Age of Empires III

Paranitis · Post by **Paranitis** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:38 am

This is a quote from the January 2005 issue of PCGamer (my friend gets it).

AGE OF EMPIRES III][b]Hear ye wrote: The Right and Honorable Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer announceth that Age of Empires III, the long-awaited new installment in the blockbuster real-time strategy series, shall be Revealed forthwith in next month's edition of the Magazine. By royal edict, this shall be the World Exclusive unveiling of the Game, replete with screenshots, an interview with Ensemble King Bruce Shelley, and a large smorgasbord of our finest Meats and Cheeses!

Basically Age of freaking Empires 3 is in the works! Now all I need to do is wait til my friend upgrades his computer, then I can get all his hand-me-down hardware pieces so atleast I will be able to RUN the game atleast. My current computer can barely run Unreal Tournament 2004..with everything turned to it's lowest settings.

YAY! I wonder what it will be called..so far there was:
Age of Empires
Age of Empires: Rise of Rome Expansion
Age of Empires II: Age of Kings
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion

then the company people kind of started breaking from eachother and made
Age of Mythology
and
Empire Earth.

I have every one of those games, and I can't wait til this new one comes out! I didn't even know it was in considerations until today when I was playing Sims2 on my friend's computer and he came screaming down the hallway with the news!

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:29 am

Empire Earth? That crap isn't even close to AOK.

If you unscramble "The wait is almost over!", it becomes "Tomato wrath: ES is evil!" - give or take some punctuation and capitals.

Paranitis · Post by **Paranitis** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:40 am

It doesn't matter how craploaded Empire Earth is, just that the makers of AoE split apart to make Empire Earth and Age of Mythology. I am curious as to whether or not they came back together for Age of Empires 3, or if it is just the Age of Mythology people, because if that's the case then I don't completely count it as the same.

And personally I felt Age of Mythology was as bad as Empire Earth. Empire Earth decided to create it's own history (with the future ages), and Age of Mythology decided to change real history just so they can throw some odd 'creatures' into the mix. Neither of them could be taken seriously.

BUT..this thread is about Age of Empires 3, not AoM or EE.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 11:37 am

So far, AoM and EE have much to do with AoE3, in the fact that it could potnetially be the same developers making it

Sytze · Post by **Sytze** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 6:19 am

I played Age of Empires: Age of Kings into infinity with the online option, so I'm pretty curious as to what AOE III will look and play like...

Floyd_theBarber · Post by **Floyd_theBarber** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 7:56 pm

Age of Empires was great, but I think that Rise of Nations has surpassed it in many ways. However, AoE III could be a pleasant surprise.

GFreeman · Post by **GFreeman** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 8:03 pm

I remember one of my old college buddies was all about AoE, but I never really gave it a go. Perhaps this is a dumb question to ask since you all obviously enjoy it...but is this a game worth investing in this late in the series?

Floyd_theBarber · Post by **Floyd_theBarber** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:25 am

You can pick up the Age of Empires 2 gold edition for pretty cheap, that includes the vanilla game and the expansion. AoE is actually great fun, but as I said in my previous post, I would opt for Rise of Nations.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:30 am

[QUOTE=GFreeman]I remember one of my old college buddies was all about AoE, but I never really gave it a go. Perhaps this is a dumb question to ask since you all obviously enjoy it...but is this a game worth investing in this late in the series?[/QUOTE]

If you can get ahold of AoE2 (Age of Kings) then I'd recommend at least trying it.
Hmm.... if I weren't playing Pirates all the spare time I had - I'd almost install AoE2 again

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 1:25 pm

AoE2 is definatly a great game, as was the first, so I'm hoping the third is as good. It was one of the few RTS games that seemed to balance everything nicely. Though, there are a couple features I'd like to see toned down. For instance, I feel there is a tad too much emphasis on resource gathering. I would personally like to see one of the four resources either toned down in importance, or removed completely. Though, I love the food system they have in place. It's so much better than the stand alone supply/farms/house method used in so many other RTS's.

Paranitis · Post by **Paranitis** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:54 am

Actually I only really play the Deathmatch option for online AoK play, with DM you are able to start out with a ton of resources to start building armies right away to attack or defend rather than waiting for a half hour or more before anyone can really do anything because they plan to use Paladins, which aren't possible until late in the last age.

But the thing about DM is a lot of RM (Random Map..aka, default style) players say DM is for newbies because we start with so many resources..but that's where the line is blurred..yes, you start with a lot of resources..but if you are playing as something like Britons (Archer Civ) vs Persians (Elephant Civ) then those big resources don't really last all that long if you play stupidly. See..one of the best units (other than camels) against Elephants are Halberdiers, but not a lot of people think about the Halberdier because the Britons have longbowmen..and they think with a ton of archers they can stop anything..STUPID IDEA.

See..Elephants are ONE of the most expensive (if not THE most expensive) units in the game..and Halberdiers are one of the cheapest units in the game..so if you are Persians and you just pump out elephant after elephant, you will most likely run out of both gold AND food before you even hit population limit (of 200)..whereas you can make wave after wave after wave of Halberdiers to tear the Elephants to pieces..and with the leftover resources you can build lots of Longbowmen and Trebuchets (big freaking catapult of doom) and destroy the Persian player.

That's where the RM people tend to fall, they see that they start with so many resources and they think they are going to win easily without having to do anything buy make units..but the experienced DM player looks at the high resources and thinks "well, there's about 5 minutes of fighting worth of resources there" and right away they are getting more and more resources.

5 years ago I would have been screaming at the top of my lungs "GAMESPY SUCKS! ZONE RULES!" but these days..Gamespy still sucks (nobody plays DM because they are a bunch of pansies..and there is rarely anyone on AoK anyway), and Zone is falling to pieces (Used to take an hour or more to get into the 5th DM game room..now only one tends to be half-full..and most of the people there are just idling..and the zone staff doesn't know what they are doing..and they are just letting everything die off). So now I like to scream "GAMESPY SUCKS! ZONE IS TURNING INTO GAMESPY!"

I hope AoE3 rocks, I am sure it will.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 3:16 am

[QUOTE=Aegis]AoE2 is definatly a great game, as was the first, so I'm hoping the third is as good. It was one of the few RTS games that seemed to balance everything nicely. Though, there are a couple features I'd like to see toned down. For instance, I feel there is a tad too much emphasis on resource gathering. I would personally like to see one of the four resources either toned down in importance, or removed completely. Though, I love the food system they have in place. It's so much better than the stand alone supply/farms/house method used in so many other RTS's.[/QUOTE]

Well - I'm ressource player, so I liked the ressources and hope they certainly don't minimize them, and if they do - add a toggle so I can still play with advanced ressources.
Infact - I wouldn't mind seeing a few more added if they make sences, because it adds more of a the strategic element I feel lacking in most RTS games, where ressources are limited in number.
It gave a good element in multiplayer that you were able to raid others ressource gathering withouth having to launch full scale attacks. When I multiplayed it - we normally started with low amount of ressources so well placed strikes could seriously shift the powerbalance. Sending some cavelery early in the game to raid others food production (if you can find it) or gold gathering and you could quickly cribble them for the entier game

I like strategy games, but usually stay away from most RTS because I don't feel they are strategic or tactical enough.

Paranitis · Post by **Paranitis** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:51 pm

I am annoyed that other games are so light in the resource management area. In the Age of Empires series of games you can get gold through mining, stone through mining (thought early in production they talked about being able to aquire little bits of resources for destroying enemy buildings (which they did a little bit in Warcraft 3 with the Orcs) so that when you attack someone, not only are you hurting them, you are helping yourself), wood through chopping trees, and then the best part..food gathering..which can happen through berry bushes..or farms..or fishing..or laying traps in the water after the fish are gone..or hunting any animal that moves on land (which are quite a bit..especially with Empire Earth..and theirs multiply too I believe..unless I am confusing it with some other game).

I am annoyed like for instance Starcraft (which is a great game, don't get me wrong) which you either need blue crystals..or some gas to make units..and I mean come freaking on, that may be okay with the Zerg and Protoss, but Terrans (humans) need to EAT something..where is the food? They don't even have a 'food production' building to bring the crystals and gas to..you make little houses and I guess you expect food to be around? That is just lazy and stupid.

In all RTS games there HAS to be a consumable (food-type) resource, a building (wood..stone..crystals MAYBE) resource, and a wealth (gold..crystals?) resource to pay the troops for any resource management to even make sense.

I can understand in Black & White that there was just wood and food, and that in understandable that the villagers dont need gold to build..because in B&W 1 it was all about them living their own life..and they weren't going to war or anything..plus you were a god and could blast all unbelievers as soon as they thought about being paid for their daily work in the fields.

I want Age of Empires 3 to play like the other Age of Empires games..and hopefully it will look better than Empire Earth..because frankly..people walking around with huge pyramid shaped heads and hands and feet is kinda creepy.

Legend · Post by **Legend** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 2:42 pm

A fitting name would be "Age of the New World" or perhaps "Age of Exploration" since it's set in the early days of the North American continent. I can't wait until this one hits the stores.