Age of Empires

Age of Empires, abbreviated to AoE or AOE, is a history-based real-time strategy computer game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, released in 1997. The game allows the user to play as the leader of a historical tribe or civilization from the Stone Age up until the Iron Age.

Following generally good reviewsAge of Empires - PC, a collection of reviews at GameRankings.com , an expansion pack for the game was released in 1998 named The Rise of Rome Expansion. Subsequently, several games have been released in the Age of Empires series, including two sequels ( The Age of Kings, Age of Empires III), a turn-based version for the Nintendo DS ( The Age of Kings), as well as one spinoff game (Age of Mythology). The name "Age of Empires" is used both to describe this particular game in the Age of Empires series, as well as the series collectively. This game is sometimes referred to as "Age of Empires I" (Age of Empires One) to avoid confusion.

Overview

Age of Empires requires the player to develop a nation, from a handful of Stone Age villagers in skins to a large Iron Age civilisation with weapons and technology. To assure victory, the player must gather resources in order to pay for new units, buildings and more advanced technology. While it is possible to set up the game so that winning is based on economic/technological achievements, in practice most players focus on developing military strength to conquer their opponents.

A major component of the game is the advancement through the Ages. There are four ages: the Stone Age (Paleolithic), the Tool Age (Neolithic), the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Researched at the Town Centers (at a considerable cost in resources), Age advances allow for the availability of more advanced buildings, units, and technologies. In order to advance from one Age to another, two buildings from the current Age must be built, and the player must have the required food (and in later ages, gold) in his stockpile.

Gameplay

Age of Empires consists of various single-player scenarios in which the player is required to complete specific objectives. These scenarios are grouped as "campaigns" for a certain civilization. Players are also capable of playing other "random map" and "death match" game modes in which victory can only be achieved through conquest, building a wonder, or controlling all ruins on the map.

Age of Empires also features online and network play with up to 8 players simultaneously. Because the network play is less sophisticated than that of modern games, lag and disconnections often occur. Despite this, Age of Empires is commonly played on GameRanger and GameSpy today. World tournaments are played regularly to establish the best players.

Civilizations

In AoE, twelve civilizations (often referred to as "civs") are available, sorted into four distinct architectural styles which determine their in-game appearance:

Asian	Middle Eastern	Egyptian	Greek

Technology

In order to research technology, buildings must be constructed (by the villagers). Each building enables research (at a cost in resources) into technologies related to that building type (e.g. religious research in temples, weapons research at the storage pit, etc.) Technological advances come in many categories, such as military upgrades (better armed and armored units), economic upgrades (e.g. increasing the rate of gathering resources), religious upgrades (e.g. faster conversion rates for priests) and infrastructure upgrades (e.g. stronger fortifications). As basic technology research is completed, more advanced research becomes available. More advanced technologies also become availble on advancement to the next Age. Some technologies are not available to certain civilizations.

Technology plays a very important role in the strategy of the game. As you go into the higher ages, technology becomes more and more expensive. Hence buliding up of the necessary resourses to research them becomes difficult. So choosing the right ones makes the difference between victory and defeat. It can be illustrated with this example: Suppose player A is a cavalry civilisation, and player B is a foot soldier civilisation. Player B has the option of upgrading either archers or spearmen. Archers are powerful, but they are ineffective against fast moving cavalry. Player B would have the best chances in battle if he has many Spearmen. That way, he can quickly eliminate A's cavalry. Then he can destroy his opponents with his remaining spearmen. But suppose Player A was an infantry civilisation, then archers would be a safe bet, as they can easily kill any infantry that approaches them at range. Also being much more cheap, they can be generated at low cost and large numbers. The disadvantage, is archers fare very poor in hand to hand combat. So any infantry that did manage to break the lines will easily kill a couple of archers before being killed. But spearmen or swordsmen are much more powerful in terms of attack and hit points. Hence, a balance between the two is necessary for the best force. Hence in this case, player B would do better to concentrate his resources on infantry and archer upgrades rather than other military upgrades.

Units

Players control a variety of civilian and military units. Most units can be upgraded through research (e.g. faster gathering for villagers, stronger armour for military units, longer range for archers etc.)

Villagers are the most basic units in Age of Empires. Their primary function is to collect resources. Gold is acquired either through trade or mining, wood is procured from logging, stone is mined, and food is gathered though hunting, foraging, farming, and fishing. Villagers can also construct buildings and repair both buildings and naval vessels. They are also capable of engaging in hand-to-hand combat when necessary.

Land-based units are the most prevalent in gameplay. Priests are non-combat units which can heal allied units or "convert" enemy units (in which case the unit changes allegiance). Infantry units, such as clubmen, swordsmen, and hoplites use melee combat to attack at short range. Cavalry are melee units mounted on chariots, horses, or war elephants. Archers, on foot or mounted, attack at range. Siege units are of two types: catapults and ballista. Catapults hurl stones which generate splash damage, affecting all units in a small area, and are especially effective against buildings and groups of units. The ballista is less damaging against buildings and units, but it is much faster than catapults.

Seagoing units play a secondary role, but are often essential to victory. Fishing boats are similar to villagers in that they can gather fish. Merchant ships trade resources from the owner's stockpile and exchanges it for gold at another player's dock. Transport ships carry land units from one area of land to another. As well as attacking enemy ships, warships can be very effective in attacking land-based units close to the shoreline (because the land-based units cannot fight back). Warships come either as galleys which fire arrows (similar to archers), or triremes which launch ballista projectiles or hurls boulders, very effective against buildings near the shoreline.

Buildings

The Town Center is one of the most important buildings in the game. Here villagers are created, and advancement through the Ages is researched. Players begin with a single Town Center (building the Government Center in a later age allows a player to build more than one). The Town Center provides population support for four units. In order to build more units, houses must be built.

Military units are created at specific buildings relevant to their discipline (e.g. archers are created at an archery range). All sea units are created at the docks. Walls and towers are defensive fortifications(Age of Empires was one of the first real-time strategy games to include walls strong enough to form a feasible means of defense). Farms are used to produce food. Granaries, storage pits, and the Town Center are used to store resources (deposited by the villagers).

Trade workshops were not included in the final game, but may have been for technology upgrades. They are popular among scenario designers who implement them by use of custom programs and files.

Wonders

Wonders are enormous buildings representing the architectural achievements of the time. They require huge amounts of resources to build and are constructed very slowly (20 villagers working on one together is not uncommon). Wonders do not produce units or allow research. In certain scenarios, a player can win by constructing a wonder and keeping it from being destroyed for 2,000 years (about twenty minutes). Building a wonder also greatly increases a player's score, which is beneficial in "score" games. Other players typically make it their top priority to destroy the wonder. For this reason and because a wonder is relatively easy to destroy, a wonder must be guarded carefully at all times. Wonders cannot be converted by priests (even by those with the ability to convert normal buildings).

Each wonder design is unique to the regions of the civilizations. Some of them are based on the Seven Wonders of the World:

Egyptians, Assyrians, Sumerians: Egyptian pyramids.
Babylonians, Hittites, Persians: Ziggurats, reminiscent in style to the Great Ziggurat of Ur
Greeks, Phoenicians, Minoans: A giant bronze statue of a hoplite, reminiscent in style to the Colossus of Rhodes.
Choson, Shang, Yamato: A large round temple, similar to a pagoda, reminiscent in style to the Temple of Heaven in China.

Custom scenarios

Age of Empires allows for the creation of user-made scenarios or series of scenarios (campaigns) using the Scenario Builder. This tool is simpler and easier to learn than comparable editors used in more modern games, but it has fewer capabilities as a result. Ensemble Studios used the Scenario Builder to make the single-player campaigns which shipped with the retail game. Various sites exist where custom scenarios can be submitted and downloaded. The popularity of custom scenarios is still surprisingly high, for example the campaign Memories of the Gupta Dynasty has received several thousand downloads "Age of Empires Heaven :: Top Rated". Age of Empires Heaven. Accessed April 23, 2006

In late 2005, it was discovered that by modifying the editor using data file editing, units present in the beta versions of the game could be made available in the editor. Some obscure units include a spaceship and a hero that changes ownership when units move near it. Through data editing, the rules of placing units can also be modified. This allows units to be placed on any terrain and on top of other units, which creates new possibilities for designing. Other significant discoveries include new terrain templates, a 'triple hitpoint' mode and map size editing.

Development

Age of Empires was the first game Ensemble Studios produced. Its purely historical setting was chosen to be more plausible and accessible, particularly to casual gamers. Carless, Simon. "Interview: Bruce Shelley— The Mythology Of Empires". Gamasutra. November 26, 2003. Accessed March 24, 2006 At the time, other Real Time Strategy games were sci-fi and fantasy, so the historical setting enabled Age of Empires to stand out from similar games. "Behind the Scenes: Bruce Shelly". Microsoft Games. Accessed April 18, 2006 The designers received much of their inspiration from the game Civilization as it is a proven history-based system.

References

External links

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