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Empire Earth UniversityDay 3:
The second game, however, was a different story. It was a Copper Age game, and we each started using a similar strategy of attempting to out-economy the other, while harassing with infantry. I managed to get a jump to the next epoch before Jordie, but I neglected to defend myself against the one thing that can destroy an entire economy faster then anything else: prophets. I found myself with a good portion of my citizens killed by the plague, and due to the this he seemed to be winning when the game went Out of Sync, and the mutual agreement was that he was the rightful winner. We then proceeded on to the third and final match: a Nano Age battle, which seemed to be my specialty against those who were unprepared. After getting up a quick tower to hold of an early attack, I once again went all-out on air power, and by the time he realized my tactics, it was already too late, as nuclear warhead after nuclear warhead fell on his town, creating some amazing fireworks. By the time all this was over and done with, it was time for a lunch at the studios, followed by a period of questions, suggestions, ideas, and feedback regarding the game. It was at this time that a scenario designer like me that I found myself lost with some of the suggestions that were being tossed around. Being the "casual" gamer that I am, the two whiteboards of info that quickly filled with feedback was more then my meager brain could handle. I am still in awe of how many of the EEU attendants can play the game a few times, and then be able to critique it with such insight and accuracy. All in all, this was one of the most enlightening times of the weekend, even if I did mainly sit back and attempt to drink it all in. While the feedback was being given, changes were made to the game database based on our opinions, and we were given the chance to test out the changes. It was during this gaming session that I experienced what was probably my most enjoyable game of the weekend: EENCs Gandalf and I had the opportunity to take on Crexis (one of SSSI's multiplayer testers) in a 2v1 Renaissance Age game. To my surprise, neither of us was rushed, which allowed both Gandalf and I to get a relatively sound economy up and running. Around the ten-minute mark we caught our first sight of Crexis as he attempted a small attack to break through our defenses, which managed to hold off the assault. Things were looking pretty good for us at this time, but it was then that we made a crucial mistake; we had the opportunity to expand, since it would have been nearly impossible for him to cover the entire map, but we instead chose to "stay at home" and continue to build up our defenses. After Crexis attacked again, we chose to attempt to flank his city, which did meet with some success before he managed to bring his army to bay and hold off the attack. Things were still looking up, as we successfully held off several more attacks while each of us managed to safely advance to the Imperial Age. However, we still neglected to expand, content to simply stay at home and let him come to us. Things continued in this way until around the hour mark, with him attacking, and us attempting to counter, before his superior economy finally managed to overcome us. He managed to establish a large forward base right outside our city, and bombarded us with his siege weapons backed up by scores and scores of Dragoons and Cuirassiers (a mounted gunpowder unit). Upon checking the game summary screen (which is amazingly in-depth, recording such stats as total mouse clicks, and a number of graphs of population, citizens, and military units), we discovered that Crexis' total economy was over twice as large as that of Gandalf's and mine combined, which would explain his victory. After this game, being the scenario designer that I am, I felt a strange urge to spend some time in the editor. After managing to monopolize one of the lab's computer, I proceeded to spend a couple hours working on a cinematic scene... I had no idea of what I wanted to happen, so I pretty much allowed myself to let loose and included whatever I thought would look good, and I was fairly pleased with the results. Here is a description of the cinematic: As the scenario begins, the interface switches to cinematic mode, and the camera slowly scrolls across the lush jungle scenery. After some time, the camera comes across a plane that is taking off, and the angle is centered behind the bomber. The player is treated to a bird's-eye show of day changing to dusk and a light snow falling, before the plane finally crosses the peak a mountain, where it comes across a large-scale battle of mechs. The lasers and missiles are falling fast and furious as the bomber is shot down, resulting in a huge explosion as parts of planes and destroyed mechs fly through the air. The camera whizzes around the battle, giving the player some up-close and personal views of the combat before one side is finally victorious, and the cinematic sequence ends. A couple of screenshots from this scenario can be found on the EEU Exclusive Screenshot page. After taking the subway back to the studios and completing our final exam (OK, it was a simple survey), we settled back into the lab for what was sure to be a long night of more gaming goodness. I won't even attempt to guess at how many times I lost horribly, but it was likely in the double-digits. During this time, me and Gandalf had a small rivalry going... we played each other in a series of games, and though most of them were close, I would have to say that he was the overall winner. Another highlight was a 2v2 game, featuring Gandalf and I vs. Kleitus and Nanogirl. I was confident that we had no chance in hell of winning, but I was pleasantly surprised when Gandalf and I came upon some good tactics and may have even appeared to be in lead when the game began to go Out of Sync. However, with players like Nanogirl and Kleitus, you never can tell... Sometime during the night, I received a call from Angel Chooch, and we arranged for me, Chooch, his girlfriend Icefyre, and Angel Zen to all meet up the next morning. After I was finished on the phone, I decided to take a break from getting my buttocks kicked and spend some time on the AoKH and EEH forums. It was around that time that we got permission from Rick to take some exclusive screenshots for distribution on our respective sites. Needless to say, that made some of us pretty excited, and we were all scrambling in an attempt to see who could outdo the others and present the best "EEU Exclusive" screenshots to the world. My efforts can be found on the EEU Exclusive Screenshot page. Eventually, sometime after 2:00AM, we pulled ourselves away from the computers and dragged our weary bodies back to the hotel for a much-needed sleep... and so ended EEU. Well, and so EEU ended officially. My flight did not leave until 4:30 the next day, so there was still some time left to spend in Boston... |
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