Ensemble Studios founder: Age of Empires III a "huge mistake"

<mod hat on>

You know folks, if you think a thread is a waste of bandwidth, the proper response is to not post in it.

<mod hat off>

Rebochan does raise a good point about the newsworthiness of the original Kotaku article.

edited 14th Feb '11 6:44:41 PM by MetaFour

I know next to nothing about the Age of Empires series, but I did like the graphic style of the concept art for Online.

I bought the Ao E 3 trilogy for 99 cents to see if I could still enjoy it - I'm trying, but it still feels off to me.

Re: The Kotaku stuff, that's what happens when you pay your bloggers by pageview.

For me, AoE1 was great. There may not have been much variety, but something about the atmosphere of the game just got me to keep coming back.

AoE2 was far better in variety, but the atmosphere was duller. Fun to play as any (either?) of the American races though.

I've not finished AoE3 yet, but I can see what you mean by it being different. Too many units is what I claim the primary problem to be, among other lists of "too many" or "too much". That said, it still felt like an Age of Empires game to me... just not a very good one. (And ignoring all that, moving the game into the colonial age kinda bugs me anyway. Too much gunpowder, not enough archers.)

Age of Mythology was nice, but the fact that I could breeze through essentially any campaign level with only myth units was a bit of a let down. Sure that solves my variety issue from the original AoE (despite being set in the same time period), but that's not really an excuse to make the game so easy. (Note: I was on whatever the "normal" difficulty was, not something intentionally easier)

edited 14th Feb '11 11:07:13 PM by Sabbo

ALL RTS campaigns are hilariously easy, even in hard difficulty...the hardest possible mission I can think of is Brood War 's final Zerg stage, and even that was a cake walk to anyone who knows how to produce massive numbers of drones.

Let me put it this way: I have yet to finish Warcraft 3. (specifically, I beat the original on Normal, but am up to somewhere near halfway through the human campaign on Hard. In the expansion I got to somewhere near halfway through the undead campaign on Normal.)

For Starcraft, I got all the way to the fifth(I think) Zerg Brood War level.

edited 14th Feb '11 11:35:51 PM by Sabbo

And ignoring all that, moving the game into the colonial age kinda bugs me anyway. Too much gunpowder, not enough archers.

Personally, they should have focused more on the continental stuff and less on the colonial aspect; early modern warfare is a thing many games don't cover.

I do think the focus on the colonial aspect might be a symptom of Creator Provincialism though.

Well yes, but they covered that for the Age of Empires 2 expansion. In part, anyway.

I think another reason AoE3 was a flop though is because it unjustifiably added heaps of 100% fictional content. At least the first two games tried to follow history (while still being able to make a game out of it) and AoM tried to vaguely follow the various mythologies.

Signed, you clearly have not played the final mission for Genghis Khan's campaign in AOE II. Where your small army will have to conquer fucking Burgundy, with their army thrice as large as yours and they're already in the Imperial Age.

That being said, the first two AOE games were pretty solid. Especially II. II was <3

I think another reason Ao E 3 was a flop though is because it unjustifiably added heaps of 100% fictional content. At least the first two games tried to follow history (while still being able to make a game out of it) and Ao M tried to vaguely follow the various mythologies.

Only tried? I'd say they got it pretty right 95% of the time; the other 5% is to ensure the game would be playable.

That being said, the first two AOE games were pretty solid. Especially II. II was <3

I. Fucking. Love. Playing. The. Huns.

Well historical accuracy in the ancient eras is not easy.

Also, I would put the "tried" for AoM closer to 60%; mixing mythologies can never turn out well.

.

But yeah. Tried. Even if they had succeeded 100%, they still tried.

edited 15th Feb '11 5:23:49 AM by Sabbo

I hear the Huns. And the moterhfucking Aztecs.

I loved those little diaries at the start of every campaign level. great drawings and a lot of lovely accents. Fuck Yeah.

@Sabbo: The encyclopedic entries in AOM were pretty well-researched, though. They did take a fair bit of liberty with the Atlantean mythos, what with it being a fictional culture.

Which is weird...why Atlanteans? They already had Greek units fill in for them in the original.

They shoulda added a new real life culture instead...like Aztecs, or China, or Japan, or native Indians(I wanna see wendigos...)

It fitted with their Titan backstory: The Atlanteans explored a part of Greek myths that wasn't used in the original: Zeus' ancestors, the war against Titans, stuff like that.

Which is weird...why Atlanteans? They already had Greek units fill in for them in the original.

They shoulda added a new real life culture instead...like Aztecs, or China, or Japan, or native Indians(I wanna see wendigos...)

They probably couldn't think of anything else with a comparibly famous and expansive mythos.

I mean, I wikipedia'd Aztec mythology right now, and while they've got a humongous list of characters, it seems to be the stories about them (while possibly just as many) just aren't as known because those characters' pages are mostly stubs.

China mythology, while I know little of it, seems to be more unconnected wherein Greek, Egypt and Norse tend to have reoccuring characters and traits.

Japan... I know too little to really argue about that. Native Indians too.

edited 15th Feb '11 11:11:58 AM by VutherA

Or they could do England and use christianity...of course, since they only have a measly one god, instead, when you change age using them, it should just be the same good but in different moods.

 ^*

 ^*

 ^*

Either way, Ao M is the ONLY "Age" series I could enjoy...I tried the other games, and they were all so...colorless...they lacked the magnetism that the myth units and god powers provided for Ao M. Instead of converting a forest into walking trees, you just...trade with another nation to get some resources.

edited 15th Feb '11 11:50:01 AM by Signed

I absolutely loved the melee and shooting system in AOE III, as well as the formations and use of cannons which I felt added a lot of the feel of the era to it.

But then again, I never really played competitively so I can't say how that turned out in more serious multiplayer.

edited 15th Feb '11 12:07:01 PM by VutherA

England

Christianity

DYFR.

@Vuther: Personally I'd like it better if they took cues from Cossacks and made musket firing rates slower and bayonet charges more useful.

@Vuther: Personally I'd like it better if they took cues from Cossacks and made musket firing rates slower and bayonet charges more useful.

I found bayonet charging perfectly useful - since it did extra damage against cavalry for musketeers and they'd have no chance in hell against light infantry at range. I actually find I prefer a more tactical method toward combat, but I have a feeling Ensemble didn't want that to take over the game.

Yeah, IIRC the only weakness Age Of Empires has is a relative lack of detailed tactics, but it is a Real-Time Strategy game, not a Real Time Tactics one.

Who needs tactics when you can just spam War Wagons and those siege thingies anyway?

Who needs tactics when you can just spam War Wagons and those siege thingies anyway?

Ah yes, spam. The standard 'strategy' of my youth. Good thing I didn't play the multiplayer.

I think Age of Empires III was FUN, but the home city and card system was a bit of a game breaker to be honest. I would have liked it if you could just unlock and build every unit in the game using your own resources. Sure, a card-collecting thing is an incentive to play on, but it ruined online gameplay. All those upgrades for home cities were nice to collect too, but not really necessary. They could have just had more factions and greater game depth in the first place.

For all its faults, I want an Age of Empires IV.

1.PETITION BILL GATES FOR AOE IV
2.Get ignored
3.Meet Bill Gates
4.Get restraining order
5.???
6.PROFIT

edited 15th Feb '11 8:56:25 PM by Shichibukai