CodeOptimist

I kept up on the progress of the RaW mod (probably found out about it through HG), and then once RaW was released, I checked up on the "0AD" mod once in a while. Boy was I surprised when I checked up on WFG after a long while and found 0AD wasn't a mod anymore I started visiting the forums more regularly after that

Keep good moderators "on call" and it probably won't happen. However, having too many boards to post on is also confusing and can make a community too big. (WFG definetly isn't at that point)

Well, I might keep them to myself, or I might talk with my parents. It definetly feels good to talk about it..

@Marcus/Ulysses: The generic civs bothered me as well. I'd rather have predefined civs. I have, and it's awesome I'm going to review the demo here soon. (stay tuned ) @Quacker: Thanks Glad you liked my review.

Please forgive me about Canada lol My mind went blank when I was creating the poll. If I could edit it I would

"Epic is too small a word..." Review Three Empire Earth was quite possibly the most ambitious game created. Starting in the Prehistoric Age and going into the Nano Age, it is simply an enormous game! Breakdown Animation [Good] The animation in Empire Earth was definetly superb, especially considering the huge task of animating each of the hundreds of units in the game! Civilizations [bad] This is one of the big mistakes of Empire Earth. No civilizations are "defined" in the game, you can create them yourself by selecting combinations of various bonuses. On the surface, this is sounds like a good idea, but it adds another (un-needed) aspect of gameplay. Plus, it takes away the fun of choosing a civ! Gameplay [Neutral] The gameplay was a bit hampered by the engine, which seemed slow to respond to input. Plus, when you have 50 aircraft circling around your Airport, you're lucky to get 10 FPS. Graphics [Neutral] For some reason, the grapics seemed a little blurry or washed out in Empire Earth. I believe this has to do with the texture-blending method (alphablending, correct me if I'm wrong). The 3D models were somewhat low-poly, but that wasn't very noticeable unless you zoomed in real close. Interface [Neutral] The interface was OK, but still seemed a little slow to respond to input. Sometimes the research/upgrade GUI "panel" was a bit confusing as well. Multiplayer [Good] This game supported up to 16 players, and also supported DirectPlay 8, which was good news for NAT/router users! The NAT-tunneling was done completely invisibly (it appeared that all players were "visible" to the Internet), which was very impressive. Lag was not bad at all. Music [Good] I liked the in-game music as well as the menu music. An interesting note is, the DirectMusic API that Empire Earth used supported "on-the-fly" music "rendering". The music files that Empire Earth loaded were just instruction sets for "rendering" the music using DirectMusic. Another thing that is supported, although I never noticed Empire Earth using it, is switching tracks/branching halfway through a particular track. Pathfinding [Good] The old pathfinding problems from the Age of Empires days are gone! One kind of irritating thing however, was to see units (especially big units like siege weapons) bumping into each other, trying to get aligned. Not a big issue, though. Single-player [Neutral] The campaigns included were OK, but a little on the hard side. I never got past the first few scenarios, but I'm sure other people did. The "skirmish" AI was good, but if I recall correctly it seemed more like a robot than a real person. Sound Effects [Good] The sound effects were nice and clear-sounding. What sounded especially sweet was the sound of a nuke bomber over your enemies' town! Timeframe [Neutral] I'd say Good on this one, but Empire Earth was possibly "too big". It's definetly very hard to create a game of this magnitude and keep it fun to play on every Age/Epoch. Other/Misc Empire Earth is a good example of two other points that aren't on my chart: PR and Publisher. I would tend to say that Empire Earth was "built up" too much, for too long (bad PR). It was going to be the "best RTS", with every feature that was ever left out of any other game. In the end, they had to cut a lot of good features from the game to keep it on schedule. Another reason Empire Earth wasn't what it could have been is due to the game's publisher, Sierra. Remember how everyone was begging for game recording and multiplayer scenarios? Stainless Steel responded saying that they would love to add these features, but the publisher refused. Good riddance. Lessons Learned What it means for 0 A.D. Keeping tabs on what the general public knows and doesn't know is a very important issue in game development. In the case of Empire Earth, the public knew too much, too early. Also important is making sure the game engine responds to input as soon as possible, giving it as high a priority in the command queue as it possibly can. One problem that 0 A.D. won't ever have is the problem of a game publisher. Who needs them anyway? I guess you do if you want to make money, but the true pro's release their game for free Another problem that 0 A.D. won't have is keeping every Age/Epoch unique and fun to play. Empire Earth deviated from the traditional AoE-style civilizations, and in my book, that was somewhat of a bad choice. I think the idea of custom civilizations is a neat one, but it's very hard to make it work in the context of an RTS game. Empire Earth also implemented a very unique unit upgrade system that has not been done in any other game, as far as I know. By clicking on a particular unit stat, you could upgrade that stat. It's an interesting idea, but it takes away from the fun of researching unit upgrade technologies. Next Up: Empire Earth: Art of Conquest (Demo)

@LOTR folks: Nope, I think that was in the 2nd movie I think the next line is Gandalf whispering to a butterfly.

Sorry!! I knew I forgot one <_< Can't edit it now <_<

A while back, we had a friend over and were playing Midtown Madness 2 demo multiplayer. His computer kept freezing up, and he said, "It's hopeless!" I knew it was probably all the crazy background apps he was running, and I told him so. He didn't really think so, so I said, "You can play on my computer, and I'll play on yours!" He thought I was predicting my own fate But I changed my in-game name to Optimist and shut down his background apps. It ran fine after that, of course Then, when I was trying to think of a new online handle, I added Code to the Optimist (since I'm a programmer), and created the legendary CodeOptimist! Ok, maybe it's not legendary, but...

I know, but CheeZy said that line before he was supposed to *back on topic* Keep us posted about the fire! I certainly hope it doesn't affect anyone here (and anywhere for that matter!)

At this rate, we'll quote the whole movie! @Black Op/CheeZy: "Tear them all down!"

@Black Op/CheeZy: "The trees are strong my lord..."

See Black Op's discussion here:Community Demographics Just wanted to get it in easy-to-read Poll format

Semi-custom-built rig: Athlon T-bird 1GHz PCChips 810LR mobo ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 32MB 30GB + 120GB HD's No-name 250W power supply Samsung 12x8x32x CD-RW On-board audio No-name speaker pair (love 'em ) Firewire/IEEE1394 controller Network: Linksys BEFSR41 w/ cable modem -> WAN (100Mbps segment) 3Com LinkBuilder FMS II 12-port hub (10Mbps segment) (10Mbps segment uplinked to 100Mbps segment) Misc: Microtek ScanMaker E3 SCSI scanner TI microWriter PS35 laser printer -> Various ink-jet printers

Windows Media Player is the best in my book QuickTime is OK, but not the best. You probably couldn't pay me to use RealPlayer! :thumbdown::thumbdown:

LOL @ Black Op.. "What orders from Mordor my lord? What does the great Eye command?" Hope both of you will be alright with the fire

Well, maybe if you destroyed someone's "Town Center", you would get some free resources (i.e. "sacking")

I really liked how it was done in Empires: Dawn of the Modern World (at least the demo I downloaded ) Each civ had a Wonder that gave them a special power/ability. For the USA, you could call in paratroop drops anywhere on the map (instant army )

State: Texas Country: United States of America Sorry, don't want to post City I like to keep my personal info somewhat private online.

1. Friendlyness 2. Helpfulness & Quality 3. Low/Null offensive material (the less the better )

I guess what I've done a few times isn't cross-posting, just a "heads-up" post in the General forum with a link to a topic in the Computer Desk.

How utterly rude!! Hehe, I'm not really trying to be spammy, I only cross-post sometimes because not everyone visits the Computer Desk

Swellick for world emperor! LOL, yours was the best read yet

Congrats!!

WFG (of course! ) ECC2 forums (http://www.ecc2.com/forum) games.mess.be Forums (semi-regular basis, http://games.mess.be/forum)