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    HeavenGames
    News Archive 1998 April – September

    Headlines – April 09, 1998

    Latest patch info
    Mystery graphic
    Scenario Contest
    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Agetoon by dgenius
    Voting Sections
    Search the resources of Heaven
    History Tidbits
     
     

     

    Latest patch info
    Thanks to Leo the Scout
    Come on, people. Read this message from Dave C. Pottinger carefully and stop bugging (no pun intended) ES once and for all. Stop whining about “where’s the patch”, “ES let us down” and other such silly comments. Stop menacing “I won’t buy AOE2” and other such nonsense. Es is doing a patch and it will be out when it’s done, be it tomorrow, in 2 weeks or whenever. Opening up the game again and changing the code can be an hazardous task, just because you can create new bugs and other unexpected results. They have to take their time, and it’s not done by snapping their fingers.

    In the meantime, what can you do? DOH!?! Play the game! I didn’t slow down playing and I’m still having fun. Play with people you know. If you play on the zone or wherever, then quit the game if someone blatantly cheats. Never play with them again. Some people are still amazed when they ask me to play, or add them to my ICQ list and I refuse, because of past sins they commited. They say “Oooh! But I have changed.” Yeah right. They lost their chance when it was time, and my life doesn’t revolve around them. There is a legion of players out there and I have no problems whatsoever finding honest players. And what about if you lost to a skillfull cheater? Well, first you probably don’t know he cheated. Second, you had fun playing the game, which is the important part wether you lose or win. And third, the big loser is him because he cheats to win.

    Now if you want to get paranoid, and suspect everyone, that’s your right. Just remember that there are some good players out there. It’s not my fault if I bronzed at 13:30 mins with Egyptians because I dragged 4 elephants to my Town Center who was near, and I had 2 shore fish 7-8 tiles away, on a Large Islands map with default ressources. Relax a little, and enjoy the game. – Annoyed Omnivac

    Okay, here’s the info.

    The info has gotten out that we are indeed going to do a patch…  Based on the way the last patch went, we had hoped to avoid giving that info out until we knew exactly what the patch would contain, but those things happen…

    Anyway, YES, A PATCH IS COMING.  NO, WE WILL NOT DISCUSS WHICH BUGS IT’S GOING TO FIX UNTIL WE’VE LOOKED AT THE CODE CHANGES AND MADE SURE THOSE CHANGES ARE ONLY FIXING THE THINGS WE WANT TO FIX AND NOTHING MORE.  Before you all start a long thread wondering about what will and won’t get fixed, I’d just ask that you remember how well the first patch went (where we pretty much fixed/improved all of the major complaints).

    As far as timeframe goes, the patch will be out when it’s ready (i.e. been through tons o’ testing); WE DO NOT HAVE A TIMEFRAME ON DELIVERING THE PATCH.  We’re going to start testing the fixes soon, but all plans will get blown to hell if we find that the fixes broke something else, etc.

    ES and MS remain committed (as always) to making sure that everyone who’s bought AOE remains happy.  We certainly don’t like bugs anymore than you all do, but they’re a fact of software development.  Fixing them in a patch is a long, tedious process.  In the end, we’re 100% confident that the patched AOE will remain the #1 RTS on the market.

    Dave C. Pottinger
    Engine Lead
    Ensemble Studios Corp.

    goto top of news

    Mystery graphic
    From the depths of the SLP files
     I was playing with the Age of Empires Image Extractor last night and found some odd, and funny stuff. We’re talking here about early, early, but very early artwork. Or one of the ES artist’s kid having fun. You can find AOEIE v1 in The Granary, in the Stoyan Ratchev section or at Johann’s Home Page.

    Had some questions too about the “white” Bmps each pics is associated with. My best educated guess is that it’s a mask of some sort, so that when a villager will walk behind a tree instead of over it in the game. As for the players colors, simply use the blue ones you will see in most of the graphics. The game will take care of the rest and use the right players’ colors – Omnivac

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    Scenario Contest
    Scenarios
    You have until April 30th for designing the best singleplayer scenario on the net. You can find all the information here. Be sure to read the rules very carefully before submitting. Our judges are already working, and so far the quality of the scenarios are quite good. Look forward downloading an excellent singleplayer scenario pack in the beginning of May, after the end of the contest. – Omnivac

    goto top of news

    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Most wanted list! 
    – 03/23/98 to 03/30/98

    LW TW   D/Loads
    1 1 The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Campaign 936
    3 2 The Curse of Ra Campaign 688
    2 3 AOE v1.0a Patch 491
    6 4 Stoyan Ratchev’s AOE AI Editor v1.0 461
    4 5 AOE2 Trebuchet .avi 455
    6 Age of Stone Singleplayer Scenario 377
    5 7 A Story of Honor – Part I Campaign 375
    8 8 Destroying the Heroes of Persia Campaign 345
    9 AOE2 Knight .avi 333
    10 10 AllTaunts v1.0 (26-369) LOOKOUT! 9.46 Mb 332

    LW is last week position, TW is this week position, and D/Loads is the number of downloads for the given period of time.

    goto top of news

    Agetoon – By dgenius
    Toons size
    Two things to look for. One is the bytes size. Keep it small, and send your toons in .gif or .jpg formats. Bmps are annoyingly big.

    Two is the actual size of your toons. Keep it small to fit in a web page. Don’t send toons the size of AOE screenshots. We’ll have to minimize it and loss of details could occur. Edit it so it will have the final look you want. Thanks for your cooperation. – Omnivac

    New toons
    Don’t worry if your work is not in the toons section. From now on, toons will make the frontpage, and then go in the toon section. So depending on the number of submissions, this could take 4-5 days before you see your artwork in Heaven. – 
    Omnivac

     

    More Agetoons here.

    goto top of news

    Voting Polls
    New poll added
    Heaven voting section
     has a new topic added. This is one is intended to current AOE players, and ask since when they play the game. Are there still old players, or the crowd have changed to a newer one? – Omnivac

    Multiplayer issues
    Write
     now! What multiplayer improvements, multiplayer enhancements, or new multiplayer features would you love to see for Age of Empires 2, that are missing in Age of Empires? What is on your wishlist for multiplayer? – Omnivac

    Comments on AOEII
    Write
     now! You can also leave you comments in the form on why you think your #1 choice of the new opinions in AOEII is the best! – The Archangel

    Searching in Heaven
    Find that little piece of heaven!

      Search for

    goto top of news

    History Tidbits
    Daily fix of real old news
    For a while Heavens angels will bring some history tidbits and trivia in this column. Look here every day for your daily fix of “old news”. – Hamlet

    (want more? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Collection”)

    The Real-life game of Age of Empires
    Here’s my contribution for the history tidbits. Telling the real-life game of Age of Empires. I hope everybody will like it, and I will try not to make it look like a boring history class. Well, this doesn’t exist but that’s my opinion. 🙂 Read and enjoy. – Omnivac

    (Want all the story? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Chronicles”)

    goto top of news

     

     

      Headlines – April 08, 1998

    Multiplayer Experiences story
    A new Angel in Heaven
    Age of Empires Image Extractor
    Reminder
    Scenario Contest
    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Agetoon by AOE_Master11
    Voting Sections
    Search the resources of Heaven
    History Tidbits

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Multiplayer Experiences Story
    The Runaway Elephant Stomp
    The judges and Heaven would like to thank all participants in the contest for their excellent and varied efforts in story telling. It has been a thoroughly pleasant and exciting experience. We hope that our visitors will continue to share their tales with us for many hours of listening pleasure. As promised, here’s the winner’s Multiplayer Experiences’ Story in the main news. Congratulation to Skyjuice! And happy reading. More info in The Tavern.

    Again, Heaven wants to thank the Microsoft team, and more particularly Chris Di Cesare, for supplying the cool looking new original AOE T-Shirts. Vardelith and Skyjuice, your prizes are in the mail. For others, there is still hope to show off to your friends if you participate in the Scenario Design Contest. And watch Heaven for other cool contests in the future, and particularly for the 600,000th visitor. A “little” extra is in the work. – Omnivac

    The Runaway Elephant Stomp

    This is not a simple story about victory or loss. It is a story of a good multi-player game, with lots of interaction between me and my partner in a 2 on 2. The game started pretty much as all games do. I told my partner (red) that I was at 8 oclock, and he told me he was at 10; which leads to the inescapable conclusion that the enemies were at 2 and 4. Since he was a fast player, he got his scouts real early and confirmed the locations of the rest of the players. He was playing Phoenicians, which meant that he had to hit iron ASAP and churn out those lovely elephants and crush the opposition to powder. I was playing Shang, which meant that I could hit bronze ASAP and churn out those cavs to “spoil” the pathetic enemies (who were incidentally both playing Hittie).

    In the middle of the transition between tool to bronze, I heard the infamous “I’m in your town.” Panicking, I looked around and saw six archers running down the hill at 6 oclock and hitting my bush collectors. To make matters worse, he was on the high ground. I quickly moved the remining 5 villagers up toward the center of the map, hoping to lure them away from the town center at 8, and the sly player split his force into two groups — one running after my villagers and the other heading for 8 oclock. This was bad, I though to myself. Looking around, i realise I had a scout sitting at base. And fortunately, there was a lion close by as well… so I moved the socut close to the lion and got it to chase me toward the 3 archers. Well, the archers got the lion in the end, but 1 archer was down, and my scout got another from behind before caving in (since he had no upgrade whatsoever). Meanwhile, the stupid 3 archers had a hard time catch up with my five villagers making their way to midmap. Eventually, they gave up and started moving toward 8 olock. The villagers found a patch of berries and started building a granary…

    I had hit bronze by the time the archers came close to my town; by which time my cavs were out and slaughtered the three archers shooting peas.

    Time : 17:10 min.

    Not too bad considering I was distracted. Of course, by this time, my partner was coming close to hitting iron. And when he hit iron by 21 min , he sent me the remainder of his resources to help me towards iron as well. Of course, I had done my cav upgrades and built about 5 stables by now. With a force of ten cavs, I moved in toward 2 oclock from midmap. This was because I knew that the chap at 4 colock had wasted enough recourse sending those archers (ugraded) to my town and won’t be hitting iron as soon as the guy at 2.

    When I came to the landbridge, I got a nasty shock — it was walled up and two towers stood firing away at my incoming cavs. shit, I thought, now he knew I was coming. Fortunately, the walls were only one layer thick. At this point in time, blue (my partner) told me he had a dock and a transport. Needless to say, I grabbed the oppportunity and crossed the river with the transports. Brown (at 2 oclock) was churning out chariots to protect his base, BUT not fast enough. My cavs came in and killed the chariots first and then went for his screaming vaillgers running for the woods. down. down., down.

    I didn’t want to stay uninivted too long and decided to move down to 4.

    Hey, I just realised phonecians don’t have stone throwers. mind building some and knocking down those walls?” my partner said.

    Gee, why not use the transports?”

    knocking down the walls look more dramatic… and get those towers out of the way.”

    My cavs were at 4 by this time, and cleaning out his villagers, who were trying to stand around towers, since they knew they had no where to hide. Of course, my cavs didn’t last very long, and were soon salughtereed by his towers, but I had taken ut most of the opponent’s villagers and more than happy with the disruption.

    The next task was to build the cats as requested. and I built ten siege workshops at midmap (always build your facilities away from the main town, and closer to the enemy).

    Time : 29:00 min.

    By this time, I had also researched writing, and got the shock of my life — Blue was drowning from Brown’s attack of cats. I guess he didn’t have time to tell me. I sent my reserve cavs in to disrupt the cats, and ended the first wave of attack. I could see the next wave coming in, and similarly made short work of the incoming cats with the quickrunning cavs. It was VERY bloody.

    Then, to my horror, Red (at 4) broke in with about 10 cats, coming straight for the high ground where his archers had stood. This time, he had chariots protecting his horde of cats. My Stables were midmap together with the siege workshops and were churning out cavs like crazy. (Shang cavs can upgrade all the way). They were heavy cavs by this time, and certainly up to the task of killing a few chariots.

    While I was busy fending off red, I saw blue pumping out eles like nobody’s business. Deciding to abandon my base and move in with him at 10 oclock, I decided to support his eles with cats.

    Time : 35:00min.

    My base at 8 was in ruins, and the remaining two red cats were finishing off the job. I had restarted at 12, and still had my stables and whatnots at midmap. This time, blue was ready with 20 eles and I had 10 cats. Blasting away at the towers and walls at the first land bridge, the cats stopped in time to let the eles through and then followed behind. Unfortunately, Brown’s cats at base made short work of the twenty eles and my 10 cats.

    F***,” said blue,”I’m killing all my villagers and building all eles. Last wave, baby, last wave…”

    I started churning out cats too, though not as fast as the eles which were popping out everywhere…

    I sent 2 cats down to hit the landbridge at 6, to distract reds’ and browns’ attention, and this is the best part — BLUE had freaking sixty eles moving across the map toward the landbridge at 12. they look simply AWESOME. You just have to try this one of these days… a HORDE of eles moving single file and stright into the heart of the enemy territory. Strangely, brown hadn’t rebuilt his towers, and his cats couldn’t hit fast enough for the Phoenician eles.Blue lost about ten eles in the first wave, but the rest of the fifty made short work of brown’s base, hitting the siege workshops first and then killing off the houses…

    Red sent a few priests along the scare the eles, but they got squashed by my cats across the river…

    Man,” red said, “those eles STINK!”

    Truly they did, and by the time the clock hit 45 min, red’s town was up in ashes too.

    All in all, a very satisfying game.

    Skyjuice

    goto top of news

    A new Angel in Heaven
    Or is it the Tasmanian Devil?
    Please give a warm welcome to Spineman aka Tom Mescher. He will be a much needed addition to the Granary/Review/Rating team and he already rolls out the freeway with absolutely no considaration for any speed limits 🙂 … Hey isn’t there a song called “You take my breath away”? – Well thats Spine for you 🙂

    As you may know Granary is being redone (soon) to have a “new” look and to include reviews/ratings of scen’s and camp’s. Spineman will play a major part in all this work. Say hello guys. – Hamlet

    goto top of news

    Age of Empires Image Extractor
    Easy as 1, 2, 3…
    Well, what can I say? It’s probably the best image extractor for AOE right now. It’s so easy to use that a clubman should not have any problems with it. Johann Joubert has been kind enough to let Heaven put his 1 Mb AOEIE in the utility section of The Granary. In the meantime, you can download it at Johann’s Home Page, and start editing the graphics right away. Hours of fun ahead of you. – Omnivac

    I wrote a new program for Age of Empires, called Age of Empires Image Extractor. I know there are tools to extract the images, but if you are like me and hate DOS, then this program is for you. Warning, there are many files. I counted more than 12,000 BMPs!  Johann Joubert

    goto top of news

    Reminder
    War in the Zone tonight
    Troops are currently converging to meet on the battlefield. The Internet Gaming Zone has challenged Online Gaming Review to a battle in Age of Empires. Come to the War Cry room at 5 P.M. Pacific Time and see if the Zone team can beat the OGR civilization or if they’ll have to run away with their tail between their legs. –Omnivac

    goto top of news

    Scenario Contest
    Scenarios
    You have until April 30th for designing the best singleplayer scenario on the net. You can find all the information here. Be sure to read the rules very carefully before submitting. Our judges are already working, and so far the quality of the scenarios are quite good. Look forward downloading an excellent singleplayer scenario pack in the beginning of May, after the end of the contest. – Omnivac

    goto top of news

    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Most wanted list! 
    – 03/23/98 to 03/30/98

    LW TW   D/Loads
    1 1 The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Campaign 936
    3 2 The Curse of Ra Campaign 688
    2 3 AOE v1.0a Patch 491
    6 4 Stoyan Ratchev’s AOE AI Editor v1.0 461
    4 5 AOE2 Trebuchet .avi 455
    6 Age of Stone Singleplayer Scenario 377
    5 7 A Story of Honor – Part I Campaign 375
    8 8 Destroying the Heroes of Persia Campaign 345
    9 AOE2 Knight .avi 333
    10 10 AllTaunts v1.0 (26-369) LOOKOUT! 9.46 Mb 332

    LW is last week position, TW is this week position, and D/Loads is the number of downloads for the given period of time.

    goto top of news

    Agetoon – By AOE_Master11
    New toons
    Don’t worry if your work is not in the toons section. From now on, toons will make the frontpage, and then go in the toon section. So depending on the number of submissions, this could take 4-5 days before you see your artwork in Heaven. – Omnivac

     

    More Agetoons here.

    goto top of news

    Voting Polls
    New poll added
    Heaven voting section
     has a new topic added. This is one is intended to current AOE players, and ask since when they play the game. Are there still old players, or the crowd have changed to a newer one? – Omnivac

    Multiplayer issues
    Write
     now! What multiplayer improvements, multiplayer enhancements, or new multiplayer features would you love to see for Age of Empires 2, that are missing in Age of Empires? What is on your wishlist for multiplayer? – Omnivac

    Comments on AOEII
    Write
     now! You can also leave you comments in the form on why you think your #1 choice of the new opinions in AOEII is the best! – The Archangel

    Searching in Heaven
    Find that little piece of heaven!

      Search for

    goto top of news

    History Tidbits
    Daily fix of real old news
    For a while Heavens angels will bring some history tidbits and trivia in this column. Look here every day for your daily fix of “old news”. – Hamlet

    (want more? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Collection”)

    The Real-life game of Age of Empires
    Here’s my contribution for the history tidbits. Telling the real-life game of Age of Empires. I hope everybody will like it, and I will try not to make it look like a boring history class. Well, this doesn’t exist but that’s my opinion. 🙂 Read and enjoy. – Omnivac

    (Want all the story? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Chronicles”)

    goto top of news

     

     

      Headlines – April 07, 1998

    Great battle story
    Job Openings
    Scenario Contest
    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Agetoon by Dis
    Voting Sections
    Search the resources of Heaven
    History Tidbits
     
     

     

    Great Battle Story
    Memories of a Cavalry Captain
    The judges and Heaven would like to thank all participants in the contest for their excellent and varied efforts in story telling. It has been a thoroughly pleasant and exciting experience. We hope that our visitors will continue to share their tales with us for many hours of listening pleasure. As promised, here’s the winner’s Great Battle Story on the main news. Congratulation to Vardelith! Tomorrow, check out for the winner’s best multiplayers experience. In the meantime, you can read it all in The Tavern. Happy reading. – Omnivac

    Memories of a Cavalry Captain

    We stood atop the last hills, coming down out of the TiLang Mountains. We were one hundred strong, well rested and ready for a fight. The Shang pigs sat in wait behind their stone palisade waiting, we could see their couriers running from post to post alerting all to our presence but still we held back. Even though the urge to rush down and take the city was like a storm raging in our heads we waited.

    I began to fidget, wondering what was taking so long. Turning I looked over my troops and at the other divisions arrayed across the hill. Then coming from the rear I saw a large column of dust slowly inching it’s way around parameter of the hill we were stationed on.Looking harder I saw a small group of robed men followed by two large catapults each pulled by a team of eight horses. On seeing them I understood, the heavy artillery was hear.

    All across the hill the men saw what was happening any we prepared ourselves. As the catapults rounded the hill, they ground to a halt. As we watched the first one let loose a stone drenched in pitch and set aflame. The huge ball of fire arched through the early morning air and then came crashing down to earth right in the middle of the main wall, fire and stone flew in all directions, and we could hear the screams of dying men. Then the second one launched it’s ball of flaming death, and chaos erupted in the Shang city. Four more times the catapults fired. And when the smoke started to clear we saw a raged gaping hole in the wall. Bodies lay dying all around. And the enemy was coming. The horn sounded, and it was time for me to take charge of my men.

    Yelling at the top of my lunges I called the charge and me and 20 other cavalry charged down the hill. I wanted to be the first to meet the enemy this day! As we fell in among the defenders pouring out of the city, we yelled with glee. We attacked strong and hard, and we were fighting like demons, hacking down men left and right as our steeds surged through them.

    Of a sudden the air filled with the sounds of bees and arrows began to rain from the sky. I lost 6 men before I had a chance to call a retreat, out of bow range. As we pulled back, the catapults let loose on the bowmen, and the man bulk of our forces joined with the enemy. Time for us to see the priests.

    The battle had been all but won by the time we had all been healed of our wounds. As night fell we took the city. My division for its great attack was given garrison rights to the city.

    That was the day’s we would fight, keep the peace in an area until the people had settled and off again to take a new city, or fight a new tribe. But those are other tales best told at other times. May the Gods hold you in favor. Good Night.

    Vardelith – Captain of the XII Cavalry Division.

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    Job Openings
    Dream jobs waiting for you
    Ensemble Studios are looking for new talents to expand their already super team. Head over there to get all the details, and send them your stuff. You never know what the future holds. – Omnivac

    Art Director
    Experienced art director needed for the graphical development of real-time strategy games. Must have strong leadership skills and the desire to work with talented artists. A position is available for you to help make the best-looking games in the industry. Send us your resume immediately!

    Graphic Artist
    Experienced graphic artist needed for the development of real-time strategy games. Must be a self-starter and team oriented. Must be knowledgeable in 3D Studio Max, Lightwave or SoftImage. A position is available for you to help make the best looking games in the industry. Send us your demo reel immediately!

    Game Programmer
    Experienced C++, PC game programmers needed for real-time strategy game development. Ensemble Studios has partnered with Microsoft Corporation to develop the next generation of games using leading edge technology. Several positions are available for top-notch developers. If you like games and are the best in the field, send us your resume now!

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    Scenario Contest
    Scenarios
    You have until April 30th for designing the best singleplayer scenario on the net. You can find all the information here. Be sure to read the rules very carefully before submitting. Our judges are already working, and so far the quality of the scenarios are quite good. Look forward downloading an excellent singleplayer scenario pack in the beginning of May, after the end of the contest. – Omnivac

    goto top of news

    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Most wanted list! 
    – 03/23/98 to 03/30/98

    LW TW   D/Loads
    1 1 The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Campaign 936
    3 2 The Curse of Ra Campaign 688
    2 3 AOE v1.0a Patch 491
    6 4 Stoyan Ratchev’s AOE AI Editor v1.0 461
    4 5 AOE2 Trebuchet .avi 455
    6 Age of Stone Singleplayer Scenario 377
    5 7 A Story of Honor – Part I Campaign 375
    8 8 Destroying the Heroes of Persia Campaign 345
    9 AOE2 Knight .avi 333
    10 10 AllTaunts v1.0 (26-369) LOOKOUT! 9.46 Mb 332

    LW is last week position, TW is this week position, and D/Loads is the number of downloads for the given period of time.

    goto top of news

    Agetoon – By Dis
    New toons
    Don’t worry if your work is not in the toons section. From now on, toons will make the frontpage, and then go in the toon section. So depending on the number of submissions, this could take 4-5 days before you see your artwork in Heaven. – Omnivac

     

    More Agetoons here.

    goto top of news

    Voting Polls
    New poll added
    Heaven voting section
     have a new topic added. This is one is intended to current AOE players, and ask since when they play the game. Are there still old players, or the crowd have changed to a newer one? – Omnivac

    Multiplayer issues
    Write
     now! What multiplayer improvements, multiplayer enhancements, or new multiplayer features would you love to see for Age of Empires 2, that are missing in Age of Empires? What is on your wishlist for multiplayer? – Omnivac

    Comments on AOEII
    Write
     now! You can also leave you comments in the form on why you think your #1 choice of the new opinions in AOEII is the best! – The Archangel

    Searching in Heaven
    Find that little piece of heaven!

      Search for

    goto top of news

    History Tidbits
    Daily fix of real old news
    For a while Heavens angels will bring some history tidbits and trivia in this column. Look here every day for your daily fix of “old news”. – Hamlet

    (want more? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Collection”)

    The Real-life game of Age of Empires
    Here’s my contribution for the history tidbits. Telling the real-life game of Age of Empires. I hope everybody will like it, and I will try not to make it look like a boring history class. Well, this doesn’t exist but that’s my opinion. 🙂 Read and enjoy. – Omnivac

    (Want all the story? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Chronicles”)

    goto top of news

     

     

      Headlines – April 06, 1998

    Some information from the Zone
    Age of Empires’ gaming tips
    Story and Scenario Contests
    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Agetoon by Jamie Fraser
    Voting Sections
    Search the resources of Heaven
    History Tidbits
     
     

     

    Some information from the Zone
    Declared wars
    AGE OF EMPIRES 08 April 98 — The Internet Gaming Zone has challenged Online Gaming Review to a battle in Age of Empires. Come to the War Cry room at 5 P.M. Pacific Time and see if the Zone team can beat the OGR civilization or if we’ll have to run away with our tail between our legs.

    AGE OF EMPIRES 23 April 98– And since we love a good challenge, we’ve decided to have two in the same month! This time, the Zone team has challenged the folks from Computer Gaming World magazine (CGW) to a Battle Royale. Who will be left standing, and will anyone get to the Iron Age? Check out the action at 6 P.M. Pacific Time in the Age of Empires War Cry game room.

    Check out the new Zone
    You can be part of the 
    Zone beta test. Send your suggestions and comments, report any bugs to make the zone a better multiplayer experience. Netscape Navigator users will be happy to hear that they can register now, and participate in a new automated ladder. No reports, no nothing. You can add players to your friends.txt list simply by clicking on their names, and checking the friend box. It’s a must see! – Omnivac

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    Age of Empires’ gaming tips
    Elephants – Love ’em or leave ’em?
    How do you play War Elephants or Elephant Archers? Or do you even bother to build these behemoths? How do you defend against them if they come? Add your Game Winning Tips to the List!

    LaksamanaThe key to using elephants well is not to send them in alone. Knowing full well that Centurions rip elephants apart (an ellie only does ONE point of damage to a fully upgraded centurion per hit) and priests convert them easily, combine your elephants with fast moving archer units.

    I generally play the Phoenicians, and I’ve found that War Elephants combined with either Chariot Archers or Composite bowmen works well. I generally prefer CAs, since they move faster, and are tougher (though Comps are cheaper). The combo allows you to spread your resources well (ellies use massive food, some gold. CAs little food and some wood), leaving plenty of gold for priests on defense.

    I’ve taken down 15-16 Horse Archers before using 3 ellies and about 5-6 CAs. The horsies face a tough choice, if they run from the ellies, the CAs kill them. If they stand and shoot it out with CAs, the ellies close the distance and make horsemeat of them. Ultimately, I killed all 15-16 horse archers for the loss of one ellie and 3-4 CAs, compare the relative cost of the units……

    Never build both War Ellies and Ellie archers at the same time. Too expensive. And too slow a combination.

    If you see centurions coming, pull the ellies out. No need to sacrifice them, they’re expensive! Send in your archers and priests instead. Phoenician priests have ALL the upgrades, and the combination I described leaves a lot of gold for them.

    Now, the only trick is getting to iron against “fast” tribes like Yam or Assy…….. It’s not an impossible task, especially with the Phoeni woodcutting  bonus.

    This hold true for any units. Never send them alone, unless you’re cleaning a player without much opposition. Always use combined arms. As for the Elephants, they have been a major part of my armies since past October. My favorite civ is the Egyptians and an army of War Elephants, Chariots Archers and Priests can cover most situation in the game. The only problem is surviving the early bronze age, and it can be done. It’s my firm belief that it’s the player that makes a difference, not the civ. It is especially more apparent also in teams games, where I think you get the full enjoyment of the game. – Omnivac

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    Story and Scenario Contests
    Stories

    The story contest is now over. Check out tomorrow for the winners.

    Scenarios
    You have until April 30th for designing the best singleplayer scenario on the net. You can find all the information here. Be sure to read the rules very carefully before submitting. Our judges are already working, and so far the quality of the scenarios are quite good. Look forward downloading an excellent singleplayer scenario pack in the beginning of May, after the end of the contest. – Omnivac

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    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Most wanted list! 
    – 03/23/98 to 03/30/98

    LW TW   D/Loads
    1 1 The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Campaign 936
    3 2 The Curse of Ra Campaign 688
    2 3 AOE v1.0a Patch 491
    6 4 Stoyan Ratchev’s AOE AI Editor v1.0 461
    4 5 AOE2 Trebuchet .avi 455
    6 Age of Stone Singleplayer Scenario 377
    5 7 A Story of Honor – Part I Campaign 375
    8 8 Destroying the Heroes of Persia Campaign 345
    9 AOE2 Knight .avi 333
    10 10 AllTaunts v1.0 (26-369) LOOKOUT! 9.46 Mb 332

    LW is last week position, TW is this week position, and D/Loads is the number of downloads for the given period of time.

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    Agetoon – By Jamie Fraser
    New toons
    Don’t worry if your work is not in the toons section. From now on, toons will make the frontpage, and then go in the toon section. So depending on the number of submissions, this could take 4-5 days before you see your artwork in Heaven. – Omnivac

     

    More Agetoons here.

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    Voting Polls
    New poll added
    Heaven voting section
     have a new topic added. This is one is intended to current AOE players, and ask since when they play the game. Are there still old players, or the crowd have changed to a newer one? – Omnivac

    Multiplayer issues
    Write
     now! What multiplayer improvements, multiplayer enhancements, or new multiplayer features would you love to see for Age of Empires 2, that are missing in Age of Empires? What is on your wishlist for multiplayer? – Omnivac

    Comments on AOEII
    Write
     now! You can also leave you comments in the form on why you think your #1 choice of the new opinions in AOEII is the best! – The Archangel

    Searching in Heaven
    Find that little piece of heaven!

      Search for

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    History Tidbits
    Daily fix of real old news
    For a while Heavens angels will bring some history tidbits and trivia in this column. Look here every day for your daily fix of “old news”. – Hamlet

    (want more? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Collection”)

    The Real-life game of Age of Empires
    Here’s my contribution for the history tidbits. Telling the real-life game of Age of Empires. I hope everybody will like it, and I will try not to make it look like a boring history class. Well, this doesn’t exist but that’s my opinion. 🙂 Read and enjoy. – Omnivac

    (Want all the story? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Chronicles”)

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      Headlines – April 05, 1998

    Good news for downloaders
    Age of Empires’ gaming tips
    Heavenweb is recruiting
    Story and Scenario Contests
    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Agetoon by Ratty the Wise
    Voting Sections
    Search the resources of Heaven
    History Tidbits
     
     

     

    Good news for downloaders
    The Granary
    You will be happy to hear that some changes are underway, and we thank you for your patience. For now, we ask you a simple thing. Check in The Granary if your scenario/campaign is missing and if so, send it to Hamlet. We will do our best to catch up with the month of March lost files, and as of now, you can expect daily updates again. Thanks for your cooperation. – Omnivac

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    Age of Empires’ gaming tips
    Elephants – Love ’em or leave ’em?
    How do you play War Elephants or Elephant Archers? Or do you even bother to build these behemoths? How do you defend against them if they come? Add your Game Winning Tips to the List!

    Joe Smith: Elephants, I usually play as greeks, for their super upgrades. They don’t have elephants so I don’t have tips for using them. But my best stradigy, is a Centurian. 4 or 5 centurians can rip throught 3 elephants like butter. Another good stradigy agenst them would be ballistas or helepolises. Kept at a safe distance, 3 or 4 ballistas can kill an elephant before a elephant archer can get into rage (usually.)

    oh yeah, on multiplayer games, most of the times I lost, the player DIDN’T use elephants when they could of. When I win, the opponent did, and got them ripped up by my centurians. IMO, Elephants are a waste of meat on the offensive, but they seem to be okay on the defensive.

    War Elephants against Centurions is probably one of the most unknown facts in Age of Empires. Everybody have probably made some tests in the scenario editor, and saw the Centurion as a clear winner over the towering Elephant. While it’s true that a single Centurion will win against a single Elephant, the truth is 10 War Elephants will trample to death 10 Centurions. The keyword here is trample, as each Centurions will receive damage from 2-3 War Elephants, maybe 4. If you should ever engage in melee against elephants, do some quick maths and imagine that 3 times their number are charging towards you. – Omnivac

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    Heavenweb is recruiting
    New wings waiting for you
    We’re looking for new angels to join our team. A good knowledge of HTML and/or FrontPage is required. Adobe Photoshop or other paint programs is a definite plus. At least 2 hours of work are needed everyday for updates, answering emails, and other such tasks. No, it’s not a paying job. It’s a job of love about the best RTS game ever made, and it helps if you call your neighbors villagers, or when you’re hungry you’re thinking about finding a gazelle. Send your application to Omnivac or Hamlet, with Heavenweb new Angels as the subject of your email. If possible, include any URLS to reference pages that you have created. Everyone is welcome.

    This is your last chance to apply. – Omnivac

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    Story and Scenario Contests
    Get all the information

    The Story Contest is nearing to an end. Only two days remains before the winners are announced. Pick up your quill and papyrus and add your story if you want to have a chance to win some cool prizes. You have 
    until April 6th and you can find all the information in The Tavern.

    You have until April 30th for designing the best singleplayer scenario on the net. You can find all the information here. Be sure to read the rules very carefully before submitting. Our judges are already working, and so far the quality of the scenarios are quite good. Look forward downloading an excellent singleplayer scenario pack in the beginning of May, after the end of the contest. – Omnivac

    goto top of news

    Heaven Top Ten Downloads
    Most wanted list! 
    – 03/23/98 to 03/30/98

    LW TW   D/Loads
    1 1 The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Campaign 936
    3 2 The Curse of Ra Campaign 688
    2 3 AOE v1.0a Patch 491
    6 4 Stoyan Ratchev’s AOE AI Editor v1.0 461
    4 5 AOE2 Trebuchet .avi 455
    6 Age of Stone Singleplayer Scenario 377
    5 7 A Story of Honor – Part I Campaign 375
    8 8 Destroying the Heroes of Persia Campaign 345
    9 AOE2 Knight .avi 333
    10 10 AllTaunts v1.0 (26-369) LOOKOUT! 9.46 Mb 332

    LW is last week position, TW is this week position, and D/Loads is the number of downloads for the given period of time.

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    Agetoon – By Ratty the Wise
    New toons
    Don’t worry if your work is not in the toons section. From now on, toons will make the frontpage, and then go in the toon section. So depending on the number of submissions, this could take 4-5 days before you see your artwork in Heaven. – Omnivac

     

    More Agetoons here.

    goto top of news

    Voting Polls
    New poll added
    Heaven voting section
     have a new topic added. This is one is intended to current AOE players, and ask since when they play the game. Are there still old players, or the crowd have changed to a newer one? – Omnivac

    Multiplayer issues
    Write
     now! What multiplayer improvements, multiplayer enhancements, or new multiplayer features would you love to see for Age of Empires 2, that are missing in Age of Empires? What is on your wishlist for multiplayer? – Omnivac

    Comments on AOEII
    Write
     now! You can also leave you comments in the form on why you think your #1 choice of the new opinions in AOEII is the best! – The Archangel

    Searching in Heaven
    Find that little piece of heaven!

      Search for

    goto top of news

    History Tidbits
    Daily fix of real old news
    For a while Heavens angels will bring some history tidbits and trivia in this column. Look here every day for your daily fix of “old news”. – Hamlet

    (want more? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Collection”)

    The Real-life game of Age of Empires
    Here’s my contribution for the history tidbits. Telling the real-life game of Age of Empires. I hope everybody will like it, and I will try not to make it look like a boring history class. Well, this doesn’t exist but that’s my opinion. 🙂 Read and enjoy. – Omnivac

    (Want all the story? Then go to “History Tidbits – The Chronicles”)

    goto top of news

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