Age3 Announcements

Robot Entertainment to take over Age 3 Community Support

Aloysius — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:29:35 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm Aloysius and I'm the Community Manager at Robot Entertainment.

We'll be taking the baton from Ensemble Studios for Age3 community and customer support.

We'll be providing the same level of support that Ensemble always has, so expect a bigger presence on the forums.

A couple questions that I know a lot of people are asking:

Q: Are you taking the ESO servers down?
A: There are no plans to, and in fact we have been doing hardware and software upgrades to the servers so that they are even more stable, so you guys can keep on playing.

Q: Can you make a fan-made patch official?
A: Unfortunately that cannot take place due to legal reasons. A Robot made patch may eventually come out, but there is no date set for that yet.

Age Auction for Charity

ES_Thunder — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:54:28 GMT

We're holding an auction of all sorts of Age of Empires games and shwag, much of it signed by members of Ensemble Studios, with all the proceeds going to the Child's Play charity. Ensemble Studios will pay to ship the package to anywhere in the world, so please feel free to bid if you are located outside of the USA.

Age Auction

AOE 10th Anniversary Image Contest

ES_Thunder — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:28:50 GMT

It's been ten years! Age of Empires was shipped in October 1997 and we want to celebrate ten years of Age. Send us a photo of your favorite Age moment, a screenshot of your greatest victory, an Age inspired cartoon, an Age themed desktop wallpaper, or some other kind of image that you've created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Age of Empires. We'll choose a winner and some honorable mentions to share with Age fans here on our website, and shower the image creators in Age of Empires prizes.

Summary: The Age of Empires Image Contest requires entrants to submit a jpeg image by November 23rd to age3.community@ensemblestudios.com in order to win. The image should relate to the 10th anniversary of Age of Empires.

Link: Full contest rules.

Home City Creation Change and Bonus XP

ES_Paragon — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:39:10 GMT

For those of you who have been playing our game on ESO for the last two years, leveling up new Home Cities is old news and not all that fun. Starting tomorrow, we’re implementing some changes so that when you create a new Home City for multiplayer games, it will now start at a higher level which is based on your highest level city. Here is how it will work:

Highest HC Level	Newly Created HC level
0-19	10
20-39	20
40-59	40
60-79	60
80-99	80
100+	100

As an example, if your highest level Home City is 50, you will be able to create a new Home City for another civilization that starts at level 40 instead of level 1. This will effect both European and Native American civilizations for those of you with The WarChiefs.

The exceptions are the Asian Dynasties civilizations for those of your with the new expansion pack. Dynasties still follows the rules in the table above for European civilizations, but only takes into account your highest level Asian civilization when you create a new Asian civ. As an example, if you French HC is your highest at level 85, but your highest Dynasties civilization is Japan at level 22, a new Chinese HC will start at 20 for you. A new European civilization would start at level 80.

We are also increasing the amount of bonus experience awarded in every game by another 25%, which will make leveling up all Home Cities a little quicker.

Announcing Age III Gold Edition

ES_Paragon — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:31:56 GMT

Announcing Age III Gold Edition

Microsoft Game Studios and Ensemble Studios™ today announced that the "Age of Empires III® Gold Edition" is headed to store shelves on September 25, 2007 in North America for an estimated retail price of $39.99 (U.S.). "Age of Empires III Gold Edition" bundles the exciting "Age of Empires III" and its respective expansion pack, "Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs," for one compelling gaming experience at a great value.

Full Press Release | 07/30/07

Announcing The Dakotas Random Map Contest

ES_Thunder — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:24:09 GMT

Announcing The Dakotas Random Map Contest, for anyone who is up to the challenge of creating a new random map for Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs! Not only will the winner, as determined by a panel of judges here at Ensemble Studios, receive much praise and Age shwag, but their map may also end up being added to The WarChiefs in a future patch. See below for the full contest rules and requirements.

http://www.agecommunity.com/dakotas.aspx

Age of Empires III Board Game on Shelves Now

ES_Thunder — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:40:11 GMT

Tropical Games Announces the Launch of its First Board Game: Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery

Plainfield, IL, May 14, 2007 - Today Tropical Games announced the launch of Age of Empires® III: The Age of Discovery. Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery is the board game version of the multi-million unit selling computer game Age of Empires III from Microsoft Game Studios and Ensemble Studios .

Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery was designed by Glenn Drover, designer of award-winning games such as Attack! and Age of Mythology®: The Boardgame, and founder of Eagle Games, Inc. and is being published by Chukerman Packaging. "There is no question that this is the best game that I have worked on", said Drover. "I can't stop playing it, even after almost a hundred play-testing sessions over the last two years. It's just plain addictive."

Bruce Shelley from Ensemble Studios added, "We asked Glenn to create a ‘Euro-style' design for the board game, since many on the team here at Ensemble are fans of that genre. We were involved in testing and provided feedback throughout the game's development. The finished version is exactly what we had in mind. We are very excited that fans of the computer game will now be able to enjoy it in a whole new way."

The game challenges players to become the king (or Queen) of one of the great European nations during the age of exploration. On each turn, players allocate their colonists to various actions: exploration, colonization, trade, warfare, merchant shipping, upgrading (merchant, soldier, missionary, captain), or building a unique capital building. Each choice guides their nation toward a unique strategy.

Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery is currently shipping to game retailers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia, and will be on game store shelves very shortly. It may also be purchased at http://www.brownboxinc.com/, http://www.eaglegames.net/, and from http://www.funagain.com/ online.

Tropical Games, LLC is a privately held game design company based in Plainfield, IL

Microsoft, Age of Empires, Age of Mythology and Ensemble Studios are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

Map Hack Bannings...

ES_Thunder — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:10:03 GMT

The most prolific users of a map hack for Age of Empires III and The WarChiefs have just been banned from online play. We advise all players to refrain from using any sort of third party program to cheat in online games. We are aware of this activity and will be banning anyone from this day (03/22/07) forward who uses such a program to degrade the online experience of the vast majority of players who play fairly. [Edited on 3/22/2007]

New Age of Empires III Expansion Coming...

ES_Paragon — Fri, 18 May 2007 16:04:02 GMT

New Age of Empires III Expansion Coming...

Pack your bags -- "Age of Empires® III" is heading east. Microsoft Game Studios, Ensemble Studios and Big Huge Games Inc. today unveiled the first details about "Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties," the second expansion pack for the top-selling "Age of Empires III" that arrives on Microsoft® Windows® XP- and Windows Vista™-based PCs this fall. The expansion pack will introduce gamers to Asian civilizations, a host of new gameplay features, and a new developer that will provide a unique spin to a classic favorite.

Players will experience firsthand the rich and historical influences of Asia while commanding their units and expanding their empire in the Eastern world. The latest expansion pack will be the first "Age of Empires" title developed by Big Huge Games, the development studio responsible for the incredibly popular real-time strategy franchise "Rise of Nations®."

Screenshot (1600x1200) | Press Release |

Discuss this on the forums

Forum Signatures

ES_Paragon — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:55:06 GMT

We have enabled the signature option on the these forums. You can create your signature on your profile page; they are currently limited to 256 characters.

Please limit your sig to a single image with a size no larger (width and height) than 375x125 pixels.

While we will be warning individual users that link to larger images if this feature is widely abused, signatures will again be disabled.

[edit] After almost a week of running with the original size limit, we have found that it was a bit too big for the forums layout. So we have reduced the size limit to 375x125 pixels. This should be large enough for the popular stats sig images people are using. Thank you.

ESO Account Information Warning

ES_Paragon — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:26:51 GMT

Please Remember:

Never share your account information with any one.
We, Ensemble Studios, will not ask you for your ESO password. If someone claiming they work for us does do not give it to them.
Do not use your ESO user name and password anywhere else.
Never use another user's account to log in.
If someone give you an account to use and you use it, you could be banned.
Select a secure hard to guess password and hint question/answer
Regularly scan your computer for viruses and spyware.

New Forums Rollout

ES_Thunder — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 10:08:59 GMT

We are beginning the switch over to a new set of forums tomorrow which will look very similar to our old forums, complete with all of the current posts that you've all made. The new forums offer a number of improved features for users such as polls, private messaging, and the ability to hide blocks of forums that you don't wish to see. We hope to make this transition as seamless as possible for you all. Users will be able to log in with the same username and password as the old forum, at which time you'll be prompted to upgrade your forum account by setting a new password.

The transition to our new forums will result in a period of down time for our forums. We hope that this will not last more than 48 hours, but we'll keep you posted on our progress.

04/15/07

Freeze Exploit...

ES_Thunder — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:35:29 GMT

Freeze Exploit...

We have taken steps in our latest round of patches (1.03 and 1.11) to address an exploit that some players have used to freeze a game that is in progress with other players, known commonly as freeze hacking. (Although no hacking of a player’s computer is actually taking place.) Now, when a player freezes a game that is in progress, or if the player freezes the game often enough, the drop screen will come up after a specific period of time and allow everyone else in the game to eliminate the offending player from the game. The offending player is given a loss as soon as he is dropped from the game in this manner.

Also included in this patch are a number of other changes to fix possible exploits, ensure that games are played fairly and players who cheat will be banned.

Age III Patch 1.11 Balance Change List

ES_Thunder — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:22:42 GMT

Spain
Shipment bonus changed to .73
Wardogs damage reduced to 15, but they get a 20% bonus vs. guardians

German
Uhlan +10% Ranged Resistance

British
Longbowmen get 1.25 bonus damage vs. heavy infantry

Portuguese
Organ Guns get +10% damage, +2 range, and +4 LOS

Ottomans
Abus guns get 0.75 damage vs. artillery
Abus guns get 1.5 bonus damage vs. heavy infantry
Abus guns Ranged Resistance reduced to 20%

Russians
Cossacks +10% Ranged Resistance

WarChiefs Patch 1.03 Balance Change List

ES_Thunder — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:00:41 GMT

Spain
Rodelero hand attack reduced to 12, cover attacks reduced appropriately.
Shipment bonus changed to .73
Wardogs damage reduced to 15, but they get a 20% bonus vs. guardians

Iroquois
Forest Prowler reduced ranged attacks by 2, hand attack by 1, siege attack by 2

Dutch
Military Reforms – changed Halberdier speed bonus to +20%

German
Uhlan +10% Ranged Resistance
Uhlan bug fixed

British
Longbowmen get 1.25 bonus damage vs. heavy infantry

Aztecs
Chinampa and Great Chinampa cards reduced by 5%
Start with +1 food crate
Age2 Jaguar card reduced to 5

Portuguese
Organ Guns get +10% damage, +2 range, and +4 LOS

Ottomans
Abus guns get 0.75 damage vs. artillery
Abus guns get 1.5 bonus damage vs. heavy infantry
Abus guns Ranged Resistance reduced to 20%

Sioux
Age2 bear card reduced to 4

Russians
Cossacks +10% Ranged Resistance [Edited on 2/27/2007]

Patch 1.10 Change List (Age III)

ES_Thunder — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 20:51:19 GMT

Here is the change list for patch 1.10, for Age III vanilla. This patch will be released some time in January:

==================================================================
Patch 1.10 – Quick Search updates and bug fixes.
==================================================================

CLIENT FIXES

- Better anti-aliasing support for NVIDIA GeForce 8 series cards.
- A number of Windows Vista compatibility issues fixed.
- Several low level network optimizations have been added.
- Fixed a recorded game Out of Sync issue involving pre-patch 1.09 games and high level home cities.

BALANCE CHANGES

- Reduced Spanish shipment bonus.
- Reduced Longbowmen ranged attack by 2
- Reduced Longbowmen hand attack by 1

NETWORK AND ESO FIXES

- ESO statistics tab now defaults to show statistics for the game you are playing.
- Decks are now limited to 32 per home city.
- Quick Search - the civilizations of other players are no longer shown when the initial match is made.
- Quick Search - games no longer follow the two minute resign rule and will count toward your rating as soon as they begin.
- Power Rating values will now update more quickly after a game.

Patch 1.02 Change List (WarChiefs

ES_Thunder — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 20:49:27 GMT

Here is the change list for patch 1.02 for the WarChiefs, which will be released some time in January.

==================================================================
Patch 1.02 – Quick Search updates and bug fixes.
==================================================================

CLIENT FIXES

• Fixed mercenary selection in Saloons for custom maps.
• Better anti-aliasing support for NVIDIA GeForce 8 series cards.
• A number of Windows Vista compatibility issues fixed.
• Several low level network optimizations have been added.

BALANCE CHANGES

• Reduced Rodelero building bonus.
• Reduced Spanish shipment bonus.
• Reduced Cetan Bowman hitpoints by 10.
• Increased Kanya Horsemen hitpoints by 20.

NETWORK AND ESO FIXES

• ESO statistics tab now defaults to show statistics for the game you are playing.
• Decks are now limited to 32 per home city.
• Quick Search - the civilizations of other players are no longer shown when the initial match is made.
• Quick Search - games no longer follow the two minute resign rule and will count toward your rating as soon as they begin.
• Power Rating values will now update more quickly after a game.