/vr/ - Retro Games

>>2821734
>May we have one, /vr/?
I give my blessing.

Tribute a bump

>>2821734
On /vr/? Sure why not.

The vanilla game was good but 1st expansion made it an all time favorite for me. Plus it probably has one of the best opening cinematic as far as games go.

Byzantines best race.

Does anybody know about any upcoming games like Age of Empires? I never really enjoyed Rise of Nations because it felt like a hybrid of Age of Empires and Civilization but didn't get what made either of them fun to play. Even a medieval city-builder would be cool

>>2824090
RTS is kill for the most part. There is however a new Age of Mythology expansion coming out based on Chinese mythology, Forgotten Empires LLC has a hand in that too. But like the base game as well as most shit on this infographic which may be of interest to some, it's neither retro nor an expansion to a retro game like with AoF and AoAK which you can get away with discussing like with modern Doom mods and maps.

In the meantime we'll have to enjoy the new /pol/ bait expansion

There's an upcoming Halo Wars sequel, the first was developed by Ensemble and had a mixed reception; wonder how it'll be like without them and those games are indeed not retro

>>2824113
>Stronghold 2 instead of 1/SHC
why

I bought the HD edition on steam and I can play like standard bots. I am horrible at rts games but I wanna get into aoe2 for nostalgia. Is there any good quick tips?

What is the best civilization to play as?

Also what color do you prefer?

I'm usually blue when I can be but purple ain't too bad.

Also always befriend Yellow, they're usually bros.

W

>>2824969
my brother and I like to play with ResonanceBot, it's pretty great, though they tend to be a massive cunt with galleys from what we learned. It hardly ever cheats on moderate and below so they liberally use market instead.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=473358292

>>2825136
I feel like goths, mayans, are pretty great but I'm just a noob so I wouldn't know, purple is my favorite

>>2825136
As a whole, technically it's the Huns. There's one less resource to worry about at the cost of less starting wood.

Good noob-friendly civs are Britons, Teutons, and Byzantines.

Vikings are top-tier on water maps, which are rarely played.

Koreans are probably the worst civ, I think the Japanese are somewhat underrated though

>>2825216
The Goths are fun and distinctively different in playstyle, but they can't teach you good defensive tactics and no stone walls, I wouldn't call them top tier or easy to use but they're really fun. Huskarls are the most satisfying middle finger to archers ever.

>>2825952
I like to play defensive, but I realize its not always the best way to play especially mid to late game. I like that goths sort of force you to go on the offensive rather defensive, its a nice break from walling in as any other civ, getting into booming and having a 50/40 chance of getting steamrolled by another player. I have the habit of going into a panic and making several layers of new walls to slow the enemy but i began to realize thats a really bad move and leads to a quicker loss depending on the other skill

It doesnt help I love much meso civs so countering cannoneers and bombardiers and the usual army is rather tough since I also have the habit of ignoring military until imperial, but i try to break that habit though

>>2826447
You're definitely going to have to break that habit as most players tend to Fast Feudal w/ something in mind or Fast Castle w/ Knights. The latter can really sting if you're not prepared for it but they're very vulnerable before the advance.

Meso civs you have to be more creative with to compensate for lack of calvary, try using more archers and other siege weapons you don't often use. In AoF/AK, the Eagle Scout change allows you to make them in Feudal so a rush with them might be viable, they also don't cost a lot of food but rather gold. AoF's Incas have two counter units that are fun to use and you can remove the minimum range off skirmishers via unique tech.

Which version of the game is the newest/standard? I'd love to play it, but I'm confused by the original versions, HD versions, semi-official fan mods of the HD versions...

>>2826797
HD has a lot of problems and the upside of multiplayer is not worth it.

You tend to find AOE1, 2, and the expansions for $10 in Wal-Mart or other supermarkets.

>>2826797
I have the occasional problem with HD but I think its fine especially for the price right now (4$ for base that includes exps and 12$ with the newer exps)

mp does indeed have it's fair share of problems here and there, but I think as long as you avoid playing with players that are far away from you and have like 800 ping in lobby then I think you'll be fine, probably.

there's like 10k players on HD at any given time so you will probably never have trouble finding games on there. I don't know anything about Voobly or any of the other third party clients for non-HD steam, but I imagine it's more or less the same numbers as well.

give me your extra bumps

>>2824113
no ground control + expansion + ground control 2

>>2826797
>>2826818
>>2826835

its a 16yo game, why on earth would you lock it inside Muh Vapour?

just torrent a conquerors ISO from kat.cr, or a installed zip from alluc.com

get the voobly.com client and multiplay like crazy

if you want to try Forgotten get the original mod from voobly library or aok.heavengames.com in section blacksmith or the official forum thread

> third party clients for non-HD
>non-HD
your precious Age HD isnt HD at all.
and yes, on third party clients you can use any resolution.

>>2827625
i dont really care about hd or not i was just referring to a non-steam version but whatever

Gimme a tier list for African Kingdoms. with the latest patches.

>>2827665
It's probably too soon to get a tier list, don't forget we also have a more flexible water metagame in AoF/AK's changes.

The new civs however are quite potent, Malians especially have some very arrow resistant infantry. How do I stop them

>>2827625
>your precious Age HD isnt HD at all.
how come?

>>2824090
Midievel City builder game??? I recommend "Caesar III". I loved that game. :3
There is also a Caesar 4 but i havent played it. They say the mechanics are the same

>>2827782
Same way you counter all infantry, with cavalry.

>>2828030
Guess I better hope the civ I'm using doesn't happen to have a shitty calvary line then.

>>2828034
Just be glad Malians can't spam anywhere near as well as the Goths

>>2828035
I suppose that's true, but those Gbetos though

Hey guys, what's going on in this thread?

>>2828082
pls
no

>>2828082
WE

>>2828083
>>2828084
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkaX6tyq9pI

>>2828082
AAAAAAAAAYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AYYYOOO
*smacks lips profusely*
SO HOL UP HOL UP
*steals*
SO U BE SAYIN
*gets jiggy wit it*
SO HOL UP U BE SAYIN
*eats a skittle*
AAAYYYOOO SO U BE SAYIN
*checks for nearest KFC*
U BE SAYIN
*collects welfare*
HOL UP HOL UP
*licks teeth and smacks lips*
AYYYOO U BE SAYIN
*does the crip walk*
SO U BE SAYIN
*opens a up a 40 and pours some for his homies trayvon and michael brown*
HOL UP SO U BE SAYIN
*tweets about dis and goes to check in with his parole officer*
WE GON BE
*dindu nuffins*
FINNA WE GON BE
*sucks air through teeth*
AYYYOO HOL UP WE GON BE
*pulls up sagging pants*
SO WE GON BE
*instinctively looks around for police*
SO U SAYIN WE GON BE
*faints and then gets up repeatedly*
SOM FINNA
*scopes dem titties*
SO WE GON BE
*shouts at movie theater screen*
SOM FINNA
*chucks spear*
AYYYOO SOM FINA
*sets down cotton bale*
HOL UP
*strokes welfare check pensively*
WE GON BE
*throws gang sign*
SOM FINNA
*swings from basketball hoop*
WE GON BE
*grabs dick and shuffles left and right*
SOM FINNA
*participates in a drive-by shooting*
HOL UP MUH NIGGUH
*converts to Islam*
U SAYING WE GON BE
*repeated World Star yelling in the background*
SOM FINNA
*sells crack*
SUUUUU SIIIIIIIII SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
*evolves from a primate*

>>2828036
Just decided to try out Malians, and found to my delight that Gbetos absolutely tear through massed War Wagons.

>>2821734
>Curbing Celt's woads and halberds with my cataphracts
>My cat's also outnumber their palladins, and can get throuh to get their Onagers
>They cut paths through the forest with their fully upgraded onagers (that I don't have)
>still stop them
>half my army with almost no health while the enemy troops retreat
>whenever I destroy a wall enemy vils start to build another one next to it
>the monk's still busy trying to get a relic inside an air bubble in the forest, next to the last gold mine
>vils keep avoiding the trees needed to get there
>have to leave soon
>fucking surrender
I could have won if I had kept creating units while they were fighting.
Is realizing that me gitting gud?

>>2828240
Gbetos tear through everything, they're basically Throwing Axemen with Woad Raider-tier speed, better range and attack

They're costly but when massed they slaughter siege, tear through castles in seconds and murder everything that moves. Only massed gunpowder and archers can counter them, but that can be said about everything in the game and they can still do a number on them due to their maneuverability. Goths, Koreans and other civs that rely on anti-archer units don't even need to apply

I honestly think they're going to take the nerf hammer eventually

>>2828283
Yeah but before gbetos there was no perfect counter to war wagons
Not even Halberdiers with the Malian pierce armour boost did much

>>2828283
That's one thing that bothers me about the new expansion, Shotel Warriors and Gbetos are basically better versions of Woad Raiders and Throwing Axemen. They're more squishy and gold costly than them but they pay off much better

don't people like the Mongols

>>2829176

Yes, but only if orange

>We are very close to getting MP Restore working again, but we won't be able to preserve older restore games. We're also still working on making it so people with African Kingdoms and not Forgotten will be able to load save games, and getting chapter saves working again.
soon™

anyone still around from gameranger days with /v/?

haven't seen anyone log on in forever

I want to play some games with /vr/os

Green best colour
Favorite civ: Saracens
Second best civs: Indians, Berbers, Incas and Celts

Celts are SOOO fun to play with

Who wants to face me?

had 2 great games with /v/ just now, pic related was pretty intense, got wiped by red midway and had to start over from scratch (between 1:24 and 1:36), then after i built up a force I started assaulting him in a deadly stalemate until I just managed to finally break his line of defense at literally the last second, it was too late though since it ended up in a wonder victory, but I was within reach of destroying it.

>>2831513
I'm up to play anytime

>>2831561
Got steam m8?

>>2824113
Dawn of War 2. Literally cover and squad system was awesome.

THQ could of taken the code from that and then taken the code from DOW1 and combine them easily.

Assets from DOW2 and create what you don't have quickly.

Quickest way to create DOW3.

>>2831561
Spanish Master race, Turk Master race, British Master race, Mayan Master race.

>>2831654
>Spanish
True
>Turks
Depends
>British
Heh
>Mayan
Shit tastes.

Hey niggras, I wanted to play Age of Empires II online, how do I into Hamachi, or whatever it is that's used these days to play online multi.

>>2832086

Try Voobly or Steam. Both have multiplayer and HD support. For Voobly you just need to open the ports of your router and have installed The Conquerors. Everything else is installed by Voobly.

>>2831626
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pockett

>>2824113
>'I want more comfy'
>'I want less comfy' ends up at AoM... haha kek'd

Bought Aoe2 now that it was on sale. Enjoying it big-time. What a great game...
Its incredible how such an old game can still hold its place next to most of the newer RTS.

This genre really is fucked these days.

Old-school player here.
Looking for someone to play/practice with.
Against each other or bots, both fine.
New guys welcome, I can explain stuff fairly well.

Just got back into it - I've got the knowledge and some advanced techniques but I lack the MP experience.

Taking me some time to get used to the new hotkey layout (I prefer it though).
Currenly barely able to beat the new hard bot, only with cheesemode black forest camping...
So, I am not that great in practice as of now.

Fav civ: Jap, Huns, Brits.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/avycan

Just send me a message.
I'll check back tomorrow evening ~18h from now.

>>2832146
>>2832752
>http://steamcommunity.com/id/pockett
>http://steamcommunity.com/id/avycan

You will recieve a friend request fair soon, 'Ghostmaster' is my name, and I have a Pyro for avatar, you can't miss it.

Prepare to be Jihad'd

>>2832847
>Prepare to be Jihad'd
petards, yes? ha

>>2833167
I love Petards to be honest

2 Petards through your wall and you will have a swarm of CAs killing all your vills

6 Petards and your TC gets BTFO'd, so your vills too

11 Petards and your castle is a goner

You never go wrong with Petards

>>2832752
>Old-school player here.
>valve vapour
yeah right

have fun with the kids, and needing an internet connection when you want to 3x3 in lan with cousins in the family farm in christmas week getaway

>>2827910
i meant that there is nothing improved, its still 256 color 2d sprites, they changed the default cliffs and fire to alternative sprites but thats not important, in 1999 the game could be played in 1280x1024, they just mean "HD" because you can play in whatever is your display resolution,

but nevermind the fact that it was players who modified the game to allow any resolution way before steam release, and the community's persistence ever after microsoft tried to shut us down that gave them the idea to re-release this.

you would think that a company like microsoft, being bigger than valve, simply closing a p2p matchmaking service that cost pennies to them would be a good example of why we shouldn't pay for games for rent, but i digress.

>>2834860

I hear ya. Everyone seems to think that Microsoft is just so goddamned charitable with FE when it's the _community_ that kept AoE 1+2 alive with a pulse all these years: not Microshaft or Ensemble. The worst part is there appears to be some self-important assmunch on the Heaven Games site for AoE I named (appropriately enough) aoescout who has gone all self-righteous and full of himself releasing a massive patch in the vein of the AoC uPatch. Apparently, he seems to think that if he's a big enough prick to include built-in DRM for his oh-so-precious patch that Microsoft might consider giving a Steam treatment to Rise of Rome. It's like he doesn't get that almost nobody wants to play the first AoE (except sick fucks like me) when they've got AoK/AoC to play instead.

FYI, I think the new flames look like shit and the water is jarringly out-of-place. The only good new terrain was the new cliffs.

>>2834890
Not that anon
But I do agree that the flames is a transvestism

>Just bought Star wars Battleground.
Will it be ok?

The anti-valvedrones ITT are almost as annoying as regular valvedrones.

>>2825216
ResonanceBot is weird because it either under-performs compared to the default AI or it completely trounces it.

>>2824969
>Is there any good quick tips?

In general, Feudal is something you want to get out of as quickly as possible.
It's generally better to be aggressive instead of defensive.
Memorize basic counters (spearmen for knights, skrimishers for archers, etc)
Catapults and scorpions are perfectly acceptable demolition tools if you don't want to/can't get close to an enemy.

>>2831513
>Green best colour
This.

>>2835230
It's pretty decent. A problem is that moreso than AOE there are very clear tiers.
Naboo and Gungans are really weak. Trade Federation and Wookiees are borderline. Rebels and Empire are very strong.

The Clone Campaigns added the CIS (mid-tier, somewhat lacking in flavor) and the Republic (high-tier) along with some unbalanced things like Air Cruisers.

>>2834838
From what I've read on the Steam discussions, AoE 2 HD still uses LAN and does so at the moment the game starts, but there does have to be an internet connection since it uses Steam as the matchmaking service.

Still, dedicated LAN options are becoming more of a rarity. Even DoW 1 and all of its expansions on Steam got patched to remove the feature entirely. Apparently it's because of some middleware or whatever, no idea if it's the same case as AoE 2 but that's still kinda gay. You have to get a pirated copy or something to get the LAN option back.

>>2834838
>>2835515
I had an idea this topic would come up...
I own the original CD and did play via voobly and the HD patch a while back for a bit.

Its true, I dont even like Steam that much and usually I try to avoid it whenever possible.
The real reason why I use Steam now is because first of all I got the copy gifted and 2 of my friends only own the steam version.

For the most part I do not really care about all this back-end elitism. I just play whats fun and accessible, so why the hate?
On top of that I had zero issues so far with the steam release so I cannot be bothered to swap again at this point.

>have fun with the kids
No matter the game I play exclusively in closed sessions with my friends or selected people I met over the internet. I stopped playind with random people long ago. A concept more people should explore...

Isn't Rise of Nations just big aoe clone?

>>2821734
Japs are my favorite civ (green), even moreso with HD thanks to Yasama, their Keeps and Castles got a lot better.

Also I ocasionally like to play with the Spanish (red) but not as much.

I'm trying to open myself up for other civs, which ones are the ones that have some good archers or siege?

>>2836452
>Japs not red
>Spanish not blue
I'm shocked and appalled

>>2836459
I use red on Japs when my gf uses green with the huns

>>2836459
>>2836452
Spanish is yellow, mates.

How is age of Mythology?

Guys, picture this for a moment.

Age of Empires maps being importable into Mount & Blade

>>2837270
muh dick
Savage was an interesting mix of rts and old school strategy.

>>2837274
*old school fps

>>2837251
Sorta streamlined, there's less units, and it goes faster, but it's a better Age of Empires than AoE 3. It's got asymmetrical civilizations with three major gods each giving different passives based on their focus

Greeks control like a typical AoE civ
Egyptains are more micro intensive but get cheaper buildings/units for the most part
Norse build with infantry
Altanteans in the expansion have more costly units and villagers who don't require drop sites

Upcoming expansion that's Extended Edition exclusive is supposedly 50% done, and focuses around Chinese mythology.

I'm also not a fan of EE's post-processing changes, it can make shit harder to see in general.

>>2837364
>there's usually much less units onscreen

Fixed, fuck I need to go to bed

Pop cap works differently as each unit has a different population cost, like a calvary unit is 3 and a villager is 1, with high-end myth units being worth 4-5 each. I assume this is because they didn't want to stress 3D hardware with so many units at the time of the original release

dont point that bump at me

>tfw you play the original AoE over and over but can't get into 2
>tfw everyone else has moved onto the second game

w-wololo

>>2839932
is it even playable with win7 and onwards?

>>2839932
It's okay anon, the first is still my favorite. Wish I knew about the online community in its heyday, but I still play it a lot, with friends when I have the chance. Something about it still rubs me the right way, and I particularly like how it is more randomized than AoE II (where everyone spawns more or less with equal resources next to their town center, while in the original you could spawn right next to four elephants...)

There is still also a small but dedicated playerbase over at Age of Empires Heaven (never played with them, but at least they're still active) and Rise of Rome is Vietnam's Brood War so if you're willing to learn Vietnamese...

>>2840143
I have no problems with it sans minor graphic glitches on win7.

>>2839932
>tfw you can never seem to move to other RTS games that aren't AoE 2 and Red Alert 2

>>2821734

>From the base game
Goths
Britons

>Conquerors
Spanish

>Forgotten Empires
Slavs

>African Kingdoms
Portuguese


>Campaing
Atila and Genghis Khan

bump

>Get AoE2 new way back when.
>Know nothing about history.
>Play the shit out of the Teutons.
>Our group has a ton of people playing Teutons, so eventually people start trying other civs to get some variety.
>Settle into the Goths.
>Pretty much play Goths for the next 10 years.

I finally went and tried others later on. I'm especially fond of the Spanish now, great upgrades and a fun unique unit. I remember one game I mass converted everything my opponent owned without killing anything but a town center and a castle.

>>2839932
>>2840179
Remember the cheat to get a modern day soldier and bombs?

>>2843995
The Photon and EMC Troopers? AoE w/ Rise of Rome had the best cheat units in any RTS game ever

>>2842127
Excellent taste. Replace Slavs with Magyars and it'd be a perfect 10/10.

>2 minutes into the game
>enemy sends 10+ war galleys to kill the first fishing ship I made
Awesome.

>>2821734
>Base
Didn't have a clear favorite, but probably Teutons or Brits

>Expansion
Spanish

>Campaign
Joan for nostalgia

>map type
Anything without ice, fuck that shit.

>Iteration of the game
Original, of course

>Dickass strategy
spamming TCs near enemy bases and filling them with archers

i can't fucking believe there's no mac version updated to run on yosemite yet.

I used to pick franks then spam paladins. When my friends told me to stop cause it was OP I switched to spain and did the same with conquistadors. Then the goths with infantry. All my friends play dota these days.

>>2846248
Your friends are casuals.

>>2835260
Steam is a piece of DRM malware not just a distribution system, if it was simply a website where you buy games i wouldn't have a problem with valve.

If steam was simply an optional social media client i would laugh at the kids that used it, and opt out of it.

Valve made it so their social media client is a DRM platform and the 'store' in one, meaning i can't opt out of installing and using the malware. What is most laughable is that the DRM is a joke, so they use more insidious means to get people to use it, like locking mods behind their shitty malware.

Im a total noob, I got the speed and hotkeys nailed down but Im absolutely clueless as to how to make an optimal build, how to scout, when to boar lure. Basically, how to play this game at a basic competitive level.

>>2821734
I had a few of extremely fun games of last man standing diplomacy with 8 people where I was goths and became stupidly rich by providing mercenary services to other players.
I gradually turned it into a racket.
Shit was so gangsta

>>2847976
Zeroempires made a scenario that teaches you how to fast castle by context-triggered voice commentary.
Give it a try.
Also just subscribe to Zeroempires' youtube channel and watch his videos in general.

>>2847998

Im subscribed to him, as well as Spirit of the Law for his incredibly detailed videos about civilizations and mechanics.

Is there a group on Steam or something that I can join to practice?

>>2847998
>Played it twice
>C both times

FUCK

Can a nigga get a quick tier listing for African Kingdoms? It doesn't have to be 100% legit

>>2851252
There's no real competitive scene for AoF/AoAK, unfortunately.

As of patch 4.4, some of the top AoC civs did get slightly nerfed. Huns had their calvary archer cost reduction go from 25/30% to 10/20% for Castle/Imperial Age respectively because calvary archers in general went from 40w/70g to 40w/60g for everyone. Mayans got their resource lasting bonus reduced from 20% to 15%. And Vikings, the best Water civ for AoC, also got the base cost of their longboats raised to 100w/50g (when not factoring in the civ discount), though they no longer require a Castle before being allowed to build them. They did however, like many other civilizations, get their unique Castle Age tech from AoF either buffed or drastically lowered in price to encourage researching them.

Then you've got other changes to take into consideration, like with a few new techs, Camels not being ships anymore, the Feudal Age Eagle Scouts that need to be upgraded to Eagle Warriors and how there are now Fire Galleys and Demo Rafts available in the Feudal Age to diversify early naval warfare. Those changes would probably shake up the meta a bit.

These changes are only relevanted in the Expansion (AoF/AoAK) dataset and doesn't affect AoK/AoC. Otherwise, if you meant only the new civs?

Malians are definitely very good with the most arrow resilient champions and halberdiers in the game with some hard-hitting light calvary and heavy camels to back them up. The Gbeto when massed are stupidly powerful, tearing even War Wagons.

Portuguese are kinda like the Spanish but every unit costs less gold and you trade Paladins for actually getting crossbows/arbalests.

Ethiopians get 100f/100g upon age up and an infantry unit that's practically a Woad Raider on steroids. They can level a town center with ease.

Berbers I experimented with the least, they have a hard counter to calvary archers and a mounted skirmisher they can share with friends like the Condottiero.

>>2851241
heh heh, harder than it seems, isn't it?
To be honest, I wish this game was less finicky about microing your macro...
When I watch good players stream, you constantly see them just leave their actual army to their own devices in the middle of a heavy fight, so they can reseed farms.
I'm sorry but a real time strategy game shouldn't have to work that way.

>>2848006
Actually, I'm sure you can just contact people for Voobly games, if necessary just ask people in Zeroempires' twitch chat... I'm sure Zero would approve, hes a chill guy.
Hey, you could even volunteer for one of his community games!

If I own the forgotten expansion and thus have access to the spectator mode (civ). Will my friend who does not have any expansion be able to use the spec mode if I open a lobby under the forgotten?

If not, any other method to live-spectate someone without delay? Camera locked!

>>2851329
thx

does anyone have any good AoE2 mods?

https://aokhotkeys.appspot.com/
Does not recognize my file anymore.

Of course I can go ahead and re-make it by looking at the hotkeys ingame but....

Anyway, is there no proper offline hotkey editor? I feel like this should be out there already given how shitty the ingame one is.

>>2852904
With the original game dataset I can still access spectator mode (as host at least), but then again I own both expansions. I'm going to assume he can still spectate, though I noticed that when creating a game with the Expansion dataset you have a tickbox in regards to allowing spectators. Anyone can play it even if they don't own any DLC.

>>2853046
Forgotten Empires is a less refined version of The Forgotten but it's made for the original release.

Pussywood if you want smaller trees. Iterations exist for all versions.

ZeroEmpires hosts a balance tweaker mod for both original/Voobly and Steam iterations

An official mod demonstrates AoE 2 HD's ability to give civs unique architecture, providing the Indians a unique set of good-looking buildings instead of the same ones the Middle-Eastern civs get.

Bump

>>2853319
>An official mod
If it's official, then why not just make it part of the base game?

>>2856026
Especially considering the release of AoAK also updated AoF a fair bit in some aspects? My guess is that it's there to demonstrate what modders can now do and officially implementing it wouldn't really show it off.

>>2847976
well, go on voobly and play against people at your rating? a quick look at a couple record games for:
- going faudal land-only,
- going feudal dock-assisted
- fast castle knights
- fast castle town center, aka FC booming

builds example wont hurt, but its more fun if you just grab or build a timing table and try to come up with a good build order

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors (PC)
Time Study
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/914421-age-of-empires-ii-the-conquerors-expansion/faqs/9476
(beware though, that faggot used real time clock in 'normal speed' instead of AoE own internal clock)

and no need to watch hours of commentary and books worth of blogs, to know unit x unit efficacy in a myriad of combinations, do you want to play the game, or save earth kingdom from destruction in mortal kombat of empires?

>>2851329
>Camels not being ships anymore
what does that even mean?

>>2851346
agreed in part, the RTS total anihilation fixes some of the previous failing of other RTS series;
Homeworld with its formation and TACTICS along with the targeting of a group are quite peculiar too.

but all in all, RTS has always been a little skinnerbox all along, otherwise its just Real Time SidMeyers Civilization

specifically about the farms, on AoC it was introduced farm queuing in Mill, and for unit training on userpatch we have multi-queue (select all barrack and click 3x (shift+S) you have 15 swordmen total in training distributed thru all barracks)

>>2856609
>what does that even mean?
Camels used to have the Ship unit type which meant they took extra damage from tower arrows. Not sure why, it's an unorthodox balance choice for sure. In practice any camel unit that came near an enemy tower or castle was dead instantly. This is no longer the case as of the new expansion.

>>2856609
Camels used to be classified as ship units inside the game's code, which meant that arrows fired from TCs, castles and towers did tons of damage to them (as if they were normal ships). Raiding with camels was batshit insane considering you'd be wasting a lot of gold.

>>2856609
>, RTS has always been a little skinnerbox all along
It's called a video game.

>>2856627
oh i didnt meant it as a bad thing

look at diablo series, the skinnest game ever boxed, hella fun to replay


>>2856624
>>2856620
holy fraking ship, how did i never learn this

so pikemen have bonus agains ship as well? cause they do hurt camels quite efficiently

when waas that ?
i just read the entire doc for AoC 1.0c patch and no mention.

i wish ensembel faggots were more thorough at least in the in-game fullschreen tech tree, like giving an exact jaguar warrior infantry bonus and range and bonus of cataprach trample damage and so on...

i read AoK physical manual front to back and neither that didnt explain 100% the dirty details.

damn, now im feeling like some blizzard drone starcraft loving douchebag

>>2857209
The number for all those things are inside the game's files.

Otherwise you can google them just as easy, there's a comprehensive guide in the steam community for aoe2.

Did you know that some of the tech tree percentages (like the 25% faster attacking speed for jap infantry) are actually greater than what they're advertised as?

>>2857262
if you mean like internally the game uses tiles as position and rounds up or truncates resulting in not that fine grained percentages like villager works 10% faster... or u mean plain wrong like says 25% but actually close to a third faster?

>>2857262
>all those things are inside the game's files.

what game files?
you mean editing drs and other files to find out?

i guess there are comprehensive gamefaqs on this

>>2857357
I don't know which files, but you can access them with an editor (forgot which one).

And like you said, the numbers are plain wrong, the 25% faster attack speed is actually 33%.

And the Goths unique tech doesn't grant them 50% faster working barracks, actually it's 100% faster barracks.

>>2824113
Weird. I always saw WarCraft as the starting point and the Red Alert series as the "something different."

>>2821734
Jesus Christ... I remember playing this game on MSN Gaming Zone. Fucking awesome platform, I was disgusted with Battle.net when I had to use it for StarCraft.

>>2857616
Zone was recreated in a handful of fanmade programs/sites along the years until its current final and improved rebirth as Voobly.com

works with your original game from 19XX

>>2857385

I've always wondered what RoR and AoC would look like with all bugs fixed and all values edited to match documentation.

Too bad AGE 2 is such a fucking pain in the ass to use; it's an experiment I'd love to try since anyone else editing the game seems to be a total faggot that adds a bunch of shit.

>>2824113
Why is Starcraft 2 on the "Inrremedable filth" part? I thought it was decent. Didn't try multiplayer tho.

My most played RTS games in chronological order:
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: AoE2 engine, mostly a reskin with a few gameplay additions and VERY good missions
Warcraft III: Don't find the campaign very interesting now but back in the day I finished it a couple of times. Probably have more hours in LAN (still my fav RTS for LAN) and Battle.net than in singleplayer.
Praetorians: My first historical RTS
Imperivm II: Published by FX Interactive. 2D sprites and a lot of RPG and fantasy mechanics despite trying to be an historical game
Codename Panzers II: Published by FX Interactive and forgotten by most people even in Italy and Spain where it sold a decent amount of copies. In my opinion the best WW2 RTS to date.
Rome Total War: I still preffer this over any other Total War title.

>>2858224 (me)
Also does anyone else think that RTS is one of the genres with the most personality in games? compared to FPS, RTS games have thousands of gameplay differences from one to another. They also have drastically difference character design or visual style from each other.

>>2858226
yep, and theres no single player campaing like homeworld 1 (non remaster, for deep karan sjet voice)

Practicing how to Fast Castle, I really wish AoE 2 had some of the interface shortcuts that AoM had

>AoE II
>Build house with woodcutter
>Remains idle when done, until manually set back to chopping wood
>Setting waypoints for scout with Shift-RMB
>After assigning all of them I have to right-click again for him to follow the path assigned and have to do it all over again if I change my mind

>AoM
>Build house with woodcutter
>Can Shift-RMB on a tree while he's building to assign him to go back to wood whenever he's done
>Setting waypoints for scout with Shift-RMB
>Starts moving as soon as one waypoint is set and you can continue setting them even on his current route

I'd say changes like these would help people get into the game easier, even if it's a dead genre now non-retro RTS games have a great deal of shortcuts and neat things. Lost opportunity with the HD re-release.

>>2824113
man rise of nations was good

>>2824113
Damn I wish there was an specific board for non-retro RTS games. Or at least one to contain /vg/ MOBA fangays in /moba/ board or something

>>2847968
the DRM in steam is not that intrusive. its very basic actually. in fact you can change the steam id in the steam_api.ini file of any game to 440 to play games that arent in your account for free

>>2858349
the client isnt so resource heavy for a computer able to run counter strike (not so much for the basic PC able to play AoEII for instance), but regardless.

its not about intrusiveness, its about purely and simply the god awful online requirement,

and its about renting games, its a one-time payment, but its still a rent instead of a license of possesion and use of a single copy of its files, which ofc is garuanteed by most constitutions as transferable. fuck even most kinds of service contracts are transferable.

its about having all your games grouped in one credential, you cant let a friend play ur copy of comandos while you're single playing thru some other games mission.

>inb4 family steam, or other charity programs
>inb4 muh digital distribution imcompatibility
>inb4 developer support, ppl will only spend X on entertainment, no one loses money when you let the adolescent neighbor play something that was forgotten in ur drawer.

Man, I'm so bad at dealing with the new AI in AoE2 HD. Even on Moderate the AI seems to always get a massive jump on me by the Feudal Age. Shit's ridiculous. I never had this much trouble with the old AI.

>>2859742
another thing MS claims to be their improvement

for many years we've had awesome AIs avaiable in aok.heavengames blacksmith site section

there was no actual improvement, just script changes.

i like some from heavengames that cheat food on 2 moments to simulate wild boar hunting, and ofc, the basic nonstop villager training, and send atacks as soon as X-size army is put together

anybody likes 1x1x1x1x1x1x1x1x1x1xxx1x11x11x?

how about RM games with high starting resources?

aoe players seem in general seems so anal on the standards, even the majority who isnt even competing on the top ratings will just play green arabia, random land, landnomad, or the god awful gay black forrest.

always low resource.. i mean... i get it, all build strategies are based on it. but its a 15yo game, bout time we brake the community hymem with this autistic stone etched unwritten rules

the game was first intended by ensemble to allow an assortment of emergent gameplay, but all we do is conquest wining condition with locked teams, who's up for some crazy experimenting?

Heads up in that there's a compatibility patch for AoE II HD that allows players to play with others that have the original CD release and use Voobly, all without breaking HD.

>http://aoccs.net/

>>2862753
>aoe players seem in general seems so anal on the standards

Likely because that's where the game is more balanced and consistent between all or at least most civs if map types aren't taken into consideration. If most people are content with it, that's fine.

>>2831301
yeah, i'm still around but never play anymore, steam killed the fun

>>2862782
>consistent between all or at least most civs if map types aren't taken into consideration
see, like i said, anal, hahah :P

i get that, and for competitiveness its totally right, thats why they even made the "Mirror Random Civs", because 4v4 somemap and a side gets civX + civZ its not 'fair'.

ive had the game since kings launch, got quite good around the igzones era, but i'll bet that most ppl playing on any community, even voobly, dont know all the counter for every mixed formation, or immediatelly know the best civs and build orders for each matching map type and team strategy.

so why so anal? when playing with friends we select civs, unlocked teams if we have uneven numbers, and victory standard instead of conquest, its fun when 2 players agree to join relics, and the one with all of them just goes solo and fails to keep them to the last second because everyone else worked together against him only to later fall back into chaos.

i wish i could play more these types of unbalanced & unlocked games, but try even selecting a civ in any RM, even if i tell 1 person to set opposite team (instead of random team) ppl just insist that i play random civ... fucking autists
>>2863603
hum? how so, i doubt most ppl (if any considerable amount at all) that had the original cd would jump to the opportunity to imprison themselves.
voobly remained mostly unchanged after steam

dunno since african kingdoms though.

>>2863662
before steam, people would just dload the game, GR and just play with other anons. We'd get mad at them for not knowing how to port forward or how to fast castle, but in the end a nice group always formed and we'd improve and play against other BRs and mess with them.

Anyway, now it's impossible to gather enough people to play and old /v/ group is dead and burried.

>>2863792
what about the old channel #ageofempires2 @ brasnet / brasirc ?

still, how has steam changed this dynamic, ppl still just download the game, install GR or V, and play without knowing to close down around dark's end atk on feudal, groups still form

lat time i friended quite a mixed group of BRs and hermanos good and noob and even convinced some to play some unorthodox matches

>>2863907
welp, i guess i wasn't around then. The times i tried to set up a lobby in GR for /v/ it failed miserably. Maybe we could schedule rooms here to get a new group going.

About the IRC channel i guess it's as dead as always. Very few kept playing, now it's been ages since i last logged in there, not that it was worth it back then

>>2831561
I was the Teutons in that game, it was a lot of fun desperately trying to protect my castle from all those damn eagles. It's a shame I didn't do much the entire match because i'm awful at micro managing.

What are the best mods to have an improved experience playing AoE2 or Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds wich runs on the same engine than AoE2?

What are /vr/ thoughts on the Steam "remastered" version?

>>2864238
way to not read the thread faggot

>what are /board/ xxxx on yyyyy
i dont see /vr/ being an unisone crowd like /a/ or /tv/ or /v/ on some matters tend to be

anyways, stink "remaster" isnt no remaster, only a relaunch that fixed some windows nt6 compatibility that was actually already fixed by fans.

annnd aok.heavengames forum will have the top total conversions, and single player and multiplayer mods


age of chivalry is one such total conversion worthy of mention

also, check the custom AI mod files for offlien training (i mean without steam versions)

>>2845173
>initial gold deposit surrounded by ice and trees

If anybody fancies a game please add me on steam ;__;

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Gakthoil/

How do I not suck at these?

It's frustrating because I'm not generally retarded, but these games always kick my ass.

I read the manual and then tried reading tutorials / guides and implementing suggestions, and still sucked only differently.

>>2865442
You gotta be fast

Keyboard shortcuts make all the difference in the world; having a five button mouse and assigning the idle villager and Town Center shortcuts to the spare buttons (which the HD edition already does) really works wonders.

>>2865442
you don't have to be fast, just know how the economy works and learn build orders for different strategies. If you don't like that, you can play as a simcity, make walls, do eco, make military, win.

>play against hard ai with some randoms (well, the lobby WAS called noobs)
>they all resign early on
>getting violently assaulted by ai head on with no lube
>manage to somehow fend them off and bring the fight to them
I thought I would be a goner once all the untapped gold from my allies side of the map would be exhausted, but surprisingly it managed to keep up with my constant losses and unit spam. Though all my resources finally right near the end

Though I think the main reason I managed to win was because literally the whole combined ai armies were trapped by terrible pathfinding by it's bad building placement on two occasions, i guess that's BF AI for ya

>>2868153
>ai in charge of anything ever

>>2868157
and the aftermath, a bloody 20 something minutes later

>>2868157
The last time I played Snakepit with AI, they were fucking garbage

It was like this for the opposing side as well

>>2868153
>>2868157
>>2868164
>>2869005
That just reminded me that I must abuse your faggot ass, Kami

Expect me

I smell a rape incoming

Yo I'm up for a game if anyone likes, I'm 1700 elo on steam, just reply to me I'll monitor this thread

>>2869554

>>2832847
I wont be up for a few hours, but I will be up in the night (hopefully)

I'm also a 1800 ELO; so it will be nice to play with another Anon that is a decent player, again, I hope.

>>2858224
>Why is Starcraft 2 on the "Inrremedable filth" part? I thought it was decent. Didn't try multiplayer tho.

It's not a bad game per say, it just isn't what it's made out to be.

The reality is that we would have been much better off if Activision Blizzard released Starcraft 2 as a singular game in 2010 and MOVED THE FUCK ON.
It is a game developed by a rag-tag bunch of RTS devs from all over the world who wanted to kept creating RTS games by 2010 and already prefer to spend their time on shit like HotS and Heartstone by now because of the endless slog that was Starcraft 2.
It is simply a decent, but not great game (understandable, given the completely new team making it) that outlived its welcome many times over and cause irredeemable damage.

>me average player as ethiopians
>teammate barely started learning the game, is goths
>playing against mayans and teutons
>he gets eventually pushed, literally his based destroyed, saves up some vils and goes in the safest part of the map
>2v1 at this point, I decide I should quit
>have 2 castles near mayan player, some food and gold in the bank
>start spamming shotel warriors in his base like no tomorrow, his base in ashes in 5 minutes while he was distracted pushing me and the goth player

god this felt so good, the only move that could have saved me in this game, i was wonderful seeing the game turned around so fast, I have a new appreciation for the african civs now

>>2824113
No Earth 2015

>>2870245
>Losing against Shotels
Your enemies were noobs or you hit them so hard and fast they did not had the chance to react

Sure, they are fast, hit hard, and they are relatively 'cheap', but that's nothing that 3 shots from a Hand Cannoner cant fix, or a few bolts of a Scorpion; or a rain of flaming stones from an Onager.

Teutonic Knights should hold off the Shotels, or the Mayans should have shittons of plummies to counter them

But good job indeed, 2vs1'ing
I'd like to play against you, just to check how good you're.

>>2870963
>just to check how good you're
I'm literally average, but while they were busy wrecking the goth base I started spamming fully upgraded shotels with arson
yeah the teuton start producing TK and onagers shortly after, but they are really, really slow so i would just run on another part of the map

>>2870175
I'm at GMT 2+, I was sleeping when you were free to play

>>2858224
>Why is Starcraft 2 on the "Inrremedable filth" part? I thought it was decent. Didn't try multiplayer tho.
because it's what people wanted, therefor, fanboy are angry about that.
Same shit happen nowaday with every new rts released (it's not what I wanted! What I wanted is.... you know.... more like.... this and like that!).

>>2871231
Well I'm GMT -3, so yeah... we are both on almost opposite sides of the world

There is nothing more satisfactory than slaying a Mayan with speedy infantry and trigger happy siege

I seriously love Celts

>play a game on steam
>titled 1v1v1
>the two other guys are friends
>they just wall up and bombard up in a corner and build a wonder
????
What is the goddamn point. How is that even fun

Also, mongols best race. Siege GOAT

>>2872903
Your fault for playing with Scrubs

Also, celts beat the shit outta of Mongols

>>2871805
arg o uy?

>>2873362
Yes.

>>2873372
Fuck off

>>2873372
epic tumblr meme, my reddit /b/rother
we are legion

>>2821734
>play easy bots
>TOO EASY
>play medium bots
>they double your score and massacre you

>>2874318
>hardest AI
>it sends literally tens of crossbows and skirmishers into a funnel made by walls that has a castle in it

>>2874415
11

>>2821734
I have a penis, quads get!

>>2874446
Almost

Want to git gud, play Fast speed

>>2873509
>arg o uy?
>yes
you must be retarded
are you beehold?

>tfw get E in fast castle scenario
>tfw lose horribly to moderate AI

>>2875560
No, but kill yourself.

Next time, explain what the fuck means 'uy', I can't read your autistic mind.

Anyone wanna play on hd?

>>2877408
Anytime you want

Name?

>>2878906
Amy. Didn't you see my.picture?

>>2878931
...
Steam name
Steam account

To get in contact with you and play

Okay, nevermind, I changed my mind.

AYO

>>2879662
Fuck off

>>2878989
MrScrub
this wasnt me>>2878931

I'm not particularly good, although I used to play at the lowest level on voobly a long time ago.

>No African Kingdoms memeposting
Pleasantly surprised, /v/ really is a containment board.