East India Company: Reivews, Previews, Interviews Meta-Thread

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Tuomas had got the inner workings and locig of the game nailed down very well, especially taking into account that we only discussed about 15 minutes. Though we did cleared out few things via email afterwards too.

Yep, I wrote for pelit for 4 years, 1996-2000. First thing I wrote was 4 page/2 issue strategy guide for Panzer General :) Great game, I started playing it again last christmas and I still get hooked to it.
 
Added Wargamer preview:

"Both accessible and detailed, the combat portion of East India Company is comprehensive enough for interested grogs to get excited about and accessible enough for landlubbers to enjoy. For a preview build this version was very polished and whet our appetites to see a sampling of the strategic layer too. If the developers can keep the quality of the campaign as high as what we’ve seen in this demo, naval aficionados and colonial history lovers may have an Empire: Total War killer in their midst"

http://www.wargamer.com/article/2702/east-india-company-early-look
 
Nice piece , one question on one of the screenshot in the piece. The damage, where there are chunks of wood flying about, does the damage show on the ship? on the hull and deck and so on.

There is a picture there were the ship has holes in the sails and another seen on fire so yes it seems so.
 
Hello. I had a chance to test the preview version myself and wrote up my impressions at TCancer:

http://www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=53

I could not leave out some concerns (especially about battle speed / realism) which I would like to see tuned until release. At least for the simulation mode, because right now all battles turn too quickly into bloodbaths. I was however, absolutely impressed by the programming and attention to detail.

I'm almost sure already that the release will be a top quality product.
 
Nice review GlobalExplorer. Like you I am so hoping that the devs, while appealing to the casual gamer with its arcade mode, will made its historical mode more realistic and slower paced to please the hard core age of sail fans out here.

I noted your preview listed Italy as one of the playable factions. I wish the devs would say finally whether Italy or the HRE is the 8th faction. Italy did not exist as a state until the 1850s. Renaming it something like 'Italian City States' would be better, but having a collective group of German states would be better still and drop the Italians.
 
Goodaye,
Oh dear. Huge rolling seas again... I hope the sea is not like that in every battle.

I'm a professional seafarer who has spent over 20 years sailing the oceanic zones covered by the game.

From all the screen shots I've seen they have got the sea states down pretty well. The 'Huge rolling seas' are very typical ocean swell patterns and not out of the ordinary at all. Nor are their dimensions which you can judge from the ship models.

I've sailed square riggers (replicas) across oceans and judging by the video's I've seen (particularly the recent developers one focusing on the sea battles) the motion of the ships through the ocean is an accurate representation (given the limitations of graphics and computers - ships move in six seperate degrees of freedom) of reality.

Big provisio is that these comments are based on screenshots and one limited video but full marks so far.

On a related matter, sailing a square rigged ship directly into the wind (I've got the impression that this was a function of the 'waypoint system') was a non-event (couldn't be done with the technology of the day and you'd likely de-mast in a stiff breeze) but the game isn't positioning itself as the end-all and be-all of realism so that's not something I'm losing sleep over.

Cheers,
Lancer
 
I noted your preview listed Italy as one of the playable factions. I wish the devs would say finally whether Italy or the HRE is the 8th faction. Italy did not exist as a state until the 1850s. Renaming it something like 'Italian City States' would be better, but having a collective group of German states would be better still and drop the Italians.

DHGF: There seems to be conflicting reports on the nations included in the game with both The Holy Roman Empire and Italy being listed in some sections of your website (as of 26th of March) can you clear that up?

KS: At previous build we had Italy, or more specifically the Venetian Republic in the game, but it was decided to change that into The Holy Roman Empire.

From this:
http://diehardgamefan.com/2009/04/08/east-india-company-interview-with-kim-soares/
 
Nice screenies, Fredrik -- a wider assortment than I believe we've seen anywhere else.
Also, I like you new avatar. Ever the marketing guy. Why waste a single pixel of useful billboard space, eh? ;)
 
Looks Damn Good! (If Im not wrong, It looks like Empire, but I hope it wont be as buggy as that on Release :p)

A question! Fredrik, do you own Empire: Total War? :D