Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:
Empire: Total War
* Multiplayer - can now find friends across regions
* Load time detection on trade routes to fix pathfinding crash in campaign
* Some General Sound balancing improvements
* Fixed UI Chat hang when spectator leaves unranked match with 3+ players
* Varies Campaign Crash Fixes
* Some Save/Load fixes
* Boarding fix where cannon crew board order was not being deleted properly causing crash
* Fix to kill characters instantly to stop crashes in campaign on agent/general deaths
* Save games limited to 1000
* Fix to animation glitch causing repetitive sounds when battle is launched