Status of Emperor

[Gobalopper]

http://www.dune2k.com/?page=news-archive&show=2001-Oct

[alphabeta4000]

It is sad, such a good game with a lot of potential dying.

[Guest Byron]

This is Westwoods fault for not putting more interesting missions.  I mean most of the missions were just to annhilate the enemy.  Hardly any scripts or triggers that triggered new events within a mission or different mission objectives like stealing vehicles to win the mission like in Starcraft.

Also there weren't even a lot of cinematics and the endings were the same for each House except for some minor differences.

I think Emperor would have sold more if they didn't release RA2 in about the same time frame.  I think RA2 did steal some steam from Emperor's popularity.

Also they made the system requirements way to high.  Even though I Emperor ran fine.  A lot of my friends have RA2 instead because of their computers not being able to run the game at a decent frame rate.

I think next time if Westwood ever makes another Dune game it should use more advertising and less steeper system requirements and actually learn some game design by playing Starcraft.

[Guest Byron]

Oh yeah and I forgot.

[Gigaettin]

emperor rocks, but i dont know how it doesnt work with ppl's comps, it worked on my AMDk6 450MhZ, 128MB RAM, voodoo2! and it ran fast on medium graphics, we got given a voodoo5 and now it runs fast with everything on high, i dont know ho it hasnt worked with ppl's comps!

[quoudam72]

Deja Vu once again.

[Gobalopper]

Yep, actually that was originally going to be the subject of my post. :)

[djhenry]

it's too sad !

can't westwood take a lesson from blizzard ?

can't westwood "work it up" like battlecruiser 3000 AD ?

does westwood care only about money ?

darn westwood!

[Falconius]

Sudden Strike may be the best RTS out there but i'm unable to really get into it after the graphical splendour of Emperor. My computer run at 1.2 Ghz and my graphics is a GForce2. This should become the standard home comp by next year ( or to be specific -> cheap). i believe Emperor will become more popular even if WW abandon it. Let the idiots say what they will -> Emperor looks and sound great.

BTW i set my computer to wake me in the mornings with the Harkonnen mp3 'Unstoppable' -> luvit!

[exatreide]

The reason i think it dident sell well was becouse of all the bugs. i mean you cant even pick a song you can do that in the old C&C. The game is not very well polished. And the system requirments were way to high.

Maybe next time westwood. maybe next time.............

[alphabeta4000]

Why doesn't westwood just do it properly for once instead of rushing. It has already made a few dead games.

[kloball4100]

yes i concur. maybe there will learn their lesson and fix the problems, and come out w/ emperor ii

[dex]

worked fine on medium graphics on my comp and I use an amd 300 mhz processer and an old 4 meg video card , only problem is videos are a bit choppy but game runs FINE  8) 8)

[bob_fox]

This is entirely Westwood's fault for not supporting the game. Blizzard care about their games even after they sell them. Fine, I don't like Blizzard games, but I must say they work hard on them. If you care about customer satisfaction, you'll make more money. It's as simple as that. I don't think Westwood is trying very hard at the moment.

[nemafakei]

Is it not that WW were usung Emp as a testing ground for an engine -cum- graphics and control system? Thus, they will attempt to make games of the same style, but based on C&C or something? I'm thinking as in RA(2) - in which the internal name of the Allies was GDI.

[bob_fox]

I heard that they were doing the same thing with Dune 2000, that is, testing the game/graphics engine for Tiberian Sun.

[Gobalopper]

The engine for both Dune 2000 and Emperor were made by IG. I know they never used Dune 2000's engine again... not sure about Emperor I doubt it.

[Monkey_830]

Eprhaps in a year or so, when the standard of computing power has risen a bit, and the game itself has become a budget title, it may gain popularity once more. :( It is a pity that it is being abandoned. It's a good game, I just don't think that it can compete against some other titles out there.

[Guest Rob]

It was released at least one year too early.

Map editor is too big in file size and complicated for every day user to use.

Game takes too long to load on most computers.

> Most of players bought it probably have Red Alert 2 - they've now returned to Yuri's Revenge.. and will probably stay with it..

The question is "is it dead or dying?"

[garth]

Maybe if Westwood had intended to make a revolutionary RTS, instead of Clone and Conquer in 3d, Emperor wouldn't be in the position that it is now.

[Guest Orbberius]

It's a shame Westwood can't seem to make a non-C&C game popular...

[alphabeta4000]

Damnit! why couldn't westwood waited a couple months and put out the mapeditor on the cd flashy good and have the game spiced up. It never made it to the tops.

[Edric O]

Before you whine about Westwood not supporting its games like Blizzard does, think for a second: How many games does Westwood release in the time that Blizzard takes to release just one? OF COURSE Blizzard has greater support for its games, because there are so darn few of them and they come at long intervals!!

Don't blame WW for not making Emperor good enough. That's not Emp's problem. The problem is advertising. The only mistake WW made with Emperor was the total lack of advertising. Nobody knows about this game! And it doesn't even have a popular brand name to support it, so it must start from scratch. There are many great games out there dying from lack of advertising... Emperor isn't the first or the last.

[Monkey_830]

:(

Emperor did have advertising, it's just that it wasn't around for very long (that, and the fact that the ads weren't that good). Blizzard may have only released a few games, but they made sure that they were good. And they never released loads of games in the same game universe, did they? By keeping numbers small, Blizzard was able to release a very polished game. Not that I'm saying that Emperor wasn't good - it just wasn't as revolutionary as we may have hoped. I prefer Emperor to C&C, but that seem to be the trend, does it? :(

Maybe next time, Westwood will make a winning Dune game. Wonder when that'll be...

[garth]

If you're waiting for a quality Dune game Monkey, don't expect it from Westwood.  After the Emperor debacle I lost what little faith I had in that company.

Check out www.dunegenerations.com

It has 3d combat but set in a persistent online universe with political intrigue, commerce, and diplomacy. Looks like someone finally got the bright idea that following the books would be a revolutionary game......