Age of Empires 4

[EaglePrince 230]

Hey guys! Many of us have surely noticed Age of Empires 4 being released recently. Usually there would be less reason to talk about it here; however, it got my attention that walls in Age of Empires 4 are more useful than in any other Age of Empires game before considering that ranged units can be sent atop the walls. This way, those units on the wall should receive only 1/3 of the damage, if I'm not wrong. It's still far from any Stronghold game, though, but I thought it's something worth our attention.😁

Have any of you got the game? I still haven't, I plan to wait for a discount. Plus, I'm not sure how it is going to work with my Ryzen 3 CPU. Possibly, it won't work at all, but I would definitely give it a shot.

How are you guys doing?

[Crusader1307 298]

Hey Eagle,

Yeah, I kinda liked The Franchise back in The Day, more so for The different Units. I too heard something about (read it I think) about 4. Don't know if I'll get to it though. I am doing well for a ''Relic'' 😆. Hope you and yours are well. How's life as a ''Professor''? Hope your excelling at it with all the work you've put into it!

[EaglePrince 230]

It's similar for me. I used to think what a Stronghold game with different factions would look like - if those factions were made in a way more similar to Age of Empires, where one cannot use the best of each faction in a single game. Right now the game seems to be too much CPU demanding, so it is likely that I will have no choice but to wait until getting hands on a better CPU...

Well, unfortunately, not everything was going smoothly with health in my family.😟 My grandmother had got covid in October, but she is fine now and getting better. She needed to be hospitalized, she was in the hospital for almost two weeks. So happy she's back on track now, being able to do basing stuff on her own now...

The other thing is that my girlfriends father got diagnosed with cancer in July; we were struggling so hard to help him, the girlfriend was doing everything she could, but he passed away two weeks ago...

I don't know how things are going in other countries, but it is really harsh here in Serbia, and it is extremely important to stay healthy - and avoid getting covid. Not just for covid itself, but because when somebody has any serious health issue, before admitting him into hospital, first thing they do is doing the covid test. And they are positive, they don't want to mix him with patients who are negative on covid, and thus they don't receive the proper treatment. As if they are admitted into hospital, being put together with other covid patients, and with their condition being monitored by doctors who treat covid and not their primary illness. Similar thing happened to my girlfriends father, who caught covid in the hospital. Anyway, things can be different in other countries, especially in the West, but surely covid makes things harder everywhere in the world.

As for life as a Professor, I should soon become an Assistant Professor at my faculty. I should be signing the contract in the following weeks; fingers crossed! In the meantime, I've been mostly doing exercises with students and doing research, which are both very interesting to me. In the next semester, I should be able to give lectures on my own - to be "the professor".😊 But that's just some things that come after hard work and with "a little bit" of luck, but really, the most important thing is to stay healthy, especially these days with covid.

[Lord_Chris 251]

One of the reasons I like Stronghold Legends so much is because of the factionalism in the game actually. I wish there were more games like that as it puts a really nice spin on the game. It would be cool to have a "Game of Thrones" Stronghold version or something speaking of factions.... although it ended soooo long ago now there's almost no point. We need a new saga to binge now!

Speaking of that.... what about the idea of a "Stronghold Through Time". You could play through the different ages building up civilisations as you go. That would be pretty cool IMO.

Re Age of Empires... have you looked on CD Keys? I can see one for as cheap as £32 on there. They always have games way cheaper than Steam, I actually got my copy of Warlords from there the night it came out. I intended to pay the higher price via Steam to support Firefly, but when Steam's servers were crashing and not letting anyone buy Warlords, I got it way cheaper from there instead.

I still haven't had a chance to properly play it after 6+ months of the "computer saga" (which FINALLY thankfully seems to have come to an end) but I keep meaning to 😀

Sorry to hear about your grandmother but I'm pleased she's recovering now. I lost a family member to covid about a year ago and it's not nice. And condolences for the loss of your girlfriend's father too.

[EaglePrince 230]

I agree, Stronghold Legends is a good example how Firefly made a game with factions. They could have used Game of Thrones as inspiration, though like you said, that TV show has ended years ago, and not to mentioned how they messed up the last several seasons, especially the final one. That's why I have a feeling that Game of Thrones is going to be soon forgotten. I mean, I expect it to be remembered as a TV show everybody watched at some moment. But I don't think it's going to be a show people will ever come back to re-watch.

Exactly, Stronghold through time sounds interesting. They could make it start in the Early Middle Ages, and up until Renaissance - when strongholds still didn't differ much from those from Middle Ages.

Thanks for the suggestions! Yes, I remember you mentioning it before, but now you reminded me.🙂 And yes, same with me with Stronghold Warlords, I still didn't use the chance to fully enjoy the new game.😄

Thank you for your sympathy. Now, it's been a year since your loss, but condolences for your family member loss too.

[Nigel 71]

Hi guys, 
as this is as much an AOE4 thread as a "how are you doing" thread, let me join in here.

I also saw the AOE4 release and it is much covered on youtube and other media. There was even a lengthy discussion on it on the official FireFly discord 😀
As for myself, I still prefer Stronhold style games with more focus on beautiful castle building and not purely RTS gameplay. But that said, AOE4 certainly looks like a good game and I will probably get it at some point. Probably also at a sale like you, EaglePrince.

I am sorry to hear of the death of your girfriends father, EaglePrince. And also about your loss, Chris.
Best wishes, for your grandmother's recovery, Eagle. This crisis is really harsh. Some of my friends an a cousin of mine got severe cases and required hospitalization. Fortunately they are all better now. I myself and my closer family have been spared so far. We keep beeing super careful. Hopefully, when this winter is over, we will have overcome this crisis.

Glad to hear that your career in Academia is developing, Eagle. Teaching students and designing your own lectures must be a really interesting thing. I had the chance to teach some younger students during my own student days. I always had liked that. 🙂

Edited November 8, 2021 by Nigel

[EaglePrince 230]

  On 08/11/2021 at 17:53, Nigel said:

as this is as much an AOE4 thread as a "how are you doing" thread, let me join in here.

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You got it right.😄

Indeed, although it is interesting to finally see in a non-Stronghold game troops being able to climb the walls, it cannot beat any Stronghold game in which you can setup your defenses in so many ways; by doing so in Stronghold, you do not simply get that extra resistance for troops on the walls, but you plan yourself how to protect your troops better and, of course, how to cripple the enemy better.😄 So much different, and let's not even start about other things. I would still prefer to spend some free time with Warlords than with AoE4 - even if I had AoE4 right now.

Thank you Nigel!

And indeed, working with students is fun. Too bad I never used the chance to make my grammar school students form a Stronghold Crusader clan, that would have been interesting to see.😄