Submit news thread now opened. If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.

(We had to keep this thread hidden since the 23rd so it didn't show up on the main page. Thankfully, we're news-posting fiends, so it didn't take too long. )

So, short on news after a couple of weeks of madness, I see.

So, short on news after a couple of weeks of madness, I see.

Nothing of the sort. This is just to let you guys submit anything you feel is news-worthy, since you can't make new threads in this forum.

[I emailed this originally, but it looks like this is the place for news submissions now]

Just thought I'd let you know about a new multiplayer network I've created for playing Age of Empires II (and Age of Conquerors and both demos) online called GameRanger.

Basically, GameRanger makes it quick and easy to play your friends online.

It has full lobby support for over 500 different games and demos (including Age of Empires, of course), without the hassles and headaches that usually happen with network connections (eg. routers & firewalls). All Age of Empires II games are shown in a single universal lobby -- there are no artificial room limits.

I'm really excited to be releasing it, and hope it helps boost the Age of Empires II community by allowing people to play that were unable to until now due to problems with opening ports, etc. The more barriers that can be removed, the more likely the community will stay strong, as new users won't be put off.

You can download it at www.GameRanger.com

Yes, your member has already come and spammed us.

GameRanger is nice, and great that it works for Mac, but it can't compete with the mainsteam Windows client, http://igzones.com.

He said it's especially for those who have had problems with routers and firewalls, like myself.
But how come it doesn't use them? What's the difference? Do I get hackers on me because of it?

Like I apparently said before, we're short on news. Seriously, 6 news posts in this month, most of them weekly or monthly posts? Shame on you.

Most staff members have other things that take up much of their time as well, you know.

Like I apparently said before, we're short on news. Seriously, 6 news posts in this month, most of them weekly or monthly posts? Shame on you.

I forgive us. These past few months have been hectic.

Your scenario folder now also to be bugged up by Windows 7! Kidding. Quite right there isnt much news but yeah, there isnt much to say anymore about AoK. Only the Spotlight, Feature and WiP are really interesting. Apart from that, simply nothing exciting happens around AoK anymore

The Speed Contest has Started!



Join the Competiton and get to the Castle Age first!

See the thread

http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/aokcgi/display.cgi?action=ct&f=3,39428,0,30

11 days utill the deadlinf for the Speed Contest!!!!


Submit as new please

In the AI Scripting Forum, we have created an AI Scripters League, somewhat similar to the Multiplayer Ladder in the General & Strategy Discussion Forum. The ladder has been going strong. There are currently 23 AIs and we're looking for more. I think it would be great for the whole AoKH community to know about it, especially since I think many don't know about all the exciting things going on in the AI Scripting Forum.

If you have any questions, such as how it is run, or anything else. Feel free to ask me or RubberMan any questions. The Ladder thread on this site is maintained by myself, and we also have our own AI Scripters League website, maintained by RubberMan.

Here's the current banner for the league, made by RubberMan:

The Dealine for the Speed Contest has been Extended until the 3rd of April!

Post as news please

Speed Contest is closed. No more entries can be submited.

Results


The Speed Contest has been a fast and action pack race to see who could get to the Castle Age in the fastest time. We had six entries to the Contest. They were all brilliant tries but here are the results.

In first place with an outstanding time of 11:00 exactly; our champion is The_Biz.

In Second place with another magnificent time of 11:13; we have our runner up; barbarossa89

Out third place winner with a time of 11:15 is h2h80

In fourth place is Wololoo with a time of 11:24

Fith Place goes to rimu who had a time of 12:24

And finally our sixth place goes to Ryusaki who reach the castle age in 14:33

You can get links to all of the entries and other info from the thread

The Best Army Competition 2010 has started and is hosted by Fanica. Hurry up and enter as only eight entry ballots are available. Build an army and enter it against other entrants armies and see whose army will survive ti'll the end. More information in contest thread.

[This message has been edited by joshua4missions (edited 04-17-2010 @ 11:10 AM).]

Age Of Empires gets featured in an Indian magazine.
The World's Favourite Children's Magazine(Disney Adventures) has AOE featured in it.
The December Issue rates AOE series in the top 3 games of the world.However it is listed in educational games category.
Read what the magazine said-
"There are far too many games in the educational category.But if you want to combine history,strategy and fun,there is none other like the Age Of Empires series."

The magazine also featured Age of mythology in November 2008 and The Collector's edition in 2009.
The magazine has also featured AOE Collector's edition.According to it the only flaw in the game was that when you play more advanced games like The Conquerors,you foret that there are not as many features in the older versions of the game and start to frustate.
This is what was printed in the magazine and not what I thought.Anyway,AOK is getting popular through magazines too.

Interesting. What's the name of the Magazine, Disney Adventures?

Yes.The one I am talking about was published in India.
It looks like this.Not this one but similar to this

The member truedew12 posted a great utility The Invisible Object. It shows how you can make units and buildings invisible by rotating them in AoK:TS . This utility replaces HoU , TIC , Invisible-Farms and Cloaked-Units .
Download it before it's out of stock :
http://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/showfile.php?fileid=10349

{news starts}
[Newscaster comes]
[sits on comfy chair]
[takes out a page from the dustbin]
[decides to read it aloud]
Title-A moderator misses deadline,who's fault?
Description-We've just got to know it from our reporters that mr. ought to be president missed the deadline for his upcoming work,Gwyndlegard!What do YOU want?Shall we support him or not?SMS y for yes and n for no to 99999999.Voting lines are open until tomorrow night 10 p.m.
Who's fault it may be?
The playtester's?The author's?We will tell you all about it in our Saturday Special News.Dont forget to watch it at 34 hours GMT only on ABCDEFG Channel!
[says-"now that wasn't interesting"]
[takes out a cookie from the recyclable trash can]
[says-"mmmmm....Tastes delicious!"]
{News ends}

he he!
not the real news! you can put it if you want but the rel news should be given tomorrow,Gwyndlegard or whatever is its name which I dont know or which I know but cant recall at the moment because of a memory problem is releasing!Hey,this should have been put up by Lord Basse,why am I wasting my time?

Indeed you are. One forummer releasing a project doesn't warrant a news post. Unless it's the most awesome scenario ever to be created, like Medivia.

lol haha i doubt it will be as good as mediva :P

Our Brother Heaven, AOE3H has presented on it's news 2 days ago the Alpha Version of a game made by WildFire, called O A.D., some there also said that we finally found somewhat of the remake of AoK.

Obviously it isn't on the Middle Age it's about the Iron Age-Dark Age transtition.

The thread is here.

The page on WildFire Studios is here.

New AOC DM Tournament:

AOC DM Rebirth Tournament will consist of 32 players, all of which must have a rating of 1700+ in Voobly DM Rated Room. The Tournament Map is Green Arabia, and Civ Rules are available on the tournament website. We have 15/32 signed up so far, and there is $150 in cash prizes to be won. Some of the best AOC DMers have already joined, including ELLaS_Jidba, [RvK]Scie, Fu12iouS_NoW, and ELLaS_LeGenD, along with a bunch of other experts. It should be a great tournament, and hopefully it will inspire some new interest in DM as well as bring back some old top DMers.

The tourney address is AoCDMRebirth.forumotion.com

Thanks!

Looks like a great tournament! We'll get this news'd for sure.

New Civilization announced for Age of Empires Online:

Late last night, Microsoft heralded the existence of a new civilization in Age of Empires Online, the Egyptians! In addition they announced their marketing plans among other information.

Free to Play Features:

Familiar Age of Empires gameplay, and downloadable to any PC for free!
The greatest ancient civilizations, including Greeks and Egyptians.
Constantly new, exciting, and evolving content.
Quest, battle, chat, and trade with other players.
Build and show off your own custom Capital City.
Enjoy historical settings with gorgeous visuals and a cool new art style.

Premium Content:

Premium content packs offer dozens of hours of new gameplay, entirely new features, and an enhanced multiplayer experience:

Premium civilization packs offer an enhanced experience for your favorite civilization, including new gear, advisors, workshops, and PVP features.
Booster packs offer specific new features or storylines.
Vanity packs offer new items and historically themed architectural pieces for players interested in the ultimate level of customization for their Capital City.

Rare and epic gear: Unlock gear that makes your units more powerful, with unique designs to make your armies stand out in battle.

Advisors: In the Advisor Hall, you can unlock unique units, such as armored elephants and civilization powers.

Tech Tree: Experience the full Tech Tree with fantastic end-game Star Techs. For example, generate resources from your Market, have your troops bandage themselves, or make your people immune to conversion in battle.

Initiate player vs. player games: Set parameters for the gameplay you want and invite your friends to play,
Additional Inventory slots: More than double your inventory space.

More Workshops: Drastically improve your capital’s production with more workshops to create all the materials you need for crafting.

Craft Halls: Learn unit enhancements from additional Craft Halls and use them to your advantage in the game. You get seven to choose from, including the Military College, which enhances infantry; the Hunting Lodge, which enhances archers and missile units; and the Cavalry Hall, which enhances mounted units.

Empire Points: Get the ability to spend Empire Points on the best loot in the game. Empire Points reward you for having multiple civilizations.

In-game stores: Earn in-game currency from the stores in your Capital City.

Check out more features at the Official Website.



joshua4missions

Pssst: check out Age of Empires Online Heaven for stuff related to AoEO.

You beat me to it! Ahh well... I currently have my own new site to work on...

joshua4missions

Seeing as noone has done so yet:



Well folks, once again the Minigame Competition has arrived, this time hosted by NowhereT. The goal? To see who can make the best scenario on a 25x25 sized map. So far we have many entrants, so come on over to the official thread and sign up now.


-------------------------

joshua4missions

[This message has been edited by joshua4missions (edited 02-17-2011 @ 11:05 AM).]

does anyone know how to contact the guys that wrote the civilizations article?? i came to my mind when i was reading the celtic description it said "siege onager is the only unit in the game that can cut paths through forests", maybe u already know but the british trebuchet can also cut paths...

Funnily enough, the guy who wrote that was ES_Sandyman, one of the designers who made the game, although he was mostly correct since trebuchets aren't very good tree smashers. It'd probably be a good idea to look through those again.

Since I have no clue how to start a thread, I hope nobody minds if I write my problem here.
Now as I am told, you can use a Virtual Machine to get MPS to work. Now I have a Vaio laptop, which means I have to use VirtualBox, check, now how do I operate it? I would much like to use it to play MPS and another classic Windows XP game.

This is the News forum, and only staff can post threads here. If you go to one of the other forums, such as General and Strategy Discussion, you can post your own thread.

In answer to your question, I believe you need an operating system CD for the operating system you're trying to run. So, you need an XP CD from a computer you previously owned.

well thanks for answering my question.

peace, hey i have a problem.... i cannot build trade workshop... ecspecially in campaign and how could i build it? although i saw the AI have this thing... but i not test yet at standart game... reply please..!

Seems like this topic just attracts off topic posts. -_-

Thing with the tradeworkshops is that they are a leftover from earlier versions of the game. In the current version they don't serve any purpose other than a purely aesthetic one. (Eyecandy) Though it is possible by data-editing to make such a building 'buildable', it wouldn't exactly do anything.
(Just as when placed in the editor.)

I highly recommend posting any further questions you may have at the scenario design and modding section of the forum.

thanks mate..!

No.

[This message has been edited by sly_guy (edited 08-30-2011 @ 09:29 PM).]

Oh what a great news! Appoint this person a moderator!

Hey my new competition could be posted as news a link is in my sig

If you want it posted as news then you need to be more clear with exactly what it is you want to achieve. Reading the posts just looks like you've made it up as you went along.

There is no official deadline for submissions, no submission naming structure, no prizes, no judges (the fact you want to host the competition but not be a judge is a little strange considering it was your idea). There is no map type to edit on (as stated in the OP - which you said you'd provide a link to) and so far it looks as though the competition has already started, meaning people have until tomorrow to get something complete. A little late and un-prepared for a newsie.

@Tetsuo Shima I see your point and I shall try to fix the problems but I think when I decide on a date for this competition we might have to change it a couple times to make up for peoples schedules.

For this contest to become official, I'd like to see at least 6-8 contestants.

Also, you do need to make it sound like you have it planned all out. I'd plan a starting date and a deadline date right now, those dates being perhaps a week or two down the road. You should be setting these dates instead of the forummers. If the forummers say that they can't do it on those days, then you can change the date, but you should still be the one planning them out.

At least describe the map you'll be giving out in the OP. If you're afraid of giving a link to the scenario because people might start designing, then just state that the map is smaller than tiny and that you will give out the link when the competition begins.

You need judges picked out before the contest begins. Also, I would really suggest that you be a judge. You know the map size, the theme, and everything else about the competition beforehand. You'd have an unfair advantage.

The OP also can't decide whether it's three days or just one day. You might want to fix that.

We're not against newsing it in the long run, but these are the kinds of things we'd like to see beforehand.

Fixing right now and Leif the map is going to just be a certain size other than that it is going to be blank when I give it to the players also you say I'm going to have a theme which I am not going to do because it restricts the contestants freedom and also it would be funner to play a variety of maps instead of just one type.

Okay, I mixed up the map size and the theme. Still, it's unconventional to host a contest and also participate in it.

a theme(...)it restricts the contestants freedom

or it can make them use it creatively. look at the CSC winning entries.

Still, it's unconventional to host a contest and also participate in it.

I hosted the MGC because I wanted to enter But I agree with the principle - you need judges sorted before the competition stands a chance of working.

umm.. The drawing thread which is at the TC perhaps?