A little bit of sad news to end an otherwise good year. ES playtester Jerry "Gx_Iron" Terry has announced he will not just be leaving Ensemble Studios, but the AoM community entirely to pursue a career. Here's the statement he sent in to his ol' buddies at PAoM.
I love Real Time Strategy. This will always be my favorite kind of game, and the game type that I respect the most. I never thought something like an RTS game would actually shape my life in many ways, as RTS has done for me. I've spent a year of my life working here at Ensemble Studios, and it was excellent to see so many talented people at work on the same project.
I can't really explain it all to you in detail right now, but I have to go. I have an opportunity to go into business for myself, building homes. I will be leaving Ensemble Studios on the 31st of December and moving the New York for this opportunity.
After thinking it over a lot, leaving ES isnt the only thing that needs to happen. I also need to retire from RTS gaming. I need all of my focus and energy to get done what I am trying to do. (Especially waking up so early, which I am not very good at!) I thought about playing casually, but I wouldn't be able to do that after all this time. The game adds a lot of pressure to my life, (I still have a lot of fun too) and I realized that I couldn't just play casually, especially after I dropped out of the top 20 for about a week in early December, and recieved over 50 emails and saw numerous AOM site news posts asking me "what happened?". I love this kind of pressure, and I love being competitive, but if I stayed with RTS then it would continue to take a lot of my time to stay near the top, time that I won't have.
It's been a great run, very literally a dream come true. I still remember very clearly being in my college lab with Gx_Bear, as complete rooks, joking about how we would one day be hired by ES to balance their games. It was just a big joke, especially since we both sucked compared to an average online player. I sit here now, with Gx_Bear sitting behind me, at Ensemble studios putting together balance issues for the next patch. The story is almost too crazy to be true.
If I was to say one thing in closing, it's respect each other. Remember that everyone starts out as a rookie, and that everyone goes through the learning curve. When you are a rookie, remember that a lot of people message the better players looking for advice, and when you're an expert, remember that you were once a rookie messaging an expert for advice. Before you slam someone in a chat, or on the forums, ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. Chances are its completely unneccessary.
If you play hard, and are constantly trying to improve, keep it up. Who knows? With hard work, and a little good fortune mixed in, you could be the next big time game company Balance expert. After all, somebody has to get those jobs. And if you ever get frustrated, or feel like you'll never get there, just think of Gx_Iron and his 1510 Rise of Rome zone rating. Bye!
The company has signed an exclusive royalty agreement with Microsoft to include any of its 130 different PC and Xbox video game properties in its tournaments, including such hits as "Halo" and "Age of Mythology." Electronic Arts has agreed to allow Gamecaster to feature its PC game "Battlefield 1942" in the tournaments and is in discussions about other titles. Activision, Nintendo and Sony have also been contacted to include PlayStation 2 and GameCube systems and games.
If you dont want to read this, here is the Coles Notes Version:
Plow and Flood Control give you true 10% gains. Sacred Cats and Irrigation give you 5% gains, maybe 6% at tops. Husbandry benefits you anywhere from 7%-10% depending on when you research it. The more upgrades you have the better it works.
"Obviously these results defy common sense." was his descriptor. I have to agree. Want to find out more? Check out his thread.
Happy New Year, folks! Hope you all have good new year's and a better year ahead.
Damon Rellik's submitted a new article, "Creating Dark Grass Effects". In his article, he shows us how to create a dark grassland terrain that can blend well with Wasteland terrains. Read it here and apply it to your maps. Excellent work!
Lastly, I would also like to take the opportunity to encourage those who are kind enough to take the time to rate/review our maps to give scenario designers more detailed and constructive comments. Our map designers would really like to know why you like or dislike their maps, so feel free to elaborate further when submitting your review forms. If you need to know how to go about giving a proper and helpful review, we have a guide that shows you how.
Remember, there's no need to be nasty in your reviews. The scenario designers are willing to accept your opinion on their maps without the unnecessary flaming.
Well it's been another great year here at AOKH. It's been a lot of fun playing the greatest RTS game ever made. Lot's of games come and go, ... but one thing that stays the same is the fun we get from playing this great game called Age of Conquerors.
Thanks goes out to all that have made AOKH the best forum in the RTS industry! We have seen some changes here at AOKH.... however it is more then ever... the place to be if your an RTS fan.
'll seize this opportunity to wish you all a great 2003 on behalf of the entire HeavenGames staff. I'll be away to attend a party organized by my family - I hope to see you all back in good health tomorrow. Have a good one! :-)
It's another quiet time of the year with it being new years eve. It's new year already for some of you so HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone in those time zones
Arriving into 2003, what are your promises? Personally I never give any, because I'm sure I wouldn't be able to keep them, and even more of a reason, I can't come up with any.
So, what do we have ahead of us this coming year. Well, one thing for sure is the release of several more large Siegelets. Road to Assylum, Shadows of Winter, The Elemental, Circle of Lorent Expansion and The Kingdom of Wra are all scheduled for a Q1 2003 release at Siege Network. Some of those will probably be delayed, as things in the gaming world often are, but there should be enough for us to do to take us through quite a few months of playing.
So, enough of a rambling. From us here at Dungeon Siege Heaven, to all of you, a Happy New Year and may it contain lots and lots of gaming!
The Triumph Studios crew spent some time during their holiday R&R to discuss some of their favorite games of the year, and drop us some more hints about the forthcoming--but as yet unannounced--new product. Some speculate it will be AoW3, but most believe an expansion pack for AoW2 is on the way from Triumph.
Programmer Josh Farley offered up some insight about tricky gameplay aspects in this thread, and on a lighter side shared some of his favorite games from the past year in this thread:
On a personal note, the games I've enjoyed the most this year are:
Freedom Force
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
NHL Hitz 2003
Mafia was also excellent, but I could pop in any of those 3 games right now, and not get any work done for hours.... I haven't played a HoMM game since the original. I haven't played either Disciples game. My interests tend towards the deeper games in the TBS genre, like Xcom, Civ3, etc. I'm also a sucker for the Black Isle RPGs, and console sports games.
It seems so. A interesting thread has been posted in the forums by LoicenickAoM about her myth upgrades, and the test results make it apparent that the techs don't effect resource gathering as much as they "should". For example, Sacred Cats only effects the actual gathering of food from a farm. A large percentage of a farmer's time is spent walking around the farm and dropping off food, and the tech does not effect that. It's an interesting realization.
"Test Measure: (Food Gain without SC); (Food gain with SC)
Test 1: 1513;1600 Test 2: 1502;1605 Test 3: 1489;1612 Test 4: 1482;1607 Test 5: 1499;1595 Test 6: 1518;1599 Test 7: 1508;1597 Test 8: 1517;1623 Test 9: 1524;1609 Test 10: 1505;1589
Conclusion: This test has a suprisingly low standard deviation which allows for some very accurate test results. Any obvious test flaws were discounted and repeated."
A league for MOD1 has opened HERE. The league has been created to allow players of the mod to get together for IP games and make the mod more widely used. I personally think that this league will go far!
No, sorry Linux fans the game is not being made to play on your systems. However a rather interesting debate on why developers don't create games for Linux is going on HERE
GSC do know about the shell problems at the moment and have reported that the issue shall hopefully be shortly resolved. For more regular updates visit GSC's Website
MFO's weekly tournaments, Smackdowns, were all the rage back in the days of Age of Kings. Well, they've decided to start it up again, AoM-style. With winners recieving special avatars showing off their skill, these tournaments aren't nearly as large as some of MFO's other tournaments, but they're still fun. Take a look at the Smackdown page for more information on settings and whatnot.
The StArLiGhT Clan is hosting a DM Tournament tomorrow(the 30th) at 5PM EST. So, if you're a DM player, be sure to take a look and possibly sign up, I'm sure it'll be fun. The settings are as follows:
Date: December, 30th, 2002 Time: 5 pm EST Where: Channel Styx Map: Green Arabia (GAN) Game: Deathmatch No Cheats
OnePC.net has recently reviewed Age of Mythology. They were quite satisfied with the game, giving it a 9.5 out of 10.
"Age of Empires fans get ready, because you’re about to enter the most wonderful mythological journey of your RTS life!...For all you AOE fans, this game will be a pleasant surprise. It mixes all of the good aspects of AOE and adds in some mythological creatures and some God-like powers--you end up with a first-rate real time strategy (RTS) game against the computer or in a multiplayer mode."
Well needless to say the AOKH Ladder took off like a shot. It seemed that there were many players who wanted to test themselves against other forumers and see how good they really were and could be. Myll_Slaghter, a long time Forumer who was, and is very respected as a player as well as forumer became our 1st Ladder Champion. He fended of many challenges by some great players and remained Champion for quite sometime!
Along the way the Ladder began to mould to fit the growing number of players who were joining up. Many well known greats such as DaRq_LadyWoogy, DaRq_Doink, StorM_Country, StorM_Front, DjiNN_Inc, Pezeteros_ along with many others.
With the rest of the new comers came some really special and great players who also became great AOKH Forumers. These players offered their time and provided valuable tips that helped many forumers learn to play the game better. Forumers like Chichiri, Flank, WX_Intrigue, slamdrew, and Myll_Barka.
As the Ladder continued to grow we saw many new and great players begin to join. Players like _Final_Boss_ who also become a Ladder Champion. Many players began to think that he was unbeatable. He had a perfect record and had not been beaten until another great player by the name of GaryPayton came along and finally beat him!
GaryPayton also remained as the AOKH Ladder Champion for quite sometime. Defending his title against some really tough opponents until he was finally defeated by Myll_Barka.
As Champion of the AOKH Ladder, Myll_Barka. fended off many challenges until he was finally defeated by a player named Souyrar_ who came out of no where. There were a number of Battles between Myll_Barka. and Souyrar_ but it seemed that Souyrar_ had Myll_Barka’s.number, and remained as champion until GaryPayton returned and defeated Souyrar_.
GaryPayton remained as champion until he retired…. which left a vacancy at the top of the Ladder. So we had our 1st Ladder Champion Tournament. This was won by Myll_Barka who defeated MoFo_Revolution in the finals.
After defending his title for a while, Myll_Barka was defeated by Chichiri. Unfortunately, Chichiri’s reign at the top was short lived as he was shortly defeated by YuG_Baja_VII.
YuG_Baja_VII went on to become one of the greatest Champions that the AOKH Ladder ever saw! He defended his title 50 straight times and was never defeated. Once he reached his 50th straight win…..he retired. And this is where we find ourselves today. We are in the middle of our 2nd Ladder Champion Tournament that will determine our next AOKH Ladder Champion.
Along the way other forumers distinguished themselves as well. Starting in January of 2002 a weekly [url=http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/aokcgi/display.cgi?action=ct&f=3,31110,0,10][b]Ladder Warriors[/b][/url] title was created in which the Ladder players that had shown the most determination and courage were given some recognition in a weekly posting that showcased the top three Ladder Players of the week. Forumers like Morningthaw, Flank, Tonto_Alyantis, slamdrew, were regulars on this list. But no other forumer made this list as often and showed more courage then our good friend S_A_S who appeared on this list a total of 18 times.
S_A_S was our Ultimate Ladder Warrior. He played with sportsmanship and courage. Not a single forumer on the Ladder ever had a bad thing to say about him. Now that’s an achievement. Way to go S_A_S!
With well over 5000 Ladder games played by over 500 Ladder players the AOKH Ladder has been a great success thanks to all of you great AOKH Ladder Players and forumers!
With AOK:TC, ( the greatest RTS Game ever made! ) being the game we play here at AOKH I can't wait to see what happens over the next year as well as the next 5000 Ladder Games!
Thanks goes out to all the great forumers that made the success of the AOKH Ladder possible! A special thanks goes out to my good friend A Noble Cause who created a great program that provided all sorts of cool stats that the Ladder Players enjoyed reading. It also made it a heck of a lot fasted for me to do the updates! This program really helped the AOKH Ladder Take off like it had never done before!
Titania (aka CorranHorn) started on an interesting looking campaign about a CorSec Officer who you have to lead through his many adventures. Be sure to check out the showcase for additional information!
Follow CorSec officer Vincent Trida through his adventures on Corellia. Zekka Thyne, a Vigo of Black Sun, has taken interest in the planet and plans to exploit it and create organized crime throughout it. With the help of the rogue mercenary Falco Talon, success seems to be garaunteed.
Just a quick news post: AoMUniverse has started up a list of the Top 100 AoM sites on the net. If you're a webmaster yourself, it wouldn't hurt to apply to add yours to the list. Take a look.
By the way, the first forum party is now over, but don't fret if you missed it. Come back to Styx tonight at 12PM EST(5PM GMT) for some more gaming.
Gamasutra, a site on Game Development, has posted an postmortem, by Bartosz Kijanka, on Dungeon Siege. (free registration required to view) During the development; what was done right, what was done wrong, and what have been learned. If you seek answer to any of those questions, this is what to read. If you're even at all interested in game development I think you should read it actually, since it says a lot about the difficulties you can face, especially when starting from zero.
"We were starting completely from scratch. We had to find an office and buy phones, fax machines, desks, and all those little things most of us take for granted working at an established company. Our first engineering meeting was held at Chris's house with a whiteboard on the floor and a half dozen of us huddled around it. A month later, when we finally did find a space, we had to make it usable. I remember Chris crimping network cables and climbing up on ladders through ceiling tiles running the network wire in the new office. I also clearly remember my first day in that office, when I built my own PC from random parts we bought, unfolding a cheap Costco table on which to set it all up. I loaded up MS Dev and faced an empty header file, which at that moment represented our entire technology base."
So what did went right? Here's a small exert:
"Somewhere between the prototype and our first E3, something magical happened. It may have been when our technology started to hobble along such that people could finally see what the game might look like, or maybe it was when our tools became really usable. For whatever reason, since our first E3 and for about three years thereafter, the game just kept looking better every day. Art director Steve thompson and his team straddled an exponential curve of outdoing themselves and rode it to the very end. Over time the models morphed from "Hey, is that a bear or a giant rat?" to "Wow, let's see that again!""
You'll also learn how useful a program like ICQ - that people use in their ordinary lives all around the world every day - can be for game developers. Finally, it includes some...interesting...technical facts about Dungeon Siege.
"Approximately 800,000 lines of source code for game, editor, and associated tools; 60,000 lines of scripts; 21 million total lines of .GAS configuration files; 8,500 textures, 2,000 animations, 2,600 object and actor meshes, 3,700 terrain meshes"
RTS-League was originally started as a friendly clan based gaming environment for AoK. FOPT_Strawberry sends word that the administrators of the league have decided to expand into AoM. Here's what he had to say:
RTS-League is going AoM!
RTS-League, the worldwide operating successful Clan-League for Age of Kings: The Conquerors, is now expanding it´s activities into Age of Mythology.
RTS-League is a fan-based League that gives Clans from all over the world the opportunity to make new friends and join fun-based online-competition in a League-System with weekly changing opponents. Founded in 2001, RTS-League has hosted several seasons for Age of Kings and Empire Earth already. Participation is free and there are no prizes. (Except perhaps fame and glory ;)
Interested AoM-Clans now have the chance to apply for a spot in the soon to start new AoM-League. There is no limit in numbers but please note that only the most active and reliable clans will be accepted to the event.
For more information please visit the official website http://www.rts-league.com. Sign Up is open from now till January 12th, 2003. Official Beginning of the Season will be January 20th, 2003.
ightNecromancer has started another interesting topic, debating the for's and against's of gameplay and graphics. If you feel like giving your opinion, drop a line here.
GamersClick recently reviewed Age of Mythology. They gave the game a rating of 8.8 out of 10. Strangely enough, they said that it is easily one of the best strategy games ever released...yet they gave it an "unsatisfactory" score. That seems to be the trend with most reviewers when they review AoM.
"All in all, Age of Mythology is by far one of the best real-time strategy titles ever released in terms of diversity, balance, graphics, and sound...Who would I recommend this game to?...if you hold any interest whatsoever in strategic games then you can certainly put this game on your Christmas list, and even if you don't but hold a love for mythology then you'll also want to add this puppy to your shopping list. And heck, even if you don't like real-time strategy games or have never played one before there is no better opportunity to delve into the genre than right here."
NPD Techworld has released their list of the top ten best-selling games for the week of December 8-14th. Although several other games outsold AoM, getting in the top 10 is still an honor, and it seems to be keeping steady in sales. If AoM keeps in the top 10, even if it doesn't reach above 6 or 7, the sales will still be enormous. And if you haven't purchased the game yet, get to buyin!
1.Sims Unleashed from Electronic Arts (EA) 2. Harry Potter 2 from EA 3. Sims Deluxe from EA 4. Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 from Infogrames 5. Zoo Tycoon from Microsoft 6. Backyard Hockey from Infogrames 7. Age of Mythology from Microsoft 8. Sims Vacation from EA 9. Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania from Microsoft 10. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Spearhead from EA
AoMHolland's Feoljk has written up a nice overview of the basic economic structure in Age of Mythology. The article is a good introduction to those that are new to the game and want to get used to the way AoM's economy works. Some of the information was gathered off of Sybex's strategy guide(which was made before the game's released), so you may encounter some discrepancies in the article, but it's good, nonetheless.
"This Economy Guide is meant to help players become better at Age of Mythology. Always remember your economy decides the size and strength of your army. Your economy feeds your military. I’ve seen too many players loosing, because they couldn’t get enough resources to make a decent army, whether that’s early or late in the game."
According to a thread in the forums, the DarkLeaders Clan has announced the start of a 1vs1 AoM Tournament. The settings are as follows, and it begins on the 11th or January.
Map: Random Map (or other if both players agree) Game Type: Supremacy Culture: Player Choice Handicap: None Map Size: Normal Visibility: Normal Allow Cheats: No
You can post your comments about the tournament here.
...and the results are in! The FOX clan(which features the highest-ranking playerin the world, FOX_EliteX) came out victorious, and is considered the best clan on ESO.
Legion of Honour clan is hosting the latest AOK:TC tournament. And a copy of AOM is up for grabs for the player that takes fisrt place! Deadline for sign ups will be December 30th/ 2002 and the tournament will begin on the 1st of January/ 2003 and run untill January 12th/ 2003.
The Ladder Champion Tournament has begun and StArK_ZeRo has jumped out in front of the pack with 2 wins and 1 loss. So far all the games have sounded exiting. There are still lots of games to go so be sure to keep track of this event by visiting AOKH.
J.Loyd of The Wargamer has published an interview with Brian Reynolds, about what else? Rise of Nations!
Here's an excerpt:
Rise of Nations is the long-anticipated title from developer Big Huge Games that promises to integrate real-time strategy with turn-based wargaming. To ensure a sense of expansive, in-depth management along with the thrill of epic conquest, the game relies on the creative ingenuity of renowned game designer Brian Reynolds, the brain behind Civilization II and Alpha Centauri. Touting such features as quick game play, exceptional zoom capabilities, streamlined multiplayer use, and multiple victory conditions, Rise of Nations is due to hit the shelves in Spring, 2003
One subject of great debate currently seems to be the popular Ra fast heroic strategy - advancing to the third age in a very short time to take advantage of Ra's stronger Camelry and Chariots. We've heard many reports so far that ES are looking at the problem...and while there's still no official word on it yet, ES Playtester Jerry "Gx_Iron" Terry has commented on it in the PAoM forums.
The Odin fast heroic may be good vs the Ra strategy, but the Ra 2nd age trumps it, leaving the Odin player guessing, while the Ra player can win either way. In any case this strategy [Ra's fast heroic] will be toned down in the future.
If you want to check out the source of Iron's comment, head over to this thread at PAoM.
The AOE III forum is on fire with discussions and ideas for the newest, but yet to be announced, Ensemble Studios game. There are some great posts covering ideas such as New Units as well as New Civilizations. Other posts are covering the direction Ensemble Studios should go in a AOE III game.
Feel free to come to the AOE III Forum and post your ideas as well as comment on the many ideas posted by other forumers!
American Conquest Tech Depot have come a cross an image of a horse drawn cannon similar to that which was originally to be included in American Conquest. I'm sure many people would like to know is this unit is to be included in the addon or whether it is the unit originally removed from the game and is now discarded for good.
There's been some talk about this for some time now, but finally we're getting an absolute, official, source. GameSpy has made an interview with Chris Taylor.
"GameSpy: You've been hinting for some time that your next project would be an RTS with tanks and planes, reviving the spirit of the Total Annihilation series that you spearheaded. So what is the plan and how will it bring the TA-style excitement into the existing RTS environment of Warcraft III and Command & Conquer: Generals? Chris Taylor: We have been talking here at Gas Powered Games about our next big RTS game for quite some time, and now that Dungeon Siege is complete, it's time to start this next big project."
A Merry Christmas goes out to all our visitors. Personally I celebrated it yesterday, as people here does, but today's the day for the most. Have a good time, and if you're not yet an owner of Dungeon Siege, perhaps it'll turn up among your presents?
As a nice Christmas gift, Xaa has released version 2.0 of his siegelet, The Lands of Hyperborea. The Patch weights in at 25.5 MB. There has been quite a few fixes, all mentioned in the readme.
Two good articles have been typed up and released tonight, the first of which is made by AoM Strategy. God Power Combos(written by Lkysammy) is a brief article concerning the importance of coordinating the use of god powers in team games(such as Earthquake to take out enemy buildings, and Lightning Storm to take out enemy units).
"Bronze Skin/Flaming weapons: Use this during a critical battle. It can be successful in completely annihilating an opponents army. They don't really stand a chance if the battle was close before the GPs. Make sure your opponent doesn't have freeze/cease fire though."
deadlydentures of Through The Ages made the second article, How To Play Lightning Mode. Although it doesn't go into great detail into how one should play that mode, it is a great introduction for someone who is trying to get used to the fast-paced gameplay that occurs in Lightning Mode.
"Lightning is exactly the same as supremacy except everything is done 5x faster. Villagers gather and build 5x faster. Units are created 5x faster. Techs are researched 5x faster. In fact, the only thing that isn't 5x faster is unit movement and attack. Those stay the same. The map also starts out explored, since you will have very little time to explore it anyway."
Yes, it's that time of of year again. When everyone is hoping for snow and all that other cliched stuff. So, in the spirit of the holidays we at RoNH wish everyone a very happy holiday season!
Cowboy over at AoMUniverse recently notified that he has put up a review of the 3rd highest ranking Supremacy player in the world. Not all that bad, it's a nice interview.
"Cowboy: Congratulations on being one of the few to surpass the 2000 mark and as of Dec. 21/02 being ranked 3 on ESO with a rating of 2026.146 Tell us a little about yourself and your history as a player.
L_Clan_Chris: I'm a 15 year old Canadian. I attend high-school and play soccer. Previously, I was an AoC player. I've made a decent amount of money by winning tournaments."
From everyone at HeavenGames, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. A ton of sleeping, shopping, gift giving and watching Lord of the Rings is what we all looked forward to this Christmas right? Again have a great vacation and hopefully your favorite games (or console or computer parts ) will be under your Christmas tree tonight.
P.S. A great long comic @ Gamespy - THE DAILY VICTIM CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 2002. A small bit so you go there, "the wee hours of that Christmas, he began to understand for the first time why people bothered to collect these old games. Or why they meant so much to them in the first place."
TTENTION article writers: since I have taken over Angel Socvazius' job of maintaining The University, I'd like to bring under your attention that I'm looking for people willing to write an article or two about strategy or design. So if you have an article, and are willing to place them inside our to-be bookshelf, please send it to me. The redesigned University will be accessable in a short time. Thanks in advance, and Merry Christmas. :-)
I and the staff of AoW2 Heaven would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas! I hope many of you were able to enjoy the day off from work today unlike me or if you're on break from school you probably had plenty of spare time to play Age of Wonders or stop by the forums to wish your friends good cheer!
Angel GillB has KORTified the classic 'Twas The Night Before Christmas poem, and if you have young children in the house tonight you can have an excuse to get on the Internet by tracking Santa's progress around the world as he delivers toys at the Federal government's NORAD Tracks Santa website (translated into six languages!).
I also spotted a little Christmas Present for Triumph Studios today, as Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne captured a nomination for "Most Improved Sequel on PC" in Gamespot's Best of the Year awards. Congratulations and enjoy the holiday!
Kyle "Ixnay" Stadler has completed another round of game information updates for the Apolyton RoN Fact Sheet, which now numbers six nicely illustrated pages.
Thanks to DanQ from Apolyton, and Rohag for the news!
Todd Allen of Games First offers us a very enthusiastic preview of RoN, telling everyone "to get their affairs in order before next spring because once you get this game, and get it you probably should,your life will officially be put on hold."
Thanks to zam zap of RoN Pantheon, and Rohag for the news!
FOPT_Strawberry of the FOPT clan has sent the forumers of AOKH a little Christmas present!
Merry Christmas from FOPT to all true fans of Age of Kings: The Conquerors!
To shorten the wait for Santa we have put up a Christmas-Special: 14 (!) exclusive recorded games featuring the world´s top AoC-player Halen from Japan against Chris, Champ, kkab, Yanzi and others in his secret training for the WCG 2002!.
Download all games for free from FOPT CLAN (note that you have to be registered and logged in to be able to download games from the forums)!
I would like to wish you and all your family and friends a Merry Christmas. It has been quite a year here at AOKH and there are no signs of anything slowing down for a long time to come!
With the holidays being here you can expect many forumers to be on the Zone getting thier fix of AOC while they have a little free time on thier hands. Expect to see me on a few times over the next couple days getting in a few Ladder games. So I hope to see all of you on the zone!
A most important bit of the interview was the part which unveiled the two other nations that will appear in the American Conquest Add-on. This means that the add-on will include Germany, Russia, Netherlands and Portugal. It is likely that the nation referred to as Germany shall in fact be Prussia in the game.
Gamespot has some new AC screenshots up. Two of the screenshots focus on the naval aspect of American Conquest and the other remaining screenshot shows a battle around some ruins. You can check out these screenshots HERE
Sungazer posted this image over at the Webquad forums. The disabled monkey is available in the map editor and it has been previously reckoned that GSC added it for a laugh just like the Stefan Hertrich in Cossacks, however Pepsi has now commented on the subject and announced that the model is from a suspended game called "MonkeyCraft"
Baddog has posted another image on the forum from Cossacks 2! The look of the builings so far is truly impressive and no doubt everyone wants to see even more! The image is HERE
JustRPG, the writers of a nice preview of AoM, have followed up on that article with a review of the game. As with the preview, the writer was very impressed with AoM, giving it a 97%andJust RPG Award of Excellence!
"We are fortunate to have a developer such as Ensemble Studios that has graced us with Age of Mythology. Their impressive 3D engine has brought the world of mythology to vibrant and stunning life...The single player campaign was so remarkable that future strategy games should use it as a model of how to incorporate a compelling and engaging story...I look with great anticipation to the expansion pack...and enjoying another exciting gaming experience when it is released. Age of Mythology is a shining jewel in the crowd of strategy games released this year with its intriguing single player campaign and engaging gameplay through god powers, heroes and myth units!"
Good old Lunatic has interviewed another victim, this time DisturbedRoach, the administrator of Age of Mythology Center. As always, the questions were good and provided interesting answers. Take a look.
"Lunatic - What is AOMC position, compared to the other sites?
DisturbedRoach - I must place AOMC probably after all the english sites, there is still alot we need to improve on.
Lunatic - Very modest you are, young padawan lol
DisturbedRoach - AOMH has a great fanbase, MFO has the downloads and strategy people, while PAOM has gamespy and great in depth info soon. We have a long way to go, the game is still young and things can change... I also have to say that not every site is perfect. Every user likes a site for its own features, for AOMC it's the design that's keeping us alive for now. And every site has flaws, lets take MFO as an example. They got great info but the design and forums are bad."
Admiral Piett, a local forumer, made his third guide on how to make interiors, decorations and the such.
EMPEROR HEAVEN The Great Wall continued Posted 12/23/2002 @ 2:24 PM EST by GillB
Angel Zen was kind enough to mention that there is an article about the Great Wall in this month's National Geographic magazine. Unfortunately only an excerpt from it is available online, but hope you enjoy it.
In his series on the Crusades, Sulis, with some help from Reckless Rodent, has arrived at The Fifth Crusade.
In the second decade of the 13th century, crusade enthusiasm was running high, but Jerusalem itself was still in Muslim hands. European commitment made possible the most ambitious crusades of the period and their aim was simple: ensure the survival of the crusader states by conquering Egypt itself, their notion being that this was the seat of Muslim power in the East.
It was the great ambition of Pope Innocent III to recapture the Holy City and in April 1213 he called for a new crusade to the East. He died in July 1216 before he could see his plans come to fruition. Three days after Innocent's death a new pope was elected, Honorius III. He immediately took up where Innocent had left off, writing letters to the monarchs of Europe. Few answered the call, and those who did sent only very small armies. Response was better among the French and German barons, and the Frisians agreed to provide a fleet.
I have an added bit of interest in this particular crusade, as the town I live in participated in the siege of Damietta and earned it's coat of arms here.
American Conquest: Artillery for beginners! The proper usage of artillery in American Conquest is essential, especially for European nations! There are basically two different modes to choose from: The “Ricochet” Mode is used if you want to fire cannon balls almost horizontally, so that they will bounce off the ground. This attack is very dangerous if the enemy soldiers are in rows, and will cause the famous domino effect. The “Grapeshot” Mode is like a shot with fine gravel. The enemy has to be very near, but this mode can tear big holes into the enemy’s troops. For timesaving reasons you can also preload your cannons
An interesting discussion in Cossacks General Discussions has been started about which version of the game to buy. Points discussed have included multi-player and single player advantages and value for money. The key deciding point of course is which version is best for Cossacks newbies and which is best for old cossacks players. You can join in the discussion HERE
This week, at long last we have a Nation of the week. It maybe appropriate that this week's feature nation is Rome.
Rome perhaps is the civilization that can boast as having the greatest influence on the Europe, if not the World. Its conquests stretched as far North as Scotland, Land around the entire Mediterranean Basin, and the Middle East, as far east as ancient Parthia. Even the German's whom they did not conquer, eventually adopted Roman heritage and titles to legitimize their own positions in Europe. The legacy of these conquests reverberate to this very day in any European based nation, who if not seeking to emulate the Roman Empire outright, strive to understand it and model their nation on what made Rome great. One of the primary reason for the Roman success in the ancient world was the highly trained and disciplined Legions. These soldiers replaces the Heavy Infantry line, which they get two free units of for every barrack they build and forms what is one of the unique unit lines for the Romans in Rise of Nations. They start in the Classical Age and continue to the Praetorian Guard in the Gunpowder age. In the Industrial Age and on, they get a hypothetical Tank Destroyer Unique unit, which will prove a great danger to most enemies. They also possess stronger fortresses and towers in the game, to reflect the expert and liberal use of these structures that the Romans had done historically.
Be sure to check out the full article and take a look at previous Nations of the Week on our Nations Page.
Wow, we haven't seen these in a while. They were pouring in, and...they just stopped. And now they're back again. Several reviews have been made recently, the first one by GameBlitz. Theirs gave AoM an overall score of 95%, with a score 100% on addiction. Ohh, so that's why I got a massive headache and extreme nausea when I lost my CD for a day last week ;-)
"From the amazing visuals crafted in full 3D, to the engrossing storyline, immaculate interface, remarkable gameplay, to the never-ending multiplayer possibilities, this would have been a truly massive undertaking on Ensemble's part."
The Dallas Morning News, the newspaper of Ensemble's home, was quite impressed with the game and gave it a 4.5 out of 5 buttons. You can take a look at the review, though you'll have to sign up to be able to.
"I have always been a WarCraft guy and could never get into the AoE series -- it always seemed the difficulty was a little higher and the resource gathering a bit more tedious. But I think those things have really been worked out. If you throw in a top-notch 3-D engine with a great storyline and impressive new myth units, I have now become a fan of this series."
Next, GamesFirst has a review, giving 4 stars out of 5.
"Unfortunately, if you’re not already a fan of the AoK series, AoM probably won’t change your mind. But if you liked the series or heard your friends raving about it and were intrigued, if you enjoy RTS games and civilization-building resource-management challenges, or if you just want to see whether Osiris has what it takes to kick Loki’s ass, then Age of Mythology will not disappoint."
Battle Clans is hosting a 2vs2 Supremacy tournament in an attempt to find out who is the best clan on ESO. It's a small step out of the norm of 1vs1 tournaments, so this one should prove to be interesting. If you're part of a clan, be sure to check it out.
Angel Luke, known before as Cherub Luke, has now been promoted to the status of "Angel". Luke has put in a lot of time and effort to help AOKH stay on top as HG's number one site. For all his efforts.... HG is proud to promote this fine forumer and reward all his hard work!
Angel Luke will now be looking after the University amoung other responsibilities here at AOKH!
The AOKH Ladder Champion Tournament Round Robin schedule is now posted and games can now be played.
YuG_Baja_VII has retired as AOKH Ladder Champion. And it is now time to find a new Champion for our Ladder! 14 Ladder Players are now going after the Championship and it should be a very interesting event. Who will become the next Ladder Champion!
Macdaddy now has the Ladder League up and running. 31 players are involved and it looks like everyone of them are in for a lot of fun! The league was created a few months ago by Flank and has now been re-created by our good friend Macdaddy and by everything I am hearing it is gonna be a great success!
Thanks to galacticbattles.com, I found a great link to Battlesites. Apparently, they host tournies and wars for several games, and one of them is SWGB! One of the eyecatchers is the end of the year war! Be sure to set your lasers to full power when you join in on this war!
Titania (aka CorranHorn), has a recruitment thread for those who want to participate in the making of the Mon Calamari civilization. Artists and map designers already involved are Tantive, obiwANDYZ, Obi_Wan and among others! If you have the talent (which I think a lot of people do), sign up today!
Our local members at SWGBH has set up a contest that'll test your abilities to make scenarios! The Senior Council is hosting this, so there shouldn't be any rivalry between any opposing clans, right? So it's just clean scenario designing fun! The contest ends on Janurary 15th, 2003.The contest will be based around your ability to map design military bases.
This contest challenges contestants to make the best military base that they can. Entries will be taken until New Year's Day.
Here's the next guide! Poser Guide 3, this one should help you on textures and coloring objects and the sort. I was really, really late on this one, sorry guys.
This is the third guide, introducing to you how to color figures and objects.
STRONGHOLD HEAVEN Castle of the Week - Goodrich Castle Posted 12/22/2002 @ 9:16 AM EST by Jayhawk
Despite not being a 'well man' Sulis did some hard work on providing us with a write-up and a playable castle for Goodrich Castle, in Herefordshire.
Goodrich castle in Herefordshire is sited on a high rocky spur over the right bank of the River Wye, commanding a crossing of the river. The area was known as the Welsh Marches, an area on the border of Wales. It is protected partly by a natural steep slope and valley, and partly by a dry moat cut out of the rock.
Goodrich was originally an early motte and bailey construction but, as was the case with most of this type of castle, it was relatively small and was used primarily as a military fortification. The development of Goodrich from a fortified site into a home and administrative centre can be approximately dated between 1160 and 1270 and reflects the phases of castle building and improvement that can be seen here.
Enjoy, and join me in saying "Get well soon!" to Sulis.
GameSpot's editors have finally made their choices and come up with the big of the Best and Worst Games of 2002. Age of Mythology was nominated for both Single Player Strategy and Multiplayer Strategy, but unfortunately the kudos for those went to Medieval: Total War and Warcraft 3 respectively. If you're interested, you can check out the full awards here. Thanks to Ken for sending this one in. Hmmm...Warcraft 3 I can understand, but I'm a bit doubtful about Medieval: Total war...
COSSACKS HEAVEN Happy Holidays from Cossacks Heaven Posted 12/22/2002 @ 2:45 AM EST by Angel ET
Cossacks Heaven extends the Best of Holidays wishes to all. May the upcoming Year 2003 be the Greatest Year for everyone. We want to thank each member for making Cossacks Heaven or any of the other Heavengames sites, the best place to find friendly game help and interact with good friends. This measure of appreciation is well founded by our dedicated support of these wonderful Cossacks game titles. We are looking forward to seeing all of you and your friends here in the upcoming New Year.
Also Cossacks Heaven would like to introduce the installation of Sharpe novel reader as a News Reporter. Look for his "reports" right here on Cossacks Heaven's main page in the near future.
Thanks to the guys at PAoM for the heads up about this bit of news. Apparently, Microsoft released DirectX 9 on the 19th of this month. It's a very nice update, so what are you waiting for? Download it!
"Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX 9.0 includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs."
Graham from Big Huge Games has posted a rquest to the fans for what they would like to see in the next weekly screenshot over in the Rise of Nations Oracle Forums.
There likely won't be a weekly screenshot next week due to the holidays, but after that is all said and done RON Oracle will be hosting the next one, shortly before the new year. Any requests for what you'd like to see in it? Units/buildings from a specific age? A naval battle? A specific nation?
Head on over to this thread and put in your request.
EMPEROR HEAVEN More about the Great Wall and browsing HG Recommendations Posted 12/21/2002 @ 1:51 PM EST by GillB
Tom was kind enough to email me after my news article yesterday saying that he had seen a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the building of the Great Wall and people being buried in it. Apparently this is probably a myth as if people were buried in the wall, the decomposition would lead to there being gaps in the earth making the wall not so strong. It makes sense I suppose, but it's still rather a 'nice' legend (depending on how ghoulish you are of course).
Apparently an archaeologist found a burial ground near the Wall full of bones which he believed belonged to those who died during the building. However, it does make me think that, if his hypothesis is correct, there would have to be many burial grounds along the length of the Wall which is, after all, about 6,500km long.
By the way, just a reminder that there are only two shopping days until Christmas for you to buy copies of Emperor for all your friends. Try ordering it from one of the links on this page and make a little money for HG at the same time. Whilst there, why not have a browse among other HGers recommendations ... or make some of your own.
Wonder no longer! Ensemble Studios' Mike "Captn_Kidd" Kidd has dropped by the forums to comment on a thread asking that very question.
OK, here's a summary, starting with the simple case of 1v1. (Rating1 - Rating2) gives us predicted odds of winning. If the ratings match, it's 50%. If Rating1 is 100 points higher, it's about 90% odds.
A total of 40 points are at stake, and they're split according to the odds. So, in an even match, player 1 will win or lose 20. In a 90% favored match, player 1 will win about 4 or lose about 36.
If the point delta is more than 150 points, the game is not rated, and the lower-rated player gets a handicap bonus of 12% per 100 points difference.
In team games, each player's rating is scored as if he won or lost to an opponent with a rating equal to the average of the other team. So the higher-ranked partner wins fewer points than the lower-ranked one. (This discourages 1900 experts from partnering with 1600 smurfs to pad their scores.)
Unfortunately, handicapping kicks in when any one player is 150 points below the highest, and appears to only adjust those players who are 150 below the leader. (Someone 151 points below gets a big boost, someone 149 points below gets no boost.) We're looking into how it works and how we think it ought to work.
Also on the subjects of ratings, the people at Alliance Francophone have created a page which retrieves ESO stats for viewing without being logged into ESO. (Click 'Aller aux stats avancees' to search for a particular user.) Or for you clan webmasters out there who want to show ESO stats on your own site, Andrew has created a thread at PAoM explaining how to retrieve those stats.
As a nice Christmas gift, GPG has released some updates that will surely make all DS modders out there happy. First thing is an update of the Siege Editor to version 1.1a.
"The latest update to the Dungeon Siege Tool Kit (version 1.1a) incorporates a number of helpful bug fixes and workflow enhancements to Siege Max, giving you the freedom to create new creatures, items, terrain, and animations that can be brought directly into your Dungeon Siege worlds. These enhancements work alongside the latest update of Discreet’s® gmax™ software (version 1.2) and to coincide with the release of the new DSTK Art Packs™."
So; what's these "Art Packs"? Well, they are collections of textures, models, and animation files for various stuff in Dungeon Siege. Modders has long asked for this, as it enables them to rework a character instead of having to do it all from scratch. There is plenty of art released, you can check it all here.
Gamespot members can take a look at an 11 minute movie on the making of Age of Mythology. The movie takes a look at some of the issues each of the departments of ES faced in making the game, and weighs in at a hefty 85 meg. The movie is unfortunately only available to Gamespot Complete members.
If you were one of the people who bought the Collector's Edition - this movie is the one that was on the DVD that came with it. Thanks to forumer fhertlein for pointing this one out.
AoM Center's Jetbilix has written up a 7 page guide to the scenario editor, which goes over basic explanation of each of the editor's features and how to create a scenario. If you're looking for a place to start with the editor, head over and check it out, but those of you already using it probably won't learn much.
MiCroSlave has updated his Enhanced tooltips to reflect the changes made by the 1.02 patch. If you already have this installed, you need to download the update for it to display the correct information.
For those of you who aren't familiar with them, MiCroSlave's enhanced tooltips essentially give you the hard numbers on the in-game help, instead of simply saying vague things like 'Infantry stronger'. So it will tell you exact changes and benefits - 'Infantry 10% more HP, 10% more attack, 1 more LOS' for instance. If you want to know these details, then you should probably check it out.
If you're having problems with the autopatching system, you can manually download the new patch here.
EMPEROR HEAVEN The Great Wall and a quiz Posted 12/20/2002 @ 7:38 AM EST by GillB
I thought that those of you struggling to build part of the Great Wall might like to see a picture of the "real thing" (courtesy of Jayhawk). Those who want to find out more might like to read the short article about it in our History section. Did you know, for example, that anyone who died while working on it was buried in the wall ... and anyone who complained or tried to escape was buried alive? Maybe, if you remember that, it will make your building seem a little easier.
Anyone with spare time (and if you have spare time at this time of year, I can only assume you're not a parent) might like to have a go at the Trivial Pursuit Quiz in the Community Forum. This is an ongoing quiz with questions being added all the time by Thanh, a CBH regular from long ago who has recently returned.
AGE OF KINGS HEAVEN Artificial Intelligence, anyone? Posted 12/20/2002 @ 6:35 AM EST by Luke
ESTERDAY, while checking the DGDN article database, I ran into a section filled with Ai "how-to's". A good read if you're planning to do anything Ai-wise...
From the DGDN news: it seems DarkAngelBGE, a multi-talented feller, has decided to wrap his extended Ai-knowledge into one document. I'd say - stay tuned...
Lunatic at Planet Age of Empires recently interviewed one of the top men in MrFixitOnline, blue_myriddn. I found the interview to be quite interesting, take a look at it yourself.
Lunatic - Which [fansites]? Are there favorites?
blue_myriddn - Well... I do often visit the ones that I know the webmasters personally. The MS events where we have been able to meet in person are REALLY great things: it helps to foster good relations with everyone. I approach other sites not as competition... there are SO many things that sites can do, that there really isn't a reason to try and do it all. For example - some folks may view Heavengames and MFO as "competitors", when there really is a huge difference between our goals. Heaven does things tha
) will be under your Christmas tree tonight.
