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[PaulLFC]

Getting this to work is the worst gaming setup experience I've had in a long time. I downloaded a tiny install stub which downloaded, like, 20 megs of install data. Cool, it needs data to install after all. Then I launch the game and it downloads patches for an hour. In its defense, it might have been done sooner but the patch window didn't take focus to tell me that it was complete. I just noticed the "Play" button activated when I alt tabbed back in to see how the patching process was going. So the game finally loads and it asks me to log into GFW Live. Fair enough; it's a Microsoft game. My first attempt to log in gets me that rad 0x2393821 error. So I try again with the same result. Figuring the third time's the charm I try it again and finally manage to log in...I think. I'm not actually sure if I'm logged in or not because it's asking me for a product key.

For a free game.

So I come here to see if anyone has the same problem and I see the post above that links to some workarounds on Microsoft's forum. One possible fix is to open GFW Marketplace and buy AOE Online from there so I can get the product key in my downloads list. So I open GFW Marketplace and hey, look, AOE Online isn't on the front page. I guess they didn't want to remove hot new titles like Grand Theft Auto IV, Bioshock 2, Dawn of War 2, Fallout 3, Lost Planet 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Age of Empires 3, and Gears of War from the front page. So I figure I'd just search for AOE Online but it turns out GFW Marketplace does not have a search function.

I realize this is pretty nitpicky but how in the fuck is this process reasonable for a free to play game?

GFWL on the whole is just a horrible experience and a horrible piece of software. I remember being asked for a product key for the Bulletstorm demo... who in their right mind thought product keys for demos was a good idea?

 

[dorkimoe]

Is there a way to turn off the chatbox thing in the lower left hand corner?

I think i just clicked the status tab instead so i didnt see any text. but i dont remember turning it off completely

I realize this is pretty nitpicky but how in the fuck is this process reasonable for a free to play game?

Its day 1, give them time. I have yet to see a pc game in the last X amount of years launch without problems.

 

[Zing]

Hmm, from watching tournament games, this is not the AoE I knew and loved. I realize they are likely playing with the game speed set to max, but there were full out rushes at two minutes and the skirmishes seemed just like in Starcraft 2, where dexterity beats strategy.

 

[TenaciousNorth]

Can I do the co-op missions with a friend if I play as Greece while he plays Egypt or do we have to play the same?

 

[blitz64]

Can I do the co-op missions with a friend if I play as Greece while he plays Egypt or do we have to play the same?

Yes, you can coop together as different civilizations.

 

[DualShadow]

Quick questions guys, do you still get the "premium rewards" from quests if you aren't a premium member. Obviously you won't be able to use them but it would be nice to have them if you become one in the future.

 

[VALIS]

Quick questions guys, do you still get the "premium rewards" from quests if you aren't a premium member. Obviously you won't be able to use them but it would be nice to have them if you become one in the future.

Yes.

 

[Iadien]

Hmm, from watching tournament games, this is not the AoE I knew and loved. I realize they are likely playing with the game speed set to max, but there were full out rushes at two minutes and the skirmishes seemed just like in Starcraft 2, where dexterity beats strategy.

You could rush in AoE 2. A lot of people preferred to leave each other alone and have one big epic battle 30-60 minutes in.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Where the fuck do I get the product key it is asking for?

Edit: Nevermind, it appears that if you enter the wrong password when logging into live in the game, it doesn't tell you that, but instead asks for a product key. When I entered the right password it did not ask for the product key and "registered" the game. Weird.

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

Can you ever play a skirmish or are there just quests?

 

[Wes]

Can you ever play a skirmish or are there just quests?

I think you can access Sparta at level 6. Not completely sure.

 

[DualShadow]

Yes.

Thanks.

Hopefully we can skirmish against AI and not just other players.

 

[blitz64]

When do coop quest become available? I'm level 3 now.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Hmm, from watching tournament games, this is not the AoE I knew and loved. I realize they are likely playing with the game speed set to max, but there were full out rushes at two minutes and the skirmishes seemed just like in Starcraft 2, where dexterity beats strategy.

AoE was always like that, if you played at the top competitive level.

Age 2 was all about the Feudal Rush. That's it, one strat dominated the whole game. These have never been particularly good competitive RTS. Also I don't know why you think "dexterity beats strategy" in these types of games, but that's a whole 'nother topic on that common misconception.

 

[Crimson Clown]

This is quite good.

Does anyone else get quite jittery scrolling at times?

 

[vehn]

edit: nm

 

[Brazil]

I'm having more fun with this game now than I was back when it was called Project Spartan.

I'll definitely pick up a retail disc tomorrow.

When do coop quest become available? I'm level 3 now.

Level 4.

 

[VALIS]

Skirmishes. Do you gain access to those in the Defense of Crete pack? It sounds more like some kind of endless mode. Can you adjust the starting parameters like in a typical RTS skirmish mode? I'd really like to hear about this pack from someone who's bought it already. I'd ask on the official forum, but like with most games on their launch week, its overflowing with spastic fuckwits right now and no decent conversation can be had.

I'm looking to buy something for this game, but can't make up my mind whether or not to go with the early bird special -- two premium civs and Defense of Crete pack for $40, or the season 1 pass, which will be 4 premium civs, Defense of Crete pack, all sorts of little items and trinkets and whatever other shit they come up with for $100.

A hundred. Yikes. If I'm gonna pay a hundred bucks for something, I want, nay, demand an adjustable skirmish mode.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Skirmish mode will be in a booster pack (not the Defense of Crete one, that's different). I am pretty sure about this from GPG employee's posts elsewhere, but you might want to confirm before you spring for a Season Pass.

 

[vehn]

urgh what the heck am I doing wrong in the "mow 'em down" quest. The first time through I went a bit fast, killed absolutely everything but only got 1/4 bandit war leaders. I restarted it and I see War leaders that are glowing but I killed 2 but didnt get credit :/

edit: and now second time I've killed everything but no credit

edit2: restarted the whole bloody game and now it worked

 

[AEREC]

This is quite good.

Does anyone else get quite jittery scrolling at times?

Yes.

 

[VALIS]

Skirmish mode will be in a booster pack (not the Defense of Crete one, that's different). I am pretty sure about this from GPG employee's posts elsewhere, but you might want to confirm before you spring for a Season Pass.

Thanks, and you remember where you read this? I really want to research this before dropping a bill on this game.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Thanks, and you remember where you read this? I really want to research this before dropping a bill on this game.

Other things can be purchased separately as DLC, like the Defense of Crete and Skirmish Hall boosters.

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?p=2798368&highlight=skirmish#post2798368

There's a launch bundle that gives you both civs and the booster for the price of both civs. There's annother bundle that covers all of the launch content plus the announced (Celts, Persians, Skirmish Hall) and unannounced content for a specific time period.

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?p=2803556&highlight=skirmish#post2803556

So yes, you need to buy the skirmish hall. It doesn't require a full civ purchase to work with other civs. So for an $X total investment (just the cost of the booster), you get skirmish with all X civs, unranked pvp for X civs, X full campaigns with hundreds of quests, crafting for each civ, trading, etc. If you take out the skirmish hall, there's zero cost for all of those features. I'm pretty sure that's competitive, on a value basis, with your $60 StarCraft II investment.

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?p=2798042&highlight=skirmish#post2798042

 

[VALIS]

Rock! Thanks FB.

 

[cackhyena]

How big is this freakin download? Jeez. I mean...the patch stuff.

 

[Iadien]

How big is this freakin download? Jeez. I mean...the patch stuff.

around 2.5gb

 

[Revengeance]

Just played about 3 hours of this game. It's pretty fun, although the pricing seems way, way off. $20 for a premium civ and $100 for a six month "season" is definitely too high.

 

[cackhyena]

around 2.5gb

Uuuuuugggghhhh.

 

[Data West]

My local Amazon and Gamestop are selling this for 20 dollars.

Does it come with a bunch of stuff or something?

 

[gillty]

My local Amazon and Gamestop are selling this for 20 dollars.

Does it come with a bunch of stuff or something?

From the op:

Now hold up, you said a few things there that I need clarification on, so I'm going to start with this one: What is this Premium civ stuff?

Premium civilizations are one of the ways that they plan to monetize the game. For 20$ you can buy a premium civilization which allows you to start custom pvp games, craft and equip rare items, get Empire points on top of Sparta points to buy gear, and extra inventory space.

WITTIF EPICS? AND GEAR?!

It sounds absolutely dreadful at first. The maximum bonus damage you'd get off a green spear is like 30% compared to 40-50% for an epic, but then you consider that you're talking about units that deal 10 points of damage and have 180-200+ hit points and despite the big percentages, it only adds up to a single point or two of bonus damage. Undoubtedly beneficiary, but the percentages greatly exaggerate the actual benefit that one gets.

And yes, there is gear. There are up to 4 slots for equipment on your units and certain buildings. These items can do anything from increase movement speed, hp, and so on.

 

[Data West]

From the op:

Cool. So I can just buy that separately later?

 

[Hari Seldon]

This game is fun but the prices for all of the stuff are pretty high. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy anything yet. Don't really see a need to unless you are going to do ranked stuff.

 

[VALIS]

Decided to go with the special $40 launch pack. I just can't lay out $100 on one game in one shot, even if it is my favorite game series of all time (behind Star Control), especially considering I won't be getting half of my already-purchased content for another 3-4 months. What am I gonna miss out on, bushes? Statues? Pff. Wouldn't have used 'em anyway. The early bird launch pack seems like the way to go.

 

[gillty]

Double post (sorry -.-)

 

[gillty]

Cool. So I can just buy that separately later?

Yes.

This game is fun but the prices for all of the stuff are pretty high. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy anything yet. Don't really see a need to unless you are going to do ranked stuff.

Its especially worse for international customers, who have to deal with markup and the fact that you can't buy 2000 points in most cases.

 

[DualShadow]

Its especially worse for international customers, who have to deal with markup and the fact that you can't buy 2000 points in most cases.

Fucked over in Australia once again. Such a load of shit considering our dollar is basically equal to the US dollar.

Edit: Guessing the image got edited out.

 

[TheQueen'sOwn]

Damn.. service pack 3 eh? :lol

 

[Zing]

Also I don't know why you think "dexterity beats strategy" in these types of games, but that's a whole 'nother topic on that common misconception.

A quick reply to this… as mentioned earlier in the thread, Rise of Nations is one of the best RTS out there and it effectively removed the dexterity component. Focus firing was nullified and combat revolved more around grand strategy than being able to "revolve" units in and out of combat and focus fire. I enjoyed the first few Age of Empires games as much as anyone, and was fairly highly rated on "the zone" (and later ESO with Age of Mythology), but Rise of Nations really ruined it for me.

 

[DualShadow]

Will you be able to max out your tech/military/economy trees by max level?

Or is where you put your points super important?

 

[Rokal]

I really like the art style in this game. Reminds me of Wind Waker, very clean and stylish.

I agree that the pricing for Civilizations should probably be a bit cheaper, especially considering that it doesn't seem to offer much unless you are interested in rare/epic gear or PvP.

 

[The_Player]

What the profit from empowering buildings by priest?

 

[AusQB]

What the profit from empowering buildings by priest?

I believe you get a 10% bonus from resource dropoffs and a decrease in unit production time (not sure of specific amount). I think I saw somewhere that you get a cost reduction as well, but some quick experimentation proved otherwise.

This is quite good.

Does anyone else get quite jittery scrolling at times?

Although it was disabled by default, I only ever experienced severe jittering when water reflections were on. I can't even tell the difference with them off.

 

[Mark-Bozon]

Somebody asked about the Crete pack, so I'll sum up quick (and deliver my "day one" impressions):

From what I've seen so far, Crete is a tower defense, co-op supported Hoarde mode of sorts. You start with your civ and your current tech tree, then you have to go through a predetermined number of waves with your current setup. The reward allows you to get either Cypress Wood X2, Knossos Marble X2, Minoan Tools X2, or a temple (which changes, see below). On top of that you get XP, Coin, Crete Points (used to buy rare stuff in Crete stores only), a few treasure chests (3), and empire points. These numbers all change based on how hard you make it for yourself.

Options are as follows for modifying your challenge:

-Difficulty: Easy is suggested for players level 5-10, Medium 10-20, Hard 20-30, Challenge 30-40, Impossible 40+

-Number of Attackers: 10 Waves, 20 Waves, 30 Waves

-Quest Setting (what map): Sea of Crete, Leropotamos River, The White Mountains, Welafonisi Island, Martsalo Gorge, Lasithi Plateau, Mt. Kedros, Cretan Land Bridge, Myrtoan Sea

Based on what you change, the amount of cash/XP/Crete and Kingdom Points goes up, and the number of attacking waves allows you to get three different "Towers Of ___' which are just decorations for your civ.

This pack is hands-down worth it in my opinion. Great way to get cash, random chests, a few empire coins, and access to the Crete land items. I haven't done co-op, but it's available from the very start. Also, for those mining the current Crete Demo that's there, you won't lose it if you buy the actual pack.

I picked up the two empire pack and got this as a free add-on. WAY happy with my $40 purchase. C'mon... it's AOE... I would have paid $40 for a normal version of the game.

Hope this helps. OP, feel free to add this in the 1st post if you want info on the Crete download pack. And no, it isn't Skirmish mode. That comes later from what I understand.

 

[Data West]

So anything you buy is JUST for that season?

 

[VALIS]

Somebody asked about the Crete pack, so I'll sum up quick (and deliver my "day one" impressions):

From what I've seen so far, Crete is a tower defense, co-op supported Hoarde mode of sorts. You start with your civ and your current tech tree, then you have to go through a predetermined number of waves with your current setup. The reward allows you to get either Cypress Wood X2, Knossos Marble X2, Minoan Tools X2, or a temple (which changes, see below). On top of that you get XP, Coin, Crete Points (used to buy rare stuff in Crete stores only), a few treasure chests (3), and empire points. These numbers all change based on how hard you make it for yourself.

Options are as follows for modifying your challenge:

-Difficulty: Easy is suggested for players level 5-10, Medium 10-20, Hard 20-30, Challenge 30-40, Impossible 40+

-Number of Attackers: 10 Waves, 20 Waves, 30 Waves

-Quest Setting (what map): Sea of Crete, Leropotamos River, The White Mountains, Welafonisi Island, Martsalo Gorge, Lasithi Plateau, Mt. Kedros, Cretan Land Bridge, Myrtoan Sea

Based on what you change, the amount of cash/XP/Crete and Kingdom Points goes up, and the number of attacking waves allows you to get three different "Towers Of ___' which are just decorations for your civ.

This pack is hands-down worth it in my opinion. Great way to get cash, random chests, a few empire coins, and access to the Crete land items. I haven't done co-op, but it's available from the very start. Also, for those mining the current Crete Demo that's there, you won't lose it if you buy the actual pack.

I picked up the two empire pack and got this as a free add-on. WAY happy with my $40 purchase. C'mon... it's AOE... I would have paid $40 for a normal version of the game.

Hope this helps. OP, feel free to add this in the 1st post if you want info on the Crete download pack. And no, it isn't Skirmish mode. That comes later from what I understand.

Thanks for this, I already purchased it myself a few hours ago and LOVE IT. Crazy fun. Calling it a Tower Defense RTS is pretty fitting. It's very difficult, too, but as you said, the difficulty is adjustable.

Everyone can try a demo of this mode (w/o custom settings) by going to Crete and clicking on the old man. The demo refreshes every 12 hours, which is pretty neat.

And btw, if you purchased the Defense of Crete pack and have no idea how to go to the custom settings of this game and not the demo, click on the building NEXT TO the old guy. Who knew? Not me for at least an hour until I searched the official forums to find my answer. This game has so much shit going on and needs far more documentation than there currently is.

 

[VALIS]

So anything you buy is JUST for that season?

No. Anything you buy, you keep forever. The poorly titled Season 1 Pass means you get everything they release in what they're calling "season 1" (now 'til Feb., I think) for the $99.99 fee.

 

[Dmax3901]

Does it say anywhere how long that launch deal lasts?

 

[GC|Simon]

I have problems with starting the game... I downloaded the exe file and installed it. After starting the game this screen pops up:

It says: The game has already been started.
But nothing more happens :'(

 

[dragonelite]

No. Anything you buy, you keep forever. The poorly titled Season 1 Pass means you get everything they release in what they're calling "season 1" (now 'til Feb., I think) for the $99.99 fee.

Aah that makes more sense so you pay 99.99 for the season pack and then get everything for free till feb.

 

[Iadien]

I have problems with starting the game... I downloaded the exe file and installed it. After starting the game this screen pops up:


It says: The game has already been started.
But nothing more happens :'(

I'm having issues with the game not loading as well, the only thing I've found that fixes it is restarting my computer.