Halo Wars fansite : HaloWarsGuide.com launches
Its always great to see people putting lots of effort into fan sites and advice. A few days ago HaloWarsGuide.com launched and has a wealth of advice on Halo Wars maps, leaders and strategies! Every Halo Wars player should take a look. I applaud the creator who made the very nice Halo Wars wordpress design!
The site is also looking for contributors.. so if you think you know your stuff head over here and sign up!
Banned from ESO? Here’s what you should do…
I have been reading the AgeComm forums and have had some emails from the community site and this blog with regards to possible “unjust” banning from the ESO service. Whilst I understand people feel strongly that they are innocent my understanding is that the tools used to collect data about ESO accounts are the same tools used by Ensemble since ESO’s introduction. With a 4 year record the ESO system is probably robust and correct in its reporting. However, if you have been banned and want to appeal heres some top tips…
- Ask yourself “why have I been banned”? Before asking Robot try asking yourself this question – have you noticed any unusual activity have you given out any login details? If you havnt cheated it doesnt mean someone else hasnt compromised your account and cheated under your ESO ID.
- Next stop- check your emails. You should receive an email from Age3support advising you that you have been banned, the reason why and the type of ban (temporary, permanent). Study the email carefully and make sure that you didnt do what the stats reported. Remember, Robot only ban on cumulative reports of cheating. You must understand that the results are probably correct and that there is a good possibility your account may have been compromised.
- Email back. Be sure to include your name, email, CD key and PID key (found in the “About” screen in game). Robot will investigate your query and will get back to you with more details. Remember to be polite and write in plain English.. I would advise against txt tlk. Robot should be able to clear up any reason why you have been banned and if there has been a mistake, will get you back online.
- Still un-happy? – Post in the forums. The Age Community is a great place to ask for help and members may be able to help find you the root cause of the ban. Never under estimate the community.
- Last resort.. If you feel you have been treated unfairly you can raise a formal complaint with Robot at the studios main contact email address (see thier website).
I hope these tips help people understand how they can go about getting information about why they may have been banned. As a reminder.. make sure that you dont:
- Cheat on the ESO service using any hack tools or modified game files
- Dont give out ANY of your account details.
Feel free to get in contact with me at dean@remember-ensemblestudios.com if you are still flummoxed on what to do. Or you can find me and lots more helpful community members at www.agecommunity.com. For those that have spoken or wish to get in contact with me remember that I am not an employee of Robot Entertainment and cannot speak on their behalf. This blog is run by an individual and any advice on this site or through my email is personal advice completely un-affiliated with Robot.
Not forgetting the Halo Wars readers..
As a side note, for Halo Wars readers.. DLC 2 is coming soon! Aloysius has teased it may be sooner than you think!
Final Title Update 3 patch notes available for Halo Wars
Well here they are folks! Pretty much very similar to the proposed patch notes posted earlier.. some highlights are:
- Team killing will no longer give points (hooray!)
- Self Destructing buildings will give opponents points (similar to Age of Empires)
- Warthog build time increased
And here’s the rest:
Balance Changes:
– UNSC Warthogs Gauss cannon damage against tanks and other heavily armored vehicles reduced by 25%
-UNSC Warthogs build time increased by 3 seconds to 25 seconds
– Anders research time bonus decreased to 25% from 50%. Her Research cost bonus remains unchanged at 50%
-Covenant and UNSC turrets have 5% increased health and 5% increased damage
-UNSC Elephants have a 20% more health
-Grenade damage type now has 25% additonal damage against Warthogs and other medium armor ground vehicles.
-Recycle basic cost return fixed to be 50% for constructed buildings.
– Locked down bases when unlocked will now release units inside very quickly, which means that when under attack a player can now build a fighting force while locked down and then release them much more quickly than before
– UNSC Leader powers disabled at the start of Reinforcement Matches
-Players no longer receive points for team killing.
-Self Destructing/Recycling buildings now gives points to opponents
Bug Fixes:
-Players should now find it much easier to play System Link games
-Fixed Covenant Shield Generator Exploit
-Invisible Units should now have invisible health bars
-Players will no longer be able to scout opposing bases by using the area-select tool
Discussion is rampant on the HaloWars.com forums!
Joe Gillum talks Halo Wars single player campaign design
Another developers blog post on community website HaloWars.com. This time Joe Gillum gives us an insight on what its like being a campaign designer on an Ensemble game. The Ensemble guys spent alot of time reading books, player Halo games and talking to Bungie to get ideas about level design. The art below demonstrates this nicely:
![Hole3[2]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Hole32.jpg "Hole3[2]")
Here’s an extract from the blog and a link to the full article – an excellent read!
The first thing we do when we start a new campaign is to do some research. Instead of hitting the history books like in our Age of Empires games, we grabbed anything we could from Halo and absorbed it. We read books, played through the games, and talked with Bungie to make sense of any questions that arose. I personally spent a few days doing nothing but playing the Halo campaigns in the office to refresh my memory and get some inspiration. This helped more than I even hoped… people would stop by my office to watch me play and learned some things they may have forgotten about the games – or to yell at me to turn it down!
