News Archive: February 1999

Getting .wavy

Posted on February 28th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Last Friday, Impressions released another .mp3 music file taken from the game. This time, it’s a stirring military march entitled “Marchis Maximus”. It’s big (6MB), but well worth it. You can get it from their download section.

Meanwhile, life continues in the Caesar III Heaven forum. Today, there’s a funny little thread about who you reckon the dumbest citizen in your city is. Surely the market lady!? I can’t believe anyone else could be thicker;).

A New Submission!

Posted on February 27th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Yesterday, I received a very useful little email attachment from forumer Bob the Lethargic which will be of use to everyone who is having problems with the miltary aspect of C3. It can be found in the Strategy Section.

More great news from our sister site Pharaoh Heaven – head over there to have a quick look at a new little feature that we’ve added today:).

Any questions?

Posted on February 26th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Isn’t that art beautiful? Well, now’s your chance to put your questions to the man who designed it! In the near future, we’ve got an interview with Darrin Horbal, the art director for both Caesar 3 and Pharaoh! Neat, huh? Well, if you want your questions put to Darrin, then post them in the forum for Draco to read:).

When you’ve done that, then it’s time to get all theoretical. There’s an interesting (for those who like that sort of thing) mathematical discussion about what the largest possible city size is. It was started by our very own Pythagoras, Cherub MartyParty, who came up with the hypothesis that the Maximum City Size is ~46k.

Did Ancient Egyptians have a Heaven?

Posted on February 25th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Now I’m not generally one to harp on about things, but I really can’t believe what a fantastic response we’ve got from you, the fans, to the opening of Pharaoh Heaven. Thanks to everyone who’s been there, and extra thanks to those of you who have shared your ideas in the forum.

On a forum-related note, the hottest topic over here in the General Forum at the moment is what Caesar IV will be like. There’s some absolutely fantastic stuff over there, and it’s well worth checking out. There is, however, just one thing that I would say…If you do share your ideas there, then head over to Pharaoh Heaven and post them in that forum too – that’s where Impresisons are listening to your every word:).

Moving on to a bit of general HGS info, then you’ll all be pleased to know that Age of Kings Heaven has received it’s long-awaited facelift – head over there and check out the great new look!

How do you like to build?

Posted on February 24th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

With all the excitement over Pharaoh Heaven (keep heading over there for more exclusives during the next week or so), we are forgetting the goings-on in the forums over here! There’s as much activity in there as ever, and the way to build is a hot topic in the Career Path Strategy forum. Head over there to check it out!

Been to Egypt lately?

Posted on February 23rd, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Have you visited Pharaoh Heaven yet? No!? Shame on you! It’s the place to be for all the latest news about the follow-up to Caesar III Heaven. Head over there and check it out – post some messages in the forum too, since they’ll be read by the staff at Impressions, and your comments will be noted.

On a general HGS note, it would seem that Ripcord, the publishers of the upcoming game Majesty, have been saved from closure:) Check out the full story here, and then head over to Majesty Heaven to savour the good news.

Also on a general Internet note, I noticed yesterday whilst checking out GoneGold that the new beta version of ICQ is out. Looks like it might be worthwhile! Check it out here.

URGENT NEWSFLASH: PHARAOH HEAVEN IS OPEN!

Posted on February 22nd, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Do look now because Pharaoh Heaven has swept open its gates! The much anticipated site has a lot to offer including exclusive information direct from the developers! Here’s a little tidbit: warfare will feature much more prominently in Pharaoh than it currently does in CIII. CIII fans, you have been heard! Just look at what that ship was able to do once it got up to ramming speed!

To be sure, others from the CIII H Dream Team will be contributing to Pharaoh Heaven in good time as well but, rest assured, we plan to keep CIIIH active and hopping for a long time to come.

Congratulations Draco!

Posted on February 22nd, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

News came to me this morning that our very own Angel Draco won the Moot Court competition which he participated in over the weekend! Well done sir! Read all about it here.

Dark Angel communicated with me again – he seemed very excitable and mumbled something about Egypt, ships, and the Internet. I can only assume that he was yakking on about Pharaoh Heaven again. Keep it here for information about that site:).

What’s up Dark Angel?

Posted on February 21st, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

I’ve received a communication from Dark Angel this morning. Seems like he’s branching out from his normal duties helping Angel Alexander I out with the HGS Main News into the affairs of the other HGS sites. He whispered “Pharaoh next…”. I couldn’t make out the last word, and he’d gone when I asked him to repeat what he’d said. Oh well…you’ll have to stay tuned for information;).

It’s raining news!

Posted on February 20th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Well, after a quiet day yesterday, it seems that the news is beginning to pour in…Seems like Impressions are making available the music from Caesar 3 in .mp3 format. The first track was released yesterday, and is called Paved Roads. Quite a nice tune actually, but don’t take it from me. Head over there and check it out for yourself!

Also released today is the first screenshot of Pharaoh, the game which is being released as a follow-up to Caesar 3. Click here to check it out! The good news for you fans of Heaven is that this may speed up the opening of Pharaoh Heaven. We await developments from Impressions.

Meanwhile, our hosts, Gamestats, are still on the search for a newshound. If you think you can fill the post, and you’re a dedicated gamer who doesn’t mind trawling the Net for news, then this could be the job for you! Head over to Gamestats to find out how to apply!

Hmm..slow day today

Posted on February 19th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Morning all. Hope you’re all well today, and ready to face another day of work/study/C3. Thanks to Alexander I for doing the news for the last little while and for putting me up as a News Editor;). As he said yesterday, I’ll be with you until a week on Saturday, so you’ll have to put up with me until then;). It’s a pretty quiet day today in cyberspace, so I’ll let you get on with your Net surfing.

Lots of RR

Posted on February 18th, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Looks like I put RR on the News Editor list just in time. He’s going to take over from me from tomorrow on again. I hope to be back with you the weekend after next.

Now I’m just a little surprised that the master forger of the 150,000th visitor screen shot didn’t come forward and say, “eheheh, fooled y’all.” C’mon, you can tell us…we’re not angry, I mean it’s not like you won the jackpot. Be a sport and identify yourself…hey, it will get your name in the news again!

Let’s Get Physical!

Posted on February 17th, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Today I would like to introduce our newest CIIIH Dream Team member: Cherub Dragon2. Welcome Dude! He also bemoaned our lack of contests and decided to run some from the forums. We decided he did that so well that we would make an honest man out of him. After exchanging vows we tied the Gordian Knot…er, that may not be right. Anyway, please welcome him and send him a note…I hear he is very interested in physics. Hey, what can he tell us about parallel universes? 🙂

Most of you may not have noticed this but I though it was time to slip RR’s name into the News Editors’ list, he most certainly deserves it! Oh, the news was 9 hours late because GS’s servers were acting up again. After one hour of trying to upload, I decided 1 a.m. was a good time to go to bed.

Sites are Visited in Parallel Universes!

Posted on February 16th, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

We have received our 150,000th visitor as well as another 150,000th visitor who slid in from a parallel universe. That’s right two people lay claim to the fame of having been the 150,000th. Tell ya what, I’ll put up both your names and screen shots, one of which is doctored, and you can fight it out among yourselves (in order of submission):

Strato and Aviad vortman.

Stef went into overtime today and drew up a page with ALL the CIII sites in this universe, supplying each one with pert little comments. I believe that she also mentioned something about CIIIH having been paid a LOT of compliments if we are the kind to think being copied is the highest form of flattery. Actually, we are the kind that love flattery as much as our copyrights… .

Yet Another Landmark Today!

Posted on February 15th, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Well, today we will receive our 150,000th visitor. Make a screen dump if you happen to be that visitor and we will put it and your name up in lights right here!

A cool place to visit today, well, actually everyday, is the forums. The General forum features CIII jokes (chuckle) and the old-time favourite: age, gender and location folder.

Happy Valentine’s Everyone!

Posted on February 14th, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Hello everyone! The day’s best wishes to you all. Special thanks goes to RR for taking an extra long shift at the news and doing an excellent job there as well as in the many other areas he is involved in at this site and our beautiful and patient first sister site Pharaoh Heaven. I’ll be honest with you, we would love to launch but we felt you deserved to have more information on the game before doing so. That is not something that is in our hands however. We’re sure that you’ll understand–you are all the best fans a site could have–and that your patience will not be tested much longer.

As usual, there is lots of action in the forums and don’t forget that we have quite a treasure trove of maps for you to download. All thanks to you and Angel SpineMan, resident Download Maestro.

Another thing to keep in mind is that CIIIH is one of 5 sites (soon 6 :-)) that, together, comprise Heaven’s Gaming Sites or HGS for short. All sites have something going on in at least one or two sections all the time. Such as Age of Empires Heaven which is our oldest, most visited site boasting more than a year of direct developer support, awards and over 1.5 million visitors! Age of Kings Heaven which is always full of exciting news about the imminent sequel to AoE and a beta signup just down the road is a potent force at HGS that promises to overshadow even the mighty AoEH once the game goes public beta!

The recently revitalized Majesty Heaven enjoys regular, unique updates direct from the developers too. Not to be forgotten is the fact that all the open sites at HGS have direct support and participation from the developers of their respective games. Tzar Heaven is our best example of this as the developers only release their new material through this HGS site. This is how HGS sites can provide you, our loyal fans, with the best and most timely news, screen shots and much more! Your consistent visits confirm to the developers that HGS sites are the right venue for contacting the largest body of fans out on the net for the games they develop. Thank you Fans, Angels, Cherubs and Developers for making HGS sites the place to be for the wonderful games we love to play and cover!

Happy Valentine’s Everyone!

Posted on February 14th, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

As usual, there is lots of action in the forums and don’t forget that we have quite a treasure trove of maps for you to download. All thanks to you and Angel SpineMan, resident Download Maestro.

Well done AoEH!

Posted on February 13th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Congratulations to our sister site Age of Empires Heaven, who seem to have reached their 1.5 millionth visitor! Over here, we’ve nearly hit the 150,000 mark (not bad for five months) – if you’re the lucky one, then take a screenshot and send it to us. There’ll be no prizes or anything, but you’ll probably get a mention here and it’ll make for a beautiful sight for all to see.

Over at Tzar Heaven, they just keep coming up with exclusive little tidbits about how the finished game will play. Here’s what Otto of Haeimont had to say:

…Well, depending on the race, the mage can summon dragons (asian), bats (european), trolls and other ‘pretty’ creatures. The arabian mage can even summon (or maybe I should say materialize) flying carpet. Guess what it is used for :)…

Wow! Sounds cool:). Check it out!

Tzar Exclusives!

Posted on February 12th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

The Angels at Tzar Heaven send news that they have managed to secure some kewl exclusive screenshots of the Tzar Scenario Editor! Head over there and check them out.

Back to our forum, do you know anything about the origins of the Roman Empire? If so, get over there and share your thoughts on Roman Prehistory.

Pharaoh Heaven update

Posted on February 11th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

It’s a quiet day for news today, so I thought that I’d give out an update on the progress of Pharaoh Heaven. The graphics are all coming together and are now nearly finished, thanks to Angel b:real, so we just need to add a couple of bells and whistles. We’ll be thinking about the layout for the pages sometime this or next week (depending upon available time). Anyway, the whole thing should be up and running within the next couple of weeks:).

New Site at HGS!

Posted on February 10th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Morning all. I woke up this morning to the fantastic news that the HGS family has just had another baby – Tzar Heaven! This game, still in the alpha stage, looks like it’ll be an absolute cracker. To the left is a taster of one of the units in the game, the caravan.

When you’ve got back from having a look there, then head over to the Forum, where there’s a very interesting topic dealing with The Philosophy of Cheating – head over there to make your contribution.

Just one more thing this morning – I’ve updated the Archives so that this page will load that little bit quicker.

The Downloads Boat is in!

Posted on February 9th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Angel Spineman sends me news this morning that he’s returned from his trip fishing for download submissions and has returned with a full catch! He’s now unloaded the boat at the docks, and updated the downloads section with 10 new cities and a C3 screensaver:). So, what are you waiting for? Get over there!

Fun in the Forum

Posted on February 8th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

More forum frolics today – it seems as if there’s a couple of unofficial competitions being run by Dragon2. There’s one whereby you have to try and finish Lugdunum as quickly as possible, and another where you have to be speedy in Miletus. Also to be found in the forum is the start of a new society – the RSPCE (the Roman Society for the Protection of Carthaginian Elephants). Head over there to join, or maybe even to claim that the pachyderms don’t need any protection;).

Submissions Wanted

Posted on February 7th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Angel JB, the Gallery, Units and Buildings maestro, is on the lookout for new submissions. He would like to see any screenshots or C-toons which might then be posted into his pages. So, if you’ve got anything of interest, send them in.

A quick reminder about the existence of our Chat Room. Tonight, I’ll be there between 10 and 11pm GMT – that’s 5pm-6pm EST. I’ll hope to see you there!

If you want more information about the forthcoming Mac version of C3, which was reported in yesterdays’ news, then head over to the Sierra site.

Caesar III on the Mac?

Posted on February 6th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

I received news this morning which Cherub MartyParty found on Gamespot, which will please all you Mac users out there…

Mac-based gamers are getting ready for Roman holiday with Caesar III as Sierra Studios and Impressions Games announced the game would be available to Mac users sometime in June. The first two Caesar games in the series are already available for the platform.

If you need to recover from that news, then what could be more relaxing than lying back on a nice fluffy cloud? In which case, head over to the Angels’ Clouds and see who the people behind HGS are. If you’re interested, mine’s here.

More from the Forum!

Posted on February 5th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Yup, the forums are as busy as ever. The current hot topic would seem to be the merits (or otherwise) of towers. There are currently 2 threads about this in the General Forum – 1 by Angel Draco called “Are towers too powerful in C3?“, and another by Bob the Lethargic entitled “No tower poll“. Check them out:)

I’ve taken over news duties today – Angel Alexander I is off to a job interview. Good luck Alex!

Only 1 thing in the history bit today – in 45BC, the Roman patriot and philosopher, Cato, killed himself.

Massive Sales!

Posted on February 4th, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Did you know that Caesar III has had more than a quarter of a million sales in four months! That is well over 62,000 a month. Of course, we are not surprised because we know how excellent and how much fun the game is.

Hey! Be sure to check on forum postings and replies on Majesty Heaven‘s official boards! Also, we seem to have suddenly grown a Heavenlet site: Spiney’s Baldur’s Gate Heaven!

Big Kiss for my Provider

Posted on February 2/3rd, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Thank you once again for your patience. Being cut off from your provider is such a claustrophobic experience. I think that all of you equally disgruntled, news hungry fans might just want to help out my provider with his motivation and attitude. Why not call to tell him you care at: S0B-F0FF? He is already aware of my ‘concerns’ in 3 languages…one of which I didn’t even know I could speak! RR, sometimes you have the greatest ideas!

Not only are you posting more forum messages than ever folks, you have also diversified into other CIII related topics! Indeed, the SimCity games are ones that I am willing to bet most CIII players have played and loved to death. Hey, did you notice that even their acronyms are very similar: C3 and SC3? Now that’s something to ponder.

Now for the even more fabulous stuff. Those suave guys at Majesty Heaven have been on the job for less than a week and already they are the official board for Cyberlore’s Majesty! All Caesar’s hats off to you guys! Umm, let me know how you did it… .

Big Changes at HGS

Posted on February 1st, 1999 by Angel Alexander I

Thanks folks for being so understanding and using the work-around for the restrictions imposed on long folders.

Head on over to HGS to see the changes announced there. Quite amazing! Our Age I sister site invites you to some Zone mayhem and Age II keeps track of tributes. Meanwhile find out if the new guys at Majesty Heaven have been able to spout the big news!