note: some of this info was already known by the general public about AoK... i decided to merely write anything i could remember, regardless of whether it was already known, in case some of you havent read about AoK.
microsoft had about 10-15 computers set up with a scenario running that people could walk up and try out. there were assistants at each console telling you about the game, its controls, and answering your questions.
at first, i tried out the scenario, just messing around with offensive units, and building various stuff. i had many questions about the game that couldnt really be demonstrated in the scenario, for example, "what does the game look like starting on basic default settings?". the assistant proceeded to allow me to load a default random map game against some computer opponents. here is a list of my observations in my experiences playing the scenario and default game.
Starting out
- The game starts with a towncenter, three villagers and a scout. when i heard about the scout, i figured that early exploration would be way too easy, but then i discovered that the scout had been toned down (at least in the first age -- i think i heard something about the unit improving in later ages, like sight range and speed). the scout moves about 1.5 times the speed of the villager and has a much reduced radius of exploration vs. scouts of AoE/RoR.
The towncenter
- the same hotkeys are used for training vills (h + c), and the towncenter now has some new abilities. ringing the town bell commands all villagers to move towards and gather in the town center where they cannot be attacked. ringing the bell again will command all the villagers in your tc to resume their duties. there are also options to release individual villagers at a time. also there is a button that commands the villagers to exit the tc, but to only stand idle upon exiting. this could be useful in keeping your vills together if you want to quickly select them and tell them to run away, perhaps from an attacking army. another ability of the tc is the option to get an upgrade called "the loom". this increased villager hitpoints (+15), and villager normal and piercing armor by +1. i believe it cost about 150 food.
The first age buildings
+the mill, the farm, and food gathering
- mills are something of an equivalent to a granary, however it is used for ALL food gathering duties. this includes hunting, shore fishing and gathering berries. berrie patches are about the same size as in AoE/RoR.. they have 6 or so bushes, each with 125 food on a bush. villagers still have a carrying capacity of 10 berries, however, hunting has been altered (and possibly shore fishing as well, but im not sure). now, when a villager is collecting meat from an animal, he/she gathers from 50-75 (approx., depending on upgrades), before dropping off the meat in the mill. there are several types of game to hunt now, including sheep, gazelle/deer, wild boars, and shore fish (i have a feeling i saw a lion or two, but cant remember for sure). sheep are randomly distributed in packs on the map. at first, they have no ownership, but when a unit walks by them, they become under control of the player controlling that unit. there control is very similar to that of artifacts in AoE/RoR. when a villager is nearby some sheep you own, he/she can be told to herd the sheep, in which the villager goes through some rather humorous herding motions/noises, followed by the sheep travelling faster to their destination due to the coaxing of the vill. the sheep do not move nor fight back upon being hunted. gazelle/deer run away upon being hunted, but at a speed/reaction time much slower than that of AoE/RoR. the gazelle/deer are not as difficult to keep in the same area in AoK. the wild boar requires about 3-4 vills and some good micromanagement to kill as it not only attacks back, but when you run away with one vill, it targets a closer one. kinda like smarter elephants. farms are now able to be built in the first age. they are not recommended, though, due to their cost, and slower food gathering speed than other food sources (just like farming is looked down upon in the tool/early bronze of AoE/RoR). farms may be placed side by side with the drop-off point (mill or tc), because farms are now capable of being walked over, as are all building foundations (until construction begins on them). enemies cannot see construction sites that have not had construction begin upon them.
+the storage pits
- there are two types of gathering pits for non-food resources. there is a mining pit (for gold and stone), and a woodcutting pit (well, duh.. for wood). the gold/sotne pits contained about 8-10 tiles of 800 gold each, and were not too difficult to locate. forests were often quite huge, with trees containing 100 wood (there may be trees with more/less, but i didnt see any right away).
+the dock and houses
- all i know about these buildings is that there are many different house graphics, and although they all take up a square of tiles, some of the house graphics are tilted in different directions giving a much less monotonous look for the houses. docks are still able to be built in the first age, and boats are in general larger vessels than in AoE/RoR. the boats leave a beautiful wake of waves behind them.... this game's graphics are amazing in nearly every area of the game.
Random Info
- a couple of the new hotkeys added are the period and comma keys... the period cycles through your idle villagers, while the comma cycles through your idle military units.
- walls can have gates that only open to allow units you control, or allied units to enter. there was talk that these gates would be player controlled, but currently, they are only opened when your units or your allies units wish to pass.
- there are abilities for a race that are called something like "Team Abilities". for example if a race has the following:
Team Ability: Archery Ranges produce units 20 percent faster (a briton ability i think)
.. then all players on the briton's team gain the archery range bonus. this should lead to some diversity in the selection of civs in team games, as teams may try to put together interesting combos of team/civ abilities to try out various strategies.
- a tech tree for every civ, along with a list of civ abilities/available units is built into the game... you are able to access it anytime during a game.
- there is a multiplayer save feature, which allows players to save the game and later load it from any point, including a situation in which a player drops/disconnects, so that the game may be later finished. when a player is disconnecting, the other players in the game can vote to kick him out or save the game and wait for the player to return online to finish the game.
- civs speak their respective languages, and there are also some additional voices in the game (for example, when one approaches an enemies base, the enemy civ will say something like along the lines of "Come any closer and i will be forced to defend myself".
- there are trade caravans that travel between you and yoru allies bases, trading resources, although im not sure how the trading system works, for example, i dont know if you actually trade res with your ally, or if you gain/lose res independently of your allies' gain/loss.
- markets now allow you to buy/sell res. you may sell wood/food/gold/stone for any of the other resources. if a lot of wood is sold, then the it will not be worth as much in future buying/selling. for example, one may trade 100 wood for 100 gold. as one continues to do so, the amount of gold you get per 100 wood drops... 100w -> 99g, then 98 g, and so on. this affects all players trade values at their marketplace, leaving some interesting room for analysis of some trade-based team strategies.
- you can change the score display in the bottom right to show different stats about the game, like how many guys you have gathering various resources, and other stats, or you can just plain leave the game score of all players on there, like in AoE/RoR.
- there are many military formations that you can assign to your armies... the movement in formations/changing of formations are all beautifully, and smoothly done... good pathing.
well, ugg, ive been at this for a long time, i didnt take notes at the show, so all of this is off the top of my head. im sure i know more about the game, but im having the hardest time remembering it all.. feel free to ask any questions and i, or someone else who played the game at E3 might be able to help you out.
Thanks for your time, and i hope you enjoyed reading this,
_The_Stranger