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Age of Empires Online: No problem Elephants can't solve

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    SurikoSuriko AustraliaRegistered User regular
    Decided to hold my nose and brave through G4WL to try this. Turns out the festering pile of shit couldn't manage to not fuck it up even for one game.

    1. Downloaded the game. Simple enough.
    2. Installing the installer just installs the patching program, and the game downloads through that. Well, okay, silly it wasn't just in the original installer, but whatever.
    3. Everything's downloaded and I can now play, cool. Click the Play button and arrive at the game main menu with the G4WL launcher.
    3. Put in my name and password and log in... except it asks for a product key. For a free game. Okay...
    4. Poke around online and find a solution - exiting the game, going to the Games for Windows Live Marketplace application, log in there, and get the key from the Downloads section of that. Sigh.
    5. Open the marketplaceapplication and log in. Except I can't log in - it throws up an error saying "there is an error with your account that must be resolved before you can log in". Why yes Microsoft that is perfectly descriptive of what the actual problem is!
    6. Google again for the number the error gave. Find out it's because you need to agree to the terms of service which have been updated. Why could it just show me the ToS there? Whatever. So this person (who asked on an MS support site but didn't have an MS rep actually respond, so he needed to work this out himself) gives a link to how to do this. Which is good, because googling found absolutely nowhere to actually log in to G4WL to agree to the new terms.
    7. The link goes to... wait for it... the Xbox Live site! How obvious! I sigh and log in there.
    8. And log in a second time on another login screen. Don't know why, I guess MS felt the need to kick me in the balls again.
    9. Finally, the terms of service. I click "Agree" and that's that.
    10. I go back to the marketplace application and log in. It works now, thankfully. I go to the Downloads tab to find the Age of Empires Online entry that should be there are... it's not there. Where is it. Oh my god, it's not there, and Microsoft said it would be. Oh god, was this all for nothing?
    11. Decide to fuck it and try the game again. Load up the game, get to the G4WL launcher and log in. And... it downloads my profile. What? Where's the key requirement? You asked for a fucking key before, that's why I spend so much time finding one!
    12. It downloads my profile and lets me play. No sign of the key requirement ever again. It looks like it was asking for a key because G4WL wouldn't let me log in because of the ToS, but instead of giving me an error or asking for an agreement, it just asked for a key instead.

    I swear to fucking God, Microsoft are fucking trolling PC gamers. Nobody can intentionally make an online platform this bad and think it's actually good.

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    HardtargetHardtarget There Are Four Lights VancouverRegistered User regular
    my experience installing the game:
    downloaded installer
    ran installer
    installer then downloaded game
    ran game
    auto-signed into GFWL
    started playing

    Once the game was downloaded and i hit play it took me roughly.... 15? seconds to get into the game for the first time.

    now obviously Suriko's situation sucks but I have never had a problem with GFWL in all the years it has existed so I don't know what to tell you. Just make sure you keep your GFWL client updated through microsoft update and you'll never have an issue. (ie in win 7 turn on updates for MS programs other than just windows)

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    AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Wait, what? Did you just claim you've had no problems with Games for Windows Live ever? Bwah? That's not my experience and how others have received it (albeit, I haven't used it recently but was thinking of trying this out). There are still games, like Dawn of War 2, I cannot PLAY anymore because of fucking Games for Windows Live (One day I might be able to play Dawn of War 2 again, one day).

    Aegeri on
    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
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    HardtargetHardtarget There Are Four Lights VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    I've had a Xbox account for 6 years so when GFWL first came out it was extremely easy for me to plug in the details and sign in. I always kept on top of updating the client and eventually it was integrated into Microsoft update so as long as you tell windows to check for updates to all MS products it'll handle everything for you.

    I've literally never had a single problem with GFWL and I have many. many. titles that use it. Aside from kicking me off the xbox if I'm watching netflix (so dumb) i don't mind GFWL at all since I can talk to friend who are on their 360 or i can get a few extra achievements from a PC game or what have you. (I still obviously prefer steamworks)

    edit - Just cause I was curious I made a little list of games I own that use GFWL for my own infomation:
    FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
    Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition
    Colin McRae: Dirt 2
    DiRT 3
    Microsoft Tinker
    Red Faction: Guerrilla
    Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
    Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising
    BioShock 2
    Lost Planet 2
    Bulletstorm
    Section 8: Prejudice
    Age of Empires Online

    I've literally never had a problem with any of them. I've noticed that most people tend to have problems because MS will release a update but because people use the client so irregularly they'll install a new game a year later that uses the new client but on their system they still have the old client. somehow the client doesn't get upgraded properly and them boom, total cluster fuck. There are ways to fix this but it sounds like ti takes forever and is a big hassle, because if these horror stories i basically just try to make sure I'm always running the latest stuff.

    Hardtarget on
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    kedinikkedinik Captain of Industry Registered User regular
    Suriko wrote:
    Decided to hold my nose and brave through G4WL to try this. Turns out the festering pile of shit couldn't manage to not fuck it up even for one game.

    1. Downloaded the game. Simple enough.
    2. Installing the installer just installs the patching program, and the game downloads through that. Well, okay, silly it wasn't just in the original installer, but whatever.
    3. Everything's downloaded and I can now play, cool. Click the Play button and arrive at the game main menu with the G4WL launcher.
    3. Put in my name and password and log in... except it asks for a product key. For a free game. Okay...
    4. Poke around online and find a solution - exiting the game, going to the Games for Windows Live Marketplace application, log in there, and get the key from the Downloads section of that. Sigh.
    5. Open the marketplaceapplication and log in. Except I can't log in - it throws up an error saying "there is an error with your account that must be resolved before you can log in". Why yes Microsoft that is perfectly descriptive of what the actual problem is!
    6. Google again for the number the error gave. Find out it's because you need to agree to the terms of service which have been updated. Why could it just show me the ToS there? Whatever. So this person (who asked on an MS support site but didn't have an MS rep actually respond, so he needed to work this out himself) gives a link to how to do this. Which is good, because googling found absolutely nowhere to actually log in to G4WL to agree to the new terms.
    7. The link goes to... wait for it... the Xbox Live site! How obvious! I sigh and log in there.
    8. And log in a second time on another login screen. Don't know why, I guess MS felt the need to kick me in the balls again.
    9. Finally, the terms of service. I click "Agree" and that's that.
    10. I go back to the marketplace application and log in. It works now, thankfully. I go to the Downloads tab to find the Age of Empires Online entry that should be there are... it's not there. Where is it. Oh my god, it's not there, and Microsoft said it would be. Oh god, was this all for nothing?
    11. Decide to fuck it and try the game again. Load up the game, get to the G4WL launcher and log in. And... it downloads my profile. What? Where's the key requirement? You asked for a fucking key before, that's why I spend so much time finding one!
    12. It downloads my profile and lets me play. No sign of the key requirement ever again. It looks like it was asking for a key because G4WL wouldn't let me log in because of the ToS, but instead of giving me an error or asking for an agreement, it just asked for a key instead.

    I swear to fucking God, Microsoft are fucking trolling PC gamers. Nobody can intentionally make an online platform this bad and think it's actually good.

    I went through most of the same things. Was weird.

    I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
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    -SPI--SPI- Osaka, JapanRegistered User regular
    GFWL is the most bizzarely broken thing. Even at it's best it still feels like it's half working. I still need to open some ports or something it seems.

    Anyway, did some co-op, it's oddly janky. Not sure if it was because we were different civs or whatever but when one of us completed the quest it wouldn't show that to the other player or have any indication it was done or even that the other person had left. You just sit there wondering what happened and why the other guy's stuff isn't moving then leave through the map. Not a huge deal, it doesn't really impact things to a great degree but such a confusing and odd design.

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    AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    I just logged in to GFWL for the first time with the same account information I've used for MSN Messenger for the past decade. I'm surprised they still had my info on file, but whatevs.

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    tofutofu Registered User regular
    Played some of this, I forgot how much I liked playing Age of Empires. I was thinking about buying a civ but I might just install AOE2 or Rise of Nations instead

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    JediNightJediNight Registered User regular
    I don't own an Xbox so I never had a Live account before. Signed up for it and aside from having a hard time finding a non-taken Gamertag, it surprisingly went off without a hitch. Just lamented that MS was only able to provide a 9mbps DL nowhere near my cap lol =\

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    DemiurgeDemiurge Registered User regular
    Hmph, when I try to login it seems to think my handle is player1 and that I need a product key. Anyone else had this?

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    SurikoSuriko AustraliaRegistered User regular
    Demiurge wrote:
    Hmph, when I try to login it seems to think my handle is player1 and that I need a product key. Anyone else had this?

    Try logging into your Live account through the Marketplace application (Start > All Programs > Games > Games for Windows - LIVE) and see if it works. It seems like the default reaction G4WL has to problems with an account is to spit out a request for a key, as nonsensical as that is.

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    Renegade WolfRenegade Wolf Registered User regular
    Tried out both civs now to level 4. Really tempted to grab one of the premium packs, just can't decide which

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    DemiurgeDemiurge Registered User regular
    Greece is geneticly superior.

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    DemiurgeDemiurge Registered User regular
    Okay I logged into xbox live and did the service agreement thing. Now the game insists my account name and password are invalid. Even though it works fine for the marketplace.

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    JediNightJediNight Registered User regular
    Anyone whose been wondering how the crafting works, I've figured out a bit of it for the uninformed:

    Recipes, new advisors, blueprints, etc. can be found in each of the other cities you can travel to. Some of them are bought with gold, others require faction points with that city. So like I found Leather, Olive Oil, etc. in another city which allowed me to produce those instead of the Tier1 resources. (Takes 30mins per instead of 15mins as well...)

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    taliosfalcontaliosfalcon Registered User regular
    well, just unlocked the arena and that pretty much decided it, no way am I dropping 20$ for a civ when they only have 1v1 and 2v2 gametypes =/really ms? Really?

    steam xbox - adeptpenguin
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    EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    I picked Construction and Engineering for crafting.

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    AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    Just dropped by Blade's town to pick up the ambassador quest and ... 10k EXP holy fuck. I'll first try to unlock the next age and get some proper siege stuff in. (because tearing down towers with melee and slingers is fucking ridiculous)

    Also: the running animation of slingers is hilarious. :D

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    SirmalekSirmalek Registered User new member
    Got premium greek. anyone that wants to coop can add me my handle is Sirmalekk because i couldnt remember my old password for my original account and dont really care either since I dont have a working xbox anymore anyhow.

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    -SPI--SPI- Osaka, JapanRegistered User regular
    Aldo wrote:
    Just dropped by Blade's town to pick up the ambassador quest and ... 10k EXP holy fuck. I'll first try to unlock the next age and get some proper siege stuff in. (because tearing down towers with melee and slingers is fucking ridiculous)

    Also: the running animation of slingers is hilarious. :D
    Slingers are funny, but the best is siege towers, it will never stop being hilarious watching them hump buildings to death. And you get a bunch rampaging in an enemy base and it's just this gang-bang of destruction.

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    piLpiL Registered User regular
    This game is set in the past of Team Fortress 2.

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    AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Echo wrote:
    I picked Construction and Engineering for crafting.
    I'm going Infantry and Cavalry.


    *e: make that just cavalry for the time being.

    Aldo on
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    Beren39Beren39 Registered User regular
    -SPI- wrote:
    GFWL is the most bizzarely broken thing. Even at it's best it still feels like it's half working. I still need to open some ports or something it seems.

    Anyway, did some co-op, it's oddly janky. Not sure if it was because we were different civs or whatever but when one of us completed the quest it wouldn't show that to the other player or have any indication it was done or even that the other person had left. You just sit there wondering what happened and why the other guy's stuff isn't moving then leave through the map. Not a huge deal, it doesn't really impact things to a great degree but such a confusing and odd design.

    You can see the objectives if you're both completing the quest together, if you do not currently have the quest then you can't see it which is a stupid design decision. Also you can tell the other person has exited when their "perspective" square on the minimap is no longer there. It is all a big misleading though.

    Go, Go, EXCALIBUR! - Trent Varsity Swim Team 2009, better watch out for me Phelps!
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    finnithfinnith ... TorontoRegistered User regular
    So I just joined Marathon and the Penny Arcade chat channel. My gamertag is epithem1us.

    Bnet: CavilatRest#1874
    Steam: CavilatRest
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    JediNightJediNight Registered User regular
    Just got Final Farm Down yay~ 9 secs to spare... (Greece)

    It's worth doing because it rewards a really nice epic worker tools for L10. All you really need to do is use a berry or cow consumable immediately and make sure you do one wood speed upgrade. If you have to wait on food to continue producing villagers then you probably lost.

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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    I've been messing around with this after watching the GB Quicklook. It's interesting and I would never have thought of literally marrying AoE with WoW so directly. I've also never noticed any kind of lag despite my often shaky internet connection.

    Oh and GFWL hasn't given me any issues even though I'd love to report that it's a piece of shit. In my mind it's been upgraded to pointless from pointless and potentially a buggy pain in the rear. But I just don't know if I can be convinced to spend real money on MS Fun Bucks so that I can seemly overpay for one faction. $100 for the whole thing is right out. I'd bet they'd bring in a lot of money with a 50% discount.

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    (Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
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    The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    So, as stupid as it probably is, I'm hesitating to try this because if I don't like it I really hate having unfinished games on my Achievements list on Live and I had really hoped that it didn't have Live achievements.

    I guess, having not played it, but having watched the QL on Giantbomb, I'm not seeing a ton of reason to pay out the nose for the content instead of just playing AoE 3.

    The Dude With Herpes on
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    Renegade WolfRenegade Wolf Registered User regular
    Anyone know why the game won't launch after pressing play in the launcher?
    A friend has that problem with it and we can't fix it. His GFWL marketplace won't launch either.

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    JediNightJediNight Registered User regular
    Wait a while. The launcher usually says "The game has launched." But it doesn't seem like it. Just wait a min or two.

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    MasumeMasume Creator Caprica, FloridaRegistered User regular
    Just tried this out last night, pretty fun. Of course, it's just prettied up AoE2 but it works. Need to try out co-op with someone though!

    3DS Code - 5370-0463-9307
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    XBox ID - therealmasume
    PS4 ID - realmasume
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    ObiFettObiFett Use the Force As You WishRegistered User regular
    Played for 30 minutes until I got to the quest that gave me rewards I couldn't use because I hadn't paid 20 bucks.

    Worst kind of F2P.

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    JediNightJediNight Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    ObiFett wrote:
    Played for 30 minutes until I got to the quest that gave me rewards I couldn't use because I hadn't paid 20 bucks.

    Worst kind of F2P.

    Game that would have been $50-60 was instead free and had some minor drawbacks that could be solved by paying a mere $20. Worst game evar...

    Go play Eden Eternal if you want the worst kind of F2P. Or you should read about some of the China-only item shop MMOs, they make our pay2play look like peanuts. Talking $2-3k/yr to maintain top status in equipment.

    JediNight on
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    Renegade WolfRenegade Wolf Registered User regular
    JediNight wrote:
    Wait a while. The launcher usually says "The game has launched." But it doesn't seem like it. Just wait a min or two.

    That's what I initially thought it was as well. Except he waited something like 10 minutes and still nothing.

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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    Yeah, it seems to me that AOEO has a model closer to a combination of an old sharware game combined with the always online based DRM of Diablo III than to a normal F2P money shop game.

    I just don't know if their pricing is exactly right. Mabye $20 would be easier to spend if I could try out all the factions. Then I'd pretty much know which one was most fun for me to play and the $20 would easier to see as a one time fee. Slowly rolling out new factions makes me worry that I'd have buyer's remorse.

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    ObiFettObiFett Use the Force As You WishRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    JediNight wrote:
    ObiFett wrote:
    Played for 30 minutes until I got to the quest that gave me rewards I couldn't use because I hadn't paid 20 bucks.

    Worst kind of F2P.

    Game that would have been $50-60 was instead free and had some minor drawbacks that could be solved by paying a mere $20. Worst game evar...

    Uh. Nope.

    The last Age of Empires game had 8 civs. To get 8 civs in this game I would need to spend $160. And the older Age of Empires games also had a story, and multiplayer, and a home city. So I'm not sure what this game adds that is worth the extra $100 dollars. A loot system for my troops/buildings? That ain't worth it.

    I didn't say it was the "worst game evar"... Its just the worst kind of F2P model. Locking stuff that increases power behind pay gates is bad. And doing it that early is only worse.

    ObiFett on
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    _Debaser__Debaser_ Registered User regular
    Have you actually played the game, Nomadic? Because the core AoE experience is in there, albeit muddled due to the whole loot system/persistent leveling.

    Also, I've joined the game. Anyone look for me should check for DebaserZbs in Marathon.

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    AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    I wouldn't mind a proper AoE4, but uhh, this game isn't bad. If you think this is worst thing ever or a desecration of the previous games you're kinda out of luck. This shit is too expensive for me as well at the moment, but - so far - that's my biggest complaint. Give this game a few months for them to implement more features and iron out their cash shop and I think this will blow everything else in the mmorts genre out of the water. Yes, that includes F2P games.

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    SirsonSirson Registered User regular
    Seems pretty fun so far, still kinda buggy and new. You can have a lot of fun with this if you don't take it too seriously, this isn't the next e sport RTS. The pricing does seem pretty out of whack, 40 bucks essentially for both the civilizations and the first booster.

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