Ask Sandy XXI

Article written by Sandy Petersen
Published on 05-03-2000
Tags: , ,

Q) How will the Aztecs and the Mayans be able
to counter hit and run attacks from say the Huns with their
cavalry archers as they lack their own cavalry. Also, what will
they do when confronted with Onagers? as they lack light cavalry
to hunt them down?

A) they have fully-upgraded
skirmishers & pikemen to handle cav archers. And they are
probably better off facing onagers than civs with light cav,
because they have a certain specialty unit which is visible on
the screen shot on the left-hand side.

Q) What do you think about the siege of
Vienna by the Ottoman Turks where a Polish army (including those
great Winged Hussars which)along with the Germans defeated the
Turkish armies pretty badly).

A) I don’t really have time
right now to go into this in detail, but it was one of the great
moments in Polish warfare. I am proud to have the hussars in the
game now, even though we don’t have poles. See my thread in
KoRTto see why not.

Q) I’m thinking about taking Anicnet/Medieval
History in College/University, but I also would like a job in
either Aerospace or Computer Software, what do you think is a
good way to go?

A) Gee, when I was 14 I still wanted
to be a spaceman.

Q) What sorts of jobs do you have at ensemble
for people who have graduated from college or university but lack
experience but allow a person to get promoted to higher rank and
wage?

A) None, right now. I can’t say
what might open up in 6 years.

Q) Do either the Aztec or the Mayan UU’s have
any sort of peircing armor bonus?

A) No. The Mayan UU, as a foot archer,
doesn’t particularly need it though. The Aztecs make do
with skirmishers & the aforementioned specialty unit (who has
good pierce armor, but not as good as huskarls).

Q) Will there be tweaks to each of the
existing civs?

A) Not every single civ, but a lot of
them. We certainly considered every single civ as to whether we
should tweak it or not.

Q) How many UTs will there be to each
civ?

A) 1.056 (really)

Q) Will there be an upgrade to paladins?

A) No

Q) In other words petards are just a unit
that throws grenades? right?

A) No, petards were meant to actually
physically attached to a wall or gate. They were never thrown.
They were more like demolition charges.

Q) Do u ever think ES will break away from
microsoft?

A) It’s not a forced
arrangement, you know. We actively courted MS.

Q) Is their any reason why Russians weren’t
in included in aok or aok:tc other then that they won’t be as fun
as the other 5 civs?

A) See my thread in KoRT to see
why

Q) Do you ever answer stupid questions?

A) I prefer answering them.

Q) What do you think happened to the Mayans?
They never got conquered did they? They simply dissapeared.

A) I think Shub-Niggurath got
them.

Q) Do you believe in ghosts?

A) When I was 10 years old, I saw a
Thing which was the same as whatever people who see ghosts see.
I’m not saying there’s any way to prove it was a
spirit of the dead, but it was certainly uncanny. How can I say
there are no ghosts after seeing that?

Q) Do you play AoE/AoK a lot? or does anyone
in the studio? i have never seen ES people playing, or do they
“smurf”?

A) We play it every day. We mostly
play in-house though because we enjoy playing the X-Pack.

Q) What kind of music do you listen to?

A) Right now I’m listening to
Bauhaus. When I look over my CDs, I see Cirque du Soleil, Nits,
Laibach, Huun-Huur-Tu, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Tom Waits. I
also love classical music. So what does that say about my
listening preferences?

Q) Do you like politix?

A) I don’t “like” it
particularly, but I think it’s vitally important.

Q) What do you think about teens doing
drugs?

A) I think it’s idiotic. I ought
to know, having done them myself when I was a teen. 😛

Q) Do you think Russias attack vs. the
Chechnya rebels was a crime against humanity and that it violates
human rights?

A) No.

Q) Do you think Americans would lose more
people if they actually tried to take over a city?

A) Look how we did in Lebanon &
Somalia.

Q) What would you do to get Russia back on
its feet?

A) I think draconian measures are
called for.

Q) Do you like pretzels?

A) Yes. I like the thin hard ones
shaped in the traditional pretzel fashion. I also like those
new-fangled pretzel chips. Once at a German restaurant I had
“pretzel bread” in the shape of buns. That was
awesome.

Q) Would you build your entire non-land
attacking fleet out of TurtBoats, or combined with fst ships?

A) I would make it only out of turtle
boats if I was winning. If I was losing, I’d make
demolition ships & fast fire ships. I would also build cannon
galleys if I was winning. Oh, and trade cogs.

Q) Would you use your Jaguar Warriors instead
of champs?

A) I would use them both, because Jag
Warriors are only produced at the castle and so I can’t get
enough of them.

Q) Do either of the MesoAmercs get Halbs?

A) The Mayans.

Q) Are you proud of how AoK has turned
out?

A) Yes. It is much better balanced
than AoE ever was, and it has even better artwork, and its sales
have been phenomenal. I am proud to have been associated with
it.

Q) From my knowledge, petards were dangerous
and almost usless, it that true?

A) They kept using them for a hundred
or more years, they must not have been totally worthless.

Q) are any new changes to the scn editor, or
AI files?

A) Yes. One big change is a trigger
that lets you change the stats of units.

Q) I heard that korea is in and moors are
out….did u ever think the moors were a potential x-pak ciV?

A) The moors were considered for a
long time. I hate to admit it but the reason they finally got
dropped was because we already had 4 civs using the
middle-eastern art set.

Q) What is the best counter to the Turtle
Boat?

A) Superior numbers. Also bombard
cannons & towers are fearsome to them, since their range is
short.

Q) Will camels be more useful against
cavalry?

A) Camels have been improved in the
X-Pack. They are now a much more popular unit.

Q) How many civs (old and new), will have two
Unique Units?

A) Three

Q) In a battle between Mongols and Huns, who
has the better cavalry/cav. archers?

A) Hmm. Mongol cav archers are better,
but Hun cav archers are cheaper. Hun knights are better, but
Mongol hussars are better. The Hun UU is weaker against units
than Mangudai. Huns are basically a cav civ (supported by cav
archers), and Mongols are basically a light cav & cav archer
civ (supported by siege), so that’s the main difference.
They make terrific allies, by the way. I hate it when I’m
in a team game opposed by Huns & Mongols.

Q) In the Atilla campaign, are the Western
Romans represented? How? With the Byzantines?

A) Well … yes. We had to
… But when you click on one of their units it says
“Roman”, so our dark secret is concealed.

Q) In the Atilla campaign, is there a Pope
hero?

A) How could we leave out Pope
Gregory?

Q) In your opinion, which campaign from AoK
and AoK:TC is the hardest?

A) I have purposely not played them
much. I hear that the El Cid campaign is pretty tough, tho.

Q) Do the people at ES like playing the “all
land” random maps a lot? Do you think the average player is going
to play those a lot, too?

A) Yes and yes. They’re not
completely land, you know. They just always have land or shallows
connections between you and the others. So Continental and
Baltic, for instance, are in the “all land”
category.

Q) You have said the Spanish receive many
techs and are comparable to the Byzantines in their technology
tree. Are they also missing some glaring tech like the Byz miss
Blast Furnace for balancing?

A) They are missing siege engineers
& crop rotation if that helps you any.

Q) You said that we would be seeing towers
alot more in the xpac…then we will see lots of fighting done
with towers. What do you think about this whole building warfare?
Most people seem to adore fighting with buildings, TCs, Castles
and towers in the xpac…etc. In the middle ages…really in any
age it was about: troops, armies and more troops. You cant just
smack down 5 towers in a row in the opponnents base.

A) Towers are mostly used defensively
in AoK:TC. You can use them offensively, but you have to send
troops along with them if your enemy has any army at all. So
armies are far more common. Incidentally, in the middle ages a
lot of fights were determined by fortifications, and fighting was
less about armies than constructions than at any previous time in
history. So there.

Q) You said that the Korean Wonder will be
the tallest. What will that Korean Wnoder be? A statue, a tower,
temple/(some kind of religious building) or something else?

A) It looks like a big temple to me,
but what do I know? It might be a government building or
something. I bet a Korean would recognize it in an instant.

Q) Are fishing boats tweaked at all in the
x-pack?

A) Fishing boats are pretty much
unchanged in the x-pack. They pretty much work the way we wanted
them to. I realize that not everyone agrees with this decision on
our part.

Q) Will there be a gamespot civ spotlight
thing this time around?

A) I really don’t know. It seems
like an excellent idea to me, seeing as the X-Pack won’t be
out for quite a while. Gamespot (or some other site) doing
showcases would be a great way to give out info, screenshots,
etc. But the decision is up to the MS marketing pundits.

Q) Can you shed any more light on the ranged
siege weapon improvements? Such as the new setup for scorpions?
Will mangonels be less likely to cause as much friendly fire
damage as they do now?

A) Scorpions are no helped by the
Archer attack upgrades, but their bolts always penetrate a tile
or two past the initial strike point (so you don’t have to
micromanage their shots to hit the back rank). Mangonels
won’t auto-target an enemy unit if the shot would cause
friendly fire. However, if you purposely select a target that
would cause friendly fire, the mangonel will shoot, and will then
continue to shoot, happily hitting friendlies, until all enemy
targets are gone. If you stop the mangonel’s shooting,
though, he returns to his previous “no friendly fire”
stance. Of course, if the mangonel shoots and a friendly walks
into the beaten zone, he’ll still get hit. The whole setup
works pretty intuitively.

Q) What do you mean when you said the aztecs
“have super-monks”

A) They have a good monk civ
bonus.

Q) Will the Saracens be improved much in the
x-pack?

A) well, since cav archers &
camels are improved, and they rely heavily on those two units, I
would say so.

Q) you said the mayan UU is a foot-archer.
how will it go up against Elbows or chu ko nu (i guess that is
how you spell it)

A) The Mayan UU is unusual. He is
quite effective against other archers, but less effective against
other targets. Thus, the Mayan UU will defeat an Elbow, but is
inferior to an Elbow vs. infantry, cavalry, monks, etc. He does
NOT have special anti-archer damage. It just works out by the
nature of his hit points, armor, attack strength, etc. Greg and I
are pretty proud of this unit, actually.

Q) will a aztec champ beat a viking champ 1
on 1?

A) In an unscientific test, 51
post-imperial aztec champs were almost exactly equal to 59
post-imperial viking champs. However, aztec champs lacking their
civs UT are clearly inferior to viking champs.

Q) Is the Korean unique unit a monk or
martial arts monk?

A) Of course not. Don’t be
silly.

Q) There are 11 new units.

A) Two of the new civs get 2 UUs.

Q) Will wall building be improved in the
x-pack?

A) Colossally. The new smart villagers
feature means that if you assign 2 villagers to build a wall
segment, they start on opposite ends of the wall and work their
way to the middle. If you assign more than 2 villagers, they
space themselves out evenly. So wall-building is way better.
Unfortunately, if you forget and only assign 1 villager to a
wall, they build as before. (This happened to me last game. I got
hammered by Mike Kidd as a result, and deservedly so.)

Q) In designing AOK, was it ES’s intention
that beating 7 AI civs at hardest comprise the highest level of
achievement if playing against the computer, and (b) has anyone
at ES done it?

A) Yes, if you play DM against them.
Defeat 7 AIs at hardest on DM and you’ll have done the best
imaginable vs. the computer. Has anyone at ES done it? Not by
playing “fair” (i.e., the same way you’d play
against a human). But if you use the computer’s failings
against it, you can do pretty well. Even so, I don’t think
anyone has beaten 7 hardest AIs on DM here. Also start in Dark
Age and on an Archipelago map for the worst case.

Q) If you place a stable in the scenerio
editor when using the meso-american civilization under which
title set will it appear.

A) Eastern European, I’m afraid.
The same is true for bombard towers.

Q) Can you elaborate on your supernatural
encounter further? Did this influence you in designing Call of
Cthulhu?

A) Well, the second question first. It
might have influenced some of the things I did in Call of
Cthulhu, but I have always loved horror literature, films, and
the theme in general, so it was only one of many factors. What
happened was that the local kids, including myself, had gotten
ourselves kind of worked up into a ghost “fad” in
which we half-convinced ourselves that the abandoned house across
the street was haunted, and kept hoping to see spooks. But of
course we didn’t. Then one night, when I was walking home,
the fog was kind of misty, and when I looked down the street I
saw a tall figure of a woman in a full dress, the kind they wore
in the 1800s. She looked like she was carved out of mist (and she
was huge, like 10 feet tall). I couldn’t make out any
features. I just stood there and stared at her. She seemed to be
gliding towards me effortlessly, but she never got any closer as
the fog flowed around her. Was it a figment of my imagination?
Maybe. I got a couple of my friends to look at it, and it was
still there. One of them said he saw it, the other didn’t.
Was it an effect of the streetlights on the fog? Maybe (but I
doubt it). All I know is I consider it extremely likely that when
other people have seen what they call ghosts, they saw something
like what I did.

Q) I saw a history channel show featuring
cannibalism. An excerpt included a product called “Mummy” which
European armies harvested from the fat of the dead bodies of
opposing armies. What do you know of this practice and its use as
a European folk medicine before people figured out what it really
was?

A) Originally they were supposed to
use real egyptian mummies, and many thousands of them were ground
up and used for medicine in the Renaissance. I imagine fake
Mummia (the apothecary’s name for the substance) was pretty
common, though.

Q) Do you think we’ll see more monasterys in
the x-pack?

A) With three new techs, two civs with
considerable monk bonuses, and a reduced “wait time”
before conversion? You bet.

Q) Will we get one of those neat foldout
sheets describing which civs get which techs and the civ
bonuses?

A) I wish. Greg Street and I argued
really long and hard with MS about putting one in, and we finally
reached a compromise which I hope satisfies you – there is
a file on the CD-ROM which you can print out which makes
excellent tech trees for every civ in the game. Also the manual
does list which civs get which techs, and includes complete tech
trees for the new civs (plus the new civs show up on the CD-ROM
print-out. Incidentally, during all our playtests & gaming
here at Ensemble, even during AoK time, we always used print-outs
like this.

Q) You said that one of the meso-American
tribes have good monks (I can’t remember if it was Aztec or
Mayan,) anyway, are their monks as good as the Byzantine or
Spanish monks?

A) Well … let’s just say
they’re different. Were Egyptian monks better than Korean
ones?

Q) Are halberdiers upgrades of pikeman or a
seperate unit?

A) The former

Q) I’m guessing the Spanairds have an
excellent navy tree. Am I correct?

A) You better believe it. Plus a nice
naval civ bonus. They pretty much rank up there with the Koreans,
Vikings, Byzantines, and Saracens.

Q) Wouldn’t it have been cool to make an
Alexander Nevsky campaign. I don’t know how you’d guys do it but
it would be cool

A) If we had done Slavs as one of the
civs, Alexander Nevsky would almost certainly be the Russian
campaign. I adore that movie. And the music is to die for. (For
those not in the know, Sergei Eisenstein, one of the
world’s greatest directors, directed “Alexander
Nevsky” and Prokofiev himself, the great composer, did the
music. It is quite possibly the greatest medieval movie ever
made.)

Q) I’m not sure if you have strayed away from
the subject, but i’m intensly interested in how my favorite civ,
the Goths, have been helped in the X-pack. Is there any change in
the pop. limit bonus?

A) There is no change in the pop limit
bonus. I asked for it, but it turns out that making the pop bonus
a percentage is not as easy as it sounds. It’s possible,
just not easy. So we boosted the Goths in other ways instead,
like making their boar bonus worthwhile (I agree it’s not
so great at the moment, but it’s good in the X-pack).

Q) Is the civ that got 2 UU (excluding goths
and koreans), is a new or an old civ?

A) The old civs have not had any new
UUs added.

Q) Is the “unrevealed” civ that got 2 UU got
them both land units?

A) Yes, it is the only civ that gets a
non-boat extra UU.

Q) Did ES ever consider adding a boat with
the rams feature?

A) Yes.

Q) Is this possible to build bridge now ?

A) No. That involves actually
physically changing terrain tiles, and that is not possible using
the Genie engine. Well, I guess it would be possible if we made
massive changes to the engine, but we didn’t.

Q) You replied that, yes, you did get some
ideas from forumers from this site. Well, can you finally tell us
what those ideas were?

A) Good heavens, that was months ago.
I don’t remember every single idea that originated from
forum members. All of them were at least modifed by us. Let me
think, maybe I can come up with some. Okay – part of the
change in the TC was originated by suggestions from the fan
forums. The outpost LOS was improved thanks to the fans. We
instituted a shimo-friendly game type in response to this (and
other) forums. The major way we decided whether a UU was
“good” or “bad” (and thus needed
improvement) was via the forums. Lots of general themes came from
forums, too. However, I will say that the units & civs we
picked were not influenced by the forums.

Q) is there a ‘Random Teams’ option in
multiplayer?

A) Yep. It works great, too.
Basically, when you’re clicking on the “team
number” box, one of the results is a “?” mark,
and if you pick that, then you’re letting the computer pick
your team for you. What we usually do is put the two best players
(or the two worst) on opposite teams, and then everyone else
chooses random team.

Q) will the ships in the Xpack have
formations?

A) Kind of. They sail about in
formation, but you can’t pick from a menu of formations
like you do with land units.

Q) will the Turtle Boats outrange all ships
except the cannon galleon?

A) No, the turtle boats actually have
pretty short range. 5 tiles is all I think.

Q) Will the meso-American CIVs have STONE
WALLS?

A) Well, of course. In fact the Mayans
have a wall bonus.

Q) Have palisades been improved with more
hitpoints?

A) Nope. We like the way palisades
work now and don’t want to change them.

Q) Do the Spanish have good gunpowder
troops?

A) They don’t have a gunpowder
bonus, but they get all gunpowder units.

Q) Will the Aztecs/Mayans have really good
infantry… as in cheaper infantry or more hitpoints/armor?

A) The Aztecs have good infantry, the
Mayans only adequate.

Q) Was ES or you, in anyway tempted to throw
in a grossly inappropriate, totally off the scale, but still very
nice, Napoleon Bonaparte hero in the editor?

A) I can truthfully say that the
thought never even occurred to us for an instant.

Q) So petards are like suicide bomers?

A) Yeah, pretty much. I mean, real
petard-users didn’t ALWAYS get blown up by their bomb (but
pretty darn often), but even if they weren’t, the bomb was
gone, and they couldn’t use it again.

Q) Could you plz tell us more about the new
techs?

A) Okay, one is named Caravan, is
available at the Market, and improves trade cogs & carts.

Q) As far as I am concerned, I’ve gotten over
Slavs not being in X-Pack. No hard feelings there. When you get
called “stupid” however, there’ll be hard feelings though

A) I apologize for implying that you
were stupid. It is notoriously easy to misconstrue
someone’s intent in electronic media and I usually try hard
not to do so. In my defense, my foot (still healing from recent
surgery) was especially painful last night and so I was more
grumpy than the response warranted.

Q) Did my constant bickering about outposts
being weak help you in your decision?

A) I don’t know if it was you in
particular, but the many remarks about outposts helped.

Q) “How could we leave out Pope Gregory?” I
would ask the same thing, being that Gregory is obviously a
superior name, but will Pope Leo be in the game too? And is this
an attempt to kill the MS lawyers?

A) Oh heck I’m sorry. I named
the wrong pope. The correct one is in the game of course, and
Attila has to meet him at the end of the scenario after ravaging
all of Italy. Then the Pope has his secret private conversation
and the scenario ends.

Q) Will ES make monetary reparations to the
various forumers who have been caused grievous mental anguish
over the inclusion of the Aztecs and Mayans in AoK: TC? If so,
I’m feeling betrayed and angered be this decision, and I’ll
require immediate and very costly trepanation to remove the evil
tumors

A) Just drop by the office, I’ll
be glad to perform the trepination personally.

Q) Do the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, Yeti
and Bobby Fischer really exist?

A) After doing a great deal of
research on the subject (I’ve always been really interested
in monsters), I am convinced that the Yeti for sure exists, that
Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster might exist (i.e., I’m
not sure), and that Bobby Fischer is clearly not for real. What a
loser.

Q) Does MS/ES have any plans to market a line
of action figures based on AoK?

A) We have talked about it.

Q) You don’t seem to think Lee was quite all
he was cracked up to be. Do you think Albert Johnston was
overrated by his contemporaries as well? You mentioned Pea Ridge
in a previous post, do you have a particularly favorite battle of
the Civil War?

A) U. S. Grant has a really good
evaluation of Albert Sidney Johnston in his biography, and I
agree with him. He feels that Johnston was strategically timid
during the campaign for Forts Henry and Donelson, and certainly
the Confederate battle line he set up for Shiloh was rotten. But
his blunder at Shiloh was canceled by the Union’s idiocy in
getting surprised, so the fight was still a fair one. My favorite
battle of the Civil War is probably Missionary Ridge. That was
great. I especially like the part where the Union soldiers
disobey their commanders, and charge to the top of the hill,
winning the battle despite their orders. I also like Five
Forks.

Q) Do the Mangudai take their name from Mangu
Khan or another source?

A) There was a band of suicidally
reckless Mongol warriors that were named Mangudai, and who
terrified enemies by their daring attacks. The name has several
spellings.

Q) Can we safely assume there will be more
X-Packs?

A) We are not currently planning
another X-Pack.

Q) Vienna was saved not only by Polish, but
by Ukrainian Cossacks under Polish command as well. And Winged
Hussar is no better than Cossack!

A) Winged Hussars are a very different
type of soldier than Cossacks. Just because they’re both
dashing mounted warriors doesn’t make them the same.

Q) What would it take to convince ES to
include Slav civ in x-pack?

A) It is Too Late Now. It was always
too late. We made our decision with very careful thought and
planning.

Q) I don’t want to walk in the shoes of
Mayans. Aztecs is plenty.

A) Don’t play Mayans then.
It’s no skin off my nose.

Q) As I am programming AI’s it is interesting
watching monks trying to convert buildings they are’nt supposed
to (i.e. monasteries) and transport ships which dont get near
enough to the coast to deploy their troops. Did you know that and
if not could you tell the programmers about?

A) We have attempted to fix these bugs
for the X-Pack. I say “attempted” because it’s
hard to be sure, but we have not seen these unacceptable
behaviors at all for several months now.

Q) Did you (ES) at least kill the “walk
through gates” bug?

A) We thought we had, and then we saw
it again just a few days ago so I guess it’s back to the
grindstone.

Q) What improvements to the AI have we to
expect?

A) He builds up his economy much much
more efficiently and quickly.

Q) Ever thought about making bloody style
(cant build a TC) implemented into the game?

A) Bloody style emerged kind of late
for us to incorporate it, and we felt that it was mainly a
response to the TC wars, which our changes have already fixed.
But we do have four new game types, including a shimo-friendly
style (we even contacted Shimo himself to ask for suggestions to
improve it).

Q) About how much work would you say it takes
to add things like map types, units, civs, and technologies
relative to each other?

A) Map types are the hardest. Units
are hard only because it takes a long time to do the art properly
(we’re picky). Civs and technologies are quite easy.
However, play balancing them is really hard.

Q) Is there a new map type that is comprised
mostly of shallows?

A) actually, yes. We almost pulled it
out of the game because it looks kind of ugly, but I argued for
its retention on the basis that it would be an interesting
different kind of place. I warn you though, some people really
hate it. But others like it. My feeling was that even if only 10%
of the fans enjoyed playing on it, it didn’t hurt the other
90% to include it.

Q) Will the Viking UT help Longboats and/or
Berserkers?

A) Yes.

Q) Can you tell us what general area the
Korean team bonus affects?

A) all of the new civs have really
good team bonuses (our little way of making sure they get used).
The Korean team bonus affects siege.

Q) Why is the Cataphract more popular in the
x-pack

A) The Byzantine UT is really nice. In
fact, it was SO nice that we had to tone it down after Byzantines
romped over all opposition for a couple days in a row.

Q) what is that number when you press Ctrl+S
at main window?

A) Wow I never noticed that before. I
went and asked a programmer, and he thought it was the internal
Microsoft version number.

Q) Do Vikings get halbs?

A) No, because we feared Viking
halberdiers would rule late, gold-less games.

Q) Will there be another civilization with
all units like the Byzantines?” If this is still correct, does
this mean that the Koreans get camels since you have already let
us know that each of the other new civs is missing something?

A) Actually the civ I was thinking of
was the Spanish, who don’t get camels, so I guess I misled
you. Sorry. What I meant is that the Spanish can function
effectively with cav archers, cav, infantry, or gunners.

Q) Do the Huns ( a civ even more primitive
than the Goths historically) get stone walls?

A) Yes.

Q) Do the Meso-American civs (one or both)
get any kind of skirmisher bonus or a unit similar to but
stronger than it? Just guessing from some of your responses. Did
the American civs still use an atlatl for throwing spears at this
point, or was that only prehistoric? I understand that spears
thrown with an atlatl had tremendous range and force.

A) They still used atlatls, even in
warfare, but we did not give them a special bonus for this.
Probably we should have.

Q) Did ES ever consider doing unique artwork
for every unit for every civ?

A) No, because we knew how long it
takes to do the art. It’s not a question of it being cool
or not cool. AoK has about 65 different units. If we had done
different art for, say, the infantry, cavalry, and archers (i.e.,
not changing the siege or ships), that would have added 20-odd
more units to be done. We would have had to either delay the game
by several months (which means you’d only be getting it
now), or dropped the Unique Units. Or something worse. The reason
we got the cool new meso-american monks was because one of our
artists got inspired and did them on his own time, if you can
believe it.

Q) could you tell us some other cool feature
or unit not mentioned yet?

A) You can buy, sell, or tribute
resources in lots of 500, or all at once.

Q) Do you like Cookies Sandyman, and if, what
kinds of cookies?

A) I like raisin oatmeal, lemon
squares, oreos, and fig newtons. Also windmill cookies. Also
chocolate chip (but only if home-made). I would not say that I am
a huge cookie fanatic, though.

Q) Why didn’t you include Wyoming in the
X-Pack!!!

A) We did. That’s why all the
maps are square.

Q) If in the viking campaign, you will let
the vikinks against eskimosos. If yes what style sheet will they
use?

A) I fear I lied. After playing the
scenario again, I realize that there are no eskimos in it.
Instead, there is a hostile Viking colony in Greenland. When you
get to Newfoundland, though, after passing through the Sea of
Worms, there are Skraelings. We use Celts to be the
Skraelings.

Q) Will RTS3 be announced at the E3?

A) I doubt it. It’s years
away.

Q) Will elephants be stronger?

A) Elephant hit points, armor, and
attack are unchanged.

Q) How long from the initial idea of a game
until ES begins the programming phase?

A) Well, for RTS3 we started the
programming about a year before we figured out the idea for the
game.

Q) Who has final say when at an impasse
regarding a civ or design?

A) We work as a team. We strive really
really hard to reach a joint decision. When it can’t be
done, the designer is in charge of the design. However, when it
comes to civ choices, this is partly a marketing decision
(example: if all the civs in AoK:TC had been Hindu, our president
would have pointed out that total sales would be slim). Not that
we base civ choices on where our fans live, but we do base them
on the “coolness” factor. I.e., I thought it would be
really cool to be Huns or Aztecs, and I managed to convince the
rest of the team. Moving onto your point even more. Design
decisions are made by the lead designer. Programming decisions
are made by the programming lead. Art decisions are made by the
art lead. Sometimes these conflict (example: a design decision
that requires programming). Then the producer has the final
say.

Q) Will the x-pac make experts or rookies
better players?

A) Probably initially experts will
lose a little of their edge, because they’ll have to learn
some new skills. But after a month or so, I predict experts and
rookies will retain the same relative standing.

Q) Do you believe the vikings made it to the
great lakes and interacted with the iroqois? Do you believe the
chinese made a trans-pacific journey to mezo-america and
influenced mayan culture?

A) I have no opinion on either of
these. If someone shows me hard evidence for them beyond wishful
thinking I will believe it.

Q) Will the american Civ have a diferent
navy?

A) They have a different set of sails,
like the other navies.

Q) If hi have a line of Pikes (in stand
ground) in front of a line of Scorpions, will the scorpions
fire?

A) Of course. Why would they not?

Q) Can the Friendly fire be a optional combat
stance?

A) Oh I see, you are confusing
scorpions with mangonels. The Mangonels do not get friendly fire
as an optional combat stance, because that would make them more
confusing and hard to use for beginners. The new Mangonels work
quite easily and nicely and do not require a lot of
micromanaging.

Q) Based on the screenshots released,
depicting the TC stats, it has been deduced that the TC fix is
basically that the arrow upgrades does not affect TC range. Is
this true? If so, commendations for a simple, elegant and
effective fix.

A) I accept your commendations on
behalf of the entire ES staff. Thank you.

Q) Will relics make gold any faster?

A) As a matter of fact, they do. This
was originally suggested by fans in some forum or another
(probably this one). So thanks for the idea.

Q) Longboats wont be able to be used as
tranports, eh?

A) Good heavens no. How many
transports do you build in a game? Two? Three? Why waste
programming time installing an option that 1) would almost never
be used and 2) would make transport ships useless to Vikings?

Q) Might you yet factor in a spear thrower as
a tech upgrade for the Mayan UU or skirmishers in general, or is
everything pretty balanced as it is?

A) We’re pretty happy with the
current balance. In any case, new bonuses & upgrades are no
longer possible.

Q) Before the Turtle Boat was first mentioned
on these forums, had you or anyone else at ES considered them or
even heard of them?

A) I knew about Turtle Boats even
before I came to work for ES.

Q) Have you seen U 571 yet?

A) It’s a fine WW2 action movie.
When I see a historical movie, I find it best to breeze by any
inaccuracies. I get no joy in mocking Hollywood guys –
it’s shooting fish in a barrel. So I look for the things
that are fun and don’t bother to nit-pick errors. The
things that bug ME in a film are bad acting, illogical plots, and
other things that I would expect a film-maker to have a handle
on. Even so, the depth charges going off 20 feet from the sub and
not sinking it made me cringe a teeny tiny bit.

Q) Have you considered including Thracians in
AOE or ROR

A) I consider the Greeks or
Macedonians to include the Thracians.

Q) Or at least have you considered including
PELTASTS?

A) Sure. They almost made it into Rise
of Rome. But they didn’t. And they don’t fit in Age
of Kings.

Q) Do the Aztecs make good allies with the
Spanish in multiplayer?

A) Perhaps ironically, they make
terrific allies.

Q) What civ would you pick against the Huns
on a land map?

A) I would pick one of the good
“turtle” civs, button up tight, and expect to get
rushed fast and hard.

Q) will halberdiers fair better against
champions than normal pikemen?

A) Yes, but they still get their lunch
eaten.

Q) how have the teutons been downgraded
(besides tc) at all?

A) Not.

Q) You mention that Vikings will not get
Halbs… for fear of ruling gold-less games. So then, in
gold-less games, vikings will be stomped? Halbadiers will beat
viking pike.

Q) Aztec Champions beat Vike Champions 1 on
1. That also means, since Jaguars beat Viking Berserks… that
vikings are knocked down quite a bit in strength. Having weak Cav
will mean that infantry vs infantry, Vikes lose now

A) Poor Vikings. I wonder why they are
now one of the most popular civs among our playtesters, including
both MS & ES.

Q) As to Robert E. Lee, Do you not think that
the combination of being on the defensive and having defensive
placements increased Lee’s ability to win?

A) I do not consider R. E. Lee a
defensive commander. He was almost fanatically aggressive, in my
opinion to the detriment of his cause. While Stonewall Jackson
added to his effectiveness while on the attack, Lee was the
person who chose to attack. Look at his record after
Jackson’s death – he invades the North in the
Gettysburg campaign. He prepares an offensive trap at Mine Run
for Meade (who is too smart to be caught). He counter-attacks
again and again in the campaign vs. Grant. He sends Jubal Early
to raid Washington. He kept attacking & attacking clear up to
Fort Stedman. But I do agree that the South’s defensive
stance was generally highly advantageous to them, especially in a
war in which the defense was nearly as strong as in WW1.

Q) I believe that in the beginning of the war
the south had a huge advantage of people who were better soldiers
and the north had the (dis)advantage of having the old school
trained soldiers. It took quite a long time to weed out the
incompetent leaders in the north (McClellan, Hooker, etc). Grant
LOST every battle resource wise, but since the North was a 10:1
resource leader at least, that is why Lee had to surrender.
Agree? Disagree?

A) I strongly disagree at least about
the last factor. Grant not only won many battles resource-wise,
in the four major campaigns he undertook, three ended with the
entire enemy force surrendering to him. You must count that in
the equation. In addition, Grant always maneuvered and attacked
with an eye towards demoralizing the enemy force and getting his
soldiers to desert. By the end of the war more than half
Lee’s army had deserted, and these should also be counted
towards Grant’s total. The only campaign which he
didn’t end by capturing the enemy lock, stock, and barrel
was his campaign in eastern Tennessee, and he won every battle
taking fewer casualties than his opponent there. So Grant was no
spendthrift. Also the North didn’t have any 10:1 in
resources. The average southerner owned approximately twice as
much property as the average northerner. The North had 3 times
the white manpower, but the South was able to field a higher
percentage of its people in the army because slave labor took up
the slack. The South also had the massive advantage of fighting
on the defensive, on interior lines, and NOT having to waste much
of its army guarding lines of communication or conquered
territory. Despite the theoretical manpower advantage of the
North, throughout the war, the North on the average was able to
get armies into battle that were about 1.35 times that of the
South’s. And that is not enough for a war as strongly
favorable to the defense as the American Civil War.

Q) Will the age advancements cost the same
amount of resources as before?

A) Yes. Why mess with success?

Q) Any new techs at the Archery Range?

A) Yep

Q) Will the menu interface look
different?

A) If you mean the main screen,
yes.

Q) Do you like the book “Dune”?

A) Yes.

Q) Is there going to be an Admiral Yi Hero in
the x-pack?

A) Kind of. It’s sort of hard to
explain.

Q) How close did the Khmers come to being in
the x-pack?

A) Only two civs came closer without
being included. (Moors & Italians)

Q) Do you like Cav Archers?

A) I don’t know, I’ve
never eaten any.

Q) Is any of the new monk bonuses a reduced
conversion time

A) All the new monk bonuses are
brand-new never before-seen bonuses.

Q) Are any of the new techs from the
stable?

A) Yes.

Q) will any units take up more than one pop.
slot?

A) No

Q) Do you think war elephants will be used
more?

A) I guarantee it.

Q) If Farms are automatically rebuilt with
the farm que, doesn’t this make Crop Rotation and the Chinese
farm bonus (+ 45 Food) basically worthless in the X-Pac?

A) Why? You still get the benefit of
more food for the wood spent. Auto-rebuilds don’t change
the amount of wood blown on farms.

Q) will the petards be good at taking out
trebuchets as well as walls?

A) Yes. They have a general siege
bonus. It is pretty much only used on trebuchets & rams
though. While in theory they can kill onagers, bombards, &
scorpions in practice you never see this.

Q) Do you think scorpions will be used more
often in the X-pack?

A) I guarantee it.

Q) Are bears included in the X-Pack?

A) No.

Q) You said that if in the Scenario Editor
you give to Mesoamerican stables or Bombard Towers, they are
going to be with the eastern style, right? Why can’t you make
Bombard Towers just like Mesoamerican Keeps, but with a
Cannon

A) We didn’t want to spend even
the miniscule art time it would take. Perhaps that’s why
our artist could find time to do the new bonus monks. I’d
much rather have them than a special bombard tower used only in
all-tech games.

Q) Whose voice did ES use for the taunts?

A) Almost everyone at ES
participated.

Q) Will the Xpac be more centralized to
economy or military or will it be balance?

A) I don’t understand this
question.

Q) Will there any be new units for the
turks?

A) Yes, they get hussars &
petards. And their petards even get the Turkish gunpowder bonus,
as I recall.

Q) Exactly how powerful did you make the
Winged Hussar?

A) I really am not able to answer this
question at this time …

Q) How does the Winged Hussar stand
one-on-one against a Cavalier?

A) He gets stomped. He should, though,
seeing as he only costs 80 food as opposed to the
Cavalier’s 60 food & 75 gold.

Q) Am I right in assuming the Cataphract has
a UT that makes it considerably cheaper?

A) No. None of the UTs decrease any
units price.

Q) Why do the Mayans and Aztecs, who had
inferior armor to the Spanish and Europeans in general, get all
armor upgrades

A) Game balance plus the fact that the
Spanish themselves stopped wearing metal armor in the
Meso-American climate. A guy wearing full-plate would soon get
heat stroke, not to mention fungus infections and his armor would
rust. So the high-end armor is considered to be “the best
armor usable in the current climate”. Since we know for a
fact that the Meso-Americans [i]could[i/] work iron (having found
iron implements in their storehouses), the assumption is that
iron was not used widespread because there were few good iron
mines in central america, plus it rusted fast. Therefore, if the
Aztecs had been in a northern european landscape like, say, a
Baltic map, they would have had & used iron.

Q) Is the Mayan UU in fact not an archer at
all, but some super-skirmisher?

A) No, he’s really an archer.
It’s just that the way his hit points, armor, and attack
works out he’s especially good vs. archers and especially
bad vs. other types of units. He really doesn’t get any
hidden bonus vs. archers.

Q) When you make one of your funny, sarcastic
responses to peeps with dumb or annoying questions, how long does
it take you to think up your response?

A) Those answers are always off the
cuff. I make them up as fast as I type. When I spend time
thinking about a question, it’s not one of the dumb
ones.

Q) In order for the TC to retain it’s
defensive capabilities, and be bad with offense, and the fact
that you mentioned that rebuilding your city is alot harder with
TCs than it currently is, should I assume that the TC fix is just
that the TC is a ton harder to place on the map?

A) No, because that would be annoying
to the player.

Q) I know the voice of one taunt in the
x-pack, rather not a voice, but a laugh. The sound file is called
“HerbLaugh” or something, so I figured it was Herb Marselas, and
later confirmed it with him. He sure as hell has a kewl
laugh!

A) Yes, Herb’s laugh is quite
famous here at ES. I’m serious.

Q) why the Aztecs and the Mayans but not the
Incas. As you can sse by my name, Im concerned by your lack of
attention for my powerful people

A) I’ve explained it about
twenty times. Don’t you read any of my threads? It’s
for two reasons. 1) To give the Aztecs someone else to pick on in
their campaign besides the Spanish. 2) Because we wanted to
re-use the beautiful meso-american building art, and the Incas
had totally different architecture.

Q) Is the Mayan wall bonus give it more
hitpoints than a Byzantine wall?

A) Why would we want to re-use an old
bonus? More hit points has been done. We want to do new, exciting
bonuses.

Q) The Mayan UU will defeat an ELBOW!!!!?
NNNNNOOOOOOOOooooo….. my poor longbowmen!!! What have you
done!

A) Don’t worry, longbows are
still better against every other non-bow-wielding target than the
Mayans. No need to throw away those clothyard shafts … but you
might want to back up your Elbows with cavaliers or onagers to
make the Mayans sad.

Q) Is their a new map with more gold on it
then a Gold Rush?

A) No. We want to do maps that have
cool new stuff, not re-hashes of old ideas.

Q) So it never crossed your minds to sneak
Napoleon in? But…But… why not? Wouldn’t it have been a
pleasant suprise to everyone

A) Hey, I’m not arguing with
you. I agree. We just didn’t think of it.

Q) Why were arbeques (you know, those next
version muskets) decided against for The Conquerors?

A) We had limited art resources,
hand-cannoneers weren’t popular anyway, and a new unit that
only appears in the late Imperial age wouldn’t have much
effect on the game.

Q) If you were offered the opportunity, would
you go and visit Napoleon’s tomb?

A) Certainly. Despite the fact that he
betrayed many of the ideals of the French Revolution, and in my
opinion threw away his gains when he could have won, he is still
one of the most amazing men of all time.

Q) Why havent you considered the Ninja as an
important or attractive enough aspect of Japanese Society to
include it as a Unique Unit together with Samurai?

A) We’re not trying to model
japanese society. Just their strategic warfare.

Q) Could u tell us if the Spanish gets any
economic bonuses in dark age? if so, which ones? For what i’ve
seen from ur previous answers the Spanish are very much like the
Byzantines: full cav (no camels, though), full infantry, full
gunpowder, good navy, nice tec tree, great monks. Could we say
that they are the “offensive byzantines”? What, in ur oppinion,
is the main difference between this two civs?

A) I don’t think they’re
much alike, frankly. The Spanish are not particularly good in
defensive, but they have a LOT of offensive oomph. The
Byzantines, on the other hand, are superb defensively, with their
super-buildings and their cheapo counter-units, but they
don’t have a really good attack, seeing as they’re
missing the top-end attack upgrade and some other important bits.
Even their UU is kind of a counter-unit. The Spanish UU is
definitely not a counter-unit, and their civ bonuses and
tech-tree are clearly aimed at destroying other players. The
Byzantines and Spanish, while they are both flexible civs, are
more like the light-side/dark-side. Despite superficial
similarities, they are really almost opposites. I predict that
players who love the Byzantines will not care for the Spanish and
vice versa.

Q) How many diff places have you been?

A) I have been to nine different
nations on three continents. One of them, though (New Zealand) I
was only in for a couple of hours so it probably doesn’t
count. I bought some Kiwi-fruit candy, though.

Q) Do you like Danish?

A) I have always wanted to visit
Denmark. I actually have relatives there whom I’ve never
met.

Q) Will Britons still retain their 50%
cheaper TC cost or will TC be so crummy it won’t be a good bonus
to have anyways

A) They still retain their bonus, and
it is still worth having, but it’s not as good as it used
to be. Good players still build more than one TC. Just not more
than two or three anymore.

Q) What will the main purpose of the Hussar
perform?

A) He does just what light cavalry do
only better.

Q) Is there will be on the X-pac a unit to
counter the champs?

A) Yes.

Q) I’m doing a report for school on Medieval
warfare, can you please give me at least 10 good sources of
information?

A) I do not have the time right now to
do a proper job. But I recommend “INFANTRY WARFARE IN THE
14TH CENTURY” by Kelly DeVries. I also recommend THE ART OF
WAR IN THE WESTERN WORLD by Archer Jones, at least the Medieval
Warfare section.