A number of questions..

[JamesH]

I just downloaded and played a bit on the alpha, and I must say I'm very, very impressed!

But there are somethings I wanna ask just to be sure like..

At what stage of development are you on now? When do you think the first truly finished version will be ready?

Im also wondering how the walls will function? Will you be able to Auto-stretch-build them like in Aoe? There gotta be some type of strech-build system to make them easy to use.

And finally, will every unit make a sound when you click on them, like in other rts? And this goes for a lot of other stuff too, like if there will be ambient sound of your units chopping wood or stone, animal sounds etc.

Im guessing the sounddevelopment hasn't gotten that far yet. Just want to make sure =P

/James

Edited February 8, 2011 by JamesH

[oshron]

well, im not on the development team, but i think i can answer some of that

-- pretty much what you see is the most recent version

-- as far as i know, there's no set date for the finished version, as it should be

-- the walls i dont know about

-- i imagine that they will have voice and sound files like that, but i dont think thats really a pressing matter

[Jeru]

Hi JamesH, thanks for your kind words!

• We have been releasing alpha versions every few months, making steady progress towards a playable game. We hope to reach beta (feature-complete, just iron out bugs and balance) within a year or two, but would rather not commit to a specific time so as not to disappoint.
  
• I think the walls are eventually supposed to work as you wrote and I suspect the current arrangement is just a placeholder. Not 100% sure though, some other team member should verify.
  
• We are currently working on the sounds and hope to have at least some of the ones you pointed out by the next alpha.
  

[feneur]

• I think the walls are eventually supposed to work as you wrote and I suspect the current arrangement is just a placeholder. Not 100% sure though, some other team member should verify.
  

The exact system is not decided upon yet, and there have been different ideas floating around, but we're going to implement some kind of system in any case. And something along the lines of AoE or EE is definitely likely.

[Pureon]

And finally, will every unit make a sound when you click on them, like in other rts? And this goes for a lot of other stuff too, like if there will be ambient sound of your units chopping wood or stone, animal sounds etc.

Im guessing the sounddevelopment hasn't gotten that far yet. Just want to make sure =P

Just a few minutes ago I committed ship selection/movement sounds

[JamesH]

Just a few minutes ago I committed ship selection/movement sounds

Nice ;D Sound is a very big part of not just films but also games. A rich sound is a rich experience.

From what I've read it appears that there will be loads of technologies and things to research?

Even making you choose between different tech-trees in game. Obviosly they havn't been implemented yet, but there sure will be lot's of exciting tech's to come up with. I mean researching technologies, though simple in itself, is some of the best things when playing Aoe ^^

Im tempted to help out with this project myself. But I've got a lot of other projects I'm doing so I'm not sure.

[JamesH]

I just got a cool Idea:

Wouldn't it be cool if, when a building is destroyed, a ruin is still left from it?

Instead of the building just dissapearing completely!

It would be a very cool thing seeing a whole city in ruin, except one palace still remaining about to be destroyed!

Imagine =D

Maybe you could repair the ruins too! It would be an innovation.

Edited February 8, 2011 by JamesH

[comp3820]

Ruins would be really cool. It would certainly add another level of realism - you couldn't get away from the fact that a battle was fought here not too long ago.

In fact, you could turn the ruins into collectible stone, just like the temple ruins on one of the maps (I think). Little caches of food and gold would also fit in naturally with a destroyed city and a spoiling army.

[oshron]

if that were so, then it should only be especially large buildings like temples and fortresses, perhaps buildings that are exclusively available late in the game

also, in empire earth, when you destroyed a building, there was a generic pile of ambient rubble left behind when you destroyed a building. perhaps something like that could be done as well?