News Archive - Dec 2004

Outside I can hear a continuous banging, ratling and fizzing. Sounds most of us hear only in games. I know it is the sounds of fireworks, but I can 't help realise there are people on this earth who hear those same sounds every eve. Not just New Year's Eve and who know they are not the sounds of kids and youngsters having fun, but the relentless, chilling sounds of people killing other people. Killing them for their religion, their ideas. Killing them because they are different.

If I could chose a wish to come true this year, I'd wish that more people could relate those sounds to games. Not to real life.

May 2005 be a good year for you and yours.

Any chance of a White Christmas seems lost in this part of the world, while on the other side of it, there seems to be so much snow people will have to change whatever they were planning to do tomorrow. Another part of the world will be celebrating on the beach, while yet a different part will only know snow from the stories, the books, and the movies.

Still all these people will be celebrating; spending time with friends and family, enjoying eachothers company. I think we can all celebrate Christmas, no matter what our beliefs as these days any day celebrating life and friendship is a good day.

May you have a Merry Christmas, regardless of the weather and 2005 be a good year for all of you and all of us.

Over at the Tilted Mill boards, Jeff Fiske, Design Director of Tilted Mill, has given an overview of how the AI works, in particular the AI of labourers, overseers and scribes. I thought some of you might be interested in reading it, perhaps it'll solve some problems you're experiencing with constructing and mining. Read it here.

And while you're there, don't forget to check out the new bonus track, which cannot be found in the game! Along with that, they've revamped the music downloads page so you can download the entire soundtrack more easily. You can find both here.

The last lesson has been posted, the testing is done, the feedback has been processed: Matt Zimmitti is done with Akhetaten.

Akhetaten is the new scenario released by Tilted Mill, it's a sandbox scenario including military, interconnected trade and a series of monuments for the player to build along the Nile. Most interesting perhaps, is that it served as a tutorial for those who're interested in designing their own maps, but couldn't get the hang of the editor. To read all seven lessons, visit the TM Editing Forum.

If you have been designing along with Matt, you might have finished your first scenario by now. If it's done, don't forget to upload it to the Downloads Central, where players will be able to post comments and reviews and where you will be able to keep track of how often your scenario has been downloaded!

Matt Zimmitti has released lessons 5 and 6. Lesson 5 will introduce you to the editing of the world level and lesson 6 will walk you through the more complex options, like military sites and triggers. Next lesson, Matt promises, you'll start with cleaning up the scenario. Read the lessons here.

Also note that you can download the official December calendar Children of the Nile wallpaper here.

Please note that various parts of the Heavengames Community may experience a period of downtime due to maintenance on December 10th.

The HG Downloads System (HGDL 0.5+) will be down beginning at 8:00 am
and will be up by 3:00 pm EST.

Our apologies for any inconveniences you may experience!

Well, Getting to know the Editor part 2, 3 and 4 actually. Matt Zimmitti has released the next couple of lessons. Lesson two is about painting some early textures, lesson three is about resources and sprites and the fourth lesson is about decorative sprites. Matt's terrain now actually looks like something you would want to build your city on and the fine tuning hasn't even started yet! You can read the lessons here.