Yes, BUT, to make the 2D unit models, I read that the devs had to recreate the AoC sprites in 3D models, so, somewhere there should be all AoE1 and AoE2 units as 3D models. Pretty neat, uh?
This fully. Like make the Academy the UU and UT building.
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The thing is Sprites are basically PNGs you can easily convert them and they likely still have the raws.
3D models are a bit more complicated and AoE3DE uses a pretty ancient format (the engine is 20 years old by now). Also 3D models that are just used to make screenshots have to be 0 optimised and don’t have to be perfectly rigged because well they just have to look good once.
But I wouldn’t be surprised to see a unit or two from AoE1 and AoE2 in AoE3 for the anniversary event in October.
I’m not demanding all AoE1 units to be ported to AoE2 but it be nice to see some of them.
Any change would affect balance, even seemingly innocuous things like formations, gates, and improved pathing. I don’t think garrisoning would have as big an effect on balance as allowing AoE1 civs to play on AoE2 map scripts, since the resource distributions (and sometimes starting objects, e.g. on Arena) are very different from the AoE1 maps.
So I’m not opposed to things that change the balance – I just don’t think balance changes should be made purely in an attempt to level the playing field between AoE1 and AoE2 civs, an endeavour that is sure to fail anyway (especially since AoE2 civs can build castles).
Yes, I do mean that. No, it’s not essential, and it wasn’t essential in AoE2 either – but it feels like a big QoL improvement when collecting food from herdables and lurables.
I like this idea, but it really highlights that everybody’s idea of what “AoE1 on the AoE2 engine” means is different. Obviously it would have some of the extra features of AoE2, but which ones? And at what point does it cease to be AoE1 and start to be a new game that happens to have some content from AoE1?
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You do have some of them by event (AoE scout, AoE Legionary), and some integrated in editor (Heavy swordsman)
My idea would be to make them about equal on the battlefield but unequal in siege.
This would make it the most useful for scenarios. And for a lot of casual PvE players it’d probably be pretty nice to have any enemy that is equal in the battlefield but they can hide from behind their castles if something goes wrong.
That is true.
I don’t know if AoE1 needs unique units.
Also the concept of having the “unique unit building” is kinda outdated.
Unique units are something normal in AoM, AoE3, AoEO and AoE4, not something you need a special building for.
The English have Longbows instead of Archers and not Longbows and Archers.
But a lot of AoE1 units are designed for specific civilisations already. Legions and Centurions are referencing Rome, Chariots look Egyptian and ironically the Sword line looks quit Greek despite not being available to them.
Regional Units might be the more interesting concept for AoE1 then unique units.
But I think AoE1 should be kept more close to the original in scope and content first and then potentially expanded with DLC.
There are mods I know. I’ve even made a small one for myself.
But that’s not the same because it just changes the appearance of an existing unit and it’s always annoying to have people install a mod to play your scenario.
The last AoE1 unit to be actually added to AoE2 was the Priest in the African Kingdoms years ago.
The Broad Swordsman (Heavy Swordsman) was there since AoK.
But it’s one of the most Bronze Age looking units so one of the least “useful” ones.
The Legionary used to be a Legion+Centurion hybrid before they gave it the Late Antiquity style.
Why not play Rome at War? I know it’s not an AoE1 DE port or anything, which is definitely good, but it sounds kind of like what you want. I’m also noticing that you seem to be basically alone with your argument, which suggests it may not fly too well.
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Never said I don’t like that mod.
People have been suggesting to port AoE1DE to the AoE2DE engine for years. Some people even tried to port AoE1 to AoE2 back in the day.
Most people don’t seem to be interested into crossplay abilities, but my point is mostly that it wouldn’t be much more work to add it.
And for only Editor Units. Why not? It would be very little work for the developers even if they would port all of them. Not that I think all units would be useful in AoE2DE though.
Usefulness review:
Town Centre
Villager
- Not very useful
- looks similar to AoE2 villager
- probably very hard to implement
- not really worth it
Barracks
Clubman
- More primitive then Militia
- Still potentially useful as a bandit unit
- Low usefulness
Axeman
- Axe doesn’t look like a stone axe tbh.
- More useful as a bandit like unit then Clubman
- Medium usefulness
Short Swordsman
- Kinda Greek looking but not that much
- Would look less out of place then the European looking Milita line in many places.
- High Usefulness
Broad Swordsman
- Very Greek looking for a unit that is not available to the Greeks.
- Low Usefulness but already in AoE2
Long Swordsman/Legion
- Kinda Greek looking again but can work for Romans too.
- Looks more like Late Antiquity unit
- High Usefulness
Slinger
- Pretty neutral looking
- Less out of place then a Crossbow in many parts of the world and doesn’t look as distinctively Inca like the AoE2 equivalent.
- High Usefulness
Archery Range
Bowman
- A simple Bowman, looks very neutral
- High Usefulness
Improved Bowman
- A bit less simple but still neutral
- High Usefulness
Composite Bowman
- Looks pretty Japanese and therefor Medieval
- Very high Usefulness
Chariot Archer
- Looks very Ancient and very Egyptian
- Low Usefulness
(Heavy) Horse Archer
- More simplistic looking then it’s AOE2 cousin
- Design is relatively timeless and would work perfectly in most or Eurasia
- High Usefulness
Elephant Archer
- Looks to different from AoE2 elephant units
- Very low Usefulness
Stable
Scout
- Very simplistic unit again
- Not really out of place anywhere but not really militaristic looking.
- Could be used as a Scout or civilian unit
- High Usefulness
Chariot
- Looks very Ancient and very Egyptian
- Low Usefulness
Scythe Chariot
- More modern and more neutral looking
- Doesn’t look out of place next to a Ratha
- Medium Usefulness
Cavalry
- Kinda Greek looking but more neutral
- More neutral than a knight so could work in Asia
- Medium Usefulness
Heavy Cavalry/Cataphract
- Late Antiquity Cataphract
- Similar to Sogdian Cataphract (Editor Unit) and therefor definitely not out of place
- Less distinctive European designed compared to the Knight line
- Very high Usefulness
War and Armoured Elephant
- Looks to different from AoE2 elephant units
- Very low Usefulness
Camel Rider
- A lot less Arabic looking then the AoE2 equivalent
- Potentially useful for none Arabic armies
- Medium Usefulness
Academy
Hoplite
- Pretty Greek looking
- Low Usefulness
Phalanx/Centurion
- Late Antiquity Roman/Greek look
- Wouldn’t look wrong fighting Goths or Celts
- High Usefulness
Siege Workshop
Stone Thrower/Catapult/Heavy Catapult
- Timeless Catapult design
- Wouldn’t look wrong next to an Onager (technically is an Onager)
- High Usefulness
Ballista/Helepolis
- Smaller then a Scorpion
- Maybe wrong scale?
- Medium Usefulness
Temple
Priest
- Less European looking
- Already in AoE2 but slightly bugged because Relics
- High Usefulness
Dock
Fishing Boat and Fishing Ship
- Both relatively simple vessels
- Potentially nice deco objects
- Code to make them fish might make them buggy
- High Usefulness
Light and Heavy Transport
- Both bigger civilian ships
- Don’t really look ancient
- Code to make them transport could cause bugs though
- High Usefulness
Scout Ship
- Simple medium size ship
- Would work well in many parts of the world for a simple arrow ship
- Very high Usefulness
War Galley
- A bit less neutral looking then Scout Ship
- Still would work in many parts of the world
- High Usefulness
Trireme/Catapult Trireme/Jugganaught
- Very distinctive ancient look
- Doesn’t even show the weapon it’s using on the sprite
- Low Usefulness
Fire Galley
- Strange look tbh
- Works very different then the AoE2 equivalent
- Low Usefulness
Summery
I gave 3 units a very high usefulness ranking and 13 units a high usefulness ranking (technically 14 because Stone Thrower and Catapult look slights different)
That’s all very subjective.
It would be nice to see some more of them in AoE2. They already made them so why not add them to AoE2 too, right?
If Ancient Friends is just an event with a few event mods, that’d be a disappointment.
If Ancient Friends gives us a ancient themed gamemode with some new Scenario Editor units, that’d be nice.
If Ancient Friends is a full port or AoE1DE to the AoE2DE engine, that’d be amazing.
3 Likes
You see the problem, majority of the units are Greek looking. How is the rest of the world’s ancient age getting equal treatment?
6 Likes
I fully support this. Mixing AoE2 civs with AoE1 ones wouldn’t feel right.
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I’d enjoy quite a few more AoE1 units available in the Editor. Even units like the clubman would be kind of fun for whimsical scenarios involving magical time travel, encountering an isolated island of cavemen lost in time, or an ancient cutscene. Although TBH your going through the list made me realize how many AoE1 units wouldn’t really add much value to the AoE2 Editor. But certainly the most generic looking ones would be cool.
At some point, I think an AoE2 remake/conversion with AoE1 units just has to be a passion project of the fans who really want it. It seems like there’s a very small minority of people who are very interested in this idea, which seems like a possible basis to form a group for a project. AFAIK the visual and modding resources are all there.
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AoE 3 DE has a few modding discords. Maybe Skadiesku could setup a discord themself and get enough people to start something cool
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Yes, at least what I ask is that they put doors, that resources can be exchanged in the market and increase the population of the campaigns from 50 to 200 at least…
Of course, if you put all the content of AoE 1 DE in AoE 2 DE, AoE 1 DE directly dies as a game and loses all its sense of existence…it is the same as if you wanted to put the 3 DE in the 2 DE, you would also kill it…
You don’t necessarily have to wait for AoE 5 to play in Antiquity… he you can download AoE Online from Steam and voila…
Of course, that’s what I think…the saga would lose its raison d’être and become an Empire Earth 2.0 PD:Gatlings Camels of AoE 3 vs Roman centurions of AoE 1 vs xd…
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That’s true… the same and it is impossible to port AoE 3 DE in AoE 2 DE because of the graphics engine issue (Genie for AoE 2, Bang for AoE 3)…
AoE2DE doesn’t support additive modding.
You have to replace the full dataset of AoE2 because of engine limitations.
That means you have to update your mod every time to game gets patched. And it’s not like you can rollback to an older version of AoE2DE.
There have already been some ancient mod projects of AoE2DE
ROMAE AD BELLUM - (RAW:E) Rome at War Expansion Concept
[WIP] Ancient Civilizations - Total Conversion Mod
AoE1 to AoE2 Port (total conversion mod) - stopped progress
The mod servers also have some limitations to the Rome at War mod is in 7 parts.
AoE1DE is already dead. There has been 1 patch per year in the last few years. That’s it.
They even make an official tournament using the old RoR 1.0 version, that’s how dead AoE1DE is.
No absolutely not.
The engine of AoE3DE is completely different then AoE2DE that makes no sense.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to port AoE2DE to AoE3DE because AoE3DE has the more modern engine?
An AoE1->2 port is pretty simple for the most part because all the assets can be made compatible with very little changes.
This mod has been updated. We have a single file DL option on Moddb and a DAT version to support Mulitplayer.
Multiplayer support Mods Single - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio
The game just updated and no bugs have been discovered yet but we are ready to patch rapidly if needed.
We are continually developing new content so we do have frequent patches mainly to add new civs including buildings and units etc.
If you haven’t DL or tried our mod recently, all the units you are asking to port from AoE1 are already in our mod.
2 Likes
I see what you mean, but I think the real problem AoE2 has with unique units is not that they come from a special building, but that the unique unit building is more than three times the price of any other production building, and is built from the scarcest resource in the game rather than the most abundant one. I think having a unique unit building with a similar cost to other production buildings would work well.
That was a long time ago, like @rjgt3838 said, the mod has basically all been condensed into one upload on ModDB, with only the multiplayer datamod published online.
That’s true, that’s why it wouldn’t be easy to port AoE 1 DE in AoE 2…it would be very cumbersome every time you updated the game…
And you want to finish killing it completely, turning it into an ancient mod of AoE 2…in addition it is not only the civs, you have to port all the campaigns and you would have to rebalance them in AoE 2…and in turn continue to release expansions for AoE 2, AoE 3 and AoE 4 and let’s not talk if they also release a definitive version for AoM…it would be too much work for the devs…
Yes too, but you would have to adapt the units of AoE 2 for snaring and that they are not destroyed by the cavalry and artillery units…In addition, AoE 2 civs could use decks and metropolises or not? If you take out the decks, you would slow down the game a lot…
This unit can fit in for a polynesian unit.The dude even looks like jason mamoa.