Here are the final replies from Ask Sandy 6.
Q) How often do designers at ES get into major arguments about games in progress? Who gets the final say in what happens?
A) “Major” arguments? Never. The project lead designer gets the final say, technically, but none of us are dictators.
Q) do think that AOK being a game with a HUGE community, incl scientific-like reports and scientific-like discussions would have been so succesful if it was more of a singleplayer game?
A) Certainly. If we retained just exactly the same amount of multiplayer emphasis, and added MORE singleplayer, why wouldn’t it be more successful?
Q) Do you agree that Old Tyme Jamaican Ginger Beer is the best brand out there?
A) I have only ever tried four brands of Jamaican Ginger Beer, so do not consider myself an expert.
Q) Castle Huskarls and Barracks Huskrals are treated as different units.
A) It made it far easier to insert this bonus into the database. Would it be worth delaying the game for a week or more and possibly adding a new bug or two to the game just so that these two units get selected when clicked together.
Q) Units will walk into mangonel fire.
A) So do mine.
Q) When VDMLs lay foundations, they say the build word for their civ, not the weird American thing.
A) So you can understand it.
Q) When your treb is attack a unit then it is converted, it still dies when the treb ball hits.
A) The treb ball didn’t get the word in time.
Q) Deer turn into gazelles when attacking
A) How often do deer attack?
Q) When monuments die, they relocate with 1 hp left.
A) ??
Q) When a hero monk picks up a relic, it turns into a normal monk. In the Scn Editor, buildings will sometimes catch on fire if age is changed. If a treb dies while it is firing, the ball stays in the air.
A) Yep to all three. We don’t claim the game is free of bugs,. And I apologize for these in particular.
Q) Trebs can not hit tree stumps.
A) Tree stumps are harder to destroy than erect trees.
Q) Seige weapons can attack wild animals without triggering their attack.
A)
Q) If two markets are seperated by water, they will always read 100, even if they are accessable.
A) Exploit it.
Q) When playing Mayans, only female villagers get the bonus when farming.
A) Yep. Sorry.
Q) When hunting, all food is lost if the villagers go to a different food source.
A) This is intentional, and is because some kinds of food have different carrying capacities.
Q) are the other wonders also based on real monuments, or at least some of them are invented?
A) All are based on something real except the Hun one. Some are based on a composite of different real ones, though.
Q) Will Ensemble Studios ever make another Random Map Script for AoK or TC ?
A) Probably.
Q) I just watched the new Pearl Harbor movie and it piqued my curiosity. What were the relations like between Japan and America before Pearl Harbor?
A) Cautious. We’d been peeved at Japan since their invasion of China (particularly since the Nanking massacre), and things had been slowly deteriorating. On the other hand, we were trading with them continuously, and Japan figured prominently (and usually favorably) in films and radio. We knew they were highly militaristic, and many commentators thought that a war for control of the Pacific might be coming.
Q) What was the motivation behind Japan's pre-Pearl Harbor aggression in Asia and what was its motivation for Pearl Harbor?
A) Japan’s aggression in Asia – the Japanese army believed that a conflict for dominance of East Asia was inevitable. They felt that their likely opponent would be Russia, and they built and trained their armed forces for such a conflict. They recognized that to win a war with Russia, they would need an abundant supply of natural resources. To get this, they occupied Manchuria and then invaded China. But then the Chinese war kept going on. So, to maintain their war in China, they imported lots of fuel & iron from the USA.
When the USA, upset by Japan’s actions in China, threatened trade sanctions, the Japanese army decided that the best way to maintain their supplies (to win the war in China) was to occupy Southeast Asia (particularly Indonesia, but Burma, Philippines, too). But they also realized that to occupy these regions, they would have to go to war with the USA, UK, and Holland (the only one they feared was the US, for obvious reasons).
Pearl Harbor was their solution. It enabled them to KO the US fleet and keep us basically unable to respond to the Japanese effectively for 6 months or more. Meanwhile, they took over all SE Asia, set up a defensive perimeter, and settled in to hold on to what they had. At least that was the original plan. They blew it by getting too cocky and taking too much to hold easily. Also they underestimated just how angry the US would be over Pearl. You see, the Japanese had historically opened ALL of their wars with a surprise attack – this was how they started in 1895 (Sino-Japanese war), 1905 (Russo-Japanese war), WW1 (when they attacked the Germans), 1931 (Manchuria), and 1937 (second Sino-Japanese war). For the Japanese, this was just how they normally started wars. For the Americans, it seemed like the basest treachery.
Q) Also, was Japan controlled by their military - i.e., were the general Japanese public aware and approving of the actions of the military?
A) Japan was not a democracy, if that’s what you mean. The general Japanese public agreed with the actions of the military. Why wouldn’t they? All forms of media were controlled by the government organs, and they were taught since grammar school of the superiority of Japanese culture to the rest of the world. They even had Thought Police to arrest and remove from circulation those who disagreed. It’s hard to see how many Japanese citizens would realistically be able to dissent, or even be aware there was something to dissent about.
Q) What do say to the players which say that the Turks are weak
A) say, “I’ll play vs. you in a team game. My turks will destroy you.”
Q) did you know that the Brits warned the American Goverment 3 days before Pearl Harbor happened?
A) Yes, but the warning just said that the Japanese might try something. Not what it was. The Americans already knew that, from breaking the Japanese codes. We expected a sabotage attempt at Pearl, but not an air strike.
Q) they knew about it before the Brits told them anything, yet they did nothing. I think the government just wanted an excuse to go to war
A) The US Government DID want to go to war, but not against the Japanese – Roosevelt was trying to get us to declare war on GERMANY. A war with the Japanese was the last thing he wanted. In addition, he wouldn’t have wanted all those ships to get sunk – if all he wanted was an excuse to go to war with Japan, an unsuccessful strike at Pearl would have sufficed. Luckily for FDR, Hitler declared war on the US a few days after Pearl, so he was out of the soup.
Q) Have you ever played the SPI series "Terrible Swift Sword" before?
A) I own two versions of it. SPI and TSR. (And yes, I’ve played it too.)
Q) Most people (despite what they do for a living) seem to feel that their is at least one way in which their job is not as fulfilling as they would like. Given that you have what appears to be a pretty cool job, is there anything about it that doesn't satisfy you?
A) I don’t get to pick the games I work on.
Q) Did the Aztecs have any contact with the Mayans or the cultures of South America?
A) Lots of contact with the Mayans. No direct contact (that we know of) with South Americans, though probably there was trade from Peru to Colombia to the Mayans to the Aztecs via middlemen.
Q) Do you think that people use "LOL" too much on these forums?
A) Yes. They should only use it if, in fact, they DID laugh out loud when reading something.
Q) Why don't american game developers ever do world tours?
A) We sent Bruce to Australia when AoK came out, so there.
Q) Ofcourse the American goverment knew this (of Pearl). The fact is that the British Goverment told them of where, when, how, what force and so forth.
A) This is just simply untrue. The best proof of it is as follows:
1) the Americans had much better access to Japanese codes than the British.
2) the Americans would NOT have wanted to lose all their fleet at Pearl. An attack WITHOUT losing the fleet would have been sufficient for an excuse for war. All our battle plans for the outbreak of war with Japan relied heavily upon our possessing a large battleship force, and had to be scrapped.
3) we had tons of fuel at Pearl which the Japanese only failed to destroy by the grace of God. We would certainly have tried to protect the fuel dumps if we’d known the Japanese had attacked – USN leaders said afterward that if the fuel had been hit, we would have been helpless vs. Japan for at least a year.
4) Admiral King would never have agreed to letting his fleet be sunk just for an excuse against Japan, and given his position in the JCS it’s hard to believe he would not have been privy to it.
Yes, the US should have been prepared for a strike on Pearl. Instead, we suspected a strike vs San Francisco and suspected potential sabotage at Pearl. It’s dumb conspiracy crap to think that the US knew the attack was coming, when you look at the facts.
Q) Do you answer these in your spare time or is part of your job?
A) It is not part of my job description.
Q) How come you guys picked such a stupid idea(sounds like it to me) for Age of Mythology.
A) Spare me. We hashed it out at length here for months of discussion. We were ready for something new, and hoped at least some of our fans would be, too.
Q) Was boar luring meant to be used, or did it just work out by chance?
A) It was intentional, seeing as elephant hunting was intentional too. (In AoE.)
Q) Why does only one civilization get both the Paladin and Arbalest?
A) Happenstance.
Q. What units would you like to see more often in multiplayer games?
A) Wonders
Q. Are you proud to be part-designer of one of the greatest games to date?
A) Absolutely. Are you referring to Call of Cthulhu, Doom, Quake, or Age of Kings?
Q. Did you personally want to have any units implemented?
A) Yes
Q. Do you think the new TC monk techs are worth their money? Personally I feel they have little effect for their high price.
A) Well … I think that the Heresy one is worth it.
Q. If there had been one more building set in TC, what would it have been?
A) Mediterranean.
Q) How much would you pay for some mint condition lawn darts?
A) I have no use for lawn darts.
Q)What color is most prevelant on the underside of you car/truck/suv/mopad?
A) rust.
Q) Did you actually get on the ground to find out?
A) No.
Q) Have you ever read Clavell's Shogun? If so, what did you think of it?
A) Partway. It was kind of fun. I wish he’d used the real names (i.e., Nobunaga instead of Toranaga).
Q) Do male villagers build faster than female villagers?
A) Not to my knowledge.