Poll. Future of the AGE engine.

[Nikel]

A new engine is used to create games by Ageod core team, PhilThib and Pocus. But is AGE engine still alive and kicking or dead for good? Will they release more games with it, or only a third party developer? We do not know.

[wosung]

Hard to tell, when there is not a single new engine based game to compare with. How much "better" will the new Archon engine work with Ageod games? By "better" I mean performance, adaptivness and accessibility. And I suspect, it will be. Otherwise they would not change the engine.

If the new engine rocks, I'd rather love to see more games using exclusively the Archon engine than a two engine situation. And I wouldn't want the Ageod core team to invest any more time on the old engine.

Maybe third party (a.k. none core) developers still want to use the old engine for a time. If they do so, we might get a few more AGE-adaptions of our favoured neglected wars. Which would be better than not getting any Ageod representations of our favoured neglected wars at all.

It's up to Slitherixeod if and when they let third party developers work with the new Ageod-Archon engine. Mind you - an engine which is still in development. But arguably, we all will be better off if sometime in the future our favoured neglected wars are reperesented exclusively by the new engine.

Finally from a players POV, moving to the new engine is a delicate maneuvre: Will there be noticable or even distinct changes in the new games for the player? Or will it feel just like the AGE-games, just ... faster? What if the marketing guys are hyping the next AGEOD game as ultra-brand new-engine based, and it plays just like the AGE-ones? How much of a change is wanted, will be accepted?

[jack54]

I voted for 'a game the engine can handle' but don't really want it back to BOA style though. that lacked regional decisions. I really enjoy English Civil War , Thirty Years War by HQ and they play fine IMHO. RUS, CWII, AJE also seem ok to me when considering size and still having regional decisions.

I won't buy a Monster game (I didn't buy TEAW or WON) but a midsized game on a topic of interest... I'm in.

hint: Feudal Japan or China.

[Nikel]

Related with this, Leibst (HQ), creator of España 1936, Thirty Years War and English Civil War using AGE engine is developing his own engine. For PC, or just boardgame?


http://headquarter.es/wp/?page_id=56

[Quirk]

As much fun as I had with the old engine, I think it is really outdated. I am a single player and Athena is just not up to that challenge. Not saying that I am brilliant strategist, but when you know how the engine works, it can hardly beat you without "cheating" (eg. penalties for the human player) and often makes distraous decisions. I really, really hope for a better AI coming with the new engine!

[phoenix]

I hope the new engine is all about better AI and not about stupid eye candy 3d stuff. The most recent games have beautiful maps and nothing much more is needed.

[Pocus]

The new engine is definitively faster. Sometime, and you know that if you have been in the IT, you can't patch or upgrade anymore an old software. This is what is happening to AGE. It has aged...

I have redone the AI for the new engine, taking aspirations from the old Athena AI and improving things as I learned from that. Currently I would say the new AI is at least 6x time, perhaps 10x faster than the previous.

And there will be multi-choices decisions in the first game

[wosung]

I have redone the AI for the new engine, taking aspirations from the old Athena AI and improving things as I learned from that. Currently I would say the new AI is at least 6x time, perhaps 10x faster than the previous.

And there will be multi-choices decisions in the first game

This is great news. That means turn processing will be faster. A big plus when eventually your new games grow in size. For me, PON, WON, TEAW really suffer from slow turn resolution.

And new game features will add to the non-counter-pushing aspects of your games.

Godspeed

[marek1978]

The new engine is definitively faster. Sometime, and you know that if you have been in the IT, you can't patch or upgrade anymore an old software. This is what is happening to AGE. It has aged...

I have redone the AI for the new engine, taking aspirations from the old Athena AI and improving things as I learned from that. Currently I would say the new AI is at least 6x time, perhaps 10x faster than the previous.

And there will be multi-choices decisions in the first game

would you say that Archeon AI is going to perform better then Athena?

[Pocus]

The AI is different and done in a way which is more logical or understandable to me. I have great hope to improve it further than what could have been donne with Athena. We must find a nickname!

[marek1978]

The AI is different and done in a way which is more logical or understandable to me. I have great hope to improve it further than what could have been donne with Athena. We must find a nickname!

if you want to stick to A name it Attila

Unpredictible genius....

[ERISS]

The AI is different
Athena. We must find a nickname!

Éris/Discordia , or Ényo
Finding a 'positive' greek goddess of war as Athena is not easy.

[loki100]

Hard to tell, when there is not a single new engine based game to compare with.

...

AFAIK this is not quite true. The Archon game engine was (I think - may well be wrong) originally developed from the Battle Academy games and is used in Pike and Shot and Field of Glory2.

Now clearly those are all tactical/battle games with very different game design goals but it may give you some idea how it might work.

For what its worth, both Pike and Shot and Field of Glory 2 are great fun to play and the AI is fast - even if you choose a large battlefield.

[Random]

Was hugely disappointed in Pike and Shot Campaigns although I really wanted to like it. So, have avoided Fields of Glory II since my understanding is that they use the same engine.

While no doubt that the AGE II engine is past its prime I would immediately buy any future DLC for AJE or TYW/ECW, particularly the former but this appears to be a pipe dream. Do not own WON and found TEAW an unplayable, tedious, non-historic mess and a perfect example of a game engine that cannot represent the subject effectively. That said, for large theatres/small armies or asymmetrical situations the AGE II engine is difficult to beat at the strategic level.

-C

[wosung]

Hard to tell, when there is not a single new engine based game to compare with.

...

AFAIK this is not quite true. The Archon game engine was (I think - may well be wrong) originally developed from the Battle Academy games and is used in Pike and Shot and Field of Glory2.

Now clearly those are all tactical/battle games with very different game design goals but it may give you some idea how it might work.

For what its worth, both Pike and Shot and Field of Glory 2 are great fun to play and the AI is fast - even if you choose a large battlefield.

Well, engines are ... full of possibilities. I don't think we can easily draw conclusions from old games made with old engines.

This is what PipfromSlitherine wrote at the Matrix Forum about Steel Tigers, one of the new Gary Grigsby projects: "It is not the BA game engine, but a customised flavour of the much more advanced Archon engine. "
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.as ... age=2&key=

I think "customised flavour" are the key words here. It should be the same with the new Ageod game engine. So, 1. the new Ageod game probably will be much more Ageod than Field of Glory. Because Ageod is about area based simultanious turn based grand operational and strategic games not about tabletop games. Plus, 2. Customizing might be one of the reasons it takes so long to publish the next original Ageod game. Pocus is customizing Ageod flavour.

[evanofsaxony]

Was hugely disappointed in Pike and Shot Campaigns although I really wanted to like it. So, have avoided Fields of Glory II since my understanding is that they use the same engine.

While no doubt that the AGE II engine is past its prime I would immediately buy any future DLC for AJE or TYW/ECW, particularly the former but this appears to be a pipe dream. Do not own WON and found TEAW an unplayable, tedious, non-historic mess and a perfect example of a game engine that cannot represent the subject effectively. That said, for large theatres/small armies or asymmetrical situations the AGE II engine is difficult to beat at the strategic level.

-C

Why were you disappointed? I enjoy it quite a bit. Just curious.

[Random]

Why were you disappointed? I enjoy it quite a bit. Just curious.

This is really off topic and has nothing to do with the thread subject or the AGE engine but here goes.

No night, no weather, no sense of time, no leaders, leadership or reasonable command and control, smoke is cosmetic only, game sounds are lame as well as actually pretty awful and units move across the terrain rather like they were tanks. I find the game play boring and for the most part the battles are just tiresome and devoid of any excitement or replay value. That's for starters...

If you like it then enjoy it and have fun.

All that said, I purchased it with eyes open as there is a lot of info on the title out there so am not going to go off on some rant and would not think of demanding a refund or anything so draconian or unreasonable.

-C

[allan_boa]

Difficult question ... I voted for "Yes, but only if the game topic is small and can be handled properly by the engine, BOA style." because I'm always hoping that the engine will improve and it's true that PON is a bit a pain to play. But in reality, I love the feel of the game (AJE) and I would purchase any new AGEOD game anyway
But of course, I'd love an evolution, provided that the spirit is preserved (Hey , no Ucking real time !!!, turn based WEGO rules !)