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With the new ladder/ranking-system in place, why not make a contest or something for new "official" RandomMaps? I already get kind of bored by the standard pool.
I also like the technical stuff. Why did you choose do refactor this decades old crap-code instead of starting from "scratch".
Why were there no proper new graphics in the HD version? The only changed things like fire and farms mostly look inferior.
Will Forgotten Empires be with costs or free? Will !new content! be added to the main game, like new Civs, Maps, etc. ?
Talk about the UserPatch for vanilla AoC, will those features be implemented in the HD version? (most notable mirror civ mode, better auto-save, more unique mapscripts)
Talk about matchmaking. Explain it! Does Quickmatch just host a game in the lobby or does it only connect with other Quickmatchers? Will there ever be a proper competitive-matchmaking like in cs:go, DotA, etc. (not peer-to-peer but server-client networking?) ?
I love this game alot, but every game I play also makes me hate it more because of stupid bugs, lagg all the time, random crashes & disconnects, out of syncs, low performance, etc. etc.
Also why is the community-communication so incomplete? Some Threads get fast answers, some get none, before the patch 2.3 announcement there was silence for weeks.
-I'd like to hear/learn a little more about the team and members. Do you guys ever play against/with eachother? If so, do you guys pick teams? Is there someone that is always picked first/last? =P ...are you guys human?
-Do you guys have any favorites, do you guys play other games (I'm assuming so). Does anyone play competitively in anything?
-Maybe a blog that talks about how this all started, who approached who to get this started. What made everything get rolling?
-Maybe you can join a random RM/DM/CS and stream your game and see if you get your butt kicked or do the butt kicking. ;]
-Or maybe stream six of you guys playing a diplo map!
-Have fun. I've been lucky that I don't really experience any of the problems people seem to talk about. =]
And yeah, hope Forgotten Empires with new balances and civs will come one day on AOE II HD. It'll be badass.
Finally, if you stream, you should talk about the "new" lobby and the revised rating system. Thanks :)
I love the idea about custom random maps being included as official maps- you could have seasonal contests and really shine light on the map scripting community. That reminds me- some of the current official random maps are bugged in terms of fairness (i.e. lakes inside the main forest, relics surrounded by woods, gold/stone at the edge of the map or too close to trees thereby making it more difficult to mine)- are there plans on fixing these issues?
I'd also like to hear if there are any plans to upgrade the modding capabilties! And that reminds me- you should demo THIS mod:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=152342324&searchtext=
Also if possible, would like a detailed on losing the 3 points thing about players dropping if you can get the time, cheers
The day I see the devs ask for that no brainer list, I know that we have a just bit brighter future, instead of being stuck with a dying game.
HP did a terrible and unsightly job when they meddled with the art assets, and those two items clash horribly with everything else in the scene, and HP didn't even take note that the original assets are rendered 3D modeled - because what they replaced them with are tacky, low-quality flat 2D assets! The colours, and next to zero scope of colour range, does not fit in with the AOE2 palette and texture grit, and they are extremely poorly drawn, regardless. They definitely were not done by an artist, and any game artist, or non game artist artist, for that matter, will laugh at them.
HP weren't even aware of basic drawing techiques that would give a 3D impression to their works, or take note of the details in the original:
1 - The original rendered 3D farm has 3D mounds that rise and fall. HP's ugly 2D farm has no mounds, instead it has two flat solid colour strips of that alternate with each other. This doesn't even make the slightest bit of sense, as it doesn't simulate mounds, but rather planks, and it seems that HP didn't know that crops are even planted on mounds, and didn't realize that the original 3D rendered farm has those mounds in it.
2 - The original cliff has defined rock formations, with detailed cliff tops to stimulate height-difference perception from the base to the top of the cliff - whereas HP's 2D replacement crassly simply took a cutout of the shape of the original cliff, and texture-filled it with a texture that lacks distinct definition, and in no way holds any solid rock formation. And they completely omitted the strip of detail at the top of the cliff which gives the original the perception of height difference:
The original cliff was intended, like the rest of the game's art, to look more realistically like cliff, whereas the new cliff is a stylizated interpretation of a cliff, one that's only meant to loosely represent a cliff. It's a completely different approach to everything else in the game, and clashes terribly. To make an extreme analogy, it's like throwing a Picasso representation of a face on top of Michelangelo's statue of David. The statue is done with intentionally realistic details to evoke reality, while the head is a stylized and abstract interpretation. They don't go together, and the new AOE2 art assets equally don't belong in the same scene with the originals.
Picture of the new cliff: http://i.imgur.com/8ah3cBU.jpg
It looks like 2D art popping up on top of an otherwise 3D rendered scene - which is exactly what it is. It doesn't fit, and it wasn't created with an artist's sense.
3 - The soundtrack. AOE2 HD is entirely missing the original AOE2 soundtrack. Since the original soundtrack is both longer and better than the expansion soundtrack, it is daft to have not included it, and I can't help but feel that it shows a lack of interest in, or familiarity with the product. The more I think about this, the more is seems as though HP don't hold much interest in AOE2, but just were eager to get a paying project to work on. No hardcore fan of the game would have left such an iconic part of the game, like its soundtrack, out of the package. And nobody who holds high respect for the game would have un-warrantedly maligned the art assets as HP did.
Please show respect to AOE2, MS Ryzon, and restore the originals items that I've mentioned. I can bring up further issues, but if these are fixed I might be able to grit my teeth by and bear the rest.
But if you want to get further into issues, the new water is bad looking, from an artists perspective. It's pixelated, and very cheaply emulated. Look at AOE 3's water:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OCZzIZu3efA#t=1s
and then look at AOE 2's:
http://i.imgur.com/lfzK1K4.jpg
On the left half of the screen, you see the new water. It's brittle and pixelated, and once again, it contrasts with the scene. On the right half, you see a style like the original. It's smooth, warm, and sits very well in the scene.
The AOE3 way is the proper way to do water, and I'm sure they could have requested the code from MS to port it over to AOE2 HD. Barring that, I would completely prefer to have the original textured water, rather than the HD edition's water. And yes, people have said that they like the new water, but the majority of people don't actually take a decent look at it, and just get automatically get hooked by soundbites and catch phrases, like it being animated. If they did actually take a look, they would realize that the new water doesn't actually move, that it's a static wave pattern, and one which is brazenly hideously pixelated!
Again, these art alterations were not done by an artist, or by anyone with art sense, because they're just terrible - and I've never seen water done in this manner in a game, which makes sense, since it doesn't look good, and there are alternate ways to create water that have been done for almost a decade, with much better results. I think that all of these altered art assets were done by a programmer who wanted to stroke their own ego by altering things. Since most notably the new farm and cliff definitely weren't done by an artist, and since they definitely don't fit AOE2, and are of extreme sub-par quality, the respectful thing to do is to restore the originals. Not to mention that an AOE2 re-release which aims to honour the original should be faithful to the original, and not arbitrarily messed with like some fool-around art project.
Now, let me finish by saying that I'm not opposed to replacing the cliffs or water. But I am entirely opposed to replacing them with work that doesn't stand up, and that was designed with complete ignorance of basic art senses such as being styled inappropriately to match the game, and not being done with quality in mind. The changes were clearly only inappropriate vanity fueled interference, and thus, out of respect for the game and the desire to have a product that people can be proud of, really ought to be removed, and the original restored, or new ones done that consider the game's style and bar of quality.