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Age of Empires III

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I can't wait to get it.

In the meantime, interesting things on https://ageofempires3.com. AOE3 will use Havok physics engine, the same middleware component that powers Half-Life 2 (there is a link mentioning Havoc in this page, however, the link points to a "in construction" page). But in the introduction video you can see some real physics effects: soldiers that are thrown away by a cannon's fire, etc.

Also, a funny bug mentioned in the AOE3 developer's blog:

The AI and Walls (Cue Laugh track): Programmer Jeff Ruediger is leading the artificial intelligence (AI) team for Age 3 and recently reported the fix of a humorous bug. His group had recently given the AI the ability to build Walls, but hadn’t thought the new capability out completely because the AI was walling itself in with no gates. It could build a big army but was trapped inside its own walls. Artist Brett Briley found the problem while testing and Jeff reports it now fixed, although he pointed out the AI was not pleased to hear it now costs resources to insert Gates.

This bug is a good example of the stuff that happens when programming games. Decisions are made in hallway meetings, or changes in one part of the game require changes elsewhere, and new programming/art/design is called for with minimal documentation, tracking, etc. It happens very fast, but that often means some obvious things fall through the cracks. We rely on extensive testing to find those oversights and almost always it does.

P.S. Wait a minute - the AOE3 blog doesn't have a RSS feed. How uncool is that? :-)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 19, 2005
    Man thats ultra craziness .. this is about the only computer game I will play .. the rest are too flashy for me. But, geez, I absolutely cannot wait ..
  • Anonymous
    September 19, 2005
    The graphics are tremendous, but the playability seems awkward so far. I wish you could zoom out farther. Hopefully I'll get used to it like going from Age of Empires to Age of Kings. :-(
  • Anonymous
    September 20, 2005
    s/havoc/havok
  • Anonymous
    October 01, 2005
    So now we all can see how good havok work in the game
  • Anonymous
    October 01, 2005
    First time in a strategy game that this good engine give you this realty