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March 2003
 | RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Battlefield : RoN Fansite Gets a New Look
Posted 3/31/2003 @ 9:12 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | The Battlefield.com clan gaming and tourney site gets a new look, and add RoN to their stable of featured games. Here's a link to their location. They are affiliated with the RoN World-of-Strategy site.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
3D Avenue Opens RoN gallery
Posted 3/31/2003 @ 9:07 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | 3D Avenue has opened a gallery of 28 RoN screenshots, some of which have been seen on other sites but with so many pictures in one place, it is definitely worth a look.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
UK gaming magazine PC Zone previews RoN
Posted 3/31/2003 @ 9:05 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | UK gaming magazine PC Zone previews RoN in its April 2003 edition: “We’ve waited a long time for an RTS to truly push forward the boundaries of gamplay and in RoN we believe we have found what we’ve been looking for….” Quote featured at the Microsoft RoN site.
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| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
DS Music
Posted 3/31/2003 @ 5:55 PM EST by David | Straight from dungeonsiege.com:"Jeremy Soule composed the orchestral music for Dungeon Siege and we're happy to bring you a sample of his music directly from Dungeon Siege! This first piece, entitled Ice Bridge, is available for download in mp3 format. Enjoy!" |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Adrenaline Vault Previews RoN
Posted 3/31/2003 @ 10:45 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Adrenaline Vault has published another more up to date preview of Rise of Nations. The arctile goes on to described the game that not only is an RTS with Civ elements but for the first time Ive seen makes a comparison to the classic wargame Diplomacy. Informative, especially in regards to the CTW campaign but contains a some outdated information as well. Article is 4 pages in length and included 12 screenshots (6 within article and 6 at the gallery at the end). Here is an excerpt: Here's something for jaded strategy gamers to contemplate: Imagine a complete RTS in the Age of Empires mold, except its technology tree covers 10,000 years of history and a planetful of civilizations. Begin with hundreds of configurable options, subtract as much micromanagement as possible, and then embrace the result with a shell of turn-based strategy. Heaven? Maybe. Thanks to MOnkaMen of RON Pantheon for the heads up. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Hey, There's Another Winged One!
Posted 3/31/2003 @ 12:21 AM EST by Socvazius | Another dilemma for Soccy; someone needs to keep our Game Info section up-to-date with the latest information, as well as to add new articles to it. Well, I can think of no one better than Sunshine, who has proven her maturity and dedication to HeavenGames more times than I can count. She has been around Heaven since '97, and has continuously impressed me throughout the years; I know she's going to do an amazing job as a Cherub.
Congratulations, Sunshine! Ok, ok, I'm sure all this promotion news can go on one thread, but when I first got on the staff at AoKH, I wanted all of the attention I could get. Might as well give them that ;-) . |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Geek's Expert European Tournament
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 11:35 PM EST by Socvazius | MFO reports that L_Clan_Geek is hosting a tournament sponsored by EverGlide that pits the top-ranking European players against eachother. A group of 24 hand-picked experts will be playing for some cool prizes and bragging rights! Here's the tournament's summary:
"This is a European tournament, with only players of 1950+ of rating invited to ensure every single game will be of a very high skill level and hopefully enjoyable to watch. I'm very pleased to have had so many good players wanting to play in it when there is no cash prizes on offer. After each game is played the winner must send me the recorded game as soon as the match is finished, you cannot play the next round until i have the recorded game and have given you the go ahead. Non of the games will be uploaded until the whole tournament is finished. The tournament will consist of 24 players, with a 3-way round robin final. The first round will be single elimination but round 2 and onwards will be best out of 3. The whole event shouldn't take more than 5 hours, but if need be and the final 3 players consent the final can be held the next day." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
An Angel Gets His Wings...
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 9:05 PM EST by Socvazius | I've come across a predicament recently; the Strategy Section has needed an administrator. Upon thinking and considering, I find it an obvious choice to pick Cherub Aetius. He has been helping AoMH out for a long time in terms of content, so I figured it was appropriate for him to join the AoMH staff as the Strategy Section and Game Info administrator; and gets bigger Angel wings to boot. I'm sure he'll do an amazing job with his amazing skill (1900+ rating on Supremacy) and great administration judgement. You can congratulate him yourself in this thread
Welcome to the staff, Aetius! |
| AGE OF WONDERS 2 HEAVEN
Some things to ponder..
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 7:55 PM EST by ChowGuy | Between the War in Iraq and the spreading SARS threat dominating people's attention, and the lack of any real developments from Triumph about the upcoming Shadow Magic product, there's not been a lot of discussion or real news to report lately in the AoW world. Still, there have been a few threads started that might be interesting.
Ager Whiteleaf started a thread here asking about the possibility of of adding some sort of Shops in the forthcoming game. Something similar was mentioned long ago, ie the idea of Artifact Foundries in the Wizard's tower where items such as armor or weapons could be created. Other possibilities would be limited use spells or potions. What's your opinion? Would such elements enhance the game, or would carrying around inventories simply add to feeling some people have that Heroes [are] too Powerful?
As always of course that is no threads asking threads asking/stating opinions about which are the best or worse race or units, and whether or not the game is totally "balanced." Clearly, the the various units and races are not identical, but is this lack of "balance" a good thing or a bad thing? As relative newcomer to the forum PrivacyLost points out One of the things I've noticed over the years about game players is that most of us have different playing styles. Some people like to do things one way, others like to do things another. This is why you get so much complaining about things being unbalanced. ... Some of the races definately appear weaker on the surface but they have hidden strengths that give them a real chance. But mostly your never really stuck with one particular race in a game. You can always take cities of other races and utilize them very effectively. Not everyone agrees however. Many players prefer to play using only units of their "chosen" race to the exclusion of all others. So the question then is, what is the more appropriate model of the game - one in which your goal is to build a coalition of forces, or one in which your goal is to assert the ascendency of a given race? The diplomatic model and non-race specific Wizards would seem to support the former, yet the storyline of the campaign clearly alludes to the latter. That unlike many 4X games, this one can be played either way to some is a strength of it's design, to others it's a weakness. What's your feeling?
Somewhat relatedly, what is your feeling on the relative importance to the gameplay of strategic movement and management of an army, versus the role-playing aspects of individual hero development. What effect does this have on the importance of the Wizard/Leader in the game. Again, AoW2 attempts to bridge a gap between party-based dungeon quest type games games and traditional simulation based war games. How well do you feel it succeeds at this, and is this a good idea or a bad one?
Just some ideas that might be worth discussing while we're waiting for Wazzz fingers to grow back. Feel free to jump in on any thread or start a new one.
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| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
Introducing Empires Aeon
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 5:03 PM EST by Angel Park | Wow it loosk like Empires:DMW is already making a following just like Empire Earth did. I received an email from Empires Aeon, the former makers of Empire Earth Aeon, that they just opened their doors. I'll just copy what Mike said:What is Empires Aeon, you ask? Well, simply put, Empires Aeon is a website dedicated to collaboratively providing users with the highest quality, most accurate, and up-to-date information pertaining both to Empires: Dawn of the Modern World and Empire Earth. While advocating amity and maintaining the utmost professionalism, Aeon will strive to surpass the competition on an immense scale.
For those who remember the old Empire Earth Aeon fansite, I cordially welcome your return; those new to Aeon, I hope you enjoy your stay. What you see here is but a mere fragment of better things yet to come, and we will be updating often, so feel free to visit regularly. It is nice to see some more fansites opening up, now we just need the game. Be sure to visit them at http://strategyplanet.com/empires/. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Alliance Continues In-Game Video Series
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 6:19 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | RoN Alliance (Alliance Francophone) presents a video of the starting minutes of the French civilization in RoN. This is the second of a series of videos RoN Alliance is planning for the coming weeks. Video is 3 minutes, 30 MB, avi and in divx format.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Gamesweb Previews RoN
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 5:57 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | In its second preview of RoN, Gamesweb (German) awards the game a “Sehr Gut,” a one-step improvement from the “Ausgezeichnet” of the first preview! Preview includes 18 total screenshots in the gallery.
Thanks to DejaVu for the info.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Alliance Profiles Rome
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 5:54 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | | Cobra and Warrior_t_Nick’s of RoN Alliance (French) has updated their nations profile. This installment features Rome. Other's they have covered in past installments include: Egypt, Japan, Germans, French, Chinese, Aztecs. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Reigning Strategy Interviews Paul Stephanouk
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 5:50 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Robert Thomas and KnightRobby of Reigning Strategy interviews Paul
Stephanouk, RoN’s producer. Check out the interview here!
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| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Got Game?
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 4:07 AM EST by David | Cheating becoming more and more of a nuicanse and problem in online games. GotGame has posted an interesting article on a recent event in Everquest."The names here are removed to protect the innocent, and most of the threads I read this on have now been deleted which is why I [almost] think its ok to talk about. It seems that one of the "guilds" on the Stormhammer server has recently had a moment of crises with it's guild leadership. The group of RL (real life) friends that formed the guild apparently had a very different purpose than those intended by Verant and Sony Online Entertainment. After months of leading the guild on several high-end raids and gaining all kinds of in-game items and loot, this group of friends took those items from the guild vault and sold them on Ebay, and then vanished from the server.
Online identity and trust issues abound. But before you dismiss this as 'oh, well, who really cares about some gold pieces and magic swords that are really just numbers in a database', take a good look at what's happening in online communities of this size. One economic study by California State University at Northridge Professor Edward Castronova placed Norrath (the virtual world of Everquest) as the 77th richest world economy, based on the value of the items in the world adjusted to their value in then-current Ebay auctions. This was reported in WIRED (link above) and several other sources." Now something similar shouldn't be possible for Dungeon Siege, due to the easyness to find, or create, good items. Cheating however do exists in Dungeon Siege as well, and many players have learned to backup their characters before each game the hard way.
Thanks to Angel Zen for the hint. |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
How Healthy is the Game Industry
Posted 3/30/2003 @ 1:46 AM EST by Angel ET | This article might relieve some of our immediate worrys about new games in our future. Interesting also, to note some of the real facts on which games historically have been the most popular. A nice read found... HERE
Much appreciation goes to Angel Zen for sharing this find with us.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
NetCampaign Response: Excellent
Posted 3/29/2003 @ 8:20 PM EST by Socvazius | | The NetCampaign's response in the community has been great; over 60 people have entered so far and the number is growing. Due to the large numbers, Ogre is going to set up a list of players that have entered; so those that entered can make sure they're listed. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Future of Games?
Posted 3/29/2003 @ 8:15 PM EST by Socvazius | Corante has created a "blog" on the future of video games; be it financial, societal, or academic. The writer takes a lot of information on the current and past industry and makes seemingly accurate predictions on how games will turn out later on in the years; it is surprising just how promising the gaming industry is, and how successful it is so far. The article is very interesting, here's a snippet:
"Nor are these trends considered transitory as there is a 70% growth rate projected for this industry over the next 10 years. There are, to be sure, different growth patterns depending on the analytical tools used for the projected model, but nearly all of the forecasts agree on staggering potential growth as the market for electronic entertainment continues to expand. Games are becoming, in a very real sense, the medium of the 21st century, if only by sheer volume." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Ideazon's Hotkeyboard Reviewed
Posted 3/29/2003 @ 7:40 PM EST by Socvazius | | Earlier this year it was revealed that Ideazon was planning on releasing a keyboard that would allow users to use hotkeys in a very optimized and easy way. Well, it's recently been released and NIB informs us that Tom's Hardware has reviewed the innovative piece of equipment. Apparently, the keyboard performs quite well, and the reviewer was pleased with it; save for the high price and lack of keyboard interfaces. If you want to get your own, head down to Ideazon's store to pick one up. |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Snowy Info
Posted 3/29/2003 @ 6:27 PM EST by David | There has been two new news posts over at Shadows of Winter. There's an impressive pic of their Intro Movie, and there's also a render of the Wyvern."Native to the northern regions of the Kingdom, Wyverns are known for thier gracefull flying and posionous tails." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Signups for NetCampaign Begin
Posted 3/29/2003 @ 12:26 AM EST by Socvazius | | Sign ups for the AoM Net Campaign have begun. No date for the beginning of the tournament has been set as of now, but we are taking now since it's believed that the turnout will be good. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Hotkey Article by Chichiri
Posted 3/28/2003 @ 5:33 PM EST by Socvazius |  Using hotkeys can make all the difference between winning and losing, between having a rating of 1700 and 1800. They increase players' speed considerably, and aren't as difficult to master as a particular strategy or civilization. Chichiri has written an article showing people how to optimize hotkey position on your keyboard so you can go as quickly as possible. Here is a snippet:
"Hotkeys are tools of precision. They enable actions to be done faster, more efficiently and more easily. There is no such thing as a "best" set of hotkeys. It depends on the player who is using them, whatever feels comfortable for them. I recommend everyone to set up their own set of hotkeys, which they feel work best for them. In my opinion, the idle villager and military hotkeys are vital. Keeping every unit working in RTS games is really important... - Hotkey Guide by Chichiri |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
WCG News
Posted 3/28/2003 @ 5:21 PM EST by Socvazius | The World Cyber Games USA website has released the dates for the qualifying and semifinal tournaments for this year. They have also cancelled the tournament that was scheduled to occur in Bloomington, MN and are having another one in Chicago, IL. Here are the dates:
4/12 – Qualifier: Half-Life: Counter-Strike
4/13 – Qualifier: Unreal Tournament 2K3
4/19 – Qualifier: StarCraft: Brood War
4/20 – Qualifier: Warcraft III
4/26 – Qualifiers: Age of Mythology, FIFA Soccer 2003
5/10 – Qualifier: Half-Life: Counter-Strike
5/11 – Qualifier: Unreal Tournament 2K3
5/17 – Qualifier: StarCraft: Brood War
5/18 – Qualifier: Warcraft III
5/24 – Qualifiers: Age of Mythology, FIFA Soccer 2003
6/14 – Qualifier: Half-Life: Counter-Strike
6/15 – Qualifier: Unreal Tournament 2K3
6/21 – Qualifier: StarCraft: Brood War
6/22 – Qualifier: Warcraft III
6/28 – Qualifiers: Age of Mythology, FIFA Soccer 2003
7/06 – Semifinal: Warcraft III
7/19 – Semifinal: Half-Life: Counter-Strike
7/20 – Semifinal: Unreal Tournament 2K3
7/26 – Semifinal: StarCraft: Brood War
7/27 – Semifinals: Age of Mythology, FIFA Soccer 2003 |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Legion Clan's AoM Tournament
Posted 3/28/2003 @ 5:04 PM EST by Socvazius | The expert Age clan Legion is hosting a Full Random Tournament, giving out 1,600 dollars in prizes; 800 for the 1st, 500 for the 2nd, and 300 for the 3rd. Registration ends on the 17th of April, and the tournament begins on the 19th. Here are the settings for the tournament:
1vs1
Map: Random
Game Type: Supremacy
Major God: Random
Handicap: None
Map Size: Normal
Visibility: Normal
Allow Cheats: No |
| PHARAOH HEAVEN
Pharaoh/Cleo maps in Excel format
Posted 3/28/2003 @ 8:08 AM EST by Merepatra |  ero Would has recently managed to create Excel versions of all the Pharaoh and Cleo career mission maps. These are sure to be a must have for the meticulous city planner.
There is a spoiler and no spoiler version of each map available. Further details of what is included in each can be found in this thread in our forums. The maps are available for download from our Miscellaneous Downloads section. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
NY Times on Cheaters in Gaming
Posted 3/28/2003 @ 6:29 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | | Peter Wayner of the New York Times interviews luminaries from the gaming industry, on cheaters in computer gaming. Big Huge Games' Brian Reynolds and Tim Train makes an appearance in the article, and describes how Rise of Nations will deal with cheaters. The article can be found here. |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
James Loe Interview
Posted 3/27/2003 @ 6:44 PM EST by David | Gamers Depot has conducted an interview with James Loe, Senior Engineer at Gas Powered Games. The interview doesn't deal with DS, although it gives a tiny hint at technical solutions in their upcoming game. I'd say it's interesting mostly for people well into computers, and of course, if you want a better understanding of DirectX, especially 9."GD: Can you tell us how GPG plans on taking advantage of these shaders in future games?
JL: We have a very flexible shader system in place for our future products built very heavily around the use of HLSL. At the current moment most of our effects are running on version 1.1 shaders, but I’m sure that by the time we ship someone will have thrown something in that uses 2.0 shaders. One of the benefits of our system is that it takes hardware configuration into account so that we can fall back to earlier version shaders or no shaders at all, depending on the level of support. I can’t completely spill the beans on what specific effects we might be planning, but I promise it won’t disappoint." Spotted @ SiegeWorks.Org |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
USA WCG Locations Announced
Posted 3/27/2003 @ 4:51 PM EST by Socvazius | A press release at the official World Cyber Games USA site has given out the 20 cities where the qualifying tournaments will be held from April through July of this year; all of them being in one of the city's CompUSAs. Here's the full list:
Redondo Beach, CA
San Jose, CA
Sacramento, CA
Bellevue, WA
Lewisville, TX
Austin, TX
Phoenix, AZ
Denver, CO
St. Louis, MO
Las Vegas, NV
Alexandria, VA
Braintree, MA
Southlake, GA
Plantation, FL
Bloomington, MN
Pittsburgh, PA
Nashville, TN
Raleigh, NC
Columbus, OH
Syracuse, NY |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
14 new screenshots added
Posted 3/27/2003 @ 12:08 PM EST by Obsidian | | 14 new Screenshots have been added to our Beta Screenshot Gallery. They depict a wide variety of combat situations throughout the ages. Many thanks to Kumar Shah for these shots. |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
New Toons!
Posted 3/27/2003 @ 2:44 AM EST by Sharpe novel reader | | New toon section is now up here please send new toons to me in JPEG format only (PLEASE! I only have a small inbox!) at info@cossacks.heavengames.com |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
An Angel's Wings Fall
Posted 3/26/2003 @ 9:19 PM EST by Socvazius | It saddens me to say this, but one of the hardest working and coolest person I've worked with at HeavenGames - TheShadowDawn - has resigned from HG. Real Life(TM) has been at his heels for a while now, but it's finally caught up with him. A hole in the staff will be filled with a couple new staff members, but I don't know if anyone could truly replace TSD. I don't believe I could. Ian, you'll be missed around here.
I really don't know what else to say, but I would sum up all of my words in Angel Zen's reply to his resignation:
You will be missed, TheShadowDawn. Thanks for all the hard work you put into the site under Thunder & Theta’s leadership, and as a seraph of Age of Mythology Heaven. You single handedly updated all of AoMH’s content sections, a task that is normally assigned to a small team of staff. You also brought about changes internally within HeavenGames, as well as changes that are about to happen.
Thanks for everything - your help, and your often humorous views on things. We were very lucky to have you as a talented member of our volunteer staff. It was an honor working with you. You can read his resignation and talk about the issue in his forum thread. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
There's a Tournament at MFO? That was Unknown.
Posted 3/26/2003 @ 6:16 PM EST by Socvazius | Yep, MrFixitOnline is starting up another one of its cash tournaments sponsored by the great guy Almojo, but all the major info that is known about the tournament is this: The map is going to be "The Unknown", it will start on the 4th of April, and 64 people will be getting cash prizes. Besides that, nothing. Try and glean whatever other information you can out of blue's announcement:
"That's right folks - be the first on the block to signup for the upcoming tournament. Why? I'll tell you why - 64 players will walk away with cash from this event. The top players in the world will be participating. You have balls of steel and want to prove your skills to the world.
That enough reasons for you?"
Map: The Unknown
Sponsored by Almojo
64 players are going to walk away with cash prizes
Will be divided into regions to make scheduling matches easier
Civ will be player's choice
Final 64 matches will be best of 3 with civ requirements (can't chose the same civ)
Signups will end April 1, tourney will start April 4th. |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Lots And Lots of Shots
Posted 3/26/2003 @ 6:12 PM EST by David | | Screenshots that is. SiegeWorks has posted quite a few new screenshots of various things. Most of them are from the just passed Game Developer Conference, where you'll be able to see the GPG team having some fun. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
KS_Josey_Wales and Two Articles
Posted 3/26/2003 @ 6:08 PM EST by Socvazius | KS_Josey_Wales - the super helpful elite expert - has posted two new articles on his website. The first one goes over a Hades Fast Heroic, the other is a guide to Mediterranean. Here's a snippet from his Medd guide:
"I would suggest going for the water in a galley war, on this map you can likely go all out with 3 docks pumping, make sure to get the gold and wood upgrades as soon as you can afford them. Also try to scout out what your opponent is likely doing either by scouting the water with a fishing ship to see how many docks he has up, if you see only 1 dock then it's not really nessessary to go all out on gallies and it wouldn't be a bad idea to get some military buildings up early instead..." |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Alliance Profiles Egyptians
Posted 3/26/2003 @ 5:52 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | | Cobra and Warrior_t_Nick’s of RoN Alliance (French) has updated their nations profile. This installment features Egypt. Other's they have covered in past installments include: Japan, Germans, French, Chinese, Aztecs. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
ESO Servers Back Up Soon
Posted 3/26/2003 @ 5:50 PM EST by Socvazius | News straight from the Archangel's mouth: The ESO servers being down will be fixed in a couple hours, here's what he had to say:
ESO Status: - ESO DNS is in the progress of being updated thru out the Internet. I Expect (hope) only a couple of more hours of those of you unable to connect still. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Gamecatcher Profiles Ron Wonders
Posted 3/26/2003 @ 5:46 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Gamecatcher magazine publishes a profile of each of RoN’s wonders. Article is 4 webpages long, includes their picture, characteristics and costs, so be sure to click on the page flaps at the bottom to see all the pages.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Ladder Championship Tournament
Posted 3/25/2003 @ 10:42 PM EST by Socvazius | Due to some complications with the championship spot in our ladder, it has been decided to have a championship tournament, pitting the top 4-ranked players against eachother for the championship. Here's what Kumar Shah has to say about it:
"With the recent disputed regarding the ladder championships, a decision has been taken by the staff which is as below.
1.) Birdman will be removed as ladder champion with effect from the next update.
2.) The top four players at the end of this Sunday (midnight, CST) will compete in a round-robin tournament for the championship.
The player with most wins will be declared the new AoMH Ladder Champion
Now, start playing more to get yourself into the top 4." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
World Tournament Master of AOM Announced
Posted 3/25/2003 @ 10:37 PM EST by Socvazius | Thanks to MFO for this bit of news: Clan Reyes - a Spanish clan - is organizing a world tournament for AoM. They've taken special care to make it accessable to people of different languages, which is great for us non-spanish speakers. Here's the basic details:
1v1 Random Map - Supremacy
Matches to be played on ESO and arranged on the tournament forum
Single elimination for the first and second rounds
There are a variety of non-cash prizes from Microsoft |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
AoM NetCampaign Points System Finalized
Posted 3/25/2003 @ 7:43 PM EST by Socvazius | Yeup, the points system for the NetCampaign has been finalized. Can't elaborate much on that, so here it is:
Obviously, the most important aspect of the Net Campaign is the points system. It is what sets it apart from other tournaments. The Ogre has tried to make things fair as far as the points are concerned. Below is the basic layout. Please note that this setup differs from the original AoE Net Campaign.
Loss = 0
Unlike the ESO rankings, if you lose a game, you don't get any points taken away.
Offensive Win = 20
Each time a challenger wins and becomes a landowner, they receive 20 points added to their score.
Defense Win = 10
Each time a landowner successfully defends a map, they receive 10 points added to their score.
Multiple Map = 50
If a landowner is able to hold onto a map until the very end of the challenge, they will receive 50 additional points added to their score.
*Please note: When you loose a game, you don't lose any points. They just stay as they were. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
GameStar.de Previews RoN
Posted 3/25/2003 @ 7:09 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | GameStar.de (German) offers a brief preview of RoN online and a fuller article for a small fee; article include four screenshots.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Demo in the Future?
Posted 3/24/2003 @ 5:16 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | From Shack News: "Rise of Nations is getting pretty close to a release and we can expect to see a demo show up on Fileshack in the near future."
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Alliance Profiles Japan
Posted 3/24/2003 @ 5:10 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | | Cobra and Warrior_t_Nick’s of RoN Alliance (French) has updated their nations profile. This installment features Japan. Other's they have covered in past installments include: Germans, French, Chinese, Aztecs. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Apolyton Updates Beta Screenshots
Posted 3/24/2003 @ 5:08 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Apolyton CS has posted the third of four installments of screenshots from Preview Beta #2. This set is of installation screens, each featuring interesting background images from games.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
ToTheGame previews RoN
Posted 3/24/2003 @ 5:06 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Dag Petersen of ToTheGame previews RoN: “…I can without doubt say that this game combines the best of the RTS’s out there. So, if you like RTS games don’t let Rise of Nations slip by.” ToTheGame has a modest accompanying gallery of 15 screenshots.
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| COSSACKS HEAVEN
GAME reviews AC!
Posted 3/23/2003 @ 7:47 AM EST by Sharpe novel reader | Sorry for failing to notice this review initially but it was on a computer game stores website! The review features a meaty chunk talking about how AC now truly gives fans a chance to re-enact epic battles.
"In the past trying to accurately re-create a series of historical themed battles within a Real Time Strategy (RTS) title would have been extremely difficult to accomplish. This is because the most famous battles worthy of reconstruction consisted of many more units than any game of this period could attainably place on the screen at the same time. So for many years the genre was largely populated with more fantastical and futuristic battle themes so the developers could dictate the scale of the battles to work with both the limitations of their game engine and the average home PC. More recently though several European based developers have made significant strides in readdressing the balance of realism with best selling titles like Sudden Strike and Cossacks: European Wars; and now American Conquest is looking to firmly push historical battle re-creations into the realm of accessible real-time strategy."
To read the full review click HERE |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
KS_Josey_Wales Interviewed
Posted 3/23/2003 @ 12:52 AM EST by Socvazius | Spotted this at MFO: KS_Josey_Wales - one of the top-ranked supremacy players on ESO - has been interviewed by E-AoM, a Spanish-speaking fansite for Age of Mythology. Here's a snippet of the interview (which was nicely translated into English for those of us that don't speak Spanish):
"E-AoM.org: Civilization and preferred attack combination? Why?
KS_JW: I like Zeus the best probably, as for attack combination, in classical I like to use hoplites plus a few toxotes plus the two hero's plus several centaurs . I like this combo because it is very difficult to counter except for by norse, centaurs are very powerful as are the hoplites. However I don't get to use this much because the hoplites cost too much food early on." |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
Forum Party Tomorrow!!!
Posted 3/22/2003 @ 9:18 AM EST by Sharpe novel reader | | Ok, thanks to everyone who has said they wish to participate in a forum party! Tomorrow the games will be starting at 7am EDT (Noon GMT, 8pm SGT) Sorry for it being early for the Americans but I want to make sure our Singaporean friends get at least 1 game in! The party will run for as long as their are people so get practising because tomorrow all hell will be let loose! |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
BTW Review!
Posted 3/22/2003 @ 5:55 AM EST by Sharpe novel reader | Worthplaying have held off for a while now about reviewing Back to War. However they certainly have picked up on all of the great qualities of the game giving it an impressive 7.5/10! One of the few things we ever really heard about cossacks was about graphics however from the section below you can see that sprites are still classed as good looking 
The graphics are pretty nice to look at. The environments, although a little repetitive, are pretty good-looking. Water looks nice, trees are good, grass is fine, and high fields of wheat are cool, especially when you can see people walking around in them. The character animation is certainly nice, with scurrying little peasants and galloping horses and whatnot. They look like little men on a battlefield, frankly, and it's pretty darn cool to watch.
To read the rest of the review click HERE
|
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Behind the Scenes : Rise of Nations Buildings
Posted 3/21/2003 @ 3:50 PM EST by Obsidian | Big Huge Games has just released a very interesting behind the scenes article on the processes they used to create the incredible number of unique buildings that are included in the game.
Our final count was over two hundred individual buildings, each with its own unique function and flavor. Every unique "building set" presented its own challenges and sometimes it was difficult to decide on a style for a certain culture, but in the end we were always surprised and excited by what we had made. The building team hopes you enjoy discovering all the little details we have put into the buildings and that you will spot something new each time you play Rise of Nations. - Ted Terranova
You can read the full article here. Be sure to check out the second page for a few sketches and renders of the buildings including a new version of the Terra Cotta army seen below.
 |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Siegelet Screenshots en Masse
Posted 3/21/2003 @ 2:02 PM EST by David | Some time since the last news, sorry about that.
Screenshots from 2 different upcoming siegelets, The Elemental and The Isle of Bau Len has been posted at Siegeworks.
The new Elemental screenshot, showing a view of Jericho, can be found here and the 8 screenshots of The Isle of Bau Len can be found here.
Trailstorm-Radeem has also posted new screenshots of the upcoming expansion of The Circle of Lorent. This week's shots are showing of some new monsters, weapons, and textures, and can be found at Radeem.com. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Patch and ESO.com Update
Posted 3/21/2003 @ 1:55 PM EST by Socvazius | Archangel passed by our forums to post some more updates on the developing remake of ESO.com and the 1.05 patch. ESO.com will probably take a week or so longer to open, and the next patch has been delayed to around the end of April. Here's the scoop:
"Patch 1.05 Status:
- The AOM Patch Team is making good progress on the patch. This patch includes quite a few bugs fixes. As such it's going to require allot of testing to ensure we don't add more bugs in the progress and everything works. I wouldn't look for this patch before the end of April (Maybe sooner - but I don't want to get your hopes up .
-- --
-- User-made random map XML files can now specify rollover help text.
-- Made Priests and War Elephants better.
ESO Webpage Redesign:
- Looking good, but also we want to spend a little more time on this. Maybe just a week longer, but will give a better update next week." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
TheDiscworld Reviews AoM
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 10:02 PM EST by Socvazius |  These things have been showing up more recently, this one in particular give AoM a 91% as well as their Star Game Award. Not bad, here's an excerpt:
"The ancient Greeks knew how to live didn’t they? Ancient tales full of heroes slaying multi-headed beasts whilst the Gods had huge orgies full of virgin maidens whilst raining down terror from above whenever they good pissed off with someone, or bored. Now whatever your opinion on ancient mythology, you’ve got to admit it does make a rather funky setting for a strategy game." |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
More Screenshots for Your Enjoyment
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 5:45 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Folks here's a bunch of Italians fansites with a bunch more screenshots. Couple of interesting ones I saw what looks like a WW2 style German staffcar, and another one has what looks like a Tornado Attack Jet.
PCeye.it (Italian) posts Tenaka’s preview of RoN with ten screenshots
Fifteen RoN screenshots can now be found at PC.multiplayer.it (Italian) also it seems the same 15 are also at Next Game (also Italian).
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| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
MTV Documents Gamers
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 2:56 PM EST by Angel Park | | MTV very recently aired a show that followed around various gamers including fatal1ty, world-renowned best PC gamer. I believe the show was called True life: I'm a Gamer and no doubt will be airing again this weekend for US fans. I strongly recommend any serious gamer to watch it. How many times do gamers hit mass media apart from The Sims? Follow fatal1ty win his 3rd championship, the gaming heaven/hell of 6 men and many games, and few other delights. |
| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
Tsunami Studios Re-Opens
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 2:38 PM EST by Angel Park | Tsunami Studios sent me word that they have been revived. Make it short and sweet by giving what they said:Tsunami Studios, originally known for their team and indie projects based on Asian Civilizations for the Age of Kings series, has reopened it's doors today. After what turned out to be months of website downtime, moving servers, etc., Tsunami Studios is relaunching with a new look and focus! With a keen focus on the new strategy games available, Tsunami Studios, unfortunately, will not be able to comply fully with the original "Asian Based Civ Design Team" focus, as many of the new games do not involve such civilizations. Tsunami Studios is proud to be working on projects for the
following titles:
Empire Earth
Age of Mythology
The Age of Kings Series
The Age of Empire Series
Stronghold
Please feel free to visit regularly, as news, new projects, articles and new members will be announced often. Once again, Tsunami Studios is looking for excellent designers and scripters. If you are interested in joining Tsunami Studios, please visit the "Join Us" link on the main site. Good luck to Tsunami Studios and hopefully we'll be some great EE campaigns. My email box is always open if anyone else wants some EE/E:DMW news posted. |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
Forum Party?
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 12:28 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | | A few of the guys and girls out there have mentioned how they wished that we had more organised games at CH. What I'd like to know is whether we ought to go back to having the legendary forum parties from long ago? To state your opinions check out my thread HERE |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Minor god bonuses?
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 3:14 AM EST by TheShadowDawn | Forumer Celois was nosing around in the game data files and brought to light something I found rather interesting. Specifically a disused data file seemed to indicate the possibility that earlier in AoM's development, minor gods gave bonuses, perhaps in addition or instead of technologies. For example:
Ares has granted decreased cost for your military buildings.
Artemis has granted decreased cost for your Archers.
Hathor has granted free goats for you to eat.
Nephthys has granted faster gold income.
Bragi has granted free Villagers to help you build your empire. If you want to see the full info and comment with your thoughts, then you better click your way over to Celois' thread in the forums. (Frigg was replaced with Skadi during development, for those of you confused by that name among the Norse gods.) |
| AGE OF KINGS HEAVEN
Tsunami Studios re-opens!
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 2:10 AM EST by Luke | Tsunami Studios, originally known for their team and indie projects based on Asian Civilizations for the Age of Kings series, has reopened it's doors today. After what turned out to be months of website downtime, moving servers, etc., Tsunami Studios is relaunching with a new look and focus!With a keen focus on the new strategy games available, Tsunami Studios, unfortunately, will not be able to comply fully with the original "Asian Based Civ Design Team" focus, as many of the new games do not involve such civilizations. Tsunami Studios is proud to be working on projects for the following titles:
Empire Earth
Age of Mythology
The Age of Kings Series
The Age of Empires Series
Stronghold As announced by Inquizative in the Scenario Design Forum. Please go here to comment or congratulate. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
AoM Still On the Top Sales Lists
Posted 3/20/2003 @ 2:09 AM EST by Socvazius | Well, for the month of February, at least. It got 15th place for the sales of last month - one ahead of Warcraft 3 and two places ahead of AoK - which isn't all that bad, considering that it's been going against brand new major games recently such as C&C: Generals and Ultima Online. Here's the list of the top 20 games for the month of February:
"1 Command & Conquer: Generals - Electronic Arts $46
2 Battlefield 1942: Road To Rome Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts $19
3 Sim City 4 - Electronic Arts $48
4 Unreal II: The Awakening - Infogrames Entertainment $46
5 Ultima Online: Age Of Shadows - Electronic Arts $30
6 The Sims Deluxe - Electronic Arts $42
7 The Sims: Unleashed Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts $27
8 Master of Orion 3 - Infogrames Entertainment $49
9 Battlefield 1942 - Electronic Arts $45
10 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Ubisoft $47
11 MS Zoo Tycoon - Microsoft $27
12 Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 - Infogrames Entertainment $28
13 Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault Spearhead Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts $21
14 NASCAR Racing 2003 Season - Vivendi Universal Publishing $46
15 MS Age Of Mythology - Microsoft $44
16 Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos - Vivendi Universal Publishin $44
17 MS Age Of Empires 2: Age of Kings - Microsoft $24
18 The Sims: Vacation Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts $28
19 Sponge Bob Square Pants: Operation Krabby Patty - THQ Inc $19
20 Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets - Electronic Arts $29"
Since the weekly top sales listing only lists the top 10, AoM was not on the list, though I think it's safe to assume that it's still around the range of 15th. Here's the top 10 list for the week ending March 8th:
"1 Command & Conquer: Generals - Electronic Arts $47
2 Master of Orion 3 - Infogrames Entertainment $40
3 The Sims Deluxe - Electronic Arts $44
4 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Ubisoft $47
5 MS Zoo Tycoon - Microsoft $26
6 Battlefield 1942 - Electronic Arts $47
7 Sim City 4 - Electronic Arts $49
8 The Sims: Unleashed Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts $29
9 Battlefield 1942: Road To Rome Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts $20
10 Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault Spearhead Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts $21" |
| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
So a New War Begins
Posted 3/19/2003 @ 11:15 PM EST by Angel Park | | A new war against Iraq has started today. Many different opinions, many different feelings, but it is indeed war. And as crony as it says, knowledge is power. To not argue, lets just hope for a better future. There're a ton of places to voice out, but there's also many threads in the community forum. Just keep it civil like you would when talking to a friend. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
NetCampaign Page Up
Posted 3/19/2003 @ 7:12 PM EST by Socvazius | | The NetCampaign official page has come up at TTA, check that out for any more information you're needing about the tournament. Later this week the first campaign will be announced, as well as signups; so be sure to keep updated at AoMH or TTA. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
ESO Site Nearing Completion
Posted 3/19/2003 @ 7:08 PM EST by Socvazius | The developing ESO.com is almost finished with its new shiny community features and whatnot. MFO recieved a message from Archangel, which is as follows:
Will be release a new ESOnline Community Webpage early next week, with a special download.
All I can say right now.. A special download? I wonder what that is, I guess we'll have to wait and see. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Tsunami Studios Reopens
Posted 3/19/2003 @ 7:05 PM EST by Socvazius | Tsunami Studios - one of the top design teams for the Age series - has reopened their doors. The new site looks great, best of luck goes out to the team with it! Here's what Inquizitive - the team leader - has to say about the reopening:
Tsunami Studios, originally known for their team and indie projects based on Asian Civilizations for the Age of Kings series, has reopened it's doors today. After what turned out to be months of website downtime, moving servers, etc., Tsunami Studios is relaunching with a new look and focus! With a keen focus on the new strategy games available, Tsunami Studios, unfortunately, will not be able to comply fully with the original "Asian Based Civ Design Team" focus, as many of the new games do not involve such civilizations. Tsunami Studios is proud to be working on projects for the following titles:
Age of Mythology
The Age of Empire Series
The Age of Kings Series
Empire Earth
Stronghold
Please feel free to visit regularly, as news, new projects, articles and new members will be announced often. Once again, Tsunami Studios is looking for excellent designers and scripters. If you are interested in joining Tsunami Studios, please visit the "Join Us" link on the main site. |
| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
Empires Center Exclusive Info
Posted 3/19/2003 @ 6:08 PM EST by Angel Park | Empires Center has new screenshots of several of the Empires units including Korean Cavalry, so far my favorite. They also have a new interview with Rick Goodman himself, the founder and lead designer of Empires along with Empire Earth. Most of it covers entering the gaming business and reactions to Age of Empires. Here's a small clip of it:The game design process is one of creativity and communication. Creativity is required in order to devise the game mechanics and communication is required so that all other team members can implement the design. You must communicate the look and style of the graphics to artists. You must communicate every tiny detail of game play to the programmers who will implement the features. You must communicate precisely how features will work to the test team so they can verify that the game is working as intended. You can read the rest of the interview here. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Center Reveals Tech Tree
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 6:31 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | | Rise of Nation Center has posted an image of the techtree from the beta2. No numbers but you get a good idea of the levels of progression and the actual graphics used in the game. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
AoMMatch Interviews StArLiGhT Clan Webmaster
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 4:48 PM EST by Socvazius | Two of StArLiGhT's - the top deathmatch clan on ESO - members have recently been interviewed by AoMMatch. They are StArLiGhT_Frank (the top ranked ESO DM'er) and StArLiGhT_Burnt (the clan leader). The interview basically just went over Deathmatch gameplay, here's a snippet:
"Grim:
Does the StArLiGhT clan get to see each other much on ESO, to play team games and communicate?
StArLiGhT_Frank:
Well in a short reply, yes we do. Mostly I see Dream, Burnt and Shadow, and I also see Fury and Draco on ESO a lot as we actually live in the same country. Some of the other guys like Realm and Ziggy I hardly ever see on, but that is mainly because of our totally different time zones. In fact we just won our latest 2v2 clan tournament held at MFO, while I wasn't playing in that tournament because of the time zones, I was able to watch the final recorded game." Thanks to PAoM for this one. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Alliance Presents RoN Video
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 4:20 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | RoN Alliance (Alliance Francophone) presents a video of a fierce Information Age battle ending in a nuclear explosion! This is the first of a series of videos RoN Alliance is planning for the coming weeks. Video is 1 minute 22 seconds, 16 MB, avi and in divx formats.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Firing Squad Previews RoN
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 4:18 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Firing Squad’s Jakub Wojnarowicz previews RoN: “Depending on the difficulty level, a match in Rise of Nations can be a leisurely romp to see who can win by Wonders of the World, or a hair-loss inducing juggling act between military, economic and technological advancements.” Article is three pages and included 18 screenshots.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Xemu on the patching process
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 1:26 AM EST by TheShadowDawn | Ensemble Studios lead programmer Rob "Xemu" Fermier stopped by the forums today to comment on the current hot topic...patch 1.05! To be more precise, he commented on the lack of details from ES about what we can expect in the patch.
These sorts of problems constraints aren't at all obvious to most fans... and rightly so! Who wants to worry about QA processes when you could be hurling fiery death down on your enemies? Xemu goes into quite some detail about the patching process - for those interested minds, head over to his thread in the forums to hear what he has to say. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Downloads Section Updated
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 1:09 AM EST by Socvazius | Angel Zen has informed me that he's finished making an update to our downloads section; one that increases the preciseness of rating downloads as well as separating each category more to make looking around easier. Here's the details:
Decimal Points: 4.8 vs. 5
There was a bug in the system that rounded up averages instead of displaying them with 1 decimal point. This has been fixed.
Best of AOMH
You can now find the best of AOMH and new releases for each category by visiting the main downloads page (http://aom.heavengames.com/downloads) This is a temporary solution while we work on incorporating feedback and ideas into the downloads system. You can comment on the changes in this thread |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
DeathShrimp on...Son of Osiris
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 1:05 AM EST by TheShadowDawn | Forumer Avenger_ recently posted his confusion about the origins of the Son of Osiris god power in AoM. (After all, wasn't Horus the son of Osiris?) Greg "DeathShrimp" Street dropped by to comment, as well as give a brief insight into the game design process.
This question illustrates one of the common misperceptions about game development. In the most ideal world, the designers would map everything out and no other work would begin until we were done. Then all the code and art would be added without changing anything and the game would be done.
I wish. :) What really happens is that design changes over time, based on play feedback, technical or artistic limitations. We tried many different implementations of the minor god systems. (I believe the DVD with the collectors' edition has some old techtrees on it.) In this case, the Son of Osiris godpower was designed long before Horus was added as a minor god. There are plenty of other examples like this, the Dionysus - Centaur thing was one that still bothers me, and we were very close to fixing it, but were just too worried about all the extra bugs that might cause that late into the project. [Note from TSD - the Centaur was supposed to be Dionysus' MU, not Hermes'.] Then again, this was our first time with a lot of new systems (GPs, MUs, minor gods) so it came out pretty well all things considered.
The Petsuchos isn't fake. :) Though like Wadjet, the crocodile with a sun on its head is often considered a god. He was a late replacement for some Apep or Ammit like beast that we could never develop a good look for.
Particularly with Egyptian mythology, there is no canon you can go to for the official word. Want to comment? Head over to this thread in the forums. By the way, does someone want to investigate the collector's edition DVD? It's news to me if there's goodies on there. TSD would do so, but he doesn't have a DVD drive, unfortunately. Bleh. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Strategy Gaming Online review
Posted 3/18/2003 @ 12:44 AM EST by TheShadowDawn | The latest review comes from Strategy Gaming Online, who scored AoM 9.1 out of 10 in their review.
Graphically, Age of Mythology is top notch...the effects for god powers and myth units make them very exciting to watch. Age of Mythology contains plenty of nice touches, such the ability of some myth units to send a human soldier flying through the air, which will literally make you smile with glee. Most of all, Age of Mythology can safely lay claim to having the most fluid looking human units. If you've ever cringed at Empire Earth's rag-doll infantry, you'll know what I mean. To check out the full review, click here. Thanks Svede for sending this one in. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Loki Overview by eX_WOLF
Posted 3/17/2003 @ 9:55 PM EST by Socvazius |  eX_WOLF - one of the top players in our ladder - has taken the time to write an overview to Loki; going over the god in each age, as well as how its military fares against other civilizations. Though Loki is looking like it's possibly to be eclipsed by Set and be toned down by the patch some time in the future, it's still being used on ESO the most. Be sure to take a look at the article, here's a snippet:
"I will continue assuming you decided to do a Loki rush. There will be two main things going on in classical: a) Economy and b) Military. In this article I will try to focus more on the military aspect of the game. But as a general note for economy, it is important to keep your TC producing villagers or dwarves. At first build Dwarves to save food for Hersirs, but then switch to villager production.
I choose Heimdall as my minor god for executing the rush. I believe he is superior in most cases. His God power Undermine allows you to take out a wall if your enemy has walled himself in, or a tower. If he has neither, save it for when you plan on taking out his TC if game goes to that point. It can also be used later on Forts. The Einherjar is one of the biggest weapons in a Loki rush. He is very powerful and good against buildings. His draw backs are his slow speed and vulnerability to archers." - Loki Overview by eX_WOLF |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
IamShiauTz Takes #1 Spot
Posted 3/17/2003 @ 5:49 PM EST by Socvazius | Thanks to Cherub Aetius about this piece of news. IamShiauTz has overtaken Mr414 in supremacy on ESO, and is on top of the pile; ahead for both Geek and Mr414 by 5 points. Looks like the top spot on ESO is changing a lot more frequently recently, I wonder who will take it next. Here's the current top 10; to see how things stand now:
1. IamShiauTz 2115
2. Mr414 2110
3. Cutty_Ranks 2110
4. FOX_EliTeX 2105
5. Vni_SalSkA 2080
6. Mozory_kr 2078
7. I_Love_TaiWan_oh 2068
8. Mr_Ra 2066
9. Zico_70 2060
10. RCF_Player 2059 |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
MapShack Opens
Posted 3/17/2003 @ 5:27 PM EST by Socvazius | | Thanks to PAoM for this: A new game map website - MapShack - has opened. It covered several strategy games, including AoM. Be sure to check it out for things concerning map design and downloading. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Patch 1.05 Update
Posted 3/17/2003 @ 5:18 PM EST by Socvazius | It turns out the 5th patch will take a little longer to be released, as it's needed to be tested and worked out some more. Here's the scoop from ES:
"ES is working hard on patch 1.05, we are still testing and QA'ing the patch, looks like a couple of weeks or so before it will be out.
Just a couple of the things in this patch....
-- Fixed an alt-tab crash that was most commonly seen with AMD machines.
-- Fixed a pair of bugs that were helping the Norse naval game out too much.
more testing is needed.... Want to make sure what we are fixing is not breaking other things.." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
AoM Holland's Unit Efficiency Ratios Article
Posted 3/17/2003 @ 5:15 PM EST by Socvazius | You might remember this a couple weeks ago; Wulfgar_the_Red at AoM Holland has been working hard on his analyses of how efficient each of the units in AoM are. Well, he's finally completed his work, and you can find it in the site's strategy section. Here's a snippet:
"In terms of human Hack Attack I don’t think people will be too surprised by Hippikon and Hoplites in the two top slots on base MER. The Counter units, Prodromos, Hypaspist and Peltast suffer from weak performance against all but their targets, and their low ranking is perhaps not surprising. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
AoMU Interviews x2_chromage
Posted 3/17/2003 @ 5:05 PM EST by Socvazius | Cowboy from AoM Universe has informed me that he's interviewed x2_chromage the former #1 DeathMatcher on ESO. The interview goes over info on chromage himself, along with DM gaming. Here's an excerpt from the interview:
"Cowboy says: I notice your preferred civ, is Loki. What are your reasons for this?
x2_Chromage says: in deathmatch loki firegiants
x2_Chromage says: if you use them right
x2_Chromage says: you can't be stopped
x2_Chromage says: in supremacy i prefer posedian though" |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
Conquer America Cup
Posted 3/17/2003 @ 3:53 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | Cossacks General Posted the in the forums :
After two days of fierce fighting the "Conquer America Cup" has come to an end.
Congratulations to Dedas for placing 1st in the "Conquer America Cup"!
The Top 4 Players are:
1st- Dedas
2nd- [PUEB]blutch
3rd- Piroman
4th- RikkiTikkiTavi
We would like to thank all participants for joining and we hope you had fun!
Congratulations to the Top 4!
Cossacks Heaven would like to congratulate all of the players in the tournament, enjoy your prizes!
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Weak Norse Buildings? Hah!
Posted 3/16/2003 @ 6:46 PM EST by Socvazius | Or so says BravenIrish in a forum thread. Yes, you heard right; this BravenIrish is the same legendary webmaster of the old Age of Kings Battlefield (thanks to Sunshine's investigative abilities, you can find an old archived version of the website here; notice the -1223 days until AoK's release). He's broken under the strain of the need to be in the Age community and is back to posting in our forums.
And what a post he's made; throughout a series of tests, he's proven that Norse buildings are in no way weaker than Egyptian or Greek buildings. This is due to the fact that it costs them absolutely no villager seconds to build anything, it only costs the seconds that are needed to get the resources for the building. If anything, they're better than the other civilizations' because of that. Here's a snippet of his thread:
"NORSE
House - NO villager seconds
Besides the initial cost of 40 wood, take your pick of either of the following and add it...
Food = 0
Gold = 0
Wood = 0
EACH ONE
Barracks - NO villager seconds
Besides the initial cost of 110 wood, take your pick of either of the following and add it...
Food = 0
Gold = 0
Wood = 0
EACH ONE
Hillfort - NO villager seconds
Besides the initial cost of 200 wood, 200 gold and 5 Favor, take your pick of either of the following and add it...
Food = 0
Gold = 0
Wood = 0
EACH ONE
WOW!
I Freaking DARE any exclusive Norse player to ever...EVER say that thier buildings are "Weak"! I'm also very tempted to throw in the one handed salute to anyone who says Egyptian have free buildings. If anyone has free buildings..it's Norse." You can comment on the subject and read the rest of the post here. |
| EMPEROR HEAVEN
Farewell to Another Angel
Posted 3/16/2003 @ 6:13 AM EST by Jayhawk | It saddens me to have to announce that Gustavia has decided to hand in her wings. I'm sure we all remember her hard work on the the City Builder sites, starting early in Pharaoh Heaven's history, the incredible involvement in the Pharaohlympics and the many and varied bits of fun she's putin on the forums.
Thanks for all you've done to make these sites the succes they are.
You can add your own words of appreciation in The Town Square |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Nation of the Week: The Inca
Posted 3/16/2003 @ 12:09 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | The South American civilizations are some of the most enigmatic that ever existed in the history of the World. So continuing along the same line of long lost civilizations, that we had in the last Nations feature. This week we present the Inca.
Here's an excerpt:The Inca began as a warlike tribe inhabiting the Andeas Mountains and forged an Empire that became the largest native American civilization that ever existed.... In Rise of Nations, the Inca is provided with a powerful melee type light infantry called the Inti clubmen starting from the classical age. The Inca was also called the People of the Sun. Not only because of their religion but also for the vaste amount of gold and silver that their land yielded. This inspires the Inca in Rise of Nations to gain the Power of Gold, which gives them the ability to accumulate wealth in addition to metal when mining.
Check out the article here, and if you missed the other Nations, you can check out the full list here!
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Apolyton Feastures Screenshots of RoN Tutorials
Posted 3/15/2003 @ 1:39 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Apolyton has posted the second of four batches of screenshots from Press Beta #2, freaturing screens from the Tutorials.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Alliance Francophone Features Units Through the Ages
Posted 3/15/2003 @ 1:34 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Alliance Francophone has put together the first of a series of stunning graphic charts of nations’ units displayed by age and production building. The first two-page graphic is of the French units.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
IGN RoN Unit Showcase on Esoteric Units
Posted 3/15/2003 @ 1:31 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | B.C. Milligan publishes the final IGN RoN Unit Showcase, “Esoteric Units” – the supply wagon, missiles, and the aircraft carrier.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
GameSpot interviews Brian Reynolds
Posted 3/15/2003 @ 1:29 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | GameSpot interviews Brian Reynolds as the game approaches it's final stretch. Here's an excerpt:Right now we're in 'final polish' mode--all that's left to do is fix all the bugs, be sure that the performance is good on all the systems we run on, and finish up any final gameplay balancing that we think is necessary.
Article includes five new screenshots!
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
VideogamesNZ Reviews AoM
Posted 3/14/2003 @ 11:59 PM EST by Socvazius | VideogamesNZ has written a review of Age of Mythology. They were pleased with the game, giving it a 86%, stating that the Unit AI and campaign were to be desired. Here's an excerpt:
"As the name might suggest, this addition comes in the form of Mythology. For the first time, an Age of Empires game sees the emergence of mythological units and powers. Sure, your priests used to be able to heal friends and convert enemies, but that’s not quite as spectacular as a giant, jewel-covered crocodile that incinerates its foes with beams of concentrated sunlight. Or as neat as causing a meteor shower to level a large portion of the enemy base."
Source - Review: VideogamesNZ |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Stubby little wings grow on a forumer
Posted 3/14/2003 @ 11:48 PM EST by Socvazius | No, it's not some freakish deformation, it's a promotion. You might notice Kumar Shah's name in green around these parts; he's been made a cherub, due to his excellent help with the Ladder. He'll be continuing helping out Flammifer administrate the ladder, and he'll also be helping out the moderation of these forums. From what I've seen of him so far, Kumar will be a valuable asset to AoMH, and I'm glad to have him on the team.
You can congratulate Kumar in this thread. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
IGN Adds Two Screenshots
Posted 3/14/2003 @ 3:46 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | IGN has also added a couple new screenshots – “Blood in the Snow” and “A Good Old-Fashioned Melee.” Check it out here.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Oracle Screenshots
Posted 3/14/2003 @ 3:26 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | RoN Oracle posts 11 new screenshots in their Beta Shots Gallery, including the player game options menu(the wide variety of player and game configuration options is one of the game’s strong points).
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
GameSpot Complete subscribers Beta Contest
Posted 3/14/2003 @ 3:22 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | GameSpot Complete subscribers “will be able to sign up for a chance to participate in the Rise of Nations beta test this Friday.” Check for details Friday at GameSpot. GameSpot Complete is available for $4.95 per month, though they are advertising a limited-time $19.95 year subscription option.
Thanks to DanQ of Apolyton for the info!
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
New region art unveiled
Posted 3/14/2003 @ 12:02 PM EST by Obsidian | Graham "Thunder" Somers, Community Relations Manager for BHG, has dropped by a thread in our forums discussing the regional art that is available to each nation.
The image that Crazy Horse (hehe, great nick) posted is showing the European light cavalry line. If you're playing as an Asian nation, for example, you won't see any of those units because their light cavalry art is different...distinctly Asian.
To illustrate things a little more, the pic below shows the Knight (Medieval) and Heavy Knight (Gunpowder) for each region. (Red = Meso-American, Blue = African, Green = Asian, Orange = European)
The amount of detail the team at Big Huge Games has put into their units continues to amaze. You can head on over to the forums to discuss the latest picture in this thread and be sure to check out our Beta Units page to see regional art on other units.
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| STRONGHOLD HEAVEN
Castle of the Week - Castle Rising, Norfolk
Posted 3/14/2003 @ 8:45 AM EST by GillB |  This week's castle, courtesy of Sulis, is Castle Rising in Norfolk. Although dating back to Norman times it is now sadly mostly in ruins but has an interesting history in that it has been the home of kings. Legend has it that there's a ghostly white wolf with fiery red eyes.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Look at Thurisaz Rune
Posted 3/13/2003 @ 11:48 PM EST by Socvazius | | Mowie at PAoM has written up a very nice analysis of the Thurisaz Rune; a myth tech given by Bragi in the Heroic Age. Take a look at it, the article is quite informative. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Rise of Nations Unit editor
Posted 3/13/2003 @ 4:19 PM EST by Obsidian | As many of you know, Big Huge games has made an amazing effort to make Rise of Nations Mod friendly by putting most of their data inside XML files. But what about all those folks who might not be very savvy with XML, or lack a full featured XML editor? for them I have created a tool that will allow people to quickly and easily modify the units in the game.
Key features :- Modify attributes for units. Change Health, Damage, Cost, etc;
- Add or Remove Units for each Nation. Go ahead, give the British Vandals and Cossacks. You know you want to...
Known Issues :- All players must have the same unitrules.xml file prior to attempting to play a multiplayer game. Attempting to use different versions will casue an Out of Synch error.
- Editing Units with the same name (Tanks for example) does not work properly.
You can download the editor by clicking here. Hope you all enjoy it. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Rise of Nations Delayed
Posted 3/12/2003 @ 8:32 PM EST by Obsidian | GameSpy has released some fairly sad news day. it seems that the release date for Rise of Nations has been officially pushed back to May 20th.
Big Huge Games has decided postpone the retail release of its epic real-time strategy game, Rise of Nations, until May 20th after some well though-out feedback from some 1100 players in the current Rise of Nations Beta Test.
Good to hear that the beta testers are providing them with some usefull feedback on the game and that the folks at BHG are listening to what they have to say. I'm sure they will all agree that Rise of Nations is a good game, but with this extra month it is sure to be a great game. Check out the full article along with a few new screenshots here. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Patch 1.05 Coming Soon
Posted 3/12/2003 @ 6:03 PM EST by Socvazius | MFO has news that the 5th patch for AoM is going to probably be released soon. Here's what ES had to say:
"Working on finishing up and testing, etc on patch 1.05. Will see if I can get a a partical list of whats in the patch next monday." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Dance Dance Arkantos?
Posted 3/12/2003 @ 5:53 PM EST by Socvazius | | Archangel pointed this out to be earlier today; Microsoft.com has a deal for Microsoft Plus! - a digital media program - that lets people see Arkantos in all of his dancing glory. Go check it out. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
NetCampaign Idea and Rules Finalized
Posted 3/12/2003 @ 4:56 PM EST by Socvazius | Yep, they've been all hammered out. So as to avoid rambling, I'll just get to them, which are here (and at TTA):
So what is the AoM Net Campaign? Well it is basically a group of maps, which piece together like a giant jigsaw puzzle to form continents or locations. Each individual map is known as a territory or zone. To win, competitors must battle it out for control. Whoever wins a game will become a landowner. When a person becomes a landowner they gain points. The player with the most points at the end of the campaign will be the champion of the net campaign series. The net campaign runs a given length of time known as a series. A series usually lasts a month or so and is set around a particular theme. An example would be, a series based on a region such as the Mediterranean. Therefore the maps would form to produce the region and the scenery would be done accordingly.
A series consists of 12 territories to conquer. Each territory is fought in a different way. For example some might be the standard conquer game play mode while others might be the lightning game play mode. This will diversify and hopefully level the playing field. After all, some are good at random map type games while others are good at lightning maps, but it is rare you find a player who is good at all modes of play. Now that the Ogre has explained the basic premise of the AoM Net Campaign, allow him to explain the rules.
Rules
1. Every game must start with the correct amount of competitors. Some maps are made for four start positions (settlements), whereas others are made with more. Depending upon the map challenge, you must start with the amount of players it is set for. This follows tradition with the original AoE and RoR Net Campaigns.
2. Each week there will be a different map that has been designated as the challenge. Players must play this map if they expect to earn any points. Whoever wins the territory for that challenge keeps it.
3. The starting conditions must comply with the setup for the territory (challenge).
4. Players may choose different cultures and gods throughout the campaign.
5. No teams are allowed in the campaign. This means everything stays as a free for all.
6. Resigning from a game counts as a loss. And yes, even if your power goes out! The reason for this is to stop people from pulling the plug on their modem because they are losing a battle and can't take the heat. Also, to go along with this, if you are dropped from a game it counts as a loss as well. Sorry but it must be done this way in order to make things easier on the judges.
7. All games must be played on ESO.
8. All competitors must report their win/loss results to the specified judge for the challenge. To do so, they must email a screenshot of the results to the person who has been chosen as the judge for the particular challenge.
9. Judges are chosen by the Ogre and the other webmasters involved in making the AoM Net Campaign happen.
10. The maps must be downloaded from the official AoM Net Campaign website.
11. Winners of each challenge will be posted on the results page at the end of it.
Please note the official site will be up soon. But these are the basic ideas and rules of the AoM Net Campaign. If you have any questions, please ask the Ogre or Socvazius. |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
AC add on nations!
Posted 3/12/2003 @ 1:13 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | Thanks to Wellington111 for pointing out that we now officiallly know which nations are to be included in the AC addon. No doubt the following nations will make AC and even better game than before
Haida
Holland
Russia |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Fan Art Contest Feature
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 8:59 PM EST by Socvazius | Considering not all of the artists in our fan art contest were able to get attention drawn to their great artworks, I've decided to feature three of the more notable works that do deserve some more attention from the bunch each week, until I run out. Today, the four are Egyptian Midgol and Norse Base by ComposerRyan (webmaster at RSAoM and Minotaur by Lunatic (one of the webmasters at PAoM). Great work guys, I was certainly impressed by what you drew.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Defeating Greece With Norse: An Article by ZhaZ
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 8:15 PM EST by Socvazius |  ZhaZ has recently written a very informative article for our strategy section on how Norse players should generally play when they are going against a Greek opponent. Most times, Greek players have the advantage at land because of their powerful Toxotes and overall stronger military units; this article shows you strategies to nullify those advantages. Here's an excerpt:
How to defeat Greece with Norse? This is a question that has been juggled around in my head for a few weeks now. At water there really isn’t much of a problem as you have the advantage at sea but at land. At land the Greece player has the formidable combo of Hippikons and Toxotes, trashing Norse armies badly. Problem seems to be that Toxotes are better vs. Raiders and Toxotes than Throwing Axemen are. Sure Raiders are now after the patches a counter to Toxotes. But with Hippikons, they dominate both Raiders and Toxotes, in front of them it’s almost impossible to reach and take out the Toxotes. This little article will aim to give a few solutions for the Norse player. But most likely be interesting for a Greece one as well to learn the weaknesses of Norse and how to deal with the counters. Enjoy! - Defeating Greece With Norse by ZhaZ |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Civ upgrade lines - the sad story for Egypt?
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 7:54 PM EST by TheShadowDawn | Que2 recently made an interesting post in the forums about the criticism ES received with raising the cost of Migdol unit upgrades in the 1.03 patch in an effort to reduce the power of Ra. He argues quite eloquently that was unnecessary, and given his arguments, I am inclined to agree.
How does this translate to the battlefield? The Norse will have upgraded units and counterunits much faster, cheaper and more easily made than both Greeks and Egypt. Egypt must choose their lines carefully and selectively to keep pace with Norse, making their counterunits [Barracks] weaker if they invest in mainline [Migdol] units, and their mainline units weaker if they invest in counter unit upgrades.
Ra beat the system pre-patch by NOT using any barrack units and FH and only upgrading the Migdol units. That is no longer a viable option post-patch. Have a read and decide for yourself. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Tournament At PAoM
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 7:39 PM EST by Socvazius | Planet AoM has announced their first tournament; Pledge Your Allegiance. It's different than most tournaments in that players are not allowed to use the same god more than once. Pretty good idea - I think - it encourages versatility in gamers' play. If you want more information and want to sign up, go to the official thread. Here are the settings:
"Settings
1v1
Game Type: Supremacy
Map: Unknown
Culture: alternate (see rules)
Map Size: Small
Handicap: None
Visibility: Normal
Record: Yes" |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Circle of Lorent Screenshots
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 6:34 PM EST by David | | The official site for the "The Circle of Lorent" siegelet has posted a few new screenshots, just as astonishing as usual. Trailstorm-Radeem has many times been called the one of the very best mappers of the Dungeon Siege community, and these shots shows why. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
1 Million Copies of AoM Sold
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 2:15 PM EST by Socvazius | That's right, Age of Mythology has finally gone Platinum with 1 Million copies sold woldwide. It's apparent that there's still great interest in the game, it apparently hasn't done noticably worse than its predecessors. Congratulations to ES, here's the press release:
"REDMOND, Wash. - March 11, 2003 - The gods are smiling upon "Age of Mythology™." Solidifying its position as one of the top PC games, with its tale of might and magic involving legendary Greek, Egyptian and Norse gods, "Age of Mythology" has reached a milestone by selling more than 1 million games worldwide since its release.* The title, developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, continues to garner critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' (AIAS) Interactive Achievement Awards as PC Game of the Year and PC Strategy Game of the Year.
"Age of Mythology" is the latest extension of the blockbuster "Age of Empires®" series, which has sold more than 11 million units worldwide and won a myriad of industry awards. Interest in the entire collection remains strong, as evidenced by the inclusion of "Age of Empires II: Age of Kings™" on The NPD Group's list of the top 20 best-selling PC games for January 2003, several years after the title's launch.
"'Age of Mythology' has joined the 'Age of Empires' sales legacy: All three games in the series have exceeded 1 million units in sales within months of their initial releases," said Stuart Moulder, general manager for PC Games at Microsoft Game Studios. "The worldwide popularity of the entire franchise continues to grow, while the fans' excitement inspires the development team at Ensemble Studios to create more innovative games each year."" |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Computer & Video Games.com Interviews Brian Reynolds
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 11:29 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Stuart Bishop of Computer and Video Games interviews Brian Reynolds, President of BHG: “We've tried to get away from just the classic RTS paradigm of 'bang some piles of stuff to get some resources, cash it in for an army and attack.'” C&VG has a gallery of 30 screenshots.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
GameBiz Previews RoN
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 11:26 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Ian Argaet of GameBiz previews RoN and says, “Rise of Nations has broken the mold of RTS games and combined all the great features of turned based and RTS strategies whilst getting rid of most of their annoying features.” Article Includes 8 screenshots.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Why do those darn patches take so long?
Posted 3/11/2003 @ 1:24 AM EST by TheShadowDawn | That's what Greg "DeathShrimp" Street has dropped by to tell us in a thread by forumer Teddy_Horse.
Making some of the changes is actually pretty easy. What we don't want to do is introduce a change that actually breaks other things. This means some exhausting work to try and test every aspect of the game. Some products rush their patches out too quickly and actually make the problems worse. That is by far a worse situation in a game like AOM where you can't easily undo a recent patch and expect to be able to join games with other players. There's also a mention of what ES intend to tackle in the next patch, Deathshrimp voicing Ensemble's doubt that Loki is as a civ overpowered.
There are dozens of these threads, so it is hard to keep track of them all, but do you have trouble playing against Norse (esp. Loki) on all land maps, such as Savannah? There are at least 3 bugs that make Norse too good on water, and they are already in the pipe. We just need to determine if that's enough.... Got your own thoughts? Head over to the forums to comment! |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Constant Flow Calculator v1.01
Posted 3/10/2003 @ 11:47 PM EST by Socvazius | | Just a quick news post: TheCrazyDuck has released the second version of his constant flow calculator; the program that figures out how many villagers need to be working on what resources to have constant military production. Thanks to PAoM for this bit of news. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Two new screenshots at GameSpot
Posted 3/10/2003 @ 2:06 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Gamespot has added two more screenshots to their preview of RoN. One of an Information Age port and the other of a Gunpowder Age battle involving the Chinese and Turks and their special bombards.
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| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Gas-Driven Designer Wanted
Posted 3/10/2003 @ 12:51 PM EST by David | | Gas Powered Games has opened a new position on their team, they're looking for a Game Designer. There are already openings for System and Graphics Engineers as well. If you think you got what it takes to do well in the business, and more importantly, wants to work with games, you might want to check out GPG's jobs page. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN at Sarmis Clan Site
Posted 3/10/2003 @ 6:18 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | | Hemlock from the Sarmis Clan has posted a very detailed description on their forum. Very Informative! Here's a link to the thread. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Fortunes of War Contest is over
Posted 3/9/2003 @ 6:43 PM EST by Tonto_Z | The Fortunes of War Contest is officially over now. yesterday's winner is Wok.
The winners of the contest are:
- XdRZ
- Kumar Shah
- Wh1te_Kn1ght
- U
- monsunami
- RoboPaul88
- Homunculus
- Wok
|  |
All of you will be getting emails concerning shipping the posters within the next
day or two. Congratulations to everyone who found the fortunes, as many people
did. |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Stainless Steel
Posted 3/9/2003 @ 3:44 PM EST by David | Version 2 of Steel's World has been released!"Hi all,
Afther 5 months hard working we have have released today: Steels World II, The Bone Invasion
You can download it at www.dsgroupholland.com
We have changing the camera view as well, so you can look from the floor to in the sky, also you can play in a first person view.
The map is now 12Mb, so its almost 10x bigger as our first release 1.02" |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
Baddog hopes to make another mod!
Posted 3/9/2003 @ 1:46 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | | Any visitors HERE can see that Baddog is clearly taking making a mod for AC seriously. Currently Baddog admits he would like to create a mod featuring pirates and marines however full content is not certain yet! |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Rohag Plays God with Nukes
Posted 3/9/2003 @ 10:22 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Rohag has put together a a series of three low-resolution screenshots comparing the damage caused by Modern vs. Information Age nuclear weapons in RoN. Showing a nicely put together city, then proceeds to nuke it with various types of nuclear weapons from RoN. Very cool and very evil Rohag!
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
New #1
Posted 3/9/2003 @ 2:19 AM EST by TheShadowDawn | Mr414 has displaced L_Clan_GeeK (Cutty_Ranks) as number 1 on the ESO supremacy rankings. He's ranked a bare 0.92 points above GeeK, but taking the #1 slot is no mean feat, and it's the first time GeeK has been outranked since he beat EliteX. Here's what the top 20 currently looks like:
1. Mr414 2110.217
2. Cutty_Ranks 2110.125
3. FOX_EliTeX 2105
4. IamShiauTz 2086
5. Mozory_kr 2078
6. Mr_Ra 2065
7. Zico_70 2060
8. RCF_Player 2059
9. Vni_SalSkA 2059
10. ShiauTz 2052
11. Nunes_70 2050
12. ZM_ZackwelL 2047
13. LovingLady 2045
14. StorM_GlouKy 2045
15. L_Clan_April 2043
16. L_Clan_Chris 2041
17. Denise 2040
18. IamKasa 2040
19. L_Clan_KNlNE 2039
20. pG_FIRE_ 2035 |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Scenario Editor Modification by reyk
Posted 3/9/2003 @ 1:32 AM EST by Socvazius |  reyk from Dragon Gaming Design Network has made a very nice program that modifies and improves the current scenario editor in AoM. It pretty much just makes doing things in the editor a whole lot easier. Here's a bit of the list of the changes the program makes:
1. Nine new icon-buttons
---Cut to selected Unit
---Object Info
---Editor MainList
---Roughen Setting
---Scenario test immediately
---Unit Copy
---Unit Paste
---Brush square/circular Commenting on the program can be made in this thread. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Fortune Contest Extended
Posted 3/8/2003 @ 6:08 PM EST by Tonto_Z | After putting up yesterday's fortune, I recieved only one entry. That means that yesterday's winner is Homunculus, and in order to give away the last poster, I will be hiding one more fortune today.
The last fortune has been hidden. Good luck! |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
American Conquest out in Singapore!
Posted 3/8/2003 @ 4:23 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | | Thanks to BoO, one of our singaporean forummers we now know that AC has been released in Singapore. BoO has seen it in Novena Square so head over there now! Hopefully if we get enough forummers I might be able to organise a forum party for next weekened |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
LoadedInc previews RoN
Posted 3/8/2003 @ 2:28 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Paul Younger of LoadedInc previews RoN: “The game is taking all the best bits of top RTS titles such as Total War, Cossacks and Age of Empires, to name but a few, and placing them in a melting pot of strategy action. After playing this Beta for the last couple of weeks or so we think this is one game you should be watching out for.” Article include 9 screenshots.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Planet Announces their Contest Winners
Posted 3/8/2003 @ 2:25 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | | RoN Planet awards Preview Betas to five talented fans – the winners of the “Create a Nation” contest. Congrats to the Winners! |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Game-Over previews RoN
Posted 3/8/2003 @ 2:03 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Fwiffo of Game-Over previews RoN: “While we all wait for Rise of Nations to be completed, I know one thing for a fact after playing our preview copy: Microsoft is incubating the rise of another strategy gaming franchise.” Article includes 17 screenshots.
Thanks to Nox for the tidbit.
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| SW: GALACTIC BATTLEGROUNDS HEAVEN
Aalya Secura by obiwANDYZ
Posted 3/8/2003 @ 1:52 AM EST by Izzy | obiwANDYZ, a local forummer has compiled a great looking mod of one of the missing jedi from SWGB! Great job, obiwANDYZ! Check out the thread here.
You can also access his site, filled with animations of the jedi.
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| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
Empires: Dawn of the Moden World - A First Look
Posted 3/7/2003 @ 6:29 PM EST by Cherub AzN | I scanned up the new preview from the PCGamer (April 2003; Volume 10; Number 4) giving a quick look of the new game by Stainless Steel Studios, Empires: Dawn of the Moden World. It's gives out much more information than what we have gotten from the press release we've found earlier. Surprisingly, it reports the game to be 50% done. Without further delay, the scanned images:
∙ Page 1 - 340K
∙ Page 2 - 400K
Picture 1: Sea battles should be particularly hairy, especially when air units are introduced into the fray
Picture 2 (top left): The Germans have a sergeant unit that increases the morale of allied troops in his area
Picture 3 (bottom right): Those Korean raiders need to wake up and fight back, or they'll be slaughtered in thier saddles)
For more information or comments, visit this thread. The new issue of PCGamer should be on stands within the next few days, if not already, so be sure to check it out! |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Fortunes of War Day 3: winners and LAST fortune
Posted 3/7/2003 @ 6:11 PM EST by Tonto_Z | Yesterday's winners are monsunami and RoboPaul88. Congrats to both of you.
This next fortune is the last fortune of the contest, so this is your last chance to win a Rise of Nations poster in this contest. I want a lot of entries, so the hiding place isn't too difficult.
Good Luck! |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
War of Independence!
Posted 3/7/2003 @ 4:52 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | Cossacks General just e-mailed me to ask me to post the following
Hello,
The following is an important reminder.
If you are eligible to participate in the Official American Conquest: War-of-Independence Tournament, and wish to play in it, you must register and signup at the Official Tournament Website located here so as to be counted:
www.war-of-independence.com
Signup!
The Rules
Prizes!
If you haven't done so already please signup so that you may be counted!
Thank You 
cheers,
C.G.
Cossack General
Moderator - CDV Forums
American Conquest:War-of-Independence Tournament- Site Staffmember
www.war-of-independence.com
So all of you eligible to fight I hope are doing so, go and fight for the glory of Britain! |
| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
Gamespot Interviews Rick
Posted 3/7/2003 @ 1:40 AM EST by Angel Chooch709 | Gamespot has the first interview with Rick Goodman about their newest game, Empires: Dawn of The Modern World. The interview goes into Stainless Steel's game philosophy, gives quite a bit of information about the game, and details some of the engine enhancements that have been made since Empire Earth was released.
GS: Describe the game's visuals. Is there anything you'd like to say about the underlying technology?
RG: Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is based on a second-generation graphics engine that incorporates several cutting-edge features. Some of these include real-time shadows, night and day cycles, vertex shaders, bump mapped terrain and water, water reflections, and environment reflection mapping. We have also incorporated an all-new advanced physics engine, so tanks recoil and soldiers caught in explosions are blasted into the air. Gamespot to check out the interview. I'm sure thats not the last we'll be hearing from Rick about Empires: Dawn of The Modern World, I'm sensing a media blitz coming on...  |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
NetCampaign? What th
Posted 3/7/2003 @ 12:11 AM EST by Socvazius | I'll bet you haven't heard that in a long time. Age of Mythology Heaven and Though The Ages(among other AoM fansites) will be working together(how many times do you hear that, as well?) to organize the reliving of that legendary tournament from the old AoEH days. Nothing specific has been determined of the tournament, it's still in the planning stages. Here's the scoop from Ogre:
"The Ogre is pleased to announce that soon Through The Ages, Age of Mythology Heaven, and a few other yet to be mentioned partner Age of Mythology fan sites will soon be running an event known as the AoM Net Campaign. So what exactly is it?
Back in the early days of the Age community, there was this guy, Angel Washizu, who had an idea to create basically a world for people to conquer. It was ran almost like a tournament, but in a little bit different of a way. Well the Net Campaign as it was known ended with the release of Age of Empires II. However, now the idea is to be reserected. As of the moment everything is still in the planning phase.
The Ogre is looking for a person good in map design who can help create the worlds the new Net Campaign will take place in. Rules and more details will soon be released. If you have any questions or would just like to help, please don't be afraid to knock on the Ogre's door. He knows it can be foreboding, but he promises he won't bite your head off :)" If you have any questions about the NetCampaign, direct them towards myself(the organizer on AoMH's side) or Ogre. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
WCG Comes to Denmark
Posted 3/6/2003 @ 11:43 PM EST by Socvazius | Thanks to DjiNN_AmiX_ for informing me of this. Apparently, the World Cyber Games have added Denmark to the list of participating countries. Pretty cool stuff, here's the scoop from him:
"WCG comes at last to Denmark. And AoM is one of the games that is played. But people need to sign up for the events, if they want AoM to succeed. There will be hold 4 major WCG events in Denmark. And he who wants to get to the finals, must play at least 2 of the events. The events will be held in Aars (Jylland), 2x Næstved (Sjælland) and one in Odense (Fyn). Allot more info can be found on: http://www.nerdit.dk
If you want to support AoM, then sign up for the events and lets have some
fun :)" |
| AGE OF WONDERS 2 HEAVEN
Look! Behind you! RayB!
Posted 3/6/2003 @ 8:36 PM EST by ChowGuy | The much esteemed writer Ray Bingham, aka RayB AoW, aka Ham the Halfling has graced our forums with a few comments on the upcoming AOW Shadow Magic. While he can't say much, citing his NDA [Non Disclosure Agreement] for those who were concerned whether the new product - whatever it is - would contain a requisite dose his impish goodness, he informs us that he has, indeed, been hard at work on it. In the hot AoW 2 Add ON? topic he popped in to sayI'm flattered that a few people asked about me. I actually wasn't going to do this one, but was going to work on a novel instead, but the guy that was kinda fell through, so I am doing the story stuff now. It's a great project, and no, you won't have to have bought AoW2 in order to play it, or anything like that, but there's so much more content... well... anyhow anyone who's played 2 will be in hog heaven... (imo...)
Imo, this one's a real tribute game to the fans who've stuck with it and played both games. But that's just my opinion... who knows... I am probably treading all over my NDA so I'll shut up about everything else before Lennart gets out a big stick and starts whacking me...
I just wanted to say HI. Most of the story work was framed when I came on so I really couldn't give any input about the "Darkness" of the project, but with a name like AoW: Shadow Magic, you can probably guess it's not a prancing love story with Puck the playful Satyr and his Nymphs... *sigh* that will disappoint some forummers no doubt. Well, maybe at least we'll get new artwork then. Hmmm... nymphs.... |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Fortunes of War Contest, day 2: winners and new fortune
Posted 3/6/2003 @ 5:34 PM EST by Tonto_Z | Congratulations to yesterday's winners, Wh1te_Kn1ght and U. You will both be recieving confirmation emails soon after the contest is over.
The next fortune has been hidden. Good Luck! |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
New TC - Legends of Allods
Posted 3/6/2003 @ 1:02 PM EST by David | A post in our forums brought my attention to a new total conversion of Dungeon Siege, and it's looking very nice so far."We create game in the Allods (Rage of Mages) universe. The events in the game are taking place few years after the end of "Rage of Mages II: The Necromancer". Player will take part in adventures in the fantastical universe of submerged into astral islands – allods. For that he will have to walk through a way, full of risk and mystery, find new friends and fight with enemies. Secrets of ancient civilizations and unexpected plot turnings are waiting for you.
In “Legends of Allods” players will have a chance to visit both well known and before unexplored locations. Once again you will be able to feel cool breath of Ancient Forest, hear a druids singing and talk with wise elves. Also “Legends of Allods” is a fascinating story narrates about amazing adventures in magical world full of mystery. Choose path of warrior or mage and find on you own most effective solution to one mission, or even to the whole game. Vast set of weapons, armors and spells, as well as unlimited opportunity to combine them will help you to choose you own way in that magical world." There are 10 screenshots up so far showcasing some models, maps, and the new interface.
You can find the homepage of the project here. |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Cosmetics 2.0
Posted 3/6/2003 @ 12:32 PM EST by David | Jomdom has released version 2.0 of his siegelet, "Dungeon Siege Cosmetics"."Cosmetics 2.0 has been released! This version of Cosmetics includes gauntlet effects, arrow effects, and potion effects! Also, for the gauntlet effects, I used a new method pioneered by Trailstorm-Radeem to create more dynamic effects with variable-passing. Crack open the tank to see for yourself.
You can view the readme, and download this puppy, right here." You can also watch a screenshot of it in action at SiegeWorks.Org. |
| STRONGHOLD HEAVEN
Castle of the Week Download
Posted 3/6/2003 @ 11:46 AM EST by GillB |  Sulis has now uploaded the invasion map to go with this week's Castle of the Week - Chastel Pelerin (for Crusader only).
A little bird told me that it took him a long time to make, so why not give it a go. Reviews (using the review guide) would, of course, be welcomed.
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| AGE OF WONDERS 2 HEAVEN
Rumors Swirl Around "Shadow Magic"
Posted 3/6/2003 @ 10:03 AM EST by Angel Draco | The comments about Triumph Studio's next project are coming fast and furious ever since knowledge of its new title, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, surfaced recently at GameStop. Is it an expansion pack? A console title? A stand-alone product? Agers have not been able to squeeze too much info out of the development team on the forums, but programmer Josh Farley recently had this to say about it: "We're not working on a console title. An announcement should occur soon (there's that word again), you guys will probably see it before I know exactly when. At that point, feel free to flood me with more specific questions. Until then, I'll just say that "true expansions" (small upgrades that require the original title) are becoming rare, and restricted to only major blockbuster titles, because of heavy competition, and restricted shelf space (in other words, your local store would much rather use their space to stock a $40 game they can sell to anyone, than a $20 game that only a smaller subset of their customers can buy).
Many companies are and will be making more substantial projects (closer to a sequel than to an add-on of a few units and maps) than is common in an expansion, and releasing them as standalone titles. Of course, that's just my editorial on the business as a whole, and doesn't necessarily relate to what we're doing at all... " Interesting stuff! My money is on a stand-alone, pseudo sequel to AoW2; using the same engine but with new content and a different storyline. You can try your hand at twisting the dev's arm in our AoW2 General Discussion forum! |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Fan Art Contest Winners!
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 11:49 PM EST by Socvazius | 
Yep, all 36 entries have finally been judged and the top 6 entries have been selected. Instead of the expected 2 prizewinners, the large number of entries convinced us to add an extra 4 people to win prizes. Even with these extra places, it was so difficult to choose who got what place. But enough talk, let's get to who won. Our first place winner was Hunago, who made an amazingly well-done scene of Pegasus and the Hydra duking it out. He won an AoM T-Shirt, AoM Poster, and an HG Cap.
Artgerm was the 2nd place winner with his picture of Isis; the shading was absolutely magnificent. (Our judges only had one problem with it, though; the text on the front of the image? Had it not had that, it probably would have won first.) But nonetheless, I was thoroughly impressed. Artgerm got an AoM T-Shirt and a HG Cap.
The legendary Cain Marko (check out his website and his gallery here at AoMH) got 3rd with a battle scene between a Mountain Giant and a Son of Osiris. Excellent piece of work, he got an AoM T-Shirt.
  
The 4th, 5th and 6th place winners were Behelmel, TheRemarque, and oh Spanky oh. Behelmel's drawing was a hilarious baseball match bewteen to Cyclopes; with a human as their baseball. TheRemarque's was of a Norseman holding the remains of a Minotaur he had killed. And finally, Spanky's was of a young Skadi, very well-done indeed. All three of them won an HG Shirt each.
Almost all of the entries from this contest were amazing, I wasn't aware AoMH had such a skilled group of artists. It was really tough picking out just 5 prize winners, I wish we had more prizes to give out. Congratulations to everyone, you all did an amazing job!
Winners, to get your prizes you simply need to contact Angel Spineman at spineman@heavengames.com to give him your mailing information. Special thanks go to Angel Izzy and Dire Wolf for their skilled judging. By the way, you can see all of the entries to the contest(when they all get formatted and uploaded) in our gallery and talk about the results here. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
On the unit AI and other subjects
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 11:18 PM EST by TheShadowDawn | Forumer Cazbr started a thread recently about one of the common gripes with the Walking Woods god power - that you can't control the trees, and they therefore do stupid things.
Sometimes I get pretty annoyed because of my walking woods trying to kill a single vil instead of tearing down buildings which they do very well. Would this GP be overpowered if the AI was changed, so that the trees attack buildings first, then units? I was interested to find that Ensemble Studios Designer Greg "Deathshrimp" Street had dropped by to give the developer perspective on unit AI and what this meant in creating the game.
We don't have a concept in the game of "choose X first, then go for Y." There are a lot of reasons for this, but it ultimately ends up just being too complicated.
Consider the oft-requested example of Slingers who "should" always attack Toxotes in preference to other units. Fine. That makes sense when you run into a mixed group of Toxotes and Hippikon. But what if you run into a Priest with those Toxotes and you have an Anubite barely hanging on to life. Do you really want to attack the Toxotes? What if the Toxotes are back behind towers but there are juicy Villagers out in front? Do you want the Slingers to run through the towers? Immediately you start layering extra rules on to the AI behavior -- attack Toxotes first, unless you'd get too hurt doing so.
You can play the same games with the Walking Woods. Attack buildings first, unless you are about to die, or unless you have to walk past and ignore a lot of other weak targets to get there, or unless you have to ignore units that are whacking on you to reach the buildings. At one point we only let WW attack buildings, but then it sucked when they just milled around and ignored units in the area. (I'm ignoring for the moment that WW isn't supposed to be Serpents on steroids. One of the decisions about WW is when to use it to get the most benefit, which tends to be lots of buildings and few units in the area.)
Ultimately what this often comes down to is a request for the units to read the players minds and do exactly what they want (or turn the game into some kind of robot wars where you write elaborate scripts for each unit and try to get them to respond correctly to any given situation). Since we're a few generations away from that functionality, we thought it better to use very simple rules that players would be able to grok. Units either can (and will) attack other types of units or they can't. Period. Got thoughts of your own? Head over to this thread in the forums. |
| PHARAOH HEAVEN
ICU Pharaoh Contest
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 8:38 PM EST by Merepatra |  -Challenge U are running a Pharaoh contest, Merchant Oasis for March.
Our benevolent Pharaoh, Ramses II, beloved of Ra and Lord of the Two Lands, has an important mission for you, Nerferonpet, Scribe of the Treasury in the Estate of Amun-Re. He wants you to go to the West, into the desert, to a place where rich deposits of golden ore, gemstones and granite can be found.
Though rich in these highly-prized materials, this place, know as Farafra Oasis, lacks the necessary food and raw materials to support a large city. Only a few ostriches live there.
The Pharaoh, however, wants you to build a thriving city, to show the Bedouin tribes the prosperity of our rich country, as well as two mighty Obelisks, in honour of Ra! To accomplish this, you shall turn this small piece of desert into a merchant oasis, and trade with other cities in the country to get the goods you need and to sell those you can produce!
You may take no more than seven years to accomplish your task! A difficult task, for sure, but you’ll surely succeed!
They are also running a Caesar III contest, Loyalty this month. Full details of both contests can be found here |
| PHARAOH HEAVEN
Fayuum Contest Results
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 8:32 PM EST by Merepatra |  he winners from the Pharaoh Heaven Fayuum Contest have been announced. Congratulations to the winners, Martinu in the hard section and Shaun in the easy section. Also well done to all who managed to get a valid entry.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
KS_Josey_Wales' Map Guides
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 6:55 PM EST by Socvazius |  KS_Josey_Wales was kind enough to write two map guides for us: one for Anatolia and another for Alfheim. Both maps are on the side of being agressive in the set of Random Maps AoM has, and are very fun to play; in my opinion. Alfheim is my preferred map of the two, here's a snippet of it:
"What not to do
Don't wall yourself in completely and hope to just boom your way through the start of the game, in general this is a bad idea. It's so very tempting on this map at times but don't give in to temptation. I know that if I got some of the maps that alfheim ends up with aok/c I would have been happier than anything due to their easy wallability. The problem is that walls are so very weak in this, and walling yourself in early gives up lots of valuable map. "
 The guide to Anatolia is considerably longer and more detailed; it gives information on how to play it with each civilization. Here's an excerpt:
"Going all out land can be a valid option on this map, always fish in the first place however, and don't strike until you have a sufficient army to do some damage to your undefended opponent, there is absolutely no point in giving away your plan by attacking with your first 4 units that you get out, these units will do very little damage to their econ, as well they will give enough of a warning that you will lose your advantage of surprise. Even if he does have tons of fishing it is relatively easy to destroy their docks as they are very limited to their placement, as well as the fact that the docks are so far away from your home base." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
WCG's Rules For AoM
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 6:26 PM EST by Socvazius | The WorldCyberGames' official website has posted the rules for Age of Mythology in competition games, they are as follows:
1. Game Version : Age of Mythology 1.04 version
2. General
(a) Competition Method: 1 vs. 1
(b) Match Length: 1 hour
(c) Match Winner:
1) The player who completely destroys the opponent or if the opponent surrenders
2) If the match length is complete without an outright winner, the player with the highest
score up to that point
(d) At the end of each match, players must maintain the final screenshot and receive confirmation from a referee
3. Game Settings
(a) Maps: Savannah, Alfheim, Watering Hole, Mediterranean
* Maps can be replaced depending on national circumstances
(b) Race Selection : Free Choice
(c) Map Size : Normal
(d) Game Type: Normal... You can see the rest of the list here. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Fortunes of War Contest: winners and next fortune
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 5:07 PM EST by Tonto_Z | Yesterday's winners are XdRZ and Kumar Shah. Congrats to both of you. You will be recieving confirmation emails shortly.
The next fortune has been hidden somewhere on the site. Remember, it can be ANYWHERE except the forums. Good luck!
Just a note, people may only win once, so for both of the people that won yesterday, go ahead and find today's fortune, but you can't win again. |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
Adrenaline Vault review!
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 2:54 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | Adrenaline Vault has a brand new review of American Conquest spread over many pages. The article is pages packed full of goodness however it truly is the last paragraph that gives AC it's real glory.
"American Conquest's combination of base-building and epic battles is a good one, if not a great one, and deserves the attention of any RTS aficionado. Rich, detailed visuals and effects impart life and atmosphere to the New World theme, and gameplay demands both strategic planning and tactical skill. Its mechanics translate well through the various modes of play, ably presenting scripted missions, pitched battles and online skirmishes. On the other hand, pathfinding and micromanagement issues highlight American Conquest's overcrowded interface. A solid production, American Conquest stands at the pinnacle of its genre."
To read the review click HERE |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Big Lazarus Update
Posted 3/5/2003 @ 1:52 PM EST by David | | The Ultima V: Lazarus siegelet team has made a huge update on their webpage, the most outstanding one being a small videoclip showing a playable character riding a packmule inside Dungeon Siege! It looks great so far, be sure to check it out. Other updates includes screenshots and music. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Chichiri's AoM Site Opens
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 11:42 PM EST by Socvazius | | Spotted at MFO; Seems like attention has been drawn to sites run by top gamers on ESO recently. Chichiri has opened his own site for AoM, chock full of recorded games. It's a great resource for guaranteed quality recs to take a look at, head down there for sure. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
First fortune has been hidden!
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 6:13 PM EST by Tonto_Z | That's right, the first fortune in the Fortunes of War Contest has been hidden somewhere somewhere around Rise of Nations Heaven (but not on the forums). For more information go to the Fortunes of War Contest Page.
Good Luck!
Tomorrow around this time a new fortune will be hidden and the winners of today's fortune will be announced.
Entries for today's fortune will be accepted until I post about the next fortune tomorrow. |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
KS_Josey_Wales Interviewed about Odin
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 5:17 PM EST by Socvazius | Mowie666, a forumer at PAoM has recently sent KS_Josey_Wales a number of questions concerning gameplay with Odin, which were posted at Wales' website. You can comment on the interview here.
"3) Explain your early use of Ravens... I've seen you leave 1 by your hunter group. Do you hotkey your ravens?
- When you see me leave a raven near my hunters it's because I want to know ahead of time if they are going to be raided by the enemy. I think prime examples of this are in games on watering hole where there is an entrance off to the side that my hunters are on, I'll often leave a raven by that entrance just to keep track of things and know if I'm about to be raided. And no I don't really hotkey my ravens ever maybe I should though as I lose track of them when I need them the most sometimes." |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
4gamer.net Previews RoN
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 1:50 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | 4gamer.net (Japanese) has published a preview of RoN featuring 20 spectacular screenshots of massive land and sea battles!
Thanks to Stack-Style for the news!
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Russell Frushtick of UGO Previews RoN
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 1:46 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Russell Frushtick, contributing editor to UnderGroundOnline, previews RoN: “Well, it looks like Rise of Nations will have no trouble standing up against the big three [Blizzard, Ensemble and Westwood] come this April. Few strategy games are as in-depth, varied and all out fun as Rise of Nations is looking to be. Racing through history is done smoothly and easily, though the insane opportunity for micromanagement might even convince the most staunch turn-based fanatics to give this RTS a shot.”
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| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
New CoL Website
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 10:53 AM EST by David | | With the release of the expansion to the "The Circle of Lorent" siegelet coming closer and closer, Trailstorm-Radeem has gotten a new website for it! You can find it here. You can comment on it and stare in awe at the new screenshots released in this thread at game-editing.net. |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Short CT Interview
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 10:40 AM EST by David | Fragged.net has posted a short interview with Chris Taylor, mostly about the upcoming project that is under discussion there. (A new RTS for those who have missed it, still on planning stage though) There are some mentionings of Dungeon Siege thought.Jeff - Although mod-makers eventually found ways to create new, original unit mods for TA, it was initially very inaccessible in this manner to its fans. Dungeon Siege was made famous for the suite of comprehensive modding tools that was freely distributed by GPG after its release. When did you change your mind about making your games so accessible?
Chris - I would have loved to have made the same tools available for TA, but back in those days, the world of modding was a big unknown. The challenge was convincing management that spending development money on those tools would be a sensible investment. Today, it seems that most developers see this as a key part of the entire game experience and are making the tools available, and more than that, making extensive documentation and tutorials available as well. Spotted @ DSVault |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
Review!
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 10:29 AM EST by David | Believe it or not, but the reviews keep coming, albeit a lot slower now than just after release. This time it's RPGRadar that has posted a review, giving the game the high score of 9 out of 10."Dungeon Siege turned out to be one of the most pleasing experiences I have been able to have been apart of. Even my Mom got into, which is a rare occasion. That goes to show you this game is for anyone looking to experience a great game, with great gaemplay and unpardoned graphics." Spotted @ DSVault |
| DUNGEON SIEGE HEAVEN
New Copperhead Screenshots
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 10:07 AM EST by David | | The Copperheard siegelet, which is now 30% done according to a meter on their front page, has posted 6 new screenshots. The screenshots seem to be a serie of what a player will see from starting the game, namely the intro screen, the menu, the loading screen, and some shots that seems to be from the first moments in game. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RoN Beta Tournament Registration Opens
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 8:36 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | RoN Center has opened registration for a RoN Preview Beta tournament to take place March 10 - 29! Find all the details here.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
4players.de Interviews Brian Reynolds
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 8:34 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | 4players.de (German) interviews Brian Reynolds on BHG and RoN. In reference to the idea of governments not working out in their first attempts to incorporate them into the game, Brian Reynolds seems to confirm that, yes, there will be a RoN Add-On!
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
French Fansite RoN Alliance Opens
Posted 3/4/2003 @ 8:31 AM EST by One_Dead_Angel | The Alliance Francophone’s RoN Website (French) is now open! It is a beautiful site already featuring excellent screenshots and articles based on Triphot’s December 2002 preview for the online French strategy games magazine Jeux-Strategie.
Thanks to Rohag for the info.
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
epiGamer Reviews AoM
Posted 3/3/2003 @ 8:50 PM EST by Socvazius | These things have been popping up more recently in the last two or so week than they have in a long time; I wonder what's the reason. Anyway, epiGamer has written up a somewhat short review of AoM, giving it a mediocre score of 7 1/2 out of 10 as opposed to the 8 given to AoK. Seems like the site doesn't care too much for the Age series, oh well. Here's an excerpt:
"Throughout the game it becomes clear that nothing surprises, but everything is pleasant. The new 3D engine doesn’t really enhance the game but it does serve to enhance your experience of it. The music yet again mixes modern classical with an ancient feel. Everything is ‘again, but better’, which considering the quality of the series is no bad thing. Can the series be rehashed indefinitely? Probably not, indeed over the last year the innovation in the genre has left Age of Mythology looking rather retro, but for the moment it still gets away with it; just." |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Constant Flow Calculator
Posted 3/3/2003 @ 8:29 PM EST by Socvazius | | The ingenious TheCrazyDuck from PAoM has created a program that calculates the number of villagers that a play will need to have constant production of specific Classical Age units. You can find more information on the program, as well as the program itself in his thread |
| EMPEROR HEAVEN
Community Forum Trivial Pursuit 3
Posted 3/3/2003 @ 5:15 PM EST by GillB |
Congratulations to Hanarky, the first to reach 1,000 points in the latest Trivial Pursuit competition. Second was yours truly with 920 points and third came Fortuna with 860. No surprise that the first three places were all taken by females ;) 17 people managed to get points on the scoreboard .
Huge thanks to Debbie who trawled far and wide for questions to outwit us, patiently dealt with people arguing with the answers (*puts on totally innocent expression*) and with adding up the scores each round. It's a very time consuming job and she's taking a well-earned rest.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Fortunes of War Contest
Posted 3/3/2003 @ 4:44 PM EST by Tonto_Z |
I am pleased to announce the Rise of Nations Fortunes of War Contest. For this contest fortunes with tips about Rise of Nations will be hidden throughout pages of Rise of Nations Heaven. The object is to find the fortune.
There will be a new fortune hidden somewhere on Rise of Nations Heaven everyday between tomorrow, March 4th and Friday, March 7th. Two winners will be picked at random each day from all applicants. They will recieve official Rise of Nations posters, and will be announced the next day.
For more information on the contest go to the Fortunes of War Contest Page.
Good Luck! |
| COSSACKS HEAVEN
AC in charts!
Posted 3/3/2003 @ 3:28 PM EST by Sharpe novel reader | In AC's first two weeks in the charts the game has managed to hold onto 7th position and 8th position. Both are very respectable positions especially due to no doubt another sims x-pack stealing it's spot at number 1  |
| AGE OF WONDERS 2 HEAVEN
AoW - Shadow Magic? Hmmm....
Posted 3/3/2003 @ 11:52 AM EST by ChowGuy | There's been considerable buzz about Triuumph's next offering, ever since forummer RigelOne found and posted this pre-release order link for Age of Wonders Shadow Magic. Developer Josh Aow has as always declined to provide much tangilble information beyond statingBy examining the title, release date, and price, you can probably decipher exactly what this project is. And that's all I'm saying right now. although to sooth a few fears that popped up in the discussion he did later addWe'll be able to talk more openly... soon.
Until then, most of you are on the right track in regards to what we're up to...
No, not an RTS. No, not a card game.
Read the entire thread here in the AoW2 General Discussions Forum. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
RONH Contest Winners
Posted 3/3/2003 @ 3:28 AM EST by Zen | Congratulations to the following people, who will soon be receiving a copy of the Rise of Nations Preview Beta!
Vladimir Urazov
Kumar Shah
Tak Li
Ingo van Thiel
Tassadar
C'ya on the battlefield! |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
Angelic Ramblings
Posted 3/2/2003 @ 11:29 PM EST by Socvazius | Wow, I’m finally here. Ever since I laid my eyes on the original Age of Empires Heaven back in August of ’97, I’ve wanted to be the webmaster of the main Heaven Age site. Age of Empires was my first multiplayer game, and AoE Heaven was the first internet community I was truly a part of. Heaven has affected my life in ways I can’t imagine, and I’m ecstatic to be where I am now. It’s been a long road, but a fun one.
The time between when I first came to Heaven and when I was hired was relatively uneventful. I posted at times, but mostly kept to myself. I began to post more frequently, and in the summer of 2000, I was hired as a Cherub at the AoKH Strategy Section. Soon after I was made Cherub, I joined AoEH to help updating some of its pages. Later that year, Empire Earth Heaven was opened, and I was made an article writer for that site. After a while, after keeping AoKH's strat section updated with walkthroughs, unit guides, etc, I was promoted to Angel and made administrator of the strategy section. Around that time, I was made main newsie of AoEH. I was also made an article writer and strategy section administrator for the newly opened Cossacks Heaven. I began a renovation of AoEH, and redesigned its older Strategy Section, along with hosting a final full-scale tournament and many other things in celebration of the site's 5 year anniversary.
By the time that AoEH's anniversary had happened and the festivities were about to start, I was made Seraph (webmaster) of Cossacks Heaven. At the end of the year (2001), I had decided to resign my post as Seraph of Cossacks Heaven for personal reasons. Empire Earth was finally released, and EEH opened a strategy section, with me as the administrator of it. Fast-forward a couple months; and Thunder had just resigned from AoMH. The new Seraph – Theta – needed a main newsie. I quickly applied and got the job, where I did my job as any news editor would; I posted news. Heh. Theta resigned and TheShadowDawn was made Seraph of this site. While working under TSD, I had been increasingly doing more and more work on the site, so he decided to make me assistant Seraph. A month or so later, here we are now.
I hope my past experiences have readied me for the huge task of Seraphing this site, though they probably haven’t. So I greatly apologize ahead of time for any horrible mistakes I make in the future ;-) . It’s going to be somewhat odd, adjusting to having the same position of huge role models and friends of myself such as Ben “Washizu” Garvey, Graham “Thunder” Somers, and Mike “Archangel” McCart, but I know I’m going to have barrels of fun.
I’m done blathering on about myself now. No, really. Don’t you give me that look. I’m done. Finished. Fin.
Done.
Soc |
| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
A few changes...
Posted 3/2/2003 @ 9:33 PM EST by TheShadowDawn | I've been working here at Age of Mythology Heaven for over a year now, the last three months of which I've had the privilege of filling the role of webmaster. However, over the recent weeks I've had less and less time to devote to my work here at Age of Mythology Heaven. Real LifeTM is ever the enemy of a dedicated webmaster, and I find it calls me too. (I just got out of hospital today, actually, which is why I wasn't around the last four days.)
All this said, by no means am I ready to give up the work I do here or the community I value so much; however in the better interests of the site I thought there was a better man to fill the role of webmaster: Angel Socvazius. Soccy has worked with HeavenGames for nearly three years now, of which he's spent the last six months working with us here at Age of Mythology Heaven. I believe he is the most capable person around to lead the operations here at AoMH. Head over to this thread in the forums to congratulate him.
I will be switching places with Soccy and taking his position as assistant administrator here at AoMH, and naturally I am still available to help you with the same concerns as before, so don't have any disincilation to fire off questions to me still. :) Sorry folks, you haven't gotten rid of ol' TSD yet....bwa-harharharhar... |
| EMPEROR HEAVEN
Picture Quiz 4
Posted 3/2/2003 @ 1:00 PM EST by GillB |
Well, a few people contacted me and asked me to continue with these ... mainly people who haven't tried yet and who asked for easier questions. So let's give this a go. Email answers to me (link under the title). No prizes, but the honour of being mentioned in the news. Closing time 1.00am Friday morning, EST.
1. What is this?
2. What was it used for?
3. Why are they considered a 'first'
Incidentally, the answers can all be found at Emperor Heaven this time :)
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| STRONGHOLD HEAVEN
Castle of the Week - Chastel Pelerin
Posted 3/2/2003 @ 10:18 AM EST by Jayhawk | Sulis has really taken to the Castle of the World feature and presents us with another crusader castle: Chastel PelerinBuilt in 1218, Chastel Pelerin was an imposing and extremely well defended stronghold that commanded the coastal pass between Acre to the north and the deserts of Egypt further south. Mount Carmel brings the rocky spine of inland Palestine to within a short distance of the Mediterranean and the natural defensiveness of the site is echoed by a convenient isolated promontory, some 270 yards long and 160 wide, jutting into the sea. The site is in effect defended on three sides by the Mediterranean and it was here that a visiting lord of Flanders, Gautier d’Avesnes, gathered knights from the Templars and Teutonic Order as well as a substantial number of pilgrims and constructed the castle. With the Muslim forces opting to fortify nearby Mount Tabor, a real threat to all the Christian communities existed and the coastal road left very much exposed. Enjoy!
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| AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HEAVEN
AIAS IAA Awards Results
Posted 3/2/2003 @ 2:05 AM EST by Socvazius | | Waaaay too many acronyms. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ sixth annual Interactive Achievement Awards results have been released on Blue's News. Unfortunately, Age of Mythology did not win any of the categories; Warcraft 3 took the Best PC Strategy Game and Battlefield 1942 took the Best PC Game Overall title. |
| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Dave Inscore Talks About Opening Sequence
Posted 3/1/2003 @ 5:33 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Dave Inscore, a BHG founder and VP Graphics, presents a behind the scenes look at the Rise of Nations opening cinematic, featuring a discussion of the whole process, storyboards, sketches and renders, and links to download the trailer.
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| RISE OF NATIONS HEAVEN
Project RTS Opens RoN Section
Posted 3/1/2003 @ 5:31 PM EST by One_Dead_Angel | Colossus and Giant Talos have opened a new site, Project RTS, dedicated logically enough to RTS games,RoN and Warcraft III being its first sections.
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| EMPIRE EARTH HEAVEN
Voice your thoughts on a Scenario Contest
Posted 3/1/2003 @ 12:25 AM EST by Angel Park | | The Scenario Design forumers are currently in the planning process of a possible scenario contest. Very interesting to see to say the least. Be sure to give your views and ideas in the thread. |
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