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    HeavenGames
    News Archive 1998 October – December

    November 30, 1998

    4:00PM EST – Zone Rating Changes
    A welcome change to the MS Gaming Zone’s RoR Rating System would be the modification of the way they score abandons.  What is the best way to punish disconnectors, while at the same not hurt the occasional ager with a less than perfect ISP (the majority I suspect)?  The Zone seems to be answering that question:

    “The Zone Ratings are going to be updated again soon! One of the changes to the rating system is that we will be renaming Abandoned games to “Incomplete” games. The Zone understands that any player, for various reasons, may sometimes be unable to complete a game, hence the new name.

    As with Abandons, when players accumulate enough Incompletes, they will incur a rating penalty (lose rating points). However, players who consistently complete their games will be able to have an Incomplete removed from their record. More information on Incompletes will be coming soon, so check the News pages for updates!”

    Sounds good to me.  Maybe I can get that one abandon I have off my record .

    Also, it turns out that STALIN, one of the finalists in the MS Gaming Zone Rise of Rome Tournament, can’t make the finals in Seattle.  There’s going to be a playoff that extra slot between Maimin_mattyPihaeja,Asabulu, and Pacman23.  This info was found on Gamers.com’s AoE site run by Methos, who just happens to be in the final four himself!  Good luck guys!


    2:30PM EST – New Hat for Angel Washizu
    Well, I’d like to say hello my fellow Agers out there.  For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ben Garvey, aka Angel Washizu, and I’ll be posting up a few news bits here and there from now on at Age of Empires Heaven.  I’ll still run the Rise of Rome Net Campaign, so don’t worry about that NCers.  I plan on improving the amount of news posted here .

    – Angel Washizu

    goto top of news

    November 28, 1998
    1:00AM EST – Another Forummers’ Party on the Zone, Saturday
    Angel Ominvac has posted a reminder for the “usual drill” on the Zone. There are two meetings, one for AOE players, which will be in the ‘Victorious’ room, and the other one is for RoR players, in the ‘Palatine’ room on the Zone. And they will be Saturday . Angel Ominvac made the following post from which I derived my info: 

    Don’t forget the forummers’ party on the Internet Gaming Zone Saturday. Same usual drill… First War begin at 1 PM EST Second War begin at 10 PM EST AOE Players to gather in Victorious Room. ROR Players to gather in Palatine Room. Go to one meeting, or go to both. They’ll last as long as people stay and play. I’ll make it to the second meeting, as usual. See you on the battlefield. 

    – Angel Mo

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    November 27, 1998
    2:30PM CST – Siege Workshop Updated
    Angel Ominvac has updated The Siege Workshop with the lowdown on how to add the new Rise of Rome units and techs in the .AI files. Find the exact detials in the.AI section of the Siege Workshop.

    10:00AM CST – Fill the Sync (error)
    Well, that headline is certainly a lame attempt to get Thanksgiving in the news somehow 😉 (the Vikings just scored another touchdown on the Cowboys. hehe), but for those of you that have had your “fill” of  “sync errors” while playing AoE/RoR and are searching for answers, I have this little tip for you, straight from Dave Pottinger of Ensemble Studios by way of the microsoft.public.ageofempires bbs:

    Okay…  We understand that everyone’s frustrated by these sync errors.
    However, we cannot reproduce the problem.  Does that mean that the problem
    doesn’t exist?  No.  But, it does mean that we need more information so that
    we can try to reproduce the problem.

    If your game goes out of sync, please let me know the following (via email,
    preferably without profanity:):
    *    The number of players
    *    How the game was matched (via the Zone, local LAN lookup, direct IP
    connections, etc.)
    *    How every player in the game was connected (modem, serial cable, LAN,
    etc.)
    *    How long the game lasted
    *    The various game settings (all the civs in play, map size, map type,
    etc.)
    *    Machine configs for all players (all driver info, DirectX version,
    etc.)
    *    Were these exact same machines able to play AOE1
    *    What was going on in the game when someone got dropped out due to a
    sync error (e.g. “I just started to attack Joe and then he got dropped.”)

    Things to keep in mind:
    *    People that try to cheat will cause a sync error.  If you can’t 100%
    trust everyone in the game, then that casts doubt on whether or not a
    problem exists.
    *    If you don’t know the person that got dropped, they may actually not be
    telling the truth.  It’s a lot easier to “blame a sync error” and yank your
    network connection than to lose fair and square.
    *    Yes, these situations are scraping the bottom of the barrel, but we
    have indeed spent a lot of time debugging and tracking down phantom problems
    only to find out that this was the case.
    *    Win98 has caused some definite problems.  Make sure you have WebTV,
    etc. removed before you try to play.

    We are committed to resolving this problem (assuming that one does exist:);
    thanks for your patience.

    dave


    Dave C. Pottinger
    Engine Lead, Ensemble Studios Corp.
    mailto:dpottinger@ensemblestudios.com
    http://www.ensemblestudios.com

    GameStats Gets Some Ink!
    It looks like GameStats and some of their affiliates are getting some mighty nice ink in the paper press. From “Spin Magazine“, to “Yahoo Internet Life Magazine” to “PC Games” you can find plenty of nice words to read about Age of Empires Heaven and other Gamestats Affiliates. You can also find the pertinent part of the “Spin Magazine” article over at Majesty Heaven where Ireported this on November 11.

    – Angel MacRat

    goto top of news

    November 25, 1998
    8:00PM CST – Bruce Shelley Interview at PC Gamer Online
    The latest “Interactive Interview” over at PC Gamer Online is with none other than Bruce Shelley of Ensemble Studios. Here’s just one of many interesting questions and answers:

    Did you feel pressured to make AOE an RTS game? I really love the game, but the fact that it’s RTS has hampered my ability to enjoy it. I loved every aspect (ancient setting, progressing through ages, etc.) except for the fact I couldn’t ever find the time to set the large Machiavellian trap that I wanted. The game seems to scream “turn-based”. Was making the game RTS a requirement from Microsoft? Did you ever consider making the game turn based?
    –Crass

    We decided AOE would be an RTS game very early on, almost a year before Microsoft even saw it. Our thinking was that RTS made for great multi-player play, which would be a hit with the hard core. We wanted to make a great game for the hard core because they spread the buzz that attracts the casual gamers. We were also seeing very high sales being achieved by the best of the RTS games already on the market. That success was a powerful incentive. Being RTS was crucial, we believed, to attracting a top tier publisher. Microsoft was very enthusiastic about the multi-player aspects of the game when they saw it, as I recall. No turn-based game since Civilization has achieved close to those numbers. We make games because we enjoy this work, but we have to be a commercial success to keep going.

    Pretty interesting stuff so jump on over there and read the rest of it.

    – Angel MacRat

    goto top of news

    November 24, 1998
    7:00PM CST – Bruce Shelley Chat Available at AGN
    More than a chat, less than a full-featured film this excellent interview is now available for your viewing and listening pleasure. You might want to jump to about the 8th minute and listen to Bruce. Thanks to All Games Network.

    Sandy Petersen Interview at GX
    ThumP of GX – Age of Empires has posted a real nice interview of Ensemble Studios’ Sandy Petersen. It’s an excellent interview and a highly recommended read. Here’s a sample:

    [ThumP] So, you were the lead designer for Rise of Rome. Can you tell us anything about the birth of the expansion pack? I think when it was first announced the news came as a surprise to most of us.

    Sandy – Well, we’d talked about doing a pack for some months, since December 1997, in fact. We had some ideas of new units, civs, etc., but no real structure to dynamically hang an expansion pack upon. The major project I was working on at the time got mothballed because of the growth of Age of Kings, which left me & my lead programmer, Tim Deen, somewhat at loose ends. It was a natural for me and Tim to work together on an expansion pack-the only real discussion was what the pack should entail. Once I’d bruited about the concept of Ancient Rome, its strength and coherence easily overwhelmed all rival ideas, and we were off!

    It was an important product for Ensemble Studios in a lot of ways I feel. We already knew that we could do top-notch games. Rise of Rome also proved to us that we could do them on schedule.

    Praetorian Guard AoE Tournament
    The Praetorian Guard is holding an Age of Empires team tournament. Here’s what they have to say about it in the introduction section:

    Welcome to the first season of Age of Empires 3vs.3 team tournament. 
    Not all teams are qualified to sign up in this tournament, this is a team tournament on invitation only, the reason for this is because we want good teams only. No newbies
    Here is a list of the invited teams, if you think your team is qualified to play in this tournament, please contact me as soon as possible.

    Legatus, UKAK, FURY, art, aloha, x2, Ash, Arch, Apoc, Private, Prodigal, COW, Praetor, Phantom, HK team(Himt), School, Nine

    Seasonaly teams are allowed if you can put together a group of good players for this tournament.
    Make sure you’ve read and completely understood the rulebook before signing up your team, there are a lot of games to be played, so please make sure you have a number of reserves to sub if your first line up can not make it on time.
    To sign up for the tournament, please email me with your team name, team roster, captain’s email address, team homepage url if available.

    Sounds like a highly competitive tourney. If your clan’s up to it jump on over there and check out all the info.

    The Age of Agers
    In what is probably the longest thread ever in the AoE/RoR forum, your fellow Agers bare their souls and share their ages with the rest of the Aging World. They ages range from 55 for the aptly named “oldguy” 😉 to 11 for the proudly named “Emporer_Dan“. (It’s sooo nice to know I’m not the oldest Ager around. LOL) So jump on over there and be ready for a few surprises. 🙂

    – Angel MacRat

    goto top of news

    November 23, 1998
    7:00PM CST – MSN Rise of Rome Tourney Finalists Announced
    MethosThe_SheriffSTALIN and Seasian have battled through and will soon be on their way to the Great Northwest to battle for the ultimate prize of a trip to Rome. Congrats to all of them and good luck. May the Map Gods smile on you all. 🙂 Heaven’s very own Angel Washizu was eliminated in the 5th round by maimin_matty. Still a great showing, Wash! 🙂

    Two More Rise of Rome Reviews
    Top Secret Magazine and 3DGW both have new review of the Age of Empires X-Pack, Rise of Rome. They are both excellent reads and well worth the short cyber-trip.

    Gamestats’ Guide to the Rise of Rome
    Gamestats‘ very own Ralphedelominiush has put together a great new Guide to the new Campaigns that come with The Rise of Rome. One of the great things about it is that it’s downloadable! Great idea and a great guide.

    – Angel MacRat

    goto top of news

    November 21, 1998
    10:00AM CST – Chat with Bruce Shelley on November 23!
    Folks, this is one of those rare opportunies that an Ager just can’t afford to miss. The All Games Network will be hosting a chat with Bruce Shelley (if you don’t know who he his..well, shame on you <grin>) on Monday, November 23rd at 6:00pm EST. You can access the chat either through AGN’s ichat plug-in located at their site or by using whichever IRC client you use and pointing to chat1.pseudo.com channel #allgames. (Please don’t ask me how ’cause I ain’t gotta clue <grin>) If you miss it or can’t make it they will have a transcript of the chat at their site.

    – Angel MacRat

    goto top of news

    November 20, 1998
    8:00PM CST – A New Rise of Rome Review
    Jim Crimmons of HappyPuppy has put together a pretty nice review of RoR. The article says, in part, “Well good news folks…no, Age of Kings hasn’t hit the shelves months ahead of schedule, but Microsoft has thrown us Age fanatics a bone with the Rise of Rome expansion pack. It’s not Age of Kings, but it’s new units, new civilizations, revamped rules, and hours more study for yours truly. How grand!” Jump on over there and read the rest of it for yourself.

    Age of Kings Concept Art on Display
    The Archangel, webmaster of Ensemble Studios (like you don’t know that already <grin>), has posted some beautiful concept are for Age of Kings by the “twins” Eric and Chad Walker. These guys are good with a capital “G”. 🙂 He’s promised some more great stuff from these 2 brothers over the coming weeks. Curiously, Archy says they are working on “other in-house projects” as well as Age of Kings. Wonder what those could be?

     

    – Angel MacRat

    goto top of news


    Algernon – SpineMan
     – Mo – Washizu

    Agetoon
    Send Agetoons to Angel Washizu until Angel Mo’s e-mail is working again. The “canvas” should fit on this page, and size should be around 50K or less. Don’t send BMPs. Convert them to gif or jpg. Thanks – Angel Washizu

     

    More Agetoons here.

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    Picks of the Week for 10/11/98
    Download one of the best campaigns and one of the best scenarios from the Granary right here!  Look for new picks of the week on Sundays.  Enjoy!

    Campaign
    Date Title Ksize Descr. By #Sc’s Reviewed
    1998/06/15 The Greece Empire 654 here Giant 9 4.4
    Scenario
    Date Title Ksize Descr. By Reviewed
    1998/05/24 Fortress 156 here Kyle Leach 5.0

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    Searching in Heaven
    Find that little piece of heaven!

      Search for

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    Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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