Age of Empires III?

[Hi Ho]

Please let it be so. THIS is all the info I can find on it. The screenshots look amazing. I hope they're real and I really hope they're making a new AOE. I love and still play AOE II and the addition of the Havok engine and amazing 3D would make it even better.

[spyder003]

Hey nice find. I really hope they come through with that. The AOE series was great.

[Alienware_Dude]

The cover story of the latest issue of PC Gamer is on AOEIII. It's got tons of info, I suggest you pick it up if you're interested.

[goodnice]

I remember when I first played the first one. I loved the animals.

I can't wait.

[tomster2300]

You have to go here and take a look at this pic. This is simply gorgeous.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/576/576023p1.html?fromint=1

[DragonNOA1]

All the pics I've seen are like zoomed in to everyone's feet. You never play an RTS zoomed in that far. But it does show off the engine.

[Doobie]

Thats all people play here, AOE II. You cant find a Mexican with a computer that doesnt have that game.

Those graphics are great...

[swampdonkey]

YES! I just got the new issue of PCG. 10 pages of AOEIII! The game has a new gfx engine built from the ground up, they also licenced the Havok physics engine like in HL2. Pretty sweet stuff.

/sd

[fudtone]

I hope they add some unit control. AOE 1/2 are great games but I like being able to control units more precisely. I own 1 & 2 and AOK but play them very little because of this.

[Hi Ho]

What do you mean by more precisely?

[fudtone]

Good question and I don't know if I can answer it or if precisely is the word I should have used. I will try to explain.

When you move a (1) unit in AOE it seems like it tends to have a mind of its own. Often this is corrected by telling it to stand ground or some such. However the default for some units does not always jive or work well with others. I understand that what they are doing is the result of being told what to do. Foragers will run off and forage places I may not want them to. Fighting units may chase someone all across the map.

The units seem to have a robotic reasoning unlimited by variables that may control (or should) such actions.

I understand that whats good for one person may not be good for everyone but for my style of play (minimizer) this is very annoying.

I know AOE players that love every step each little guy makes because it may add flair to a game that is at top speed on 10k 10k seek and destroy missions but I like unit limits of 30-100 on normal speed always starting at stone ages with no resources. I want to control every step they take.

[DragonNOA1]

Is there a RTS game that "does it right" so to speak? Which game controls the units "precisely?"

[fudtone]

Warcraft 2/3 (not 1), Total Annihilation, StarCraft, Red Alert (series), Warlords Battlecry (don't buy it), and allot of others that are all missing many of the added values that AOE always brings to the table so well.

Other MS games have done it this way as well. I can't remember the name but a bridge to far seems to ring a bell. They try to add a touch of so called realism that is not my idea of realism or good for my enjoyment of the game.

[Karthik1019]

Man, I was just about to post something on this but looks like the convos already going strong Anyway, check out this pic, its the best i've seen yet! The draw distance and detail is AMAZING!
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...ns.html?page=1

[DragonNOA1]

^I saw that pic but even a bigger version of it...

go here:
http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/...4100357641.jpg

[netnamakan]

Lools like an awsome game. I loved the other 2, as well as age of mythology, cant wait to buy it, they said around 2nd half of 2005 I believe.
those graffics look crazy, dx9, shader model 3.0, hdr rendering.....

here is a excerpt from this ign interview with the lead designer and programmer.

The Age of Empires III engine is a fully DX9, Shader 3.0 compliant engine with more technical bells and whistles than any other PC game to date. As you can see from the screenshots, we have a world that feels bright and sunny, but with a softness and depth that hasn't been seen before. From things like self-shadowing to HDR (high dynamic range) lighting to water that has proper Fresnel reflectance properties, this is a very high-end graphics engine. We've also integrated physics into the game in a big way. When units are blown up by cannon fire, we use ragdolls to bounce them around the world, off of rooftops, and down cliffs. As buildings take artillery damage, pieces of the building realistically break off and fall down with proper collision modeling. When you throw in hundreds of integrated animations per unit, the overall effect is quite impressive.

namakan

[Hi Ho]

When you move a (1) unit in AOE it seems like it tends to have a mind of its own. Often this is corrected by telling it to stand ground or some such. However the default for some units does not always jive or work well with others. I understand that what they are doing is the result of being told what to do. Foragers will run off and forage places I may not want them to. Fighting units may chase someone all across the map.

I see what you mean. That can get a bit irritating. They got that right with Rise of Nations though. You can set the default to "do nothing" which is what I did.

[fudtone]

Originally Posted by Hi Ho I see what you mean. That can get a bit irritating. They got that right with Rise of Nations though. You can set the default to "do nothing" which is what I did.

Nice I will have to check that out.