Thursday, March 7, 2013

Age of Empires 2 HD


"In Age of Empires II: HD Edition, fans of the original game and new players alike will fall in love with the classic Age of Empires II experience. Explore all the original single player campaigns from both Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion, choose from 18 civilizations spanning over a thousand years of history, and head online to challenge other Steam players in your quest for world domination throughout the ages. Originally developed by Ensemble Studios and reimagined in high definition by Hidden Path Entertainment, Microsoft Studios is proud to bring Age of Empires II: HD Edition to Steam!"

"So what will this include? The original AOE II: The Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion, all remastered in HD by Hidden Path. This will enable 1080p+ resolutions, and also include enhanced textures, lighting, and water and fire effects. As a Steam exclusive release, it will incorporate Steamworks, and have achievements, leaderboards, matchmaking, and the ability to save to the cloud. Steam Workshop support will also be included, enabling sharing of mods and user-created content for the game."

First AoE3 goes on Steam and now this...!?
I think we all feel the same way, amazed and very happy. Most of us here played the classic and beautiful AoE2 and know it has unmatched gameplay.
Maybe a completely new AoE game would have been better, but since the AoE franchise seemed dead once again with development on AoE Online being stopped, this is better than nothing. This re-release of AoE2 will surely be successful and will show Microsoft how loved this franchise still is if they get it right.

I still have a few problems with AoE2 though, such as civilizations uniqueness. For example, Aztecs and Japanese have an European techtree with just 1 or 2 unique, specific units... This is silly and disrespectful compared to something like AoE3 but what can you do.

Even so, it is a great game and the competitive player base might grow into something huge.
Who knows.

It comes out on April 7 so don't miss it!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

"Improvement Mod"

Many of you might not be aware of the upcoming "Improvement Mod" for AoE3 vanilla, but in case you ever see it I wanted to let everyone know that I have nothing to do with it.
It is a simple, small mod focused on making everything free and unlimited, like unlimited pop, units and other stuff like that.

I tried to speak with the developer to make him maybe change it's name to avoid confusion but he doesn't seem too wiling to do it. I just hope he won't use this name to advertise his mod to people who know my mod.


Anyway, I really need some help from the community with something new and awesome!
I want to give names to Town Centers like Forts have. Names of historical colonial cities and/or towns as well as made up names as long as they fit.
Remember that I need names for Euro Town Centers, as well as Native and Asian ones. I need around/at least 5 names per civ.

I will post here the names I like and what might make it into the mod.
So, lets get started, I'll go first:

- British
Charlestown
York
Jamestown
Newport
Trenton
Annapolis
Maine
Plymouth
Saybrook
Lexington
Monmouth
Kingston

- Dutch
Breuckelen
Nieuw-Haarlem
Willemstad
Paramaribo
Oranjestad
Mauritsstad
Batavia
Rensselaer
Kralendijk
Beverwyck

- French
Louisbourg
Montreal
Tadoussac
Quebec
Montreal
Saint Laurent
Saint Colette
Ajaccio
Acadie
Bilocci
Martinique
Guadeloupe

- Iroquois
Mishawum
Haudenosaunee
Hochelaga
Kanatahseton
Onondaga
Ganaraske
Teyagon
Akwesasne
Canienga
Tonawanda

- Sioux
Winnebagoes
Assiniboines
Minnetaree
Salamanca
Saratoga
Oglala
Ojibway
Arikara
Wajaje

- Aztecs
Yautepec
Texcoco
Tlacopan
Tepanec
Azcapotzalco
Oaxaca
Zacatecas
Xochipili
Itztli

- Spanish
Juarez
Guanajuato
San Miguel
Merida
Morelia
Guanajuato
Guadalajara
Cartagena
Quito
San Andreas
Santiago

- Chinese
Guangzhou
Jilin
Heilongjiang
Fujian
Luoyang
Yunnan
Sichuan
Xinjiang
Guizhou
Chengdu

- Japanese
Hokkaido
Kyoto
Satsuma
Hienuki
Kokufu
Tosando
Nagato
Ryukyu
Ouchijuku
Takayama

- Indians
Calcutta
Bombay
Panaji
Marmagao
Simla
Madras
Bengal
Mangalore
Punjab
Bikaner
Bahawalpur

- Portuguese
Salvador
Bahia
Sao Paulo
Sao Vincente
Rio Grande
Sao Luis
Olinda
Recife
Porto Seguro
Ceara
Itamaraca

- Russians
Novozybkov
Rostov
Georgiyevsk
Khabarovsk
Zimniy
Saratov
Vasilevsk
Snezhnogorsk
Novoarkhangelsk
Belgorod
Belozerks

- Germans
Quedlinburg
Hildesheim
Goslar
Lubeck
Berchtesgaden
Breslau
Potsdam
Konigsberg
Tertholen
Brandenburg
Arguin

- Ottomans
Granada
Koprulu
Mustafa
Celebi
Karamanli
Kosmidion
Incegiz
Edirne
Lale
Seljuk
Marmara


The list is pretty much done. Thank you to everyone that contributed and I hope you will like them in-game!