Aoe Iii!

[Emperor Aurelius]

Well I would like to congratulate the people who made RTW. I think this has to be one of the best games I have ever played.It combines realism,good graphics,no pop limit, cities, decent AI, and much much more into one great game!

I was a big fan of AOEIII before I became a STW fan. Then I played STW and then RTW! I was thinking of buying AOE III but then I looked into it a bit more and realised it was all eye candy!

I saw that the maximum amount of people in any empireyou could have is like 100 people!In rtw your whole empire can have like 60,000!In addition there were all kinds of crazy things like health bars for units and such. I honestly think AOE is a great line of games but it cant compete with TW.

The reason I say this si because I dont know why people make remarks like "RTW has bad AI" and other things. Compared to other games RTW has pretty awesome AI. WHile not the best Im sure that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has ever been a RTW fan has had the AI kick their ass at least once.


I certainly hpe that TW:IV will be as good as RTW and RTW :BI.

I think though,that he people who make TW games are probably the makers of the best online strategy games.

Yes RTW has its faults.Like negative income for now apparent reason and people revolting for no apparent reason even if you have full city upgrades.This along with the idiotic squalor system which I felt undermined the game.Someone said that food should have played a bigger part in teh game.I agree.


BUT these are minor problems.And now since im a fan of TW games you can bet that the 4th TW game I will be on line to buy!

[HoreTore]

Second that one.

While the AI may not be as good as a human player, it's still the best out there for such a complex game.

The AI for games like AoE isn't really a tactical AI, it's more of a building AI. It simply churns out more troops and attacks more often with the increased difficulty settings. It doesn't really care for tactics beyond which troops to send and how often to attack.

The AI here really isn't comperable to the one of for example AoE. If you autocalc every battle, then you could compare it.

The difficulty of the game(which means the AI) is really the only thing I would improve if I was the Allmighty God of Software...

Oh, and if you get negative income(I'm assuming you're talking about your treasury, not individual city), then you should have a closer look on the financial tab, you'll find the answer there...

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

A convert!

Excellent.

[Razor1952]

No comparison, RTW is all over aoe. Still I would have to give them something for starting my interest in strategy games.

As for the AI in 1.3 I like it a lot, the new comments give added reality ot the batttles, its giving me a hard time and thats vanilla RTW!, I've already had several Scipii armies wiped out by Carthage , battles I thought I would have had a good chance of winning....

[TB666]

AOE III is what you say true eyecandy game.
It is exactly like the other AOE games only with a nicer graphics and rag-doll physics.
Once you get past the wow effect the game stinks.
I had hoped that they would actually take a step towards a more tactical game instead of the "click-build-gather and rush the enemy as fast you can" sort of game like they have done before.

And it is very true that when you compare AOE III to RTW you realise that the AI in RTW is actually better.
Hell, even RTW 1.0 had better AI then AOE III.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
AOE is for kids. TW is for...well...us overgrown kids.
.

[Taiwan Legion]

AOE III is what you say true eyecandy game.
It is exactly like the other AOE games only with a nicer graphics and rag-doll physics.
Once you get past the wow effect the game stinks.
I had hoped that they would actually take a step towards a more tactical game instead of the "click-build-gather and rush the enemy as fast you can" sort of game like they have done before.

And it is very true that when you compare AOE III to RTW you realise that the AI in RTW is actually better.
Hell, even RTW 1.0 had better AI then AOE III.

you can't say that. AOE will always be better at multiplayer than RTW. I remember back in the day of AOE1 and AOE2, they looked good, very good. AOE's didn't even need that much computer power, and they looked damn good. The custom maps are a load of fun too.

Single player wise, rtw is probably better, but multiplayer wise AOE is definitely better.

[solypsist]

had this less than a week and am already bored. i hate the campaigns and prefer skirmishes, but have figured out how to fool the ai (even on difficult mode) which makes the game kind of a drag

[AquaLurker]

Don't worry, there are plenty of 12 yrs old in RTW MP too.

You join their game,
You ask for rules,
Kid remains mute,
Next thing you know when the game starts,
He call you a cheating fag...

I like RTW and RTS games(especially starcraft), I have to disagree that RTS is simply click feast(maybe some bad titles but not starcraft). I can't say I am good with RTS but I have seen really good starcraft players doing their thing and totally owned his opponents, it was a beautiful.

IMO RTW is a potentially good MP game but it is screwed with crazy lag 8 out of 10 games. While RTS(like starcraft and AOE2) still owned RTW in MP because of the smooth gameplay and like some other poster said, more grippping.

In the end it is just a matter of how well the game is designed not the genre.

[Kraxis]

Starcraft is indeed posssibly the best RTS out there. It is still being played by more than 30k at any given moment on the European server...

I lovethe ample opportunities for reverses in battles, you are never truly out for the count if you survive the first few minutes if you are rushed.
I was a rather good SC player in my day, and it was amazing how many strategies that were thought up, and how much attention was put into using the terrain to one's advantage.

In a very good 4v4 battle I had at a LAN party I got rushed early on, and you simply can't withstand four players, that is impossible. So I died... Jusu about as one of my probes (Protoss) managed to escape... A New Hope.

I ended up in a place where there was lots of gas but little minerals. What did I do? I went for for Dark Archons. It was brilliant! I arrived just in the nick of time to save my fellows (who had survived). One Terran attacked with a mass of Battlecruisers, and since I was the only Protoss on my team he considered them safe (thought they had killed me). Bam bam bam... and I had captured 10 and Feedbacked another 7, which my captured Battlecruisers then obliterated with ease.
To hear the loud "NOOOO" from the other side ofthe room was about the most beautiful I have heard when playing computer.

[hellenes]

Don't worry, there are plenty of 12 yrs old in RTW MP too.

You join their game,
You ask for rules,
Kid remains mute,
Next thing you know when the game starts,
He call you a cheating fag...

I like RTW and RTS games(especially starcraft), I have to disagree that RTS is simply click feast(maybe some bad titles but not starcraft). I can't say I am good with RTS but I have seen really good starcraft players doing their thing and totally owned his opponents, it was a beautiful.

IMO RTW is a potentially good MP game but it is screwed with crazy lag 8 out of 10 games. While RTS(like starcraft and AOE2) still owned RTW in MP because of the smooth gameplay and like some other poster said, more grippping.

In the end it is just a matter of how well the game is designed not the genre.

Well the presence of 12 years olds isnt the genres fault but the milking publishers...
Starcraft non clickfest?
Have you ever seen a GOOD Starcraft player?
The build order doesnt need to be memorized?
What about zerg rush?
Its a well known fact that if a group decides that one thing is good many follow...pure mass psychology, in Greece many doesnt even know that RTW exists they concieve basebuilding clickfests as what the real strategy is all about...
Ill repeat myself once more:
"As I explained the etymology of the word STRATEGY, its clear that the whole RT"S" pattern was drawn on a VERY simplified (dumped down) version of reality of warfare:

Resource collection, hmmm right whats the mania about it? Did any ancient/modern general bothered with economics or where the moneys coming from? Isnt it very nice and fun to have your little peasants gather some gold/wood/anything? If youre 12 or have been imposed a 12 years old's design... Why the TAXATION, the TROOP ACTUAL UPKEEP and trade economics are absent? Wait the genre is designed for 12 years olds...that explains all.

Hit points bar: Well its the rigid line between the TW (and some other wargames) and the RT"S" crowd. Simplified and utterly needed because of the overfocus on scirmish/gang fights of 20-50 INDIVIDUALS (my next point) looks IMO quite funny since we all know that people dont have green liquid in them (except maybe orcs?)...

Gang wars: Yep the scale of warfare is so extreme that its like looking on a globe with 50cm diameter and trying to find your home village of 200 residents. Now one may say that well 1 soldier represents 1000 but the question that arises is: why in TW series they achieved 1 soldier to represent just 10? Yes you control 20 UNITS but each soldier's experiense, and stats are calculated on indiviual basis and in that time the armies operated in units not just some UNORGANISED mob (in some cases they did but they werent armies-->Horde formation) and the scale in TW is dictated by hardware demands more than by developing it. While the gang wars RT"S"es put all their effort on woo graphics.

Morale: The garlic of the RT"S" vampires. All try to avoid it at all cost or compromise in a way (WH40k's excuse of a morale system the soldiers just losing some fighting abilities NOT fleening automatically). Why they do that? Is that strategy? AoEIII doesnt have it while we all know that morale was the BASIS of all warfare (spartan anyone?) and disciplined armies conquered the world.

Basebuilding: There are two exptremely simplified parts of the whole army creation: The scale. When the barracks that a soldier was supposed to be training in are the same height as he is its clearly shows the pattern and the target audience of such games (compare this https://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?...apimage0jx.png
to this https://img365.imageshack.us/my.php?...pimage22lu.png

The whole notion of building at the same scale and time scale as the "battles" unfold. We all know that the building construction takes MONTHS (if not years) and that the battles take minutes and hours, now its clear how this was simplified but if you far from reality you cannot recreate strategic thought.

Whatever I say however the fact that basebuilding shortcut memorising clickfest RT"S"es will outsell wargames remains. Like the FIFA outsells the only soccer emulator Pro Evolution Soccer every year with EA's same trivial tennis like gameplay."

Hellenes

[GoreBag]

I got AoE III the other day and I'm rather enjoying it.

[Kraxis]

Starcraft IS a clickfest, but being a good clicker won't ensure victory against one who isn't. You need more than fast fingers (trust me you need pretty fast fingers in MP MTW).
And 6-pools are easy enough to counter. The problem is just that people of inequal experience meet and the experienced player uses a rush, then inexperienced playerwill go all "BROKE BROKE BROKE", but if he had played as much as the other guy he could have stopped it, besides unless it is small map the rush is going to be slowed hugely by the need to scout, giving even a player that doesn't prepared for a rush time to respond to it. And on small maps you have to expect a rush, and when you do it you can easily respond to it.
Its all about applying the right ideas. And a rush repulsed is going to pay back onto the rusher with great damage.