Age of Kings Heaven

Yes, good knights, it has finally happened. Welcome one and all to the newely revamped Age of Kings Heaven! Of course, the first thing you might have noticed is our new site design; "she's really purdy", you might be saying to yourself, blushing ever so slightly until you realize you're hitting on a site design. Crafted entirely by your egotistical, slightly-eccentric dictator (among my more "subtle" features), I aimed for a bright, medieval look that fits in with the conventional HeavenGames layouts you know and love, and I ended up with one of the best Heaven designs out there. Of course, it *looks nice*, you say; but what else? What else, you ask?! Read on!

Don't let that attractive caramel coating we call a layout distract you from our content, AoK fans! Close to every page from the old site has been converted (or is being converted!) to the new layout, and reformatted to boot! Expect plenty of updates as we add new content and update old content along the way! Along with that, we've done some major collecting from our old News Archives -- check out our Features section, which both contains our old school Blacksmith Features, run by BrandNewCar, as well as our brand new Work-in-Progress Spotlight, headed by Scud. These features are AoKH spotlights given to our designers, to both those who have completed a project and those who are almost finished. Extra promotion for our talented designers? Hells yes!

This is just the start of a brand new look and feel for Age of Kings Heaven; we plan on making our Heaven the most interactive out there, and we want our community to participate and join in on the fun. We're starting off the interactivity fest with our University! Redesigned and reformatted by our new University administrator, Luke Gevaerts, we have a new submission system that not only allows you to get your article displayed in our University sooner, but allows you to comment and give constructive advice to others submitting their articles. What could this new system be? Why, a new forum, of course! The University forum will allow you to find out everything you need to know about submitting an article, as well as a community that will give you plenty of feedback on any article ideas you have. Have you written an article that you think would help out the community, whether it be intended for a new designer or a veteran? Submit it to the new University! We plan on spotlighting quality articles and new submissions, so everybody knows the latest and greatest articles.

As I said before, this is just the start. We plan on filling our site with a *lot* more content; among the notable features, there are plans for a Poll and a Gallery, as well as a large Modding section. We also have a few more ideas in the planning stages for contests! (Of course, remember to keep an eye on our winter-themed Pretty Town Contest; with over 30 participants and only 3 days left, it's plenty to anticipate!)

Have you spotted a bug while admiring the site's new look? Please report it in our Website Feedback forum's Report a Bug thread! Do you have a content suggestion, a cool idea you want to share, or do you simply have a question about the site's future? There's a Suggestions & Questions thread in our Town's Crier that will be carefully watched by yours truly! We can assure you that, now that the revamp, one that has been years in the making, has finally happened, we plan on improving the best Age of Kings site on the web as much as possible. This is phase one of a much bigger plan for your beloved AoK fansite, and we'll keep you guys in the loop every step of the way. Thank you to our wonderful community for giving us so much support over the years, and be prepared for the bright future ahead of us!

And the revamp only took what... four years? ;-)

For those of you keeping tabs on the events in our Scenario Design forum, many of you are already familiar with the Review Guidelines - In Need of Change thread; the dedicated forumers of our design community have been participating in a discussion on the Review Guidelines, a document created to assist our reviewers when rating the user-submitted downloads in our Blacksmith. With the majority feeling as though those guidelines are partially outdated and fail to meet the needs of our current generation of designers and reviewers, many have called for change. Of course, your friendly neighborhood dictator can't help but agree; adjusted guidelines would also provide an excellent platform to push forward future changes to your guidelines. These are guidelines intended for *you*, after all; those who download, the designers who upload, and our reviewers who review those submissions to help out both. Kor has sent me proposed guideline changes, drafted by respected members of the design community, that I've officially approved for immediate implementation. These guidelines aim to achieve the following:

* For normal reviewers: the implementation of a slightly different reviewing guidelines set, still based on the original guidelines as drafted by SpineMan many years ago.

* For official reviewers: the need to rate a scenario or campaign based on a set of categories is relaxed. In stead, official reviewers will be able to give their own score and structure the review as they see fit, though they still must make account of the categories in their review. The idea is that these reviews do not strictly follow the categories but in stead are more descriptive and therefore more helpful to designers and players alike. Official reviewers' reviews should still be subject to moderation.

The changes will take effect immediately, but worry not; all of our current Official Reviewers will remain official, and all past reviews that went by the old guidelines are still as valid as ever. The only thing that will be affected is the reviews on future and existing downloads. All of our reviewers, new or old, should familarize themselves with the revised guidelines before they start reviewing! The adjusted guidelines are careful not deviate too far from the old guidelines, but the changes are significant enough to benefit both designers and those who download from our Blacksmith.

Does this mean these are the final guidelines, and can't be changed in the future? Of course not! Kor has opened a thread in our Scenario Design forum where you can discuss the existing guidelines and how we can improve them. We want to take to heart everyone's suggestions and push our Age of Kings review guidelines forward, so they're as helpful as possible!

Thank you to everybody who participated in the Review Guidelines discussion, and thank you to our design community as a whole; we know that this issue was important and significant to all of you, and we are positive that, with a progressive game like Age of Kings, forward is the only way to look!

Welcome to the first "Work in Progress Spotlight" feature and on our first and opening week I present to you The Jaguar Gold, currently being designed by Lord Basse and VonCorgath. But "What on earth is this feature?" I hear you cry, so allow me to explain. The Scenario Design forum is a very active place with designers toiling away, busying themselves with their projects in hope they will be released to the The Blacksmith with critical acclaim. As the forum is a proverbial workhouse filled with craftsmen working away on some simply spectacular projects it's high time a feature is introduced to showcase some of the most interest work currently being made within our community and allow the rest us to salivate with excitement as we are drip-fed teasers to get us ready to release of these projects.

Introductions aside, let us get to the meat of this week's preview. "The Jaguar Gold" by Lord Basse and VonCorgath has caught my eye for a number of reasons. For one we see enough scenarios set within a tropical climate nowadays and the creators of "The Jaguar Gold" have really went to town to exploit the dark and mysterious atmosphere jungles produce; promising man-eating tribes, unknown beasts and a whole host of dangerous wild animals to challenge the player as they explore the map.

Like other scenarios in Basse's and Von's repertoire there is a heavy emphasis on an engaging storyline to keep the player interested and motivated to carry on the scenario. The story is set within the realm of the Aztec Empire with the player controlling Tenoxte, a senior servant to the Aztec Emperor himself. The Emperor has ordered Tenoxte deep into the jungle to recover various treasures and trinkets in the Emperor's lust for gold. Tenoxte is uneasy due to the danger of the quest and also the fact there has been news in the eastern edges of the great Aztec Empire that the "Gods" have come again. But Tenoxte values his life, so wishing not be slain for disobeying the Emperor, Tenoxte sets out with a handful of warriors that were brave and foolish in equal measure to volunteer. It's a hunt for hidden treasure; but it's a jungle out there…

I also managed to get a hold Lord Basse and ask him a few questions about "The Jaguar Gold".

How long have you been working on the project?

Basse: We started the project as an entry to the co-op competition, which was later disbanded, so last summer. We continued a while after the competition was cancelled, hoping to get it done anyway, but we dropped it after a while. We haven't had any good opportunities to start working again until now, once the Pretty Town Contest is over, so all in all, in the past year, maybe a month in total.

What do you think is the most unique/most interesting part about this project?

Basse: The central part would be that it's a scenario made by two people. It's very rare these days to have projects with more than one maker, and that makes this project quite unique. This has an effect to the design and style of the scenario since Von and I have different ways of working. It has worked well so far and I doubt there'll be any bigger problems the last part. There's also the fact that there ain't that many scenarios based on treasure hunts, not in the way we present it at least.

What has been your inspiration?

Basse: I must say that the whole idea of working together has been very inspiring. When I've done my part of the work and send it off to Von, I know a little about what's going to happened next, but receiving the file with a great deal of the map done is a great feeling, but also pushed you to not lower the quality in the coming parts. This has been a trigger for me to do my best, and to be more careful than if I was to make everything myself.

What is it like working as a pair on a scenario?

Basse: Like I said it's very inspiring, and it's a totally new thing for me. It's a totally different way of working with a scenario. The way we've done is by "brainspawning" and sending ideas to each other, making a general plan of what to do and then we improvise a great deal ever time we receive the scenario to make our part, and by doing so we always get surprises, often triggering us (well me at least) with new ideas on how to continue the ideas. There are some restrictions as well that you don't think of when you work alone. If we've decided to have a part of the map as jungle and I get a feeling that "Hey, this would be a good spot for a sports arena and some jokes", I can't just go ahead and imply my wicked ideas on the map. Some things slip in anyway, after discussion and agreement, but real big things can't just be put in because one of us thinks it's a good idea.

And now for the most important question, how long do you think it will take to complete?

Basse: We aim to have it done by the end of September, starting as soon as the PTC is over. It should be up for download in early October. There might be hinders and real life stuff that puts progress at pause but we're determined on finishing this once and for all this time!

But if you can't wait until the end of this month, here are some screenshots to get you excited!

• The End of the World (of the Aztecs)
• Swamplands
• Close to the deep jungle

Today Age of Kings Heaven welcomes two familar faces to the team, both frequents of our Scenario Design forum: Luke Gevaerts and matty12345! Luke, former staff, will be taking over our University and helping us with future content. Matty will be your new Scenario Design moderator, making sure our local design community stays clean and healthy.

Chase them down and congratulate them in our Town's Crier forum!

Yes, you've read it correctly! There are only 12, count 'em, 12 more days left until the judges begin to cast their mighty, sword-swinging judgements upon thine Pretty Towns, with the winner recieving a HeavenGames t-shirt or hat, and the top 3 recieving custom titles related to their PTC 2008 ranking! Which of our many participants will become the mighty victor in this years Pretty Town Contest? We'll find out soon enough! Hurry up on those projects, and may the prettiest town win! (And remember to send your entries Tanneur!)

Want to discuss the PTC with your fellow designers, or insist the judges give you a perfect score?! Make yourself heard in the official PTC 08 thread in our Scenario Design forum. If you want more information on the PTC, head on over to the official PTC 08 webpage, where you can find more PTC-related goodness!

On an unrelated note, we've switched to the latest in news systems, where we can post front page news in our new News forum and you, the humble community, can make comments. How's my hair? Since the front page has been wiped clean, I'd like to remind everybody that my Future of AoKH thread is still in the Town's Crier, and still begging for you to give it attention! Have any questions about the future of the site? Ask away!