Age of Empires Online: Need information on game modes

[Dorkfoot]

I think this game will be awesome as I red articles about the gameplay but still I am a bit confused. Can someone explain me the game modes, like: am I offline when playing campaigns? Or is it always online? I know I am confused and I am not finding the correct answers. And what’s the difference between town halls and capital cities? Or those both in your city? Is this a game world only for you where you don’t really see other players but can chat with them and only see other players in co op, pvp and multi player?

[Abbie]

It is always online. Capital city is like the home city in aoe3, but much more advanced. Town hall (I think you meant town center) is like in every other AoE game, but it can attack units without garrisoning villagers (like in AoM). I have heard this, so I will say it now: capital city can NOT be attacked. You can chat with other players all the time (there is always a chat box on the left down side of the screen. u can make it smaller/bigger, but you can’t close it)

[Common]

You login choose a realm, civ and name it, and then you can play the game. And you can chat, mail and trade with other players in that realm, but is it then only time you see other players in co op or pvp or is it a huge map with thousands of players on it who can wipe your city of the earth whenever they like? Is there a market place where you can trade items for other or collect gold? I read that when you go offline your civ is still gathering resources, if so what happens when a source runs out of resources?

[desilva]

I don't really understand the question. The chat is up during PvE, PvP "if you want it", and when you at your capital or visiting someone else's capital. I think that is done though trading with other players in the "trade" chat box, thing. What they mean is you have building or buildings that produce crafting material "planks, etc" every 30 minutes that you use for crafting other material or building buildings. So when you go offline the building will still be making the crafting material. It goes up to 100 materials per building. So if you reach that and you are offline it will not give you anymore until you take the crafting material out of the building.

[RyanInt]

The old style, AoE 2 and AoM gameplay is like a game within a game, sort of. You have your capital city, from which you develop your capital city, unlock your tech tree, and basically upgrade your stuff. Then you take on a quest, or you go into PvP, and then you play like it were standard AoE. Basically, your capital city just upgrades what you can do in the quests and in PvP. there are certain Farmville elements, like waiting for factories to produce stuff.