I want to say that I look forward to the new game. I have been playing Aoe1-2 for a long time and I also enjoyed playing DE versions. I believe the new game will be great. I wanted to write my own expectations
1- Official Blood Dlc (like TW)
The Middle Ages is the bloodiest period in history. So there must be brutality and blood in the game. Maybe flowing blood should be able to change the color of the soil and water.
2- Weather and Nature Events.
Nature can influence the course of wars even today. The new conditions brought by the air must affect the world. Nature armies-castles-agriculture-can affect visibility.
3- Small, medium, large, huge maps + Camera angle variety
I want to have all kinds of maps. I want to have various camera angles. And the units in the game should look remotely and closely, very clearly and great.
4- Wide variety of unit animations
In addition to the dialogues, Units must feel alive. For example; A soldier standing by the river can drink water from the river or put his feet, or a soldier standing in the fruit trees area can eat fruit from the trees. Wild animals can eat the corpses of soldiers who die in the game.
If large castles or settlements can be built as we see in the trailer, the game should be faster and generous. It is more fun to fight than to build a base. Units should be cheap and come out fast
Torches on the walls of the castle are similar to torches in minecraft. Also, there is an incompatibility in the joints of the walls, they must be fixed. https://imgyukle.com/i/QzL5V6
Quality and Modern Multiplayer
Multiplayer games that support more than eight players. Modern online features, including the ability to rejoin the game when disconnected.
Naval battles should be added to the game, albeit limited.
I played Aoe2 and studied aoe3, was beating 2 levels above me in mp back in the day. I prefer 3 over 2 because of the card system. I feel the card system added so much more depth to the game. I really hope the card system will be implemented in aoe4. Also, the trailer shows xbox add in the beginning. I really hope they donât screw this up and make it for console and port it to pcâŚ
Yes, DoW3 failed because of Sega and lame designers who wanted to enter super monopolized fast paced MOBA market where only games people see are (Starcraft 2), LoL, dota2 and HoS.
I think from 3, they should bring the graphics (water and vegetation!!!), havok destruction and only the balanced cards from AOE3. You know how OP Japanese cards were (on top of an OP civ). Card system definitely gave AOE3 little speed. But I will be happy if the game ships without the cards to be honest. They did card mechanics with Halo Wars 2, and itâs total business and micro transaction. And they have said 4 will not have any Micro transactions, so I donât know manâŚreally.
Toggle should be OK. All the Relic games besides Home World had toggles for blood and gore. I think thatâs how it should be. The small blood pool is fine like how it was in 2.
Weather System, especially day/night, rain, snow, sunny. And fog is important if (i know for sure) terrain is a new feature.
Small, medium, large maps plus rotations and zoom levels. Huge can be added via mods. I worry about stability. RTS is a simulation at an ant level.
Just do one more step than what AOE3 did, I will be happy. Eye candy doesnât matter dude (like torch). I doubt you will see that when youâre playing.
Dedicated servers please.
I donât know about that, AOE3, was ample enough. Though relic can do it, because they know how spaceships work from homeworld.
Iâd like to see a cinematic camera mode and cinematic cutscenes for campaigns.
Different looking units - slightly different height and anatomy. Authentic, e.g. skin colors have to fit with the civilizations. African civs should have a very huge majority of non-white units and Europeans very huge majority of white skinned units etc. Normally this is self-evident, but not in games like Battlefield 5, where it looks like every 4th or 5th european WW2 soldier were black or female.
Same for buildings (confirmed by the trailer)
Memorable sounds, typical for an Age of Empires game. You should hear single sword strikes, arrow hits. Speaker with differents accents etc.
To your point 2: General insects and small animals in the near of agriculture or trees would be nice.
I used to play AoE all the time as a kid, nowadays Iâm more into CoH for its faster pace and PvP.
However, I wouldnt want AoE4 to be a medieval CoH3, there are aspects to the AoE series that makes it AoE.
To me, these aspects are:
Civ. building (Tech advancement, Base building)
Exploration
Diplomacy (coyld be incented by Trade)
So, there would need to be a balance between the wish to conquer and the benefits of peaceful resolution. Many players will want to conquer all, which should very well be a viable strategy for the era if you are looking at for example the Huns.
At the same time, countries such as France, Italian city-states, Spain would rely on both diplomacy and conquest to further their goals.
One way of motivating players to see diplomacy as a viable option is by uneven distribution of economy, say that player A has a production of special resource A while player B has a production of special resource B. Trade carts moving between these countries could yield gold and special resources (sort of how they only generate gold in AoE2).
Maybe a player could for strategic reasons ban the trade of a certain special resource at the expense of a diminished trade return?
I don´t think diplomacy fits in any way for the franchise and i can´t think of any useful system that would impact gameplay in a good way. The age-series is about war, not about simulation.
I think from 3, they should bring the graphics (water and vegetation!!!), havok destruction and only the balanced cards from AOE3. You know how OP Japanese cards were (on top of an OP civ). Card system definitely gave AOE3 little speed. But I will be happy if the game ships without the cards to be honest. They did card mechanics with Halo Wars 2, and itâs total business and micro transaction. And they have said 4 will not have any Micro transactions, so I donât know manâŚreally.
I also forgot to tell you. They SHOULD use orchestral scores to produce music for the AOEIV, AOEIIIâs music is still melody to ears because how great it was.