Hi guys,

Just in time for Christmas, we are pleased to bring your our third Empire: Total War Q&A, featuring more of your questions from the official forums. This month we are taking the fight to the seas with an indepth look at Naval warfare.

Q: Will naval battles be fun and easy to command?
A: Where possible we have tried to use intuitive and easy to grasp controls.
There are a fair number of elements of control and game play that are shared with the land battles in Empire. Most people who have played Total War or another RTS game will select units, give basic orders and be able to move the camera around without a tutorial.
We have also been working extremely hard at making naval battles fun to play from the first minute, while leaving room for depth in the gameplay. The variety of ships available just adds to that depth and enjoyment.
The user HUD is going in the right direction, but is still undergoing refinement and development. It’s a good sign that the fans over at the Total War Center were able to work out the functionality of a lot of the prototype interface in one of the screenshots, and all with a little guesswork and no help from tooltips.

Q: What’s the maximum number of ships we’ll be able to command in battle?
A: The number of ships that will be commanded by the player is still subject to development. There are gameplay issues being resolved. It’s very likely that it will not be more than 20 per player. More than that could make battles too tricky to control, certainly for most “normal” people (or “us”, to use the shorthand term). Experts will, of course, scoff at our uselessness, but then we only have the standard number of fingers having not stitched on extra ones to give us an advantage in WOW.
What has to be remembered is that most ships have two broadsides to fire, as well as boarding actions to fight. When you mix in the effects of wind, waves, shot type selection, timing of broadsides, hull and sail damage, and the crew being killed… Well, the experience is already epic and engaging. With too many ships to control, battles could be overwhelming rather than fun.

Q: Will ships gain experience and associated bonuses and, if so will, they be gained by ships sunk or men killed?
A: Ships crews will gain battle experience and this will have gameplay effects. We’ll talk more about this another time.

Q: How are the Physics of naval combat going to work - are there going to be factors to do with the wind/weather?
A: That’s cheeky, more than one question in a question? It’s a taste of the cat, for you! Not easy to answer in a short Q and A either. Where do I start?
In this game we are looking at trying to create the best and most realistic environment and sea battles you will have ever seen, running in real time, in a game. Golly.
Ships have buoyancy models that effect their motion through and across the waves. Get a big hole in your hull and you will sink. All ships have location modelling of hull damage too.
The wind itself is modelled using simplified physics acting upon the ships, the ships sails and the sea. Rain, fog and snow are also weather that will be present in battles.
The projectiles fired from cannon each have their path and velocity tracked individually and so will cause varying amounts of damage to anything (sails, masts, rigging, hull, decks and men) that block that path. Obviously a big first-rate ship of the line is going to be able to take a pounding; a sloop, on the other hand, is going to have to rely on keeping out of the way of the big guns.
As part of creating a realistic sea battle, the sea will be using statistically accurate waveforms found in seas in the real world. These waveforms are animated using a Fast Fourier Transform. The sea surface itself is rendered using the Fresnel equation to blend between reflection and refraction. This sea acts upon the ships that sail on them, causing them to roll and pitch. This roll and pitch then effects the accuracy of the gunnery. Have we baffled you with technical terms yet? Good.
Hope that answers your question.

Q: Will ramming be a last ditch tactic that can be employed in naval battles?
A: You can certainly attempt to ram but, as you probably know, ships of this period were not really designed for ramming. The damage that you might do to your ship definitely makes this an act of despair! Ships of the line are not lightweights, and a few thousand tons of wood, steel and men colliding will cause havoc! Having said all that, a sloop should do everything it can to avoid getting in the way of a first-rate: failure is not pretty for the sloop.

Q: Will merchant ships be part of your fleet, so that the warships need to guard the merchant ships in a battle?
A: There are two types of merchant activity in Empire: trade routes and trade fleets. These can be guarded by your navies. There is a boatload to say about this so I think we are going to leave that for another time.

Q: Will you be able to see men jumping off the ship when it is sinking?
A: Yes. Some will be holding on for dear life as the ship slips beneath the waves and visits Davy Jones’ Locker. As most sailors of the 18th Century weren’t good swimmers, this is a very sad sight to see. The designers are still angling for ambient sharks (but without frickin’ laser beams on their heads).

Q: Will we be able to use captured ships in our own naval and merchant fleets?
A: Yes. There is a whole chapter that can be written about this but that’s for another time

Q: Will the ships be very expensive or take some time to build, so that recovering ships or taking ships has a real effect?
A: Yes. Building ships is a large investment of time and money. The bigger they are, the more they cost and the longer they take to build. For example; HMS Victory took 6 years from the laying of her keel, in 1759, to her completion in 1765. They are also a drain on your resources once constructed. Achieving a balanced but effective naval force will be one of the challenges of the game.

Q: Will my faction’s navy be able to take on repairs at neutral or allied ports?
A: No. There are a number of issues involved in allowing the player’s warships to enter friendly/neutral ports that don’t really add anything good to gameplay. One of the challenges in Empire will be to maintain a fleet at sea and have sufficient ports around the world to carry out repairs and replacement of lost crew and ships. If you want to do well, you’re going to have to emulate the Royal Navy!

Q: Will Pirates/Privateers play any roles in the game? Can we hire them to harass ports of call or go after enemy nations merchant ships to disrupt their trade?
A: Yes. They will raid your trade routes and on occasion attack ports that are poorly defended. If they think they can outgun an isolated naval vessel they will give it a go too. The player can raid the trade routes of enemy factions and also blockade enemy ports with their naval vessels during wartime.

Q: How will we get to India? Will you incorporate a ‘warping’ system where you warp around the map or do we sail around the Cape of Good Hope?
A: We have a cunning plan but we can’t give too much away just yet. Keep an eye out as we reveal more in the fullness of time. You will like it.

On behalf of the entire Total War team we’d like to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Take care,

Mark O’Connell

“Remember, remember the blog of November. Drawings, 3D and screenshots. I see no reason why Calendar entries should ever be forgot.” - Mark O’Connell, yesterday.

The poem is of course a riff on the famous gunpowder plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5th November 1605. The event is commemorated each year in England and New Zealand with fireworks and bonfires. All Saints Day is celebrated in the Christian calendar on 1st November, a day after Halloween. On the 11th, War veterans are remembered for both Veterans’ Day and Rememberance Day in the US and Europe respectively. Americans dine on a feast of turkey and stuffing for Thanksgiving on the 22nd, and then begin the online holiday shopping season four days later during the lesser-known Cyber Monday. But enough small talk - lets get on with the Calendar Competition!

David Haigh kicks off November’s blog with a bang with a tribute to Guy Fawkes Night:

Demonstrating how much fun you can have with Photoshop and a little time on your hands is Fatih Köymen, who has upgraded his medieval troops with the latest anti-aircraft missiles. Unfortunately they will have to wait around for several hundred years to get any proper use out of them…

Maciej Sprada from Poland won last month’s Calendar Competition and has wasted no time in coming up with another cracking entry for November:

“My main inspiration to do that scene was Teutonic campaign. This campaign is the most bloody and dark of all in kingdoms. The campaign reminds me of autumn because most of all time is dusky, rainy, gloomy and foggy. So of course I included that motif in my art too.

This scene was created in 3ds max. I created all of the models myself. At the end I did some adjustment with brightness in Photoshop. That was very hard for me because I don’t have much time to do things like this (I study) so it took a couple of nights to do the scene. But I think that the last effect of my work is very good.”

Marcus Roberts from Kent, England sent in this image of a Knight stood in front of an intense fire.

“I got the Knight from a photo I had taken at a wedding. It was my uncle posing in his full armour just before the big moment. The knight was mostly made from threshold filter and playing with the contrast and colour of the photo using different layers.

I had been inspired by a number of model paintings and illustrations of Medieval battles depicting the events taking place. A knight and his army are taking revenge upon their victims in the scorched earth of the enemy’s land.

I used Photoshop 7 and Corel Painter 9 on a number of photos I had taken during the year. I combined a number of layers to create depth and colour. At different stages I printed it out and scanned it back in the piece to give a dark distressed feel.

This was an experimental piece I been working for a couple of days. I like to try new techniques and processes in both programs to take my work to the next stage.”

James Young is back for a record breaking fifth consecutive month with another fantastic pencil drawing. Here is James with the full scoop:

“November 1095, Council of Clermont. The call for Holy War. Diplomats wait nervously during a lull in the council as bishops and priests prepare the speech for Pope Urban II that will launch the First Crusade. Christ had told men to love their enemies, while Urban urged extermination. Who knows what discussions took place behind the scenes? Days later, the crowds would cry “God wills it!”"

This is a pencil drawing, with ink and bleach layers, and has been digitally coloured and manipulated in Photoshop. Thanks to all www.totalwarblog.com for two pictures on the last blog!

Inspired by Empire: Total War, November’s winner makes his winning Calendar competition debut with an incredible navel scene. Congratulations go to Tomasz Jedruszek from Poland, whose artwork is currently decorating my desktop.

November 2007’s Create A Calendar wallpaper is available to download in two sizes here.

You have until Friday 30th November to get your entries in for December’s competition, and this month’s prizes include a copy of Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, plus signed Total War artwork, Rome and Medieval II soundtracks. For full entry details, please click here.

As an extra treat, all 2007 Create A Calendar winners are going to have their artwork turned into a limited edition 2008 Calendar, which they will receive in the new year, signed by the Empire: Total War team! If you would like to have your art featured in this must-have collectible, get your entries in by 30th November 2007!

Good luck,

Mark O’Connell
(aka SenseiTW)