any command a player sends (such as moving a unit) is sheduled to be executed two “turns” later.

each client simulates the game on its own, there is no central server holding state.

The AoE network architecture was designed in the LAN party era, commonly referred to as the 90s. but these few leaks were relatively easy to secure in subsequent patches and revisions. The gamasutra article also involved a curious paragraph: Because the game's outcome depended on all of the users executing exactly the same simulation, it was extremely difficult to hack a client (or client communication stream) and cheat.

They had to simulate several hundred units for up to 8 (!) players on the internet.

I stumbled upon an interesting gamasutra article about how the first Age of Empire games managed to accomplish a (at the time) daunting task. Naturally, I sucked at the game but got interested in how it works internally. While looking for a way to connect with nature during the corona lockdown (without leaving my basement ofc.), I stumbled upon AoE on steam. Like its predecessors it let’s you play online matches against real opponents. Numerous expansion packs and remakes have been published since.Įxactly twenty years after the original Age of Empires 2 was released, the “Definitive Edition” remake was published in 2019. BackgroundĪge of Empires (AoE) is a very popular real-time strategy game series with roots in the late 90s. Then I’ll explain how I interactively explored the game’s internals, until I could do things that should not be possible.Ī proof of concept that lets you instantly win every online match is provided at the end of the post.

My efforts did not only educate me about lock-step simulation and 90s coding practices, but also lead to various multiplayer hacks.įirst I’ll give a brief background on the game’s multiplayer architecture. This blog post describes my lockdown project of (partially) reversing the popular 2019 videogame Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.

Age of empires definitive edition guide