Age of Empires III

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Age of Empires III (AoE III) is the sequel to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and the third title of the history-based real-time strategy Age of Empires series of Computer and video games|computer games. The game is developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, and was officially released on October 18, 2005. The game is set between 1500 and 1850 AD, and will be set entirely in the New World, covering the European colonization of the Americas. The game will allow the user to play one of the following historical civilizations: the Spanish, British, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Germans, Ottomans, and Russians. Twelve different tribes of Native Americans are in the game as well. They are not playable factions; instead, players can ally with them to gain access to trade and unique units. Most have been confirmed: the Iroquois, the Cherokee, the Aztecs, the Lakota(Sioux), the Mayans, the Cree, the Nootka, the Seminole, the Carib, the Comanche, the Incas and the Tupi.

The game was announced by Ensemble Studios on January 4, 2005. A demo version was released on September 7, 2005 and the game went gold (entered mass production) on September 22, 2005.


Table of contents
1 Technical features
2 Game play
3 Demo
4 External links
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Technical features

Age of Empires III will build upon and introduce new features to the Age of Mythology Game engine|engine. One new feature is the inclusion of the Havok (software)|Havok physics simulation middleware engine, the physics package included in other recent popular games, including Half-Life 2 and Halo 2. This will mean that many events such as building destruction and tree falls will not be pre-created animations, but rather will be calculated according to the physics engine. Other graphical features of the game include high dynamic range lighting and support for Vertex and pixel shaders|pixel shader 3.0.

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Game play

Image:Age of Empires 3 - Screenshot 2.jpg|thumb|In-game screenshot from Ensemble Studios.AoE III is the first Age of Empires game to introduce gunpowder weapons on a large scale (there were gunpowder weapons in AoE II, but they appeared late in the game and were not widely used). Also, later in a game of AoE III, railroads appear. However, cavalry with melee weapons, samurai mercenaries, and other non-gunpowder units will appear in the game as well.

AoE III's combat will place greater emphasis on the use of formations than in previous Age of Empires games. Depending on the formation that a group of units is put in, they may gain bonuses to melee or ranged attack, or be less vulnerable to enemy fire.

One of the new features in AoE III is the home city system, which gives players a persistent character. Home cities provide both military and economic support to colonies, though they are separate from combat, and can be improved by earning experience points (XP). Players can spend XP on acquiring cards for their nation, and customizing the appearance of the home city. These can then be subsequently used to obtain special shipments during a game. These shipments may be units, special technologies, or resources. Up to 20 different cards may be used in one game; however, these must be preselected in groups custom-built decks.

There are five different Periodization|ages in the game, Age of Exploration and Discovery|Exploration, European colonization of the Americas|Colonial, Fortress, Industrial Age|Industrial, and Age of Imperialism|Imperial. While the first four ages are modeled much like they were in the previous three titles, the Imperial Age is a somewhat different concept. Age of Mythology: The Titans featured a Titan Age which allowed players to summon a powerful Titan unit, and AoE III's Imperial Age is similarly very expensive and difficult to reach, but features powerful technologies that could lend one player the advantage in an extended game. Borrowing from Age of Mythology, AoE III also has a toned-down "politicians" feature, which provides different units or resources upon advancing an age in the game.

AoE III incorporates a new trade route system, where players have to build and upgrade pre-existing Trading post|outposts in order to receive trade income. This differs from the previous system, where players could establish routes anywhere on the map. Trading posts begin with travois on a dirt path, upgrade to a stagecoach, and, by the end of the game, to a network of railroads.

Unlike the first two Age of Empires games, AoE III will have only three types of resources for players to gather—food, wood and coin, which replaces gold. Stone has been removed from the series. Also, drop-off points have been removed, so villagers will no longer need to carry the resources they gather to a building. The controversial auto-queue feature from Ensemble Studio's Age of Mythology: The Titans game, which allows training of units indefinitely, as long as resources are available, will not appear in AoE III.

AoE III will also feature a single-player campaign, as did all previous Age of Empires games. The campaign will follow the descendants of an immigrant named Morgan Black, and will be divided into 3 "acts." It is expected to provide about 16 hours of gameplay in 24 scenarios, however these numbers are subject to change. The campaign will feature a fictional family with a fictional story, but will include real world history events.

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Demo

The AoE III demo was released on September 7, 2005, quickly being criticized because it will only install on Windows XP. However, it has been discovered that if you install it on an XP computer, you can copy the installed folder over to a Windows 2000 computer and it will still work. Another method is running the installer executable with an /a flag.

The demo version contains two scenarios from the campaign, two random maps (New England & Texas), two playable civilizations (British & Spanish) and the ability to upgrade your homecity up to level 9. All ages, buildings and units are available. There are many modpacks available on fansites to change some aspects of the trial version.

An updated demo version was made available with the game's release on October 18, 2005.

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External links

Fansites:

This page is based on content taken from a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_III).
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