I know this game isn't exactly one of the red hot franchises out there but since AOE: II The Conquerors, this has been one consistently fun game for me. I'm not too into the whole online gameplay and my idea of a fun game is just something light that only takes a portion of your time, not dominates your life. So yeah, I enjoy this game immensely.
The Asian Dynasties Expansion just came out today so I'm about to try it out. It brings back a few AoE: II features such as "the build a wonder" and fire ships so I'm eager to see if it's a marked improvement. While I enjoy all the advances of AoE: III, I did seem to derive a lot more fun out of 'The conquerors' overall.
Ray mentioned Empire Earth in another thread. Just how different is that game to AoE?
Better?, worse?
Most other conquest RPG's That i've tried out haven't been as user friendly and smooth as this series. So I avoid most other ones, especially those coming from Sierra which IMO have been (at least in my experience) consistently bad.
As far as Asian Dynasties. The Chinese and Japanese civilizations take a bit getting used to, especially the Japanese who are vegetarians so you have to build shrines for food (??) .
i've never played AOE III but Empire Earth plays a lot like AOE II but with several improvements, most notably you can go from caveman level to advanced sci-fi society building battle cyborgs. so the game lasts a lot longer and has many more challenges.
Originally Posted By: Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man
i've never played AOE III but Empire Earth plays a lot like AOE II but with several improvements, most notably you can go from caveman level to advanced sci-fi society building battle cyborgs. so the game lasts a lot longer and has many more challenges.
I downloaded Empire earth II to give it a spin. Apart from the ability to go higher up in tech than AoE, i'm feeling rather unerwhelmed.
THE GAME IS A MESS!! iT'S SO COMPLETELY UGLY AND COUNTER INTUITIVE IN IT'S LAYOUT AND CONTROLS!!!
Tiny little buttons everywhere!!
Crappy assed typical Sierra game engine.
If they could make it a little more user friendly and less ... um aggravating and micro managing, then i'll give it another shot. Plus I hate when I drag my troops that it's easy to take your villagers with them. AoE only takes the troops when you do that.
If they could make it a little more user friendly and less ... um aggravating and micro managing, then i'll give it another shot. Plus I hate when I drag my troops that it's easy to take your villagers with them. AoE only takes the troops when you do that.
that's because, unlike you, those villagers obviously support our troops.
seriously though my strategy in the game never had that problem. I would build a very tight base that could be easily guarded with walls and then towers. i would use rally points to mass produce armies of different types (archers, soldiers, horsemen, etc.) at different points. Then I would send my army in to to different points along the edge of the enemies' land so they would create all this chaos and destruction. While the enemy was going to kill them off I already had about 10 civilians go in and build a base and barracks and more towers. then i would expand the towers and build more bases and buildings while sending out small groups of soldiers to target mining operations (killing their civilians to limit their rebuilding power) until i had the whole area to myself.
On my computer I have a demo for AOE I. I like it better than Caesar II which I have in my old computer. The worse problem I get with AOE is that the gold and stone mines get empty (and since I have the demo I can't go longer than Bronze Age). Caesar II is one of these strategy games in which you go bankrupt all the time because the programmer created a socialist economy without giving the player the control a socialist government would have IRL.
"Batman is only meaningful as an answer to a world which in its basics is chaotic and in the hands of the wrong people, where no justice can be found. I think it's very suitable to our perception of the world's condition today... Batman embodies the will to resist evil" -Frank Miller
"Conan, what's the meaning of life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!" -Conan the Barbarian
"Well, yeah." -Jason E. Perkins
"If I had a dime for every time Pariah was right about something I'd owe twenty cents." -Ultimate Jaburg53
"Fair enough. I defer to your expertise." -Prometheus
As is "Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile" which I bought on impulse at the gift shop of the museum when I went to see the King Tut exhibit.
all these games have infuriating controls and AI.
So far AoE seems to be the cream of the crop. Which version of AoE are you playing? I remember i had a demo for AoE II: The Conquerors and that was enough to hook me.
As far as the mines go, yeah, part of the gameplay of AoE is that you have to search the map for more mines, wildlife and wood, which sometimes mans you have to risk going near an enemy city.
To it's credit, I did spend too long last night playing Empire Earth II. I wanted to see how far up in tech I could get. I made it up to Epoch 10 before I got tired and bored wit hit all and killed the last enemy settler to end the damn thing.
"Batman is only meaningful as an answer to a world which in its basics is chaotic and in the hands of the wrong people, where no justice can be found. I think it's very suitable to our perception of the world's condition today... Batman embodies the will to resist evil" -Frank Miller
"Conan, what's the meaning of life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!" -Conan the Barbarian
"Well, yeah." -Jason E. Perkins
"If I had a dime for every time Pariah was right about something I'd owe twenty cents." -Ultimate Jaburg53
"Fair enough. I defer to your expertise." -Prometheus
I never liked online play for this game, myself. There was always considerable lag and a lot of mismatches.
If you're going to play any of those games though, AoE II: the Conquerors is the one to go with. The others before were always pretty standard and comparable to the Sierra ones i've been bitching about. Somehow they nailed it finally for AoE II: The Conquerors. I spent many a night playing that game until the rising sun made me realize i'd stayed up too too late.
I never liked online play for this game, myself. There was always considerable lag and a lot of mismatches.
Good to know. Thanks mate.
Quote:
If you're going to play any of those games though, AoE II: the Conquerors is the one to go with. The others before were always pretty standard and comparable to the Sierra ones i've been bitching about. Somehow they nailed it finally for AoE II: The Conquerors. I spent many a night playing that game until the rising sun made me realize i'd stayed up too too late.
Then that is the game I'll put on my 'to buy'-list!
"Batman is only meaningful as an answer to a world which in its basics is chaotic and in the hands of the wrong people, where no justice can be found. I think it's very suitable to our perception of the world's condition today... Batman embodies the will to resist evil" -Frank Miller
"Conan, what's the meaning of life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!" -Conan the Barbarian
"Well, yeah." -Jason E. Perkins
"If I had a dime for every time Pariah was right about something I'd owe twenty cents." -Ultimate Jaburg53
"Fair enough. I defer to your expertise." -Prometheus
Depending on whether you download it or else buy the CD of course, it might still require the patch. Basically it tweaks and improves on some of the game features and items.
"Batman is only meaningful as an answer to a world which in its basics is chaotic and in the hands of the wrong people, where no justice can be found. I think it's very suitable to our perception of the world's condition today... Batman embodies the will to resist evil" -Frank Miller
"Conan, what's the meaning of life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!" -Conan the Barbarian
"Well, yeah." -Jason E. Perkins
"If I had a dime for every time Pariah was right about something I'd owe twenty cents." -Ultimate Jaburg53
"Fair enough. I defer to your expertise." -Prometheus
