Age of Empires online now *really* F2P

[Monocause]

Check it out. Those of you who played it but quit (like I did) might check back. Everything can be unlocked via points that you gain in-game. You start out with 100 points, you need 900 to unlock a 'premium' civ (ie. unlock all the features). Seems viable - I've been playing for two days at a fairly relaxed pace and gained 50 EP while being low-level, and EP rewards increase the further you are in the game. Devs claim that an average player can get a premium civ after about two weeks of gameplay.

Those of you who have already played and have an account (Multidirectional, Kingcomrade and one more guy) get 500 EP instead of 100. The AI is now more competent, the tech tree received a welcome revamp. The art style is still cartoonish, unfortunately, but the game is much more fun now than it was near the release. Available from the website with GFWL or via Steam.

If anyone wants to join, please post your handle. I'll help with equipment, cash and some tips, and I'd love to do some coop quests.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Sounds cool, I'll redownload it then. Hoaxmetal there too.

 

[Angthoron]

Well I guess I might give it a try, seeing as it's free. Will hit you up once I know whether I like it or not, don't want a bro to waste resources on me if I'm like "Fuck this" the next day.

 

[Monocause]

Just keep in mind that a degree of challenge begins at quests around level 10. Don't quit because starting ones are piss-easy.

Also, there are three free civs currently available. I suggest you start a city with each one, find out which suits you most and focus on it. EP gain increases with levels - around level 10 you gain four EP per level and EP-rewarding quests start to become more often. Here's a brief characteristic of each of the civs:

Greeks: good for turtling. Fairly expensive but balanced units, good defences, good siege, powerful towers and navy. An all-rounder without any apparent weak points.

Celts: Excellent infantry, crap cavalry. Defences aren't great.

Egyptians: Cheap, relatively weak units that train fast. Priestesses can empower buildings to increase resource gather rate, speed up training. War elephants that are excellent in PvE, in PvP are counterbalanced by their prohibitive cost and long training time.

Persians: Haven't tried them as they're only available after EP purchase.

Angthoron: starting green gear is piss cheap anyway so it's not like I'd be at a huge loss.

@Hoax: I'll be online and still have you on my friends list, will keep an eye for you. If you're level 11 you might want to start over so that you don't miss out on EP that you would easily gain otherwise. Pack your valuable buildings (especially the decrepit ones, they're unique and valuable) into blueprints and send them to yourself or to me via mail for safekeeping, sell all the gear that is bound to your city and finally send all the cash.

Be sure to start another lvl 3 city beforehand though. I don't know what happens if you delete all your cities and it wouldn't be nice to lose all that stuff.

IMPORTANT EDIT: Whoever's joining, remember to pick the Marathon server. I'm there and Hoax's there, it's also one of the most popular servers.

 

[Johannes]

Ok, but is the game actually good?


You mention Quests... In an RTS?

 

[Monocause]

"Quests" are actually SP missions versus the AI with differing objectives. Many of them allow for cooperative multiplayer, later on coop makes things much easier so it's a good idea to pair up with someone.

Why don't you try it and see for yourself. The game had a pretty painful start with many mistakes on part of the dev team and the producers (AI issues, only two civs resulting in a lack of variety, networking issues, balance issues, a "F2P" model that wasn't really free to play as you were cut off from many features unless you paid). Now most of these issues have been ironed out and the game is going in a good direction. The larger the playerbase is the more chances there are of it developing further.

I'd say it's a nice game to play a couple of levels when you're bored. Not many quality RTS titles are released these days. Also the devs and MS deserve some respect for trying that. An RTS MMO is a risky venue but if this works then perhaps more of these will pop up.

 

[anus_pounder]

Check it out. Those of you who played it but quit (like I did) might check back. Everything can be unlocked via points that you gain in-game. You start out with 100 points, you need 900 to unlock a 'premium' civ (ie. unlock all the features). Seems viable - I've been playing for two days at a fairly relaxed pace and gained 50 EP while being low-level, and EP rewards increase the further you are in the game. Devs claim that an average player can get a premium civ after about two weeks of gameplay.

Those of you who have already played and have an account (Multidirectional, Kingcomrade and one more guy) get 500 EP instead of 100. The AI is now more competent, the tech tree received a welcome revamp. The art style is still cartoonish, unfortunately, but the game is much more fun now than it was near the release. Available from the website with GFWL or via Steam.

If anyone wants to join, please post your handle. I'll help with equipment, cash and some tips, and I'd love to do some coop quests.

name is r00fles1122. Don't let my level 20 persian city fool you. I have a grand total of 112 minutes logged in the game....and the entire AoE series. :3

 

[Johannes]

"Quests" are actually SP missions versus the AI with differing objectives. Many of them allow for cooperative multiplayer, later on coop makes things much easier so it's a good idea to pair up with someone.

Why don't you try it and see for yourself. The game had a pretty painful start with many mistakes on part of the dev team and the producers (AI issues, only two civs resulting in a lack of variety, networking issues, balance issues, a "F2P" model that wasn't really free to play as you were cut off from many features unless you paid). Now most of these issues have been ironed out and the game is going in a good direction. The larger the playerbase is the more chances there are of it developing further.

I'd say it's a nice game to play a couple of levels when you're bored. Not many quality RTS titles are released these days. Also the devs and MS deserve some respect for trying that. An RTS MMO is a risky venue but if this works then perhaps more of these will pop up.

Well, I don't want SP missions in my RTS or MMO shit even less. Is the proper multiplayer game any good, and can I even enter matches on equal footing if I don't grind shit for days?

 

[Monocause]

Well, I don't want SP missions in my RTS or MMO shit even less. Is the proper multiplayer game any good, and can I even enter matches on equal footing if I don't grind shit for days?

You'd have to cough up some dough then. Proper PvP options open up when you get premium and looks good from what I've seen, bound to improve as they add new civs. Free players have limited access only to geared PvP which sucks.

If you're a strictly PvP player then you might want to wait a couple of months until they add new stuff or allow F2P players to play in the champion mode (no-gear PvP)

 

[Captain Shrek]

Fuck. Out of time guys. No more strategy games.

 

[kingcomrade]

Ok patching now

 

[Kane]

AOEO began its life a single player cashshop game, where you could coop some missions with one other friend. It was neither RTS nor MMO, it was just terrible shit. Then GPG from SupCom/TA fame took over development and implemented PvP (1v1 only) and generally turned this game into an RTS.

Maybe, somewhere down the road in 2 years or so this ends up to be an actual game. I doubt it however.

 

[Monocause]

raw:

It is an RTS alright. I'd say that they have four problems right now:

1) Tweak the AI so that it scales to player skill properly (it was always designed to do so but at first it was too easy and after the summer patch there was some serious butthurt from the casuals on the game forum)
2) Work on the MMO parts of the game more (trading system, levelling, F2P model)
3) Add more civs (word is that they'll add the Romans along with a premium civ of some sort soon, upping the total civ count to six)
4) Finally, get more players. Advertising is really insufficient to get the numbers needed for this to become profitable, they need to invest more in it, get the word out.

BTW: 234 empire points to go before I get premium. The EP gain does increase steadily around level 20 but the missions are more difficult as well. Just finished a mission which gave me 12 EP but took 1,5 hour. I had to frantically defend while being attacked from three sides, managing to put together a first counterattack only around the one hour mark. Was good fun.

 

[Kane]

well, compared to SC2, wich is probably the closest on the market mechanically, I get 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 matchmaking, a ranking system and a map editor complete with custom maps. These are all standard features of RTS. AOEO misses all of that, except maybe 1v1 matchmaking. that's why i am saying it isn't even a real RTS. on the MMO side we can do CO-OP with one other play, wich is not really MMO either.

 

[Monocause]

The game is changing. 1v1, 2v2 and a 4-player FFA is now in. Ranked PvP is now not dependent on gear. Map editor isn't there but I can imagine them developing it if the game takes off the ground in the future, sounds like a decent choice.

 

[Kane]

The game is changing.

Yes I know. But game development takes time. The game is basically alpha.

 

[kingcomrade]

After trying out the 3, I'm just gonna stick with the Egyptians I was gonna use before. Right now I'm just bum rushing with spearmen at tech level 1 unless they have anti-infantry.

 

[Monocause]

Got some low level equipment for you, will try to find you in-game.

BTW, finally went premium with the Greeks. Jesus, the game is so much fun when you're premium.

 

[kingcomrade]

Why's that? The special units? Also I sent a friend request on Steam so I know when you're on.

 

[XenomorphII]

Name is XenomorphII. About to begin playing.

 

[Monocause]

Going on a short trip and will be back on saturday/sunday.

xeno:

I sent you a friend invite on GFWL.

@KC:

Crap, I don't really use steam for any purposes. My AoE copy is standalone. Still, I do have steam installed so whenever I go around playing AoEo I might turn it on to poke you if you're there.

What's great with premium is that gear and advisors really do add more customisability. Rares and Epics often come with a variety of properties. Do you want your infantry to move faster, deal more damage or be beefier? Is higher range or higher damage more important for your archers? With a proper combination of gear and advisors you can fe. build fortresses that reveal 3/4 of the map or build ridiculously long-range palintonons. It's fun!

Advisors seem ridiculously OP at times but they do get evened out the later you are in the questline. Same with advisor units, especially for the Greeks. Somatophylakes, Pezhetairoi, Hetairoi, Helepoleis and Phalanxes are all awesome depending on the circumstances.

A small tip for both of you - don't hoard low-level (1-20) rares and epics, better sell them, with the exception of rare/epic item recipes and advisors which you can sell on the trade channel (rare ones that are not quest-granted go for 1-3k, epics can go as high as 20-25k) or to me. The rationale behind this is: when/if you go premium, you'll have much more use out of the 10k gold that you'd likely accumulate than from using the rares you kept.

Also, since I have 84 slots of storage I can share it with you. Simply send me the item you'd like to keep via mail with a note that you'd like me to store it for some time and I'll do it.

 

[Edwin]

Just started playing this,name is Childofbhaal12 (Marathon)

Got 500 EPs for free so I will probably farm for a premium civ(dunno which 1 yet).I hate the cartoonshit graphics but Im getting used to it,the game is not so bad as I thought

 

[Icewater]

I have a premium Greek civ and just transferred to the Marathon server, wouldn't mind some people to bro-op with or whatever. Name is Msblows11.

 

[Monocause]

I'll add you guys. Haven't been playing much lately but I should start again - new patch is coming with a new premium civ and some new content.

Got premium Greek but playing over the net can be an issue unless one of you guys have got Public IP. If you're behind a NAT of any sort I can't play with ya due to my private IP and restrictive NAT.

 

[Icewater]

Anyone still playing this shit? I finally hit level 40 with premium Greeks, and started doing legendary and alliance quests. Picking up randoms is a bitch since half the damn time you get the stupid "could not connect" error that the devs are either unable or unwilling to fix. Some bros that I know I can connect to who will be on at least semi-consistently would be awesome.

Also, what alliance are you Marathon guys with? I picked Carthage but I'm not high ranked or anything, wouldn't be much of an issue to switch at this point.