Interview with Swinger, EnsembleStudios - Community Relations by [SirKT] Hakaori

Hi Swinger,

How old are you?

Im the ripe old age of 26.



How long have you been working for ES?

I initially joined ES back in August of 2001 to work on AoM. After a year I returned home to finish my music degree. This past fall I rejoined ES as part of the community relations team.



How did you join the ES team?

The summer of 2001 ES was planning to put together an in-house playtest team composed of expert level players to help balance the game (previously there had been a temporary one in Redmond). I applied, interviewed with Sheriff, interviewed with the rest of the company, and then was hired on as the first playtester and got to live out every boy’s dream job.



The upcoming balance patch (v1.05) is highly anticipated but I understand that it's part of ES's policy not to divulge information about it’s release date, so could you at least supply us with some new tidbits about what's about to change or what nation will be "balanced" the most?

I wouldn’t say any one nation is balanced the most…we aim for balancing all of them as equally as we can. We did release some of the preliminary balance changes on the fansites a while back – above and beyond those we also have improved a lot of the HC cards that no one ever used. Some civs got a little taken away (French, Otto) while other civs got a bit added (Portuguese, Russian, Dutch). Along with making mercs a bit tougher to get, this should shake up the balance quite a bit.



The balance patch is supposed to change the tc hitpoints to +1000, is rushing in Age 2 then even an option anymore?

This was implemented largely to slow down a double rush in team play. Two players can wipe out someone’s TC before his ally can even respond. However, rushing in age II can involve a lot more than just taking out the TC – raiding villagers, killing houses, not allowing the opponent to gather any resources can also be effective as well.



After the balance patch is released, can we expect more patches soon which will improve the ESO gui and the friendslist?

After 1.05 we still have many more plans for 1.06, 1.07, etc. to continue to improve the ESO experience. Now that we have finally reached a much higher degree of stability for the ESO servers, we can start devoting more of our resources to those sort of things.



Thanks to ES's hard work, the stability of the servers increased noticeably, but there is still the issue with ingame-lag - is ES going to work on that problem which is not caused by either players?

There are so many factors that go into in-game lag that it’s difficult to pinpoint one specific thing. The obvious factor is of course internet latency (which you can tell in the game hosting room), but by and large the biggest factor is computer performance. Age 3 is a very demanding game and many times people have their video settings cranked too high….if any one of the players in the game doesn’t have a fast computer, it will slow down for everyone. In our FAQ at www.agecommunity.com we do list the recommended cpu specs for playing larger games (3v3, 4v4) – if your computer doesn’t meet those specs, then you are likely the cause for the in-game lag you are experiencing. My personal recommendation if you are experiencing a lot of lag is to try lowering your video settings to make sure you’re not the one causing the lag.



What civ is in your opinion the must underrated economically?

Probably British – they have the lowest win percentage right now, but they have by far the best boom in the game. They get the most villager shipments, as well as those free villagers from the houses, which just explodes their economy upward. The trick is balancing it just right so that you don’t go all out on wood trying to maximize it, but just keep steadily building houses – that allows you to still field an army and fight militarily as well.



Is there a change in the balance patch you personally look forward to?

Fixing Native Treaties so that certain maps aren’t just races to get the native trading posts up, and slowing down merc shipments.



Will there soon be an overall ladder?

The plan always has been to have a power rating system. With the ESO stability issues we’ve had to delay it slightly, but we’re hoping to introduce it soon now. We’ve always wanted to equip users with 3 stat categories to allow them to make informed decisions on who they should play. Those three things are XP, win%, and Power Rating. Each of those things has a ladder associated with it.

Power Rating isn’t meant to be an overall ladder, although it may be perceived that way. It’s meant to be another tool that users can use to get a good game and also as another ladder that they can compete on.



Was it your intention to make FF the main strategy, and are you satisfied with it?

Not necessarily…we want FF to be a strategy, but not always the best strategy. We’re continuing to investigate it.



What’s the best way to improve your skills/learn more in this game, how did you do it?

Watching recorded games of other players, and of yourself. I remember back in AoK I watched a recorded game where I thought I had played great but still lost, but upon watching the game I noticed how often I had idle villagers, and how often my TC was idle. Opened my eyes, and helped me be a lot more mindful of that. Beyond that, joining a clan can help a lot too, as they can often offer more personal advice and tips on how to improve your game.

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