Age III and Warchiefs Patches: Patch 1.11 for Age III and patch 1.03 for the Warchiefs have both been released. The big feature is the new Ozarks map that I mentioned previously. Other changes are mostly behind the scene bug and exploit fixes and several balance changes for the hard core gamers. Balance changes are based on the advice and experience of Kevin Holme and Donnie Thompson. Donnie is new to our balance team. He was a participant in our Warrior's Path tournament and test group last year. He is an expert player and a welcome addition.
Freeze Hacking: One of the behind the scene fixes in the patch stops a cheat that exploited playing in Windows mode, an exploit known as freeze hacking (although no hacking of a player's computer is actually taking place). If a player in Windows mode paused a game, the other players had no recourse if the pausing player would not restart. This would force everyone else to quit eventually, thereby preventing the addition of a loss to the pausing player's record. Programmer Michael Capps has inserted new code in the patch that opens the drop screen when a game in Windows mode is paused too long or repeatedly. This allows the other players to drop the offending player from the game. That player is given a loss as soon as he or she is dropped in this manner.
Age III Cheaters Beware: Cheats like the one mentioned above are a fact of life that every developer in the online gaming space has to deal with. The freeze hacking exploit was not the only one that was fixed in the patch. There are other hacks and cheats out there that we are working on and watching being used. Accounts that are using cheats and hacks will be banned. If being banned is going to spoil your gaming, we recommend you cut out using any hack or cheat. Play fairly. There probably won't be any warning before bans are implemented.
Strategic Objective Challenge and Give Away: At the Age of Empires III Heaven site Moshe Levi has presented a contest based on new solitaire scenarios for both Age III and The Warchiefs. Prizes will be awarded for best scores at both Normal and Hard difficulties. Ensemble Studios has contributed some of the prizes. A new feature for the scenarios is being able to capture AI buildings and receiving economic or military bonuses for doing so. Players will also be able to build Fixed Guns anywhere on the map.
The scenarios are based on the Russo-Turkish Wars (Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire went to war nearly a dozen times from the 1600's to World War I). Moshe has provided links to historical information on the conflicts.
This is a great alternative contest for players still a little uncomfortable with the pressure of multi-player gaming. Check out the details and prize list at the Heaven site here: Strategic Objectives Challenge
Age III in the World Cyber Games: Word reached us last week that the Warchiefs expansion will be an event in the 2007 WCG. We owe some thanks to our colleagues in the Games for Windows group for helping to make this happen. Real-time strategy games have been popular in the Games since they started. It is great to have one of ours be a competition again.
I remember attending several of the early WCGs in Seoul, usually as a speaker at the game development conferences they held in conjunction with the Games. Age II was a competition in the original games, as I recall. One year I joined several game developers for a lunch with Korean businessmen sponsoring the games, including the chairman of Samsung.
ES Work Life- Skiing, Biking, "300": A couple of things going on at ES recently reflect the spirit of getting people away from their work stations on occasion and having balanced lives. A small contingent of ES'ers went skiing up at Whistler in British Columbia and shared some humorous photos of their trip on our internal site. A new thread on our internal non-work related email alias discussed good places for trail biking. The studio sponsored a field trip to catch the opening day of the film 300, which portrays an event that was actually incorporated into an Age of Empires I scenario.
Congrats to Grunt: Byeong Geon Kang, better known to RTS players as Grunt, won the Rise of the Ultimate Champion/Rise of Legends tournament in early March. First prize was $40,000. This is the same fellow who won our Age II tournament last year. He has to be the early favorite for the WCG Warchiefs competition.
Age III Version for Phones: At GDC last week Glu Mobile, a leading global publisher of mobile games, announced an agreement with Microsoft to publish a mobile adaptation of Age III. It is obviously too early to know how the game will play. It is scheduled to appear in 2008. Glu launched a mobile version of Project Gotham Racing earlier this year.
A Recommended Presentation from GDC: Designer/programmer Dave Pottinger passed around the link to a GDC presentation by Clint Hocking of UbiSoft. Dave said he thought it was one of the best game oriented presentations he had ever seen. If you think you might want to get into game development someday, or if you want to delve a little bit into the philosophy behind game making, check it out.
The presentation made me think about game making in new ways (the player as an explorer). I was interested to see Clint credit other books and thinkers. Game development is still a relatively young art, but the foundation of research and thinking continues to expand. I hope to check out the books he mentions soon.
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Bruce Shelley