New Forums! After months of having no proper forums, we have put up our new ones which can be found here. We hope that all our members will start posting and having fun! Happy Posting! » Start Posting		Art of Conquest BETA Sierra have released a public BETA of the upcoming Empire Earth Expansion, The Art of Conquest. The file is a massive 278MB and is only multiplayer. » download
			Reigning Sovereigns Our newest tournament is the "Reigning Sovereigns" tournament, hosted by our new Tournament Director NoxMortus » join in

»» Thursday, August 08, 2002

New Forums!
FORUMS | @ 01:40 EST | [send message]
We have had no proper forums for quite some months now and I apologise for that to our members. I have now finished work on some new forums which I have built from scratch. They can be viewed here. If you are already registered at our clancenter then your are already registered at the forums. I hope that all our good old posters will come back and start posting away again. Happy Posting!


»» Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Beta Available
BETA TEST | @ 03:39 EST | [send message]
The Empire Earth Expansion BETA is now available to download by anyone. The file is a massive 278MB and does not require a full version of the original Empire Earth to play. You can find more information at the Official Empire Earth Website or you can start downloading straight away from here.


»» Monday, August 05, 2002

Multiplayer Upgrades
COMMUNITY | @ 07:12 EST | [send message]
This is a sweet one, Morsaf from Sierra has posted a list of upgrades to the Empire Earth multiplayer match making service. Just look at this:

• It's All Been Re-Done. The entire multiplayer interface has been redone; you won't recognize it.
• Quick Play. Based on the user's selected skill level, the user is joined to an existing game if possible or prompted to host a game if none are available. If you're willing to allow the game to remember your password, you can be in a game in 3 clicks.
• Scalable Game List and Chat. Within the Sierra lobbies, the user may scale the screen real estate used for chat and the game listings or even eliminate chat/game list from the display.
• Improved Game Listings: Available games are sortable and filterable by any column. Available columns include: entry restriction, skill level, name, starting epoch, map type, number of players, and ping. Games may be queried for extended details as well. Columns may be resized. You may create (and persist) custom filters within each column. The improved game list is available within the Sierra lobbies, LAN, and direct connections.
• Improved User List. Each user may be right clicked upon for available actions (like whisper for instance). Troublesome users may be ignored by name or blocked by CDKey (changing names will not help). Oh yes, the list is alphabetized now.
• Friends List. Users may add and remove their buddies to their friends list as well as locate their friends online in the Sierra lobbies. Location provides links in the chat window you can click on to be taken to your friends lobby.
• User-Created Chat Rooms. Users may create and moderate (ban and mute other users) their own chat rooms.
• Additional Game Entry Restrictions. In addition to password restriction, games may also be restricted to invite only (captain must invite other users into the game) or ask to join (captain must accept or reject any attempts to join).
• Improved Staging Area. Includes areas for game chat, team chat, and lobby chat. Captain may moderate the chat in the staging area. You can chat with those in your game and with users in the lobby at the same time. You can even switch back to the Lobby/Game List without leaving your game and then return to the game screen.
• Embedded Help Screens. There's HTML based help for all screens and options.
• HTML Based Community page. An HTML based page with community information.
• Direct Connect Persistence. The direct connection screen will remember entries you've made in the past.
• Reduced Lobby Bandwidth. The current version queries for user info way to much (like every few seconds). This doesn't help your performance when there are a large number of users in the lobby. This has been corrected.
  
  

Can you say sweeet? He also included a nice screenshot of the new interface which can be viewed in the the thread here.


»» Friday, August 02, 2002

Double Press Release
COMMUNITY | @ 02:24 EST | [send message]
Today I recieved two interesting and exciting press releases from Sierra. The first has to do with the World Championship tournament, similar to that Empire Earth France released information about a few days ago. Here is the full press release:

SIERRA TEAMS WITH INTEL AND IGAMES TO CROWN EMPIRE EARTH'S WORLD CHAMPION
Massive International Tournament with Grand Prize of up to $100,000 Begins in September

BELLEVUE, WA (August 1, 2002) - Sierra(tm) Entertainment, Inc., a studio of the Games division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, today announced that it is working with Intel Corporation and iGames as co-sponsors of a worldwide tournament that will bring gamers together to crown the world's best Empire Earth(tm) players this September.

The Empire Earth World Championships consist of a series of tournaments held internationally, culminating in a Championship Tournament where the best of the best Empire Earth combatants will face off in hopes of winning the Grand Prize of US$20,000 and a chance to increase that amount to US$100,000. The Championship Tournament will highlight the upcoming expansion pack to Empire Earth, Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest(tm).

The tournament will begin with regional competitions held in more than a dozen different countries across the globe. Winners of each regional final will move on to national competition and national winners will be sent to the Empire Earth Worldwide Championships in Munich, Germany in October where the greatest conqueror of our time will be crowned.

Competition rules and further details about the Empire Earth World Championships can be found online at http://www.empireearth.com/ beginning August 15th, 2002.

The Empire Earth World Championships will highlight Sierra Entertainment's upcoming expansion pack to its award winning real-time strategy game, Empire Earth. Released in November 2001, Empire Earth is a worldwide hit, with more than one million copies sold. The game has won numerous industry awards, including PC Game of the Year honors from GameSpy.com, a "Gold Award" accolade by PC Action magazine in Germany, and a "Trophy Award" for special achievement in gaming from PC Team magazine in France.

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest includes three new single-player campaigns set in ancient Rome, the Pacific Theater of World War II, and Asia in the 22nd century. In addition, each of the 21 pre-designed civilizations in the game gains a unique special power, building, or unit. Examples include: the Kingdom of Italy's Metallurgy power, which allows them to pay building costs with gold or iron interchangeably; Great Britain's S.A.S. unit will be able to plant demolitions and swim across water; and the United States' market building will allow that civilization to trade abundant resources for scarce ones.

In Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest, gamers can become the greatest conqueror of all time by creating, building, and leading a civilization to transcend the ages - from the discovery of fire, to flight, to the next frontier: space.

From Prehistory to the Space Age of the 22nd Century, Empire Earth serves up gaming on an epic scale. Empire Earth and Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest cover over 500,000 years of human history, from the discovery of fire to the laser battles of the future. Each player takes control of a fledgling civilization and strives to forge the greatest of all empires.





Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest is optimized for the Intel(r) Pentium(r) 4 processor. Gamers with a PC equipped with a Pentium 4 processor will experience smoother animation, more lifelike video, and ultra-realistic environments.

About iGames

iGames is an organization of independent and franchised game centers working together to prosper as a whole. iGames has established strong relationships with a broad group of industry leaders in order to provide a wide variety of products, services and programs to member game centers and gamers. By working as a group, game centers are able to attain larger discounts, provide better events and make a big impact on the games industry. Some of the products and programs facilitated and/or developed by iGames include software licensing, hardware discounts, exclusive game previews / demos, classes, game launch events, tournaments, leagues and WAN parties. More information can be obtained at www.igames.org.

About Sierra

Sierra Entertainment, Inc., http://www.sierra.com, a studio of the Games division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment software. Based in Bellevue, WA, Sierra is renowned for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles that represent a wide variety of computer entertainment on game consoles and PC platforms.

The other press release is concerning the Empire Earth Expanion Beta Testing. Here it is in all it's glory:

Thousands Invited to Beta-Test Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest
Open Beta Coming Monday, August 5th Gives Gamers Opportunity to Preview this Holiday's Hottest Expansion Pack

BELLEVUE, WA (August 1, 2002) - Sierra(tm) Entertainment Inc, a studio of the Games division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, and MadDoc Software today announced that starting Monday, August 5th, thousands of gamers will have the opportunity to participate in the public beta test for Empire Earth(tm): The Art of Conquest(tm), their upcoming expansion pack for last year's runaway hit real-time strategy game, Empire Earth. The beta test program will focus on multiplayer play balancing and load testing to ensure the best possible launch for the ambitious expansion pack.

On Monday, a special beta version of Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest will be available for download via Sierra's FTP servers. Gamers interested in participating in the beta test will be able to play a single multiplayer map through all 15 of the expansion pack's ages and test out the new units, powers, and buildings being added to Empire Earth. The beta will also include a sneak preview of the new multiplayer interface built for Empire Earth that is designed to make Internet gaming easier and more fun for gamers of all skill levels.

More information about Empire Earth and the beta test program can be found at http://www.empireearth.com/. The game is scheduled for release this Fall.

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest includes three new single-player campaigns set in ancient Rome, the Pacific Theater of World War II, and Asia in the 22nd century. In addition, each of the 21 pre-designed civilizations in the game gains a unique special power, building, or unit. Examples include: the Kingdom of Italy's Metallurgy power, which allows them to pay building costs with gold or iron interchangeably; Great Britain's S.A.S. unit will be able to plant demolitions and swim across water; and the United States' market building will allow that civilization to trade abundant resources for scarce ones.

In Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest, gamers can become the greatest conqueror of all time by creating, building, and leading a civilization to transcend the ages - from the discovery of fire, to flight, to the next frontier: space.

From Prehistory to the Space Age of the 22nd Century, Empire Earth serves up gaming on an epic scale. Empire Earth and Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest cover over 500,000 years of human history, from the discovery of fire to the laser battles of the future. Each player takes control of a fledgling civilization and strives to forge the greatest of all empires.

About Mad Doc Software

Mad Doc Software, LLC was founded in November 1999 by Dr. Ian Lane Davis, formerly Techical Director at Activision's Santa Monica studio. Mad Doc is comprised of developers with a wealth of game experience, having been key players on such games as Dark Reign, Battlezone, Civilization: Call To Power, Star Trek: Armada, System Shock, Thief, Flight Unlimited, Thief 2: The Metal Age, System Shock 2, and Flight Unlimited II. The experience, drive, professionalism, and creativity of the Mad Doc team is now focused on developing the next generation of ground-breaking games - a commitment that places it squarely at the leading edge of the game industry.

About Sierra

Sierra Entertainment, Inc., http://www.sierra.com, a studio of the Games division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment software. Based in Bellevue, WA, Sierra is renowned for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles that represent a wide variety of computer entertainment on game consoles and PC platforms.