Starting Out - Part II

This is a follow up article to my first one aimed at those just starting out on the great AoEO adventure.

Today, I'll try to explain a few more bits and pieces about the AoEO screen.

Some items are visible in the identical positions in both your capital city (ie when you're not on a quest), and while you are on a quest, although their use might vary slightly in each case.

Below I have grabbed a screenshot of my one of my capital cities.

A shot from my Greek capital city.

Click Open the book below to find out more.




While this is a non-quest shot, the items I'm about to explain are all visible while questing.

Co-op

Let's start with what you will see when co-opping.


Firstly, there are a number of ways to organise or get invited to a co-op.

If you have a friends list (generally organised via your Microsoft Live account), you can invite one of them to form a party.  In the top right hand corner, both your name and your friend's name will show up, and they will continue to show up until you kick them off, or one of you log off.  In that situation, the host (the one who invited the other), will pick a quest, tick the co-op box (if co-op is allowed), and your friend will automatically be invited to play that game.

The small twin box you can see between the two players' names is utilised whenever you have used a consumable which impacts the value of your questing over a certain time period.  There are some consumables which increse your coin or experience points for a 24 hour period, and that will show up here if you have played that card.

The other way to form a co-op party is to simply tick the co-op box, and that will invite all players who are currently online to join you.  This is a typical quest map, and you can see that I have ticked Elite mode and the co-op box:

Players on the LFG channel  will see it show up here....

Ticker box

The ticker box is that box in the bottom left hand corner.  It is generally divided into four tabs:  General, LFG, Ticker, and Trade.

If you have advertised for a co-op partner, it will show up in the LFG tab (Looking for game).  Anyone online at the time can click the game and they will automatically get invited to your party. In the shot above, I have just completed a trade, and you can see the LFG tab is highlighted, and someone is advertising a co-op game.

The Trade tab is used to buy and sell items, and generally speaking you will get better deals here than if you try and sell via other means.

It's a good idea to keep an eye on the trade channel, but do not get too excited early on in your AoEO playing career.  Get a feel for what stuff is worth, and don't be afraid to ask for advice from those on there - the majority are helpful and will give you honest feedback.  As for the minority....

To trade, you right click the name, select trade and then wait for the other person to accept.

If you left click a name, you can whisper him a comment, ie a comment that only he can read.

In party mode, everything you write can only be seen by your co-op partner, and this is useful while questing (if you have time to write notes in the middle of a raging battle that is!)

Mini Map

The mini map is at the top right hand corner.  It provides a view of the whole map, and during questing, as your scout uncovers the terrain, you'll see more of the map opened up here.


Outside of quests, the four tabs around the diamond work as follows:

1. Small map, bottom left - allows you to pick different regions to visit.  If a quest is already open, you can initiate play from this screen.
2. Chest, top left - your empire vault is located here.  You can buy storage space using your empire points, and the benefit is that all of your civs share the same vault, so you can move things around quite easily.
3. Cog, top right - opens up the general menu for settings, to log out or to exit.
4. Box, bottom right - your storage for the civ you are currently playing.

During quests, these four tabs become the following:

1. The map still opens up, but you'll either only go there at the end of the quest to complete and get your goodies, or during the quest if you want to start again (made a fatal error, got run over, etc).
2. This becomes your alert button.  During a co-op quest, click and then click the mini map, and alert your co-op partner of something (like if you're getting pummelled by the enemy and need help).
3. General menu works the same.
4. Your civ specific storage works the same - you might come here if you want to activate a consumable, an item which can be used during a quest and which materialises automatically either around the town centre, or wherever you choose, depending on the item.

This is what the empire vault looks like  - I can store up to 240 items and share  across all my civs

Other

Finally, you have the display at the top middle of the screen.

If you look carefully, there are a series of four slots under the coins - from your capital city, you can populate these slots with consumables (say four most often used ones), and while on a quest, you can click one of these slots to get access to your consumable rather than go looking for it in your inventory.  Do not underestimate the value of saving a couple of seconds during a quest!

On the other side of that display, during a quest you can see another four slots which will show you  the four advisers you selected for the quest, just for info.

These slots, plus the ticker box can all be toggled on and off, meaning you can get them out of the way if you think they are distracting you from your real purpose - destroying the enemy!

Ok, that's it for starting out. I hope to dedicate future articles to actually playing the game, doing quests, little tricks, traps to avoid, and just enjoying the game generally.

May you age with speed, good grace and plenty of resources to crush the enemy!

Click here for part three of the Starting Out series.

Brawny Polecat