Animals than can be added to AoE2

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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A compilation of animals that can be added to AoE2.

Animal already in the game but who have more range in the past

There is animals in the game who have more range in the past, modder and developer can use more of them :

Brown bear : present in north Africa in Antiquity and the middle age
Elephant : present in north Africa in Antiquity, present in Syria until the time of the Assyrians
Gazelle : present in Arabia
Lion : present in middle east, Caucasus and India in Antiquity and the middle age. Present in Bulgaria and Greece in the Antiquity. Presnt in north until the XX th century.
Ostrich : present in Arabia until the XX th century.
Tiger : the Caspian tiger subspecies live until the XX th century. You can put tiger in Iran and Turkey.

Amphibian animal

A new type of animal who can move in water and land. In AoE3 there id treasure guardian who are in water and in land but there were different units (crocodile and hippopotamus). In SGBG there is aggressive wild animal in water. I propose than this units can move in water and land. Villager and fishing boat can attack them.

Crocodile : predator. There is many species who can threat human : Nile crocodile, saltwater crocodile, Mugger crocodile, american alligator are the most aggressive. Also there was Hanyusuchus sinensis a species who lived in southern China between the bronze age and the XVII th century who was very aggressive. Villager and Fishing boat can attack them but this animal give no food.

Hippopotamus : Aggressive huntables. Villager can hunt them. Fishing boat can hunt them and gather food.

Africa

Leopard : a reskin of the Snow leopard with different color and shorter tail. Many region of Africa lack lion because lion like open habitat adn dislike closed habitat like tropical forest. Leopard can also be useful in many region of asian.

Giraffe : Timid huntables

African elephant : Aggressive huntables. The wild elephant ingame is an asian elephant, reskin him in as an african elephant. The icon shows an African elephant, but the unit is an Asian elephant.
African buffalo : Aggressive huntables. Reskin of the water buffalo
Hippopotamus : Aggressive huntables
Warthog : Aggressive huntables. Reskin of the boar

Western Indian ocean islands

This region is interesting because in middle age there were still megafauna. Madagascar and the surrounding island were plentyfull of big animals. Most of the malagasy megafauna disappear during the middle age, many of them disappear circa 1000 AD during a drought. For the giant tortoise one of them survived on Madagascar until the middle age. Many survived until the colonization on the surrounding islands and there still giant tortoise in Aldabra island.

Aepyornis : Timid huntables. A big elephant bird, moa sized
Mulerornis : Timid huntables. A little elephant bird, ostrich sized
Mallagassy dwarf hippo : Timid huntables.
Giant lemur : Timid huntables. Many big species survived until the middle age : Archaeolemur, Hadropithecus, Megaladapis

Giant tortoise : “Wild Chicken” huntable (These animals have limited movement and will remain close to their spawn origin at all times). Unpushable. They give many food but can only be attack on melee and have and armor (arrow are not useful against a tortoise armor shell)

Asia

Domestic reindeer : Herdable. Many peoples have them in north Europa and Asia. Some mongolians have them.
Yak : Herdable

Reindeer : Timid huntables. Present in north Eurasia and America. There were still reindeer in the mountains of Scotland until 1000 AD. Viking in Greenland hunt them.

North America

Bald eagle : flying bird

Cougar : Predator useful in many regions because he have a big range (Alaska to Patagonia)

American bison : Aggressive huntables

Moose : Timid huntables
Pronghorn : Timid huntables

Javelina : already in the game but he have a boar skin, reskin him in Javelina.

South America

Andean region

Andean region are the most useful for the game because there is the Incas.

Condor : flying bird

Cougar : Predator useful in many regions because he have a big range (Alaska to Patagonia) and because some region of south America lack ingame predator : jaguar and wolf. Particularly the Andean region who are the most useful for the game.

Guananaco : Timid huntables
Rhea : Timid huntables

Alpaca : herdable with less food than llama

South America outside the andean region

Anaconda : predator than can slow down an unit.

Capibara : Timid huntables

Tapir : Aggressive huntables. Can also be used in central America

Europe

Moose : Timid huntables

Rabbit : Chicken like huntable (cannot be pushed)

Auroch : Aggressive huntables. Present in Europe until the XVI th century
European bison : Aggressive huntables. Present in western Europe until the time of Charlemagne who hunt them in France. Still present in eastern Europe.

Oceania

This region is not likely to be added in the game because they lack historic records of this time but if one day this is the case :

Dingo : there is dingo in Australia and mountain wild dog in New Guinea who look like the dingo. You can just reskin a wolf.

Casoar : Aggressive huntables

Emu : Timid huntables
Kangaroo : Timid huntables
Moa : Timid huntables

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South asia peacocks and jungle foul.

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You are actually proposing a big thing, that is, allowing the Fishing Ship to fire.
Maybe you just want it to be able to attack animals only, and I totally agree that watching Fishing Ships shooting animals with bows or harpoons will be fun, but if it can also attack other units like enemy ships and Docks, that will change the water meta even it may just have 3 damage with a range of 3 just same as the Villager hunting with bows.

I don’t sure if one type of skin for huntables is worth the work to change the hunting behavior.
But having variants of Wild Chicken is nice.

By the way we should introduce Duck and Wild Duck as the herdable and huntable animals too.

Not only Europe but also Asia please.

I don’t know if it is acceptable to allow the Wild Horse, Wild Camel and Wild Bactrian Camel to be not only killable but also gatherable. Some cultures have consumed camel meat and horse meat.

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I’d love to see mammoths and dinosaurs.

That would be really cool. :slight_smile:

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On the one hand, they wouldn’t fit in the game’s medieval time period. On the other hand, they would be totally dope for fantasy scenarios!

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We need animals resized. Wolves and boars are too large. Deer, tigers, lions and bears are too small compared to the wolves and boars. And we need pandas as neutral animals not stuck on a rock. Who’s stupid idea was that.

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It’s a joke, due to Three Kingdoms throwing things out of the window.

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The mammoths would fit in the stone age of ROR, but that’s about it

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You mean fire breathing dragons.

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Love your ideas , it will nice

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Basically we need a Tropical DLCs now. Most animals missing are form that region.

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There are mods that resize certain animals. There’s even a popular one that make boars larger (so that they’re easier for players to find, which sounds like the opposite of what you want). At some point, realism has to give way to readability. If it’s a serious enough issue for you, then maybe look into making (or finding) a mod that resizes the animals in a way that you like.

Pandas being stuck on a rock I think was due to a certain nation banning games that allowed players to kill pandas in it (or something along those lines). Got to respect political realities that might get AoE2 banned in certain countries.

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I upvote all the OP’s suggestions. To me, the localised wildlife and authentic foliage are some of the little details that make the game feel real. AOE3 did this really well, and it’s the main reason I won’t play AOE4. I’m so impressed that the recent patch added new animals and new biomes. I love it.

I second @Mahazona’s call for peafowl.

@CouguarLoup7693 - you could add rhinos to the list of animals that historically had larger distributions. They used to be all through Vietnam and into southern China. I wish we’d see this reflected in some of the scenarios and campaigns.

How about adding seals as a timid amphibious huntable? Grey seals around the British Isles (maybe beyond?), walrus for the Arctic, and Mediterranean monk seals for the Med.

Malayan tapir are a must for SE Asia (timid huntable).

I think it would be really cool if deer could replace themselves over time. They’re really fecund IRL, even with human hunting pressure. I’d love it if deer slowly respawned throughout the game.

Bringing the great apes in as animals that defend themselves aggressively when attacked, but are otherwise neutral, could be interesting. Give Furious the Monkey Boy a family!

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Your right about rhinoceros in north China, they last in south China until the XX th century. They cast bronze rhino.

Also elephant was more widespread in China. There were use by the Southern Han dinasty, a short lived dynasty who were the only chinese who used them for war. Ingame this faction can be played by the vietnamese who have elephant and fire lancer.

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Empire Earth vibes intensifies

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I approve the whole list.

Given how fearless capybaras are, having the same behaviour as wild chicken will do.

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Then maybe also add sabertooth tigers and other prehistoric species for RoR, if starting in the stone age.

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I’d like to add the Gryfalcon as flying bird when now we have the Khitans and Jurchens. It’s interaction with humans, especially Khitans and Jurchens, in the Middle Ages is surprisingly interesting!

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Hunting dogs are needed (different model from the wolf),

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In all honesty, an “Age” spinoff set entirely in prehistoric times would be dope IMHO.

Age of Empires Primal Dawn
Age of Empires Primal Dawn1920×1080 180 KB

(Did this art myself BTW and wanted an excuse to share it with the forum.)

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