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Developer's Letter: Welcome
Video: Introduction to Empire Earth II
Epochs Unveiled
Units of the Month
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Get 10% off when you buy Empire Earth® II from the VU Games Store. Just use coupon code EE2TEN
Empire Earth II Featured at the WCG Exposition
Players from around the world traveled to San Francisco last week to compete in the World Cyber Games Grand Finals. The prestigious event is the world's largest computer and videogame festival. Huge in Asia, this year was its first time in North America.
Empire Earth II was one of the few new games to be included within the four-day exposition. Ian Davis, Mad Doc's CEO and mad scientist, barely edged out a victory in the multiplayer tournament which paired him against a cadre of international journalists.
The game wowed players, guests, and the press alike. "Empire Earth II is one of the most exciting pure RTS games I've seen in a while, and its handful of little innovations take the pain out of the upkeep of an army, and put the emphasis right where it should be -- in the combat," raved GameSpy.
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Welcome to the first edition of the Empire Update, Sierra's new monthly newsletter designed to give you the scoop on Empire Earth II, the upcoming real-time strategy game that's the sequel to GameSpy.com's "Game of the Year." Each month we'll be highlighting a different set of epochs and features in the game. As you'll see below, there's a lot to talk about, so grab a beverage of your choice, get comfortable, and enjoy the information, screenshots and videos we've prepared for you.
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Welcome -
Everybody wants to rule the world . . . or so it seems. At least that's what it feels like to be me. Hello. Ian Davis here, The Mad Doctor, also known as the Creative Director on Empire Earth® II (it's a pleasure to be checking in with you).
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Introduction to Empire Earth II, Part I
Dr. Ian Davis
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Introduction to Empire Earth II, Part II
Dr. Ian Davis
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In Empire Earth II you'll mastermind your civilizations rise to power through 12,000 years of human history. The span of the game is divided into 15 epochs that span from the dawn of man into the near future. Each month we'll unveil three epochs.
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Stone
10,000 BC - 5,000 BC
The Stone Age represents a period of time when some of the hallmarks of human civilization first came into common usage. Tools, agriculture, religion, and weapons reach their first level of sophistication with mankind's growing proficiency at stone working. This epoch will focus on humanity's nascent steps from nomadic hunter/gatherers to settled farmers.
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Copper
5,000 BC - 2,500 BC
The spread of farming forced mankind into a period of urbanization that continues to this day. The surplus food that is generated in some areas creates the need for a means of exchange, rules to govern exchanges and new buildings to house and protect a growing population. Copper working creates new weapons and tools and soon legitimate kingdoms are arising where once there were only small tribes.
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Bronze
2,500 BC - 1,000 BC
Mankind's drive towards urbanization has resulted in advances in architecture, farming, tool-making and literacy. Religion becomes organized and military discipline and training begins to appear. At this point, the player has access to all of the basic units and structures needed to follow any upgrade path.
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Empire Earth II includes over 350 unique units and structures - 33% more than the original game. We'll introduce new units each month in this newsletter.
Dragon Archer
The Dragon Archer is a highly trained and disciplined warrior available to the Chinese in epochs 1-5. They are capable of attacking more quickly than a conventional Bow Man and inflict more damage per attack. RPS bonus against Heavy Artillery and Heavy Infantry.
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Stone Thrower
The Stone Thrower is an early siege engine capable of throwing large stones short distances. RPS bonus against Heavy Mounted and Light Infantry.
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Royal Elephant
The Royal Elephant is an enormous beast trained specifically for war and is only available to the Egyptians in epochs 1-5. Its thick skin and bulk give it more hit points than most mounts. RPS bonus against Light Artillery and Heavy Mounted.
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Now here's where it gets interesting. You see it's key to keep your eyes on the prize, to keep your core goals in mind, especially when creating a sequel to a GameSpy.com "PC Game of the Year" for a league of admiringly loyal, extremely savvy fans. Which brings me to today and the question at hand: in a world full of excitement, anticipation, and heated fervor, how does one guard the objectives set out for a game in development, while satisfying its steadfast fan base?
In developing Empire Earth II, the first thing we did was our homework. We went straight to the source: fans. We took a good hard look at what fans loved about Empire Earth, as well as what they didn't like as much, and we listened. So while it pays homage to all the things that made Empire Earth a great game, Empire Earth II is different from its predecessor in a lot of ways. First, we have a brand new engine, created entirely from scratch to take advantage of the latest DirectX 9 features and to push the newest video cards to their max. We've implemented new, non-cheating AI, and we started over with every aspect of the code. In a nutshell, we basically took everything fans loved about Empire Earth and made it bigger and better, and we took everything they didn't love out, or fixed it.
As the Creative Director on Empire Earth II, I'm busy overseeing everything from the vision of the game and AI, to core game design and gameplay - with the help of a pretty amazing team. In general, when we started out, we really wanted to keep the things that made Empire Earth a great game (things like core RTS gameplay and epic scope), while moving the franchise along wisely. At this stage of the game, I think we've achieved our goal: we're implementing advanced AI (non-cheating), enhanced environmental realism (weather, seasons), new multiplayer modes (Crowns, Territories), improved management systems (Picture-in-Picture, the Citizen Manager, Warplans), and territories (divides map up into regions you need to conquer) - and I might add, with that all new engine.
Until Next Time,
Ian Davis, Ph.D. "The Mad Doctor"
CEO & Founder, Mad Doc® Software
Creative Director, Empire Earth® II
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