In principle, is it possible to play other video games on ESO?

[Interjection]

In principle, would it be possible to play other video games on ESO?

People playing the same patch/client can play together, for example EP or WoL

So, would it be possible (in theory) to play other games, for example AOE2, on the ESO servers?

I'm guessing it would be, but not without majorly rewriting parts of AOE2 or something like that? It wouldn't just be a case of hooking it up to connect to the right server?

[pecelot]

IMO despite the fact there are ESO-friendly mods like EP, NE or WoL, their core is still AoE3. My guess would then be rather no, unless you adjust entire AoE2 to AoE3 „standards". I guess with AoM it'd be easier

[Interjection]

I wonder if AOM could be recreated as an AOE3 mod. And I wonder if it would good enough to be of any interest to the AOM Voobly community.

[Rikikipu]

Pretty sure you can play AOM on eso servers. You just need to manage te homecity things. Btw I'm planning to add AOM terrain textures to EP and AOM maps if the rendering is good.

[kami_ryu]

Isn't Voobly the platform which supports many different games already?

Either way at this point the best thing would be for steam to offer their own servers to play.

[Interjection]

That sounds awesome Riki, do share some screenshots once you've got something working :)

[lemmings121]

Pretty sure you can play AOM on eso servers. You just need to manage te homecity things. Btw I'm planning to add AOM terrain textures to EP and AOM maps if the rendering is good.

"oh, you complain that aztec in siberia isnt historically accurate? ok, fine. New esoc map is f-ing erebus, with rivers of lava everywhere."

[macacoalbino]

FIRE JUNK OP NEW META HYPE

[gibson]

Anything is possible with jesus, so jot that down

[EAGLEMUT]

Very interesting question.

In theory, for other games in general such as AoE2, I'd say it might be possible, but probably not worth the effort. You would need to rewrite parts of AoE2 to even connect to the server and somehow use the interface, and then for example I'm not sure if stuff like choosing maps of a foreign format could even work. You're better off creating a mod on the AoE3 engine directly (like WoL, NE, or AoE1:HD), instead of trying to rewrite parts of an older engine of an entirely different game like AoE2.

However, if we're talking about AoM, the situation is not the same. Since AoE3 runs on the same/updated engine of AoM, and ESO1 actually was originally the official multiplayer platform of AoM, an integration could in theory not be so difficult. These two games are really really close to each other behind the curtains. Fun fact: AoE3 is checking for its game updates through aom.zone.com even to this day.

Both AoE2 and AoM already have multiple active multiplayer platforms though, even an officially supported one for each. I'm not so sure ESO has much to offer to these titles. As for recreating AoM on the AoE3 engine as a mod, there's not really enough benefit either I feel, the engines are already almost the same, so why bother? AoE2 could benefit from the new engine, but it seems to me most of their playerbase are dead set on their old-game-feel and wouldn't even like our updated graphics and stuff.

Thinking about this further, another candidate comes to mind.. *drumroll* AoEO?! It's a game built on top of an updated AoE3 engine with no current multiplayer service at all. Now that is a game whose playerbase begs for an ability to play online and ESO could perhaps be a feasible option. I'm not familiar with how hugely the network code was rewritten for AoEO, but maybe there's a chance..

One last thing I want to point out here is that Microsoft's PoV on this should not be ignored. They probably wouldn't like to see their servers being used for just any game, especially if it would be a non-Microsoft game, so I'd call that walking on thin ice.

[macacoalbino]

Thinking about this further, another candidate comes to mind.. *drumroll* AoEO?! It's a game built on top of an updated AoE3 engine with no current multiplayer service at all. Now that is a game whose playerbase begs for an ability to play online and ESO could perhaps be a feasible option. I'm not familiar with how hugely the network code was rewritten for AoEO, but maybe there's a chance..

AoE4 confirmed!

[Interjection]

Thanks for the detailed reply, EAGLEMUT. Wasn't somebody sort of working on an AOEO multiplayer?

[pecelot]

@Aizamk

[Aizamk]

Me no works on slightly ill eagle stuff

[fei123456]

is it possible to play aoe3 on other platforms?

[pecelot]

Yes — Voobly and GameRanger

[_H2O]

Probably not, its built in a way that would only support p2p games. Even then it would be hard enough to do that I am pretty sure its not worth doing.