nwg

Dear All,

The reaction on the forums to the recent announcement of Napoleon has suggested there is a level of misunderstanding about a few points. I'd like to shed light on a few of these, directly, if I may.

Why are you releasing another TW game without fixing Empire?

We have not given up on supporting Empire. The major AI upgrade patch is still very much being worked on and is coming shortly. It will be with you a good while before Napoleon's release. Napoleons development is ongoing, just as our support of Emprie is ongoing.
We recognise Empire had problems on release and we've dealt with the vast majority of stability and performance issues people are having. We now need to balance and address gameplay issues. The AI particularly. We have listened to everything you have said and are looking to address as much as possible. Empire has not been forgotten and a major gameplay upgrade is coming, and coming soon.

Why did you lie about releasing an MP campaign? Where is it?

The MP Campaign for Empire has always been a beta product. However, despite it simply being a test of the technology we still want it to be fun and enjoyable, something that's worth your time and our effort. So we've been working on it since release, building it to a state where its stable enough to beta test by you all and is indeed a great deal of fun to play. The MP Campaign Beta has not been forgotten, work is ongoing and it will be released before Napoleon allowing us time to absorb your comments and feedback (Which is ultimately the point of a public beta). To stress: Empire's MPC Beta is still under development and will be coming shortly it has not been dropped or forgotten and will be available soon.

Why do you never give dates for anything? I want to know when I can get my hands on these things!

Wer've learned about giving dates to the community. The understandable anger we've faced when we've given specific dates and not met them is not worth the little comfort given by us mentioning a specific date (Which you must still wait for). All development has a level of risk attached to it, that is the chance that it will not make a specific day for delivery. We've stopped communicating exact dates as a result of feedback from you. The Empire patch and the MPC beta will be released a significant while before Napoleon, which is scheduled for a first quarter 2010 release.

Why are you releasing Napoleon seperately when all it's content should have been in Empire?

The simple answer to this is that Napoloeons content shouldn't and couldnt have been in Empire. Napoleon is a game in it's own right. It spans three full campaigns, not missions or theatres, three sperate campaigns each with their own maps, factions, missions, opponents, story and unique features. In short: It is big.

Napoleon focuses on a man and his destiny and how this is tied to the rise of a nation, a man who defined an era. Empire was a very seperate theme, defining the interplay of actions between nations over a turbulent period of history.

These are two very different games.

We couldn't, nor would we, have added Napoleon into Empire. It's a huge piece of work worthy of its own title.

Admit it, you're going to give up on Empire and try to sell us another game aren't you?

Not at all. After the major AI upgrade patch that is coming we're going to announce another major piece of DLC for Empire, adding more content to its universe and expanding the game even further. Empire is a title into which we put a lot of time and effort, and to which you all gave a great deal of patience post release. We won't walk away from that. So there is more coming.

You do not need Napoleon to enjoy Empire or play Empire, they are two seperate games. Naturally we'd like people to go for both, but we recognise that choice is yours. Whether you chose one, none or both we want to make your experience reflect our time and energy and be as enjoyable as possible.

Does the community reaction to CA's announcements make any difference?

Yes, and always yes. The point of a public beta to the Multi Player Campaign is to get your feedback, the reason for this post is because we're reading and listening to what you say. There's a lot of reaction to what we've announced with Napoleon and some of it is based on misunderstanding. That's because we're at an early stage of development, we only announced on Wednesday last week and there are a lot of different facts and theories floating around. If you have questions post them here or bug a website or magazine to ask us and we'll answer. Please understand some of what is written is speculation and unless its a specific quote from us it may simply be informed opinion.

Finally, sometimes the community reaction is uplifting and othertimes it is demotivating. We recognise that there's a lot of desire out there to see us do better, given some peoples Empire's release experience. We hope that given the sheer amount of attention we've paid to Empire since it's release and the extras we're looking to provide that we will prove by our action that we're not just here to sell games. We love TW, thats why we make it, and we want you to enjoy it too, as that is ultimately it's purpose. Criticism is always welcome, if its positive and constructive we're far more likely to take ti on board and listen.

As always any further questions please post them here and look out for further Napoleon coverage as it comes.

Kind regards,
Kieran

Its meant to come with a voice command thing. And a unit model editor. The voice command will probably be a fail and i don't like the idea of a unit editor, because it will mean that we will be having pink British Hussars.

Do you think that they will run this game on Staem after some of the steam complaints.

It was a stupid move because only 2% of the worlds population has internet so they only are opening their market to 2% of the world because you need internet to install. What about the people with computers but no internet. Geese, they don't think!

Well i have been having numerous discussions with CA over NTW, (you could say I'm the Napoleonic communities inside man, lol)