Age of Empires III Mods and Hacks

It has come to our attention that a popular UI mod enables users to zoom out further than the game usually allows. This gives the player with the mod an unfair advantage, and we consider this cheating when used in multiplayer games. If you are using a mod that has this functionality, do not make use of it in multiplayer games, or uninstall the mod.

We are also looking into other hacks at this time, and would like to remind players that we have a zero tolerance policy towards cheating and the use of hacks.

source: Age of Empires 3 Community

Age of Empires The Warchiefs

The other real-time strategy franchises have their fans around the office but, for me, the Age of Empires series is at the top of the RTS pyramid. It's not that I have anything against Command & Conquer or Warcraft; they're both awesome series. For my money though, nobody provides more pure RTS joy than the gang at Ensemble. And when it comes to great expansion packs, Ensemble really knows how to deliver.

Last week Ensemble announced the first expansion to their wildly popular real-time strategy game. Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs, due out this fall, will focus on three new Native American civilizations and add a brand new campaign. Loads of new gameplay elements will be added as well.

To find out more about the expansion, we decided to check in with the game's lead designer, Sandy Peterson.

IGNPC: We're pretty excited to hear about this new expansion. What's the basic premise of The WarChiefs ?

Sandy Peterson: Well, we are creating an expansion pack that will live up to the high standards we have at Ensemble Studios. The overall theme is the Native Americans, and the three new civs are all native, but there is new content for the old civs too.

IGNPC: Why did you decide to focus on Native Americans for this expansion? Some people have indicated that focusing on Native Americans has required a little sensitivity on your part. Can you elaborate?

Sandy Peterson: Early on we considered adding other civilizations but felt they wouldn't play as different as what we believe we can do with the Native Americans. We also felt there were good stories from the Native American point-of-view that we wanted to tell and hadn't seen in a previous game. In light of the sensitivity, Ensemble has always tried to portray the "underdogs." For instance, in Age 2 we presented the Crusades from Saladin's point of view. In effect we are now giving the native nations full control of history. So in some ways we're empowering them.



IGNPC: There will be three new civilizations included in the game but so far you've only announced the Iroquois Confederacy. What about them made them a good choice for the game? How do they play differently than the European powers?

Sandy Peterson: The Iroquois controlled a large confederation that sprawled over a wide area. They actually expanded their territory and became more powerful after contact with the Europeans, making major conquests among other tribes. They enthusiastically adopted European technology and their military is the most "European-like" of our three native nations. So they are an interesting combination of a fairly contemporary army (for the 1700s) backed up by a native economy and a strong tradition of mysticism.

The Iroquois really focused on their harvest, their domestic food plants, and their agricultural way of life and we've tried to reflect that in their in-game economy.

more: http://pc.ign.com/articles/696/696777p1.html