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| November 30 |
I am back
After a very nice long weekend, I am back from Skye. Some of the main attractions were the Eilean Donan castle where they shot the movie 'Highlander', the cliffs and mountains, the typical Highland cattle and the weather that was unusually mild and friendly. We only had rain for two minutes, otherwise the only rain we could see was in form of occasional rainbows ;)
Since BlackDouglas, a descendant of Scottish knights, has joined the site, here is a nice story about the Eilean Donan castle:
There had been a fortress at that small island since 1000 BC, and it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times ever since. At the end of the 13th century, the vikings had invaded the east of Scotland and were threatening to take the western part as well. One of the local clans had saved Robert the Bruce's live in the wars against England, so he granted them a fortress on that island. This helped to strengthen the position of that clan, which in exchange successfully defended the lands against the vikings who were eventually driven out of Scotland.You see, there are many great stories around for making campaigns for AoE or (later) AoK :)
The castle was nearly impregnable until the arrival of cannons, and it is told that once only four men defended it against an army of 400 people. Because the last arrow hit the chief of the enemy clan, the castle was saved that time.
Around 1700, though, there was another uprise against England. However, the riot newer spread beyond that castle, for England sent a fleet of three Frigates that bombarded to castle until it was utterly destroyed.
Many years later, a seventh son of a seventh son (according to pagan beliefs, they possess magical powers such as seeing) had a dream of the former castle. Because he was an excellent stone masoner, he decided to rebuild it. During the twenty years that rebuilding took, the original plans were found in Edinburgh, and they were said to match the vision perfectly. The castle that we see now was build according to that dream.
New version of sound editor
Juha sent this in: "Here is the latest version of AoEWavEx (.zip, 150 KB). I fixed two bugs: Context help and Button enabling/disabling." If you use this sound editor, get the upgrade to get rid of these nasty bugs. The next version may include some new features such as recording within the sound editor which will make it even more attractive.
AoK one of the "5 highly anticipated games"
Together with Drakan:Order of the Flame, Baldur's Gate, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms and EverQuest, Age of Kings was chosen by Gamenet 2000 to be one of the most anticipated titles of the next year. The choice was not that hard, for there were not too many true blockbusters for which a sequel has been announced for 1999.
"New combat enhancements will include directional control, which will provide quicker response and tactical advantages for soldiers, garrison formations for the complete battle preparation, aggression levels, and other options such as patrol, follow and stand guard."These and other new features were the reason why AoK was chosen to be one of these five games. It will be interesting to see how AoK measures against TA: Kingdoms, which has a setting comparable to Warcraft 2 (though there are no orcs).
MSNGZ: More rules changes
"The Zone Ratings are going to be updated again soon! One of the changes to the rating system is that we will be renaming Abandoned games to "Incomplete" games. The Zone understands that any player, for various reasons, may sometimes be unable to complete a game, hence the new name.Unfortunately, there is no way to tell whether someone has an unreliable connection or quits on purpose. I still think it is not the best idea to include dropped games in the score; it may be good to record them, but the score should be independent of disconnects (in favor of people from Europe, who sometimes cannot finish a game due to connection problems).In addition to using the old criteria for abandons to determine whether a game is incomplete, the new system will have some extra provisions. For example, if you ALT+TAB from a game and close the game room, the Zone will not be able to record your score, and you will get an Incomplete.
As with Abandons, when players accumulate enough Incompletes, they will incur a rating penalty (lose rating points). However, players who consistently complete their games will be able to have an Incomplete removed from their record. More information on Incompletes will be coming soon, so check the News pages for updates!"
| November 26 |
BlackDouglas is Moving In
You might know me from some of the gaming forums and the Zone. I'm BlackDouglas, a long-time gamer (20 years!) and die-hard Age of Empires fan. I'll be merging my web site with this one, bringing over my units tables, strategy articles, and other stuff. And I'll be posting some new material as time permits.
Telcontar is wandering the wilds of Scotland, which is rather fitting, since I'm of Scottish ancestry and my gaming name is taken from Scottish history. James "The Black" Douglas was one of Robert the Bruce's chief lieutenants during the Scottish Wars of independence 700 years ago.
And now on to turkey dinner, before my wife kills me for spending a holiday online... ;}
Going on a short vacation
I will be away for the entire weekend, including Friday, on a trip to the Island of Skye. In case you do not know where this is, it is the beautiful island where 'Braveheart' was shot. I am looking forward to this, and I hope the weather will not be too Scottish then ;)
Even though this will not at all be AoE related, I am going to post a few of the most interesting stories that happened while I was in Glasgow. I will post them at a seperate page so they will not clutter up the main page.
There will be other people who help me to update the page, and I am glad for this help, because the connection problems with my old modem prevent me from working efficiently.
I will have to back my bags soon and get ready for the journey :)
| November 24 |
Fun with AoE anagrams
I have recently downloaded a program that lets you make anagrams ("The Amazing Anagram Thingie"). Here are some AoE related anagrams:
| Ensemble Studios | Age of Empires |
| Ts, double nemesis | Forage me pies |
| Meet old business | Regime of apes |
| Embossed utensil | Age o' Empires |
| Beetles missound | Armies go pee |
| Obedient mussels | Age of Kings |
| Subtile demoness | Fakes going |
| Rise of Rome | Faking egos |
| O, Rome fires |
SLP Studio added to downloads page
I added Joseph Knight's SLP studio (.zip, 378 KB) to the downloads page. It is a GUI interface to the command line programs needed to extract and convert files from the AoE resources. For more such programs, check the programs section at the downloads page.
Connection problems
If you have recently got a broken e-mail from me, it is because my modem keeps hanging up for no apparent reason. It seems to be a hardware failure. I hope I can sort this out soon, as it also keeps me from updating this page.
| November 22 |
Short RoR civ overview
Wayne has made a short overview with the strengths of all RoR civs. It will later be extended to include an evaluation of the special attributes of the RoR tribes, comparing them to the other 12 tribes.
| November 19 |
The first RoR sound editor
Download the first RoR compatible sound editor now! It is only about 150 KB large, so it is certainly worth the download time. Juha Rahko has written it. For the people who have not used it before, this sound editor is very convenient, because it lets you play the sounds before you replace them and also shows a description, so you know which sound to replace.
New webpage builder project
I have started a new project about a program that helps you to maintain large webpages. It is intended as a program that acts above the levels of an editor, taking care of document spanning aspects while leaving editing single files to XEmacs and other HTML editors. So far, there is not much program code (only boring documentation), but I am working at it :)
NT problems
After changing the partition layout, NT did not really work anymore. The swap space moved from E: to D: which confused NT apparently too much. After replacing about a thousand registry entries, it still could not recognize the new swap space and wanted a reboot. I did reboot - but not to Windows. People still think Windows is user friendly ... btw, I could not find RoR yet for a good price in the UK - does anyone know a shop where you pay less than £14?
Webmaster wanted
I am looking for someone who helps me to update the news section so I have more time for my project. Mail me if you want to see your name in bold print. (Not much HTML knowledge is required.)
| November 14 |
IGZ rules change
There are some minor changes in the rules for playing in the rated rooms of the Internet Gaming Zone.
Gamespot's contest
Gamespot has a contest where they give away 20 copies of RoR. If you have not bought it yet, try your luck ;)
The question is about the release date. Some people have noticed that at the RoR section of this page, the counter has started to count down again from 12 months after the release - I have removed that counter now :)
History of Rome
Michael has posted a summary of the well-known history of the founding of Rome where the brothers Romulus and Remus built the city between seven hills (and one brother killed the other one afterwards). Michael describes these seven hills.
| November 12 |
RoR cheats
The cheats table is updated with all known RoR cheats. Thanks to Juha for these. The cheats have been known for a while, but for most people they just came on time. You should not use cheats for winning anyway, their reason is to have fun with the new, hidden units and graphics.
| November 9 |
AoE2 database continued
I have successfully repartitioned my HD (well, I have now some unpartitioned space that I will take care of later). Due to a flu I had been struggling with since last Friday, I could not go to the university today. This gave me some time to update the AoE2 database (note: scroll down for the latest updates). These are the best suggestions:
| November 7 |
I am back!
Finally, after one month, I have again online access with my computer. Many things have happened since then:
I have passed the second year's finals, so I am about half through my studies in computer science now. I have moved to Glasgow and will spend my next year as an exchange student here. The flight itself is worth a story; at the end of the day, I ended up with five flight tickets of three different airlines and no luggage - and this for the small distance of about 1000 km! I will post that story soon, so stay tuned :)
As you have seen, RoR is hitting the shelves now (depending on where you live). I will do my best to keep up with the news, but I have to repartition my HD drives first, so it may take a while until I get back. I am glad that Eggman kept the page running while I was away.
Your help is wanted
I would like to get the scenario section running again, and do a few other things. However, doing all the work alone would take very much time, so I need your help. You do not need any technical knowledge. Please email me at cartho@netlink.ch (not the other address) if you are interested. Please tell me whether you know HTML or Perl, and where your interest lies (multi player games, campaigns, writing strategy pages etc.).
RoR tournament
This one has arrived a few days ago. If you life in the USA or Canada, you can win a trip to Rome:
"WIN A TRIP TO ROMEThe signup ends on November 12.The contest will be decided by Conquest and will be played on a large map, at fast speed (1.5), 100 population and with default starting age and resources. Any civilization may be chosen for each game. The first round starts November 14. Eight rounds will be played throughout November and early December, with the Championship round taking place at the Wizards of the Coast Game Center in Seattle on December 11. Contestants must be over 18 years of age and residents of North America.
The grand prize is a trip for two to Rome (courtesy of Canadian Airlines), US$2000 cash in spending money, an authentic replica of a Roman shield, and a Zone Champion T-shirt. The four tournament finalists each receive a trip for one to Seattle, Washington (airfare provided by American Airlines), accommodations for three nights, VIP tickets to the Rise of Rome pre-finals party held at Wizards of the Coast Game Center, an authentic replica of a Roman helmet, and a Zone T-shirt.
For more details on the tournament rules, please visit the official MSN Gaming Zone Rumble for Rome" Tournament page."
| November 1 |
Quick note
A flood of stuff about RoR and AoE has been pouring out lately. So much so that it would clutter up this page to print it! So, most of the late-breaking stuff has its own place here. Although unless you live under a rock, you'll have heard most of it already! Also, two new campaigns about the vikings are available here. Don't expect to be raiding the English coasts in longships, though, as different aspects of Scandinavian history are dealt with instead.
| September '97 - October '98 |
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