AoE3 demo

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coomar

Banned
Apr 4, 2005
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they do have a couple of months to fix the UI, I'm assuming they'll go to something a bit more like aoe2
 

martinez

Senior member
May 10, 2005
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Originally posted by: mindgam3
This is the first game of this type of genre ive ever loaded onto my computer .. ive never played a rts game before so i having nothing to compare it to... im disapointed because the pictures i saw online looked sweet and the layout seems clunky and hard to learn.

From what the Ensemble guys have said that post on our community forums

ES_DeathShrimp
If it makes you feel better, think of this as a beta that the evil marketing beings wanted to call a demo. Just kidding, if you're reading this, marketing beings.
You will be happy to know the AI is much better in our current build and we have even shrunk the UI some -- not microscopic, but it is smaller.

We are also getting a lot of good bugs, and good data from folks with some graphics problems, so we are getting useful information. Keep playing and posting!

These games are definately a steep learning curve, it gets easier. The main thing you want to concentrate on is growing your economy as fast as you can, in as many ways as you can....gathering+trade etc(You should never have your town center not producing settlers or aging up). Then the key from there is to spend your resources as you earn them in order to attack your opponents economy. Don't attack his buildings, kill his settlers ;)
 

Winchester

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
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Anyone notice how big the fricken ships are? No big armada battles for us. Limits of like cannon 2 ships :(. I love big sea battles.
 

Nickrand

Member
Sep 4, 2004
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Fix for the demo yet??

In what regard?

This game rocks, I just hope people's computers can handle 4v4 :S
 

Lord Banshee

Golden Member
Sep 8, 2004
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Hmm this game look alot better on my CRT than my LCD.

the graphics are alot smoothers and i can see the people better. If anyone else has both you compare.

I have a Dell 1900FP LCD and a Samsung SyncMaster 997DF montior. Both set to 1280x1024.

Even screenshots shows the CRT is alot better. I notice this in AOM also. i wonder if it is becuase details in these games are small and LCD only have a certain size crystal to output it. Maybe someone with a better LCD and compare too.
 

monster64

Banned
Jan 18, 2005
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Anyone tried the rotation camera? Its pretty cool since all the other aoes could only do 4 preset directions. Shortcut is ctr+left/right arrows.
I was thinking of making a list of shortcuts since the game has so many cool things that there are no controls for. So I'll try to keep this list up to date. My first contribution:

*rotational camera = CTR+LEFT/RIGHT ARROWKEY
*unit selection shortcut = highlighted units + ctr + #s 0-9
*Alt-S is the hotkey for stand ground usually, Alt-A for aggressive stance, Alt-D is defensive
-thx to martinez
 

coomar

Banned
Apr 4, 2005
2,431
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i have a dell 21inch crt and a benq 19inch lcd side by side

it looks better on the lcd but the bloom effects aren't that impressive

zoomed in all the way it looks a little better on the crt but your not going to be playing like that
 

Ackmed

Diamond Member
Oct 1, 2003
8,499
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Originally posted by: Nickrand
Fix for the demo yet??

In what regard?

This game rocks, I just hope people's computers can handle 4v4 :S


A fis for the problem MANY people are having. It gives us a D3D error, and wont start. So far, all NV cards.
 

Avalon

Diamond Member
Jul 16, 2001
7,571
178
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Originally posted by: Tab
Anyone beat a really hard computer yet?

Not yet, still getting used to the game. Never played either of the previous AoE games, so I'm just banking on prior C&C and Starcraft experience here. The game seems like a solid game so far, but I haven't noticed anything particularly new or groundbreaking from other RTS games. I like it alright.
 

coomar

Banned
Apr 4, 2005
2,431
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the a.i. isn't at full speed, moderate is like easy on aoe2, i doubt hard is at full snuff either

i'm running it on a nvidia card

the game is a little different that starcraft in that farms/plantations/livestock are pretty important (though it looks like farming has been toned down a fair bit from earlier aoe)
 

martinez

Senior member
May 10, 2005
272
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I can beat the expert AI with no problems, but then I play AoM and Titans at a reasonably high level, 3-5 clan mates I play against are in top ten of those games, so they are much tougher than an AI. :p

The pop count is right below your experience meter, it starts the game showing 7/10. Each house you build you get 10 more pop limit up to 200. If you build trading posts at the Native American tribes you can train their unique units, which don't cost pop. There is a limit to how many total units of theirs you can train. So just decide when to use them.
 

jevans64

Senior member
Feb 10, 2004
208
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I've been playing on EASY just to learn the interface. Some things are the same as AOEII. No one has mentioned anything about the sound effects and the way buildings are blown to bits by Howitzers or the way those cannonballs rake away the infantry. :) This is the coolest part. :) You can even hear an artillary battle from a distance if you have to leave the area for some reason.

Has anyone else got the "friendly bear."? I have played several games and only found him once. He's cool!! :)

Sorry. :( But the Native American tribesmen make GREAT cannon fodder. :lol

Farming works a little differently. There is a building for it now but is earned later in the game. You build it and put up to 10 citizens on it. It is an infinite supply of food unless it is destroyed by an enemy. The same holds true for a building that supplies infinite coin ( money ). Having to make sure farms are queued up is gone, which takes some effort out of the game. The defensive ( forts, outposts ) building allowance seems to be pretty low but this is probably in place for the demo only.

I laughed my a$$ off the first time I saw my explorer writhing on the ground in agony after he had been attacked by the enemy. From that point on, I have seen the other dudes a$$ writhing. :lol
 

martinez

Senior member
May 10, 2005
272
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There will be a limit to Fortress and Tower/outpost spamming, due to that being a lame strategy. This is a great feature and forces you to rely on having an army to fight and not just buildings. AoM Titans turned into a real Age of Buildings, which makes for really boring competitive play. So, one fortress is max and I think it will be 8 outposts in the final version of the game.
 

johnnqq

Golden Member
May 30, 2005
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how do i build a towncenter with a villager???

ps this game is awesome. it's a refined aoe2 which is exactly what i wanted.
 

Byte

Platinum Member
Mar 8, 2000
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my dell xps2 laptop got pwned, i get a stupid error about D3D. serves me right for getting a dell.
 

martinez

Senior member
May 10, 2005
272
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Originally posted by: johnnqq
how do i build a towncenter with a villager???

ps this game is awesome. it's a refined aoe2 which is exactly what i wanted.


You don't build a Towncentre, what you do is ship a covered wagon from your Home City in the 3rd age and you select that wagon and click the build icon.
 

subzero813

Member
Aug 4, 2005
111
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i get the same blue screen error. i read two other guys with X800 series cards were getting this error as well. oh well...looks like its the age of putting out buggy demos. they might as well call it a beta. look at all the problems BF2 demo had, and now this.

i have:

Athlon XP 3200+
1GB DDR RAM
Radeon X800 XT 256MB AGP 8X
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (nForce2 Ultra 400)
SB Audigy2 ZS Gamer
 

jevans64

Senior member
Feb 10, 2004
208
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Byte:

Ininstall the demo. Switch your laptop resolution to 1024x768. Reinstall the demo. It should work. After you verify it works, you can then change your laptop resolution back to its native one. When you start the game, you can go into Help and Tools/Options/Graphics Options to set the game resolution.

Martinez.

I didn't build too many towers in AOEII, but I did like the defensive aspect of putting towers around my origional town or placing a Castle in a defensive position. I would still have defensive armies posted to defend against Trebuchet attacks and all of my offensive attacks used armies with no building support. The number of available Fortresses and Outposts should be balanced against map size with maybe 3 forts ans 12 outposts being the max for the biggest map available.

I never played Age of Mythology / Titans, so I don't know how that game worked.