Good morning, ageiv community.
Not so long ago, i made a post, saying that aoe4 was objectively in its worst moment since launch, due to a messed up design development vision, expansion content that did not satisfy the majority of the player-base, lack of communication from the developers, and so on, so on.
However, im so happy that i can say this right now, this year seems to be like aoe4 is making a huge comeback.
After the disastrous Dynasties Of The East DLC, it seems like World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment went back to the white board, and they seem to have found the core issues the game faces right now.
1-) Wrong Priorities are now gone!
Im going to call from now on 2025 as the dark age of aoe4, because i mean, in 2023 we had sultans ascend, in 2024 we didnt even want civilizations because we were still busy learning everything sultans ascend had to offer, and in 2025 when we actually expected something new, we recieved two DLC’S of variant civilizations, and like 4 separate missions, like, not even an entire campaign, that is sad.
The priority of 2025 according to the developers was to make “short but repeatable experiences”, alright, who asked for this? It was simply what the community didnt want after a year of drought, with literally zero content.
Okay, it seems that after hitting the wall, they went back to the studio to set their priorities right again, and guess what! This 2026, we will have 2 DLC again, the minor one being a campaign + CIVILIZATION DLC, which is absolutely perfect and it blows Cross and Rose out of the water, and in my opinion it holds even more value than Dynaties of The East, but again thats just my opinion. And the MAIN dlc of 2026 which is set to release later this year supposedely it will have another 2 civilizations, no variants, one civilization already being confirmed, the vikings, which was a community favorite, GREAT!
2-) Why selling variant civs only dlc doesnt work.
Okay so, looking at dynasties of the east, something becomes clear, variant civ DLC’s is not a good move, you have to bundle them with something, like a campaign or individual missions, kinda like what they did with Cross And Rose. Also, the community expects these variant civ dlc’s to be the minor dlc’s of the year, so you absolutely need to release a civilization dlc later that year, dont make the same mistake you did like in 2025, devs.
It seems the developers actually understood this as well, and they are heading in the right direction.
3-) Things to improve
Just my two cents here, you guys are heading in the right direction now with the right priorities set, and a year that seems great in terms of content, bringing what the community asked for and even more! We were only promised a campaign in this dlc, and we recieved a civilization + campaign, which was a more than pleasant surprise.
However now that youre heading in the right direction, make sure to also improve these aspects:
- Improve the design vision, what makes a variant, a variant?
I think most of us were confused with the Jurchens (Jin Dynasty), they are technically a historical variation of china, even if they were ethnically different, same as ayyubids with abbasids…
So, why are the jurchens considered a civilization and not a variant? What is the metric? Is a civilization a faction that doesnt share any attributes with its parent civilization? In that case, the templars should be a civilization too.
Is a civilization a faction with its own music, sound effects and visuals?? , we dont know, its not clear.
The design vision needs to improve in that regard, its not solid right now. And i think the community would like to know.
- Just delete the seasonal events content from the main game, or change the way its handled
Add them as mod! Downloadable from the store, it kinda breaks the inmersion of opening aoe4, feeling like im going to play a historical game and i click on select a biome and i see: Enchanted grove.
Or hey! if this is too big of an issue, at least make it clear that its seasonal content! Just change the biome description and add a warning that says: “SEASONAL EVENT CONTENT” or something that makes sure that the player knows its not part of the main experience, these little things help.
- The community needs roadmaps again, the communication should be better.
Not only it will keep the community busy discussing future content to be added like it happened back in the day, it will give you room to cancel a feauture before being developed if the community just dislikes it.
- Improve modding
Modders have been living in trenches for years now, right now the modding situation is so bad, that 70% of the active modders can all be found in Future Kingdoms Studio. A development team of 10 modders, yes, the modding community has been reduced to 10 MODDERS.
That just straight out proves how whack the situation is for modders, they still cant add 3D models , they still cant add sound effects… the editor constantly crashes…
Future Kingdoms is basically carrying aoe4 modding right now, it would be a shame if they ever stop what they are doing, because the day that happens aoe4 modding will die completely.
. Campaigns are still a more than welcome adition.