An Introduction to AoC multiplayer

[IvIaximus]

Hey!
So I was thinking about new players and the fact that it might be difficult for them to get into AoC multiplayer due to many different patches, versions, expensions and a lot of other stuff which makes up for real mess. So I made a quick little guide to explain most basic stuff. The guide is still WIP so there will be updated versions in future. If u have something important in mind let me know and I will add it. There may as well be some grammar mistakes... ops:
I could not post it in "Articles and Guides section" cuz I am not admin I think..so it is in Wololo :D

http://www.freeuploadsite.com/do.php?id=75319

 

[_InDuS_TauruS_]

Are you alright?

 

[smiggly]

In my opinion you should retitle this as a guide to competitive AOC, and probably even remove the section on GameRanger. If your guide is for someone to be competitive as fast as possible, I'm not sure even the biggest HD fanboy could argue that you should not start on Voobly.

If you're just wanting a guide for anyone who wants to get into multiplayer, you should add the other 'networks' (Steam, LAN or with Hamachi, and there are some Chinese ones as I understand, etc). Maybe I don't understand the audience for this, but if this is for new players (non-competitive included), Steam should absolutely be included. If this is for friends wanting to play, or setup a lan party with old friends, etc then userpatch's improved networking should be included.

I have nothing against Voobly, etc, but if someone is getting into the game today, they most likely came from Steam, telling them they were wrong buying it through Steam (many spending $20-$30 on the game) isn't really going to make people happy in my opinion. Many of the 'game breaking' bugs that you may have seen in Steam are not an issue to new players (who play slow enough the issues don't affect them), or have been fixed. If they become competitive they will almost certainly move over to Voobly. You don't have to go into much detail on the other networks, you can always focus on the networks you prefer (as a competitive player?) however ignoring it as a starting point for new players is a bad decision in my opinion. Both Steam and GameRanger are great, fun places to play casually, but not going to help you much for competitive play.

There's a lot of grammar, and capitalization mistakes, if you do make a final version you'd want to have a native English speaker run through it quickly. If noone else will, I'd be glad to do this for you, however I cannot promise everything would be perfect
Ex:
Age of empires II The Conquerors (from now on AoC) expansion is RTS game created by Ensemble studios.
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors (AoC) expansion is a real time strategy (RTS) game created by Ensemble Studios.

 

[IvIaximus]

I excluded Steam because I have no experience with it and I think HD game is bugged and disgrace to Age franchise. It did more damage than good but that is my subjective POV. If there is demand I could include Steam as well. Or you may include it yourself and reupload file. Cooperation is welcome.
If you want you can correct my grammar as well. I will be glad actually.

 

[smiggly]

Then rename it to a guide to competitive play, and if you wish, you can detail why Steam, Gameranger etc are not good for competitive play. You probably just need 1-2 sentences to explain this, (lack of rankings, etc) and instead focus on what you know, Voobly, with competitive play, explain some of the unique features with 100% focus on Voobly, and I think this could be a useful guide.

As it is right now, I'm really not sure who you want to read this. You'd have to decide on your target audience. If I wrote it as a guide to competitive play, I'd see the audience as those that either have never played online before, or maybe coming over from one of the other networks. I'm not sure how best to write it for both audiences, unless you had a beginners section that those moving from other networks could skip, and a section for those that are coming over (if your a 'good' player on another client you may need time to adjust to the competitiveness/increased skill level of Voobly, etc - I think both Gameranger and Steam would be similar in this regard (Steam elo being mostly useless in judging true skill level, and gameranger without any kind of ranking at all)

 

Might comment more later, but just had some time to skim.

I wouldn't include GR at all. I DL'd it last year again after a friend wanted to play there and it's literally 90% 1.0/2.0 games; hadn't played there in awhile, but it's a wasteland. There is also the point that the admin there doesn't want to support AoC at all, but that's going off-topic.

I have nothing against Voobly, etc, but if someone is getting into the game today, they most likely came from Steam, telling them they were wrong buying it through Steam (many spending $20-$30 on the game) isn't really going to make people happy in my opinion

? Why be sad at all when you can still use AoEHD to play on voobly if you choose to.

If someone is new to AoC, they will probably try out both NPL/Steam and maybe just play on both clients. I don't really understand the need to put this as a "competitive guide"; hardly makes sense :/ . He referenced NPL, which isn't so far off of Steam's level of players. Max only mentions MS lobby for the general purpose of the guide. In the same way not all new players will want to play competitively, eventually some might want to try, and so it's important to include some info on it.

This is clearly just a very rough draft so it will need a few revisions, but always good when someone tries to create something to help out the community. Thanks for the effort

One thing in the guide you mention a lot is "i don't have experience with ___" . I'd start by finding out some more info about things you lack knowledge in, as this will broaden your/the reader's perspective, while also giving your guide a bit more depth . (Ex. CS lobby/Steam)

 

[smiggly]

I guess I just think starting a guide that's title seems to indicate it's teaching you how to play multiplayer by ignoring (his words) one of the largest sources of new players seems very odd. In my opinion, Voobly is the way to step up your online game and get better, but if you want to play casually Steam is by far the easiest to just get it and play a game. In my opinion, focusing on Voobly's positive aspects is a much better way to convince people to move over than attacking the way they currently play. I personally would be pretty upset if I bought the game on Steam, looked for how to play on multiplayer, saw this telling me it was a waste, that I should go use my original disc version instead. If I imagine myself as learning about the game through Steam, overall enjoying it, and wanting to get a little more into the game, reading this document and seeing things like '...no official support for the game...', '..bugged since the beggining but it got worse over time...', '...I will act as like AoE II HD and other fanmade content did not exist..'. I would stop reading, but maybe that's just me. If I play on steam, I know how to play multiplayer, so why would I read an introduction to multiplayer? I do believe Steam players moving to Voobly would benefit from a document like this. Or if Gameranger is really dying (I wouldn't know, it still looked fairly active last time I played), they may likely move to Voobly? Maybe just title it Introduction to Multiplayer on Voobly?

As it is now, it's reads as a guide to get in with the competitive community, and there is nothing indicating how to play casually, or even that this is okay to play casually long term (tons of people have a lot of fun playing multiplayer this way). Many times it mentions pro players and the competitive community. Even the short paragraph about Gameranger, it mentions rankings multiple times and doesn't even mention how to setup, which is my opinion is what I would expect to see in a document about how to play multiplayer. So from reading through it, I have to assume competitive players is the target audience. This is what voobly caters to, but if you're trying to attract casual players, you need to be welcoming to them as well. If I read this as someone who wants to just play for fun 1-2 times a week, I have no idea what I should do/expect (stay in NPL forever? do you move to MS as a 'noob'). It reads like a guide for someone who wants to be competitive. I guess I just don't understand who is expected to read this...

As mentioned before if this is a guide to multiplayer, and not only for competitive players, it should include Steam, Gameranger, etc. I would suggest including a section on LAN play with userpatch (or forwarding ports, etc? honestly not too familiar with this). It doesn't have to be much, but there are some very important differences.

 

[Tarzan]

Please, do it in LaTeX. WYSIWYG just plain sucks .

 

[MitchConnor]

I excluded Steam because I have no experience with it and I think HD game is bugged and disgrace to Age franchise

sorry just had to quote this

 

[Cataleyo]

Link is dead. Can someone reupload?

 

[neo4884]

Hello AoC champs!

I used to play this wonderful game more than 12-13 years back! Have been following some top games for the past 3-4 years on YouTube through Zero Empires, TheViper and more recently t90Official. Thanks to all who help promote the game

I am planning to start playing again. Can someone advise on where I can purchase/download AoC from? I can only find the HD edition on the steam site but not sure if it is the same as the original?! I am also unable to find the game in any store in my country and the Microsoft site seems to say that it is discontinued (Is it?). I intend to start playing on voobly on a win10 machine. Can someone post a recent link to buy the game that would work?

Much appreciated!

 

[nimanoe]

There's two ways to play on Voobly, one is with the original disc if you still have it (you can probably find it on amazon or illegally on some sites as well) and the other is with the HD edition on steam. If you follow this guide you can play with the HD edition on Voobly. One of the benefits of that is that you'll be able to play with the newer civilizitions that have been added the past few years as well.