EDIT: now that the game is launched, I've added a list of TL members looking for matchmaking games. If you want in, shoot me a PM with the following info: + Show Spoiler +
TL Name: Steam account: Location: Notes: [Let us know what kind of games you're looking for, your skill level, and so on.]
Lots of players (myself included) are having framerate and lag issues, so I recommend checking out some honest reviews and feedback on the game before purchasing.
Following some rumors and speculation, Microsoft has announced today the release of Age of Empires II HD Edition, to be launched exclusively through Steam on April 9.
It's currently priced at US$ 19.99 (£ 14.99), or US$ 17.99 (£ 13.49) with a 10% off pre-purchase. Pre-ordering will also net you early access to the game on April 5.
The original game has been remastered for high-resolution displays at 1080p, and changes have been made to the visual engine. The HD Edition is also integrated with Steamworks and thus features achievements, leaderboards, cloud support and, most importantly, centralized matchmaking.
Despite its original launch date, AoE II still sports a sizable community, which will probably grow considerably now that the game features official matchmaking support. Once the game launches, I bet we can create a list of active TL players for some friendly pickup games!
Does Age of Empires 2: HD Edition support Steam cloud saves?
Yes!
I have the original Age of Empires 2. Can I play multiplayer matches with my friends who have the new HD version?
Age of Empires 2: HD Edition uses a different multiplayer service than the original version, so cross-platform matchmaking is not possible. You will need to have the same version as your friend in order to play together.
Can I play the game over LAN?
You can matchmake while Steam is in offline mode, but will still need internet access to connect to Steam for multiplayer capability.
Can I redeem my cd key from the original Age of Empires 2 to get the new HD version?
At this time, such cd key activation is not available. You can only get Age of Empires 2: HD Edition via direct purchase from Steam or by purchasing a Steam key from an authorized retailer.
Will this game be available on Mac or Linux?
There are no plans for a Mac or Linux version at this time.
Will the game be available in my region?
Age of Empires II: HD Edition will be available in any region that Steam currently supports.
How do I use Steam Workshop?
Steam Workshop can be accessed from the game launcher as well as from the in-game menu. With Steam Workshop, you can share, download, and build user-created content for the game.
Is there DRM?
Age of Empires 2: HD Edition uses only the Steam service for license management. Games for Windows LIVE is not required.
Is this still the same Age of Empires that I know and love?
Absolutely! All of the gameplay remains the same, we have merely updated the game to run on current operating systems, with HD graphics. (You remember those cheat codes? Yeah, those still work too!) The game now scales to fit your monitor, and even offers multi-monitor support for even higher resolutions!
Have there been any changes made to the gameplay?
No, it's still the same classic Age of Empires II experience.
What are the minimum system requirements to play the game?
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Pro Steam Software Platform 900x600 minimum resolution display Direct X 9 Capable GPU 1.2GHz CPU 1GB RAM 2GB HDD
On March 08 2013 05:43 krutopatkin wrote: Makes me very nostalgic and wanting to play AoE again, probably going to buy it.
I'm always a little bit wary of pre-ordering anything, but in this case it nets you a 10% discount and early access (4 days) to the game. Dunno, though, probably will wait to see if the remastering is any good. Been playing AoE II on and off since launch, always so hard to find a game on my (mediocre) level, official matchmaking seems almost too good to be true! haha
That launch video was pretty well-made, with exactly the right amount of nostalgia produced.
To be honest I am surprised more companies have not stepped up on the "retro" remake trend. It is a way to rehash tired IP in a "cool" way instead of beating dead horses.
I think that trailer is pretty abysmal. Only after watching it the second time did i realize they were switching between the 2 versions. Then again that music makes anything better.
I don't know if my shitty old Windows machine can actually handle it LOL, considering [to make an example of a Steam game] it runs TF2 with lowest settings at like 3 fps
Nice. It will work smoother with win7 and 16 : 9 monitors too. I miss re-creating the silkroad in black forest and destroying stuff with janissaries.
A lot of "oldschool" people might disagree but i think this game would be really fun with better pathfinding and starcraft2-like user interface. Also queueing movement/attack commands with shift is weird in aoe2 or i couldn't get it right. I wanted aoe3 to be something like that but it was really bad and moved away from the beauty of aoe2 imo.
Im with some people, I could tell when it was "remastered" but it was just less zoomed in and the lines a little clearer....
That said....if its for ~$5-10 bucks I could see myself buying it as I still have a no-cd crack for my current AOE II and no one plays with me anymore ='(
Edit: ya it's like $20...no way in hell. The only thing that they are really fixing is the resolution crap and the match making, otherwise it's the same damn game that still looks 15 years old.
On March 08 2013 06:02 FromShouri wrote: Im with some people, I could tell when it was "remastered" but it was just less zoomed in and the lines a little clearer....
That said....if its for ~$5-10 bucks I could see myself buying it as I still have a no-cd crack for my current AOE II and no one plays with me anymore ='(
Edit: ya it's like $20...no way in hell. The only thing that they are really fixing is the resolution crap and the match making, otherwise it's the same damn game that still looks 15 years old.
I agree, the ideal price point would probably be 10 bucks, they're clearly milking the nostalgia hype at this point. Microsoft is known for its wonky price policy on Steam --- AoE III is still $29 I believe, while, in the past, it's been on sale on Origin for like a dollar (no joke).
On March 08 2013 05:49 GrandInquisitor wrote: That launch video was pretty well-made, with exactly the right amount of nostalgia produced.
To be honest I am surprised more companies have not stepped up on the "retro" remake trend. It is a way to rehash tired IP in a "cool" way instead of beating dead horses.
"Cool" way? More like milking games without actually doing anything. Would rather have a new, bad game than an old game with barely any changes.
On March 08 2013 05:49 GrandInquisitor wrote: That launch video was pretty well-made, with exactly the right amount of nostalgia produced.
To be honest I am surprised more companies have not stepped up on the "retro" remake trend. It is a way to rehash tired IP in a "cool" way instead of beating dead horses.
I'm most surprised Blizzard hasn't done this with Brood War. I'm sure a lot of people would throw money at them if they did.
I'm pretty excited about this because AoE was one of the first games I played alot when I was younger and I haven't played it in a long time.
This game was a masterpiece, if it had the same type multiplayer platform like battlenet, instead of the shitty Zone website place or whatever the fuck it was called, that was either down or broken pretty much 90% of the time and was easily abused, it could easily have rivaled brood war.
ironically there is a good solid tournament scene for AOE2. This will onyl make it soo much bigger. Maybe we will see IEM hold AOE2 tournaments, or even MLG? only time will tell!
On March 08 2013 07:00 RagequitBM wrote: The matchmaking alone is worth $20 for me. That's the reason I don't play BW. I hate having to find my own games.
Definitely. I just hope the matchmaking doesn't totally suck.
On March 08 2013 05:46 Sufficiency wrote: I can't tell the difference....
The big thing is that official lobbies and ladders are back. With a lot of people starting to play AOE 2 again I also wouldn't be surprised if we see a couple of tournaments. Aoe 2 already has a very active scene and with this they could really grow!
On March 08 2013 05:49 GrandInquisitor wrote: That launch video was pretty well-made, with exactly the right amount of nostalgia produced.
To be honest I am surprised more companies have not stepped up on the "retro" remake trend. It is a way to rehash tired IP in a "cool" way instead of beating dead horses.
Sony did this they put out a few games in Hd on the ps3 and square has FF X HD coming
This game brings me back so much memories... what a great and fantastic game... too bad I cannot see much difference! I wish they would add in a A-move button. The only thing I disliked about the game was lack of a-move button. But then again, you could set units into different settings so that they would engage enemies when in sight..
I remember there was like community mod that included 4 additional races? Microsoft should pick up on that and upgrade the game!
Amazing how many people don't understand what remastered means. The textures are redone in HD resolutions. That's what it means.
On Youtube one of the comments was "This isn't HD" to which the reply was "It's in 1080p, it's HD."
For people who don't care, don't buy it. It's a ***** to get this game to run on modern computers, it's annoying as heck to host multiplayer games with the original client thanks to rotating IPs, and colouring is off.
This remaster is awesome and I will buy it.
On March 08 2013 07:30 ExceeD_DreaM wrote: This game brings me back so much memories... what a great and fantastic game... too bad I cannot see much difference! I wish they would add in a A-move button. The only thing I disliked about the game was lack of a-move button. But then again, you could set units into different settings so that they would engage enemies when in sight..
I remember there was like community mod that included 4 additional races? Microsoft should pick up on that and upgrade the game!
I used to be on the same page as you with the no a-move thing, but you can set a patrol point and it does the same thing as a-moving (basically, it's p-moving).
EDIT: Game is only $15 if you can find 3 friends, it's on for 59.99 for 4 copies.
noone is forcing you to buy it, but for the age scene this might be really good.
Its fratured between several unofficial patch versions and several gaming platforms. If this rerelease could manage to unite everyone, that would be really cool.
I played this a lot casually when I was younger and have sometimes considered trying to get into it again... The multiplayer and competitive side looks cool but I never really took the plunge. Maybe this is just what I need, with a new injection of players and the matchmaking addition. I might put the effort in to getting actually semi-good at the game.
This is amazing for the AoK/AoC gaming scene...Right now, the community is fractured between 2 gaming platforms (voobly and Gameranger). I just hope miscrosoft are not going to fail this time around...AoC had tremendous potential as an e-sport game and could have possibly rivaled broodwar but the lack of a strong multiplayer support killed it.
I just hope that Microsoft and steam really work on the multiplayer and give the game the support it deserves: implement solid multiplayer matchmaking, bring out at least a few balance patches and support the custom map community.
I really hope this will be the opportunity for all AoE gamers to unite and get together under one roof. Right now, the community is so fractured, it's just sad. As we speak, you have players on voobly trying to bash AoE HD and hoping that things stay as they are...If you don't want to play on steam, I don't mind but do not come and spew BS about how much it costs when the majority of gamers are playing cracked versions of the game they never bought lol...
I will probably be getting this for the campaigns, I remember really enjoying them, they probably aren't accurate, and aren't as good as I remember them, but I remember being fascinated by them when I was a kid,
Honestly this is the best RTS game not made by Blizzard. And personally I think it's better than every RTS besides maybe Starcraft. I spent too much time playing this game. The idea of being able to play stable online through Steam with my friends or just getting to replay the hundreds of incredible custom games again has me so damn excited.
This is taking me back to my childhood when my first real multiplayer game was AoE2. My first gaming clan was an AoE2 clan. The first time I ever got truly upset by a game company was after the AoE2 servers were just shut down.
While the campaigns were fun and enjoyable anyone who didn't play much online back in the day owes it to themselves to play some of the custom games. They were unbelievably fun. We aren't even getting into how great just regular multiplayer is or the really great single player for this game just the custom games alone (if they're re-created in Steam workshop) justify the $20 price tag.
So long as the online is stable, it's easy to make rooms for your friends to play with you, and the match making works as intended this will be the best game to come out for a long ass time for me.
On March 08 2013 07:08 ain wrote: If this isnt compatible with older AoK versions its worthless.
If you're already active with the AoCZone community and know how to get games up and running, yeah it's worthless. However, there are a LOT of people who can't get it to work. For starters, there are way too many different community-made patches and it's not clear which one you should get. After that, it's annoying getting multiplayer going. This HD remaster negates both of those problems; this is what a lot of people were waiting for.
On March 08 2013 07:08 ain wrote: If this isnt compatible with older AoK versions its worthless.
If you're already active with the AoCZone community and know how to get games up and running, yeah it's worthless. However, there are a LOT of people who can't get it to work. For starters, there are way too many different community-made patches and it's not clear which one you should get. After that, it's annoying getting multiplayer going. This HD remaster negates both of those problems; this is what a lot of people were waiting for.
I hope Forgotten Empires gets on Steam Workshop.
Are you saying you'd rather spend 20 bucks than spend 10 minutes figuring out how to set up a game?
I could try to be rational and resist the ONE GAME that MOST defined my childhood, the one game I most poured my hours on, the one game I used to go get some pencil and papers and tried to draw and streamline some new strats when one of my sisters was using the PC. I could...but even this crappy video made me so fucking hyped I'm on the verge of tears. I'm already downloading AoC for some hardcore AI practice before AoE2HD hits. ITS DEATHMATCH TIME
On March 08 2013 07:08 ain wrote: If this isnt compatible with older AoK versions its worthless.
If you're already active with the AoCZone community and know how to get games up and running, yeah it's worthless. However, there are a LOT of people who can't get it to work. For starters, there are way too many different community-made patches and it's not clear which one you should get. After that, it's annoying getting multiplayer going. This HD remaster negates both of those problems; this is what a lot of people were waiting for.
I hope Forgotten Empires gets on Steam Workshop.
Are you saying you'd rather spend 20 bucks than spend 10 minutes figuring out how to set up a game?
If you are just planning on playing the campaigns, sure...it's easy just download Age FE or a decent fan made patch but I think what he is trying to convey is that there are too many fan patches out there which unfortunately fractures the community. Not only that but you also can't really play any multiplayer properly (unless you want to exclusively play with your friends or alone). Voobly enables optimized resolutions for rated multiplayer but you have to pay for a membership which...coincidentally costs 20$ lol. Whereas game ranger is often empty and its hard to find games there (compared to voobly).
I think what we all want is an Age II game that can run properly, without hassle and comes with a decent (or excellent *crosses fingers*) multiplayer. This alone would make me dish out 20$ instantaneously.
Pointless money-grubbing remake. Forgotten Empires mod has new civs and assets as well as native wide screen support, and best of all its free!
Though on the other hand buying this might call for aoe4 if sales do well, which is highly unlikely after the last half-assed aoe... not naming any names..
On March 08 2013 10:18 Reaper51 wrote: Pointless money-grubbing remake. Forgotten Empires mod has new civs and assets as well as native wide screen support, and best of all its free!
Though on the other hand buying this might call for aoe4 if sales do well, which is highly unlikely after the last half-assed aoe... not naming any names..
FE still needs a copy of AoE2 to install, hopefully one obtained through legit means.
Steam and Workshop integration tease my interest for this HD enhancement. $20 is a bit steep, so I might wait until a sale when it goes down to $10 or $5.
On March 08 2013 10:18 Reaper51 wrote: Pointless money-grubbing remake. Forgotten Empires mod has new civs and assets as well as native wide screen support, and best of all its free!
Though on the other hand buying this might call for aoe4 if sales do well, which is highly unlikely after the last half-assed aoe... not naming any names..
FE still needs a copy of AoE2 to install, hopefully one obtained through legit means.
Steam and Workshop integration tease my interest for this HD enhancement. $20 is a bit steep, so I might wait until a sale when it goes down to $10 or $5.
Forgotten Empires is still better because you actually get new stuff as well as patches and enhancements.
On March 08 2013 10:18 Reaper51 wrote: Pointless money-grubbing remake. Forgotten Empires mod has new civs and assets as well as native wide screen support, and best of all its free!
Though on the other hand buying this might call for aoe4 if sales do well, which is highly unlikely after the last half-assed aoe... not naming any names..
FE still needs a copy of AoE2 to install, hopefully one obtained through legit means.
Steam and Workshop integration tease my interest for this HD enhancement. $20 is a bit steep, so I might wait until a sale when it goes down to $10 or $5.
Forgotten Empires is still better because you actually get new stuff as well as patches and enhancements.
It's a mod that I still have to buy the actual game for. I guess I could spend $5 at a Wal-Mart to pick up a physical AoEII disk. Or I could wait until a Steam sale and buy the HD edition possibly for $5.
And I assume that Workshop integration will make modding more convenient for AoEII HD, so I expect FE to be made compatible for AoEII HD as well. I think AoEII HD with FE may be way better than regular AoEII with FE.
I never really liked AoE III (enjoyed the campaign a bit but not as good as AoE II imho) and AoE online was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. Really enjoyed AoE II and have amazing nostalgia with this game. Great move, great news.
AoE 2 was such a good game, I am getting this Ad since it released (on Steam at least) less than a week before my birthday, I'm going to buy it as a present to myself.
It is so good that I don't care what it costs. I'm going to buy this.
THe convenience of having it on steam and the matchmaking make it an instant buy for me. I don't care the cost! I just hope it isn't a buggy mess or something. I don't trust anything to work well nowadays...
HD BW would be a dream come true, but sadly I don't think it's feasible since it really hasn't held up as well as AoE2, at least in terms of overall playability. As much as I love BW it's certainly a game that would seem abysmally aged to people who didnt grow up playing it. The UI/pathing/mechanics are so horrible or hard that modren gamers would be absolutely offended probably. All those issues are what makes BW what it is though, so there's nothing you can "fix" without completely changing the game.
So pumped for this. Lost my aoe2 disks years ago and could not find anywhere to buy it. Also the max res of 1280x800 was pretty bad on my huge monitor (one farm takes up the whole damn monitor because its zoomed in so far lmao). As long as they didn't dumb down the game by improving the visuals i'm so looking forward to this!
On March 08 2013 12:35 GinDo wrote: Now if Blizzard would only do this with BW. Except I would welcome some changes such as MBS.
UI changes in BW is such a touchy issue considering how many "purists" here prefer the skill required to wrestle with the old UI.
It has nothing to do with being a purist and nothing to do even with BW specifically. The level of command interaction a player is given via interface in an RTS game is a deliberate design decision. If decisions like that were solely based on user convenience, all RTS games after 2008 would look like Supreme Commander or Sins of a Solar Empire and have global overviews and navigation panels for easy access.
Adding something like MBS isn't changing (let alone improving) the UI, it would be changing a core game mechanic implemented for a reason by the original team. That is generally not something you would want to mess with in an HD remake of the game as the whole purpose of making HD remakes is to keep the gameplay as intact by possible.
In general, video games are not application software. In pretty much every (real time) genre, mastering controls and interface is, in fact, part of the challenge. I would argue that most video games would lose their appeal and fun factor if the player was given a more convenient set of tools to execute his decisions.
On March 08 2013 12:35 GinDo wrote: Now if Blizzard would only do this with BW. Except I would welcome some changes such as MBS.
Doesn't aoe2 have MBS?
I think technically you can select multiple buildings but all the commands disappear.
But you got like ctrl+B, etc to cycle through production buildings so macro's a little easier than BW.
At least iirc.
IIRC, you can select multiple of the same building, but if you select to produce units it fills up the first one's queue before going to the next one
Yeah I found that so annoying when I tried to learn to play AoE2 a little better competatively after playing for years beforehand. At that time I really didn't mind queuing 15 in each xD.
On March 08 2013 12:35 GinDo wrote: Now if Blizzard would only do this with BW. Except I would welcome some changes such as MBS.
UI changes in BW is such a touchy issue considering how many "purists" here prefer the skill required to wrestle with the old UI.
It has nothing to do with being a purist and nothing to do even with BW specifically. The level of command interaction a player is given via interface in an RTS game is a deliberate design decision. If decisions like that were solely based on user convenience, all RTS games after 2008 would look like Supreme Commander or Sins of a Solar Empire and have global overviews and navigation panels for easy access.
Adding something like MBS isn't changing (let alone improving) the UI, it would be changing a core game mechanic implemented for a reason by the original team. That is generally not something you would want to mess with in an HD remake of the game as the whole purpose of making HD remakes is to keep the gameplay as intact by possible.
In general, video games are not application software. In pretty much every (real time) genre, mastering controls and interface is, in fact, part of the challenge. I would argue that most video games would lose their appeal and fun factor if the player was given a more convenient set of tools to execute his decisions.
I agree.
People don't know this, but the 12 selection in BW was intentional so that army movement would be more difficult... well it worked.
And you can actually see that if a unit is being recalled just as you select it, it will disappear from the control group, but still follow your commands as long as you don't change that control group and with this trick you could get an infinite amount of units into a control group.
On March 08 2013 17:14 Kaal wrote: Beta tester here, don't expect much.
That's all I can say.
I am not expecting a new game I am expecting to play aoe2 that is compatible with windows 7 as well as going higher resolution and with match making as they said. That's all I expect I don't expect better visuals or anything either which I am fine with.
Looks like I am getting a 4 pack with my friends. Cant wait! I was a huge fan of AoE 1 and SW:GB but I never played AoE2. Would it be closer to AoE1 or SW:GB? Are there any good/funny youtube videos of AoE2 games? (either competitive, casual, large FFA or custom games)
On March 09 2013 03:14 fifasnipe2224 wrote: Looks like I am getting a 4 pack with my friends. Cant wait! I was a huge fan of AoE 1 and SW:GB but I never played AoE2. Would it be closer to AoE1 or SW:GB? Are there any good/funny youtube videos of AoE2 games? (either competitive, casual, large FFA or custom games)
On March 08 2013 17:14 Kaal wrote: Beta tester here, don't expect much.
That's all I can say.
Hm. Original gameplay intact?
Runs on Windows 7?
HD compatible?
Matchmaking?
Official mod support?
I don't really know what more I could want to be honest.
The core game should remain unchanged, because it is a really good game. And it's really nice that matchmaking, Windows 7 support and works in higher resolutions is included with it as well
On March 09 2013 03:14 fifasnipe2224 wrote: Looks like I am getting a 4 pack with my friends. Cant wait! I was a huge fan of AoE 1 and SW:GB but I never played AoE2. Would it be closer to AoE1 or SW:GB? Are there any good/funny youtube videos of AoE2 games? (either competitive, casual, large FFA or custom games)
Does Age of Empires 2: HD Edition support Steam cloud saves?
Yes!
I have the original Age of Empires 2. Can I play multiplayer matches with my friends who have the new HD version?
Age of Empires 2: HD Edition uses a different multiplayer service than the original version, so cross-platform matchmaking is not possible. You will need to have the same version as your friend in order to play together.
Can I play the game over LAN?
You can matchmake while Steam is in offline mode, but will still need internet access to connect to Steam for multiplayer capability.
Can I redeem my cd key from the original Age of Empires 2 to get the new HD version?
At this time, such cd key activation is not available. You can only get Age of Empires 2: HD Edition via direct purchase from Steam or by purchasing a Steam key from an authorized retailer.
Will this game be available on Mac or Linux?
There are no plans for a Mac or Linux version at this time.
Will the game be available in my region?
Age of Empires II: HD Edition will be available in any region that Steam currently supports.
How do I use Steam Workshop?
Steam Workshop can be accessed from the game launcher as well as from the in-game menu. With Steam Workshop, you can share, download, and build user-created content for the game.
Is there DRM?
Age of Empires 2: HD Edition uses only the Steam service for license management. Games for Windows LIVE is not required.
Is this still the same Age of Empires that I know and love?
Absolutely! All of the gameplay remains the same, we have merely updated the game to run on current operating systems, with HD graphics. (You remember those cheat codes? Yeah, those still work too!) The game now scales to fit your monitor, and even offers multi-monitor support for even higher resolutions!
Have there been any changes made to the gameplay?
No, it's still the same classic Age of Empires II experience.
What are the minimum system requirements to play the game?
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Pro Steam Software Platform 900x600 minimum resolution display Direct X 9 Capable GPU 1.2GHz CPU 1GB RAM 2GB HDD
On March 09 2013 05:14 DeepElemBlues wrote: i still play aoe2 most every day... i like it the way it is. ill check this out though, it might be more fun looking better but i somehow doubt it.
I think the match making will make it more fun . Hopefully lots of people play the aoe2HD match making 2v2 so I can play 2v2 with my friend ^_^
They need to nerf the huns so I can play my Chinese and micro-rape them with my Chu Ko Nu guarded by halbardier, using my more advanced technology to Conquer the world.
I am a big fan of the series. I was playing this game on a semi-competitive level before. That said, I am very skeptical about this release. I am really interested in the steam integration, but I doubt that it will be much better than the current sites that does it. For a price tag of $20, what they mainly did what to enable a better resolution, which can be already done by applying a custom mod.
The main point is to gather all players and even casuals to enjoy the multiplayer and create a more open community. If you want to play AoE2 today, you need several patches, clients and quite some effort digging community sites.
On March 09 2013 07:30 mTwRINE wrote: The main point is to gather all players and even casuals to enjoy the multiplayer and create a more open community. If you want to play AoE2 today, you need several patches, clients and quite some effort digging community sites.
Looking forward and will probably play a few MMs.
One patch and Voobly, that's all there is to it. Some TLers and I played it a while ago.
On March 09 2013 03:14 fifasnipe2224 wrote: Looks like I am getting a 4 pack with my friends. Cant wait! I was a huge fan of AoE 1 and SW:GB but I never played AoE2. Would it be closer to AoE1 or SW:GB? Are there any good/funny youtube videos of AoE2 games? (either competitive, casual, large FFA or custom games)
Galactic Battlegrounds is pretty much a mod for AoE2. Same engine, and VERY similar gameplay. One could say that Galactic Battlegrounds is just a Star Wars skin for AoE2, although a fun and well made one at that.
On March 09 2013 15:43 undyinglight wrote: How balanced was this game? How similarly did the different civilizations play to one another?
Primarily the game is balanced by Maps. Huns/Mongols are strongest on Arabia/Random, Vikings on strong on Water or useless, that kind of thing. But here is a couple sentence guide to each race.
Britons: LOLOLOL LONGBOWMEN
Byzantines: Everything is tankier than normal. Frankly, they suck. With over 8000 hours played of AoE2 played I've barely played them because it's just painful.
Celts: Gotta go fast~, infantry 15% faster and Siege weapons attack that much faster. Also a useless race imo.
Chinese: LOLOLOLOL CHUKONUS, and did I mention you start with 6 villagers? 6. Double the normal amount. And you upgrade faster than everyone else.
Franks: One of the strongest races in the midgame because their cavalry have 20% more HP and they build castles 25% faster than everyone else. Imperial Stage is your timing, you win the game here with Paladins or you suck.
Goths: Counterpick to Britons because Huskar doesn't take damage from archers.
Japanese: Super useless.
Mongols: Very strong, Villagers hunt 15% faster and Magundai are the best unit in the game hands down.
Persians: Elephants.
Saracens: Suck until you get Mamelukes, then you kill everything. (they fucking throw scimitars.)
Teutons: Two words. Teutonic Knight. Stongest infantry unit in the game, but it also costs a metric ton. Also they have castles that are 4x better than everyone else.
Turks: Feudal Rush. Or you lose. And since everyone knows you're Feudal rushing you probably lose unless your name is Chris.
Vikings: Is the map water? You win. Is the map not water? You lose.
Huns: Imagine Terran that doesn't need supply depots and Tanks are made as fast as SCVs. That's huns.
Koreans: Literally the worst race in the game. They mine stone fast.
Mayans: EAGLEEEEEE warriors are stupid, they move as fast as cavalry so they're the best harassment unit in the beginning, Mayans have very strong archers because they cost less as your progress through the game. Resources also last 20% longer which is really dope.
Aztec: ALSO EAGLEEEEEE, except your ranged units suck, instead you are the best rushing race in the game because your workers gather +5 per trip and all your military units build 15% faster.
Spanish: None of your upgrades cost gold (lawwwwl), and their monks are literally god. Probably the best late game race in the game. Oh and your villagers are the SCVs of AoE2, much stronger stats and build 1/3 faster.
It's worth noting that very few people in 1v1 choose race unless they're practicing for CL or something, random is just more fun because you guarantee every game will be different from any other you've played. Unless it's water and everyone just plays vikings or Japanese(lol).
On March 09 2013 15:43 undyinglight wrote: How balanced was this game? How similarly did the different civilizations play to one another?
In 1v1, Huns were the strongest race, except on island maps where Vikings were stronger.
The real strength of AoE2 was how well the team games flowed. It was not like SC where team games are a mess. So if you are going to play AoE2 I would recommend playing some 4v4 as well as 1v1. In 4v4 you want a bit of a mixture of races for the team bonuses. Typically you would have at least one Huns, and probably a Mongals with it. You could also add in one of Britons, Celts, or Teutons if you want a strong team. However, the game was balanced enough that you could just all go random in 4v4 and both teams would have a reasonable chance of winning.
the game is decently well balanced, there are small imbalances that got exaggerated over the years.
But this game is highly playable as a teamgame and it also has a ton of randomly generated maps. Some maps are more about adapting, for example there is one map where you start with a few randomly located villagers on a dark map. Or a map where you start on a tiny island and have to colonize the mainland. Those and other maps are about adaptation, just playing huns and rushing cav doesnt work on them as it does on the arabia map, which is the standard 1v1 duel map because it eliminates most randomness.
And 4v4 are easily playable without people being eliminated after 3 minutes by a rush, so you can mirror races of you wish without having to play the same race all the time.
Still owning a 4:3 monitor, for games like BroodWar, Lord of Destruction and AoE so resolution thing is actually a minus for me (maybe it can be switched from 4:3 to 16 and vice versa, idk) . Not going to buy it for 2 reasons: price and I can't access steam from campus network.
What I generally think about this is big lack of ideas. Why is everyone afraid to make a new game with smooth older graphics. Too many emphasis on graphics these days...
On March 10 2013 00:27 DDie wrote: $20 for fake HD? Wtf..
Way to pay attention. It's true HD, rescalled for any resolution. Just freaking watch the video.
Also improved(read: playable) netcode and Steam Workshop support(which is a boost to the community).
It's fucking AoE2. I'd pay 20 bucks five times because I got exhausted of it.
Yeah, just rescalled resolution, the graphic changes are barely noticeable.
You are paying $20 for the multiplayer experience, which you can have for free on gamespy/gameranger, besides i hardly think the community will make the switch.
On March 10 2013 00:00 Axonn wrote: Still owning a 4:3 monitor, for games like BroodWar, Lord of Destruction and AoE so resolution thing is actually a minus for me (maybe it can be switched from 4:3 to 16 and vice versa, idk) . Not going to buy it for 2 reasons: price and I can't access steam from campus network.
What I generally think about this is big lack of ideas. Why is everyone afraid to make a new game with smooth older graphics. Too many emphasis on graphics these days...
Nothing wrong with a 4:3 screen, I also use one and it's perfectly fine for all the games I play.
Definitely. But at least there is Kickstarter. For now it seems that's the only place to get such games from(and China).
Man I wish they would at least try to fix the Hun imba. (Though will have to fix Mongols immediately after as second best.) BTW, I know Japan is always viewed as useless but didn't they have a dock timing build for certain maps that made them decent on them? Or am I imagining things again.
Technically Chinese is the fastest race in the game despite numerous nerfs but you now need like 800 APM for them.
I'm really outdated on this game and I don't think I advanced high enough to even be considered past rook but I recall this game being REALLY unfriendly to new players. Like your average rook can literally 1v2 on any map not called Black Forest. Your average expert will probably do the same to rooks at the same time. Starts need to be so carefully microed that even Brood War has a lower entry curve.
On March 10 2013 01:43 KissBlade wrote: Man I wish they would at least try to fix the Hun imba. (Though will have to fix Mongols immediately after as second best.) BTW, I know Japan is always viewed as useless but didn't they have a dock timing build for certain maps that made them decent on them? Or am I imagining things again.
Technically Chinese is the fastest race in the game despite numerous nerfs but you now need like 800 APM for them.
I'm really outdated on this game and I don't think I advanced high enough to even be considered past rook but I recall this game being REALLY unfriendly to new players. Like your average rook can literally 1v2 on any map not called Black Forest. Your average expert will probably do the same to rooks at the same time. Starts need to be so carefully microed that even Brood War has a lower entry curve.
I personally think it's harder for newer players to get into the game, but easier to get better once you start playing. Timings are much more lax in AoE2, mechanical knowledge is more emphasized. And yeah Japan and Korea both have dock timing builds, but they're pretty silly.
Yeah I'd say it's fairly easy to 1v2 new players or 2-trick rooks. A lot of balances were fixed in the recent expansion made by the community, and tbh I think most serious players will continue playing that.
I have to agree that the price is a bit over the top. Nontheless the memories alone made me buy it in the end I don't mind for content updates but I really hope they will try to balance the game. And I'm crossing my fingers for a good multiplayer platform ^^"
On March 10 2013 00:27 DDie wrote: $20 for fake HD? Wtf..
Way to pay attention. It's true HD, rescalled for any resolution. Just freaking watch the video.
Also improved(read: playable) netcode and Steam Workshop support(which is a boost to the community).
It's fucking AoE2. I'd pay 20 bucks five times because I got exhausted of it.
Yeah, just rescalled resolution, the graphic changes are barely noticeable.
You are paying $20 for the multiplayer experience, which you can have for free on gamespy/gameranger, besides i hardly think the community will make the switch.
Whaaat...? Ok the game has neglible graphics improvements, the main improvement is the addition of resolution's (which is a huge bonus for anybody looking to replay the game nowadays, and anybody looking to try it out) With the re-release alot of people will either re-buy it, or buy it now to play as its not got shitty resolutions / graphics and looks 100% terrible in the modern-era, this will attract ALOT of people, believe it or not, compared to the original.
The community wont make the switch? sure...Better netcode, matchmaking, untold more players, workshop (good mod support) is a real downer right. The community will jump at the chance imo.
Although i think the price is a little steep, but it will no doubt drop after a month or two. I think £10 / $15 is a better starting point, people could justify that (even if its a little high for a HD remake) for the HD + Multiplayer but £15 / $20 is just a bit too high, hence all the complaining here, i think all the other prospective buyers will think the same too, which sucks as it coul dhave really resurged the community
On March 10 2013 00:27 DDie wrote: $20 for fake HD? Wtf..
Way to pay attention. It's true HD, rescalled for any resolution. Just freaking watch the video.
Also improved(read: playable) netcode and Steam Workshop support(which is a boost to the community).
It's fucking AoE2. I'd pay 20 bucks five times because I got exhausted of it.
Yeah, just rescalled resolution, the graphic changes are barely noticeable.
You are paying $20 for the multiplayer experience, which you can have for free on gamespy/gameranger, besides i hardly think the community will make the switch.
Whaaat...? Ok the game has neglible graphics improvements, the main improvement is the addition of resolution's (which is a huge bonus for anybody looking to replay the game nowadays, and anybody looking to try it out) With the re-release alot of people will either re-buy it, or buy it now to play as its not got shitty resolutions / graphics and looks 100% terrible in the modern-era, this will attract ALOT of people, believe it or not, compared to the original.
The community wont make the switch? sure...Better netcode, matchmaking, untold more players, workshop (good mod support) is a real downer right. The community will jump at the chance imo.
Although i think the price is a little steep, but it will no doubt drop after a month or two. I think £10 / $15 is a better starting point, people could justify that (even if its a little high for a HD remake) for the HD + Multiplayer but £15 / $20 is just a bit too high, hence all the complaining here, i think all the other prospective buyers will think the same too, which sucks as it coul dhave really resurged the community
lol untold more players.
The biggest issue is that there won't be matchmaking for Forgotten Empires, which pretty much everyone plays now. Years of work by most of the pros and modders isn't going to go to waste for easier matchmaking (AoFE already has better graphics/resolutions, the only thing that really looks much better in HD is the water), which is the only thing most players care about. People will probably stay on GR/GAR/Voobly.
So in preparation for this, I got AoE3... was this game greatly fixed by mods/patches or something? The controls are terrible, and looking at a lets play, I can see that the guy playing has more control options than me, for example, it seems his crossbowmen have a hold position action which is certainly not in the vanilla game I'm playing, which only has a "stop" action.
On March 11 2013 00:52 Tobberoth wrote: So in preparation for this, I got AoE3... was this game greatly fixed by mods/patches or something? The controls are terrible, and looking at a lets play, I can see that the guy playing has more control options than me, for example, it seems his crossbowmen have a hold position action which is certainly not in the vanilla game I'm playing, which only has a "stop" action.
WTF?
In most AOE games there's a button to show "advanced orders" which would give you the different stance buttons.
Also I don't think AOE3 is the best way to prepare. You're better off getting age 2 or if you don't care for "piracy" then actually Age of Empires Online would be a better choice, as the gameplay closely resembles that of AOE2, the only major difference is that some units take up more than one point of population.
Cant wait for this.Even if its just for nostalgy sake. and also online play will be awesome. Tower rush ftw, prepare to die bronze leaguers who didnt grow up with age of empires :D.
20 is too much for how old this is They should make the skirmish computer AI better give it some styles or build orders like HOTS has that have evolved over all the time this has been out. When people quit playing the AI is all that is left.
On March 11 2013 01:43 snakeeyez wrote: 20 is too much for how old this is They should make the skirmish computer AI better give it some styles or build orders like HOTS has that have evolved over all the time this has been out. When people quit playing the AI is all that is left.
Nah. The AI was fucking awesome. I remember playing on the hardest difficulty..and at a certain point in the game you would suddenly see a long line of red slowly crawling towards you. I remember playing lan with my brother, killing trees with catapults to make fortifications in the woods and try to win from the AI that way. But yea..as a child everything seems awesome, maybe in retrospect the AI was a bit dumb .
Pretty sure AOE3 is a LOT different because in AOE3 settlers do not need to "return" the resources. Also AOE3 has some (imo) weird anti-kiting mechanics I've never seen in other RTS games.
Does anyone know a good place to find basic info on gameplay for aoe2? I mean stuff like unit control tips, build orders or general priorities of what's most important to mine/produce at various stages in the game?
I did play it when i was younger but it was a while ago and i'm pretty certain i wasnt very good. Are there camera location hotkeys? Can you bind buildings to hotkeys? Also i heard something about there being no true a-move - how does that work?
On March 11 2013 09:20 Zrana wrote: Does anyone know a good place to find basic info on gameplay for aoe2? I mean stuff like unit control tips, build orders or general priorities of what's most important to mine/produce at various stages in the game?
I did play it when i was younger but it was a while ago and i'm pretty certain i wasnt very good. Are there camera location hotkeys? Can you bind buildings to hotkeys? Also i heard something about there being no true a-move - how does that work?
On March 11 2013 01:43 snakeeyez wrote: 20 is too much for how old this is They should make the skirmish computer AI better give it some styles or build orders like HOTS has that have evolved over all the time this has been out. When people quit playing the AI is all that is left.
On March 11 2013 02:40 IRL_Sinister wrote: Doesn't look much different to the original tbh.
GRAAAAAH.
HD means high definition. It means no jagged lines due to low resolutions.
It does NOT mean high polygon. Metal Gear Solid 2 HD is the same as Metal Gear Solid 2 except no jagged lines, no-one complained about that.
I don't understand why there's so much misunderstanding on this being an HD rerelease and not a remake.
The Halo: Anniversary Edition kind of set a new standard for HD editions of old games, to be honest. 20 EUR for a game as old as Age of Empires 2 is a lot of money.
That said, it is arguably the best RTS I have ever played.
The screenshots look about the same how they looked when I played on my good old Dell Dimension 8200 I still think it's good that they release it on steam as I play it from time to time. More hyped for this than the online thingy haha
On March 10 2013 00:27 DDie wrote: $20 for fake HD? Wtf..
Way to pay attention. It's true HD, rescalled for any resolution. Just freaking watch the video.
Also improved(read: playable) netcode and Steam Workshop support(which is a boost to the community).
It's fucking AoE2. I'd pay 20 bucks five times because I got exhausted of it.
Yeah, just rescalled resolution, the graphic changes are barely noticeable.
You are paying $20 for the multiplayer experience, which you can have for free on gamespy/gameranger, besides i hardly think the community will make the switch.
Whaaat...? Ok the game has neglible graphics improvements, the main improvement is the addition of resolution's (which is a huge bonus for anybody looking to replay the game nowadays, and anybody looking to try it out) With the re-release alot of people will either re-buy it, or buy it now to play as its not got shitty resolutions / graphics and looks 100% terrible in the modern-era, this will attract ALOT of people, believe it or not, compared to the original.
The community wont make the switch? sure...Better netcode, matchmaking, untold more players, workshop (good mod support) is a real downer right. The community will jump at the chance imo.
Although i think the price is a little steep, but it will no doubt drop after a month or two. I think £10 / $15 is a better starting point, people could justify that (even if its a little high for a HD remake) for the HD + Multiplayer but £15 / $20 is just a bit too high, hence all the complaining here, i think all the other prospective buyers will think the same too, which sucks as it coul dhave really resurged the community
lol untold more players.
The biggest issue is that there won't be matchmaking for Forgotten Empires, which pretty much everyone plays now. Years of work by most of the pros and modders isn't going to go to waste for easier matchmaking (AoFE already has better graphics/resolutions, the only thing that really looks much better in HD is the water), which is the only thing most players care about. People will probably stay on GR/GAR/Voobly.
Was going to make a big post on this but i'll just do bullet points
- Forgotten empires can be converted over to the HD edition as its on the steam workshop. - The game WILL sell, probably upwards of 20k copies minimum i would say. - The people who buy WILL play the game, it will draw in a much bigger crowd then Aoe2 has now (which is a few hundred players max?) - Any small community like this would jump at the chance of increased numbers, with FE being converted to steams workshop i dont see a big problem here. Obviously your looking at conversion time + Converting players from the standard game but its a hell of alot more promising then what they previously had.
On March 11 2013 09:20 Zrana wrote: Does anyone know a good place to find basic info on gameplay for aoe2? I mean stuff like unit control tips, build orders or general priorities of what's most important to mine/produce at various stages in the game?
I did play it when i was younger but it was a while ago and i'm pretty certain i wasnt very good. Are there camera location hotkeys? Can you bind buildings to hotkeys? Also i heard something about there being no true a-move - how does that work?
I'm looking for the same thing. Coming from BW and SC2 (the only RTS games I've played somewhat extensively), it's weird coming to another RTS which doesn't seem to have the same resources (teamliquid obviously being incredible).
Other than the stuff you mentioned, I would love to find some articles/guides concerning build orders, and something which would be cool to read is if someone who played AoE2 on a decently competitive level could compare their thought process to how it is in SC. AoE2 seems like a game where macro and mechanics are very important just like in SC, so it would be cool to get an overview perspective on how an SC player should go into AoE2, what to focus on if you want to improve, research timings etc.
Why buy it when you can play this for free? It's still in alpha but hopefully they'll make it to the release (last update was today so they're definitely still working on it).
Free, multi-platform, open source. And you can download and have fun in the alpha too.
On March 10 2013 00:27 DDie wrote: $20 for fake HD? Wtf..
Way to pay attention. It's true HD, rescalled for any resolution. Just freaking watch the video.
Also improved(read: playable) netcode and Steam Workshop support(which is a boost to the community).
It's fucking AoE2. I'd pay 20 bucks five times because I got exhausted of it.
Yeah, just rescalled resolution, the graphic changes are barely noticeable.
You are paying $20 for the multiplayer experience, which you can have for free on gamespy/gameranger, besides i hardly think the community will make the switch.
Whaaat...? Ok the game has neglible graphics improvements, the main improvement is the addition of resolution's (which is a huge bonus for anybody looking to replay the game nowadays, and anybody looking to try it out) With the re-release alot of people will either re-buy it, or buy it now to play as its not got shitty resolutions / graphics and looks 100% terrible in the modern-era, this will attract ALOT of people, believe it or not, compared to the original.
The community wont make the switch? sure...Better netcode, matchmaking, untold more players, workshop (good mod support) is a real downer right. The community will jump at the chance imo.
Although i think the price is a little steep, but it will no doubt drop after a month or two. I think £10 / $15 is a better starting point, people could justify that (even if its a little high for a HD remake) for the HD + Multiplayer but £15 / $20 is just a bit too high, hence all the complaining here, i think all the other prospective buyers will think the same too, which sucks as it coul dhave really resurged the community
lol untold more players.
The biggest issue is that there won't be matchmaking for Forgotten Empires, which pretty much everyone plays now. Years of work by most of the pros and modders isn't going to go to waste for easier matchmaking (AoFE already has better graphics/resolutions, the only thing that really looks much better in HD is the water), which is the only thing most players care about. People will probably stay on GR/GAR/Voobly.
Was going to make a big post on this but i'll just do bullet points
- Forgotten empires can be converted over to the HD edition as its on the steam workshop. - The game WILL sell, probably upwards of 20k copies minimum i would say. - The people who buy WILL play the game, it will draw in a much bigger crowd then Aoe2 has now (which is a few hundred players max?) - Any small community like this would jump at the chance of increased numbers, with FE being converted to steams workshop i dont see a big problem here. Obviously your looking at conversion time + Converting players from the standard game but its a hell of alot more promising then what they previously had.
Even if it sells I doubt we'll get many players for more than like... 6 months, then the community will go back to normal size. Honestly I don't think anyone really cares about growing AoE 2 hugely, we're a decent size community that's been alive and solid for 15 years, we're not dieing off like WC2, and nobody that hasn't played before wants to play a 15 year old game even if it is better than the current generation, if they did people would still be playing BW instead of SC2. During CL when most people are active we probably have around 2-3k~ on at primetime. Usually it's around 1k-1.5k, and it's been that way for 6-7 years.
Even if FE does go on Steam Workshop, the developer will have to code in additional matchmaking just for FE. ALSO, the cheat detection will be a huge deal, voobly and GR ladders have excellent cheat detect tools but we've heard nothing from the studio about this, it was brought up multiple times in beta but they were just like oh we have plans and we'll implement it, but the last build I played almost a month ago I could use every well known MH and macro without being detected. It's stupid.
if someone who played AoE2 on a decently competitive level could compare their thought process to how it is in SC.
Chris, a ten year veteran and probably the most legendary AoC player, wrote this about how he plays against different players and how that made him a better player http://www.aoczone.net/viewtopic.php?f=186&t=27118
One of the biggest differences is map emphases. Each map type is scripted, with UserScripts, to generate about 5 million different map types, so there isn't really a way to practice a specific strategy on a specific map, each game is different and you will probably never play the same game twice. This is extremely different from the BW equivalent.
As for build orders and whatnot... for the most part there are some general orders out there for stuff like Feudal Rush and whatnot but since every map is random. Lumi has a nice guide to frushing here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjj8qHKcBcQ, and it has some general game tips. TBH the best way to learn is just to play. There are commentaries of pros like Daut, Chris, Viper, Tim, Brian out there, those are good to watch. AoCZone has an enormous replay depot that almost every pro uploads his games to. Check that shit out.
This is very exciting. I never played AoEII with a competitive edge, I was to young to care, but I'm excited to jump back in! I'll probably spend some time familiarizing myself with the strategies and pro scene when this comes out.
On March 11 2013 20:11 Manit0u wrote: Why buy it when you can play this for free? It's still in alpha but hopefully they'll make it to the release (last update was today so they're definitely still working on it).
Decided with friends to go with a 4-pack, because we played this endlessly while we were kids and hey it's still fun but we can afford $15 per person now as well so why not. I'd say it's worth it in terms of time/hassle saved by the steam platform as well as having it updated to run smoothy on a modern computer.
Yeah, this will be great! Hopefully tons of new players, maybe new tournaments etc? Age of Empires hasn't been dead at all, there are thousands playing it every day, and many, like myself, still at a competetive level ^^ Will without doubt buy this!
If anyone wishes to see how the game is played on a high level today, I do live streams quite often at my twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/tyrant_theviper. I have also started a Youtube channel where I will be moving some twitch videos as well as creating tutorials, guides, with hints and tips in the upcoming time with the AOE2HD coming out. If anyone is looking to learn or refresh some Age of Empires before the release, feel free to join in there: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheViperAOC
Other good channels on Youtube for Age of Empires II are ZeroEmpires and BBQTurkman. And if anyone wishes to join the current community, check out www.Aoczone.net and www.Voobly.com!
On March 08 2013 06:02 FromShouri wrote: Im with some people, I could tell when it was "remastered" but it was just less zoomed in and the lines a little clearer....
That said....if its for ~$5-10 bucks I could see myself buying it as I still have a no-cd crack for my current AOE II and no one plays with me anymore ='(
Edit: ya it's like $20...no way in hell. The only thing that they are really fixing is the resolution crap and the match making, otherwise it's the same damn game that still looks 15 years old.
totally agreed. Would buy it for 5$ and think about it for 10$. 20? No way.
The last time i played it was cracked on a lan-party (although i had the original version, just not installed at that time), there is no way i can do that with the new version.
On March 12 2013 12:18 [TyRanT]TheViper wrote: Yeah, this will be great! Hopefully tons of new players, maybe new tournaments etc? Age of Empires hasn't been dead at all, there are thousands playing it every day, and many, like myself, still at a competetive level ^^ Will without doubt buy this!
If anyone wishes to see how the game is played on a high level today, I do live streams quite often at my twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/tyrant_theviper. I have also started a Youtube channel where I will be moving some twitch videos as well as creating tutorials, guides, with hints and tips in the upcoming time with the AOE2HD coming out. If anyone is looking to learn or refresh some Age of Empires before the release, feel free to join in there: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheViperAOC
Other good channels on Youtube for Age of Empires II are ZeroEmpires and BBQTurkman. And if anyone wishes to join the current community, check out www.Aoczone.net and www.Voobly.com!
Watched a couple of your VODs. You make the game look awesome!
Oh, Microsoft... As others have said, not worth $20. Not even for a game I reinstall on a yearly basis. For that money it needs to be a full on new expansion.
On a related note, I begrudgingly handed over $20 for another remake of an old game: Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, but that at least had changes to many aspects of the game, as well as new content.
Anyone interested in seeing some Age of Empires II: HD multiplayer in action?
Of course you are! And next Tuesday March 19, 2013 at Noon (Pacific Time), you can get your fill livestreamed on twitch.tv/ageofempires OR you can watch RIGHT ON THIS PAGE!! (See that video box at the top of the page? Yeah, that's where the video will stream!) So what civilizations would you like each of them to play? Let us know in the forums HERE!
Hmm...someone should message whitera and tell him to play AOE2 HD, special tactics only....that would be awesome :D.
edit: Btw, if anyone wants some practice in the forgotten empires mod, hit me up on steam: Thomas Vanhoutte I only played it casually when i was young, but used to be master league level in sc2, so once i know the hotkeys decently it should be fine :D. Or maybe even make a TL aoe2 steamgroup? :D
Anyone interested in seeing some Age of Empires II: HD multiplayer in action?
Of course you are! And next Tuesday March 19, 2013 at Noon (Pacific Time), you can get your fill livestreamed on twitch.tv/ageofempires OR you can watch RIGHT ON THIS PAGE!! (See that video box at the top of the page? Yeah, that's where the video will stream!) So what civilizations would you like each of them to play? Let us know in the forums HERE!
Can't wait for it, will definitely watch a bit of it :D.
yeah 20$ is way too expensive, lets rather buy hots for 40$..or the next call of duty for 60$ (or a fucking sim city DLC for 15$) Im pretty sure more effort went into this than hots or cod.
It was 10% off yesterday, so I went ahead and preordered. Suuuper stoked for this game. I played it religiously in high school. Can't wait to get in touch with the old crew and get some free for all going.
On March 19 2013 05:30 MrBitter wrote: It was 10% off yesterday, so I went ahead and preordered. Suuuper stoked for this game. I played it religiously in high school. Can't wait to get in touch with the old crew and get some free for all going.
I'm gonna pre-order as soon as I get my student aid! Cannot wait!
Some people were asking about MBS. Yes, you can select multiple buildings but it would fill up the que for the first building before going to any other buildings when you would try to build units. Thus, no one ever selects multiple buildings - people do it BW style, clicking on them one-by-one. However, there was a community-driven expansion (The Forgotten Kingdoms) that introduced some tweaks to mechanics. In this expansion, you still have MBS but every time you que up a unit, it ques it up in every single building. (ie when you have 5 rax selected and you press "train footman", five footmen are being trained, one in each rax) There are a few other mechanical changes I believe but I can' quite remember them right now. They were received warmly in the community, despite some BW purists cringing at the thought. It is not anywhere as big of an impact as people may think at first. In the early to mid game, when you only have a couple of produciton facilities, it makes virtually no difference. It is mainly seen to be a convenience in the lategame, so that you can focus on other tasks rather than "button babysitting." (There are more than enough tasks that will eat into your spare APM.) It may be a bit tough to understand coming from BW but it just works out differently in AoE2.
But, to me, the very fact that a community-created expansion could reach "official" status and is being played at the competitive level is just amazing.
And I just recently discovered that, even though it was released in 2000, AoE2 still has healthy professional scene. Like, it's arguably bigger than the foreign Brood War scene. There is an active competitive ladder and a large number of people playing every day on GameRanger. (On either one of these, it's easier to find games than on iccup.) There are still casted tournaments and showmatches. (The stream views are not what TLS has right now but still very respectable)
It's truly a masterpiece of a game. It really depends on what kind of cup of tea you like, but I would definitely put it in the same category as Brood War. The mechanical ceiling is vast and the game has a lot of depth, despite non-mirror matchups being imbalanced sometimes. The fact that gameplay is so drastically different based on the "map type" (arabia, water maps, black forest) is another factor that adds a lot of value to it.
Truly a gem of a game. I urge everyone to check it out.
On March 12 2013 12:18 [TyRanT]TheViper wrote: Yeah, this will be great! Hopefully tons of new players, maybe new tournaments etc? Age of Empires hasn't been dead at all, there are thousands playing it every day, and many, like myself, still at a competetive level ^^ Will without doubt buy this!
If anyone wishes to see how the game is played on a high level today, I do live streams quite often at my twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/tyrant_theviper. I have also started a Youtube channel where I will be moving some twitch videos as well as creating tutorials, guides, with hints and tips in the upcoming time with the AOE2HD coming out. If anyone is looking to learn or refresh some Age of Empires before the release, feel free to join in there: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheViperAOC
Other good channels on Youtube for Age of Empires II are ZeroEmpires and BBQTurkman. And if anyone wishes to join the current community, check out www.Aoczone.net and www.Voobly.com!
Hey Viper!! Had no idea you are TL member aswell.
I love your stream, I watch it all the time. I spend most of my twitch hours on your stream, watch the vods when ur offline aswell. Thx for the stream man, keep it up!
(Also sometime in the past I watched one epic game of yours that involved TONS of micro and units spread out all over the map and constantly streaming into the battle. That game made me want to make a thread here on TL and show people what true micro is and what SC2 should have looked like in my opinion. But I gave up realising it was a bad idea, it would probably come off as trashing SC2 which was not my intention so I never made the thread. But I have this secret desire of AoE becoming a true e-sport, taking sc2's place which I feel it deserves. )
Was very excited to see this, preordered it right away Don't know if I'll ever try to get into the multiplayer but it'll be fun to play the campaign again for sure or just mess around with friends.
On March 10 2013 00:27 DDie wrote: $20 for fake HD? Wtf..
Way to pay attention. It's true HD, rescalled for any resolution. Just freaking watch the video.
Also improved(read: playable) netcode and Steam Workshop support(which is a boost to the community).
It's fucking AoE2. I'd pay 20 bucks five times because I got exhausted of it.
Yeah, just rescalled resolution, the graphic changes are barely noticeable.
You are paying $20 for the multiplayer experience, which you can have for free on gamespy/gameranger, besides i hardly think the community will make the switch.
Whaaat...? Ok the game has neglible graphics improvements, the main improvement is the addition of resolution's (which is a huge bonus for anybody looking to replay the game nowadays, and anybody looking to try it out) With the re-release alot of people will either re-buy it, or buy it now to play as its not got shitty resolutions / graphics and looks 100% terrible in the modern-era, this will attract ALOT of people, believe it or not, compared to the original.
The community wont make the switch? sure...Better netcode, matchmaking, untold more players, workshop (good mod support) is a real downer right. The community will jump at the chance imo.
Although i think the price is a little steep, but it will no doubt drop after a month or two. I think £10 / $15 is a better starting point, people could justify that (even if its a little high for a HD remake) for the HD + Multiplayer but £15 / $20 is just a bit too high, hence all the complaining here, i think all the other prospective buyers will think the same too, which sucks as it coul dhave really resurged the community
lol untold more players.
The biggest issue is that there won't be matchmaking for Forgotten Empires, which pretty much everyone plays now. Years of work by most of the pros and modders isn't going to go to waste for easier matchmaking (AoFE already has better graphics/resolutions, the only thing that really looks much better in HD is the water), which is the only thing most players care about. People will probably stay on GR/GAR/Voobly.
Was going to make a big post on this but i'll just do bullet points
- Forgotten empires can be converted over to the HD edition as its on the steam workshop. - The game WILL sell, probably upwards of 20k copies minimum i would say. - The people who buy WILL play the game, it will draw in a much bigger crowd then Aoe2 has now (which is a few hundred players max?) - Any small community like this would jump at the chance of increased numbers, with FE being converted to steams workshop i dont see a big problem here. Obviously your looking at conversion time + Converting players from the standard game but its a hell of alot more promising then what they previously had.
It's not a few hundred max, it might be hard to believe but there are regularly 3k+ playing on a daily basis. Now if anyone remembers the glory days of MSN gaming zone at the absolute peak of the games popularity I don't think I saw the number of users go above 10k.
I think the most important question I have about this release is the Forgotten Empires expansion. WIll it be able to be ported into AoC HD? Would be awesome if Microsoft and the mod developers teamed up on this for the sake of lighting a huge fire under a small community that just won't go away.
Awesome. I preferred AoC to even BW. It has its flaws but overall, its probably my favourite game ever.
On March 10 2013 00:27 DDie wrote: $20 for fake HD? Wtf..
Way to pay attention. It's true HD, rescalled for any resolution. Just freaking watch the video.
Also improved(read: playable) netcode and Steam Workshop support(which is a boost to the community).
It's fucking AoE2. I'd pay 20 bucks five times because I got exhausted of it.
Yeah, just rescalled resolution, the graphic changes are barely noticeable.
You are paying $20 for the multiplayer experience, which you can have for free on gamespy/gameranger, besides i hardly think the community will make the switch.
Whaaat...? Ok the game has neglible graphics improvements, the main improvement is the addition of resolution's (which is a huge bonus for anybody looking to replay the game nowadays, and anybody looking to try it out) With the re-release alot of people will either re-buy it, or buy it now to play as its not got shitty resolutions / graphics and looks 100% terrible in the modern-era, this will attract ALOT of people, believe it or not, compared to the original.
The community wont make the switch? sure...Better netcode, matchmaking, untold more players, workshop (good mod support) is a real downer right. The community will jump at the chance imo.
Although i think the price is a little steep, but it will no doubt drop after a month or two. I think £10 / $15 is a better starting point, people could justify that (even if its a little high for a HD remake) for the HD + Multiplayer but £15 / $20 is just a bit too high, hence all the complaining here, i think all the other prospective buyers will think the same too, which sucks as it coul dhave really resurged the community
lol untold more players.
The biggest issue is that there won't be matchmaking for Forgotten Empires, which pretty much everyone plays now. Years of work by most of the pros and modders isn't going to go to waste for easier matchmaking (AoFE already has better graphics/resolutions, the only thing that really looks much better in HD is the water), which is the only thing most players care about. People will probably stay on GR/GAR/Voobly.
Was going to make a big post on this but i'll just do bullet points
- Forgotten empires can be converted over to the HD edition as its on the steam workshop. - The game WILL sell, probably upwards of 20k copies minimum i would say. - The people who buy WILL play the game, it will draw in a much bigger crowd then Aoe2 has now (which is a few hundred players max?) - Any small community like this would jump at the chance of increased numbers, with FE being converted to steams workshop i dont see a big problem here. Obviously your looking at conversion time + Converting players from the standard game but its a hell of alot more promising then what they previously had.
It's not a few hundred max, it might be hard to believe but there are regularly 3k+ playing on a daily basis. Now if anyone remembers the glory days of MSN gaming zone at the absolute peak of the games popularity I don't think I saw the number of users go above 10k.
I think the most important question I have about this release is the Forgotten Empires expansion. WIll it be able to be ported into AoC HD? Would be awesome if Microsoft and the mod developers teamed up on this for the sake of lighting a huge fire under a small community that just won't go away.
Awesome. I preferred AoC to even BW. It has its flaws but overall, its probably my favourite game ever.
Kinda with you. While I love bw aoe2 will always be that game I remember the most aas my child hood game. Seriously the year that came out I played that so much, then aom, then aot, then aoe3, etc only aoe game I did not play a lot was aoeo and that was cause it wasn't very good imo at least the match making sucked as I could never get a 2v2 going :/.
Nice Age of Empires 2 remake, to be better online match making.... Now if someone where to remake CrashTeamRacing with HD graphics and an online match making system, i will never need new games again!
jsut after the unofficial expansion "forgotten empires" came out i bet its not compatible with the HD shit on steam...."omg omg the community did an awesome expoansion, because we (microsoft) didnt give a fuck! lets just make a new version and try to get money form it !"
Must say, the graphical changes are.... minor, to say the least. That's not very impressive unfortunately.
I'm not exactly sure what you were expecting. I just imagined them reworking it a little bit so it looks better on a higher resolution and is doable on present systems.
All they did really was scale up the resolutions. The graphics are still the same. It's HD because now you can get it to 1080 which honestly isn't really anything to be excited about as the graphics are still the same.
On March 20 2013 04:25 Infernal_dream wrote: All they did really was scale up the resolutions. The graphics are still the same. It's HD because now you can get it to 1080 which honestly isn't really anything to be excited about as the graphics are still the same.
Yeh but imo that is superawesome. You can now see like 4 times as much in 1 screen. Which gives a great new dimension to the game.
i saw the title wooohooo WOLOLO THEY MAKE HD AOE2! Then I watched the scrshot and the video and its not hd at all, its almost the same as before. Make a new engine you morons and ill give you 50$
They said the workshop will support about anything. Map textures are incredibly easy to make(they are just PNG files) and things like unit responses or unit designs will also be workshop-able through DAT files(the ones the community have been modding for ever).
I suppose it might be possible to add a AoFE mod into the workshop, but maybe people should ask the devs about that. If it's possible, it'd be amazing.
I just think its sad that they talk about this and that has been updated etc, and I literally can only tell a difference when they specifically point it out.
On March 19 2013 18:10 Pandemona wrote: Nice Age of Empires 2 remake, to be better online match making.... Now if someone where to remake CrashTeamRacing with HD graphics and an online match making system, i will never need new games again!
Holy fuck yes please O.O i loved that game. Bundaga!
On March 20 2013 08:15 FromShouri wrote: I just think its sad that they talk about this and that has been updated etc, and I literally can only tell a difference when they specifically point it out.
You can't tell the difference between 1920*1080 and 1280*1024? Difference between a square and a rectangle, back to school eh?
Age of Empire 1 and 2 were the first 2 video games I played. I think I'm going to buy that :D
Edit: 20$ is a little too much imo. 15$ was the most I could see it priced at, and that would be a def buy at 10$. I wonder what is that multimonitor compatibility about. I have a dual monitor setup so if I could see a huge portion of the map with that it would be pretty sick :D
Must say, the graphical changes are.... minor, to say the least. That's not very impressive unfortunately.
I'm not exactly sure what you were expecting. I just imagined them reworking it a little bit so it looks better on a higher resolution and is doable on present systems.
I always expect HD remakes to use new HD sprites, which is what HD remixes on consoles have historically been all about. On PC though (Baldurs Gate Extended for example), it's basically just a resolution and widescreen fix. It certainly makes it look a bit clearer on modern computers, but I honestly don't feel this is worth calling something a remake over. Of course, there's more changes to this game, like the pop increase, matchmaking and such, but since it's called "HD edition", I feel it's natural to expect a decently big jump in graphics, which just isn't there.
^ I agree that calling this a HD remake is misleading. That said, the work of redoing all sprites into HD sprites, even if they're derived from 3D assets which they still own, is an insane amount of work that probably can't be considered feasible.
But again, allowing widescreen resolutions and basically just zooming out shouldn't be considered a HD remake, true, true.
On March 20 2013 08:15 FromShouri wrote: I just think its sad that they talk about this and that has been updated etc, and I literally can only tell a difference when they specifically point it out.
You can't tell the difference between 1920*1080 and 1280*1024? Difference between a square and a rectangle, back to school eh?
Cute, you know exactly what i mean. The fact they had to point out the differences in fire/water means they didn't change much, not to mention they had some lower res widescreen resolutions built into the mother fucker.
On March 20 2013 21:58 Na_Dann_Ma_GoGo wrote: ^ I agree that calling this a HD remake is misleading. That said, the work of redoing all sprites into HD sprites, even if they're derived from 3D assets which they still own, is an insane amount of work that probably can't be considered feasible.
But again, allowing widescreen resolutions and basically just zooming out shouldn't be considered a HD remake, true, true.
That's why they're saying it's been remastered in HD, not remade in HD.
On March 08 2013 05:49 GrandInquisitor wrote: That launch video was pretty well-made, with exactly the right amount of nostalgia produced.
To be honest I am surprised more companies have not stepped up on the "retro" remake trend. It is a way to rehash tired IP in a "cool" way instead of beating dead horses.
A few things are improved, a few things worsened. If they introduce new flaws, they won't be cheered by me for that.
Dunno about this HD remake, but there is a fanmade expansion called Forgotten empires which does some rebalancing and you can find people on gameranger easily enough.
I want to play this game, but I haven't played AOE II in ages. Is there any site that teach you some basic play? I played some AOE1 :ROR recently though(since this game is still huge in Vietnam lol).
I really want to jump in on this game in like 2v2s or 3v3s but I don't really have alot of online experience with this game. Is there anyone that would like to play once this gets released?
So the resolution is higher now, that must have been about 5 minutes of work? Ridiculous, they should have at least revisited all animations, but all the textures/graphics themselves could use an update too. It's still a pixelated mess this way, just more zoomed out.
On March 26 2013 09:37 aseq wrote: So the resolution is higher now, that must have been about 5 minutes of work? Ridiculous, they should have at least revisited all animations, but all the textures/graphics themselves could use an update too. It's still a pixelated mess this way, just more zoomed out.
Agreed. My friends and I just had a lan this weekend with 6 of us and it took about an hour to get all of the computers to 1080. Not worth the money. It's cool they have a matchmaking but I don't think that's enough either.
On March 26 2013 09:37 aseq wrote: So the resolution is higher now, that must have been about 5 minutes of work? Ridiculous, they should have at least revisited all animations, but all the textures/graphics themselves could use an update too. It's still a pixelated mess this way, just more zoomed out.
Agreed. My friends and I just had a lan this weekend with 6 of us and it took about an hour to get all of the computers to 1080. Not worth the money. It's cool they have a matchmaking but I don't think that's enough either.
how is having matchmaking and revitalizing the community not worth it? you can actually get even games in a few minutes instead of having to searching on voobly or gameranger
I personally wouldnt want them to redo animations, texture, etc. I want it the way it was, visually. Maybe that's only the way an a long time AoE 2 fan would think, but isn't that more of who they are aiming at?
On March 26 2013 09:37 aseq wrote: So the resolution is higher now, that must have been about 5 minutes of work? Ridiculous, they should have at least revisited all animations, but all the textures/graphics themselves could use an update too. It's still a pixelated mess this way, just more zoomed out.
Agreed. My friends and I just had a lan this weekend with 6 of us and it took about an hour to get all of the computers to 1080. Not worth the money. It's cool they have a matchmaking but I don't think that's enough either.
.......... It took a freaking hour? Honestly, that's a lot.
as someone who never owned AoE2 legally(I was a kid and parents said "if you can pirate, you dont have to buy it"), I'm gladly paying 40 bucks for this game.
Also steam workshop alone should be huge. It will allow you to upgrade textures/animations provided the community does the job(I know this sounds silly). They also reworked a good chunk of the engine to allow easier customizations from what I can tell.
Also, compared to other 40$+ games nowdays, AoE2 is simply better.
this makes me think...what if Blizzard did this for BW? I hope Microsoft has GREAT success with this and their matchmaking rocks. Then blizzard will take notice and might want to try it with BW. It would be nice if Legacy of the Void came with BW in it :D so then BW can use battle.net 2.0 matchmaking. I can only dream.
I like the idea but its too much money.You can already play in high resolutions with some programs and voobly has ranking system too.I would buy this if game was less than 10 dollars but its too much for me.
On March 26 2013 14:42 Disregard wrote: Microsoft noticed the recent resurgence in AOE2, so profitt
edit: Capitalist ideas aside, AOE2 is a classic so you can't complain.
i guess you can't patch your old aoe2+conquerors to play with hd edition users? since i only have a monitor with 1280x1024 i dont need a higher resolution....
On March 26 2013 10:00 DannyJ wrote: I personally wouldnt want them to redo animations, texture, etc. I want it the way it was, visually. Maybe that's only the way an a long time AoE 2 fan would think, but isn't that more of who they are aiming at?
Then they should take 2 dollars and just make some matchmaking client. I mean, what's the point?
On March 08 2013 05:46 Sufficiency wrote: I can't tell the difference....
Me neither. It seems like they've just added higher resolutions and a deeper colour palette so that it doesn't look weird. None of the sprites seem to look better. How is this 20 dollars?
On March 08 2013 05:46 Sufficiency wrote: I can't tell the difference....
Me neither. It seems like they've just added higher resolutions and a deeper colour palette so that it doesn't look weird. None of the sprites seem to look better. How is this 20 dollars?
If they've fixed all the netcode and disconnecting issues, then together with steam integration and higher resolution I'd say most of the value is there.
I think just making multiplayer easier to get access to is worth the purchase. When I did play, I had to go on gamespy arcade and message for sometimes hours to find a game T.T
On March 08 2013 05:46 Sufficiency wrote: I can't tell the difference....
Me neither. It seems like they've just added higher resolutions and a deeper colour palette so that it doesn't look weird. None of the sprites seem to look better. How is this 20 dollars?
If they've fixed all the netcode and disconnecting issues, then together with steam integration and higher resolution I'd say most of the value is there.
This is basically the same as a ported classic game. Typically, these will cost between 5-10 dollars; often, they will cost even less when you get those bundles. You're saying that most of the value is there, but it still comes off as you thinking it's a bit expensive.
At the very least, I think 20 bucks is too expensive. I own the original and the expansion - I don't get a discount. The fact that I have to purchase a game I already own to be able to play it doesn't sit well with me. 20 bucks is overpriced.
On March 08 2013 05:46 Sufficiency wrote: I can't tell the difference....
Me neither. It seems like they've just added higher resolutions and a deeper colour palette so that it doesn't look weird. None of the sprites seem to look better. How is this 20 dollars?
If they've fixed all the netcode and disconnecting issues, then together with steam integration and higher resolution I'd say most of the value is there.
This is basically the same as a ported classic game. Typically, these will cost between 5-10 dollars; often, they will cost even less when you get those bundles. You're saying that most of the value is there, but it still comes off as you thinking it's a bit expensive.
At the very least, I think 20 bucks is too expensive. I own the original and the expansion - I don't get a discount. The fact that I have to purchase a game I already own to be able to play it doesn't sit well with me. 20 bucks is overpriced.
That's fine it's not worth it to you then don't get it. I own the games to but I find 17$ fine especially with the better multiplayer support + higher resolution and works with windows 7 is worth it to me and many others. I am going to be happy with it and don't regret the 17$ spent on it at all, if you think it's to expensive don't get it nobody is forcing you to
On March 08 2013 05:46 Sufficiency wrote: I can't tell the difference....
Me neither. It seems like they've just added higher resolutions and a deeper colour palette so that it doesn't look weird. None of the sprites seem to look better. How is this 20 dollars?
If they've fixed all the netcode and disconnecting issues, then together with steam integration and higher resolution I'd say most of the value is there.
This is basically the same as a ported classic game. Typically, these will cost between 5-10 dollars; often, they will cost even less when you get those bundles. You're saying that most of the value is there, but it still comes off as you thinking it's a bit expensive.
At the very least, I think 20 bucks is too expensive. I own the original and the expansion - I don't get a discount. The fact that I have to purchase a game I already own to be able to play it doesn't sit well with me. 20 bucks is overpriced.
Well, I went for a 4-pack with friends. I agree that $20 is a bit much but $15 is acceptable, no?
Not really easier, since you have to do the same thing as before if you want to play with the rest of the community. Using the official matchmaking is akin to playing BW through battle.net.
On March 26 2013 10:00 DannyJ wrote: I personally wouldnt want them to redo animations, texture, etc. I want it the way it was, visually. Maybe that's only the way an a long time AoE 2 fan would think, but isn't that more of who they are aiming at?
Then they should take 2 dollars and just make some matchmaking client. I mean, what's the point?
Having it more playable on modern computers/resolutions while having the many benefits of Steam is certainly a plus.
Did I miss something? I literally just got done playing AOE2 on Windows 7......so why is it a big deal that the game "works on Windows 7 now", when it already did?
On March 28 2013 07:14 FromShouri wrote: Did I miss something? I literally just got done playing AOE2 on Windows 7......so why is it a big deal that the game "works on Windows 7 now", when it already did?
Because without workarounds and compatibility fixes AOE2 suffered from the same colour/graphical glitches that SC:BW does.
If ya'll don't think you'll get 15-20 dollars worth out of a 1080p, steam workshop enabled, multiplayer + matchmaking supported upgrade to AOE2 then don't buy it. I know ill easily get my money's worth out of it, hell its the price of a couple subway meals - not a big deal.
On March 29 2013 01:34 fifasnipe2224 wrote: Reminder: Viper vs _DauT_ Bo7 showmatch livestream in an hour and a half! You can view it here: http://www.twitch.tv/ageofempires
On March 28 2013 07:14 FromShouri wrote: Did I miss something? I literally just got done playing AOE2 on Windows 7......so why is it a big deal that the game "works on Windows 7 now", when it already did?
Because without workarounds and compatibility fixes AOE2 suffered from the same colour/graphical glitches that SC:BW does. If ya'll don't think you'll get 15-20 dollars worth out of a 1080p, steam workshop enabled, multiplayer + matchmaking supported upgrade to AOE2 then don't buy it. I know ill easily get my money's worth out of it, hell its the price of a couple subway meals - not a big deal.
But we already had all those things on Voobly, and matchmaking doesn't have Forgotten Empires support. No point in playing without FE when every tournament and CL is using it now.
even if you only play on voobly, this release allready affected you positively by making the voobly guys afraid and dropped the premium requirement for the widescreen support.
and i dont know why people are arguing about the price, its on the steam topsellers for weeks now. So there must be quite some people who are ok with the price.
On March 29 2013 03:34 LaNague wrote: even if you only play on voobly, this release allready affected you positively by making the voobly guys afraid and dropped the premium requirement for the widescreen support.
and i dont know why people are arguing about the price, its on the steam topsellers for weeks now. So there must be quite some people who are ok with the price.
I don't really give a damn about the price I have 3 physical copies of the game what's one more. What annoys me is that this will split the community unless we get FE support for matchmaking.
Edit: This is also one of the reasons I quit the beta. Constant crashes neeeever fixed. pro.
On March 29 2013 11:25 Disregard wrote: Resource management, macro, honestly everything is more challenging then SC. But AOE has a lot of factions so balance will always remain an issue.
For a second I misread this and thought you said sc was more challenging was about to write a post bout how you were wrong haha.
On March 08 2013 06:50 GohgamX wrote: Meh, I may end up buying this... Also, just read a blog about how this needs to be done for BW <- agreed!
Yes definately! Also they could fix the interface lag. As a sc2 kiddie idk how I feel about multiple building selection and automine because it seems like you are playing against the game instead of the player in those cases. But I wouldn't be surprised if we see this one day as it is getting more and more popular (see the halo series). Nostalgia is a powerful thing. I'm sure an hd broodwar would be massively popular in korea as long as they play their cards right and don't change too much.
Yeah I'm not going to buy it early I don't think. I've kinda lost confidence in blindly purchasing any game the last few years, and the abysmal failure last week with that show match definitely wasn't very reassuring. I hope it turns out ok
I want to pick this up and I most likely will if only because I can't get AOEII to actually run properly on my current machine. I was never much into the AOEII competitive scene but I'd watch it if only to hear those audio cue's and music and see how top players actually play the game. I horridly suck at it as I recall.
On April 05 2013 10:08 blade55555 wrote: Can't wait for this hehe :D
Are you going to stream it? Please stream it.
haha probably, but it'll be mainly 2v2 withi some 3v3/4v4 but no 1v1's as that's why I got it. 2v2 match making ftw, nothing beats age of empires in team games good lord are those a blast.
Never played aoe2 online so it'll be fun learning what to do and what not :D.
On April 05 2013 10:08 blade55555 wrote: Can't wait for this hehe :D
Are you going to stream it? Please stream it.
haha probably, but it'll be mainly 2v2 withi some 3v3/4v4 but no 1v1's as that's why I got it. 2v2 match making ftw, nothing beats age of empires in team games good lord are those a blast.
Never played aoe2 online so it'll be fun learning what to do and what not :D.
haha you're in for a ride.
it's like playing vs bots in SC and then trying to play on iCCup.
I can't wait for this to unlock for me at 6. I never, ever played the multiplayer before but always wanted to try team games in this rather than 1v1. Looking forward to giving it a try.
Was wondering how you guys were playing it didnt see the small print that you can play it from the 5th but it doesn't come out till the 9th. I didn't know D:. Buying it now then!
What is the point of doing this, why not just release on the 5th lol....
Can't wait to re live my childhood. No more gamespy arcade for MP games. Hope someone remakes that archer game thingy where your guys upgrade after so many kills :D.
I'm at work but if you can't run it on XP atm that really sucks and I'm gonna be super bummed when I get home. Hope they bug fix that soon.
On April 06 2013 03:22 Benjef wrote: Can't wait to re live my childhood. No more gamespy arcade for MP games. Hope someone remakes that archer game thingy where your guys upgrade after so many kills :D.
It's called Archer Hellfire and every scenario from Conquerors can be imported into HD Edition. It's likely that game mode along with stuff like Castle Blood will be uploaded within 24walking hours.
On April 05 2013 10:08 blade55555 wrote: Can't wait for this hehe :D
Are you going to stream it? Please stream it.
haha probably, but it'll be mainly 2v2 withi some 3v3/4v4 but no 1v1's as that's why I got it. 2v2 match making ftw, nothing beats age of empires in team games good lord are those a blast.
Never played aoe2 online so it'll be fun learning what to do and what not :D.
haha you're in for a ride.
it's like playing vs bots in SC and then trying to play on iCCup.
Hey man I pwnd the AI! I played a bunch of aoe games so I know the concepts and stuff :D
Also anyone know how to do quickmatch 2v2 with a friend?
Anyone know if they are going to re-release AoE1 in HD? That is the one I would really love to play again. I have AoE and AoE2 with expansions but sadly I just can not get them working on Windows7 despite some help from others.
On April 06 2013 03:41 ZenithM wrote: What is Castle Blood? From what I've seen it's a kind of Marine Arena or something?
8-player map, each player essentially has an island with a narrow bridge that leads to a massive area which connects all the players. Every player is a random civ and has like 20 castles available but you can only build your civ's special unit. So if you were unlucky and got a civ such as say the Franks (who have a rather underwhelming special unit) it'd be really difficult to win. It was really popular when AOE2 first came out.
On April 06 2013 05:41 EpiK wrote: what's the max number of players in an online game?
I wanna say that in the base game the limit was like 12? It could only be 10 though. But you can only have 8 civs total in a game. You can play "co-op" in a game with a friend if you are the same player number. When it first came out we played a few games where people would have to share a civ. It's kind of hard since both players can control units so people can unintentionally (or intentionally) fuck up what you were trying to do. Usually when we did it one person would just run the econ and the other person would run the military as that kept things simple.
Crashs to desktop, Lags, Drops, Framerate problems (linked to lag it seems), very annoying to find a match. I just hope they fix it quick because at that price so far its a scam.
Quick match it not working, also I'm not sure but I think the option for making matches for friends only is bugged?, like anybody can enter them. I keep getting kick out of lobbies for no reason time after time... maybe I'm just unlucky... it's giving me such a foreveralone feeling :/.
I could only play 1 game a FFA, very fun until a guy drop a Wonder... the game stop and a little box with a chat and some options came out (save and leave, leave, continue playing). Even when all the players were on "Continue playing" the game didn't resume... I don't remember if the game was set for a Wonder victory, coincidence or a bug? ^^"
We are the Age of Empires II: HD development team! AMA
Hey reddit! We’re here to answer your Age of Empires-related questions. Age of Empires II: HD is available today on Steam! It’s still 10% off, and both 4-packs and AoE Legacy Bundles are available. There will be several people answering questions:
ThriceFive - Hidden Path (Worked for Ensemble)
pfreese - Hidden Path
jessebright - Hidden Path
televided - Hidden Path
MS_Ryz0n - MS
AoE_IamPREZSTEVE - MS
We’re actively working to resolve some issues that have cropped up for a few users around the launch, but will be cycling through here to answer your questions, as well as give away some AoE II: HD Steam keys!
I loved AoE when I was in high school, before I discovered Brood War, I even followed the WCG matches for it pretty closely a few years. I went back when this got announced and watched a bunch of VODs though and the game feels like it moves as such a glacial pace to me now I don't know if I want to shatter my memories by trying it.
The devs are seriously this stupid. You can't lock your cursor to the game window, so it's unplayable with 2 monitors unless you disable your 2nd monitor. How the hell did they screw this up? Did they even look AT ANY GAME EVER THAT HAS THIS SAME PROBLEM?
Welp. Now I can't play the game I paid for unless I disable my other monitor. Even their full screen doesn't lock to the window, wtf?
You know, the one thing that pissed me off is that there were no armory upgrade hotkeys. Please tell me there are now. And good god did they do some rebalance to Huns?
The devs are seriously this stupid. You can't lock your cursor to the game window, so it's unplayable with 2 monitors unless you disable your 2nd monitor. How the hell did they screw this up? Did they even look AT ANY GAME EVER THAT HAS THIS SAME PROBLEM?
Welp. Now I can't play the game I paid for unless I disable my other monitor. Even their full screen doesn't lock to the window, wtf?
My god. The 2 seconds it takes to disable monitor #2.
On April 06 2013 11:19 Qwyn wrote: You know, the one thing that pissed me off is that there were no armory upgrade hotkeys. Please tell me there are now. And good god did they do some rebalance to Huns?
The devs are seriously this stupid. You can't lock your cursor to the game window, so it's unplayable with 2 monitors unless you disable your 2nd monitor. How the hell did they screw this up? Did they even look AT ANY GAME EVER THAT HAS THIS SAME PROBLEM?
Welp. Now I can't play the game I paid for unless I disable my other monitor. Even their full screen doesn't lock to the window, wtf?
My god. The 2 seconds it takes to disable monitor #2.
They literally marketed the game as having multi monitor support. You'd think being able to use 2 monitors without minimizing the game would be part of that.
On April 06 2013 11:19 Qwyn wrote: You know, the one thing that pissed me off is that there were no armory upgrade hotkeys. Please tell me there are now. And good god did they do some rebalance to Huns?
So I just got this and I need to try catching up with my friends who actually played when they were younger :/. Can anyone give any tips on how to get better? What sort of strategies should I go for? I'm just completely lost right now.
Hm is there any way to change the resolution, it seems to be set to 1920x1200 or something when I am 1680x1050, when I go into the tech tree before playing a multiplayer game it has a small section of the left and right edges of the screen cut off, so I can't properly read all of the racial bonuses or see all of the close button etc.
EDIT: It looks like the issue is just when looking at the tech tree. God I hope this actually is a beta.
On April 06 2013 15:03 Meiya wrote: Hm is there any way to change the resolution, it seems to be set to 1920x1200 or something when I am 1680x1050, when I go into the tech tree before playing a multiplayer game it has a small section of the left and right edges of the screen cut off, so I can't properly read all of the racial bonuses or see all of the close button etc.
EDIT: It looks like the issue is just when looking at the tech tree. God I hope this actually is a beta.
It's not and they said the game resolution uses whatever you use out of it on the desktop. No way to change it in game.
On April 06 2013 16:12 TyrantPotato wrote: so from what ive read.
its a poor shitty revamp in-order to squeeze a few bucks out of an old game?
really dont wanna waste money idk what to do @.@>@>@>2
As far as i see it, while yes, it is a revamp to squeeze a few more bucks out of an old game, it seems solid enough to be worth the cheap price and makes it easier to be nostalgic. While i won't really play it much now, i still bought it because there will definitely be moments in the future where i will play it with other people just for old times sake and steam makes that easy.
Hmmm... I would like to see the main demographic that bought the game. Right now in the game I can see 10 lobbies with no more than 11, 12 people on them. For a saturday morning, at 11:37 (CET) I was hoping to catch more gamers
I don't know, for me I just don't think 20 bucks are worth the nostalgia trip. You can get newly made multiplayer games that are really good for the same price. I'll probably pick it up on a sale if there's still people playing it.
On April 06 2013 16:12 TyrantPotato wrote: so from what ive read.
its a poor shitty revamp in-order to squeeze a few bucks out of an old game?
really dont wanna waste money idk what to do @.@>@>@>2
A lot of people (me included) would like to play this awesome game, but on 23 inch monitor it's just looks so bad that it hurts my brain. This high res support is pretty much all many people need to enjoy this game again.
That said, I will buy it but 20$ is way too much imo, 10$ would be a good price. Hell, i even bough CS:GO for 10 euro which is completely new game.
i guess the servers are seperated by regions, not sure how many regions but i changed my stream download region to a europe location ( im located in eastern USA) and the lobby games were different, the NA server was pretty dead lobbywise
I have fixed all multiplayer lag for I was experiencing previously by having all players turn off their second screens. The game went from completely horrible and unplayable to without lag.
On April 06 2013 14:55 GiygaS wrote: So I just got this and I need to try catching up with my friends who actually played when they were younger :/. Can anyone give any tips on how to get better? What sort of strategies should I go for? I'm just completely lost right now.
I haven't gotten to play HD because I run XP, this is all from memory, and I'm at work. But if you're playing standard start in dark ages you need to pick a civ with a good early game and have a plan. Mongols & Huns are generally regarded as the two best civs because they can reach feudal age quickly, have strong feudal/castle ages, and both have a solid imperial age. There's debate as to which is better but I personally prefer Mongols as you can tech to feudal faster than anyone.
Chinese, Mayans, and Persians all have strong early games as well. As do Byzantines and if memory serves Saracens are up there too. Early game food+wood are most vital resources. Later gold replaces wood. Feudal or castle rush is real strong.
On April 07 2013 00:02 Romitelli wrote: Updated the OP with player list to come.
Multiplayer is unplayable for me right now, I used the reddit fix mentioned above and it still lags like crazy.
Were you or any of the people you played with using multiple screens? Turning off any second screen while running the game completely fixed the problem for me and the several other people I was playing with.
On April 06 2013 14:55 GiygaS wrote: So I just got this and I need to try catching up with my friends who actually played when they were younger :/. Can anyone give any tips on how to get better? What sort of strategies should I go for? I'm just completely lost right now.
I haven't gotten to play HD because I run XP, this is all from memory, and I'm at work. But if you're playing standard start in dark ages you need to pick a civ with a good early game and have a plan. Mongols & Huns are generally regarded as the two best civs because they can reach feudal age quickly, have strong feudal/castle ages, and both have a solid imperial age. There's debate as to which is better but I personally prefer Mongols as you can tech to feudal faster than anyone.
Chinese, Mayans, and Persians all have strong early games as well. As do Byzantines and if memory serves Saracens are up there too. Early game food+wood are most vital resources. Later gold replaces wood. Feudal or castle rush is real strong.
Having played AoE2 fairly competitively, this is what I can say about this:
there is no debate about who is better with Mongols/Huns, Huns are universally considered to be the best civ. It's true that you can 9 or 10 minute Feudal with Mongols but you lose momentum rapidly because you are forced to build houses, so your economic advantage ends, whereas for Huns their advantage persists. In fact, it gets even better since you have to build more houses more often as you macro. Also, a 9 or 10 minute Feudal doesn't accomplish anything against most decent players. Flushing (feudal rushing, age 2 rushing with some combination of skirmishers/pikes/scouts generally) requires a good economy, and getting to Feudal at 10 is great but you won't have a good enough economy to support your rush.
Huns are much better than Mongols in Castle.
Most 1v1s don't get to Imperial, so it's not like it matters much.
Mongols are defacto second-best but it's not as clear cut as Huns being #1. There are merits for Aztecs and Mayans, but again, not really that clear, as these civilizations are so rarely played in 1v1.
in 2v2s the best team combination is Hun/Mongol.
3v3 Persians and Britons become strong because of their booming capabilities, but generally you still want a Hun and a Mongol on the team. On standard Arabia you could force colors so that you could predict who would be the pocket (person in the middle) and you would generally put the Hun and Mongol on the edges and the 3rd guy in the middle. Edges flush, pocket usually knight rushes while booming. Aztecs, Mayans, Persians, Britons and rarely Chinese are often picked for the pocket. Rarely you will see Goths on edges too (for M@A rushes and drushes and the like)
On water maps Huns are still the best 1v1, Vikings very good, Persians very good. Vikings best in team games. Saracens become viable.
If anyone want to play, you can add me. However I'm going to ask you this: Tell me that you are from TeamLiquid.net when I'm asking you after you've added me (preferably by telling me who you are on TL.net). Ask before if I'm available to play. Due to my RL schedule, I may be online but not available for play
Odd. I can run the game perfectly on a multi monitor setup. I have a main 23"screen and a small 15" screen on the side.
I set the game to full screen(Alt+Enter) and my mouse is locked into the window as long as I don't alttab. If I do alt tab, the game pauses and the music stops(which is sad =( I hoped for a better unfocus support), but the game runs fine for me, even with the mouse confined on the window.
If it helps, I am using Windows 8.
On the other hand, is there a place where I can learn how to play AoE2 competitively? @wherebugsgo any suggestions?
I got the game yesterday. Matchmaking is broken if you pick your race and try to matchmake it will crash. No MMR, it matches you against random people regardless of skill everytime I am undefeated and #98 in the world. There is no challenge because matchmaking is just random shitty people. I am at least 30-0, it doesnt keep track of win/loss. That being said I am high master in SC2.
If you want to play a team game it takes forever because no one plays 2v2 it seems, or the game will suddenly crash.
As for game play it is super fucking laggy. Rant: It is an old ass re-release that is a cash grab, and they can't even release the game without so many bugs and laggy multiplayer? I would recommend against it, as it's super buggy and overpriced.
On April 07 2013 07:13 Steeze wrote: I got the game yesterday. Matchmaking is broken if you pick your race and try to matchmake it will crash. No MMR, it matches you against random people regardless of skill everytime I am undefeated and #98 in the world. There is no challenge because matchmaking is just random shitty people. I am at least 30-0, it doesnt keep track of win/loss. That being said I am high master in SC2.
If you want to play a team game it takes forever because no one plays 2v2 it seems, or the game will suddenly crash.
As for game play it is super fucking laggy. Rant: It is an old ass re-release that is a cash grab, and they can't even release the game without so many bugs and laggy multiplayer? I would recommend against it, as it's super buggy and overpriced.
This news is extremely disappointing. I was really looking forward to this game, but looks like Microsoft just wants to half ass things that could be really great re-releases. You make it sound like even if they patched it, there are so many problems that it wouldn't be worth their effort to fix everything. I'm sad now :[
Honestly, if you're intending to play this seriously then I don't think you'll enjoy it. This release was more for people who got it out of nostalgia to play with friends. I played several hours of it on release with some crazy 8 player FFA games, tons of fun even if the lag is a bit of a buzzkill.
is the lag due to the servers or the game program itself?
i.e. frames dropping, or latency lag?
On April 07 2013 04:42 Zephirdd wrote: Odd. I can run the game perfectly on a multi monitor setup. I have a main 23"screen and a small 15" screen on the side.
I set the game to full screen(Alt+Enter) and my mouse is locked into the window as long as I don't alttab. If I do alt tab, the game pauses and the music stops(which is sad =( I hoped for a better unfocus support), but the game runs fine for me, even with the mouse confined on the window.
If it helps, I am using Windows 8.
On the other hand, is there a place where I can learn how to play AoE2 competitively? @wherebugsgo any suggestions?
Voobly is the go-to place for that atm.
You need a regular install of the game (but let's be honest...not hard to get that) and you download the Voobly client; if you've ever played on MSN Zone, it's basically like that. The game gets patched and you join one of the lobbies and you can browse for games (or host one).
At 0 games played you may get kicked a few times before someone is willing to play with you, but once you get around 5-10 games it stops being a problem. Usually you can get a new acct up to that within several hours or so.
edit: if you mean learn how to play by reading something, the #1 best thing to do is read this:
Master that strategy, basically it's used almost every game in 1v1s (if it's not used, a variation of it called the drush is used; the only difference is that you make 3 militia in age 1 by mining 10 gold, use them with your scout to harass, delay your feudal age time for a better economy, and then flush normally)
I would suggest watching players like DauT (probably the best AoE2 player ever) Viper, Chris etc. There's a DauT vs Chris series on youtube with like 20 games or something ridiculous like that.
Here's a Hun war that might or might not be good (haven't looked at it)
Is it possible to get a refund through steam ? That thing is so bad right now, its almost a scam.
Half the time the thing dont even work and when it does its choppy as hell.
I would gladly wait for fixs but seeing how its shit right now, they probably have tested nothing before hand. I have no confidence in them working hard to fix the issues.
On April 07 2013 10:30 rezoacken wrote: Is it possible to get a refund through steam ? That thing is so bad right now, its almost a scam.
Half the time the thing dont even work and when it does its choppy as hell.
I would gladly wait for fixs but seeing how its shit right now, they probably have tested nothing before hand. I have no confidence in them working hard to fix the issues.
Asked for a refund, I have not much hope since steam isn't very refund friendly but maybe I was persuasive reminding them its close to the shame that was War-Z sale: an unfinished product sold at its full price.
The game plays perfectly fine on my laptop with no external display attached, with the -dxlevel80 code into steam. Seems odd. I'll try disconnecting my second monitor next time i try it on my desktop and see what happens.
The game "works" in single player for me too if that's what you mean. My issue are the constant CTDs, drops and crazy lag in multiplayer. Ruins it for me.
I cannot even believe this game was tested before the 5th.
That's too bad because from the few games I was able to play okay-ish, it was fun to replay that game.
I started this up yesterday and was amazed to NOT find and resolution settings? Am I completely stupid for not seeing it? . Also I started a campaign just to see how it looks and it looks like SHIT. pixelated crap.
Does anyone know WHERE I can customize my resolution?
On April 07 2013 18:04 nihlon wrote: And that's why you never preorder games.
The game isn't even officially released yet. This is the four day period where if you bought the game early at a discounted price you could have early access to it. There's a lot of whining about bugs and I admit it's frustrating that I can't even play the game because I'm on XP but the game doesn't officially come out until Tuesday. If there's still all of these errors by then bitching is a bit more understandable.
On April 07 2013 18:04 nihlon wrote: And that's why you never preorder games.
The game isn't even officially released yet. This is the four day period where if you bought the game early at a discounted price you could have early access to it. There's a lot of whining about bugs and I admit it's frustrating that I can't even play the game because I'm on XP but the game doesn't officially come out until Tuesday. If there's still all of these errors by then bitching is a bit more understandable.
It's extremely unlikey that they'll fix this stuff in a couple days if they weren't able to in what, months or at least weeks prior.
For those wanting a refund, steam's refund policy works like this:
- If the game has not been released yet(ie, AoE2 only released on the 9th), refunds can be given without any problem to your steam wallet by asking their support service - If the game is removed from Steam without prior notice, they'll fully refund you on your wallet no questions asked(ex: The War Z) upon contacting their support. - Otherwise, no refunds barring some really extreme case
Such a shame that the very first game I refund on Steam is one of my very best childhood games. Warning: do not nostalgia buy like I did. At least not until its been heavily patched.
On April 08 2013 13:38 Resilient wrote: Such a shame that the very first game I refund on Steam is one of my very best childhood games. Warning: do not nostalgia buy like I did. At least not until its been heavily patched.
On April 08 2013 13:38 Resilient wrote: Such a shame that the very first game I refund on Steam is one of my very best childhood games. Warning: do not nostalgia buy like I did. At least not until its been heavily patched.
hehe I did and I dont' regret it. I don't have any issues though either and even if I did I still wouldn't have regretted the purchase. There was a patch today for fps issues and seems to have fixed a lot of peoples.
Wow, Steam support is fucking horrible. I sent in the ticket for a refund on the 5th and clearly explained why the game was broken and why I want a refund because I cannot play it..
I get this
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Steam Support.
If you are having issues accessing the early build of the game before 4/5/2013, the game will not work.
Yes I got the same message. I just replied to it. Its pretty common for that kind of service to first do an automated reply, Blizzard do the same and you usually get what you want at the 3rd reply.
Have you tried to validate the game's cache (Right-click game in your library -> Local Files -> Verify Integrity of Game Cache)? I can't say that it'll work, but when I did it with a game that I had previous problems with (Krater), it downloaded some file that was corrupt/missing/whatever and solved the problem. When I did it with AoE2HD just recently, it downloaded something that was 1.8 MB small,
On April 07 2013 18:04 nihlon wrote: And that's why you never preorder games.
The game isn't even officially released yet. This is the four day period where if you bought the game early at a discounted price you could have early access to it. There's a lot of whining about bugs and I admit it's frustrating that I can't even play the game because I'm on XP but the game doesn't officially come out until Tuesday. If there's still all of these errors by then bitching is a bit more understandable.
On April 10 2013 04:13 rezoacken wrote: Yes I got the same message. I just replied to it. Its pretty common for that kind of service to first do an automated reply, Blizzard do the same and you usually get what you want at the 3rd reply.
Now I just got a message saying
Hello,
A staff member has replied to your question:
The game has been updated with a new build to enable XP users to play. http://steamcommunity.com//app/221380 Please note that non-updated users will experience out of sync errors with the new build, so we are encouraging players to update. The game will automatically update as the new build gets through all of the global steam servers. If you would still like a refund, we can take care of that for you. Please note that we do not normally offer refunds on purchases made online. However, we will make an exception and refund titles that are still listed as available for Pre-Purchase on our website.
I AM NOT USING XP WHY WOULD YOU ASSUME IM USING XP
maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that the devs of this rerelease are mentally challenged in my first ticket..
On April 10 2013 04:13 rezoacken wrote: Yes I got the same message. I just replied to it. Its pretty common for that kind of service to first do an automated reply, Blizzard do the same and you usually get what you want at the 3rd reply.
The game has been updated with a new build to enable XP users to play. http://steamcommunity.com//app/221380 Please note that non-updated users will experience out of sync errors with the new build, so we are encouraging players to update. The game will automatically update as the new build gets through all of the global steam servers. If you would still like a refund, we can take care of that for you. Please note that we do not normally offer refunds on purchases made online. However, we will make an exception and refund titles that are still listed as available for Pre-Purchase on our website.
I AM NOT USING XP WHY WOULD YOU ASSUME IM USING XP
maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that the devs of this rerelease are mentally challenged in my first ticket..
Yes I received the exact same message. Then still asked for a refund. If you read the message you got there is: If you would still like a refund, we can take care of that for you.
Ask a 3rd time and like me you will probably get it.
1 Message by you on Sat, 6th Apr 2013 6:30 pm Hello dear steam consumer support,
As a pretty big Steam consumer, but for the first time ever, I have to ask for a refund on a game that just doesn't work. I bought AOE2 HD to get what was advertised: working on current PC technology and the ability to get easy quick matches.
Sadly the game for many users feels like a scam. It crashes every hour, is a lag and drop fest. It reminds me of the scandal that was War-Z. Please, this game should be removed from steam until fixed.
Please, I have always had the best experience with Steam and its my go to platform to get game. Can you please provide me a refund for the game (it was around 17$) ?
A sad consumer.
2 Message by Support Tech John on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 9:36 am Hello,
Thank you for contacting Steam Support.
If you are having issues accessing the early build of the game before 4/5/2013, the game will not work.
Support for this title is provided by the original developer or publisher. Please refer to the following article for more information on contacting the support team for this title:
It is recommended that you complete any applicable steps on the page linked above. If you are still unable to resolve the issue, you click the blue "technical support" link provided in the article to contact the support department for this title.
As an alternate resource, please check Steam Discussions for other users that may have resolved this issue.
Note: This message was sent in response to your ticket based on categorization. If this message does not apply to you, please update your
3 Message by you on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 9:54 am Hello,
I'm sorry but did you check the date of my message ? It is made the 6th, not before the 5th...
Also, my problems are pretty general to the game and many users.
I'm still asking for a refund to what I consider a faulty product.
Thank you.
4 Message by Support Tech John on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 10:18 am The game has been updated with a new build to enable XP users to play. http://steamcommunity.com//app/221380 Please note that non-updated users will experience out of sync errors with the new build, so we are encouraging players to update. The game will automatically update as the new build gets through all of the global steam servers. If you would still like a refund, we can take care of that for you. Please note that we do not normally offer refunds on purchases made online. However, we will make an exception and refund titles that are still listed as available for Pre-Purchase on our website.
5 Message by you on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 11:10 am As noted above. I use windows 7.
My issues with this product are: -Crashs to desktop when selecting some features -Doesn't save any parameters from the options -Multiplayer is atrocious due to lags, player drops and a faulty matchmaking system
I still ask for a refund
On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Steam Support < email@support.steampowered.com> wrote: 7 Message by Support Tech John on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 11:31 am Hello XXXXX,
As requested, we have processed a refund to your account.
Your bank or credit card issuer will return the funds to your account - please allow 3-5 business days for the funds to be posted.
Please note that we do not normally offer refunds on purchases made online. However, we will make an exception and refund titles that are still listed as available for Pre-Purchase on our website. The refund request must be received prior to the official release date for the item. You can see when a pre-purchased title is scheduled to officially unlock by viewing the green information bar on its store page.
This only applies to preorders purchased from your account; preordered titles received or sent through the Steam Trading system cannot be refunded. We do not offer refunds for Early Access Games.
Out of curiousity, why are you guys even bothering to buy the new version? 20 bucks for a slight bit of additional support and probably not that noticable graphics doesn't seem like a good deal. Maybe 5 or 10, but 20 is steep as hell.
It's super easy to download this illegally with a crack. I don't even hesitate with this, as I owned the original and expansion way back in the day, so I feel pretty okay doing it since I already paid the developer money.
My friends and I just play this over game ranger (just had a game this weekend!).
Age of Forgotten Empires is also pretty sweet (It's an unofficial expansion).
On April 10 2013 05:23 BallinWitStalin wrote: Out of curiousity, why are you guys even bothering to buy the new version? 20 bucks for a slight bit of additional support and probably not that noticable graphics doesn't seem like a good deal. Maybe 5 or 10, but 20 is steep as hell.
It's super easy to download this illegally with a crack. I don't even hesitate with this, as I owned the original and expansion way back in the day, so I feel pretty okay doing it since I already paid the developer money.
My friends and I just play this over game ranger (just had a game this weekend!).
Age of Forgotten Empires is also pretty sweet (It's an unofficial expansion).
My friend and a bunch of his friends bought it and I decided to play with them.
Anyway we're all disappointed as hell. I was expecting a good multiplayer ui for finding games and better compatibility changes. What did we get? No graphics options and constant crashing.
On April 10 2013 05:23 BallinWitStalin wrote: Out of curiousity, why are you guys even bothering to buy the new version? 20 bucks for a slight bit of additional support and probably not that noticable graphics doesn't seem like a good deal. Maybe 5 or 10, but 20 is steep as hell.
It's super easy to download this illegally with a crack. I don't even hesitate with this, as I owned the original and expansion way back in the day, so I feel pretty okay doing it since I already paid the developer money.
My friends and I just play this over game ranger (just had a game this weekend!).
Age of Forgotten Empires is also pretty sweet (It's an unofficial expansion).
Match making (albiet doesn't work very well right now) but also multiplayer.
I am having no issues like a lot of people are so I dont' have any complaints. Easily worth 20$ to me and I wouldn't download this illegally because I have no reason to. 20$ isn't that much, with multiplayer support for a game I love it's been a blast. I have put more hours into aoe2HD then I have in games I spend more on.
It's all about how much would you play it and what not. I mean look at the starcraft battle chest it's still 20$ and people still buy that and that games been out for over 10 years and hasn't been remade in HD.
Literally I am getting games in seconds right now which is very nice and lots of games to choose from ^_^
On April 10 2013 05:23 BallinWitStalin wrote: Out of curiousity, why are you guys even bothering to buy the new version? 20 bucks for a slight bit of additional support and probably not that noticable graphics doesn't seem like a good deal. Maybe 5 or 10, but 20 is steep as hell.
It's super easy to download this illegally with a crack. I don't even hesitate with this, as I owned the original and expansion way back in the day, so I feel pretty okay doing it since I already paid the developer money.
My friends and I just play this over game ranger (just had a game this weekend!).
Age of Forgotten Empires is also pretty sweet (It's an unofficial expansion).
My friend and a bunch of his friends bought it and I decided to play with them.
Anyway we're all disappointed as hell. I was expecting a good multiplayer ui for finding games and better compatibility changes. What did we get? No graphics options and constant crashing.
You sir are an angry person. You need to have patience. With customer service, and game development. Yea, they rushed it a bit, but seriously, man? Caps lock raging? Cmon. Its 20$. Thats like 2 hours work with a shitty job. Thats going to see the movies kind of price. If not less.
On April 10 2013 05:23 BallinWitStalin wrote: Out of curiousity, why are you guys even bothering to buy the new version? 20 bucks for a slight bit of additional support and probably not that noticable graphics doesn't seem like a good deal. Maybe 5 or 10, but 20 is steep as hell.
It's super easy to download this illegally with a crack. I don't even hesitate with this, as I owned the original and expansion way back in the day, so I feel pretty okay doing it since I already paid the developer money.
My friends and I just play this over game ranger (just had a game this weekend!).
Age of Forgotten Empires is also pretty sweet (It's an unofficial expansion).
My friend and a bunch of his friends bought it and I decided to play with them.
Anyway we're all disappointed as hell. I was expecting a good multiplayer ui for finding games and better compatibility changes. What did we get? No graphics options and constant crashing.
You sir are an angry person. You need to have patience. With customer service, and game development. Yea, they rushed it a bit, but seriously, man? Caps lock raging? Cmon. Its 20$. Thats like 2 hours work with a shitty job. Thats going to see the movies kind of price. If not less.
So I should accept that I spent money on a broken product because eventually it might stop being shit?
I'm voting with my wallet. And l'm not letting them release a broken mess and take my money.
people that still play the original online will not wait until they fix sync, crashes, lags and matchmaking options. They will go back to their working platforms.
Chance for community reunion is missed.
Also, i asked steam to not refund me the money, but to put it on my steam account and they just did it within 24 hours without even bothering me.
Since I'm not a hardcore player at all, I'm having tons of fun playing with my friends which I hadn't had contact in years. AoE2 was our commonplace during our childhood, and it's amazing to relive that(and destroy them now that I actually know how to play RTS and they don't =d)
I'm yet to get out of sync as well, maybe this only happens with increased distances or increased game length? My games have been sub 1hr and only 1v1 so far, so idk.
These two replace all terrain(first one), trees and mines(second one) with updated models. While I do believe this should be included on the original AoE2HD instead of having someone do it via workshop, I also think it was important to leave the game with the original feel and let the community create a mod the way they wanted.
The workshop support is great, because it lets me download and install mods so freaking easily.
<edit> Also someone was able to create a workshop mod that allows 1k pop limit, but playing with a person with that while you don't have it will cause out of sync. It's only a matter of time until someone releases AoFE into the workshop, easily available.
On April 10 2013 09:17 LaNague wrote: Also, i asked steam to not refund me the money, but to put it on my steam account and they just did it within 24 hours without even bothering me.
I will ask this again? Has anyone tried to verify the game's cache? I'm not guaranteeing that it solves the problems, but when I did have a problem with the game Krater, it did solve the problem for me.
This release is a huge disappointment, the improvements they made on the core game are great, but they completely neglected MP. The interface is actually worse than the old (BAD) zone interface and all of the networking compatibility issues are still present , there's a high likelyhood that you'll spend 30 minutes trying to join games, then finally getting into one there's a strong chance that you won't finish it before someone drops/crashes. It's simply not a functional product. Nobody wants to bang their head against a game just to play a multiplayer match for hours on end.
The problem is that they" tested it between 2 offices and it worked great" (basically they knew it was broken and released it anyway) I can't see them being so naive about the most core feature of the product they were re-releasing.
On April 12 2013 11:50 AndyJay wrote: Ladder and ELO for AoE2HD, http://aoe2stats.com/, is this legit?
What I heard was there was no matchmaking- just a random quick play? More interested in picking this up now.
There is matchmaking. Sorta. I'm yet to get a game using Quick Match, but then I don't wait much for an opponent.
the ELO is legit tho; your global ranking is weighted according to who you play etc. It only applies to 1v1 and 2v2 with 200 pop AFAIK, I'm not entirely sure.
I just wish they'd improve the netcode more so online play is smoother when you're not the host.
I'd say 50%+ of games in this category have massive MP network sync issues on release. Civilization 4 was a big one - took them over a year to fix the issues.
For a rework I'd plan a development time of at least three quarters and you'd have to have experience in similar development. This new trend of releasing classics anew with advantages and disadvantages is not reasonable. Especially the attitude to promise fixes for issues after release is a plague. Age of Kings was running well in '99.
i was going to buy this but ive heard so many bad reviews (broken matchmaking, freezing glitches) ? is the matchmaking really this bad? does it take forever to get a match? ive played (or tried to play) AoE Online, the cartoon free version of this and the match making was brutal, sometimes i would search 10+ minutes for a 1v1 match
On April 13 2013 05:18 LaZeRKiD45 wrote: i was going to buy this but ive heard so many bad reviews (broken matchmaking, freezing glitches) ? is the matchmaking really this bad? does it take forever to get a match? ive played (or tried to play) AoE Online, the cartoon free version of this and the match making was brutal, sometimes i would search 10+ minutes for a 1v1 match
If you wanna play MP I'd suggest voobly to be honest... I have tested it for a few games after getting my refund from AOE2 HD and it is way better on many level...
1. It doesn't fucking crash 2. So far the lag/fps has been okay 3. You can actually see the rating of the people you're making a game with 4. Works with the old version if you already have it... otherwise you can probably find it... somewhere... for free 5. No region (Steam version is region based... unless you live in Europe or US you wont find many people).
However the level of play is way higher than on steam. I was able to get a lot of victories on steam... I'm getting rolled over by people tagged as noobs on voobly.
That is until the steam version gets fixed. Definetly not worth 20$ right now unless its really nothing for you and you're okay pulling your hair sometimes.
On April 13 2013 05:18 LaZeRKiD45 wrote: i was going to buy this but ive heard so many bad reviews (broken matchmaking, freezing glitches) ? is the matchmaking really this bad? does it take forever to get a match? ive played (or tried to play) AoE Online, the cartoon free version of this and the match making was brutal, sometimes i would search 10+ minutes for a 1v1 match
You cant and I mean CANT play multiplayer. It will lag really really hard and definitely unplayable.
Frame rate & performance improvements that increase frame rates up to 50% on low end machines and up to 500% on the high end systems previously experiencing frame rate issues.
Visual fixes: - Windows DPI scaling no longer zooms the in-game perspective - Default scroll speed increased
Multiplayer fixes including: - Quitting a multiplayer game triggers a resignation instead appearing as a ‘drop’ - Private lobbies stay private - Quick match no longer crashes - Long Steam usernames no longer cause crash - Hotkeys for multiplayer are correctly saved - Lobby now enforces that you only play multiplayer with the same build version - Visual indications of players in your lobby and in game who have low frame rate - Better networking verification prior to entering game (prevents getting stuck on the voting screen) - Performance warning if you have high ping to one other player who isn’t host or if your data is being relayed - Multiplayer quick match speed defaults to normal - Quick match has additional map size filter - Multiplayer Lobby doesn’t lock to a region for displaying games - Achievements fix: Single player unlocks achievements properly
On April 13 2013 05:18 LaZeRKiD45 wrote: i was going to buy this but ive heard so many bad reviews (broken matchmaking, freezing glitches) ? is the matchmaking really this bad? does it take forever to get a match? ive played (or tried to play) AoE Online, the cartoon free version of this and the match making was brutal, sometimes i would search 10+ minutes for a 1v1 match
You cant and I mean CANT play multiplayer. It will lag really really hard and definitely unplayable.
On April 18 2013 12:25 OoFuzer wrote: Patch Notes for ‘performance build’
Frame rate & performance improvements that increase frame rates up to 50% on low end machines and up to 500% on the high end systems previously experiencing frame rate issues.
Visual fixes: - Windows DPI scaling no longer zooms the in-game perspective - Default scroll speed increased
Multiplayer fixes including: - Quitting a multiplayer game triggers a resignation instead appearing as a ‘drop’ - Private lobbies stay private - Quick match no longer crashes - Long Steam usernames no longer cause crash - Hotkeys for multiplayer are correctly saved - Lobby now enforces that you only play multiplayer with the same build version - Visual indications of players in your lobby and in game who have low frame rate - Better networking verification prior to entering game (prevents getting stuck on the voting screen) - Performance warning if you have high ping to one other player who isn’t host or if your data is being relayed - Multiplayer quick match speed defaults to normal - Quick match has additional map size filter - Multiplayer Lobby doesn’t lock to a region for displaying games - Achievements fix: Single player unlocks achievements properly
Do you know when the patch is coming live on Steam?
On April 18 2013 12:25 OoFuzer wrote: Patch Notes for ‘performance build’
Frame rate & performance improvements that increase frame rates up to 50% on low end machines and up to 500% on the high end systems previously experiencing frame rate issues.
Visual fixes: - Windows DPI scaling no longer zooms the in-game perspective - Default scroll speed increased
Multiplayer fixes including: - Quitting a multiplayer game triggers a resignation instead appearing as a ‘drop’ - Private lobbies stay private - Quick match no longer crashes - Long Steam usernames no longer cause crash - Hotkeys for multiplayer are correctly saved - Lobby now enforces that you only play multiplayer with the same build version - Visual indications of players in your lobby and in game who have low frame rate - Better networking verification prior to entering game (prevents getting stuck on the voting screen) - Performance warning if you have high ping to one other player who isn’t host or if your data is being relayed - Multiplayer quick match speed defaults to normal - Quick match has additional map size filter - Multiplayer Lobby doesn’t lock to a region for displaying games - Achievements fix: Single player unlocks achievements properly
Do you know when the patch is coming live on Steam?
in a few days, but you can get it now by right clicking on AoE 2 in your steam library -> properties -> betas -> performance If the "performance" option doesn't show, restart steam
On April 18 2013 12:25 OoFuzer wrote: Patch Notes for ‘performance build’
Frame rate & performance improvements that increase frame rates up to 50% on low end machines and up to 500% on the high end systems previously experiencing frame rate issues.
Visual fixes: - Windows DPI scaling no longer zooms the in-game perspective - Default scroll speed increased
Multiplayer fixes including: - Quitting a multiplayer game triggers a resignation instead appearing as a ‘drop’ - Private lobbies stay private - Quick match no longer crashes - Long Steam usernames no longer cause crash - Hotkeys for multiplayer are correctly saved - Lobby now enforces that you only play multiplayer with the same build version - Visual indications of players in your lobby and in game who have low frame rate - Better networking verification prior to entering game (prevents getting stuck on the voting screen) - Performance warning if you have high ping to one other player who isn’t host or if your data is being relayed - Multiplayer quick match speed defaults to normal - Quick match has additional map size filter - Multiplayer Lobby doesn’t lock to a region for displaying games - Achievements fix: Single player unlocks achievements properly
Do you know when the patch is coming live on Steam?
in a few days, but you can get it now by right clicking on AoE 2 in your steam library -> properties -> betas -> performance If the "performance" option doesn't show, restart steam
Nice, me and a friend bought it but we've been playing with a looot of lag so I hope this helps.
If the patch comes live officially before or during the weekend, anyone wanna play with me, who hasn't touched the game for a while? I'm available for play afternoon CEST on weekends.
Even if it wasn't perfect at launch, it still works better than Hotline Miami does for me.
HOLY SHIT THIS IS INSANE. Like, seriously. Anything wrong at the beginning has been fixed. If you asked for a refund, I highly recommend coming back. MP is insanely better now.
Object Shadows Anti-aliasing (Enabled by default in builds prior to 2.2 for the improved shadows). Disabling may help improve performance & allow for expanded GPU support with some older Shader model versions. Enable VSYNC option (can help reduce load on higher end GPUs) Clamp mouse to window when in foreground Quick match speed default to normal but can be changed to fast Display mode options from main menu: Windowed, Fullscreen, Fullscreen Desktop (for multi-monitor) Fullscreen desktop requires monitors to have matching vertical resolutions. Mismatched resolutions resulted in truncated UI and was disabled. You can still drag the game in windowed mode across multiple monitors.
Gameplay Modification:
Added nine additional grouping hotkeys and made group creation / selection keys modifiable. After getting the patch you may be forced to re-create your hotkey file. Group hotkeys can be changed by accessing options -> Hotkeys -> Game Commands. Group Selection hotkeys cannot be modified by alt or shift keys, as these keys have special meaning in game (e.g. alt + group selection key = select and center on) If multiple buildings of the same type are selected, unit training will sequentially be divided amongst buildings (Multiple building unit queues)
Bugfixes:
Missing grey background behind some tooltip text resolved (to improve text clarity) Localization fixes Unlocalized Launcher Buttons Missing campaign text Unlocalized Russian UI Additional various localization fixes Additional Achievement fixes Trebuchet attack range fixes Various campaign crashes due to string length overflows Game ‘win’ counter should increment correctly Quickmatch Map Size properly filters based on map size chosen Performance warning typo fixes Fixed AI files not being unpacked properly from workshop mods Fixed workshop downloading only one update per launch of the game
Other:
When getting booted from the game, you will return to the main menu. This is by design due to the gameflow and how the title processes game information. Gameplay version changed to 2.3 Matchmaking settings changed to the ‘widest’ setting permitted by Steam’s system. Users may see different game lists for several reasons including: User location (the system should return games that present a better play experience first) Game legitimacy Steam account standing Filters Please note when joining games that high pings may result in poor gameplay experiences.
This patch should be enough to fix every complaint that has appeared on this thread.
Also, one thing to notice, is that multi-building-queue is now in this game. This didn't exist on AoK/AoC, so it's a big change.
Previously, you could select multiple buildings, but only train unit from the first selected one. Now you can select and train from multiple buildings.
@Zephirdd I have bought the game and I want to play it. It is just a combination of that (1) I haven't had the time to play a full match yet (2) I've been playing other games that has taken my time (3) University stuff
What did they do to the hotkeys? I cant add units to my control group via shift+number anymore and theres no item in the options to adjust it.
edit: just read the steam forums and multiple people seem to have that problem. Seems like they just removed the feature (unintentionally i hope). This is a total disaster, game got unplayable for me.
it's a shame that BW will never get this treatment if there is one game that deserve HD version or remake version, this is surely Broodwar the greatest of all!! i will buy it instant even at 50 euro
I've been getting this "first time setup" every time I start to play. It isn't a big deal as it is pretty quick, but it's kind of annoying. Anyone else have this problem or a solution? It says it's installing Microsoft VC redist package
On May 06 2013 09:15 Leeto wrote: I've been getting this "first time setup" every time I start to play. It isn't a big deal as it is pretty quick, but it's kind of annoying. Anyone else have this problem or a solution? It says it's installing Microsoft VC redist package
Just tried it out and I didn't get anything. However I do get it every time for SSF4AE
Hey does anyone understand the concepts behind fast castle into double TC build? I'm having trouble consistently executing it. Anyone have a quick breakdown of transitions?
I'm not really interested in flushing, I'd like to try something different.
Well, i dont know the current meta, but when i played a flush attack would come really fast, much before you could do a FC with decent eco, leaving your whole base vulonerable. Maybe they delay the flush now in favour of more eco.
But i dont know how you want to castle AND TC AND defend, that worked before The conquerers when TCs were OP and didnt cost stone, but now?
you can try a funny cheesy 13min FC with maya, but you would need to sell your stone for gold. The guy who did it the most was a german player named aoegod i think. Otherwise for less risky options, you need longer to castle because you need to mine the gold, then you use the stone for a tower near gold because the enemy will attack first. You would also need to wall the tower off with houses and such.
I think I'll tone it down and aim for 1 TC. I already knew that I would probably have to tower the gold going into this. Yeah I'm tired of flushing though, and just wanted to see if there is anything different.
Hey guys! This is IamPREZSTEVE from the Age of Empires community team. I've resurrected this account from the dead and plan to frequent TL to answer any questions you guys may have about this game or any others in the Age series. If you didn't already know, we have a very active Twitch channel on which we stream the different Age games on an almost daily basis. Check us out, and GLHF!
On June 25 2013 07:03 Qwyn wrote: Hey does anyone understand the concepts behind fast castle into double TC build? I'm having trouble consistently executing it. Anyone have a quick breakdown of transitions?
I'm not really interested in flushing, I'd like to try something different.
prepare to get owned, in that case.
The only real option in 1v1s to get to castle fast is to do a drush into a delayed econ castle (think around 19-20 minutes). There will still be an opening for your opponent to do economic damage.
I would suggest to you that you become good at flushing (which is hard in itself) for 1v1s. In team games you can risk other strategies but really only when you're pocket in 3v3/4v4. In 2v2s it's really risky still to do anything other than drush/flush, though it's easier to do things like meso FC and some other one-off strats.
On July 14 2013 11:01 whoso wrote: yo how is the multiplayer in this game now? i heard the netcode/system is terrible when it was released, did anything change?
For what its worth, I bought it 2 days ago and played quite a few matches multiplayer. I havent noticed any lag, so I'd think they fixed that!
i've got a problem, my game keeps crashing all the time and leaves the message "app is already running". it doesn't crash right away when i start it, i need to be ingame for some time and it seems to be very random.
that's weird since the game was running without any problems the first the days when i bought it, and i didn't change anything system-wise. i already deleted appcache folder in steam and added steam files to exceptions in my antivir... it doesn't help.
Played it today, the controls and all are so different to Dota and Starcraft. I keep trying to a-move with my army, but nothing happens XD Still, good to be lost in nostalgia once again
On July 20 2013 22:57 DisaFear wrote: Played it today, the controls and all are so different to Dota and Starcraft. I keep trying to a-move with my army, but nothing happens XD Still, good to be lost in nostalgia once again
AoE II didn't have attack-move at launch. The devs may add it in a future patch, but most players use the patrol command as it acts more or less as attack-move. I believe the default hotkey for patrol is 'Z'.
Hey I was wondering if you guys also get like 1+ sec delay in all your games on HD. What I mean is the time between when you issue a command and when the unit responds. It's way longer than in sc2 or dota2. Also if anyone plays on Voobly, is the delay less on there compared to HD?
On July 25 2013 01:53 Oceanic wrote: Hey I was wondering if you guys also get like 1+ sec delay in all your games on HD. What I mean is the time between when you issue a command and when the unit responds. It's way longer than in sc2 or dota2. Also if anyone plays on Voobly, is the delay less on there compared to HD?
AoE II: HD is not filtered by region, so if you connect to someone on the other side of the world with high ping, you may experience some input lag. With the most recent patch, 2.5, we've added region filters to the lobby browser, so playing with people closer to you will also help.
When I stream AoE II: HD on our Twitch channel, I try to only play with people who have ~250 ping or less, and generally the games are fairly lag-free.
Note that beta users will be able to play against users running the current release (2.8) without desyncs. As always, should you run into any issues, it may be advisable to delete your player profile in game and create a new one.
Enjoy your weekend! May your macro be flawless and your micro unbeatable. GLHF!
On October 17 2013 11:11 Jacobe wrote: I played aoe2 for years as a kid daily but from what i've been reading its still not worth the 20$ for the steam version
It has been for a while, and it is even more with the performance beta above. The game at its core is the same, but it has been vastly improved mechanically.
On October 17 2013 11:11 Jacobe wrote: I played aoe2 for years as a kid daily but from what i've been reading its still not worth the 20$ for the steam version
It has been for a while, and it is even more with the performance beta above. The game at its core is the same, but it has been vastly improved mechanically.
I hope the new patch will come along with a steam deal
We're pleased to announce a release date for the new expansion for Age of Empires II: HD Edition! The Forgotten, based on the fan-made Forgotten Empires expansion for AoE II, will be available on Steam November 7, 2013. See the announcement here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/221380/announcements/detail/1784842770331267520
The fan-made version, Forgotten Empires, won't work with AoE II: HD on Steam. The developers worked with the original creators to port over the expansion with additional content to release The Forgotten.
So I bought it mainly for the campaigns. After playing a few maps, my feelings are somewhat mixed. It is obvious there was a lot of effort put into the maps, the maps look good, the missions are challenging, diverse and well-thought. However some flaws are hard to overlook (or I missed a lot of obvious things): The triggers for the quests seem to fail regularly (for example not detecting death of mission-critical hero), sometimes you are left with no entry in the questlog at all, and most importantly you have to make huge armies of 50+ units fit through chokepoints, wihich is nerve-wracking with that pathfinding AI. Or even worse, half of the map consists of paths that are just 3-4 tiles wide; nd then there are battles in such areas, so you can hardly micro at all, and the feeling of epicness you expect never arrives. Also no voice-acting
On December 06 2013 09:24 OoFuzer wrote: US$50,000 Team Tournament has been announced, if anyone is interested. (Is not AoE II:HD or AoFE tournament, just standar AoC).
So I bought the Age of Empires Legacy Bundle recently on Steam during the last sale (for 12,74€, its around 50 euro normally), seeing as how I've never owned ether game before (*cough*non-pirated*cough*) I think I got off well, already having fun playing the campaigns. Anyway sorry if this has been asked before but could someone point me in the general direction of some good tutorials? As in build orders, what do you do first and that sort of thing?
On October 17 2013 11:11 Jacobe wrote: I played aoe2 for years as a kid daily but from what i've been reading its still not worth the 20$ for the steam version
If I buy aoe 2 hd can I play with the people in multiplayer, I mean like a rank/ladder system or everybody are on the forbitten expansion. Does the forbitten is only a new campagne or is it important for the multiplayer aspect like broodwar is for sc1.
New DLC "Rise of the Rajas" will be available today, featuring four south-east asian civs.
I'm not sure about it. Will probably buy it, but TBH the parts I liked best about the original game (and conquerors) were the campaigns. I wasnt much of fan of the forgotten empires/african kingdoms campaigns, mainly because the initial levels I tried consisted of the AI throwing endless waves of spawned-by-script units at you. The story-telling parts where top quality however. But you just knew that at some point, you would win the scenario, but actually completing everything turned too often into a mindnumbing grind that lasted too long. Maybe I should've played on lower difficulty; also maybe other players do actually enjoy it.
what is the problem with the HD version compared to the original, i assume there must be a reason why people dont switch, beyond stubborness? is the gameplay not a 1:1 match?
but when you buy the steam edition you buy the voobly edition too because it can be patched plus you get new civs and campaigns if you dont want to play just AoC
On December 19 2016 18:11 Mafe wrote: New DLC "Rise of the Rajas" will be available today, featuring four south-east asian civs.
I'm not sure about it. Will probably buy it, but TBH the parts I liked best about the original game (and conquerors) were the campaigns. I wasnt much of fan of the forgotten empires/african kingdoms campaigns, mainly because the initial levels I tried consisted of the AI throwing endless waves of spawned-by-script units at you. The story-telling parts where top quality however. But you just knew that at some point, you would win the scenario, but actually completing everything turned too often into a mindnumbing grind that lasted too long. Maybe I should've played on lower difficulty; also maybe other players do actually enjoy it.
Or just enter a cheat code once you know you've won
How is the tourney scene for this game? I played in high school but never got to experience high level play. Would love to watch and see how game is played at the top level
On December 20 2016 04:21 fishjie wrote: How is the tourney scene for this game? I played in high school but never got to experience high level play. Would love to watch and see how game is played at the top level
There are a lot of show matches and smaller tournaments. If you are talking LAN or big money scale they are quite rare.
I replayed the campaigns in HD and I remembered everything totally differently when I was a kid. It's so freaky.
I want to get good at the game but the mechanics of building selection and attacking is so aggravating versus StarCraft that it's really hard to invest too much time into it. Also buggy with the voobly hack so it's all really a wash. It's still really fun to watch community games though.
On December 20 2016 04:21 fishjie wrote: How is the tourney scene for this game? I played in high school but never got to experience high level play. Would love to watch and see how game is played at the top level
The top players are really good, anybody above 2.3k (Voobly rating) executes almost perfectly the BOs, superb macro and micro, and has and extensive knowledge of the game, right now there is a Master of Arabia 2v2, I think they are in round of 16 or 8, and all those teams are performing players with rating of 2.1k+. Tourneys with more than U$10k in the pot are the exception, maybe 2 or 3 yearly but there is always tournies running, just go to www.aoczone.net and look the streaming schedule.
So for anyone interested, there is something important related to the age-of-empiers-franchise coming up at gamescom today, with livestream starting in a little more than one hour here:
Some say it might by aoe4, while others are convinced it is not. Heard some speculation about another aoe2-expansion, but apparently some people who are more into the community think it has to be more than that.
Yeah I wish there had been more details, but for now I will settle for just the words "Age of empires IV in development". Hope it stays true to age of empires and can't wait to see gameplay.
On August 22 2017 05:58 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote: Woooow
Age of empires with Company of Heroes quality will be amazing
But what age will it span? Pls not modern. I hope they go back to the ancient greeks
The teaser trailer did say "new age," so I expect them to go forwards, not backwards in history.
It'll be interesting to see how they can adapt traditional Age of Empires mechanics to a modern timeline. AoE3 had a focus on colonialism to have an excuse for a settlement starting from scratch. They'll have to be very creative to do justice for both the franchise gameplay and the setting.
On August 22 2017 05:58 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote: Woooow
Age of empires with Company of Heroes quality will be amazing
But what age will it span? Pls not modern. I hope they go back to the ancient greeks
The teaser trailer did say "new age," so I expect them to go forwards, not backwards in history.
It'll be interesting to see how they can adapt traditional Age of Empires mechanics to a modern timeline. AoE3 had a focus on colonialism to have an excuse for a settlement starting from scratch. They'll have to be very creative to do justice for both the franchise gameplay and the setting.
Given the fact that aoe3 (which i never played) apparently streches until the american civil war, the main question will be whether to include ww2 or not, as I cant assume they will go further, nor that they will not include ww1.. I'm thinking that going up to ww1 would actually make the game more interesting (for me), as there are countless games covering ww2. If I were to design the game, I would probably have 1-2 pre ww1 ages, an early-ww1 (for example without tanks) and a late-ww1 age (with tanks). GIiven that the teaser was steadily progessing in human history, with aoe1-3, I don think anything but a continuation in the timeline is a serious option. However, given the other announcements (aoe2+3 definite edition), we ourselves might be living in a different age when aoe4 is released.....
On August 22 2017 05:04 blade55555 wrote: Holy fuck am I pumped. Age of empires IV is something I have wanted for 12 years now! My god I wish they gave more details.
On August 22 2017 05:04 blade55555 wrote: Holy fuck am I pumped. Age of empires IV is something I have wanted for 12 years now! My god I wish they gave more details.
dont hype yourself, relic is making the game....
relic is probably the most accomplished RTS studio besides Blizzard. Most of the games they put out were masterpieces. Just think of Homeworld, Company of Heroes, or Dawn of War. Just because they made some questionable choices in DoW III doesn't mean that you shouldn't be hyped. Quite the opposite.
On August 22 2017 05:04 blade55555 wrote: Holy fuck am I pumped. Age of empires IV is something I have wanted for 12 years now! My god I wish they gave more details.
dont hype yourself, relic is making the game....
I don't see Microsoft letting Relic make age of empires 4 and not be an age of empires game. So I am not too worried. I won't lie and say I am a little that they might make age of empires 4 add in CoH/DoW features, which I pray they don't.
On August 22 2017 05:04 blade55555 wrote: Holy fuck am I pumped. Age of empires IV is something I have wanted for 12 years now! My god I wish they gave more details.
dont hype yourself, relic is making the game....
Relic is god of RTS.They tried to make DOW3 more friendly to MOBA players and it's obviously backfired.But don't lose hope on them they got thier shit now.
On August 22 2017 05:04 blade55555 wrote: Holy fuck am I pumped. Age of empires IV is something I have wanted for 12 years now! My god I wish they gave more details.
dont hype yourself, relic is making the game....
relic is probably the most accomplished RTS studio besides Blizzard. Most of the games they put out were masterpieces. Just think of Homeworld, Company of Heroes, or Dawn of War. Just because they made some questionable choices in DoW III doesn't mean that you shouldn't be hyped. Quite the opposite.
Westwood/Ensemble, but they don't exist anymore. In today's market what's the RTS competition with Blizzard? Hardly anyone makes RTS games anymore, especially when limiting yourself to non-indie and traditionally AAA brands. So saying Relic in contemporary RTS development is "most accomplished besides Blizzard" isn't really saying much. I've never liked the TACTICAL games that they're known for. Age of Empires brand is a strategy line of games. I really hope they do not do the tactical shit they're known for. Let's just say I'm not excited until I see something hands on. If Ensemble was still around and making this game I'd be a lot more inclined to being excited.
On August 22 2017 18:04 Laurens wrote: Whats the difference between a tactical and a strategy game?
The emphasis on squad and non-macro mechanics. More CoH/DoW, less Starcraft/Age of Empires/TA/etc. I mean it's obvious. It's implicit in the meaning of tactic and strategy.
It was an honest question. To me strategy and tactics are two very similar things lol, not a native english speaker. I also haven't played CoH/DoW so I don't know what they look like.
On August 22 2017 05:04 blade55555 wrote: Holy fuck am I pumped. Age of empires IV is something I have wanted for 12 years now! My god I wish they gave more details.
dont hype yourself, relic is making the game....
Relic is god of RTS.They tried to make DOW3 more friendly to MOBA players and it's obviously backfired.But don't lose hope on them they got thier shit now.
What is good about coh 1 and 2 in your opinion? In my opinion, the game has no micro, feels very hardcountering. Slow paced.
On August 22 2017 05:04 blade55555 wrote: Holy fuck am I pumped. Age of empires IV is something I have wanted for 12 years now! My god I wish they gave more details.
dont hype yourself, relic is making the game....
relic is probably the most accomplished RTS studio besides Blizzard. Most of the games they put out were masterpieces. Just think of Homeworld, Company of Heroes, or Dawn of War. Just because they made some questionable choices in DoW III doesn't mean that you shouldn't be hyped. Quite the opposite.
Maybe the old Relic made masterpieces, the modern relic does not.
Going with something similar to COH will fuck the Age frachise forever, they are so different, and clearly even in recent times AoE is much more popular.
On August 23 2017 03:36 palexhur wrote: Going with something similar to COH will fuck the Age frachise forever, they are so different, and clearly even in recent times AoE is much more popular.
I don't think they're going to do this. Even Creatively Assembly did something more creative when they worked with Microsoft to make Halo Wars 2. They didn't Total War-tify it.
On August 23 2017 03:36 palexhur wrote: Going with something similar to COH will fuck the Age frachise forever, they are so different, and clearly even in recent times AoE is much more popular.
I don't see them doing that. If they did, it's not Age of Empires, it's Company of Heroes. I would imagine they will make it aoe style.
My main concern is a ranking system. Company of Heroes 2 did not have one (might now, haven't checked in the past year) and that's a must in any multiplayer game imo.
I have faith they will though, with Microsoft dollars I imagine they have more of a budget than they did with Coh2. I am guessing we won't see any footage until E3 next year and release date until 2019 (T_T).
no switching to windows 10 for me either, since AoE3 I kinda lost trust in the series and being presented a trailer with no gameplay or information about the gameplay at all only makes me dubious (also the game cossacks brings back bad memories with this new age they might introduce, AoE3 seemed to have worse units mechanics than 2.. in the end I think I like the mechanics of 1 best) but feel sad that AoE1 definitive seems to be windows 10 only because I would play that, loved AoE1 and def enjoyed AoE2.
btw I never rly liked CoH either, it feels like DoW and AoE3 to me, too simplistic and rigid, not sure there is that much depth compared to other stuff, at least the mechanics seem unnecessarily shallow. Prefer even C&C type mechanics, or total annihilation.
On August 23 2017 05:19 Incognoto wrote: I still cannot fathom what issues people have with AOE3 as a game. It's not AoC, yes. What is actually wrong with the title though?
I don't get it either. I love AOE3 and easily in my top 5. I think people dislike the card mechanics (which I can see, I don't want it back in 4). I played that game for around 5 years straight. If AOE4 is even close to that I imagine I will be hooked on it for years as well. Only reason I even quit AOE3 in the first place was it took way too long to get a game.
On August 23 2017 05:06 ProMeTheus112 wrote: no switching to windows 10 for me either, since AoE3 I kinda lost trust in the series and being presented a trailer with no gameplay or information about the gameplay at all only makes me dubious (also the game cossacks brings back bad memories with this new age they might introduce, AoE3 seemed to have worse units mechanics than 2.. in the end I think I like the mechanics of 1 best) but feel sad that AoE1 definitive seems to be windows 10 only because I would play that, loved AoE1 and def enjoyed AoE2.
btw I never rly liked CoH either, it feels like DoW and AoE3 to me, too simplistic and rigid, not sure there is that much depth compared to other stuff, at least the mechanics seem unnecessarily shallow. Prefer even C&C type mechanics, or total annihilation.
Just curious, what did you like about AoE1 more than AoE2? The general consensus is that AoE2 was an improvement in nearly every way. AoE1 doesn't have nearly the same following except maybe in Vietnam.
Hopefully they deliver with AoE4. Will definitely attract decent numbers as the AoE fanbase will be interested, as will Relic players, and I should imagine by 2019 (guessing the release year) a lot of players from both Starcraft games may be looking for something a bit fresh.
I don't like seeing an AOE2 Definitive Edition.... I mean we got aoe2 HD already?!?! Maybe improve upon that? Many people will be pissed if they gonna release another one, many people bought the DLCs etc. aoe2 does not need another split between its player base.
On August 24 2017 04:33 [N3O]r3d33m3r wrote: I don't like seeing an AOE2 Definitive Edition.... I mean we got aoe2 HD already?!?! Maybe improve upon that? Many people will be pissed if they gonna release another one, many people bought the DLCs etc. aoe2 does not need another split between its player base.
there is no aoe 2 definitive edition, what are u talking about
On August 24 2017 04:33 [N3O]r3d33m3r wrote: I don't like seeing an AOE2 Definitive Edition.... I mean we got aoe2 HD already?!?! Maybe improve upon that? Many people will be pissed if they gonna release another one, many people bought the DLCs etc. aoe2 does not need another split between its player base.
there is no aoe 2 definitive edition, what are u talking about
There will be. It was announced on gamescom (inclduing aoe3 definitive edition), but the hype about aoe4 drew most of the attention.
On August 23 2017 05:06 ProMeTheus112 wrote: no switching to windows 10 for me either, since AoE3 I kinda lost trust in the series and being presented a trailer with no gameplay or information about the gameplay at all only makes me dubious (also the game cossacks brings back bad memories with this new age they might introduce, AoE3 seemed to have worse units mechanics than 2.. in the end I think I like the mechanics of 1 best) but feel sad that AoE1 definitive seems to be windows 10 only because I would play that, loved AoE1 and def enjoyed AoE2.
btw I never rly liked CoH either, it feels like DoW and AoE3 to me, too simplistic and rigid, not sure there is that much depth compared to other stuff, at least the mechanics seem unnecessarily shallow. Prefer even C&C type mechanics, or total annihilation.
Just curious, what did you like about AoE1 more than AoE2? The general consensus is that AoE2 was an improvement in nearly every way. AoE1 doesn't have nearly the same following except maybe in Vietnam.
Its the mechanics of units that I dislike a little in 2, in AoE1 I have played at a more beginner level, but one time I tried it again I remember a +1 upgrade was killer. However there are not so many upgrades in AoE1 than in 2, sometimes I think there are too many upgrades in 2. But yes in AoE2, the units tend to clump together, there is some loss of control there in the way units move and you tend to just click attack and let them be sometimes. Boat units also in 2 for example, and boat battles, doesn't feel too good to me sometimes. There is not enough obstruction of units I guess. Also sometimes the units seem just a little bit too rock paper scissor, in what they counter or get countered by, is it as much the case in 1 ? That's the main point that I prefer about 1, but other than that my experience of 1 is too far away and low to compare in depth. So I'm v curious to play it again, but guess I won't cause windows10^^
I do really hope Microsoft go back on AoE4 needing win10, or by then there is a better updated version of 10/new OS.
I am surprised they are trying this for AoE remaster (maybe a guinea pig for future big releases?) as surely it will hold back a far chunk of sales. Especially this is an old game, with a largely mature fanbase who (I should imagine) include a lot of people who are dissatisfied/refuse to use win10..
On August 25 2017 08:43 KrOjah wrote: I do really hope Microsoft go back on AoE4 needing win10, or by then there is a better updated version of 10/new OS.
I am surprised they are trying this for AoE remaster (maybe a guinea pig for future big releases?) as surely it will hold back a far chunk of sales. Especially this is an old game, with a largely mature fanbase who (I should imagine) include a lot of people who are dissatisfied/refuse to use win10..
Like halo wars, i doubt this is a game they want to make a profit on. its probably a loss leader to get people to use the windows store.
since AoC is doing a comeback and all with wololokingdoms on voobly im curious to hear if anybody on tl is actually playing the game. i for my part am enjoying it a lot atm. the client is superb with a bunch of cool features, the scene is active aswell, and there are actual progames and tons of streams and content on ytube. so i was wondering why tl is so reluctant towards this.
Just in case anyone is interested but not up to date: the finals of a tournament called the battle of africa is today. If someone feels like watching a nostalgic trip, game 1 just started on https://www.twitch.tv/t90official
Finals are played between aftermath and tyrant, for those familiar with AoE teams
EPT
. Hopefully lots of people play the aoe2HD match making 2v2 so I can play 2v2 with my friend ^_^
and vice versa, idk) . Not going to buy it for 2 reasons: price and I can't access steam from campus network.
