just to get a feel

[UnstoppableStreletsy]

This is a question I should know about before responding to a topic or making future topics and polls. I do not want to bring wol too much up if no one likes the mod itself.

[Girafarig]

Well, since this is in the off-topic section, I'll bite.

I first found out about this mod about four or five years ago, when I got Age of Empires III. It was a nice mod back then, though it wasn't nearly as complete as it is today. It had two glaring faults: nobody played it online, and the AI was terrible. Because of these two things, I kind of lost interest.

Looking for other mods, I stumbled upon WoL, back when it was still called wotta. It seemed like an interesting mod, covering a different geographical area and with new ideas. I was also a bit more interested about its particular theme, given my location and the fact that I'm actually (1/4) Mapuche and it's really nice to see my people featured for once in a game, even if it's a simple mod.

Unfortunately, that's where my interest ended. Support for macs has always been lackluster on WoL, unlike NE where you get a neat installer and everything. The ideas they had for the mod seemed a little bit overreaching and overarching, and sometimes it seemed like they were forgoing historical accuracy for nationalistic pride. As a personal pet peeve, I didn't actually feel identified with whatever they decided the Mapuche were to be as a playable civilization – it seemed to have little historical ground, although I'll grant you that Mapuche historiography is a very complex, spiny issue. I thought about participating in the forum and adding my thoughts, but by then the mod was pretty much on its way, I didn't think they'd hear about a newbie dropping his $0.02, and I couldn't even install the bloody thing on my mac! So I forgot about it.

Flash forward to about a couple months ago. I got AoE III again, as well as this mod. I also remembered about wotta – looking for it, I found out now it's called WoL and it features a bunch of civilizations from all over the world. And it seems like they've overextended themselves – now it's all these weird civs that play in weird ways and that I couldn't give a damn about, mashed together in a gargantuan mod with no sense or purpose.

And still no mac installer.

I would've loved to see a Mapuche civ here at NE. I would've liked to see more native american civs, or to see some modifications to the preexisting ones (including the Incas). Alas, I understand this is not to be, and for good reason – this mod has an unifying idea, the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. And that idea drives this mod, and gives it a purpose. And I'd much rather have that, and play as the Swedes, than dealing with WoL.

Also, I've heard some pretty terrible things about the WoL team in here. But I'm leaving that out because, well, this is probably not the most neutral place.

In closing: I think it's interesting to look over at WoL as a reference, but I don't really care for that mod or its modding team. And I think you have a tendency to bring them to just about every thread in this forum, looking to troll the NE team or something, and it's not really productive.

[caveman909]

Hey, you didnt put an option saying:





Nah honestly, I never played it (heard about it though). So you still lack one (real) option, meaning : I dont know it.
You imagine that I therefore couldnt vote ...
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[UnstoppableStreletsy]

Well maybe that means it is time to try it. You will like the cultures represented.

[Arcieri]

I don't like because the AI is horrible. That mod has tons of bug's, impossible to play with my friends online.

But i like their civs and the way they made them, just that.

[Ande59]

As Arcieri said (Hello Arcieri, welcome to the forums! ) WoL has numerous amount of bugs in the game. Granted, in the world of modding, there will be bugs that pop up regardless of how many tweaking and fixes there are. Even in complete games, there are still bugs.

Before we get further into my post, I am comparing the two mods based off of three things.
1. My experience and readings across both forums.
2. My personal gameplay experience.
3. Analytically.

Now I can't speak for the WoL team... but based off what they've done, once they complete one of their goals (e.g. Making a civ), they will move on to their next task without going back and having a look at things that need adjusting, nerfed, buffed, etc. (There are quite a few civs that don't have voice files at all. I could have sworn there was a topic on the WotTA forums regarding what I just said, but right now, I can't find it.

Putting all the WoL/WotTA bugs aside, personally I find WoL messy, but this is mainly due to the reason that there are so many civs, units, unique aspects amongst civs. (yes, I know most of the unique things are passive/innate) Because of all this, I find it difficult to play with and against other civs. There are too many unique things going on as you play (to remember).

Oh. And age 6. Personally, I find age 6 way overboard. It doesn't really make sense because you can age up whilst still having un-upgraded musketeers (for example). If they disabled age 6 until you reach post-imperial age (where every single upgrade that the civ offers is researched), then I wouldn't mind it so much.

Now for NE, and again, I can't speak for the NE team either.

Granted, there are still some bugs out there, it's natural for a game to have them. But most of the NE patches involve nerfs, buffs, or balance changes (i.e. The reworks of the British Riflemen and Prussian Schutze being the most recent). They also seem to take note of bugs that have been posted on the forums, and they fix most of them eventually. (As I said before, in the world of modding, there will be bugs that pop up regardless of how many tweaking and fixes there are. Even in complete games, there are still bugs).

NE is qutie compact, too. There are only 7 (soon to be 9) civs, and two of the original civs (Germany and France) have been revamped/reworked. Granted there are a few things to remember when you're playing as and against the civs, but it's light on the brain, which we humans want. We don't like being confused.

TL;DR. NE's a small, tidy mod in comparison to WoL.

Please note: I have not said, and I am not saying, "WoL sucks and should never have been created!" or "NE is the greatest mod to be made across all games!" I am comparing the two purely based off; My experience on the forums, gameplay wise, and analytically.

@Caveman, I laughed quite hard when I saw your post... That image is just beautiful.
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[UnstoppableStreletsy]

I respect and admire the detail you put into the post. You gave strengths and weaknesses for both. That is what really matters and helps me out. I think wol was meant to be a new experience of aoe3 gameplay than the actual game with fun and unique cultures that do not follow the rules of the others, some have aoe2 type food gathering while others have god powers like aom. I like the gw age for being "unthinkable" and for being a unique experience in aoe3.

[caveman909]

[roy1012]

In the few games i've played on WoL, every time it has gone out of sync about an hour in. Also, the civs are unbalanced and some do not work.
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[Noissance]

I played it, and it sucks terribly. Only 20 cards in deck. CPU usage worse than base game (causing lag), and you cant play new civs without messing with the throne room (terrible). Looks wise its alright, but i like NE's art style more. I believe at it's current stages, it is vastly inferior to NE.

Tbh, i think the aoe 1 remake mod is better than WoL (even original Wotta for that matter), and it even uses assets from TAA (The Ancient Age, a previous project undertaken by some of NE's team).

[UnstoppableStreletsy]

looks like this sick man snorted in ne fog. I disagree and say that you can have a greater deck than 20 cards (you can have 26). Does it really matter than wol might have needed a catapult model (how else are you going to get a archaic artilelry piece within a deadline 10 years late? These people were under pressure for a whole decade to make the greatest mod ever to be finished. They did the bulk of the work already. Yesturday I got to look at 6 new maps for the mod on the site and the textures were excellent, the descriptions people said left and right looked like a aoe3 official expansion. The content that will be on those maps is innovate and different in each case. Wol currently has the largest and most diverse civ roster ever composed. You cannot say these civs are imbalanced because in order to use a civ in aoe3 you actually have to be good at the game you know. Most of the civs that people call imbalanced are actually the strongest ones, you just need to play them more often. Wol and Ne have two different goals. Ne is a european aoe experience where all but 2 new civs are from the napoleonic age. Each of these civs by 2.1.8 will be almost identical with the same amount of units and each unit will have the exact same role just with different names (were losing some important staples of ne like Teutonic knights what I thought was the best unit in the mod). They are free to do that because its thier mod and if people like europe they will love the mod. Wol's goal is to create a mod that will expand aoe3 in civs, buildings, ages, maps, units, and cultures. The system they made was ingenious and tied cultures together while keeping them unique that eso or the forgotten empires team might have done. The content looks like it belongs there. In theory and truth both mods are equal in importance to aoe3 modding. I just think that wol's goal in the long run has a bigger impact on making aoe3 a game where any people or civ could be woven into it using a mod.

[caveman909]

[The last Austriahungarian]

[Orwell]

Dear goodness, another WoL based thread??? Really? I am very active there and have spent a lot of time there but really, this is too much. Please Streletsy, stop just spreading libel and purposely lighting fires, please
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[Ande59]

To be fair, Orwell, this post is 4 months old.
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A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and says "Five beers please."

"German Uhlan spam is lame" -StrelletToIndustrial

[The last Austriahungarian]