
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition Beta - WillyOnWheels
https://www.ageofempires.com/games/aoe/
======
JoshGlazebrook
Can we get a proper sequel or remake (again) to Age of Mythology? The extended
edition "remake" on steam by Skybox Labs is a travesty. I honestly just
pretend it doesn't exist because it's a better experience using the old
version from the early 2000's with Voobly.

So many great memories playing custom scenario maps on AOM back in 2005-2006.
I still have some of the maps but I lost my own "Lobster Escape" creation.

Also fun fact, around 2013 I discovered that the original ESO multiplayer
servers were still online and hosted by Microsoft, the game didn't allow you
to login because the SSL certificate was expired, but Fiddler2 actually got
around that issue and I was able to login with my old ESO account details
(these were originally created as live/hotmail accounts with a custom domain).

~~~
marcrosoft
I never really played the campaigns but as far as multiplayer all
sequels/expansions after RoR were crap. AoK was OK but still a big let down.

~~~
tpeo
Why do you say so? The original AoE always struck me as kind of clunky,
specially because of the atrocious path-finding. But I never actually played
it in multiplayer.

~~~
blunte
The pathfinding was quite good when you consider the constraints - target
platform (Pentium 90 with 16 _MB_! of RAM), dozens of units moving
independently, etc.

And multiplayer was really where the fun was for many of us. This was pretty
early in the multiplayer era, so being able to play with up to 8 players in
the same game over the internet seemed amazing.

------
peterburkimsher
I wish that history lessons could show videos of custom AoE maps with
recreated player actions that correspond to real-life past events.

Studying history is a combination of 1. Calendars, 2. Maps, 3. Contacts, and
4. Messages.

I've been trying to figure out how to represent Calendar & Map data in a
single user interface. (such a program would have other uses outside history,
too). A video of a changing map, such as a screen recording of an AoE game, is
one way I can think to show that data. Being able to then click on the
characters and see what they're doing/saying would be helpful too. This idea
is still quite vague in my head, but if anyone has any comments, I'd
appreciate the discussion.

~~~
csomar
I wonder if history lessons should have been taught this way. To play the game
instead of having to attend school/read lengthy boring textbooks.

I remember pretty much nothing of history in at high school. Hundreds of hours
went in vain. I still remember pretty much every video game I played. I
remember San Andreas map to some extent for example. I remember Age of
Mythology.

If history is repeated as a video game, I'd guess most people will get to
"learn" history and remember it. At least, for me, I would.

~~~
Sean1708
"Your first homework assignment of this class is to complete the William
Wallace Campaign."

But in all seriousness, while I do really like this idea, I have a feeling
that costs of development might outweigh the benefits somewhat. Although
having said that, if somebody made an Age of Empires style game which was
chock full of historical information I would buy it in an instant.

~~~
csomar
> costs of development might outweigh the benefits somewhat

Shouldn't it be the other way around? If it is a joint operation by a few
countries, and it can be accessible to the whole world, the cost will be less
than the textbooks kids are buying today.

------
erikb
The work is very impressive and the following statement should in no way
diminish that.

Maybe because I grew up with it, but I love the 2D pixelated version of most
old school RTS and grand strategy games. I can't explain why but it feels like
how RTS ought to be. Bird view with 3D HD rendered bodies always feels like
wasting electricity and meaningless graphics card deterioration.

~~~
theon144
Honestly, it also looks a lot better in my opinion. The 3D version is for lack
of a better word more "computer-y" and cheap, its shortcomings are visually
jarring and it doesn't really fail gracefully at all. It almost looks like
those shitty games from banner ads.

The 2D version in comparison is much more pleasing to look at, it has the feel
of old-school hand-drawn animated movies.

I know they said its not the final version of the art, but I think my gripes
are not just about models and lightning or what have you. It's AoE, I don't
need or want photorealism!

~~~
erikb
Maybe, however let me disagree a little with that. It's not the same level of
pain as Warcraft 3 and games from this timeframe where they started to do 3D
without actually having the power to do it right yet. I'd say this AoE 3D
version looks a lot more pleasing to the eye.

------
alain_gilbert
I'll save you some time.

They remade the game, but it's not available yet.

You can register for the beta IF you accept the NDA.

And you need an xbox live account.

I got stuck at "need an xbox live account".

~~~
BayesStreet
I used a microsoft account, never had an xbox live subscription/game and it
worked.

~~~
alain_gilbert
I used a @hotmail.com email address, here is what it says:

    
    
        There is a problem with your login.  Please be sure you are using a Microsoft account with an XBox Live account associated and that you have authorized access to your profile information if prompted.
    

Maybe "@hotmail.com" is not considered a microsoft account ? What are you
using (@outlook.com) ?

~~~
beyti
Same here. Resolved by: 1\. logging in through
[https://account.xbox.com/](https://account.xbox.com/) 2\. click profile
picture top right corner and click profile 3\. Privacy settings 4\. Privacy
and Online Safety > Privacy 5\. Allow all "Microsoft Can" options (possibly
not all needed but don't know which ones required so..)

~~~
alain_gilbert
That worked for me, thank you !

I didn't change any settings though. Maybe I just needed to login on
[https://account.xbox.com/](https://account.xbox.com/)

------
everdev
For AoE players, check out 0AD [http://play0ad.com](http://play0ad.com)

It's free, open source and very similar but in my opinion a better game.

~~~
deanclatworthy
0ad is great. I play it quite often with colleagues after work. That said, the
pace of development is very slow, path-finding is pretty broke for the
majority of formations and it can get very slow when dealing with the
formation animations. Some of the core maps are fundamentally broken also
(siege weapons and elephants can't fit through the mountains on one map making
it almost impossible to win).

~~~
everdev
By the way, a new Alpha came out last week. Might be worth a test drive as
they're constantly improving the game.

------
dewey
Not exactly related to the definitive edition but that's a really nice podcast
episode about how the reviving of the old Age of Empires games started, how it
was to work with the original developers at Microsoft and why 2D still looks
so much better than 3D games from that time. I really recommend it!

[https://www.hanselminutes.com/568/forgotten-empires-
amazing-...](https://www.hanselminutes.com/568/forgotten-empires-amazing-
games-age-of-empires-is-back-with-bert-beeckman)

~~~
jelv
It's a great episode, thanks for the link.

However the podcast is from before the AoE1 remake announcement. It's about
the AoE2 remake. Forgotten Empires were a bunch of fan modders that made an
unofficial expansion in 2012. In 2013 Microsoft relaunched AoE2 HD and
Forgotten Empires got to release there fan expansion into an official
expansion. Forgotten Empires, now LLC, hired Matt Pritchard and Rich Geldreich
from Ensemble Studios fame and they are now the developers of the AoE1 remake.
Such a great story :)

[http://www.forgottenempires.net/former-ensemble-studios-
lead...](http://www.forgottenempires.net/former-ensemble-studios-lead-
engineers-join-fe-team)

------
madez
This reminds that we need more open source games. There are old games I would
love to play again, especially after the community has fixed the biggest pain
points.

Why can't we have open and free games? Why not atleast after commercialization
has ended? The current situation feels like stealing from mankinds heritage.

~~~
roobunya
Check this out: [http://openage.sft.mx/](http://openage.sft.mx/)

~~~
madez
Thanks for pointing this out. I like projects of this sort, but imagine they
could start with the original source code.

~~~
Trundle
Microsoft tried that with aoe2hd, start with the original source code, and
it's been worse than the original since release.

~~~
yukinon
Could you elaborate on things you found worse in AoE2 HD vs the original?

I've never played the original, but I'm a huge fan of the HD release and all
of it expansions.

~~~
Trundle
It's laggier and has desync issues. Not just me but commonly experienced by
streamers I watch and frequently discussed on /r/aoe2. Voobly has a much
better experience. Worth checking out, particularly if you're any good.

------
sengork
This needs to be done for Empire Earth series as well which seem to have been
forgotten and obstacled by Civ, AoE, AoM franchises.

~~~
Aeolun
You can always play Rise of Nations? True, it doesn't go into the far future,
but it's in all ways a more polished experience than Empire Earth.

~~~
rcarrigan87
Yeah, RoN is my preferred RTS throwback game. Such a good game. I think the
later ages are poorly done though. I usually limit the game to 2-3 age
advancements. Super fun.

------
moron4hire
I'd actually be completely fine with the original graphics, so long as they
scaled to my larger screen correctly. I enjoy having older games that run on
some of the older hardware that I have around (or newer, but far cheaper), but
they do tend to have only a short list of supported modes, rather than
querying the hardware for capabilities.

~~~
icecreammatt
You should checkout the HD edition that is on Steam. It is exactly like the
original but with higher resolution and multi monitor support. It was exactly
what I wanted.

Edit: I thought this was AOEII, after looking at the site more I realized this
is AOE.

~~~
bitxbitxbitcoin
I just want AOEIII.

~~~
oneplane
AOE3 exists, so I u guess you can have it?

~~~
bitxbitxbitcoin
I can has it :).

------
keerthiko
While the nostalgia is nice with the BW remaster, Homeworld remaster, AOE 2
HD, and now AOE Definitive, I wish there were more AAA RTS titles coming out
at the same rate MOBAs or FPSs come out. It's often considered a dying genre,
and we're not inducting new players into it because there aren't enough modern
options out there for people to branch out and explore. It's all stuff that
25+ year old gamers remember playing as kids, and get a kick out of being
pretty elitist about one of the hardest genres of games. It makes me quite
sad, not only as a long-time gamer fan of RTS, but as a game developer who
believes it's a genre with a lot of room for innovative and exciting mechanics
which aren't being explored because the player-base is shrinking.

At least we got Deserts of Kharak recently which was a really good title. I
still play StarCraft 2 because it's the only RTS with an active online
multiplayer community, but I would love for there to be regular and more RTS
titles coming onto the scene.

~~~
retromario
Check out Tooth and Tail
([http://www.toothandtailgame.com/](http://www.toothandtailgame.com/)), it's
an indie-made RTS with high production values.

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raymondgh
Isn't it ironic to release a beta for a "definitive edition" of something?

------
bitxbitxbitcoin
Somewhat tangential... Would someone like to challenge me to 0 A.D.?

~~~
plumeria
But how? VPN?

~~~
bitxbitxbitcoin
It's been a minute for me, admittedly. Are the multiplayer servers not online
anymore :(?

~~~
plumeria
Dunno, I just play over VPN.

------
SwellJoe
I guess a Linux version would be too much to ask for, this being from
Microsoft and all.

~~~
roobunya
Open Age: [http://openage.sft.mx/](http://openage.sft.mx/)

~~~
Houshalter
The HD edition on steam used to run under wine. Now it doesn't, but you can
roll back to a previous version for now.

------
baalimago
[http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/4633/VVWcoQ.png](http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/4633/VVWcoQ.png)

Bullies..!

------
vinayan3
Anyone who signed up for the Beta know if there will be Mac Build?

~~~
Ralfp
According to their communications so far, its Xbox One/Windows 10 only.

------
puranjay
I've waited for this game for a long, long time. AoE was one of the first PC
games I played. I've lost hundreds of hours on it.

I attribute all my love of history to Ensemble Studios.

~~~
regularfry
AoE2 was where I picked up the "turn up where they don't expect" tactic: you
can just drop a town center _anywhere_ , so slowly building to a crushing blow
from an unexpected direction, while simultaneously _not dying_ when your
opponent thinks you should, works spectacularly well.

Turns out this is an extremely valuable life lesson.

This tactic was totally broken in AoM, where they forced town center locations
(I presume intentionally, for this reason). I hated it.

~~~
paulmd
Speaking of dropping a town center _anywhere_... the Persians get a civ
advantage of a double-HP town center, which makes it a viable strategy to use
your town center in a tower rush (aka the "Persian Douche" strategy). It's
very aggressive and can put an opponent off-balance because they don't expect
you to be up in their face in the Dark Ages, but the downside is that if it
doesn't work you're stuck with a massive research and economic disadvantage.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4DF099-DNo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4DF099-DNo)

(and here it is defended successfully:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVTHFBeXM4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVTHFBeXM4)
)

Apropos of nothing: I am not really into the whole "watching people stream
video gamess" thing for the most part but I recently discovered that I do
enjoy a lot of this guy's AOE2 videos. There's a lot going on in high-level
AOE2 play and it's really nice to have someone who knows what they're doing
breaking it down for you.

Also, shameless plug for youtube-dl, it's really nice to pull them down and
watch them in a local video player instead of streaming them directly.

------
terrywang
StarCraft Remastered and Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, wow. Feast for
classic game players. I played both when they were released, I prefer
StarCraft due to its perfect gameplay (multiplayer), competitiveness/balance,
it's the real king of RTS. However, Age of Empires is also great with
different flavours.

BTW: I've already pre-purchased StarCraft Remastered and can't wait to see it
released on 14 August ;-)

------
mschuster91
The most important question: will it carry Big Daddy and the other cheat
units?! (see e.g. [http://www.mogelpower.de/cheats/Age-of-
Empires_PC_32.html](http://www.mogelpower.de/cheats/Age-of-
Empires_PC_32.html))

------
bearton
I'm super excited about this. Which civilization did you all play with? I
remember I liked the Byzantines and the Persians. The Turks also had those
knights which were pretty cool.

~~~
LaMarseillaise
You are thinking of Age of Empires 2. There is actually already an HD remake
of that game, with new (optional) civilizations and various gameplay
improvements. You can find it on Steam.

As regards civilization, I have been playing AoE2HD with the Mongols. I always
used to play the Romans for AoE, though I think I will switch to Greeks or
Assyrians if I pick up this one.

~~~
bearton
You're right. I'm thinking of AeE2. Will definitely have to check out the
remake! Thanks for the rec. Ah, I remember the Mongols too! Nice!

------
yskchu
Signed up more than a month ago (24 June), did the survey, but still no reply.
Don't think they're giving out any more beta keys... :(

------
Zeustastic
After a long period of no gaming, I bought a gaming pc last year and the only
thing I have played so far is AoE 2 (:

Looking forward to this edition!

------
B1narySunset
I really wish they would make a proper remaster of Age of Empires II. The HD
edition doesn't cut it.

------
brooksbp
woot!

------
mcappleton
Some people love games no matter the graphics. For me I can't stand games with
bad graphics. I think all these reboots are money grabs that add little given
today's standards. They need to do a 3D remake of aoe otherwise it's just
pointless if you ask me.

I know a lot of people think graphics don't matter. If that's you, I respect
that. But for me personally, I would actually consider starting a team to do a
3D remake that is fully compatible with the original.

~~~
the_af
Why are 3D graphics automatically better than 2D? Beauty and aesthetics have
_nothing_ to do with 3D vs 2D.

~~~
kirrent
The example of this closest to my heart has always been Pharaoh, an amazing
game from 2000, which looks a huge amount better than it's spiritual
successor, released in 2004, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile.

[http://image.buildinggame.net/screenshot-cleopatra-game-
buil...](http://image.buildinggame.net/screenshot-cleopatra-game-building-
game.jpg)
[http://cf.shacknews.com/shack_images/sshots/immortalcities/1...](http://cf.shacknews.com/shack_images/sshots/immortalcities/111404_immortalcities_06.jpg)

~~~
maneesh
Loved that game

------
frik
No interest in UWP. Period.

Release it Steam, or it never happened.

