Clash of Ancient Empires

Version 1.2.3 posted

2010-02-25T05:00:00Z

This version fixes an email bug. The game manager was having trouble emailing out the turn files when the user's default email client was Microsoft Outlook(it worked fine for Outlook Express). This has now been fixed. There is still an issue with Lotus Notes where the message text is being inserted in the 'To:' field,and I am not sure how to fix this.

Version 1.2.2 posted

2008-01-15T03:13:00Z

This version fixes a minor display bug. When the host changed a player's email address, the updated email address was not being displayed in the empire list until the host closed and reopened empire assignment screen. This has now been fixed.

Help for Help

2007-12-15T01:28:00Z

Another video help file has been added to the help page. This new topic covers the context sensitve help and the tutorial. So far seven Flash Videos are available.

Video Help

2007-11-13T22:09:00Z

Video help, in the form of Flash Videos, is now available from ClashOfAncientEmpires.com. So far, six videos have been created to help players setup games and process turns. More videos coming soon.

Patch Web Page

2007-11-12T15:44:00Z

A new Patch page has been added to the ClashOfAncientEmpires.com web site. This page chronicles the changes made to Clash of Ancient Empires as well as provides an easy way to update the game to the latest version.

Version 1.2.1 Posted

2007-11-03T15:29:00Z

Imperial armies ordered to Intercept Invaders will no longer attempt to intercept invading armies that contain no units. This stops a player from sending empty imperial armies on decoy invasions to prevent his opponent from intercepting his real army. This is the only change for version 1.2.1.

Version 1.2.0 Posted

2007-10-29T01:24:00Z

In the past, Clash of Ancient Empires had individual version numbers for the seperate components. This could cause confusion when trying to determine if a player's game was up to date. Now one common version number is used for all the game files. The only exception to this is the help file. The one common version number for the game is now 1.2.0 The help file version is still 1.1.1

Version 1.1.2 Posted

2007-10-08T16:03:00Z

Found and fixed two bugs.

The first was in regard to host program automatic emails. If the host was unable to automatically access an email client, the message box describing what to email to whom was not displaying properly. CAE_H.exe upgraded to 1.1.2.

The second was in regard to changing empire assignments in the middle of the game. The client to host turn files were overwriting the game manager empire assignments. This has been fixed. CAE_O.dll updated to 1.1.2.

Version 1.1.1 Posted

2007-07-13T02:19:00Z

Clash of Ancient Empires has been updated to version 1.1.1
The update includes the following three items:
A spelling error in the Help was corrected.
A text change in an email message box was made for user clarification.
A bug in sending multiple emails from the game manager at the same time was found and fixed.

Clash of Ancient Empires Press Release

2007-05-18T20:28:00Z

After ten years in the making, Clash of Ancient Empires is ready for release. The game's creator, Scott Ohlman, has been a avid gamer and programmer for 30 years. Ten years ago he decided to combine his passions and devote his free time to creating an in-depth strategy war game. His game, Clash of Ancient Empires, is a simultaneous movement turn based strategy game that can accommodate up to 500 players in the same game. Clash of Ancient Empires has an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and a random map that is highly configurable. The player becomes the emperor of an ancient empire, and must manage the empire's economy, diplomacy and military.

Because Clash of Ancient Empires is turn based instead of real time, Scott was able to devote unlimited CPU cycles to create realistic computer opponents. The computer players do not cheat. They do not use inside information about army movements or strengths when determining where to attack or defend. Although they will not coordinate attacks, they will share general information with their computer allies. Each computer player has its own unique personality based on multiple factors such as emotional/logical scale, aggressive/passive scale, treasury and loyalty thresholds and military unit preferences. The varying AI personalities counterbalance the varying player strategies. Players may develop a strategy that works well against some AI personalities but not others. Even Scott is challenged by certain AI personalities. This advanced artificial intelligence makes the replay value of Clash of Ancient Empires exceptional.

Clash of Ancient Empires can be played as single player game against the computer AIs, as a mulitplayer game against other human opponents, or a combination of both. Multiplayer games are played via an automated email process. The players issue orders for their empires and then email them to the host. The emailed orders are collected and simultaneously processed by the host, and the results are emailed back to the players.

Many different winning strategies are available to the players. The best strategy for each empire may vary at different stages of the game depending on the empire's relative size, economy, diplomacy and military strength. Players could choose to play very aggressively joining many wars, or they could play more defensively and only fight when attacked. They could join many alliances or only a few (or none). Since the orders for each empire are processed simultaneously, the results of a players orders are not known until they are processed by the host. This differs from classic board games like chess where the results of the player's moves can be contemplated in advance. Simultaneous movement games add an element of uncertainty, and they encourage the players to prepare for multiple contingencies.

Clash of Ancient Empires employs detailed and interrelated economic, diplomatic and military models. The economic model is based on the imperial system where local provinces have their individual economies, and they send a portion of their revenues to the imperial treasury. The diplomatic model is based on real world diplomacy where empires can form alliances, declare wars, sue for peace, enter cease fires, etc. The military model is based on the feudal system where local provinces have their own armies but are beholden to their controlling empire.

Battles are processed from the unit perspective. Army units follow the battle strategy selected by the player (or computer AI) and fight autonomously base on their category (infantry / missile / mounted), experience level (veteran / experienced / green / in training), percent casualties, morale, attack strength, defense strength, attack range, and speed. Over 1000 units can participate in the same battle. Units gain experience from each battle, and they can gain or lose morale depending on the results.

Clash of Ancient Empires is rated E for Everyone, but it is designed for the serious game player. It has context sensitive help and a tutorial, and it runs on all versions of Windows. Check out www.clashofancientempires.com for more information.

Buy Now Complete

2007-05-07T03:30:00Z

Clash of Ancient Empires is now available for purchase. Click on the Buy Now button on the home page www.clashofancientempires.com to purchase this game.

Setting up Buy Now

2007-04-22T00:52:00Z

I am currently working on setting up the Buy Now portion of the web site. When finished, customers will be able to purchase Clash of Ancient Empires with credit cards, pay pal, checks, wire transfers, faxes, over the phone and more. Digital distribution will be the primary means for getting the game, but I also plan to offer CD ROMs for an additional cost.

Scott Ohlman

Version 1.1 posted

2007-04-04T15:02:00Z

Version 1.1 has been posted to the main web site page www.clashofancientempires.com .

This version has improved help and links. No gameplay bugs or problems have been reported since beta.

Welcome

2007-03-26T03:17:00Z

Welcome to the Clash of Ancient Empires News. This is where update information as well as press releases will be posted. Thank you for your interest in Clash of Ancient Empires.

Scott