The art style: By changing the art style we were able to lower the requirements needed to run the game. Which means, more people can play it!

No, you're talking about the graphics, not the style. Nobody cares that you tried to think of performance so that the most people could play. People do care that you made the style of the game look like it takes after a children's show. Bright colors everywhere, disproportional people, all of these have nothing to do with performance but everything to do with style and it makes things look "cartoony". The impression this makes with the title itself is more like "Age of Comic Characters".

I suggest as "Community Manager" you do some research before you talk.

Originally posted by BatsyBatsy

Hey guys, I'm the Community Manager on this title.

I'd love to chime in and explain a few things here.

Regarding there only being 2 free civs. We're launching with 2 civs, they both have a free to play component and they also have a premium/paid component. These are not the ONLY civs we'll have. We've announced 2 more coming out later this year, the Celts and the Persians. We'll be adding civs to this game for YEARS to come.

Having to pay 102 euros for 6 months of content. This is an option. If you buy the Season Pass bundle, you'll pay once, and receive EVERYTHING we release during that 6 months. This includes all civs we release, all booster packs, and all vanity packs. If you're a player who wants EVERYTHING, this package offers substantial savings. This is not a forced purchase. We're allowing users to purchase only what they want. If a user really only likes Horde Mode style games, they can spend $10 (or their regions pricing) and that can be their ONLY purchase in Age of Empires Online. When you make a single purchase of a Civ, you unlock everything for that civ. The entire tech tree, the advisers, larger warehouses, rare and epic gear, etc. We're not nickle and diming our users.

The online portion: The capitol city is persistent. When you're not online playing, friends can still visit your city and buy from your stores, as well as your city is still producing goods. We aren't charging for online play.

The art style: By changing the art style we were able to lower the requirements needed to run the game. Which means, more people can play it!

It's a free download and free to play.  You don't have to buy a civ right off the bat to check the game out. I'd highly suggest you at least try the game before deciding you hate it. Instead of the past where you'd have to pay full retail price for a game, only to find out you dislike it (we've all had that happen), we're letting you check the game out for free. And if you chose to upgrade to a Premium Civ at any point in time, you don't have to start your city over. If you chose not to, you're not out any money.

Well however you will sweettalk this. Bottom point is AOE Online is multiple times more expensive than AoE 2 or AoE 3 or any other rts out there. So no thanks and good bye o/

Develop all civilizations you intend to , combine it put into box or digital download and I will consider paying 50 $ for ALL of it.

My last post here btw.

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

Originally posted by Dewm

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

 

 

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

 

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

 

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

   Now I have never played age of empires , but I cant imagine that all those years ago the graphics would be better, is aoe a good game? how does it differ from age of mythology which I like alot

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by Dewm

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

 

 

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

 

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

 

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

   Now I have never played age of empires , but I cant imagine that all those years ago the graphics would be better, is aoe a good game? how does it differ from age of mythology which I like alot

I suggest you try it for free :).

Anyhoo, if I take the OP's reasons, one might suggest that ANY MMO game is a ripoff. Compared to a singleplayer game, that is.

That said, I'm still "freebeei'ng" AoEO, and I'm considering buying a civ pack (Egyptians probably). I like the game.

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by Dewm

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

 

 

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

 

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

 

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

   Now I have never played age of empires , but I cant imagine that all those years ago the graphics would be better, is aoe a good game? how does it differ from age of mythology which I like alot

I suggest you try it for free :).

 

Anyhoo, if I take the OP's reasons, one might suggest that ANY MMO game is a ripoff. Compared to a singleplayer game, that is.

That said, I'm still "freebeei'ng" AoEO, and I'm considering buying a civ pack (Egyptians probably). I like the game.

AoEO is nothing more than any other RTS except you have to always be online and don't have an offline campaign. Even SC2 had unit upgrade.

As a long time AOE-Aoe2-AOE3 player i couldn't wait for this. Now that i've played it i feel sick and after this post i will try to wipe it from my mind and pretend it never existed.

It looks like a disney game for kids

Way to simple to be challenging.

Way to expensive. my favorite game has turned into the biggest f2p joke on the internet.

I'm going to throw up now.  Then i'm going to get drunk.

Originally posted by mrcalhou

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by Dewm

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

 

 

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

 

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

 

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

   Now I have never played age of empires , but I cant imagine that all those years ago the graphics would be better, is aoe a good game? how does it differ from age of mythology which I like alot

I suggest you try it for free :).

 

Anyhoo, if I take the OP's reasons, one might suggest that ANY MMO game is a ripoff. Compared to a singleplayer game, that is.

That said, I'm still "freebeei'ng" AoEO, and I'm considering buying a civ pack (Egyptians probably). I like the game.

AoEO is nothing more than any other RTS except you have to always be online and don't have an offline campaign. Even SC2 had unit upgrade.

    In AOEO you can set your craft warehouses to continure making products while you are off line, The game is quite fun because it mixes questing with RTS , it has crafting , PvP, leveling, base building, tech tree and many other things, yes it is a bit cartooney just like WOW and its 11 million subscribers, I spent $20 for a Premium civ and now I am all set, dont have to worry about paying $15 a month

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by mrcalhou

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by Dewm

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

 

 

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

 

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

 

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

   Now I have never played age of empires , but I cant imagine that all those years ago the graphics would be better, is aoe a good game? how does it differ from age of mythology which I like alot

I suggest you try it for free :).

 

Anyhoo, if I take the OP's reasons, one might suggest that ANY MMO game is a ripoff. Compared to a singleplayer game, that is.

That said, I'm still "freebeei'ng" AoEO, and I'm considering buying a civ pack (Egyptians probably). I like the game.

AoEO is nothing more than any other RTS except you have to always be online and don't have an offline campaign. Even SC2 had unit upgrade.

    In AOEO you can set your craft warehouses to continure making products while you are off line, The game is quite fun because it mixes questing with RTS , it has crafting , PvP, leveling, base building, tech tree and many other things, yes it is a bit cartooney just like WOW and its 11 million subscribers, I spent $20 for a Premium civ and now I am all set, dont have to worry about paying $15 a month

With $20 (used boxes)-$30 (new boxes) you can buy Age of Empire 1 + The Rise of Rome and Age of Empires 2 + The Conquerors + Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga with 8 civilizations (in short Age of Empires engine and interface but Star Wars universe), then you can play freely online with thousands of players on gamespy, gameranger (the one I use, free and solid), voobly, etc

You'll get a grand total of *26* civilizations, plus you can download maps, scenarios and campaigns made by fans with the built-in editor. You have dozens of settings to change your battles. You can mod units. At 1280*1024 resolution these games look fine (even on my 24" monitor) and they work in Windows 7 64 bits (you must sometimes close explorer.exe if you encounter the infamous green-red pixel bug).

But keep enjoying your unique civ for the same price and see how they pump out expensive maps and missions while you are stuck with barely nothing ;)

Good OP.

I love the AoE series, when I was a young lad and the first game came out I had hours of fun with it and it was really the primary cause which got me interested in history, something school failed to do. I still LAN AoE and AoE 2 frequently on Win 7 64bit.

When I first saw AoE Online coming out I took one look at it and knew instantly it wasn't for me. I could go out on a limb and suggest it really wasn't aimed at any AoE vets. It struck me on my first impression as a bit of a tacky spinoff and something I'd best avoid. I'm quite happy to ignore the game as a fallacy and I presume other AoE vets do too. If there are any that enjoy the game then all the best to them, I'm glad they can enjoy it.

Thanks for the CM for giving his opinions here however I respectfully disagree with his comments regarding savings and the chosen artistic style of the title. The company is perfectly within its rights in seeking to make profit but the pricing scheme strikes me as unbalanced to the obvious detriment of freeplayers and I suspect within time they'll be reviewing their approach. The artistic style chosen patently had little to do with game optimisation and more to do with appealing to their targeted demographic.

Originally posted by BatsyBatsy

Hey guys, I'm the Community Manager on this title.

I'd love to chime in and explain a few things here.

Regarding there only being 2 free civs. We're launching with 2 civs, they both have a free to play component and they also have a premium/paid component. These are not the ONLY civs we'll have. We've announced 2 more coming out later this year, the Celts and the Persians. We'll be adding civs to this game for YEARS to come.

Having to pay 102 euros for 6 months of content. This is an option. If you buy the Season Pass bundle, you'll pay once, and receive EVERYTHING we release during that 6 months. This includes all civs we release, all booster packs, and all vanity packs. If you're a player who wants EVERYTHING, this package offers substantial savings. This is not a forced purchase. We're allowing users to purchase only what they want. If a user really only likes Horde Mode style games, they can spend $10 (or their regions pricing) and that can be their ONLY purchase in Age of Empires Online. When you make a single purchase of a Civ, you unlock everything for that civ. The entire tech tree, the advisers, larger warehouses, rare and epic gear, etc. We're not nickle and diming our users.

The online portion: The capitol city is persistent. When you're not online playing, friends can still visit your city and buy from your stores, as well as your city is still producing goods. We aren't charging for online play.

The art style: By changing the art style we were able to lower the requirements needed to run the game. Which means, more people can play it!

It's a free download and free to play.  You don't have to buy a civ right off the bat to check the game out. I'd highly suggest you at least try the game before deciding you hate it. Instead of the past where you'd have to pay full retail price for a game, only to find out you dislike it (we've all had that happen), we're letting you check the game out for free. And if you chose to upgrade to a Premium Civ at any point in time, you don't have to start your city over. If you chose not to, you're not out any money.

I'll certainly be checking this game out now. Thanks for the post.

Originally posted by MyPreciousss

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by mrcalhou

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by Dewm

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

 

 

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

 

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

 

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

   Now I have never played age of empires , but I cant imagine that all those years ago the graphics would be better, is aoe a good game? how does it differ from age of mythology which I like alot

I suggest you try it for free :).

 

Anyhoo, if I take the OP's reasons, one might suggest that ANY MMO game is a ripoff. Compared to a singleplayer game, that is.

That said, I'm still "freebeei'ng" AoEO, and I'm considering buying a civ pack (Egyptians probably). I like the game.

AoEO is nothing more than any other RTS except you have to always be online and don't have an offline campaign. Even SC2 had unit upgrade.

    In AOEO you can set your craft warehouses to continure making products while you are off line, The game is quite fun because it mixes questing with RTS , it has crafting , PvP, leveling, base building, tech tree and many other things, yes it is a bit cartooney just like WOW and its 11 million subscribers, I spent $20 for a Premium civ and now I am all set, dont have to worry about paying $15 a month

With $20 (used boxes)-$30 (new boxes) you can buy Age of Empire 1 + The Rise of Rome and Age of Empires 2 + The Conquerors + Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga with 8 civilizations (in short Age of Empires engine and interface but Star Wars universe), then you can play freely online with thousands of players on gamespy, gameranger (the one I use, free and solid), voobly, etc

You'll get a grand total of *26* civilizations, plus you can download maps, scenarios and campaigns made by fans with the built-in editor. You have dozens of settings to change your battles. You can mod units. At 1280*1024 resolution these games look fine (even on my 24" monitor) and they work in Windows 7 64 bits (you must sometimes close explorer.exe if you encounter the infamous green-red pixel bug).

But keep enjoying your unique civ for the same price and see how they pump out expensive maps and missions while you are stuck with barely nothing ;)

 

 

   I will thank you, aoe1 was a horrible game, aoe2 was better but in 2d no thanks, now age of mythology is a great title, aoe2 is out dated and I doubt if you can even find anyone online to play with

I think it's safe to assume OP enjoyed the older AOE titles and has a lot of issues with the new online version of the game. It seems the pricing model is his/her biggest issue.

My advice to you : Don't play it and just move on. It's that simple.

Just because you didn't enjoy it doesn't mean others won't enjoy it. Just because you're not willing to spend money on it doesn't mean others won't be willing to spend money on it..

Times have changed for better or for worse, and companies are always trying to find new ways to maximize their profits. Only time will tell if this game will be successful or not, but I think it's positive that more game developers are willing nowadays to let players enjoy some content upfront before deciding to spend any money in their games.

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by mrcalhou

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by Dewm

Originally posted by 0guz

solution: don't play it

i tried it works :)

 

 

Very true point, but a thread like this giving a heads up to a few more people can't hurt either.

 

Coming from a AOE vet, (I still get togeather to this day once a month and do a LAN game with family and friends) 10 years after the game is released? thats replay value.

Anyways I have tried AOEO, and I will not be paying for it. which saddens me, because for years now I've been waiting for a new AOE, but this? no thanks.

I honestly can't get past the art style, I mean i'm not a stickler for graphics (duh i'm still playing AOE2) but this game...is baaaddd.

 

So honesty I hope it fails badly, and just maaayybbeee they'll work on a real Age of Empires.

   Now I have never played age of empires , but I cant imagine that all those years ago the graphics would be better, is aoe a good game? how does it differ from age of mythology which I like alot

I suggest you try it for free :).

 

Anyhoo, if I take the OP's reasons, one might suggest that ANY MMO game is a ripoff. Compared to a singleplayer game, that is.

That said, I'm still "freebeei'ng" AoEO, and I'm considering buying a civ pack (Egyptians probably). I like the game.

AoEO is nothing more than any other RTS except you have to always be online and don't have an offline campaign. Even SC2 had unit upgrade.

    In AOEO you can set your craft warehouses to continure making products while you are off line, The game is quite fun because it mixes questing with RTS , it has crafting , PvP, leveling, base building, tech tree and many other things, yes it is a bit cartooney just like WOW and its 11 million subscribers, I spent $20 for a Premium civ and now I am all set, dont have to worry about paying $15 a month

I also paid for a Premium Civ. It's all I need currently, maybe the Defense of Crete Booster Pack later on.

This is really all I wanted from the next step on AoE, except for the part where the graphic style was changed into a cartoony one, but since I play WoW I am not biased against those graphics since the core gameplay is still here with the added dreams - persistent equipment, leveling and technology tree for a civilization. The microtransactions aren't charging you for the usual endless money sinks that P2W games do, instead I prefer call this game to be DLC-based rather than microtransaction-based since you're paying for one-time unlocks.

I haven't checked the Egyptians yet, but if they have a quest campaign of their own, then the $20 civilization value is perfectly fine for me. It's not really fair to compare the $50 value of today with the $50 value of 10 years ago, and unlike others, I already played enough of previous AoEs.

Oh, the absolute thing I didn't like is that there are no custom games, but thankfully I get my custom game fix from Starcraft II currently, it has some amazing support for it compared to previous RTS games with that kind of support.

When I was in beta I enjoyed it. I believe you can pvp through the entire game which is a huge plus but you will want to do some pve to get some benefits for your units.

Way to expensive cheaper to just buy a diff rts and play that.

The art style: By changing the art style we were able to lower the requirements needed to run the game. Which means, more people can play it!

I call complete bullshit to the part where the CM says that they changed graphics into some cartoony crap just to make it playable on lower end systems.

Anyone with half a brain can understand that AOE2 which came out nearly a decade ago could run top notch on Pentium II systems, if they took the same graphical concept and optimised it for Win 7/XP then even a 256mb stock model FX card would make the game shine. Turning it into a Facebook-esque cartoony abomination wasnt the way to go. And the poor justification the CM gives for why they did this is a slap to the face to anyone who played and loved the original series.

I was more than excited when I first heard bout AOE going the way of the MMO. Then I checked out their site and saw the horrible banners, which reminds me of those ugly Travian game banners that pop up here and there, and thought this game Could be good if they make up for the bad art with strong gameplay. Now that they have released it and given out the cash shop structure, which is insanely overpriced and overly ambitious, Im not even gonna DL this Free game to give it a shot. They should have been focusing on adding enough content to keep the playerbase happy AT LAUNCH, not have plans to release basic content (multiple civilization types, the main core of AOE styled RTS gaming) once every three to six months, people will just get sick of lack of gameplay and move on to something better.

This is another instance of a great IP taken and flushed down the drain. I wont be surprised if AOEO is forced to go Ultra-Free, ie ACTUALLY free and not just a F2P sham, in the coming months just to entice more players to stay and play and counter the declining population. Only time will tell for sure. For all those who enjoy this game, power to you and good luck with it.

Originally posted by BatsyBatsy

ing civs to this game for YEARS to come.

Having to pay 102 euros for 6 months of content. This is an option. If you buy the Season Pass bundle, you'll pay once, and receive EVERYTHING we release during that 6 months. 

Hi Batsy!

Thanks for coming to the forum here. Now I will share a thing that is outrageous imo. I live in sweden and I started to play the game. All over in the chat people said that the Season I pass costs 99 dollars. Well quite expensive I though, but may be worth it anyways. So I decided that I should buy it. Now I was directed to the Swedish Live site and behold the price was 1199 SEK which is about $183. This is almost twice as expensive as US price!!!!!! Even UK, Finland, South Africa have alot cheaper prices then us!

The pricing is messed up beyond recognizion! I will never ever pay that amount for a game. $99 is a high price but may be worth it. The double price IS NOT worth it.

Please fix the pricing to be comparable around the world!

/Ely

i started playing aoeo with my dad coop, now since i live in croatia and since aoeo is connected to xbox live which is unavaliable in my country with some tweaks and stuff i managed to buy 2.1k points which i gave to my dad so he can play premium egyptian civ and i play free greek civs(fake adress in uk,fake phone number u name it, so basicly my dad owns illegal premium civ since it aint avaliable in croatia), co-op is fun and great. yes the game is overpriced and for 20$ atm imo not worth it 10-15$ still to much, but much more bearable and in tune with the market since every booster pack will add some new content and if this game survives it will go on. Now on free vs premium since this was my aim of reply:

we are about 27-28 level now

since i cant use rare or epic items i either store them or give them to my dad or he stores them in his 5 warehouses...biggest issues is here that i have 6 items which are locked,unable to be destroyed in my 28 storage so basicly i have 22 storage - all locked stuff which leaves me to 4 empty slots per mission... if i dont mail,sell,trade to my dad its basicly

i have 10k gold which i dunno for what could use since uncommon items cant be bought from cities which is total scam, we both have insane amounts of points from each cities which are used to buy stuff... why bother spending on lvl 20 items when u can stockpile for lvl 40 which are much better...

i love aoe 1 and 2 ,3rd not so much but biggest problems are:

f2p vs p2p in pvp are crap no balance there imagine having green items which give 50% or less what epic have and imagine u geting pwnd not cause of skill just cause of gear.... (only way to get gear as a f2p is from loot,or crafting and even that is limited, only uncommon item u can actually buy is like lvl 6 spear...)

storage,extra points cash... constant storage problems as free player,having 10k gold and nothing to use it for...

auction... simply feels like im in some beta and they rushed this game

ai problems... ai doesnt use priest, tends to send villagers near your base which get killed...i dunno much more

disconnect problems... why if im playing single game that aint using online stuff i should get dced in like 2 mins before end and not finish the quest.

co-op.. if u dont have the same quest in a mission u wont know what to do if u arent the party leader

as i mentioned before high price and unvaliability in all countries even tho this is ONLINE game...never had that problem before

final words:

im willing to play it even thou some are annoyed with childish graphichs( 5 years of wow(vanilla and tbc ftw) cured me of that). im even willing to pay for it but only if they lover the price and make avaliablity in all countries... all in all unfinished and prereleased game, not worth the price as i stated even on aoeo forums...civ5 or shogun 2 have much greater playability + modability than this and i bought them both with some dlcs for less than 100$...

i think mmorts are going wrong direction since they wont be modable and stuff imagine how much rts games get for their modability.. just a few of them homeworld,civilization,age of empires,warcraft, u name it... mmorts arent gonna have any of that which is kinda sad and removes alot of gameplay in long run

you need microsoft live account to play this game, stop saying its f2p because it does require you to purchase something.