
AI EDITOR UTILITY DOCUMENTATION

Age of Empires AI Editor Version 1.0
Copyright  1997 Stoyan Ratchev
All Rights Reserved.

Written by Stoyan Ratchev, sratchev@mail.techno-link.com
Posted to AoE Heaven, http://www.heavenweb.com/age/
This program is freeware.
Please e-mail me for bug-reports, suggestions, and comments.

Age of Empires a game by Microsoft && Ensemble Studios.
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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CONTENTS
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Introduction
Installation
Starting & Using
Changes
Bugs & Limitations
Future Upgrades

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INTRODUCTION
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AI Editor (AIEDIT) is a Windows application for creating and editing
Age of Empires (AoE) AI (artificial intelligence) files.

The AI files are basically text files with extension .AI. Modifying them
allows the creation of new computer player strategies. They can be
included in scenarios, and this generally make scenarios a greater
challenge and more fun to play. The game doesn't include any utility for
editing such files - the text editor is supposed to be the one. But if
you have tried it with the text editor, you know it's not the
easiest job. So I decided to write a little utility to fill in the gap.

The contents of the AI files will not be described here. Basically they
contain the units, buildings and research that will be performed
by the computer player in the general order listed.  The computer will
try to progress through the list and maintain what has been
built. If you need more information about how you should place the items
in the list, refer to the appropriate documentation. A very good place
to start is the article "Breakdown of .ai" on AoE Heaven.

Please note that this software is FREE and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO
WARRANTY of any kind, so use it at your own risk. 

Microsoft (MS) and Age of Empires (AoE) are trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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INSTALLATION
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It's very simple. The original package is a ZIP archive called
AIEDIT.ZIP, which contains the following files:

AIEDIT.EXE 		- executable
AIEDIT.TXT		- the file you are currently reading

After unzipping the archive, copy the executable to a location somewhere
in your path, so you can use it without specifying its full name.
Also you may wish to associate the .AI files with this utility - use the
Windows Explorer to do it.

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STARTING & USING
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To start AI Editor simply click on its icon. You can also start it from
the command line and specify a filename to edit, or click on some .AI
file in the Explorer to open it.

The Ai Editor menu contains all commands you can execute:

File
	New		Create a new AI file with Town Center 
	Open ... 	Open an existing AI file
	Save (F2)	Save the currently edited AI file
	Save As ...	Save the currently edited AI file under a new name
	Exit (F3)	Exit AI Editor

Item
	Add ...	(Ins)	Add a new item to the list AFTER the selected item
	Edit ...(Enter)	Edit the selected item
	Delete 	(Del)	Delete the selected item

Help
	About ...	Shows info about AI Editor

The "Add ..." and "Edit ..." commands open a dialog to edit the item.
All controls in this dialog are considered self-explanatory :-)

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CHANGES
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None yet. This is the first release of AI Editor.

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BUGS & LIMITATIONS
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For now not available.

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FUTURE UPGRADES
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I will try to keep up with the game and provide bug-fixes and future 
upgrades to anyone interested. They will probably be available on the 
AoE Heaven site at:

  http://www.heavenweb.com/age/

This site contains also some scenarios already available on the Internet 
that you can try with the trial version of AoE, and few other utilities.
Their number is expected to grow, so check this great site regularly.


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(C) 1997 Stoyan Ratchev - All Rights Reserved.
Email: sratchev@mail.techno-link.com
Last updated on 5 Nov 1997.


