ES has never made a game where some one is penalized for choosing a strategy.

But the player does have to prepare for the consequences of a failed strategy. If the rush fails then the economy has suffered and a turtler better have defenses in place.

I understand your point. So perhaps I should say that it may make rushing and turtling either more challenging or less rewarding.

I highly doubt it because in AoM they highly emphazised on rushing, and since their fans(us) have been complaining so much on the deffences of AoM I am sure you will be able to turtle real good this time around. Just imagine AoK with a twist of AoM in it.

*imagines*

Thank God it's just imagination...

I am not saying that you will not be able to rush or turtle in any given game but that, since the Home City is persistent and will only develop in the ways ES decides, it will encourage people to play in those certain ways. After you have sufficiently developed your Home City then you won't have to worry about it any more.

Think of it this way: why turtle if your tech tree is bare? You will not be able to build huge armies full of all the most advanced units, because you haven't played in a way that unlocks them all in the Home City.

Similar arguments can be made against rushing. It may win for you at first, but you will be stuck with a low level Home City. Eventually, other players will become more advanced and you won't be able to rush them, because of their high-level defenses.

I think ES will tend to this and try to make all strats reasonably equally viable. I think it is too early to comment on a topic like this. We don't have enough info on the mechanism of the home city.

We just have to strike a balance, your HC benefits from some combination of number of games played and minutes of games played. If you play a lot of very short games, that shouldn't penalize your HC, and neither should it penalize you if you like those epic, two hour games. We're trying to structure things so that you play to have fun, not obsess about gaming the HC leveling rate.

You can, of course, direct your HC more towards a rush strategy or more towards a turtle strategy. It's a lot of fun to play against folks you know when that happens. We have one designer who always plays the ###### and has a really defensive Home City. You know that you can't leave him alone for too long or his colonies will be nigh impregnable (I exaggerate, but you get the point). But you also know that he isn't going to have a strong early attack (at least until he gets a new level and upgrades in a way you don't predict).

Among the designers, I'm a pretty strong econ player, but I devote just enough of my HC upgrades towards rushing so that it keeps folks on their toes. Because folks tend to make their HCs reflect their play styles but occasionally prey on your assumptions, there is a lot of bluffing involved, just like a good game of poker.

Quick, six letter word for an unannounced civ. Um, Polish? There aren't very many possibilities.

What about Russia?

[This message has been edited by lord_eru (edited 02-17-2005 @ 11:05 PM).]

Wouldn't work in the context of the sentence. It would have to be Russians.

DeathShrimp, thanks for the visit. If I understand what you are saying correctly, it sounds like the HC adds a ton of fun and mystery to each game. If you play someone with a level 25 Spanish HC, you have no idea how they have balanced their civ. Yes, you know the uniquie techs and bonuses, but you don't know what direction the tech tree is growing: econ or military.

If you are playing someone you know who likes to turtle, he may have developed an HC with a strong rush capability to fool you. Also, it won't be like AOK where if your opponent chooses Huns, you know there's going to be an attempted flush. The real strength of the opponent will be unknown until someone makes the first move. Very interesting.

Quoted from ES_DeathShrimp:

Quoted from lachlan:

I posted my suggestions here (Post #259) cuz this thread is about HC, and i did want to start another topic in this thread.

I think Deathshrimp is just toying with us. The only thing that fits there properly right now is the French.
Heres to greater naval battles!

I think that the six ‘#’ are probably random; trying to guess from the number of letters is fairly pointless.

What would be the fun in that?

Please delete this post.

[This message has been edited by PETZEN (edited 02-18-2005 @ 06:20 AM).]

doooh, i just havent understand how HC will affect gameplay !!!
a little confused but from what i read it looks its gonna be excellent...I 'm not wrong, am I?
Can someone create a Hoce City section where all info about HCs will be posted with explanations, how they will affect thw whole game etc . ?

The Home City concept is so complicated I don't think anybody that hasn't played it completely understands how it works. Basically you send money and goods back to the home city which levels it up allowing access to new units and techs.

Apparently you make choices as you play that affect the style of game you like to play which indicates to me that maybe you won't have the resources to research everything and will have to carefully choose you strategy. At least I hope.

wow this whole HC thing is confusing.

Not really. Think of it as a box full of cool things. When you first start your account, your box is empty. Eventually, during games, you start buying upgrades (new stuff) for your TC (to put in the box). Then, in the next game, you get to bring your box with you, and can take whatever you want out of it during the game.

I think Lief's pretty much summed it up - thanks

And yeah, that's how I see it. You get to take your 'box' with you online as well. So players get to keep their cool stuff if they use their profile

Yes. And the key point is that nobody else knows what you've put in the "box", so they won't know how to counter it until they find out.

Quote:

I'm very curious about what this means. THis sounds like something very new, at least to the AOE series.

Does this mean that the researches that you have made during previous games go with you to the next? What else could added to the HC, besides rating points?

If you join a new game, and your butt was kicked last game, does the HC start out in a shambles? Can the HC be attacked or is it somehow outside the sphere of play?

I just wonder about the games i usually play.

with atleast 1/2 of the maximum consists of caravans getting me TONS of cash. Which i in turn use to buy stone, so that the countryside can be filled with 10+ wonders and 50+ castles, along with churches and such

All for a good look and land dominance.
I once even had more than a million gold from trade, that game took 4 hours tho

There i suspect my HC weill rocket

I got what mean but it sounds really strange.
For example if i want to perform a tactic in my game i had never done before and i dont have the necessary upgrades in my Home city then i won't be able to do it?

Or if i do the same tactic every game then it won't ever be necessary to do any new upgrades to my home city?

Please answer with examples, thats the only way i undernstand everything