News archive
New Multiplayer Scenario
A new scenario, based on a chess board, has just been added to the Fun multiplayer section.
It is set up for two players so could also be used as a single player scenario as well.
AOE2 Interview
Yesterday morning an interview with Chris Rippy and Ian Fischer from Ensemble Studios was held as they talked about the upcoming Age of Empires II. A transcript of the interview is avalible here for you to read. The basic points however were as follows.
- New and smarter Animals will be in AOE2
- AOE2 will include an editor like AOE, no word on what it will edit yet, but I would assume that the features of the AOE editor at the very least.
- Possibility of a AOE3 set from the Dark Ages to the Even Darker Ages.
Thanks to Smog for providing interview transcript.
Hello Everyone
Hi everyone, darkstar here. I will be updating this page for the next two week so if you have any news, scenarios, campaigns or other information then send it to me at hoss@box.net.au.
Hidden AOE Graphics
The Hidden Pictures page has been updated to include some of the more interesting graphics. Thanks again to Luis for suppling the pics.
Telcontar signing off for two weeks
I will be away for two weeks now (I wish it was for vacation). During this time, Darkstar will take care of this page. Please send your scenarios, programs, news and suggestions to him. Feel free to send important stuff to my mail address as well, but I will not be able to read my mail for two weeks.
Poll results and new poll
In the poll about micromanagement, 66% voted for different AI options for the units. This feature that Dark Reign had would really be cool to have in AoE2. You could then assign tasks to your units (e. g. protect the catapult, kill all villagers, kill priests and archers etc.). 21% want to write scripts (this would open lots of possibilities), and only 8% want the unit AI to be rather simple as it was in AoE. Pretty much no one wants the units to make their own decisions and maybe lose control :)
The new poll is about the type of control that players use. Who uses hotkeys, and who prefers icons? I use hotkeys whenever possible since it is a lot faster than moving your cursor to an icon and then back to the destination. Do you want more hotkeys (e. g. for upgrades) in AoE2 or more icons?
More hidden pictures
Luis has made a list of all hidden pictures (.zip, 48 K) in AoE including a description. There are more than 20 of them, and some of them look pretty cool. Check it out!
DRS Explorer
Daniel Roe has written the DRS explorer that allows people who have problems with command line utilities to browse through .drs (AoE data) files with a graphical user interface to make it easier to use Stoyan Ratchev's excellent DRSBUILD utility.
Hidden AoE pictures
Using Stoyan Ratchev's DRSbuild and Joseph Knight's SLP to BMP converter, Luis found some new cool hidden pictures in the data files. They are not used in the game (not even by cheats), but who knows, maybe we will soon see a new tileset that is based on one of these pictures?
Downloads page reorganized
I have splitted the downloads page into two pages. The problem was the size and complexity of the table rather than the size of the (efficient) HTML code. I hope this will make accessing the files faster for you. Just use the links at the header of the downloads page to jump to the section you want.
Interview with Chris Rippy and Ian Fischer
There will be an interview with Chris Rippy, Sound and Scenario editor of AoE2, and Ian Fischer, assistant designer for AOE2, on Monday
23rd March.
You are invited to ask your questions about AoE2, the future of the gaming industry and the strategy games of the next generation ...
If you're an AOE fan, turn up here on Monday
23rd March at 4PM CST (2PM PST, 5PM EST and 10PM GMT), when we will reveal on which mIRC channel the interview will take place. We hope to see you all there, and if you would like to post some
questions now for us to ask, please email them to Rob from Gamerzasylum. Don't forget to get mIRC if you want to join!
I am afraid that I will be away then so I cannot attend the interview personally, but my questions will be there :)
New 4 player scenario
There is a new scenario for 4 players made by Peter where you have to fight hard for your resources.
.SLP to .BMP converter
Joseph Knight has written a cool command line utility that converts the .slp graphics from the AoE .DRS files to .bmp files and back. This means you can finally build "real" modpacks, with your own graphics and sounds! Go to the downloads page and get that program if you want to create your own tileset for AoE. Now the only file formats that have not yet been decoded are the .SHP, .BIN and .SCN formats. For more information about the .DRS file format, go to the .drs page or its forum.
New single player scenario
Stephen has again made an excellent new scenario. If you like puzzles, get it at the single player scenario page.
Games for Linux?
Westwood's programmer Kevin said this at Slashdot.org: "I would love for all of our games to have Linux variants. (...) I would love to be able to give Brett the names of 50,000 or more people ready willing and able to BUY a linux port of Dune 2000 or Lands of Lore III."
At my Dune 2000 page, you can read more. I have also set up a poll about that topic there: do you want games for Linux or Windows only? I see little chance that Age of Empires will ever be ported to a different OS; the Microsoft Thought PoliceTM ;) will certainly prevent this.
European mirror site
Again I cannot update the European mirror site because the server is a Microsoft product. Since Microsoft's filesystems does not know flags like "executable", the Microsoft server runs all patches that you want to download on its machine, which causes the server to eat up all memory and eventually shut down. I hope we will soon see a Linux server there, too, and Microsoft's server will be a bad dream of the past.
New AoE editor
"An Age Of Empires Editor is being put under construction. This editor will be able to update and modify every part of the game, from the tribes, units and buildings. This will certainly make playing Age Of Empires more fun. (...) Pop along for a look The Empires Editor."
The editor is being made by the Lovell Bros, who are known for many game enhancements for games such as Quake and Age Of Empires. The software will be very easy to use like a normal program, which can be used to modify the files in a patch and then save them.
Rob
The editor will be for all kinds of statistics (unit hit points and tribe bonuses); there is no program available yet but I will inform you when it is finished.
More about Micromanagement
Cameron has hit the nail on the head: "I believe that units tactics and intelligence whether for a group or one unit should be like the taunts. There are pre-set choices to make your units do what you want, and there should be a way to make your own as well."
Of course the implementation of scripting is not easy without a loss of performance. A script would be easy to edit, but the interpretation of it is of course slower than compiled code. There are two alternatives: including the unit AI for your own units in a DLL that everyone can re-compile (the source code for the DLL should be given), or include all files needed for building the .exe file, together with a makefile (Linux style, so I doubt that this will be used in the Windows world).
To express your opinion on that topic, vote in this week's poll!
New poll: Micromanagement
Age of Empires requires a lot of micromanagement: after a fishing boat is created, you have to assign it to a spot with fish even if it is right next to you. When the resources are exhausted, they will just stay there. The benefit of this is that you always have the full control over your units; they will never accidentally run into the enemy unless you tell them to do so.
The other extreme would be very "intelligent" units that make most decisions on their own. The advantage is that you can concentrate on your strategy, but you will have less control over your units. An alternative is to have different unit AIs for different occasions (e. g. a peon/priest killer AI, or an AI that protects siege weapons etc.). The programmers could go even further and let people write little scripts for the unit AI - e. g. you could tell them to attack a priest if there is only one, and otherwise get out of his range. What do you want? Do you want full control or have some tactical decisions automatized? Vote now!
AoE stories
As you can see, I have added a new message board for your AoE stories. Quite a few people asked for a place to post their stories, and there were some stories at the Message board. They have, unfortunately, been deleted by a malicious hacker a while ago, and I could only recover one older story. I hope that the story board will grow soon - post your tales about your most glorious battles or crushing defeats there. Please read the guidelines first, and try to eliminate typos in your stories.
New award
This AoE page that tries to make a listing of the best AoE site has awarded my page to be the page of the week. I am glad that my page was chosen.
New scenarios and a new campaign
Out of a bunch of new scenarios, I have selected the best ones. Do not miss the new campaign, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is an epic campaign that covers much of Rome's history, from its beginnings to its fall and the founding of the Byzantine Empire.
New single player scenario
There is a new single player scenario in that section. Check the new scenarios out, they are all worth playing.
Play Age Against The Age of Empires and Internet Gaming Zone Teams today
March 12, 1998 5:00 - 7:00PM PST
At the Internet Gaming Zone's Age of Empires War Cry Room
To get there, visit the Internet Gaming Zone; only for MSIE :(
More info in the news of March 8.
New scenarios
Check out the scenario section for the new single player scenarios and a new 3 player scenario. Don't miss "The Return of Jason", it is a really well and carefully designed scenario and full of surprises!
Poll results
The results of this poll have been surprising to me: an overwhelming majority (81 %) wants a sequel that is more complex than AoE1. I have seen players that had problems with adapting to the variety of options and the high number of upgrades. However, so many people cannot be wrong ... Ensemble Studios know what they have to do now ;)
New award
I have won a new award from Gamecenter's Underground.
New single player scenario
There is a new single player scenario at the scenario section.
One million registered users in the IGZ
According to a newsletter, there are now more than 1 million registered users in the Internet Gaming Zone (with a high percentage of inactive accounts, though), with more than 1,200 people playing Age of Empires at peak hours. They also want to support Netscape soon - this project does not have the highest priority, though. Microsoft is never fast with their updates :)
Play the Age and Zone Teams March 12!
This is from the Zone, AoE section:
"On March 12, members of the Microsoft Age of Empires team and members of the Internet Gaming Zone team will be on hand in the Age of Empires War Cry Room. They'll be available to play Age from 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. Pacific Time. Come on out and challenge the people who made Age and the people who bring it to you online! You can recognize a team member by their Member ID. If they have an "@MS" they're from the Age team, and if it's an "@Zone," they're from the Zone. Sound the battle cry!"
Dune 2000 news from Chris Rubyor
There have been many questions at the Dune Message Board; I have picked the best of them and asked Chris Rubyor, designer of Dune 2000. Go to my Dune 2000 page for more info.
Scenario section reorganized
I have added some new scenarios and moved the two player scenarios to a separate page. I hope you will now find the scenarios of your choice faster in the scenario section. I want to add the option for voting for scenarios as soon as possible (I have planned this a long time ago), and if you want to help me adapting a Perl script for that purpose, contact me, please. You should be very familiar with Perl, though.
Dune 2000 buildings
Yap Hean Loong has made a page about the buildings in Dune 2000 for my Dune 2000 page. The buildings have an entirely new look compared to Dune 2, so take a look at them. As soon as there are more screenshots of the game, the unit and building pages will be completed.
Dune 2000 units
I have been working at my Dune 2000 page. I have added a unit table where you can see the most important mobile units that Dune 2000 will offer. Their description is based on my Dune 2 experience - these were good old times :)
New poll
Should AoE2 be more complex than AoE? With all the suggestions in the wish list, the game would certainly become too difficult to manage in real time. Age of Empires is one of the most complex RTS games now, and other, more complex titles of this genre (e. g. Dark Reign) were less successful because they had too many options. Should ES enlarge the tech tree or not? Should AoE2 have more units? Vote now!
DWANGO Zone offer
A press release from the Internet gaming zone: "DWANGO-Zone, the high-speed game area on the Internet Gaming Zone, is
now available in twenty major metropolitan areas." They have a list with all cities and more information in their press release.
New scenario
There is a new single player fun scenario at that page.
ICQ list
The ICQ list is now very large, and the software to maintain it should be improved. If anyone is interested, send me a mail, please.
Nextlevel gone?
It seems like the old DN entry of games.nextlevel.net is now gone for good. This means that you should update all your links and bookmarks to pages at that server and change them to http://www.gamewatch.com. I think there are still some links that point to my old mirror site there, please update them, and don't forget to update the link to Smog's page, too :)
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