In this video we'll look at some of what I think are the most clever design choices in Age of Empires 2. Lots of these are mechanics I've explored and ended up being far deeper than I expected or are a bit unique to the franchise.

0:24 Picking targets
2:02 Smart siege
2:46 Eagle armor
4:15 Straggler trees
5:25 Multiple builders
6:02 Hill bonus
6:53 Accuracy
8:05 Markets
10:03 Terrain
10:33 Tech tree UI
11:08 Trebuchet armor
11:35 My favourite [team bonuses]

Z was such an odd one compared to everything else at the time. No harvesting, no base building, just territory flags and factories that build faster the more sectors you hold. Every match turned into a mad scramble where losing one flag could flip the whole map.

And the robots had real personality, with the cigar chomping commander and Allan and Brad slacking off in the cutscenes.

Steel Soldiers went much more traditional later, and I always felt the original's idea never really got a proper successor. Did anyone here play it back then? What did you think of the time-as-resource design?

For anyone curious, there's a free open-source 3D fan remake of it now, OpenZ: https://github.com/playopenz/OpenZ

I’m about to show you a lot of footage from Dawn of War IV – and also share a lot of thoughts on it. And unlike previous videos, this has all been played and captured by me on my own computer. There’s going to be skirmish as all four factions, as my impressions from the tutorial as the Imperial Guard and Blood Ravens, and the first few missions of the first and second of the four total campaigns – which feature the Orks and Adeptus Mechanicus, respectively. I will do my absolute best to avoid key story details and spoilers, but if you want to be fully protected then maybe do yourself a favour and just alt tab and listen - or find this video and Spotify and pretend it’s a podcast.

Age of Empires and Blizzard's RTS offer a playbook for how to keep the nostalgia fires burning.

More likely to be a first person shooter type game than a new RTS, but as a casual Starcraft 2 player it's nice to know this franchise hasn't been totally forgotten by Microsoftactivisionblizzardking.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/72186385

Sometimes I like to get high and play a bunch of Starcraft 64. Something about the chunky graphics and CRT vibes just puts me in a good headspace and makes the stress of the world melt away.

What RTS do you turn to when you are just vibing?

Links:

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/t90official

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/gYRZJPib8t0

"Just under half" of Age of Empires studio World’s Edge have reportedly been laid off, and their next project cancelled, as part of Xbox’s mass redundancies.

I don’t know about you – but I feel like Blizzard is fired up right now – seemingly dead set on reclaiming their throne as one of gaming’s premier developers. And hey, I’m all for that – especially if it means taking Warcraft 3 Reforged by the scruff of its neck and bringing it up with them.

Download Age of Empires Online for FREE @ https://www.projectceleste.com/

Romans and Indians are the 2 newest civilizations in this game.

Lets officially bring back this amazing game!

This is the biggest Age of Mythology tournament in a very long time. The $10k prize pool is on par with most of the biggest S-tier tournaments since Retold (in fact, only two tournaments since 2004 have had a bigger prize pool, though it shares that 10k figure with 5 others). But it's also the first time Age of Mythology has a full LAN tournament with all players travelling from around the world to compete at the same venue since 2004.

When Game of Thrones War for Westeros was announced, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A Game of Thrones game that wasn’t a mobile cash grab.... but a REAL TIME STRATEGY game? What YEAR is it???

What's going on guys, just taking a look at this new RTS game no the horizon. Can't wait to play it for you all, let me know what you think.

Apparently it looks like it'll be fairly similar to Battle for Middle-Earth 2, which would be fantastic IMO. It's really disappointing that that game isn't around anymore due to rights issues.

They thought they would play a normal 1h30min best of 5. Turns out, these 6 players battled for their life in The League for over 4 hours, including one game that lasted 3h. Let me take you on their journey!

As I was looking for this information for a friend who recently picked up the game, I couldn't find an easy to digest video about this! So I made it..

1. Castle Blood Automatic
2. The Castle Arena
3. Fast Villager Defence

00:00 Beyond All Reason
01:41 Tempest Rising
03:01 Tacticus Sponsor
04:41 Age of Empires
05:50 Age of Mythology
06:47 Company of Heroes 3
08:06 Stormgate
08:45 Sins of a Solar Empire 2
09:44 Anno 117
10:15 The Scouring
10:48 Godsworn
11:23 Era One
12:04 Dying Breed
12:47 Crusader DE
13:27 ZeroSpace
14:24 Stronghold 4
14:50 Company of Heroes DE
15:43 Sanctuary Shattered Sun
16:15 Age of Respair
16:38 Game of Thrones War for Westeros
17:17 Falling Frontier
18:05 Total War
19:22 Dawn of War IV
20:21 Dinolords
20:55 DORF
21:27 Dust Front
21:59 Imperium Eternal
22:55 Wrap up

Here's the bundle with Zade's link: https://www.digiphile.co/collections/rts-renaissance?linkId=lp_354132&sourceId=zade-95&tenantId=digiphile

And without if you would prefer zero tracking. Though Zade gets a small cut if you use his link. (Presumably out of the platform cut?)

7 games, each unlocked at progressively increasing prices in order:

• $8 From Glory To Goo
• $10 9-Bit Armies: A Bit Too Far
• $12 Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition
• $14 Rogue Command
• $17 The Scouring
• $22 (2 games) Godsworn and Dungeons 4

The money is split at the same ratio for all of these. 75% to the partners (I assume this means the devs/publishers of the games), 20% to the platform (Digiphile), 5% to the Arbor Day Foundation charity.

Plus there is a $4 add-on that can be added separately from the above. Soundtracks for Godsworn, Rogue Command, and 9-Bit Armies, and a wallpaper representing the collective bundle. This add-on goes entirely to charity.

And a $3 optional inclusion of the normally $5 "The Canary and the Trader" expansion for Crusader, or $10 for the normally $15 "The Good, the Bad, and the Evil" expansion for Dungeons 4.

Everything except the wallpaper is a Steam key.

Age of Empires 2 pro player TheViper recorded lines for Norwegian units in the civ for the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway in the upcoming Baltic Powers DLC.

Sandy Petersen made DOOM. He co-designed Age of Empires. Across three long conversations, he's shared stories from behind the scenes at Ensemble Studios - the balance decisions, the accidents that became features, the corporate chaos.

Here's 24 of them in one place.

The Korean incident that nearly got Microsoft reps arrested. The balance decisions made on pure vibes. The bugs Ensemble decided to keep as features. The plan to fire the entire studio the day Halo Wars shipped. The mangonels that chop down forests - and what they were originally allowed to destroy. The bridges the programmers refused to build.