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Orv
May 4, 2011
Welcome to the Age Of ____ thread, a place for discussion of the Age of Empires and Age of Mythology series from Ensemble Studios, a venerable but (somewhat) unchallenged set of RTS games. Anything Age goes.



Steam Store $29.99 USD

Age of Mythology, released originally in 2002, was the spin-off series from Age of Empires, Ensemble Studios award winning, somewhat genre-defining RTS series. Instead of the fully historical placement of Age of Empires, Age of Mythology brings together three ancient civilizations, the Norse, Greeks, Atlanteans, and the Egyptians, to battle it out on a field of battle determined more by myth and legend than any historical fact. Mythological units like centaurs, rocs, kraken and fire giants join the ranks of hoplites, ulfsark, turma and slingers. You wield powers granted by your choice of patron gods, turning day to night, calling down the fury of Zeus or triggering Ragnarok, the Norse end of days. In between this is the base building, resource gathering RTS that has long since died out, where your economy is equally as important as your military, and either being too weak will cost you the game. It's an old school RTS, updated for modern systems with (semi-)modern graphics and Steamworks for multiplayer. It is hands down the best RTS I have ever played, and maybe the best game I've ever played.





Age of Mythology Extended Edition brings a number of updates and improvements to the game and its expansion released so many years ago;
  • Updated lighting and textures, including a (disableable) day/night cycle and dynamic lighting from god powers and unit/building lights
  • Better specular and bump mapping
  • AA & AO
  • Steam Workshop for all your modding and scenario needs. Monopoly and Myth Blood only a click away.
  • Steam integrated multiplayer services
  • Achievements (:10bux: says one of which is beating the Siege of Troy in 10 minutes)
  • Trading Cards
  • Leagues
  • Cloud Saves
  • Twitch Integration
  • Modernized observer mode
  • The ability to disable Titans in any game type if you're some kind of funhating balance nerd

AoM:EE includes Age of Mythology, Age of Mythology The Titans Expansion and The Golden Gift campaign, a downloadable special campaign released by Ensemble Studios some time after release.






Steam Store $19.99 USD

Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings is Ensemble Studios sequel to their breakout Age of Empires game released in 1999, one of the mainstays of the early 2000s RTS genre. Placed in medieval settings and ranging from the British Isles down through the Middle East the game features 13 civilizations including Japanese, Franks and Saracens. It was one of the great RTS games of its day, striking different territory in the genre from Command and Conquer, Starcraft and Warcraft, playing slower and more thoughtfully than other games at the time. Economy and military are equally important and gathering resources and building your defenses is just as pressing a need as controlling your troops in battle. Starcraft levels of micromanagement are unnecessary to play the Age Of series, making it a lot nicer on those of us who used to play it growing up. :v:




Age of Empires 2 HD includes Age of Kings, The Conquerer's expansion pack, and offers a downloadable expansion pack released over a decade after the final balance patch to The Conquerer's was issued called The Forgotten. It gives you three new civilizations with their own art styles and units, and several new campaigns to the base game. The HD release also integrates Steamworks for its multiplayer functionality and has a thriving community even now.







Steam Store $39.99 USD

Age of Empires 3 was the final (notable) game released by Ensemble Studios in 2005 before being shuttered by Microsoft. The game is a sequel to Age of Empires 2 and brings the timeline of the series to the Age of Discovery and up through the 1800s in a centuries spanning tale of a family attempting to right the wrongs of evil men. Wouldn't you know it, they're Templars (sort of) beating out the Assassin's Creed series by almost two years. The game shakes up the general formula of Age of Empires by bringing in Home Cities, a mechanic where you assemble a deck of reinforcement and resource call-ins that you can use in each age. It also shakes up the series by introducing gunpowder to every civilization, making the combat primarily ranged in nature, though melee units do still exist in plenty, including Landschneckt and Hussars. Base building and resource collection remain, though steps have been taken to make both somewhat less arduous. The game is one of the best coop Vs AI games I have played with friends, and though I may have not been particularly receptive at its release, it holds up remarkably well and is still worth playing.




Age of Empires 3 Complete on Steam includes the base game, the Warchiefs expansion and The Asian Dynasties expansion, both of which introduce new civilizations with wildly varying play styles. There is no HD rerelease of 3 and there doesn't need to be, as even today it remains a frankly gorgeous RTS.





Age of Empires 1 is unfortunately no-where to be found in a modern format, and frankly may never be due to the engine it was originally made it on. If it does come to Steam it'll certainly get its own section because goddamn what a formative game.

Orv fucked around with this message at 06:18 on May 8, 2014

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Orv
May 4, 2011
What follows is a bunch of information on Age of Mythology; gods, god powers, units, tactics, game mechanics, basically a lot of loving knowledge. Or How I Stopped Worrying About OPs And Learned To Fuckin' Love Lists.


Basics

Civilizations

There are four primary civilizations in Age of Mythology;
  • Greek
  • Egyptian
  • Norse
  • Atlantean

Each civilization determines your access to basic human military units, certain technologies, your Titan type (graphical flavor only), and various other deeper mechanics I'll cover per civ later. Each civ is broken down into three Major Gods, one of which you must pick when starting any skirmish or non-scenario multiplayer game.

I'll cover each civilization in depth after some basic mechanics because poo poo gets extensive.


Economy
To build units and buildings, research upgrades and ultimately win a match, you have to collect resources. I could be a gigantic sperg and tell you that there are six resources in the game but the game only tracks five of them and the sixth is time but gently caress you I'm not here to teach you math.

  • Food - Used to create most human military units, more strength and melee oriented myth units and for most unit tier upgrades. Gained from hunting, farming and fishing.

  • Wood - Used to create buildings (except if Egyptian) certain human units and siege/mechanical units, as well as ships. Gained from chopping down trees.

  • Gold - Used to create every human military unit (in addition to food OR wood, never both), buildings if Egyptian and research most military and economic upgrades. Gained from gold mines and trade routes.

  • Favor - Used to research mythological upgrades, create mythological units and to research the Titan Gate building. Method of procurement depends on your greater civilization.

  • Population - Used to put a damper on your fun by only allowing you to have a certain amount of units. Human military costs 1/2/3, typically 2, myth units cost anywhere from 2-6 depending on their relative power and ships typically cost 2-3. Gained by creating town centers and houses, amount per varying on greater civilization.

To gain any resource you must use a villager unit. These are created from Town Centers and count 1 towards your population cap. Sending a villager to gather a resource will have them gather as much as possible for food, gold and wood, then bring it back to the nearest drop-off point.

Each civilization has a different type of villager;

  • Greek - Being the most generic civilzation, Greek villagers are exactly equal at gathering all resources, while being great at none of them. Created with 100 food.


  • Egtypians - Gather wood and gold slightly faster than they farm or hunt. Created with 100 food.


  • Norse - The Norse villagers are your first look at just how disparate the factions in AoM become. They have two villager units, the Villager and the Dwarf. Villagers gather gold slower than Dwarves, but Dwarves gather food and wood slower than Villagers. 100 Food per Villager or 70 Gold per Dwarf.


  • Atlanteans - Atty vills shake up the mold even further by doing four interesting things; They cost 125 Food AND 25 Wood, take up 3 Pop, gather twice as fast as other civs and carry their dropoff point with them.


Military

There are four main types of units in Age of Mythology. Human military, ships, myth units and heroes. The entire game works on a rock paper scissors balance system.
  • Human military exceeds at killing heroes.
  • Myth units excel at killing human military.
  • Heroes excel at killing myth units.
  • Ships have their own rules but generally do alright against human military.

Further rock paper scissors cuts down like so, with approximately a trillion exceptions to every rule (a theme through the entire game, covered later);
  • Archers beat infantry
  • Infantry beat cavalry
  • Cavalry beat archers

Ship rock paper scissors comes down to;
  • Arrow ships beat hammer ships
  • Hammer ships beat siege ships
  • Siege ships beat arrow ships (and the crap out of buildings)

Military units are built from various buildings, ships from docks, human units from various military buildings, myth units from temples and sometimes town centers and heroes from town centers. They're controlled like most games you've probably played in the last half decade. Right-click to attack (no attack-move sadly), defensive, guard and offensive posture, patrol routes and formations for groups.



General Mechanics


  • Ages - Like in other Age Of games, or similar to tech tiers in Blizzard games, you rank up the ages by researching a specific technology from your Town Center. These Ages are
  • Arcaic
  • Classical
  • Heroic
  • Mythic
In broad terms the cost to do this will increase greatly with each subsequent age, costing Food for Classical, then Food and Gold for Heroic and Mythic. Each time you advance up an Age, you select a new minor god from one of two choices, the available choices determined by your Major god. The research takes time but is absolutely necessary to remain competitive with your opponents. The game will inform you when other players advance in Age, and unless you've got some ace up your sleeve, lagging significantly behind means certain death.



  • Town Centers - Instead of being able to place TCs willy nilly like previous Age Of games, you now must place them on a specific point on the map, predetermined by number of players in the game. The formula is 3 TCs per player. You start with one under your control, one fairly close by your initial TC, and then one further out you will have to fight to defend. Town Centers are your lifeblood in AoM and without one you will soon be out of the game if your villagers are beginning to dwindle due to conflict.



  • God Powers - God Powers are special abilities that you receive from worshipping specific major and minor gods. Ranging from economic boons, to meteor showers capable of destroying entire bases, to the Norse dragon Nidhogg under your command, these limited use powers can swiftly change the tide of battle or an entire game. Greek, Norse and Egyptain god powers can only be used once, while Atlantean god powers can be used a number of times depending on the age you gain them in. You can use your Archaic power 4 times, your Classical power 3 times and so on.



  • Titans - Added in the games only expansion pack The Titans, these behemoths are available once you reach Mythic Age and pay an obscene amount of favor and other resources. You then get a final god power, to place a Titan Gate, which must be built by your building creation units. The Titan Gate has a large health pool, and placing it reveals its location to all enemy players, though it is immediately placed under Fog of War. Once you finish building the Gate the Titan will emerge, all several thousand HP and several hundred damage per attack of him. It is a massively powerful unit capable of flattening entire armies and towns alone, but beware, it is vulnerable to heroes like all myth units.


Civilizations

Each civilization is divided into three major gods from which you choose to start with in each match. A major god determines your available minor god choices and certain special units and upgrades.

Greek



The Greeks are the most vanilla sort of faction in Age of Mythology. Anyone coming directly from Age of Empires 2 back in 2002 would be most familiar with their playstyle and shenanigans, given that they are mostly a carbon copy of AoE2 in terms of resource gathering, villager use and military. Greeks do however have several interesting things going for them.

  • Greeks gain Favor by having villagers pray at their Temple. This consumes the usefulness of a villager, and if tasked away from the Temple they stop generating Favor. This caps out at approx. 22 villagers.

  • Greeks have the best human military in a head-to-head conflict. They pay for this with considerably more expensive human units.

  • Their Hero units are all trained from the Town Center, and you get certain Greecian heroes depending on your Major God. They are considerably more powerful per unit than the mass heroes of the other civilizations but cost more and are worse against humans to pay for it.

  • They make up for their blandness with each of their Major Gods being extremely beneficial to their playstle. Poseidon makes all cavalry much better, Zeus makes infantry better and so on.

Major Gods


Zeus, head honcho of the Greek pantheon. God of fair trade, oathkeepery and hospitality. Zeus' primary oversight in mechanical terms is Greek infantry. Most of the minor god upgrades available to Zeus deal with the increase of attack power, health of cost efficiency of Greek infantry.

  • God Power: Bolt - This god power will kill one unit, and only one unit, regardless of its status or power. The single exception is Titans, to whom it will do considerable damage.

  • Myth Unit: Pegasus - The very beast of legend, a flying scout available from the Temple for 50 Food and 2 Favor. No attack but can only be attacked by ranged units and is relatively quick.



Poseidon, brother of Zeus, king of the sea. God of horses, rock-loving and earthquake. Poseidon's primary oversight is cavalry and ships. His technologies and minor gods enable access to various fleet buffs, cavalry super-units and a unique myth unit.

  • God Power: Lure - Attracts all huntable animals in a certain radius towards the stone, keeping them there to be slaughtered and harvested. Note that it will attract predators who may kill your villagers if not dealt with.

  • Myth Unit: Pegasus - The very beast of legend, a flying scout available from the Temple for 50 Food and 2 Favor. No attack but can only be attacked by ranged units and is relatively quick.

  • Myth Unit: Hippocampus - A sea scout myth unit, available from the docks for free, respawning whenever killed so long as a dock is built. No attack.



Hades, brother of Zeus, bitch of Olympus. God of awkward scoial gatherings, ATMs and kidnapping young girls. Hades primary oversight is archery and buildings. His tech and gods enable sturdier and more powerful buildings, better archer units and increased siege abilities for the Greeks.

  • God Power: Sentinel - Summons four stone archers around a single Town Center. These archers will fire at any nearby enemies, doing a fair amount of damage as well as having building armor.

  • Myth Unit: Pegasus - The very beast of legend, a flying scout available from the Temple for 50 Food and 2 Favor. No attack but can only be attacked by ranged units and is relatively quick.



Norse



The Norse are based on what are more commonly known as vikings. Seafarers and masters of guerilla warfare, with the occasional pillage and rape mixed in, the Norse in Age of Mythology are primarily focused on large force numbers and extremely potent myth units. Norse favor a rushing playstlye with great benefits to aggression and expansive military placement.

  • Norse gain Favor through battle. Causing damage to enemy units/structures and taking damage with your units generates Favor. The Norse are slow to gain Favor initially but once their army is in full swing, due to their other racial benefits they become a powerhouse in the myth unit business.

  • Norse villagers are capable only of building farms. All other construction is done by human military and heroes, meaning that a Norse player can wipe out your base and have their own ready to rock before you've even begun replacing the troops you just lost. I'm not say they're the Zerg of AoM, but they totally are.

  • Norse human units are generally frailer than those of other races, but tend to have the most paradigm breaking abilities. Ranged infantry good against other infantry, infantry good against archers, cavalry good against myth units. Their units tend to come fairly cheap, and some of their best units are fairly low on pop cost.

    {*]The Norse hero unit is the Hersir, produced from the Barracks en masse. Not as effective on the whole as Greek heroes, but able to be massed much more effectively, as well as build. Solid all-around heroes.

  • Best traditional rushers in the game.


Major Gods


Odin, granddaddy Stink Eye of the Norse pantheon. God of questionable life decisions, people bad at hand-to-hand combat and a drat fine baritone. Odin's main oversight is the Norse Fortress soldiers. His technologies enable your Jarls, Huskarls and siege equipment to murder the everloving gently caress out of everything more than they already do.

  • God Power: Great Hunt - Target a group of huntable animals to clone each individual animal. Can be done to Set's summons and combined with Poseidon's Lure power for interesting bullshit.

  • Myth Unit: Hugin and Munin - Odin's pet crows act as respawning flying scouts with no attack. Somewhat slow but cost only a short cooldown to respawn at a Temple.



Thor, son of Odin, inveterate giant killer and chronic drunk. God of makin' babies, makin' babies holy and I guess thunder or some bullshit. Thor's main focus is the unique Norse worker Dwarves and armory upgrades. His technologies enable your human military to be as strong as the units of any other civilization in a head-on brawl.

  • God Power: Gold Mine - Create an immobile gold mine at the cursor location. Can be depleted, amount of gold at creation is determined by your current Age advancement.



Loki, son of Odin, brother of Thor. God of freaky crossbreeds, species crossdressing and generally being a right dick. His primary focuses are Hersis and myth units, his technologies granting enormous benefits to the generation of both.

  • God Power: Spy - Lets you see the LoS of a single enemy unit through the fog of war for as long as it survives. It probably won't be long.



Egyptian


The Egyptians are the jack-of-all-trades civilization. Capable of decent rush, excellent turtle, immensely profitable boom and a wide array of counter units, Egyptians are one of the most well-rounded factions in the game. They pay for this however.

  • Egyptians gain Favor through Monuments. These are structures that must be built, costing an ever increasing amount of gold to construct the next one in sequence, up to seven. They are able to be destroyed, meaning most Egyptian players end up with a very odd looking statuary garden at their home base. Highest passive method of Favor generation in the game, faster than Norse if Norse aren't at war constantly.

  • Egyptians build almost all of their buildings for no cost whatever except increased build times. Unit producing structures and defensive buildings cost a small amount of gold but no wood. Their economy can almost entirely ignore wood if you aren't going to use a few specific units.

  • Egyptians do almost everything slower than other civs. They gather slower, build slower, train units slower and research slower. You overcome this by tasking your Pharaoh, a unique Egyptian unit to bless buildings, increasing the speed of anything done there; research, production and gathering. Note that for gathering increases the villagers that are currently delivering to the building you are blessing get the bonus.

  • The Egyptian heros are the Pharaoh and Priests. The Pharaoh is a unique unit that will eventually respawn if killed (there must always be a Lich King) and can bless buildings. Priests are ranged units produced from the Temple en masse. While not effective on attack as other heroes, Priests are a necessary evil for Egyptian players as they are their only means of defense against myth units when low on favor AND their method of scouting.

  • Egyptians scout by sending out their Priests, which summon Obelisks, giving you LoS of a medium sized area as long as the Obelisk remains up. They can be destroyed but they are relatively inexpensive and immensely useful for letting you know when an attack is coming.

  • Egyptians have the weakest of the human military in direct confrontation, though one of their Fortress units, the Elephant, is a powerhouse to be reckoned with. Their costs reflect this and it is relatively cheap to replace a non-Fortress Egyptian army, if not quick.


Ra, big poo poo on campus while dad is awaycut into a bunch of pieces. God of furries, not being the coolest sun god and dying like a bitch because he didn't understand bombs. His primary focus is Egyptian Fortress units, both of which are ultimately not really worth using. Sorry Ra, you're better for other things.

  • God Power: Rain - When activated all villagers on the map farm faster. All villagers. However yours farm considerably faster than everyone else.



Isis, grand mama jama of being vaguely useful. Goddess of maternity leave, incest and casual necromancy. Isis' primary focus is the economy. You want to gather poo poo faster? You want to make your pots more sturdy? Isis is your gal.

  • God Power: Prosperity - All your villagers gather gold faster for the duration.



Set, gigantic rear end in a top hat. God of tourism, fratricide and the only god to die by ATF. Set's primary concern is ranged units. He can create more of them quicker than you can, and also they're stronger than yours. Also upgrades Fortresses.

  • God Power: Vision - Removes the fog of war (and reveals that portion of the map if you haven't explored it at all) temporarily in a large area. When the power ends the fog will return but you will retain exploration of the cast area.



Atlantean


gently caress the Atlanteans. They get all the cool poo poo the easy way and are remarkably easier to play than other civilizations. That's not to say you shouldn't use them, they're pretty awesome.

  • Atlanteans generate Favor through holding Town Centers. Each one held increases your Favor generation rate. It's that simple.

  • Atlanteans can convert any of their human military into hero versions of that unit with the press of a button, for a fairly steep cost. This includes villagers, as Atlanteans otherwise have no separately produced hero units.

  • Atlanteans receive extra uses of their god powers depending on the Age of the power. 4 for Archaic, 3 for Classic, 2 for Heroic and 1 for Mythic. Horseshit on ice.

  • Atlantean troops are loving expensive due to their ability to promote into hero units. They also basically outperform everybody else out of the game. Isn't that wacky.

  • Atlantean villagers have their own gather dropoffs in the form of their donkeys, cost 125 Food and 25 Wood and Cost 3 pop.

  • Atlanteans build only 10 houses compared to the 25 of other civs, but each house costs more and holds more pop.



Major Gods


Kronos, leader of the deposed Titans, former gods of Greece. God of not learning from the past, losing the best named war ever and filicide. Kronos' primary mechanics revolve around siege and myth units. And goddamn will he gently caress up your poo poo.

  • God Power: Deconstruction - Gradually removes a building from existence. No I am not being hyperbolic. The owner of the building gets all resources used to build it back. Useable on anything short of a Titan Gate.



Oranos, deposed dad of Kronos, god before being a god was cool. God of corrective lenses, smug mythology nerd pronunciations and spymaster sympathizers. Oranos' chief concern is making you hate Turmas. You'll understand what I mean when you start playing MP.

  • God Power: Shockwave - Knocks back and stuns any units in an area short of a Titan. Units will not wake from stun on taking damage.



Gaia, mother of all kinds of crunk poo poo. Goddess of crazy family drama, regional baby-hiding championships and the removal of testicles. Gaia's primary motivation in her dark deeds is to utterly annihilate your poo poo by... farming a lot. She's real good at it too.

  • God Power: Gaia's Forest - Creates a mostly-circular stand of trees which can be used as a wall, a source of lumber, or something for Norse players to burn down don't put your forests all in one place you goddamn idiot.



To Come: Exhaustive Unit and Minor God Rosters, strategies for bad people.

Orv fucked around with this message at 12:07 on May 8, 2014

Koramei
Nov 11, 2011

I have three regrets
The first is to be born in Joseon.
Poor AoEO :smith:

Orv
May 4, 2011

Koramei posted:

Poor AoEO :smith:

I know not of what you speak.

(I'd include it if it wasn't about to be hit over the head with a shovel and dumped into the ether in a little while here.)

TEAYCHES
Jun 23, 2002

When I was 13 I went to Ensemble Studios HQ ostensibly as a Games Journalist (I was an Important Forums Moderator at Age of Kings Heaven). They were working on Age of Mythology at the time. The developers were extremely amused by this and showed me around anyway. I got to play the alpha, then they gave me two free games and a plastic trebuchet after a pretty awesome tour of their swank office.

Probably the coolest dudes were the guys who made the music. They had a studio with an unbelievable amount of obscure instruments they used to create the soundtrack.

Then Microsoft screwed them all over terribly. The end.

MinionOfCthulhu
Oct 28, 2005

I got this title for free due to my proximity to an idiot who wanted to save $5 on an avatar by having someone else spend $9.95 instead.
Prostagma?

Vulome!

Etimos.

Koramei
Nov 11, 2011

I have three regrets
The first is to be born in Joseon.

THS posted:

When I was 13 I went to Ensemble Studios HQ ostensibly as a Games Journalist (I was an Important Forums Moderator at Age of Kings Heaven)

Wait what who were you on AoKH?

Orv
May 4, 2011
The worst part is I can say those pitch perfect. :v:



THS posted:

Probably the coolest dudes were the guys who made the music. They had a studio with an unbelievable amount of obscure instruments they used to create the soundtrack.

Stephen Rippy is an awesome dude on all counts.

TEAYCHES
Jun 23, 2002

Koramei posted:

Wait what who were you on AoKH?

THS. Cherub THS.

It was a long time ago.

Fuligin
Oct 27, 2010

wait what the fuck??

MinionOfCthulhu posted:

Prostagma?

Vulome!

Etimos.

gently caress yes.

Esto!

Orv
May 4, 2011
Can't wait to Set all-in one of you motherfuckers.

achillesforever6
Apr 23, 2012

psst you wanna do a communism?
Its a shame these type of RTSs died out, I remember playing AOM, Rise of Nations, and Empires Dawn of the Modern World all the time.

I can't wait to beat the single player campaign again, with an army of lazer bears :unsmigghh:

Koramei
Nov 11, 2011

I have three regrets
The first is to be born in Joseon.
Hopefully the rerelease will be successful like AoK's was, we might see more someday (probably not).

THS posted:

THS. Cherub THS.

It was a long time ago.
Is this you



it's weird thinking people used to actually use heavengames

TEAYCHES
Jun 23, 2002

Koramei posted:

Hopefully the rerelease will be successful like AoK's was, we might see more someday (probably not).

Is this you



it's weird thinking people used to actually use heavengames

Yes.

Heavengames was really the best resource for a long time, and was a really nice + supportive international community before I came to Something Awful and lost all childlike innocence. The mod/custom maps community there was incredible.

achillesforever6
Apr 23, 2012

psst you wanna do a communism?

Koramei posted:



it's weird thinking people used to actually use heavengames
I remember going on it a lot just to see the funny screenshots page http://aom.heavengames.com/gallery/toons

MinionOfCthulhu
Oct 28, 2005

I got this title for free due to my proximity to an idiot who wanted to save $5 on an avatar by having someone else spend $9.95 instead.

THS posted:

Probably the coolest dudes were the guys who made the music. They had a studio with an unbelievable amount of obscure instruments they used to create the soundtrack.

Then Microsoft screwed them all over terribly. The end.

I don't know what's better, the actual music or the totally weird titles they gave them. Normal game devs would just call them 'Greek 1' or 'Egypt Battle' but they all had names like 'Suture Self' and 'Eat Your Potatoes' and the totally awesome title music was called 'A Matt Named Kittens'.

I love Age of Mythology so goddamn much. :saddowns: I pretty much never buy games before they go on sale but I made drat sure I got in on a four-pack of AoM within a day of it going up.

Orv
May 4, 2011

MinionOfCthulhu posted:

I don't know what's better, the actual music or the totally weird titles they gave them. Normal game devs would just call them 'Greek 1' or 'Egypt Battle' but they all had names like 'Suture Self' and 'Eat Your Potatoes' and the totally awesome title music was called 'A Matt Named Kittens'.

I love Age of Mythology so goddamn much. :saddowns: I pretty much never buy games before they go on sale but I made drat sure I got in on a four-pack of AoM within a day of it going up.

A Matt Named What Now?



Also best video game music all years.

Space Bat
Apr 17, 2009

hold it now hold it now hold it right there
you wouldn't drop, couldn't drop diddy, you wouldn't dare
Age of Empires 2 HD was such a good purchase. It's so weird seeing the sprites move at such a smooth frame rate though. The only issue I've found is that the forgotten campaigns are bit unwieldy, like how every time you get an objective, complete one or progress down one three different Objective Complete trumpets blare. Probably gonna grab AoM HD when it goes on sale, spent a long time with that game too, I loved those campaigns.

Shame AoE3 is so bad.

ronya
Nov 8, 2010

I'm the normal one.

You hate ridden fucks will regret your words when you eventually grow up.

Peace.
The original four FE campaigns were adapted user-made content; this explains a lot of their design choices. I dunno about the two free ones though.

With AoM I've noticed that the Skybox team is being a lot more aggressive about UI changes, which is nice.

Hammerstein
May 6, 2005

YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT RACING !
It always frustrated me that in skirmish and multiplayer mode some heroes didn't retain their campaign special abilities, like Ajax's shield bash. I wonder if this has changed or can be modded...

Space Bat
Apr 17, 2009

hold it now hold it now hold it right there
you wouldn't drop, couldn't drop diddy, you wouldn't dare

ronya posted:

The original four FE campaigns were adapted user-made content; this explains a lot of their design choices. I dunno about the two free ones though.

With AoM I've noticed that the Skybox team is being a lot more aggressive about UI changes, which is nice.

I wondered about that. I recognized all of the Italians assets were from the Age of Chivalry mod too. The only problem I have with the Forgotten Campaign is now that Italy and Russia and Hungary are all in the game I wish there was a way I could retroactively add them to the original campaigns.

ronya
Nov 8, 2010

I'm the normal one.

You hate ridden fucks will regret your words when you eventually grow up.

Peace.
It rather makes you wish that ES still existed as an organization so they could get whoever was designer on the old campaigns to flavour the new ones the same way.

ES's stuff from Joan of Arc onwards had a particular feel, all the way until AoE3: TAD - a certain set of expectations of how players respond to terrain cues, message prompts, etc.

With AoM Skybox has dispensed with adding any campaigns entirely. They apparently have scenarios though?

ronya fucked around with this message at 01:56 on May 8, 2014

Plum Chaser
Jul 2, 2011

by Lowtax
ISIS HEAR MY PLEA

pumped for aom ee, gonna be buying it tomorrow.

Stexils
Jun 5, 2008

If anyone is thinking "hey I loved these games as a kid, I should pick them up, I bet I'm way better at them now that I'm an adult":

You are not.

Mans
Sep 14, 2011

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

MinionOfCthulhu posted:

Prostagma?

Vulome!

Etimos.

Welp, you just made me reinstall AoM. Hope you're happy.

lonter
Oct 12, 2012
I need to find the town center sound as my text message sound, can anyone help me here.

Orv
May 4, 2011

lonter posted:

I need to find the town center sound as my text message sound, can anyone help me here.

Here is the least overlayed version of it I could find without digging into files.

Also are you sure you don't want this?

Orv fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 8, 2014

ronya
Nov 8, 2010

I'm the normal one.

You hate ridden fucks will regret your words when you eventually grow up.

Peace.

Babyface Mingo posted:

ISIS HEAR MY PLEA

pumped for aom ee, gonna be buying it tomorrow.

why not today? 20% discount whilst it's still a pre-order. You have a few hours left.

borf
Apr 5, 2006
Oh man, I remember grabbing this as one of those jewel case-only packages at Kmart for $10 just for the hell of it. Got it home and fell in love, wondering how I hadn't played it already. Seems a bit steep at $30, so it's definitely on the wishlist for next Steamsale.

The Lord of Hats
Aug 22, 2010

Hello, yes! Is being very good day for posting, no?
The Titan Powers being multi-use was kind of bullshit when you had things like Zeus "Zap one dude one time in this game, hope you chose well". Or at least, that's what kid me thought. $30 is steep for me, too, but if this goes on Steam sale I'm definitely gonna pick it up. Good luck reaching me, I'm behind a billion walls!

OwlFancier
Aug 22, 2013

Koramei posted:

Poor AoEO :smith:

You know Age of ______ games, when turned into acronyms, always put me in mind of learning German and being told how to pronounce umlauted letters. I can't think why.

I was pretty pleased when I saw Age of Mythology was out on steam a while back, I really liked that game when I was young, it's got a pretty great SP campaign and I would recommend anyone who didn't play it and likes SP campaigns to buy it. The skirmish/MP is pretty good too though the game may be a little dated.

AoE3 is really cool in skirmish though and it's easily worth it just for that. The card decks get pretty awesome when you really build them up.

Orv
May 4, 2011

The Lord of Hats posted:

Good luck reaching me, I'm behind a billion walls!

I have a friend (which is where this story falls apart) that I've played 1v1 in RTSes against for a solid decade now, and I'm the rusher and he's the turtle and it's the worst. If I can get inside his early defense and end it he just bitches for the entirety of the next game but if he gets his walls up I'm bitching for a half hour while I chew through them with lasers/bombers/elephants/whatever. It's fun, I swear.

MinionOfCthulhu
Oct 28, 2005

I got this title for free due to my proximity to an idiot who wanted to save $5 on an avatar by having someone else spend $9.95 instead.

The Lord of Hats posted:

The Titan Powers being multi-use was kind of bullshit when you had things like Zeus "Zap one dude one time in this game, hope you chose well". Or at least, that's what kid me thought. $30 is steep for me, too, but if this goes on Steam sale I'm definitely gonna pick it up. Good luck reaching me, I'm behind a billion walls!

It's 20% off right now. $23.99.

achillesforever6
Apr 23, 2012

psst you wanna do a communism?
I loved the credits for AOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZVP9H34xVI
I was so disappointed that Titans didn't do the same thing

What is your guys favorite single player scenario? For me it was either Circe's Island or the Automatons of New Atlantis.

Koramei
Nov 11, 2011

I have three regrets
The first is to be born in Joseon.
Huh weird timing.

Microsoft hiring developers for a "well loved strategy franchise".

I hope this pans out.

Mortuus
Nov 8, 2012

Jesus loves you, useless corpse
I really wanna get this. AoM is the only game I've ever bought the Collector's Edition for. Still have my totally rad Minotaur figurine too.

Orv
May 4, 2011

I don't think you'll find a single human being that would describe Halo Wars as "well loved".

Peddle2thaMetal
Apr 17, 2012

ooooooooo yeaaaahhh
Yerrrrr voi.
OYSTERSLAR!!!

Great game, much fun back in the LAN days.

Peddle2thaMetal fucked around with this message at 05:27 on May 8, 2014

Adam Bowen
Jan 6, 2003

This post probably contains a Rickroll link!

MinionOfCthulhu posted:

It's 20% off right now. $23.99.

And there's an additional 20% off voucher on greenmangaming. Brings it down to $20.

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VALIS666
Jan 15, 2007

Fnord!
Tomorrow will be one of my gaming highlights of the year for sure. These Microsoft/Ensemble updated games check every loving box on the list. Updated for modern systems. Updated graphics. Multiplayer and Co-op. Achievements. Leaderboards. Cloud saves. Stats. Trading cards. Workshop. Level editors. Even triple monitor display if you want to go there.

Taking some of the best games in history and blowing them out with modern internet-y poo poo. It's like buying a Ferrari full of monkeys and puppies.

Please Rise of Nations next, please please.

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