Age of Empires Online

[Aez]

http://www.ageofempiresonline.com/
There's a trailer with some gameplay footage.  You can sign for beta.  

Warning : You need a WndowLive account.
The beta application process is nightmarish, I'm not sure what they were thinking or if they were thinking at all.  After all the complains they got over WindowLive, they've managed to make it even more complicated.

[Engels]

Its not nightmarish if you already have a WIndowsLive account, which you may have already if you played Fallout3 or Dirt2 (that I know of).

[Ghambit]

/necromonger

Beta keys going out for FP peeps today. 
NDA is lifted.

[Aez]

If NDA is lifted :

I have not played that much but my understanding is that it's a Diku RTS. You have a permanent town where you attach (equip) items to your building (microtransaction) and you do missions to get money, experience and loot.  I'm not sure if your permanent town can ever be attacked, it didn't look like it could.

It starts very slowly, you progressively add units to your arsenal like you would add skills in your first 30 lvl in diku RPG.  The missions are extremely bland (build 10 farms, kill enemy camp).  I did not bother more than an hour; I can't tell you if there's a end game.

The graphics are nice and run well on my 3 years old computer.  They are very repetitive, you can only play as Greeks or Egyptians.

If you like the formula, I think you would be happier playing Battleforge.

Game for window is required to play. It's awful.

[Cadaverine]

It was ok, in small doses, as a time waster.  No idea why it isn't a browser game, though, other than as an excuse to cram GfWL down more peoples throats.

[CadetUmfer]

No, your home city can't be attacked. It's basically a paperdoll.
The game uses the Age3 engine, which won't run in a browser.

It's certainly not Diku (I'm thinking you don't actually know what that means). It's closer to an expanded version of Age3's "home cities". You earn XP, gain levels and points to spend unlocking the tech tree. In addition to the tech tree, there are items that can be looted, crafted, or bought. These can be "abilities" like Aoe3 home city cards, or equipment used by units/buildings (weapons, armor, etc) to give bonuses.

The quests are absolutely terrible, just like every other MMO. Still, there's a decent RTS under there (better than Age3, not as good as Age2). After a few hours you hit level 10, and can start 1v1 or 2v2. That's almost certainly all I'll ever do.

[ezrast]

That art style could not possibly repulse me more.

[K9]

I think the aesthetic is pretty well done personally

[jakonovski]

It's out. Anyone tried it? I'm unable to even get it to install, the downloader apparently randomly selects an error message every time I try. Also, reading from the official forums, had I originally downloaded the game one day earlier than I did, uninstalling it would've wiped out my c:\games folder.

However, it's apparently a really good game underneath all the clownshoes.

Edit: uninstalling the GFWL client and not reinstalling worked for the downloader. Which is ironic.

[Stabs]

It's out. Anyone tried it? I'm unable to even get it to install, the downloader apparently randomly selects an error message every time I try. Also, reading from the official forums, had I originally downloaded the game one day earlier than I did, uninstalling it would've wiped out my c:\games folder.

However, it's apparently a really good game underneath all the clownshoes.

Edit: uninstalling the GFWL client and not reinstalling worked for the downloader. Which is ironic.

I'm afraid you've talked me out of it. Good game or not life's too short for a game that seems to be harder to install than Linux.

[jakonovski]

I was on the verge of ditching it myself, but now everything seems to work. It is a wonder, a GFWL game that only works if I don't have the GFWL client installed.

[jakonovski]

Oh god, the game gave me one of those "win a match" pvp quests. I took it and went to fight. I was level 5 and was put against an epiced level 40 dude. Matchmaking fail once again.

[jakonovski]

Right, I played for 8 hours straight. MMORTS is a great (and addictive) idea.

[Ghambit]

Say what you will, it's a suprisingly well done F2P game.  And tbh, if you're at all into resourcey-RTS you should probably at least give it a try.
It's a bit grindy through the tut-levels (1-10) but beyond that it shows promise and I like how the premium stuff is basically for content only, not "gear."

The coop matches will be where the rubber meets the road though imo.  I havent gotten to that part yet.

[Malakili]

What does the "MMO" part add that makes it better than a normal RTS?  The way you guys are talking about it sounds more like MMO has been translated here into "RPG" with stuff like gear and levels.  How does it compare to AoE II and III just on RTS merit?

[jakonovski]

The game basically just has leveling, loot and crafting mechanics on top of the regular RTS experience. There's coop, pvp and visiting your friends' cities but very little massive multiplayer. There might be something on higher levels, but for now what's being shown is enough to hook me. I even bought a premium civ for 20 bux. I've never played AoE games before.

If you crave for MMO above all, I think End of Nations will be your thing.

[tazelbain]

I didn't make it through the registration too many hoops.

[Ghambit]

I didn't make it through the registration too many hoops.

Is your heart beating?  If so, I assume you have an Xbox Live acct. like every other gamer on the planet.  This is the only hoop that's required to jump through.

What does the "MMO" part add that makes it better than a normal RTS?  The way you guys are talking about it sounds more like MMO has been translated here into "RPG" with stuff like gear and levels.  How does it compare to AoE II and III just on RTS merit?

The main thing is locating the crafting mats/gear you want via trade-chat and visiting other cities.  The other is essentially a simple MP lobby.
So yah, not much MMO there...  BattleForge actually has more in these regards tbh.

So it's basically dollhouse AOE with MMO-crafting/trade.  The dollhouse being your permanent instanced empire you build and other people visit.  The crafting being anything from a fancy shrub for your city to a broadsword for your fighters when you venture into questing/battles.  The amount of gear that gets mixed up in all this is a helluva lot.

The key to the game though is trade.  W/o viable trade, there's little reason to have the dollhouse and the game becomes more grindy, since the only other way to gain ingame gold is by questing.   And said gold is necessary to buy/upgrade gear.

I actually need to even see if there's an auction house.  So far all I've seen is tradechat spam.

[tazelbain]

I already have a Live account which is why the extra hoops to make me through a dumb ass market place so I have to enter a credit card so I can "buy" a game so I get a serial number so I can play free game is doubly retarded.

[jakonovski]

I already have a Live account which is why the extra hoops to make me through a dumb ass market place so I have to enter a credit card so I can "buy" a game so I get a serial number so I can play free game is doubly retarded.

The serial thing is a bug. 

Try downloading the client here: http://ageofempiresonline.com/

[tazelbain]

That's were I started.

[jakonovski]

In that case I have no idea what's going on.

[Secundo]

I had no problem whatsoever installing and playing the free version. I did have a GFWL account since before but it did not have any credit card info nor did it ask for them.
I later decided to buy a civpack for 20$ and then I had to enter my details of course..

I think Malakili described the game well enough although I suspect that you can get most of the mats yourself if you are patient, but that remains to be seen.

[Rendakor]

Downloaded this to give it a shot, but it looks like the servers are down. Didn't have any problems installing, I just used my old Xbox 360 login for GFWL. Is there a way to change resolutions? The default one it chose looks wonky on my monitor, but I didn't see a "settings" option from the main menu.

[jakonovski]

You have to log in, maybe even choose a civ, to get options.

[Rendakor]

Ahh, thanks.

[jakonovski]

FFS, why is server downtime scheduled at EU prime time?

[Lantyssa]

Because you're not real people.

[Rendakor]

Played a bit of this, it's really kind of interesting in a WoW-meets-RTS kind of way. For the low price of free I'm pretty satisfied; not sure if I'll ever spend any cash on it but we'll see.

[Rokal]

Didn't have any problems installing it myself, but I've done the GFWL thing a few times before. Really nice art style, gameplay seems less serious than SC2. Will probably try out a bit more and throw some money at it if they halve the cash shop prices.

[FieryBalrog]

The art style is well done and the game is very well animated and crisp. Plus the classic AoE 2 gameplay is largely intact and the "phat lewts" mechanic is actually fairly well done.

On the down side the single player missions are full of repetitive grindy stuff that basically is there for the sake of filling your bars. Still, I bought a $20 civ, which basically gives you the full game for that civ.

[jakonovski]

I'm at level 12 or 13 right now, and the game's options are opening up in a significant manner. There's all sorts of advisors, some give buffs and others allow the use of special units. Crafting is pretty involved -- you can only choose two skills out of eight, which means that you'll have to trade to max out your civ's gear slots. You'll also need special mats that take days in real time to create, but the timer keeps running while you're logged out.

[tazelbain]

Are there any mechanical differences between the civs?

[jakonovski]

Lots, but I've only played the Greeks. As far as I can tell, Greeks are Terrans and Egyptians are Zerg. Which would presumably make the upcoming Persians Protoss.

[luckton]

I'll give this a go...what realm are you on?