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| June 14 |
Empire Earth
I have received the press kit for this new game from the AoE lead designer. The tech tree foldout looks very nice (there is no information about the units available yet, though). The 12 ages will be: paleolithic (500,000 BC), stone (50,000 BC), new stone (5,000 BC), bronze (2,000 BC), dark (500 AD), middle (900 AD), renaissance (1400 AD), industrial (1600 AD), modern (1800 AD), atomic (1900 AD), information (2025 AD) and nano age (2200 AD). Some of the units that we know from Age of Empires will also be in the game, e. g. different swordsmen, many kinds of cavaly units, and many siege weapons. There will be lots of new units, especially in the later ages: all kind of ships (cargo ships, battle ships, aircraft carriers, submarines), a wide variety of tanks and infantry units, and many aerial units like helicopters, fighters, bombers, missiles and satellites. There are more than 100 units available in the current stage of the game!
| June 13 |
More about conversion - tech tree is correct
SimMayor has assumed a new scenario for measuring conversion resistance: "I took into account the priest killing abilities and speed of units and made some simplified calcs. My conclusion is that the chariots are (!) about 6-8 times more difficult to convert than infantry, but only 3.5 to 4.5 times more difficult than cavalry." The scenario was a duel between a priest and another unit on open terrain. Because chariots have extra damage, they usually kill the priest, while cavalry units tend to get converted before. This case is unlikely, though, because there are usually other units in the battlefield.
However, the suspiciously high resistance of chariots was wrong. Straight from the horse's mouth, I have heard that the probability of being converted in one attempt is around 10% for a chariot (not 4%) and 30% for other units. This means that chariots are indeed "only" 3 times more resistant, and it takes 3.7 times longer to convert a chariot (i. e. a chariot archer), compared to other units, in the average case. For non-archer chariots, the ratio is supposed to be slightly worse, as (correctly) indicated in the techtree. SimMayor's calculation was right, he was just using the wrong numbers.
AoE Total Conversions
Some people have asked for a unit editor that allows them to change unit statistics such as cost, HP etc. I am afraid that there is no such editor available yet, but there may be one soon.
Such an editor would make "Total Conversions" (TCs) possible, where all flavors of a different setting (e. g. Warcraft, Star Wars, Middle Ages [AoE2]) are adapted to Age of Empires, resulting in new sounds, graphics and units. People should not expect too much, though; while it is possible to replace the buildings with new ones, you cannot introduce huge buildings as in AoE2 because the program does not support them. The biggest obstacle are the unit pictures - there are just too many animations that have to be redrawn, a task that is probably too labor intensive for an amateur.
If someone plans to start a TC project, I would be glad to support him - just send me a mail.
| June 11 |
Most popular online gaming service
A while ago, OGR had started a poll about that, and took it down for a while after technical problems. OGR has their polls back up and if you look at "archives" it will show you the results of the gaming poll. Kali walked away with 64% of the 32,479 votes. The closest competitors only had 10% each. That was Mplayer and Microsoft Gaming Zone. It wasn't even close. Props to Kali!
New AoE2 screenshots
Ensemble has updated their AoE2 page with new screenshots from the artists. There are some beautiful new buildings, and the new water tiles look much more realistic than they did in AoE. Again, these screenshots make waiting for AoE2 harder rather than easier :)
Thanks to K_x for sending this in.
ICQ swallowed by AOL
"America Online said Monday it has acquired 100 percent of the asset of an Israeli online instant messaging company, Mirabilis, for $287 million in cash."
More news about Empire Earth
Stainless Steel Studios has released more information about their new game, Empire Earth, in their new press release:
"Empire Earth will be a much bigger game in every aspect of the word. (...) Instead of simply focusing on military conquest, Empire Earth will focus on several areas, including: military conquest, diplomacy, politics, economics, and resource trading. Empire Earth will feature artificial intelligence that's more advanced than anything gamers will have seen before, Gamers will experience a sense of true unpredictability in the AI. (...) a multi-player mode allowing at least eight (8) players to participate in an online game or Death Match. "Maybe my dream of the first strategy game that finally allows more than 8 players to play in one game (in LANs, this is technically no problem) will come true...
| June 10 |
AoE manual errata
SimMayor has made "a page called "The Supplemental Sheet". There are a few errors and
many things left out in the AOE manual and tech tree foldout. The most important of
those things are covered on this page. I made the page because nobody else seemed
not to collect those things on a compact page."
Many of these minor errata are not known to many player, so please read that page!
Unit conversion
Sim Mayor's calculation was incorrect, though. "If a priest
can convert normal units with probability of 30%, for chariots its only about
4%!". He refers to the probability of converting a unit within a given amount of time. Warning, much math is coming now ;)
You have to look at the probability that a unit is not converted during n time intervals, which is (1-p)n, p being the "conversion probability". Obviously, this value approaches zero for larger n, but never actually gets zero, so it might (theoretically) take an infinite amount of time to convert a unit.
So what you have to take as a measure is the average conversion time, which is
int(t * P[X=t], t=0..infinity) = int(t* (1-p)t, t=0..infinity) (weighted average)
and compare the resulting t's. Since we have nifty programs like MAPLE today, we do not have to solve this ourselves :)
The ratio between the average conversion times for normal units and chariots is
int(t* (1-p1)**t, t=0..infinity)/int(t* (1-p2)**t, t=0..infinity);
which is 7.14 for p1=0.3 and p2=0.04. However, if we change p2 only slightly to 0.05, the ratio turns out to be 6.19, which is still much. So I need the exact probabilities pi to make a precise statement, but I think that the average time to convert a chariot is not 8 times higher than for normal units - maybe around 3.66 times (p1 = 0.1).
| June 9 |
Interview with Bruce Shelley
Gamespot features an interview with Bruce Shelley, co-designer of Age of Empires. He talks about his view of games and the creation of Age of Empires, and also tells us more about the sequel:
"... longbow archery barrages, the beginnings of gunpowder, a generally new paradigm for naval combat, Greek fire, the importance of castles, and barbarian raiders like the Vikings and Mongols."The new approach to naval warfare sounds truly interesting. Boarding parties and other new features will revolutionize that sector of strategy games, and I am looking forward to that.
New medieval strategy game
Chris has sent me this info:
Gamespot has a "pretty cool game called Knights and Merchants. The graphics are not truly 3D, but are good, the music and sounds are great, and the gameplay is good too. It's more economy-based than AoE 2. The demo has multi-player (...) you'll probably like it. It will be released in August."I have not tried it yet, but it cannot hurt to play other strategy games once in a while :)
New taunt collection
Todd's taunts are available as version 2.0 now, and the collection is now very large, featuring new taunts from cult movies like Pulp Fiction, Highlander, Aliens, War games, or Desperado. The cool thing is that there are often pairs of taunts where one can be used as a response for the other one. This is particularly funny if the taunts are from different movies. Even if you do not like using taunts in Age of Empires, you will get a lot of good samples here.
Bronze Age guide - feedback wanted
Ken has fixed a few typos in his Bronze Age guide and expects some feedback. His e-mail address has not been in the previous version, so if you liked or disliked his guide, please tell him your opinion.
| June 8 |
New Bronze Age guide available!
Ken Stanley has revised his excellent guide to the Bronze Age. He focuses now on the Shang tribe, but other tribes are also included. The guide covers everything in the startup phase: scouting, building orders, hunting, efficient use of your villagers. It includes exact observations about micromanagement techniques. A printable version is also available. It is highly recommended for every AoE player who wants to get a quick startup phase consistently.
| June 6 |
ICQ security holes
Wired has an article about some ICQ security flaws:
"ICQ lacks secure barriers against hijacking, spoofs, and other hostile programs that can listen in on personal, and potentially sensitive, communications sent over the system."This is nothing new, it seems like everyone knows about that by now. ICQ was not designed to be secure, it serves simply for passing messages quickly to friends. ICQ is still an excellent tool for finding AoE players who are online or to chat about strategies; just make sure you do not send any mission-critical information over it.
E3 page up
In case you have missed what happened at the E3 during the last week, do not worry - the E3 page covers it all. I have made a archive of all important news and a list of all good AoE2/AoE1 expansion previews.
| June 5 |
Driver problems with AoE
With newer hardware such as AGP graphics adapters or new sound cards, DirectX problems arise again. Several people have asked for help. It seems that DirectX5 does not work well with some newer hardware. If none of the tips at the DirectX troubleshooting page help, you may want to find a beta of DirectX 6 on the web (if AoE does not work with DirectX5, you have nothing to lose). I also recommend to disable all non-vital hardware (gamepad, sound, 3dfx, network ...) to find out the source of the error. Probably you will have to wait for new drivers or DirectX 6 :(
E3 review
Even though Age of Empires 2 is far from being finished, a lot of interesting new features were shown at the E3 of this year (see below). The fact that not all of them base on better technology (hard- and software) but also new ideas is worth mentioning, and with a projected testing period of 9 months, we can expect an alpha version in the late summer. I will soon post a page that summarizes the most important info from the E3 about AoE2 and the AoE1 expansion.
| June 2 |
AoE lead designer announces new game
Rick Goodman, lead designer of Age of Empires and co-founder of Ensemble Studios, has formed a new company, Stainless Steel Studios. He did not give up his love for real time strategy games, and his new creation will be called Empire Earth.
It will start a new generation of RTS games and "offer a much larger and diverse technology tree, more units, bigger worlds, more civilizations, and cover a time span of 500 millennia (500,000 BC to 2500 AD), taking gamers from the dawn of civilization into the future."
You can read the full press release and go to the homepage of his new company for more information.
AoE wins "Annual Achievement Award for Game Design and Development"
May 28, 1998 - Rick Goodman, the creator/lead designer of Microsoft's Age of Empires®, is the proud recipient of the Computer Game Developer Conference's 'Annual Achievement Award for Game Design and Development'. "I am thrilled about receiving this honor, which tells me that Age of Empires is respected for its design and originality, not only by gamers worldwide, but also by my peers in the industry," stated Goodman. "All of the other nominees, John Carmack, Justin Chin, Andy Hollis, Ackley and Ahern, deserve outstanding praise for setting new standards in computer gaming and for creating truly exciting interactive experiences that keep this industry thriving."You can read more about it at Stainless Steel Studios' page.
AoE2 preview at Gamesmania
"AoE2 is being improved by phasing out some of the more tedious Micromanagement. (...) For example, the economic system plays a larger role with the addition of global market. Here, you can sell or buy the resources you need to build things. The market corresponds to logical market needs. (...) You can even economically dominate the game by deliberately flooding or starving the market. If you've got money to spare, why not buy up all of one resource? Dave said that Ensemble is testing these kinds of scenarios right now for game balance. He also said (get this) that Ensemble would take about 9 months (!) to test the game prior to release. (...)For the full preview, go to Gamesmania's AoE2 preview from the E3. I appreciate the long test phase very much, because it will leave room for new ideas, not only for quick bug fixes.
What's really cool about gates is the wonderful possibility for treachery they present. Go into someone's castle as a "guest" and you are really vulnerable. (...) The gate can crush anyone underneath."
| June 1 |
New scenarios, new campaign
A few new scenarios made it through my selection :) There are new scenarios for two players, and for people who prefer playing against the computer, there is also a new scenario and a new campaign.
Poll results - the future of the IGZ
For me, it was surprising that 76% voted for discontinuing the ladder feature of the IGZ. As an alternative, the "ranked rooms" could be replaced by "classical ladders" where people report matches (i. e. the loser reports a loss), which makes cheating less likely. Another solution would be a league - due to its closed nature, cheaters can effectively be banned there. Leagues are not suitable for people who do not want to play regularly, though, and sometimes people even cheat in non-league games. I hope that all cheaters are being cheated themselves some day, so they will see what it feels like :>
| September '97 - May '98 |
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