Woohoo! I believe I have figured out the ES maps

[MNBob]

The fan patch team had hoped to include map changes in the first patch. But only at the last minute did we find out that the maps could not easily be edited without causing OOS problems.

Earlier today Walker_5 from age sanctuary sent me some information that he had found out that showed that AOE3 reads map files in the order map.xs followed by map.xml (where map is a map name like bayou, i.e. bayou.xs and bayou.xml).

We already knew that the CRC values that are used for checking maps exists in a file named resources.xml. Now that I knew the order that the files were read I just tried some different binary operators and it turns out that all ES is doing is taking the exclusive or (XOR) of the map values.

I really hope this means we can change the maps. I'm excited and just wanted to share.

[cleeduz]

I don't really know what all that means, but GJ! You guys are doing an amazing job with the patch(s). As well as keeping everyone informed.

All your hard work is definitely being appreciated.

[Aaryn_GenD]

i know what you mean, and that is a great thing that you can implement the more balanced variants of the map (like New Andes) for rated games, i hope nobody exploits this and ruins the game by creating unfair maps themselves

[djdan]

Wow that is great news buddy! Lol the only thing missing from this is the 'it came to me in a dream!' lol The dedication shown by you, Viper and all the others involved is truly admirable and inspiring! As I said earlier I am already looking forward to the new patch, where hopefully dutch will get better 1v1 *fingers crossed* and Lancers dont murder samurais quite so well late game lol

Anyway thanks for sharing the information buddy and gl with the rest of the patch

[Sporting_Lisbon]

Congratulations mate! You're doing an excellent job

[Kaiser_von_Nuben]

[quote=""djdan""]Wow that is great news buddy! Lol the only thing missing from this is the 'it came to me in a dream!' lol The dedication shown by you, Viper and all the others involved is truly admirable and inspiring! As I said earlier I am already looking forward to the new patch, where hopefully dutch will get better 1v1 *fingers crossed* and Lancers dont murder samurais quite so well late game lol

Anyway thanks for sharing the information buddy and gl with the rest of the patch [/quote]

Yeah, that was a bit depressing, wasn't it? I am looking forward to new maps, too, especially the modified Hispaniola and Andes. That will breathe some new life into our clan games

[BenS64]

Great job, shows how much effort you guys put in to make this game a better, than it already is.

[blayzer13]

ive been telling people at school about what u guys are doing to keep the game alive when es is down, and i think its inspired them to start playing, one has agreed to get the games when he has the spare cash and a few more are considering it

[hallchr]

The game is not dying. It's merely a ploy by ES to do something evil. I just don't know what yet.

[Macabee]

[quote=""Kaiser_von_Nuben""][quote=""djdan""]Wow that is great news buddy! Lol the only thing missing from this is the 'it came to me in a dream!' lol The dedication shown by you, Viper and all the others involved is truly admirable and inspiring! As I said earlier I am already looking forward to the new patch, where hopefully dutch will get better 1v1 *fingers crossed* and Lancers dont murder samurais quite so well late game lol

Anyway thanks for sharing the information buddy and gl with the rest of the patch [/quote]

Yeah, that was a bit depressing, wasn't it? I am looking forward to new maps, too, especially the modified Hispaniola and Andes. That will breathe some new life into our clan games [/quote]

We should all download the new maps for clan games since they're not rated anyway!

Mac

[cleeduz]

That is a great idea, Mac!

[quote=""hallchr""]The game is not dying. It's merely a ploy by ES to do something evil. I just don't know what yet.[/quote]

I don't think any of this is ES fault (MS maybe) MS will not let ES add the fan patch as a download and make it an "official patch" due to legalities involving coding done by non-MS employees, I believe. ES did however add a banner on their home page HERE advertising and encouraging people to DL the fan patch! I truly believe the good folks at ES have our best interests at heart and do not want to see a divided or dwindling community.

[Aaryn_GenD]

lol macs idea.. i said that too once in eso

[Blackadderthe4th]

[quote=""djdan""]Wow that is great news buddy! Lol the only thing missing from this is the 'it came to me in a dream!' lol The dedication shown by you, Viper and all the others involved is truly admirable and inspiring! As I said earlier I am already looking forward to the new patch, where hopefully dutch will get better 1v1 *fingers crossed* and Lancers dont murder samurais quite so well late game lol

Anyway thanks for sharing the information buddy and gl with the rest of the patch [/quote]

Dan I was Imperial, you were age 4 and I had no less than 4 upgrade cards on my lancers and lancers get a bonus vs HI. Wasn't that surprising to me that I won, granted I expected to lose a few lancers but oh well even better for me!

Though samurai need a boost vs cav I reckon even if my only reasoning for this is that I want to spam sams every game from now on!

[hallchr]

Is the Fan Patch really actually good?

[MNBob]

Today we began testing the second test iteration of patch 1.1.

This included our first test of a new Pampas map. While it's only a single test case, two players were able to play without an OOS error. I hope (assume) this means we will be able to modify existing maps and include new ones!