|
|
|
- Age of Kings Heaven AI Tournament - Contest Started!
- Posted by Turtov on November 17th, 2009 @ 8:29 p.m.
To cope with the ever-growing interest in the creation of custom AIs, an art that has attracted the attention of many ever since the release of Age of Empires II in 1999, we here at Age of Kings Heaven would like to present to you to the first ever AoKH AI Tournament, hosted by our very own SD-enthusiasts, Lord Basse and myself, Turtov! This tournament will be using the Random Map game style, using the Ensemble Studios Arabia map as the RMS, and, as most events, this is an open contest for everyone to participate, regardless of one's scriptwriting capabilities, so do not be afraid to submit any reasonable scripts of yours!
The deadline is December 10th, which will give you roughly three weeks to complete an AI. If you have any questions or want to discuss the tournament itself, feel free to check out the official thread in our AI and RMS forum. The rest of the rules and procedures can be found in the official thread as well. Good luck to all and may the greatest AI win!
- Historical Scenario Contest - Deadline Tomorrow!
- Posted by sly guy on November 14th, 2009 @ 11:18 a.m.
- Apologies for the extremely late reminder folks, but the Historical Scenario Contest is ending tomorrow at 11:59 PM forum time (EST)! As of yet we've had only one entrant, so apply the finishing touches to your scenario, and submit your file to the Blacksmith's Contest Category.
For more information, and to make sure your file meets all the requirements, check out the contest thread.
- The Blacksmith hits 10,000 files!
- Posted by Lord Basse on November 10th, 2009 @ 08:53 a.m.
It is a day of joy and celebration today fellow forummers, downloaders and lurkers! Today our Blacksmith, the one place for all your downloadable custom scenarios, AIs, random maps and all, hit its ten thousand file! That's a thousand files a year, or three files a day! And the number is still rising; as I'm writing this, the latest file is #10,001, and more are waiting in line to be released! Then what file, might you ask, was the lucky one to be #10,000? Well, the answer to that questions is the recorded game 12:14 Mongol Castle in which the authour, Blackfog, shows you how fast he can reach the castle age in a game against the AllianceThunda AI!But what files lead up to this event, the release of the 10,000nd file? What else of the latest work should you download? Well, you can check out the mysterious Latean Project, The Enhanced Eye Candy Editor Mod that adds approximately 500 new units to the game, or perhaps the Middle Earth-based campaign Akallabeth: the Fall of Numenor. It's all up to you! So remember the age-old saying; "what you download is what you get". ... really quite obvious I suppose. Anyway,
- A Decade of News Restored
- Posted by Luke on November 05th, 2009 @ 9:14 p.m.
- Just a quick update to let you all know that the news archives are back. The archived news items have been restyled to match the look of the current ones, and you can now (again) look up news dating back all the way to February 1998 here. As per usual, any old news you can't find in the news archives can be found in the News forum instead.
Thanks to Zen for providing me with the entire news archive from October 1999 onward, without which I would have had to work with fragmented data. Having to manually restyle the news items published prior to October 1999 (most of which was originally raw HTML) was intense enough already.
You'll note that all hyperlinks have been disabled throughout the entire archive, which is hardly an issue since well over 90% of the links were dead anyway. Also, not all images could be recovered; I got most of them, but when when even archive.org no longer has it you know it's gone for good. Finally, all content is presented as-is; don't bother pointing out spelling mistakes and the like, I know they're there and they're there to stay.
Have fun exploring the old news; there's some real gems in there. Should you find anything out of the ordinary beyond what's already noted on the index page, be sure to let me know.
- Blacksmith Feature: Piece by Piece, The Third (11/03/09)
- Posted by Turtov on November 03rd, 2009 @ 8:46 p.m.
This week, for the Blacksmith Feature, I have listened to you all plead and beg for a spotlight on this marvelous project. Ah, but it isn't only your whining that moved me to write this article, for Piece by Piece, The Third, created not only by one person but our very own SD Community and led by Julius999, marks the third installment in the series.
The concept of the Piece by Piece series was originally started by newIdea back in 2006. He envisioned this idea of having one scenario to be passed between several designers, not with hopes of creating the most impressive map design or the most intricate trigger work, but to show how a community can work together as a whole, and most of all, have fun with it. Despite a few shortcomings, the experiment was a success, and eventually, a prequel to the original was started months later by Dave_Earl. In this new project, many improvements were made to the formula while still retaining the true Piece by Piece spirit by keeping the same plot as well as having several other protocols.
Piece by Piece III deviates from the original Serentine storyline completely, starring as a fresh, new entity. You begin as a man named Jarriel living in the kingdom of Ghant, an ancient but widely advanced civilization. However, as advanced as they are, everything that lay north of the kingdom is completely foreign, as the few persons that have explored the region never have been seen again, and what information about the land consists of myths and folklore. It was not a top priority of the leaders of Ghant to learn more about the land until mysterious strangers started to appear near the king's castle, most likely to be assassins. This is where Jarriel comes into the picture, for he is the unfortunate soul that must explore this hidden land for clues to learn who or what is causing these nuances. For his protection (or possibly some sort of sadistic joke), the king has decided to have a group accompany him, this party consisting of Garrity, a man with a lisp and rusted teeth, Irving, a former sergeant, and Iago, a store clerk.
Once past the Shambling Gate, the player can only rely on his/her wits now, as one has reached the pith of the project: the melting pot of twenty-four different designs from twenty-four different designers, each with his/her own style of design, from newIdea's grassy fields to Jimmy2's fishing rod, and, of course, a piece by yours truly. Each square has a certain challenge, such as defending a bridge or solving a puzzle or, in some cases, just walking across the path while staying alive. In return, they give the player a new hint as to what may happen later in the story, but one can only guess what is across the sea or on the other side of the overgrown walls. The map design is completely disjointed and the story has its flaws, but it is these imperfections that make this community project so perfect.
Since Piece by Piece is a very well-known community project, I felt it was only proper to have a word with Julius about his own thoughts on the outcome.You changed the formula quite a bit in the new installment (the most obvious change being the different storyline). What was your reason for making these changes?
It may not be the most consistent game in existence, but that is what makes Piece by Piece so fun to play and truly sets the standard in 'mixed' style gameplay. What are you waiting for? Download Piece by Piece III now! And, if you haven't done so already, download and play its predecessors from the Blacksmith here and here!
Julius: I didn't just want to do a rehash of the last two PbPs. They were good projects and people enjoyed them, but I felt I wanted to try and keep it moving forward. In particular, I don't think anyone would disagree that the first two PbPs had a poor quality story, which was something I really wanted to fix. Probably my single biggest change from previous versions was to impose restrictions that people couldn't just throw in whatever they liked. Some people might not have liked this, and favour the random feel of PbP1, but in my opinion it was an improvement and led to a greater achievement at the end.
It has been more than two years since the original Piece by Piece. How do you feel the series has changed over time?
Julius: Well, the first one was a grand experiment. The first community project ever to be completed made it an achievement in itself, and some of the work inside was great. However, it was disjointed and confusing and went months over the deadline. For the second time round, I think a lot of lessons on organisation were learned, and it kept a lot closer to deadline. More interestingly, the host also decided to try and make a more coherent whole. With the third PbP the challenge was less to finish and more to create something "good" in its own right. I like to think we succeeded.
Do you have any thoughts on a hypothetical upcoming sequel to the Piece by Piece series?
Julius: I hope there is one. Personally I would like to see a move away from the zig zag design into something more open. That would need more organisation from the host and more co-operation between designers, which is the whole point of a community project in my opinion. Finally, I wouldn't want anyone to attempt to host unless they are certain they can last the distance. It's not acceptable to start building up a delay because you can't get round to it.
- Community Spotlight: ax_man1 - October 2009
- Posted by Lord Basse on November 01st, 2009 @ 07:16 a.m.
It's November today, and it's time for October's community spotlight. "That makes no sense", you might think, and in normal caes you would be right. Normally when a Community Spotlight is delayed into the next month it's because I'm either too busy to get it up or that my mind is elsewhere. This month, however, there is a reason for this, believe it or not! The victim of this month, no one less than The One and only ax_man1, celebrates his seventh anniversary as a forummer here at AoKH! So once you're done reading the interview, go congratulate him!Bold text: interviewer (Basse); regular text: victim (ax_man1)
Our much beloved Father of All Smurfs, Dictator Aro, describes Minnesota as a fairytale; non-existent, unless you believe. How would you describe the Sweden of America?
Ax: Actually, Minnesota is more German than Swede, but the country's cities with the highest populations of Norwegians and Swedes are in the state (think the city with highest German pop is there too, but not sure). The question's a hard one to answer, because I could easily write an essay about it, but to put in Optimus Prime's words, "There’s far[sic] more to it than meets the eye."When did you start playing Age of Kings?
Ax: Um...June 2001. Played it so much that I actually started seeing little green/red bars above people's heads while at school... think it was at that time I understood what it meant to be addicted to a game.
- Geocities Shutting Down Today
- Posted by sly guy on October 26th, 2009 @ 2:16 p.m.
- Hey folks.
Geocities is shutting down today, so if you have any important files on a Geocities site (sound files, modpacks, and the like), you'll want to download or mirror those files today, since they'll be unavailable as of tomorrow.
Thanks to Zen for the heads-up.
- Farewell, CC!
- Posted by sly guy on October 23rd, 2009 @ 7:05 p.m.
- Another Angel has left staff, this time due to inactivity. Angel CrystalCrown, former Seraph of AoKH, was a familiar face around the General and Strategy and Scenario Design and Modding forums in the past (as well as former MCSN host), but alas, it was not to stay this way.
Please join me in wishing CC well for the future.
- Blacksmith Feature: AoK in Black and White (10/12/09)
- Posted by Turtov on October 12th, 2009 @ 10:11 p.m.
Ever wanted to play the Saladin campaign by Ensemble Studios and have that nitty-gritty feeling of the middle east? Or how would you like to watch The Second Kretharn War in full monochromatic glory? Our local modder Jatayu, who has created tools such as ModWorkshop and the Trigger Script Editor (still in demo stage), has decided to come back with a simply stunning mod which he calls AoK in Black and White (which also includes a sepia remodeling).
This simple modification is what it claims to be: nothing more than a palette change for the game, the new colors being black and white, obviously. In theory, it may appear to be a rather minor difference; however, don't let that distract you from its full potential. For such a simple creation, this modification has taken old campaigns and polished them, while giving new designers the chance to create entirely different atmospheres. Flashbacks and fantasy worlds have never felt so surreal, the ambience of dark and cold scenarios has become more realistic, and even desert landscapes now have a greater feeling of an arid climate. It may still be the same old game with a different background, but its effectiveness outmatches the typical run-of-the-mill settings.
For those who are in need of a better way to convey that dark atmosphere or are looking to replay some old campaigns with a new touch, or if you want to have some insane games with other people, as the modification is, in fact, compatible with online play (try telling the difference between allies and enemies now!), download AoK in Black and White and Sepia!
- Some new wings in AoKH!
- Posted by sly guy on October 07th, 2009 @ 1:59 p.m.
- Ladies and Gentelmen, I'd like you to welcome our newest, giggly-iest, greenest cherub, Turtov! He'll be responsible for writing the Work-in-Progress Spotlights and the Blacksmith Features, so hats off to you, bud!
Congratulate him yourself in the Towns Crier!
Copyright © 1997-2008 HeavenGames LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Please obtain prior written permission from HeavenGames if you wish to use our site's content and graphics on other sites, publications, or media. Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a game by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios.
Disclaimer | Privacy Statement | Forum Code of Conduct