Comments - asadsilk

no

You're the first i hear complaining about tanks not being strong enough, everyone else always complained that one tank could kill the entire enemy infantry team (which is kinda true).

Early ingame grenadiers can damage vehicles, however once the enemy has mediums/heavies with good armor not even 5 grenadiers will be able to take them down (unless they are driven by noobs ^^). So this rpg upgrade will make grenadiers also effective in late game, but won't change anything early ingame.

At this moment the rifleman stickies are more powerfull than the rpg, and they are the only reason why the first enemy vehicle rush doesn't end the game at once. IF the first vehicle rush doesn't end the game.

The question will be what would be most important in a certain situation: researching upgraded rpg's for infantry, or improved chassis/engine/armor/weapons for tanks.
- Upgraded rpg's is a one-time investment <=> you pay for every tank
- Upgraded rpg's can be used when there's no money for tanks, by everyone, at any time
- Grenadiers are still extremely vulnerable. One apc with chaingun can take down a gren in mere seconds, or even run him over <=> upgraded tanks can be very annoying to get past

The height of the NF buildings does make it easier to hit them. However the low profile of the BE buildings does not allow for cover against artillery/cv protection, and you can jump onto the Barracks/radar//armory to deconstruct it from upon the roof or use this location to take out enemies.

As a whole i think it's balanced.

Yeah that demo was really nice to watch! It's fun to see good teams battle against eachother.

I hadn't even heard of this mod before i saw it in the moddb top 100. I'm gonna check it out for sure.

Sweet, this will make it look so more awesome !

Wow all of this in so little time?
Can i assume the devs where thinking about this from before the 2.0 release then?

Putting the trailer on gametrailers.com seems to be the best choice ever. I can't believe how many people have mentioned it. Sweet!

Interesting interview! And for once it actually addresses some of the known problems and has questions asked by someone who really seems to know what he's talking about, instead of just asking about what's in the game.
Although i suppose some people would've wanted to know more about the game itself.

Give it a try, and you'll find out soon enough ;-)

Just stand still when i'm shooting at you. It makes my job much easier ^^

And yes, while i love to play with the experienced playtesters, i can't wait for empires to be released. I'm very interested in what kinds of tactics new people will come up with.

Well, since it's posted in the 'dev blogs' topic, in the public section of the forum for everyone to see, i assume i am allowed to post this link:

Img84.imageshack.us

This is a work in progress, and i'm only showing it as proof that work is being put in aircraft.

Also the latest test release has yet another feature in it. I'm not gonna tell what it is though, you'll just have to wait.

... Also it has a great community to help out newbies to the game ...

Apart from a few hotheads i must admit i very much respect the community. And even most hotheads will help you out.

Sorry about there not being a noob training server for 1.071 anymore btw. As you've noticed we (CW clan) took all but one server down, mainly because we're not playing 1.071 anyway ;-). It'll be back though, so new players who want to learn more about the game before joining a serious battle (or anyone who wants to learn more) should find themselves a training server once 2.0 is released. Well maybe not in the first few days, but it shouldn't take long.

Also i've seen other clans set up training servers for new players, so that shouldn't be a problem!

Something else:
Some people from the community have been working on collecting screenshots, making a new trailer, and creating a site with information about empires, most of which about the improvements since 1.071. Also there are plans to record some movies to show how awesome empires can be when you have a server filled with experienced players. They will be made available before the release, but not now :p
The only reason i'm telling this is to make everyone who wants to see it now hate me.

Krenzo has finally updated the mainpage with the latest news: www.empiresmod.com

Short summary of what's in the post:
- Sorry for being late, but we felt like we could do a lot more for empires before releasing it, but now we really are close to a finished product
- New version will be called beta 2, or version 2.0
- Optimized:
* 50% less bandwidth
* much better looking
* practically bugfree
- New features, of which the new squad interface and commander voting are mentioned
- And as proof that it really has been optimized a lot: we've played with 46 players (not counting the spectators) without a problem.

ALso mentioned is this:
Thank you for your patience as we finish this version which is planned to be released before the year is over.

Now this is only a small part of all the changes, mentioned mainly because they have to do with optimization. More stuff has changed, like for example new features, new maps, new effects and insane balancing.

His post didn't seem that offensive to me.

Anyway, bug fixing has been going on for a while by now (which is not that strange considering Krenzo made an rts-fps hybrid with customizable vehicles, research, complete with a commanders view and squad system, on the source engine, an engine made almost purely for fps action). btw all those things have been GREATLY improved since Empires 1.071. In the beginning the most important changes for me were the fixed hitboxes, greatly reduced lag and greatly improved graphics. By now however the gameplay has improved so much (can't tell anything though) that i simply can't go back to Empires 1.071 anymore.
Some problems still remain, but as far as i can see most have been solved. Again some small, unimportant bugs will turn up in the many months after the release, but i'm slowly starting to believe that nearly all of the major problems will get found by the testers and fixed. I'm not gonna guess a releasedate anymore, apparantly after 10 years i still suck at that.

If i count all the changes in the many changelogs of all the testversions we've had, i count somewhere around 500. Note that the actual list will offcourse be MUCH smaller, since many things got added, changed a few times, and got removed ,therefor not even showing up in the final changelog. Still this should show you that a lot has happened and that only that which worked has made it to the most recent testversion. I'm not gonna tell you how close to release we are, because i simply don't know it anymore. I noticed that the empires testers are extremely good in what they're doing ... annoyingly good ... ;)

Good work btw! Even you Weedy ;-)

I think you're in the wrong place.
Empires only has the options 'find server' and ' start server' (or whatever it's called). It's a multiplayer game, so no 'start game' or 'load game' options.

y hello there fellow clanleader. First time i see you here i think.
Don't stay too long though! Nebajoth will be missing you already. You're the only one worthy enough for him to have a discussion with. :D

btw is the weather as bad in the netherlands as it is here in belgium? I can't wait for the winter to begin so it will finally stop raining and people can get outside to do stuff again! Yes, that's how bad it is :(

np (although it was about time :))

But don't forget you need to install every RC since RC7 in order to make it work.
I heard somewhere that the next rc will be a full install again (like RC7 was), but even if that rumor is true for now you'll have to download the last 12 :p
It took me 23 minutes last time to download them, that's longer than i had hoped for, but not too long for a game like empires, trust me.

You can consider yourself an empires tester now ;). So try not to complain about bugs and crashes, instead report them (there are stickies on the forum explaining what to do if you encounter a bug or if empires has crashed). The sooner krenzo has fixed the important bugs, the sooner 1.08 will get released!
Also try to keep everything as secret as possible!

btw, i recommend checking out this (temporary) site: Pgsist.org
Should you ever want to join (or start) a clan, you could particate. Only a few days ago the leaders decided to use a new type of gameplay: global domination. Most of us are excited to see how this will work out.

Ha, no way on earth would i say something like that if i had children :D
By the time i have children, god will have died from old age.

If someone had kidnapped my children and forced me to guess a releasedate, i'd say end of august as well.
But since i have nothing to do with the dev team or their plans it's just a wild stab in the dark.

I'm not allowed, you however ARE allowed to find and download it :)

You should visit the forums some more, post some usefull things. It would make your search a lot easier.

Test release RC18 has been made available to us for testing. Krenzo didn't lie, since almost everything in the change log is a fix for some kind of bug or crash.

I think the changelog, since 1.071, lists 430 changes already by now. Yes, 430 !

anyway i have to go, i've got to test the new release :-p
;-)

This is a quote from Krenzo (Empires lead coder), said when he released the last Empires 1.08 Release (RC17) for testing:

"" I'm just working on fixing bugs for the final release now (final release will be a full install last RC that is deemed worthy by everyone). ""
End quote

So i guess it depends on us (the community, forum members, testers). Once we say it's ready for a public release it will be released. Don't get your hopes up though, since we want to solve as many problems as possible.
Although nearly all bugs and crashed have been solved since 1.071, more then a year ago, there are still many to be fixed, and many, many, many features to be included in yet another release (probably a year from now). Aircraft for example will still be a while.

But don't worry, 1.08 is awesome, with huge improvements, updated maps (hdr, custom textures, better trees, ...) , new maps, new models, new features, new sounds, new death icons, new ... you get the point.

So is it close? Yes!
Close enough for me to guess a releasedate? Probably not.

And i need it to be released, because i can't continue working on my map without the 1.08 features !!

By the end of the game i always placed the biggest and heaviest weapon onto the smallest body. It looked awesome ;-)

IMO, it was the best game for several years though. I've played it on my playstation back then, and later i bought the pc version.

If you look at other rts games from that time ... Warzone was years ahead of them.

Well, look at the first subforum ;)
Works only when you're registered though.

But the release is closer then ever, at this point it's even possible to simply wait for it i guess. btw, the latest features are ... well truly awesome, and if only you could see the updated maps (textures, trees, ...).

Well, you'll be helping with testing just by playing it. When the server crashes because of something you did, Krenzo will be notified of the crash and he'll fix the problem. That's why there's no server install yet. The only server for 1.08 is his own server, to optimize testing.

And on friday evening there should be around 20 people playing on 1.08, especially when a pug is announced, in which case there'll be around 30 people playing for about 9 hours or so.

from the lastninja: I really want 1.08 right now
How is my chances???Slim and none?

Everyone can play it, even you. It's not publicly released (no advertising, no mirror links to the install file, ...), because it isn't ready for that YET, but everyone can however download it and play it. But don't complain about bugs then, instead notify the dev team that you've discovered a bug, which is after all the purpose of these few months of testing before the public release.

If you're smart enough, and you deserve it, you'll figure out where you can download it.

Well i can't prove it but normally arklansman should be right. I have more than CS: S, but from everything valve related i only use Source SDK Base. I'm 99 % sure that if shoul remove all but CS: S it would still work. The SDK Base remains the same.

But i believe you when you say the resolution doesn't work for you. But i think it's just bad luck and that empires itself has actually nothing to do with it.

And no, i can't explain why the other source games do work with that specific resolution you use. But i had problems (steam crashing) with only a few source games (DoD Source and a few mods), while the rest was fine. I'm no programmer so i can't explain it, and all i do is wait untill some update fixes it. As far a i know all my problems have been fixed by now. I hope it stays this way. * wishes *

Well i can't say anything about the coding part, but don't underestimate it. Krenzo is coding in all sort of effects for the planes that most games/mods lack. The models have to be created and textured and probably animated. Someone will have to create some awesome sounds to go with the different models from both factions. Some planes only maps will get made that are 256 times bigger than the max hammer sized map. (well, everything gets 16 times smaller in all directions, making the map seem 256 times bigger - 16x16)

Right now the dev's are spending time on finishing up 1.08, which won't introduce planes just yet. Some Brenodi models have to be finished, some bugs need to get fixed and balancing is needed.

He has been working on the code for planes though. But it will take a while. Better watch out for 1.08 first, and then worry about the next release ;-)

You don't need 1.071 to install 1.08.
And people who already have 1.071 installed can also install 1.08. It won't overwrite version 1.071, so you can choose which version you want to play.

I think it'll work

Remember to download the ' Source SDK Base '.
There's also the tool ' Source SDK ', which is used to make maps and mods, but it's the Source SDK Base that you'll need to play empires.