<HG_Zen> So, without further ado...
<...> DeathShrimp, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
<ES_DeathShrimp> I'm Greg Street. I'm a Libra and I like long walks on the beach.
<HG_Socvazius> ...so we can better stalk you.
<...> yum
<HG_Zen> Soccy, that's just wrong
<...> hehe
<ES_DeathShrimp> I'm the lead designer of AOE3. I've been working at ES for about 500 years.
<HG_Zen> caption - you're up
<...> *captain
<...> K... looks like he's gone away for the moment.
<...> Juan, you're up
<juanrodriguez> I my self will be a Spanish player and I wanted to know how playing as the spanish will benifit me.?
<ES_DeathShrimp> As probably most of you know, the Spanish earn Shipments about 30% faster than other civs.
<...> This means they can have a strong early economy by sending Settlers or Crates.
<...> Or a strong early military by sending over soldiers.
<...> They have the strongest hand infantry in the game and decent cavalry.
<...> They also have War Dogs, which are good at clearing out Treasure guardians.
<...> When the designers play Spanish we always shout "GARROCHISTA!" at each other, because that's the RG Lancer's name.
<HG_Zen> Cool... thanks.
<...> Juan - got another question?
<juanrodriguez> I was also wondering if you can explain the city level system to me in depth?
<ES_DeathShrimp> "In depth" might take some time.
<HG_Zen> hehe
<juanrodriguez> well maybe how it works
<ES_DeathShrimp> Cities gain levels periodically.
<...> To get from 1st to 2nd level, you need 5000 Experience Points.
<...> You earn about 10,000 XP in a game, though it can be a lot lower and higher.
<...> When you get a new level, you earn two things: a new Card, and a new Customization.
<...> Cards are more fun, because they affect game play, but Customizations are cool too because they affect how your city looks.
<...> There are 106 levels total. Getting to max level would take many 100s of games, but I'm sure one of you will quickly hit it anyway.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Great. Thanks!
<juanrodriguez> welcome and thank you
<HG_Zen> Next up on the list is fearviper
<fearviper> In relation to the 'three letter clan abbreviation' code that is to be used in ESO2... what will it mean for clans with names more or less than 3 charcters, such as FeaR? Will we have to abbreviate our clan name to 3 letters somehow? Furthermore, will this 3 letter abbreviation be what is next to our names, rather than, such as for my clan, our 4-letter name 'FeaR'?
<ES_DeathShrimp> I'm not sure I can answer that off the top of my head, but...
<...> Basically, you can have a clan name, and then a clan shorter abbreviation.
<...> (I'm pulling up ESO right now to look... )
<...> If you guys want to go on, I'll answer the clan question as soon as I can find the info.
<HG_Zen> Sure... let's put that one on hold
<fearviper> i'll ask another then? or next person
<HG_Zen> Urm... you can ask another
<fearviper> What is ES' stance on cheating? What features of aoe3 will help to combat this?
<ES_DeathShrimp> We don't like cheating.
<...> One of the things we are doing differently this time is we will have a Post Ship Support team.
<...> These guys will be able to monitor the forums, ESO, etc. and look for abuses and figure out how to deal with them.
<...> On Kings and Myth we basically had to put aside our current project to go look at those issues, which was a big distraction.
<...> To do it right, you need someone whose job it is to basically support the game after it ships. We are doing that this time.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> THANKS
<...> whoops.
<fearviper> thanks hopefully u can get to my other question soon
<HG_Zen> Thanks
<...> Bolobouncer is next
<Bolobouncer> In AoK, the AI civs would waste no time throwing up walls and a gate to mark their territory. In AoE3, does the AI still use walls in such a way, and will one of their little men be able to leave the gate open for a player's entire army to stream through?
<ES_DeathShrimp> We still have walls in AOE3, but they aren't as big a feature.
<...> I say that partially because in the AOK and AOM time period, walls are important, but in colonial time it isn't as big a deal.
<...> In AOE3, forests do not block movement. That has huge implications for gameplay.
<...> So walling ends up being harder. Plus, you have all these ranged units, and almost all siege are ranged.
<...> So walls just aren't as good a strategy this time around, which is by design.
<...> If the AI walls at all, it doesn't do it very often.
<...> Here's the answer to the clan question:
<...> You can name your clan anything you want (probably subject to some standards of decency)
<...> We use the 3 letter tag so we can append it to your name.
<...> If my clan was the Fighting Red Garrochistas, then my name might be FRG_DeathShrimp on ladders and in games.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> great. Thanks
<...> Next up is Alexander-aoe3p
<alexander-aoe3p> Ok, what is with the targets above cannons?
<...> One screen shot, I believe its called Deserkombat at aoe3 official site
<...> has a funky target over a cannon
<ES_DeathShrimp> Cannon animations are really hard to do with the loaders, the horses and everything.
<...> When cannon are in "bombard mode" they can fire and move slowly.
<...> When they are in "limber" mode, they cannot fire and can move quickly.
<alexander-aoe3p> so its liek trebs then from aok?
<...> packing/unpacking
<ES_DeathShrimp> It became really important to be able to tell the difference between Limbered and Bombard, whether the cannons were yours or not.
<...> Yes, like the Trebs, but more automatic.
<HG_Zen> (for those that aren't sure what Alex is talking about , the screen can be found here: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/721/721644/img_2981142.html)
<alexander-aoe3p> ok cool
<ES_DeathShrimp> In any case, the animations are good enough now that we don't need those little targeting icons.
<...> In fact, what we are trying now is having no horses in bombard mode, to imply slow movement and give you an instant visual cue.
<...> It sounds corny, but it works pretty well.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Next up is iacobelli
<iacobelli> hi, i am italian and i was wondering why didnt ensemble studios choose the Italians in Age Of Empires 3 knowing that the americas was founded by italian explorers and they where a major nation at this time period.
<ES_DeathShrimp> Good question.
<...> The original design had 10 civs. The extras were the Swedes, and the Italians.
<...> When we saw how intensive the HC art and the building art was going to be in order to have good Havok animations, etc.
<...> We decided to cut 2 civs. Ottomans would have made more sense to cut, but we already had a lot of their art done, and they were a big part of the campaign story.
<...> So the poor Italians and Swedes lost out. I would not at all be surprised if they show up in an Xpack, but no promises.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Next up is KurtCobain
<iacobelli> ahh thank you very much
<kurtcobain> what type of units are scen editor only, and what type of cheats/cheat units are their?
<...> and what are the new cheats used for
<ES_DeathShrimp> I don't want to give away the cheat units yet. They get out so quickly anyway.
<kurtcobain> what about scen editor only units?
<ES_DeathShrimp> There are a ton of scenario-only units. We added a bunch for our own campaign.
<kurtcobain> even a lot of building?
<ES_DeathShrimp> I just counted about 60 scenario-only units. Most of those have unique art. Many are SPC heroes, but there are other things as well.
<...> Some ruins, dead bodies, the usual stuff, but also some special buildings and units. A few have shown up in screenshots.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Great. Thanks.
<...> Nero-Gatson - you're next
<kurtcobain> thanks
<Nero_Gatson> let me just say first off that i want to thank you for taking the time to do this chat, as i imagine you have a very busy schedule
<...> and heres me q
<...> If you could do anything differently now that your so far along in the development process, what would it be?
<ES_DeathShrimp> No problem. It was kind of funny, I was testing a scenario and one of the designers called and said "Dude, isn't your chat at 6?"
<...> Differently from a feature perspective or from project organization?
<Nero_Gatson> well, differently in terms of the game
<...> things that you wish were different
<...> then they are now
<...> the you couldn't change now
<...> im just curious
<ES_DeathShrimp> The deck building ended up being a lot cooler than we ever imagined.
<...> Early on, we thought it was important to let players be lots of different civs in the campaign, because that's what we had done before.
<...> So you switch from 3 different civs and their own HCs.
<...> If I could do it again, we would only have 1 campaign civ, and a HC that persisted over the whole campaign
<...> so you could have lots of different Cards and Decks. Right now you are just getting used to a Deck before you have to switch.
<Nero_Gatson> i see
<ES_DeathShrimp> I'm sure there are other things. I wish walls were cooler. I wish we had done more with the Explorer unit.
<...> Next?
<Nero_Gatson> thanks
<HG_Zen> Great. Thanks
<...> Next up is BashUGood
<BashUgood> We all know that a company thats not thinking ahead they could find themselves left behind, with that in mind are there any plans or talk of an expansion to A0E3 ?(like AoC for example).And if I could just add will there be a fee for multiplayer play?
<ES_DeathShrimp> No fee for multiplayer.
<...> Yes, we talk about a possible expansion all the time.
<...> It's not like it's designed or anything, but we do leave some features we couldn't get to for the expansion.
<...> On Kings and Myth, we basically prohibited ourselves from talking about the Xpack until we were done, because we didn't
<...> want to keep any good ideas out. We now think that is silly -- that you should think about how the Xpack works with the main game.
<...> There have been some talks about going to Asia or India, or maybe just adding new civs and HCs. Playable Native Americans come up a lot.
<...> But we just don't know yet. It depends a lot on how AOE3 is received and what players like about it.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Great... thanks
<BashUgood> kool thz
<HG_Zen> Well, that's the queue... some of the people that were in earlier and queued up ended up dropped off the chat
<...> If you guys are up for it, would you want us to open questions to those that could only ask one?
<ES_DeathShrimp> I've got some time. I can handle more questions if you guys are up for it.
<HG_Zen> Cool ... if you have question, please send me a message (/msg HG_Zen question)
<...> It would be great (for me anyway )to see the asian stuff in an expack
<...> Ok... we have a question from iacobelli:
<iacobelli> I want to run Age Of Empires 3 with the best performance, will my Nvidia Geforce 6800 do the trick (graphics wise)??
<ES_DeathShrimp> I don't know much about cards that are much higher than the 6800 level.
<...> A lot of us use 6800s, 6800 GTs or the 6800 Ultra.
<...> If you have a lot of (system RAM), I bet you'll be okay.
<...> But I'm no programmer.
<iacobelli> hehe thank you
<HG_Zen> um... more RAM... *drools*
<...> Thanks Next up we have bolobouncer:
<BoloBouncerus> What is the general mood around Ensemble Studios as of late? How is everyone feeling about the end of the long project?
<ES_DeathShrimp> We are pretty exhausted.
<...> Most of us have been working late for several weeks and we're not quite done.
<...> About two weeks ago, things were pretty dire. We just wanted to be done with the game.
<...> But then we had the community day here, and some folks got previews of the game, and the word on the street has been pretty positive.
<...> That's a great way to end a project. Folks are pretty pumped right now.
<HG_Zen> (I loved the game from what I saw... I could attest that many of us had AoE3 withdrawls for over a week :P )
<BoloBouncerus> Thanks a lot, DS
<ES_DeathShrimp> The game is starting to feel really polished, and all the final art is getting into placed. It's fun.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Great Next up we have Captain, who have finally came back from the dead:
<captain> i was wondering about the treasures and how they would effect the game.
<ES_DeathShrimp> They are cool.
<...> For a long time they were kind of lame, but then all of the unique art started going in. Now they make exploring the map a lot of fun.
<HG_Socvazius> Are we talking about as cool as The Fonz?
<ES_DeathShrimp> There are easy, medium, hard and freaking insane treasures.
<...> The easy treasures are like 60 Food, and aren't always guarded.
<...> The medium treasures are 100 Food, or a Native Warrior, and might have a guardian like a Grizzly. Your Explorer can pop the Grizzly with his special attack,
<...> but then he won't have use of it again for a few minutes, so you have to make the decision when to use it.
<...> The harder treasures generally require a posse. You may want to ship or train soldiers earlier than normal to get those treasures.
<...> They might be guarded by 6 Pirates, but have 200 XP or 2 Settlers. Those are really sweet, and players fight over them.
<...> Sometimes you'll find a treasure late that lasts for long into the game.
<...> Next?
<ES_Joeyjojo> I Like Cheese.
<captain> thanks
<...> sounds cool
<HG_Zen> you all set capt?
<HG_Socvazius> Cheese IS pretty awesome.
<ES_DeathShrimp> Get back to work, Joe.
<captain> yep thats all i have
<HG_Zen> great. Thanks
<...> (rofl)
<...> Next up we have BashUGood
<BashUgood> Is there really a demo going to be released, and if so do you know when ?
<ES_DeathShrimp> Yes, we are going to do a demo (I guess it's okay for me to say that).
<...> On Kings and Myth, when we finished the game, some unlucky saps had to go back to the office and do the demo.
<...> This time we were smart and did the demo simultaneously. It's almost done, but I'm not sure exactly when it will be released, because marketing has some say in that.
<...> (Don't let them know that they have any power, though.)
<HG_Zen> hehehe
<ES_DeathShrimp> I bet it will be out before the game, just because it doesn't need to be packaged and everything.
<BashUgood> lol thz
<ES_DeathShrimp> Next?
<BashUgood> lol thz
<HG_Zen> Thanks Next up we have DeaconJekyll:
<DeaconJekyll> Hey, I was just wondering about how a raiding strat will work and which civ is good at it?
<ES_DeathShrimp> The way we define raiding is to go hit someone early and target his villagers.
<DeaconJekyll> yep
<ES_DeathShrimp> You either want to kill a few or get him to garrison for a bit.
<...> Archers are the best at raiding, especially Crossbowmen, Longbowmen or Natives.
<...> On the other hand, if you want to kill buildings, you send in Pikemen instead.
<...> Hussars work good at villagers who have strayed far from home hunting or mining. But Hussars are a little weak against buildings, so you want to stay out of an enemy town.
<...> The Germans and Russians are good at raiding.
<...> Though any civ can do it. The Ottomans have a killer (probably too killer) Grenadier rush.
<...> For example, there is nothing special about the early French military, but they are great at scouting, which lets them find the enemy villagers.
<...> Next?
<DeaconJekyll> thanks
<HG_Zen> Great. Thanks Next up we have alexander from AoE3Paradise.com:
<alexander-aoe3p> thanks
<...> What about the demo disk, did I miss a beta contest? Or if you dont want to talk about that, how did you get into game design?
<ES_DeathShrimp> There was no beta contest. We send preview builds to some members of the media and folks who do reviews.
<...> We will do a general demo that anyone can download or get on CD.
<alexander-aoe3p> oh ok, I thought I missed something lol
<ES_DeathShrimp> Betas are funny. They aren't great for balance feedback unless you can keep the data refreshed really often.
<...> They are better for stressing our servers, but we pretty much know ESO will work, so we didn't need that test.
<...> As far as how I got into game design, when I finished my graduate degree, I went from doing a lot of cool field work to basically a desk job.
<...> I spent a lot of time on AOE Heaven reading about my favorite game.
<alexander-aoe3p> lol
<ES_DeathShrimp> I saw an interview with Bruce saying they were looking for designers with no experience necessary.
<...> I sent in a resume, and they immediately asked for a sample scenario.
<alexander-aoe3p> I was wondering cause I greatly enjoy making games as a hobby, wondering how it is on the other side of the fence
<ES_DeathShrimp> Well, I had never made an AOE scenario in my life, but I took a couple of days off of work and went nuts.
<...> They liked the scenario (it even shipped on ROR) and I've been here ever since.
<...> It is easy and hard to get a job in game design.
<...> It's easy because we (the industry) are in desperate need for good people.
<...> It's hard because it's really difficult for us to tell who those good people are, especially in design. Programmers and artists can send in samples of their work much easier.
<...> It's a great career though.
<...> I'd like to tell you that it's just a job like washing cars or something, but it isn't.
<...> I have a great bunch of friends I work with, and I get to play games all the time.
<alexander-aoe3p> lol, find something you love my parents say
<...> trouble is picking which thing you love most
<...> thanks
<ES_DeathShrimp> When WoW shipped, the office basically shut down for a week while we played.
<...> Next?
<alexander-aoe3p> lmao
<HG_Zen> (When Wow shipped, all my friends disappeaered for a week :P )
<...> hehe
<...> Thanks!
<...> Next up we have...
<...> let's see..
<...> juanrodriguez
<juanrodriguez> I was wondering how ESO beifits a clan?
<ES_DeathShrimp> We intergrated clan support from the ground up.
<...> You can have your own private clan room, where you can talk or post messages.
<...> You can promote officers and kick nutty people out of your clan.
<...> We'd like to even get in the business of clans being able to have their own private artwork or icon or something.
<...> If there is enough support for that, it is something the Post Ship team wants to look into.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> sounds great
<...> Next up we have Nero_Gatson:
<juanrodriguez> thank you
<Nero_Gatson> thanks
<...> in this Age Of game, does the game lean in favor to the aggressive player like your previous titles or are turtling and booming now more viable strategies?
<...> or more particuarlyary
<...> what has been done to balance that?
<...> *particularly
<ES_DeathShrimp> I think I might have posted this recently, but the really hardcore players have more trouble rushing relative to AOK and AOM.
<...> The HC supports this a lot.
<...> Your first Shipment is literally a guns or butter decision.
<...> If you want to boom, send villagers. If you want to turtle, send Outposts or a Card that makes your villagers stronger.
<...> If you want to rush, send soldiers.
<...> Defenses are very strong in AOE3, but they are very limited. Most civs get 1 Fort the entire game (not just 1 Fort at a time).
<...> You can have about 6 Outposts at a time -- these are like strong towers.
<...> If you place your defenses carefully, you can virtually prevent an early attack. But you can't tower up the whole map, and if you concentrate too much
<...> on staying in one place, you aren't going to have advantage to the best resources (hunting and mining) or the Natives or Trade Routes.
<Nero_Gatson> it sounds like this will be such an interesting game
<ES_DeathShrimp> The balance team would say that we have much better decisions in terms of rushing, turtling or booming than previous games.
<...> It is interesting. Just a lot of work to balance.
<...> Next?
<Nero_Gatson> great thanks
<HG_Zen> Great. Thanks Next up we have Tote
<...> ... who is not with us right now.
<...> eviltim96, you're next
<eviltim96> i was just wondering if there will be real world maps?
<...> like there were in AOK
<ES_DeathShrimp> No, sorry.
<eviltim96> thanks for the answer
<HG_Zen> Thanks
<ES_DeathShrimp> I think they'd be pretty cool, but we just can't do everything.
<HG_Zen> next up we have chris666
<ES_DeathShrimp> AOK didn't have as realistic a look, so you could get away with say Greece being the size of a Town Center.
<Chris666> hey just wondering do you have many naval battles
<ES_DeathShrimp> In AOE3 you'd have to make Cape Cod the size of several maps to get the same feel.
<Chris666> if so how many galleons do you see
<ES_DeathShrimp> About half the maps have naval battles, and 2 of them are pretty much just naval.
<...> I've never been that impressed by the naval games of AOK and AOM.
<...> So we wanted to do something different this time.
<HG_Zen> (whoops... sorry about that... forgot you hadn't finished)
<Chris666> cool thanx alot cant wait
<ES_DeathShrimp> The Caravel and Frigate are pretty much just shooting ships.
<...> But the Galleon and Monitor have special roles. A Monitor can turn a game around if used correctly.
<...> I tend to think the land and water games are more fun than just water. Also, ships don't count against your population, so you can always have some.
<...> Next?
<Chris666> sounds brilliant
<HG_Zen> Great. Thanks
<ES_DeathShrimp> Oh, on the Galleons...
<...> Because there is no pop cost, there are build limits.
<...> But there are HC Cards to let you boost those limits if you want a naval deck.
<...> You don't really need many Galleons because of their role.
<...> If you have a fleet of 8-10 ships total, that is a huge fleet.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Am I right in remembering the Monitors have a build limit too?
<Chris666> thank you
<ES_DeathShrimp> Yes. I think it is only two, because they are so deadly. They have the longest range in the game -- something like 100.
<HG_Zen> ah cool... yeah... they were... handy.
<ES_DeathShrimp> British get the best Monitors.
<...> Next?
<HG_Zen> Next up we have Captain
<...> Oh.
<...> Well, that's about it
<...> Thanks folks for coming to our first ever chat =)
<...> and thanks to ES for taking time out to come answer our questions
<ES_DeathShrimp> Cool. I have to go pay back the AI on scenario 18 for kicking my butt.

[This message has been edited by Zen (edited 08-25-2005 @ 03:31 PM).]