So what does it mean when people say “Your game is good, but not as good as your last game?”
I mean this question in a sense of where Ensamble is and where it is going.
Well, I generally (and genially) blow at RTS games, at least when I start them, so it must be easier. And I was playing as the Dutch!
Now that you mention it, Troy, what is the new Isis/Huns in AoE3? Just curious… :roll: [/quote]
The Dutch, I think.
I haven’t widely experimented with all of the cultures - one thing that AoE 3 gets a bit wrong is how the Home City deck building really encourages you to specialize with one country when you are still learning the game. In the tension between unlocking new cards and trying yet another European power, the cards always win.
But the Dutch can build banks from the beginning of the game and these provide the steady trickle of gold that others will need the plantation for. Build 5 banks and the money rolls in, allowing you to either put more settlers on forestry duty or to buy what you need at the market.
Mind you, the Turks are tough too. Settlers are produced automatically (you get fewer of them, though) and one of their early shipments allows you to build trading posts for one hundred less wood.
Troy
The problem is that there are no victory conditions beyond pounding your opponent into submission and killing every last villager. Quite literally.
This is how the game was built. I can see how and why Ensemble did it this way, but it can mean some brutal endgame grinds. There are some possible stalemate breakers: mercenaries (assuming you’ve got a level 10 city with enough mercenary cards to make a substantial difference); monitor ship bombardments (requires a body of water, natch); well defended imperial guns (make sure to micromanage your formations in guard mode!); or a maxxed out army population complemented by native warriors (sometimes a negligible factor, but worth a try and key on maps with lots of settlements).
But there are no other victory conditions. Also, there’s no guarantee that map control will win a game, which is an interesting decision that makes turtling viable.
So the short answer is that this is a game about economics. If you don’t hit each other’s economies in the course of a normal game (i.e. raid villagers), you’re going to end up with a late-game grind. That’s just how Age III was built.
-Tom
The problem is that there are no victory conditions beyond pounding your opponent into submission and killing every last villager. Quite literally.
This is how the game was built. I can see how and why Ensemble did it this way, but it can mean some brutal endgame grinds. There are some possible stalemate breakers: mercenaries (assuming you’ve got a level 10 city with enough mercenary cards to make a substantial difference); monitor ship bombardments (requires a body of water, natch); well defended imperial guns (make sure to micromanage your formations in guard mode!); or a maxxed out army population complemented by native warriors (sometimes a negligible factor, but worth a try and key on maps with lots of settlements).
But there are no other victory conditions. Also, there’s no guarantee that map control will win a game, which is an interesting decision that makes turtling viable.
So the short answer is that this is a game about economics. If you don’t hit each other’s economies in the course of a normal game (i.e. raid villagers), you’re going to end up with a late-game grind. That’s just how Age III was built.
-Tom[/quote]
Reading some of the quotes from Ensemble, it seems they viewed the Imperial Age as the tie-breaker. I know that’s not news to anyone, and it’s a bit like constructing a Titan Gate in AoM, but basically if one player is in Imperial and the other isn’t, it’s gg.
Now, does that work? I’ve only gotten to Imperial once, and that’s when the game was well in hand. More practice…
I don’t think the Imperial Age is a tie-breaker at all.
There are some pretty cool techs in the capitol, but I believe their price usually depends on how the other guy is doing. For instance, spies is prohibitively expensive unless the other guy is beat down and you just need some way to track down his villagers. Or maybe if you’re the Dutch and your pop is maxxed, so you’ve got nothing better to do with your gold.
I guess if you get to Imperial Age first and can afford an embargo, you’ll get the advantage of being able to reuse your cards while he can’t reuse his. I’m not sure if this will let you break your pop limit, though.
Anyway, there are some potentially interesting ramifications beyond the Imperial upgrade for your units, but I don’t consider them ways to break a stalemate in the same sense as bringing out your Titan in AoM.
-Tom
Has anyone had the game persistently and quickly crash to desktop due to sound problems? I removed the music file suggested by Ensemble, no dice. I play with no music, that doesn’t work either. The only way I have been able to play the game for more than, say, 4 seconds is if I play the game in debug mode with all sound off. In that case, for what it’s worth, I have had no crashes. I don’t mind losing music, but sound is a critical part of the game and not having it makes it unplayable, imho.
Basically, the game doesn’t work for me. Gamestop won’t take it back either, because it’s been opened. All my drivers are updated, etc. Does anyone know about an eta for a patch to fix this, or failing that, has anyone ever returned a non-functioning game in such a situation (i.e. the store refuses to take it back)? Is there anything I can do to get my money back?
Oh and if anyone is going to make a HILARIOUS suggestion like “Don’t buy from Gamestop, lol!!!”, please don’t. I am really pretty bummed that I seem to be out 50 dollars on this.
Thanks,
Mark
There’s another fix involving replacing one of your audio codecs. I believe it’s only applicable to Windows 2000 (or maybe it was XP Pro), so I didn’t bother with it, but you can find it on Heaven Games or probably the AOE3 official forums.
Update: I inserted +nomusic into the command line for the game shortcut and that seems to do the trick for now- turning it off in game was not good enough. For some reason I am still skeptical, it ran ok before and then just started to crash again, but right now it seems stable! If any of you folks have this problem, maybe the +nomusic thing will help.
Also, I feel I gotta mention that the guy at Gamestop said he WOULD take it back and give me money. This was confusing because, when I purchased it, I was specifically told when I asked (by another clerk) that they would not accept a return for any reason once opened, but hey, happy surprises are the best kind. So Gamestop deserves a little more credit than I gave them, then.
In any case, it seems that returning it is unnecessary for now. Game on!
Does anyone have any idea whatsoever what to do with the Dutch?
Mark
Dutch: build banks, build more banks, get upgrade to build more banks.
Crush opposition with the tons of coin your banks generate.
I gathered that much :)
The trick is surviving that long in a game that does not seem to reward turtling- each bank costs a substantial amount of wood AND food, and that means you have that much less defense while waiting for your bank-grid to come online. The balance between bank construction and necessary defense, particularly against rabid attacking races like Russia or the artillery of the Ottoman seems very tricky indeed. No free lunches here!
Double post, sorry :oops:
Turtling against the AI (on hard) is pretty easy with Dutch, but I imagine it is a lot tougher against proper players. For one thing, the hard AI never bothers to build mortars, so your forts/towers/walls can provide reasonable defense.
Anyone still playing this? If so, keep an eye out for me on ESO: lukejm
I’ve been playing the demo, I think once they release patch 1.02 I’ll pick up the game.
That sounds like a good time for all of us to begin playing again online. We’re so geriatric we can’t even hail each other over X-fire!
I still play on my LAN from time to time at Shoot Club. I have no desire to wade into ESO’s random matchmaking until there’s some provision for the fact that I’m not very good at the game and would like to play with other people who aren’t very good. But I’m afraid must of us have been run off by cavalry rushes.
However, I would be happy to join any of you folks.
-Tom
Anyone want to buy a copy of AOE3? First time in a long time I felt I made a mistake purchasing a game. Worse than WCIII even…
I’ll trade it with you for Gothic II Gold >.<
We’ll trade you some ARVN rifles; never fired and only dropped once.
:?: :?: :?: :?: :roll:
Them’s fightin’ words!
I haven’t played in awhile, got hooked back into WoW. I’d still like to play, though.