New Poll + Designer Shoutouts - Age of Empires Forums

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New Poll + Designer Shoutouts

Fisk
Champion of AoEH
(id: Fruktfisk)

posted 02-29-20 03:39 AM ET (US)

Happy Leap Day everyone. I hope you make the most of your extra day this year.

It's time to change the poll again!

Last time I asked you about which historical setting you would've liked for AoE IV. It seems you are a bit divided between the ancient and the modern, but in the AoEH:s bias towards antiquity shines through. The end results were:

I would've liked AoE IV to be set during the...

Ancient Times (39%, 46 Votes)
World Wars Era (33%, 39 Votes)
Renaissance - Early Industral Age (16%, 19 Votes)
Middle Ages (12%, 13 Votes)

Total votes: 117

In the poll before this one I asked about Rush units, but now let us look at the other end of the Spectrum. We're talking about Post-Iron units, anything with that golden glow. Tell us which one is your favorite!

In addition to the new poll, I'd like to take some time to promote a couple of new maps in our Granary which have caught my attention.

The Holy Forest by Luna Lynn

The first is a new piece from one of my favorites among our active designers, Luna Lynn, who has made an extremely detailed multiplayer map which aims to transform the entire multiplayer experience and is also very pleasing to look at. When I first heard that over 100 hours work had went into the making of this map i scoffed, but then I saw it and I realized every tree on this map is hand placed! One of the most unique features of this map is that forests can be passed through by villagers, as seen in the screenshot above. This together with some interesting restrictions placed on the players and the ruins turning it into a classical battle for the center control makes this map a unique multiplayer experience. If that sounds like something interesting to you make sure to check out The Holy Forest [1vs1] and [2vs2].

Hostage by Kastanje57

The other is a more classical campaign from a new designer. Nevertheless this one also has some excellent map design, and the shot of the towers at the beach above shows one of my favorite parts. What I really like about this is the gameplay. It's the kind of campaign which requires patience and a bit of thought. There's a certain sense of harmony to it, it takes the time it takes and you can't stress it. I suppose it reminds me of a time when this game was new and people didn't get understimulated so easily. This was in fact uploaded last year but Kastanje57 has been regularly updating his file since I posted my initial review, and expanded upon his work with a second scenario. If you're looking for a classic puzzle experience take a look at Hostage.

//The warrior of Isola

"I lack quotes that demonstrate Humor Intelligence or anything about me."

Pineapplefish
Cleidopus gloriamaris

[This message has been edited by Fisk (edited 02-29-2020 @ 12:50 PM).]

Author

Replies:

L Lynn
Clubman

posted 02-29-20 10:29 AM ET (US) 1 / 5

Thank you for the promoting x).
Indeed when I was making this map over a month working on 4 hours sessions of spam clicking, I knew people wouldnt understand what is long in making this map cause this isnt only about the trees, the trees spaming will take 2 hours for the first type tree brush,2 hours for the 2nd and 3-4 hours for the last one cause its tricky since you have to click way more and be attentive to fill where they can fit, what takes a lot of time is all the underbrushes, for example spaming a brush of desert grass patch all over a huge map takes a ridiculous amount of time but you need to place them with precision with this little trick of elevation design also intended to prevent buildings on specific areas. So there is :
Brush 1: alternate terrain elevation.
Brush 2: desert grass patch letting this little shade of terrain elevation for the design trick.
Brush 3: I used simple grass patch to wipe desert grass patch imperfection often appearing around the elevations.
Brush 4: rocks cactuses and dead trees on the shores and around villages.
Brush 5: The 3 types of trees I selected for this forest.
The dragged shallows and the waterfalls on the cliffs also have been placed carefully with lot of precision etc..
So it's hard for somebody to imagine what has been done on this map not even taking in consideration that it's a huge map and the creativity behind it, for those who are interested we have a small community playing custom maps on gameranger CSM clan (Custom scenario masters).

Fisk
Champion of AoEH
(id: Fruktfisk)

posted 02-29-20 10:51 AM ET (US) 2 / 5

Ha! Made you post on the forums!

You know, I'm just amazed at the amount of work you put into these scenarios that in the end are just going to be played by a small group of people, hence why I felt you deserved some promoting. Knowing there are people playing maps like this really make me wish I had the time to go online a bit more often. As it is I don't even have the GR client installed on this laptop.

//The warrior of Isola

"I lack quotes that demonstrate Humor Intelligence or anything about me."

Pineapplefish
Cleidopus gloriamaris

L Lynn
Clubman

posted 02-29-20 03:47 PM ET (US) 3 / 5

Well it's not end of life yet, maybe one day we will have the pleasure to train you at these custom maps x)), my goal is to have a bigger community to organize nice competitive custom maps tournaments and maybe even later cast them for youtube it would be epic x)

Basse
Clubman

posted 03-01-20 04:48 AM ET (US) 4 / 5

I really like the old helepolis, the new nerfed helepolis in DE is a slight disappontment! I remember as a kid I used to mass helepolis in DM vs AIs on easiest difficulty!

Fisk
Champion of AoEH
(id: Fruktfisk)

posted 03-09-20 07:01 AM ET (US) 5 / 5

Yeah, it seems the Hele is popular, and I can see why. The old Heleopolis sure was something. It was so ridiculous in DM when you got a big old death ball of those things and they'd mow down any melee unit sent at them even before they got within minimum range. The only real weakness of those things were HCats, which would one-shot them.

For that very same reason I've kind of grown to despise them as a designer. They're overpowered and unrealistic as far as units go. My vote went to the weak old Cataphract for that reason. Yes, it's a pretty weak upgrade, but at least it's a cool and realistic unit.

//The warrior of Isola

"I lack quotes that demonstrate Humor Intelligence or anything about me."

Pineapplefish
Cleidopus gloriamaris

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