News Archive: November 1999

In a galaxy far away…

Posted on November 30th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

I finally got to see the Phantom Menace and I have to admit it. It is not the world’s greatest movie. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the spectacular special effects, I even saw the ETs in the Senate hall…
Senate Hall?
Oh, yeah, C3 news update.

Oh no…they are at it again in the Community forum. The thread that wouldn’t die. I’ve lost count, but I think they are giving Angel ET a run for his money. It’s the umpteenth installment of the Recuperation thread. It now goes by the name of “Where Angels Fear to Tread” Well, it must be somewhere else, ’cause we’ve been known to visit these threads from time to time.

Doctor‘s orders are part of the Game Help threads as it the trouble with pottery.

Bob the Lethargic has reviews for Chunky’s Gerainus and Pounce’s Delta, while Theo reviews BTL’s Stabiae and Teodoir Island.

Return of the Jayhawk

Posted on November 29th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Just as Angel Reckless Rodent has been busy building theme parks, so have I been busy building pyramids. Not as busy as Cherub Mouse, who yesterday became the first of us to see the end game movie.
Congratulations, Pharaoh Mousemor!

The Community forum is a bit quiet, it seems Angel Et Flavius is also buried in Egypt and has forgotten all about his Where in the World game. Not so Caesar Alan, who valiantly continues the Word game.

The Game Help forum is discussing oracles and religious cover, housing blocks, and fruit and fish in Carthago.

Oi! Slacker! NOOOOOO!

Posted on November 27/28th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Why only one update this weekend, I hear you ask. Well, I’ve been building theme parks for the past two days – that Roller Coaster Tycoon is one addictive game. Still, let’s see if I can get through this update without talking about Twisters, Geisterhäuser, Achterbahnen, and various other things I’ve been building (feels weird not to have an “undo” button, after having played C3 and Pharaoh for so long though).

We have more reviews trickling into Reviewer’s Corner. The latest batch are from pnut and deal with the scens City of Fertility, Isle of Celtia, and Massada. The following bit comes from the review of City of Fertility:

Playability 2.2 Clean play. The map lacks a “punch” to captivate me.
Creativity 2.0 Nothing new, some challenge with getting water/pottery distribution.
Balance 2.5 Easy; although without any requests from Caesar the favour was a little slow to achieve.
Design 2.0 A huge map is difficult to embellish…needs a lot more “landscaping” throughout.
Story 1.0* Unfortunately this has the same “weight” as the other categories, in the current system.

Pnut’s personal Challenge level: 1.0 A good map for beginners!

special notes: * I could not locate a story, if there is one I would be happy to change my opinion!

Not much more to say, apart from recommending you people out there to take a look. Right, back to building theme parks…

New review

Posted on November 26th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Reviewer’s Corner has received yet another review submission. The scenario in question is Sicilia, and the reviewer is ehead. Here’s a snippet:

Playability : 4
Creativity : 5
Balance : 4
Map Design : 5
Story/Instructions : 5
Overall : 4.6

[abridged
main body of review – down to the conclusion]

Overall, I highly recommend this scenario to anyone looking for a different challenge. If you stayed away from the inherit-the-city levels in the career mode, Sicilia provides a compelling reason for you to reconsider.

To read the rest of the review (and it’s well worth a look), click here.

Top 10 downloads

Posted on November 25th by Angel Reckless Rodent

Courtesy of Angel Jayhawk, I can now provide you with last week’s top 10 C3 downloads:

Scenarios downloaded between 1999.11.15 – 1999.11.21

Number of scenarios downloaded: 5327

Number of different scenarios downloaded: 434

Looks like Amphipolis is still on top :).

Games of Encouragement 1999

Posted on November 24th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Last year our hosts, Gamestats, put together something to bring a smile to the faces of those who are perhaps less fortunate than ourselves. Games of Encouragement 1998 was a huge success, and this year it’s going to be even better:

Last year we presented the community with an opportunity to come together and give a bunch of great kids some smiles that they might not otherwise have had at Christmas. The program (which we dubbed Games Of Encouragement) was successful beyond all expectations and we received over 1500 donations for Christmas 1998. GOE was so successful in fact that the program benefited Ronald McDonald Houses all across the country!

This year, with your help the GOE program will be an even bigger success and bring smiles to even more kids and help even more RMH homes!

With a response like that, we feel it is very important to give members of the gaming community the opportunity to top themselves in 1999 and we are proud to be able to again offer the gaming community the opportunity to help out some great kids and a wonderful organization. We hope that you can get in the spirit of this wonderful idea and enjoy giving to some very worthy children who will really appreciate it.

To take a look at what it’s all about, either follow this link or click the banner below the site logo. I’m sure you won’t let the kiddies down :).

New buttons

Posted on November 23rd by Angel Reckless Rodent

Isn’t that a lovely little button? Of course, it’s showing the way to HGS’s newest baby, Asheron’s Call Heaven. Check it out if you haven’t already :).

Back in Rome, we’re starting to slow down a bit as emigrants leave to seek pastures new in Egypt. However, there are still some brave souls left behind, battling with the deadly Carthaginians and coping with market ladies with the intelligence of a small head of lettuce. Speaking of those market ladies, we have a call for help regarding distribution in the Game Help forum – I’m sure any and all help would be most appreciated.

That’s it for today. Hopefully I’ll have some download statistics for you sometime this week – depends when Angel Jayhawk (he knows how it works here, I don’t have a clue ;)) can spare a few minutes to grab a few files.

New HGS site revealed

Posted on November 22th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Here’s the press release:

Asheron’s Call Heaven is LIVE

Heaven’s Gaming Sites is proud to present its newest site dedicated to the hit mulitplayer RPG, Asheron’s Call. Keeping with the tradition of other Heaven sites, Asheron’s Call Heaven features a well maintained forum,
extensive info, and useful news for AC fans. Our staff includes some of the most active players in the game and even a number of advocates, official in-game helpers. We welcome all of you to check out the site at http://ac.heavengames,com

AC Heaven – http://ac.heavengames.com
AC Heaven Forum – http://ac.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/acforums/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro

—–

About Heaven’s Gaming Sites

For over 2 years, HGS ( http://www.heavengames.com ) has been producing top quality fansites for PC Games such as Age of Empires, Age of Kings, Caesar 3, and Pharaoh. With special attention paid to community building and discussion forums, we’re gowing tremendously with no end in sight.

No news from the Game Help front

Posted on November 21th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Is there something I should know? The Game Help forum has been quiet for a day! No new posts, no nothing…
Does this mean everybody has finished the game?
Is this the beginning of the end of this site?

I hope not…

Luckily there is still life in some of the other forums. The Community forum is still going full force and the Test Forum has started a little course in HTML.

Tomorrow will see Angel Reckless Rodent return from his ‘shopping spree’ in Egypt.

But soft what light through yonder forum breaks,is it a review?

Posted on November 20th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

It is true, not one, but two reviews! Metriciens is reviewed by pnut, and Claire has a review for BTL’s Numidia.

Down in the Community forum, Incontinetia has reached the exalted heights of the Millenium Club. Congratulations can be posted here.

S.A.D.D.

Posted on November 19th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

This is not really a topic for a game forum, but I think it is worth mentioning. Queen Livia’s thread can be found here.

Another non-Caesar thing is to mention that Pharaoh seems to have hit the shelves in good old Europe. I picked up my copy yesterday and just read that some of our English friends have gotten their hands on a copy as well.

Caesar Alan’s word game, for me the hardest game on this forum, has found it’s fourth thread. If you have away with words, this is where you want to be. If you are good with number you might want to lend a hand on this thread in the Game Help forum. It is all about taxes and how they are calculated.

Pizza parlour

Posted on November 18th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Most of what is going on here seems to be the pizza parlour thread. What once started as the C3 Reunion Recovery has taken on a life of it’s and now serves a sort of chat room.

In the Game Help forum there’s another request for information on not getting villas. Suggestions are welcome. Coon Dog is still having fun and found some more questions.

Apart from that I’m spending way too much time playing Pharaoh…

Download statistics

Posted on November 17th

Yes, it’s that time again.

Scenarios downloaded between 1999.11.08 – 1999.11.14

Number of different scenarios downloaded: 459

It seems Amphipolis is still the number one favourite, but Hadrian’s Wall is not doing bad either.

In case you are wondering just what it is that Angel Reckless Rodent is getting up to in Egypt’s lone and level sands, you might want to have a look here. One of our forum regulars over at Pharaoh Heaven, Jim M Rooney, caught our Number One angel red-handed.

Cross-over

Posted on November 16th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

I know a lot of us have moved, or are are waiting to move, from Caesar 3 to Pharaoh, but I just found a post in the Game Help forum from Coon Dog, who did it the other way round. He’s having a spot of trouble with fires so if you can spare a minute for some advice?
Wheat imports are still a hot item of discussion, one thread discusses this in Tarsus, the other is of a more general nature.

We have a review for Pontius Pilatus’ scenario, Marseillaise, done by non other than Bob the Lethargic. It rates a 4.8 so you might want to check it out yourself, you can find it here.

Apart from that, the people on the Community forum are still counting posts and we have a few threads up for people reaching 400, 500 and 700 posts. Rachel, are you keeping notes?

And the threads go on…

Posted on November 15th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Back in Rome…the various game and story threads can’t seem to be stopped. In the Test forum Emperor Rachel has been doing her best to make an overview of the post-statistics for the various people that frequent the forums. It’s quite an impressive list.

I’ll see if I can put up the latest download statistics tomorrow as this has proven to be a very short evening which followed a very busy day.

Draco’s been a busy boy

Posted on November 13th/14th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Not only has Angel Draco been uploading scenarios like there’s no tomorrow here at Caesar III Heaven, but he’s also been doing what he does best at Pharaoh Heaven. We now have 19 cities in the Pharaoh Heaven downloads section, and that’s only after a week or two of release!

Back in Rome, it seems poor old Cherub Ishaius wants you guys and girls out there to do some of your own scenario reviews. Read what he has to say here.

Downloads update

Posted on November 12th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Another cut and paste job today. Over to the one and only Angel Draco:

Woo-Hoo! I beat Monty again! Added 9 new Cities today. From these nine, the last 6–and most difficult–cities in the game are represented. If you’re having trouble getting past these last few levels, take a look at what your co-emperors have done! Many of these cities have 100 prosperity, like Crassus Paupers’.

We also have an update today from Angel Monty’s Monkey:

No actual updates right now. (There will be more coming soon!) However, there have been a couple of comments in the Reviewer’s Corner about the lack of reviews, so I wanted to tell everyone that if you have a review that you want to submit, please feel free to send it in!!! I will reserve the right to change things like spelling and grammar, but if I have any major questions or comments, I will ask you by e-mail before I actually do anything. Cherub Caesar Ishaius has been doing his best to get to all of your scens, but there is no way that he can possibly cover all of them by himself, so any help would be appreciated!

There’s only 1 place to download the largest number of C3 cities and scens on the Net, or to submit your reviews. The Caesar III Heaven download section.

An update to my story yesterday about Baldur’s Gate II. The official site has gone live, and can be found here.

Rumours from Egypt

Posted on November 11th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

I heard it on the grapevine today that we might have hit double figures already in the Pharaoh Heaven downloads section. Ok, so that’s still a fair way away from the numbers we’ve got over here, but the game’s only been out a week;).

As far as I’m concerned, the greatest bit of news today is that Baldur’s Gate II has been announced by Interplay. I was a real fan of the first instalment (still haven’t got round to finishing it…though I will do someday), and I hope this second one lives up to the promise of the first. I noticed this story earlier today on AVault, who also have some pretty cool-looking screenshots (I hope they get the scroll bar sorted out though<G>). I also noticed that Sid Meier’s follow-up to Gettysburg! (which I loved too) has Gone Gold today, so it’s a pretty good day all round.

If you’re looking to do your good-C3-deed-for-the-day, then we have someone who needs help pacifying Mars. Can you add to the excellent advice already given?

On the road to…

Posted on November 10th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

When I played my way through the military career path, everything went pretty smoothly. There was one glaring exception to this: Damascus. I had some real problem with it and only managed to get past it being…creative with the .txt files. We now have someone in the Game Help forum who’s also stuck in Damascus. Help would be appreciated!

We also have somebody who can’t get out of Valencia. Once again, I’m sure help would be appreciated!

More Tarsus problems

Posted on November 9th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

Wow, this one’s really proving a problem. After all the posts a couple of weeks ago about it, we have another person in the Game Help forum who’s stuck in Tarsus.

One more thing tonight. There’s a debate in Reviewer’s Corner about the future of that forum. If you have views about that, then post them here.

What have you been downloading?

Posted on November 8th, 1999 by Angel Reckless Rodent

It’s that time of the week again. Time to see what you great people have been taking from our download section:

Scenarios downloaded between 1999.10.31 – 1999.11.07

Number of scenarios downloaded: 4947

Number of different scenarios downloaded: 365

I notice that our number 1 has been the same for the past two weeks. Congratulations to the designer of Amphipolis – it’s clearly something that’s well worth taking a look at, if you haven’t already done so.

Rugby?

Posted on November 7th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Rugby. Yes, the forum people decided that a coliseum or a hippodrome isn’t enough and quite a few of them watched Australia defeat France in Rugby World Cup final.
Go Wallabies?

Wendoolicus started a new competition at Pharaoh Heaven. You can read all about it here.

In the Game Help forum Patty is experiencing the joys of peaceful cities. Too bad nobody warned her that peaceful is a relative thing. While Andrew would like some advise on Sarmizegetusa in the Military path. Beware the thread is named Damascus.

The continuing story of…

Posted on November 6th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Where in the World XXI, C3 Recovery 100,000,000,etc. , Adventures in Celtia, and much much more to keep you entertained in the Community forum.

The Game Help forum takes us back to places like Tarsus and Valentia. It also seems that Mialisa succeeded in having Caesar forgive her.

I had to go back to almost 30 days for something to appear on the Review forum. Doesn’t anybody review scenarios anymore? We had a whole bunch added yesterday, so why don’t you get creative and review one (or more) of the offered scenarios.

Our sister-site Pharaoh Heaven has got a new addition. Angel Reckless Rodent has put up the building pages. You can find them here.

And more scenarios…

Posted on November 5th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Angel Monty’s Monkey has added another 10 scenarios to our download archive. They include two by Titanicus, well known from the story threads and a lovely map by Eric Hubertis. This one is truly a delight to behold.
And as of today, both the scenario and the city pages have more than 200 downloads, so I’d like to extend my congratulations to Angels Draco and Monty’s Monkey and all of you that provided them with files to upload.

The Community forum has a new birthday thread, this one is for the month of November. So if you have any birthdays this month you can post them here.

Last but not least, today is the first ‘day’ of the weekend. As Angel Alexander I will know it is also the day of the First Friday of the Month Borrel. Alexander, we lasted until 20:00!
I hope all of us will have a wonderful weekend…

Connection acting up…

Posted on November 4th, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

This is going to be a short bit of news as my connection is acting up. I’m not sure when I can find a window to upload.

Titanicus has posted his second interview, this one features our favourite Dane, Proconsul Creaticus Dania.

Apart from that I must be coming down with a bug myself or my job is really getting to me, these last couple of days, I’m just dead-tired. And if that isn’t enough I seem to have this last wisdom tooth that has decided to make itself appear…it just gives me this nagging feeling in my right upper jaw…aarrrgggghhhhh!.

Download Statistics

Posted on November 3rd, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Here’s the latest scenario download statistics. Since we started counting downloads, September 1st, you have downloaded a grand total of 29207 scenarios and cities, some 400 unique files. The latter suggest each file in the library has been downloaded at least once!

Scenarios downloaded between 1999.10.24 – 1999.10.31

Number of scenarios downloaded: 4775

Number of different scenarios downloaded: 413

I owe Titanicus an apology for attributing his interview with Wendoolicus to Tim the Great. Sorry Titanicus, all I can plead is exhaustion…

Where in the World has hit it’s 20th incarnation, well done, Angel ET.

The people in the Game Help forum a getting to be a bit strange. First there was a post asking how not to get villas. Now we have someone saying Tarsus is easy. Next thing we know, someone pops in wondering what all the fuss about Lugdunum is about.

Interview with an Ozzie

Posted on November 2nd, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

There a transcription of the interview Titanicus had with Wendoolicus in the Community forum.

Cyber Paladin is posing a question opposite of what we normally have, namely: “How to avoid villas“

Apart from that we have a thread revival going on in the Scenario design forum.

Sorry guys that’s all for today, I’m about ready to fall asleep on top of the keyboard…

A whole new month ahead of us…

Posted on November 1st, 1999 by Angel Jayhawk

Last month saw the arrival of Pharaoh and Age of Kings. The number of visitors to the Pharaoh Heaven forums is growing quicker than my mastabas. Yet, even with all these new games coming out people keep coming to Caesar 3 Heaven in large numbers.
So what is it that keeps them coming back?

Could it be Angels Draco and Monty’s Monkey’s dedication to the download section? The two of them have managed to organise more than 400 cities and scenarios in the past year and Angel Draco just broke the two hundred cities barrier when he added the most recent batch of three.

Could it be the ever changing forums? We still have lots of games in the Community forum and Moquel started a thread on the use of natives in the custom scenarios and has gotten some interesting replies.

Whatever it is I hope you keep on visiting…