Age of Empires II: HD Coming to Steam

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

no

none

Hoop66

I loved using the Onagers to cut through the forest and surprise attack. All the while berating myself for destroying the environment...

Lenmeister

I doubt they will all change over to steam, especially of they don't already use steam. If the majority of experts switch then it might happen. Tyrant RVK etc. Everybody is quite content with using Voobly as it is and I'd more than willingly bet that the majority of them will stay with Voobly. Half the people there probably don't use Steam and will see it as pointless moving over. Why pay for something that's already free that already has good enough client for the most part. Just to get it in HD? I'm in the most active clan on Voobly and maybe 2 people are thinking about moving over. Imo it's glorified nostalgia for a lot, with a price. I don't think it's worth it, especially with my heap of crap pc. That's another reason people won't move over, they don't have a computer or internet good enough.

Gbear

chopperbyrne wrote: »

No love for Age of Mythology?

I thought that it was tremendous fun.



But what I'd most like is a remake of AoE.

It's my favourite part of history. Phalanxes and ballistae and the word "habidacus".

Don't forget "rogan?".
Good times.

Grimebox

Lenmeister wrote: »

I doubt they will all change over to steam, especially of they don't already use steam. If the majority of experts switch then it might happen. Tyrant RVK etc. Everybody is quite content with using Voobly as it is and I'd more than willingly bet that the majority of them will stay with Voobly. Half the people there probably don't use Steam and will see it as pointless moving over. Why pay for something that's already free that already has good enough client for the most part. Just to get it in HD? I'm in the most active clan on Voobly and maybe 2 people are thinking about moving over. Imo it's glorified nostalgia for a lot, with a price. I don't think it's worth it, especially with my heap of crap pc. That's another reason people won't move over, they don't have a computer or internet good enough.

I never knew any of this stuff existed

Angron

Those voice commands were some of the most pointlessly funny things ever.

"I'll beat you back to Age of Empires!"

Lenmeister

Grimebox wrote: »

I never knew any of this stuff existed

Voobly etc? That's the main client that people use nowadays to play Age of Empires 2 & it's expansions on. A quick google with show you. It's easy to use. You don't need a fast pc. Mine is 10 years old with minimum upgrades. Some ram and graphics card(although old), everything else is the same. And considering the game is now freeware, you can download it on various websites for free, then hop on Voobly and start playing immediatly, for free.

Grimebox

Lenmeister wrote: »

Voobly etc? That's the main client that people use nowadays to play Age of Empires 2 & it's expansions on. A quick google with show you. It's easy to use. You don't need a fast pc. Mine is 10 years old with minimum upgrades. some ram and graphics card(although old), everything else is the same.

I played with friends using hamachi a few years back. If only I knew

Lenmeister

http://www.voobly.com/ - The main client for Age of Empires 2

http://www.aoczone.net/ - The main forum for Age of Empires 2 discussion, recorded games, and feedback from the current experts.

The game and all it's updates/patches can be downloaded for free on aoczone.

Not many people from Europe or the Americas use Hamachi. A lot of people do use it but for all English speakers I'd suggest Voobly way before Hamachi. Many people tend to have huge lag issues with the Chinese players etc.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Lenmeister wrote: »

The game and all it's updates/patches can be downloaded for free on aoczone.

legally?

cherryghost

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

legally?

Apparently yes, a few years ago when Microsoft shut down the MSN Games Zone they gave a nod to Voobly and co to unofficially (but legally!) continue to run (Gameranger is another one).

I don't think aoczone has AOE to download though. Just custom patches to improve competitive gameplay. Thing is though both Voobly and Gamerangers servers both support legal AND illegal copies of the game, so its a bit of a grey area that I'm sure will be addressed before this HD launch

Lenmeister

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

legally?

Yes. The game is now pretty much freeware since the license etc has expired.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055907567&page=2

AOK/AOC isn't pirate anymore. The game is freeware - for lack of a better word - since ES/Microsoft have long since lost the licensing rights. Technically speaking it would be illegal to "download" it. But the fact the the licensing rights are gone means that it's not really illegal anymore. I'm not good with the legal illegal stuff but as far as I know, once a company loses their license or the license expires, that's it. Unless you can prove otherwise.

In case you're wondering I have been playing since about 2001, for most of the last 12 years, so I know what the deal is.

Slattsy

Was the cheat word 'photon man' in AOE or another game ?

50 dudes with lasers slaughtering hundreds of farmers and archers was hilarious

Lenmeister

No idea, cheats are for losers that can't finish the campaigns :P I had to make regular use of RobinHood and CheeseSteakJimmys in 1 particular campaign, can't remember which one. Stop cheating and play online!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

yeah photon man was aoe

the_syco

Shall never forget the cheat that turned the owl into a fire breathing dragon. T'was fun.

Nody

I remember playing this in a LAN at work and my boss starting cursing (he did not know the cheats did not work in multiplayer and was going to try to cheat to beat us all :P ).

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

TheFullDuck

IrishFeeney92 wrote: »

anybody pre-order this on steam? says were meant to be able to play it today but it aint workng

unlocked for me, installing now

Lenmeister

They had major problems with the promotion HD stream of Daut vs Viper, not sure if that had the same problems with the multiplayer. I know a good few now that have it. I think today or yester there were 11k players online at once, though it was expected to be higher. There's a flood of complaints on the forums but that's to be expected until they sort out any glitches or multiplayer problems. A lot of people will also hold off until all those bugs are fixed, then buy it. The main thing right now is that they have a player base, which will give them all the feedback and bug reporting they need. From then on the numbers should go up.

Turtwig

Is just a 1:1 for remake or have there been some modifications? Only thing I've seen is a pop limit of 300. I'd love if you could actually rotate your camera like you can in most RTS games. Or Flatten the structures ala Stronghold.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

there have been some modifications.. cant remember what atm but it's not a simple port over to win7 job

dreamers75

out now for 17.09

installing it

Grimebox

Shiminay

I've been getting some rather unsettling slow-down whilst playing - obviously I need a third graphics card to handle a HD remake of a 15 year old game I read there's been major stress for a lot of people. One of the lads in the office said that it keeps crashing out on him at random intervals (Win 7 afaik). He did say that he was able to get some really old mods/scenarios he had in a rar file he found on one of his hard drives working with no stress which is great.

So it seems like the port/patch/update/money-spinner hasn't quite gone to plan

Hercule

had the dodgy copy of it a couple of days back and was dramatically under-impressed at the port - major FPS issues. The magic is gone

Lenmeister

XP Users: Possible Fix
We are currently testing a patch to resolve the blocker for XP users:

XP users can do the following:

- Right click on AOE II: HD Edition in your steam game library
- Select “Properties”
- On the Betas tab, select the “Beta - Player Eval” option
- Close the properties window and re-launch Age of Empires II: HD Edition
- Password: a
(You may need to restart Steam for the password to work)

Please let us know if you can play!!

Taken from Steam forums. Apparently it's a "minor" bug. Pretty BIG feckin bug if you ask me, not being compatible with a whole operating system.

dreamers75

Is there a fix for other OSs that are obselete?

Runs fine for me, but where is the HD option? looks average

Shiminay

Why on earth would the company that makes operating systems and that has launched 2 since XP want people to keep using the old one?

This has all the hall marks of a rushed out patch with a view to having another game in the Win 8 catalog. They did it with Toy Soldiers and made an absolutely terrible job of it - only 720 res support and no fraking multiplayer!

Lenmeister

Yes that's exactly what it is. Microsoft and Steam seen a couple million sitting on the table and blasted out a quick revamped hyped up HF version without any real extensive testing etc, and as a result have tons of problems. More than they should. They'll be a while fixing the bugs I'd say. Most people have barely finished a full game before disconnecting or dropping or crashing.