whole new game built upon the same engine (ala M2:TW built upon the RTW engine).

They may perceive ETW to have been such a nasty release that they'd prefer to cut the line and try for a new marketing start with N:TW? That would be pretty cheeky and I doubt it will happen that way...but you never know.

Moo.

well, thats what the title suggests, if it was an expansion it would be Empire Total war: Napoleon. Thats what i thought but this seems like a whole new addition because I sent an e-mail to CA telling them about the problems of ETW and they replied saying their had many e-mails like mine and tey would tell all on an anouncment. So maybe this is a cut clean game to break away from ETW! Hopefully, they will try harder.

Hmm the mind boggles,
What can we expect

With all the problems we have with ETW i wouldn't have expected anything to appear this quick especially something we have all hoped and preyed for.

A complete repackaged game would make a lot of sense for some reasons you guys have mentioned above,
Also our friends at CA could quite happily charge us more for it.

To be honest I'd almost put my money on the table now, bet wise... It will be ETW with new skins. I can't think of another substantial difference between say late 1700's where ETW can be played now and Napoleonic times. By then we had mobile artillery and a lot of the funkier unit types had withered away to the core functionality we know and love circa 1800.

So, a skin job + unit stats. If they do it properly morale across the board will be lowered and low quality troops for a lot (but not all) nations will abound. I doubt that will happen though because players won't like it.




Too early to say eh? Could be that CA's announcement will be that in fact there will _not_ be a Napoleon: Total War haha. I doubt it though.

A few hundred skins and some stats tweaking, a mod basically, and you get to make your money on sales all over again! Man, its a licence to print money.




Marketing wise you can see the argument. So much bad feeling built up because they bodged the release of ETW by sending it to the shelves 6 months too early. If they put it on sale today things wouldn't have been so bad. Mind you, would we all have persevered with NTW2 until now? Maybe not.....

It feels like we've been in a holding pattern for 6 months waiting for ETW to get patched or modded to rise up to its potential.

The other thing is that most interested players will have upgraded their systems to meet ETW's spec by now. Some of the bad blood directed at CA was because of the perception of completely unrealistic hardware requirements. Now that we've all stumped up our cash and bought more horsepower the next installment, N:TW won't be as big of a bitter pill to swallow.



Ahh, and theres the truth of it. One way or another there is still a heap of patching to be done on the ETW engine. They can burn their customer base and just say 'up yours' or, masterfully, they can wrap up the problem with noise about technical issues and release either an expansion or a whole new game which addresses the engine issues, or, the only other option is to patch it for free....who wants to do that??

Also, they must realise by now that their window of opportunity is closing quickly. Modders are back engineering the game at an amazing rate. If CA don't bring out NTW quite soon they will lose the opportunity altogether.

I'd guess that we'll get to pay full price, the game will work as _either_ an expansion to ETW with some sort of crossover campaign available or it will work stand alone by having a Napoleonic or 100 days campaign situation available, this creates a situation whereby true enthusiasts will still want to buy ETW _and_ NTW and would be similar to the Gold Edition of titles they have sold previously. I reckon we'll see the online MP campaign as part of the deal, thus adding value and justifying the additional cost. I also think the MP campaign might be centrally run from Steam and will have a per month dollar value attached.

Lets wait and see, shouldn't be long. The rumors will fly after the next gaming convention.

Regards,
Moopere

See, the thing is that we can't tell hardly anything. Maybe they will put some real effort into this! Put it all together and save them making so many patches. Maybe, maybe, maybe.......

Ok, Moopre, you look on the nrgitive and i'll look on the positive, sound like a good deal!

I think if they have been reading the complantes about ETW they will sell this as a seperate game from ETW and start fresh. They will later have expansions to ETW such as the Revolutions or the 7 years war or the Swedish and Russian War. But If they make NTW, it will be release maybe as a seperate release with expansions to it later like the 100 days and Napoleonic Wars from 1805-1809 or something. There is many possibilities!

But Moopre is very convincing!

For information:

http://www.sega.co.uk/games/napoleon-to ... =EnglishUK

Righto folks! Its now official, see here:

http://www.sega-australia.com/games/nap ... Australian





We'll have to wait until at least February 2010 though.

Also looks like its a new game, or packaged that way, rather than an expansion to ETW. Weird that, but it will without doubt come in at full price this way.

Moopere

wow! good things happening nowadays. TW timing seems impressive. E:TW before LG, N:TW after LG. Why i compare both games though these are different cause i think most Ntw2 community playing Etw/mods and course ntw2 right now ll buy LG...and N:TW most probably. Good games everywhere but hard to decide which one to focus on. Etw/Mods - ntw2-N:TW and LG. Confusing...Ah i would almost forget, ntw3! course.
Thnks for posting the official one Moopere.

Hey! I protest! I post it one minute before him! ... kidding of course

I dare to predict, our community will drop ETW and focus on LG and NapoleonTW.

Even if SEGA don't lie (well lying is a common commercial argument), I am quite sure they stay basically different from ETW in his management.

I don't read SEGA will do a PBEM game. I hope it is an omission. PBEM is the sole way to play seriously with (with or against are synonymous for me, when playing) unknown persons. I mean without using voice stuff between partners.

For sure I will be some reluctant to play online with players I am not sure for beeing honest.
Live is so short and yet more when getting older, we have no inclination wasting time with cheaters. Yes I dare to use the term 'cheater', because they foul a great part of the JMM work. I endure that as an insult to him and his work.

About NTW3, I don't know, since it is based on ETW. But perhaps it will change and root for NapoleonTW?

Ah yes, i missed that. Thnks.