Lessons learned while developing Age of Empires 1 Definitive Edition

[Lion.Kanzen]

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In late 2016 I began helping Forgotten Empires on Age 1 DE, a UWP app shipping in the Windows Store on Feb 20th. I only helped occasionally for the first couple months or so (because I was working on Basis and an aerospace project), but as the title got closer to shipping I spent more and more of my time working on Age problems. We started with the original 20 year old Age 1 codebase. Here are some of the things I've learned:

 

http://richg42.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/some-lessons-learned-while-developing.html

I'm not sure if this reading  can help you.

@elexis

[Nescio]

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For example, Age 1's original movement system has some weird code to accelerate objects as they moved downhill. This code didn't have a max velocity cap, so on very long hills units could move very quickly. We resisted modifying this code because it turns out it's a subtle but important aspect of combat on hills.

Something similar would be nice to have in 0 A.D.

[Lion.Kanzen]

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Because AoE:DE is a UWP application some of the rules have changed. All of the files that ship with the game are locked in a read only bundle behind the "WindowsApps" folder, and there are security protections on the files. That's how all UWP apps work - it's like your phone where you can't go changing a program's files.

That said, if the game is received well we'll likely be able to release some developer tools and open up support for deeper mods beyond additional scenario/campaign content. We will have to enable it via an all new system rather than what you are used to because of the restrictions on modifying the original game's files. Modding UWP games is a relatively new thing, and there are a few extra hoops to jump through. We hope we can eventually make that transparent for you and even provide one-click tools.

The dev team and Microsoft is watching all the feedback and we wish we had infinite time and resources and could have given everyone every option at launch. That said, this is Age of Empires and we're certainly not going to abandon it - especially with what's ahead for more games in the franchise.

I can't make any binding promises here, but I can say that we already have deep mod support on our roadmap/wishlists. What'll help us is to see how many people really want it, and would make use of it. DE is an interesting game - a mix of both old and new and we really don't know which way(s) the community will run with and embrace it.

So bear with us, and know that you have a passionate dev team (I mean, I've been working on this game for what? 22 years now? ) along for the ride and that is going to try and do the best for the most players with the resources we have.

From Forgotten Dev Matt

https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe/comments/7z20p1/is_it_just_me_or_is_there_next_to_zero_modding/?st=jdz76o79&sh=16ac57b3

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen

[serveurix]

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8. Figure out early on how to split up a singled threaded engine to be multithreaded.
Constraining an RTS to live on only a single thread is a recipe for performance disaster, especially if you are massively increasing the max map size and pop caps vs. the original title.

IKR

[Lion.Kanzen]

http://richg42.blogspot.com/2018/02/on-age-des-pathingmovement.html

Edited March 1, 2018 by Lion.Kanzen