wayspooled

Yep. Don't remember which was which but with one of the games, the saved game was generic as far as which player slot "you" were in. When you loaded the saved game, you just picked which slot you were in before.. (or wanted to play actually). Only one person loaded the saved game at the beginning, the game synced the other player(s) up to it. So some thought would have to be done for making the saved games as small as feasible. The 15-60 second synching process (with the option for a fixed timeout period which could be renewed if everyone wanted to wait) was a small price to pay for the utility it added to the game. Another thing I recall being useful was being able to adjust the color of user to user messaging, game to user, and user to team (messages). Useful to those without perfect eyesight or the colorblind.

One thing that Total Annihilation had 10 or 11 years ago and I experienced again in Cossacks and a few other games was a - drop in / drop out mode. Allowing people in a multiplayer game, to join a game in progress, selecting an AI played opponent. This isn't something that's always considered. Besides the enjoyment factor, I found it incredibly helpful with line and pc glitches when your opponent's pc crashed or latency became temporarily messed up. Related were user generated game-saves for games in progress and the user selected interval for autosaves. (when your opponent got back into the right slot, someone saved the game quickly in case the "line" or "PC" problem made the game unplayable - and then you could just continue later when the crash/latency/whatever problem was resolved.

Carl Cunningham, age 53

Just don't make this AoE or AoK with different units, different time period, better graphics. Gameplay is the thing. Massive battles, Economy, Diplomacy. AoE was boring, boring, boring after couple mos. Take the best of what they had which were some things, and the best of Cossacks 1, which were battles and economy and multiplayer coop (vs player or AI or both) and don't forget to work out good AI for the units, independent AI, not just for "missions".

Yeah, I like to select an age and stick with it. I don't like wrestling with the ones that pop from age to age so fast.

Aye, would be fun if there was some nod to encumbrance. Doesn't have to be realistically modeled but 3 people with no wagon shouldn't be able to run off with a whole community's stored up supplies. Say if there were 5 allies in the area when a storage building was captured, you would get 5x emcumbrage but if there was a wagon in range as well, you'd get 15x.

Thank you all! Very nice new screenshots!

Greetings! I just found this bookmark and I guess I must have come by here a few years ago and saw something I liked I'm from Richmond Va, love strategy games. Mostly I and a few friends play co-op multiplayer games, usually in skirmish mode but also the rare one that offers scenarios or *gasp* a campaign. Favorites have been the battles of Cossacks and Medieval Total War II, the unit and building development structure of Cossacks, the economic/trading model of Patrician and The Guild 2, the diplomacy of Europa Universalis, the multiplayer setup and modding/editing and stackable waypointing of Total Annihilation and C&C family and any game that takes the time to develop a decent AI for playing against humans. Enjoy head to head too but for me, it's most fun to relax with friends and do something together. Favorite historical times for gaming have been 43 to 180AD and 1314 to 1648 but quite interested in anything prior to the twentieth century. The graphics and the game description I've seen look wonderful! Referring mostly to the 0 AD game since that seems to be the furthest along, but I read LotR and Sil and quite a few things 25 years ago, at least 4 times hehe.. so I and some others have lots of interest in anything related to milord Tolkien. Is there a FAQ around somewhere I've missed? edit- I found the FAQ! heh, old eyes, small type Glad to be here