So! AOE 1 DE is out. Huzzah! Now we can all start getting super hyped about the one we’re -really- waiting for. A return to the glorious Age of Kings!
AOE 2 DE is going to have a few advantages over part 1 right out the gate. I think we can all agree that it (AOE 2) stands the test of time as an RTS far better than AOE 1, and we know that certain game play tricks do still hold peoples attention (as seen by the fact that AOE2 HD is still played quite widely). However, there are a few things from AOE 1 DE that it could stand to inherit, as well as a few other bits. My thoughts:
From AOE 1 DE:
- Scrolling cloud shadows. I loved this! It added a bit of depth to the world.
- General graphics. Obviously, this is already being done.
- More accurate building destruction animation. Honestly, when I saw this in the DE beta, I was immediatly reminded of this one old animation someone did of a physics enabled AOK castle being trashed by a siege engine. I am beyond hyped to see this become a reality!
- Orchestral score.
- Smoother animations
- Keep content from expansions. In AOE 2’s case this will be a bit of a bigger endeavor, as AOE 1 only had one expansion to integrate, where as part 2 has The Conquerors, The Forgotten, African Kingdoms and Rise of the Rajas.
Things that AOE 1 DE did NOT have that would be neat to see:
- Unit skins that reflect the regions they are from. The Conquerors flirted with this idea by giving mezzo-American monks a unique appearance, as well as unique units in general. However, I’d like to see this applied to the other units as well so that we don’t just see standard European troops for every nation. Empire Earth 2 and Rise of Nations did something similar, where, like buildings, standard unit graphics were divided up into “regions”. Far Eastern troops had a look, Western forces had their own, Middle Eastern too. If AOE 2 is going to get a graphical face lift where units are more clear, having this visual distinction might be a bit important. As it is, AOE 1 DE has an issue where we see Greek Hoplites in some detail filling Egyptian ranks.
Before anyone says it; yes, I know there is a mechanical reason for how things are. It is more clearly readable. However, again, Rise of Nations and Empire Earth 2 already showed this is possible without messing up the readability too much.
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Gatherer-per-resource counter. Like in AOE 3, show how many villagers are on each resource.
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The ability to name Castles or Town Centers. This is something I actually miss from, again, Rise of Nations and Empire Earth 2. I felt like the ability to designate the names of regions/ towns/ zones helped keep track of things and emphasized the feel of expansion. I’m not asking for a button to hop between things necessarily, just the ability to give it a name.
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Better network coding. Okay, this is a VERY general statement that is likely not at all helpful, but the biggest problem with AOE 2 HD right now is that game stability (even on LAN) is awkward at best, treacherous at worst.
What are your thoughts? What sort of things do you hope to find in AOE 2 DE?
@Eininfar I like all your ideas except for the naming of Town centers and Castles that’s not really neccesary in AOE in my opinion.
@WintryPainter69 said:
@Eininfar I like all your ideas except for the naming of Town centers and Castles that’s not really neccesary in AOE in my opinion.
I’m not sure genie engine handle that.
@Augustusman me neither but they have Ensemble guys helping with the Engine I’m sure they can update it as they see fit.
The most important thing is to have a stable multiplayer without too much lag. Those are the reasons why all pro players have left AoEHD for Voobly.
It will be great if I come out within 2 years. But I feel like it may be more than that.
Even if there are none in the original version of AoE 2 (just as there were no portals in AoE 1 and there is still no portals unfortunately in AoE 1 DE), it would be nice to can build bridges, even dig moats and install drawbridges, but I think I dream 
More seriously, it would be nice to be able to hear continuously the noise of horses when they move for example.
Also change the “regicide mode” against the computer and make sure that it behaves exactly as in the “deathmatch mode”.
A basic option that I can’t believe isn’t added to the game is gathering multiple selected units at the mouse pointer when right-clicking. And I don’t know why but I’m unable to create new threads on this forum. So, I’m commenting here hoping it’ll be noticed. As it is, the only way to gather units at one point is to do it manually by selecting each unit, which is tedious.
@Niqash said:
A basic option that I can’t believe isn’t added to the game is gathering multiple selected units at the mouse pointer when right-clicking. And I don’t know why but I’m unable to create new threads on this forum. So, I’m commenting here hoping it’ll be noticed. As it is, the only way to gather units at one point is to do it manually by selecting each unit, which is tedious.
But you can do that in AOE2. I’m not sure why you are saying otherwise. As for not being able to open new threads, you need to have at least 5 posts before you can do that (this is to prevent spamming).
@Eininfar
Gatherer-per-resource counter. Like in AOE 3, show how many villagers are on each resource.
You can see that in AOE2 as well, you need to press Economic Mini Map button near mini map or ALT-R while having statistics (F4) on.
As for things I would like to see in AOE2DE:
Way better netcoding and pathfinding, maybe even shifting away from peer to peer connections, with ability to reconnect to ongoing games and even build a thing like Voobly into the game! This would mean a totally new engine, the upgraded Genie alone they used in AOE1DE ain’t gonna cut it for AOE2DE where the player numbers and expectations are way higher and you already have AOE2HD. They can go for the same graphics as in AOE1DE, but for a second remaster they kinda need to rebuild AOE2 from scratch with better code, otherwise it’s going to seem redundant.
This is no easy feat, but they would surely have a return on investment in the case of AOE2.
I just want they improve the sounds of game. Seriously, sounds is outdated, like 8 bits style.
Oh, that. They should change the sheep sounds with sheep bells or something more comfortable to the ears.
There is a mod in AOE 2 HD on steam workshop that is called “Age of World Empires” That guy has change the infantry line and cavalry line so they look different depending from which part of the world the civ is from.
You guys should check it out.
@FarkasMan87 Huh, interesting. Thanks for the heads up man! I’ll surely check it out.
I think the developers have done a great job in rebuilding the AOE DE, they will probably keep the same upgrade pattern because they will not change the engine game. So what we can expect is something like what happened to the first game of the franchise.
Please enable Game Invites and Detailed Status (Rich Presence) in discord for all Age Of Empires releases!
Also it will be great not only for Age2:DE but also for Age2HD to use all the great features of userpatch and solve many many problems.
I’d like to see a proper action queue get fully implemented. Hope they can also port the existing improvements from userpatch.
Things i want to see for it:
-better grafics, like in AOE1 DE (These grafics are godlike). There was once a gif where a castle was killed by trebs, full HD and 60 fps, the game should be exactly like this
-less crashes, less OOS
-Lobby System like on voobly, maybe some extra external Programm that works as Lobby System.
-changeable usernames/profiles in game, NOT like in aoe1de where you have to do it over MS live acc, FOR MONEY, nobody wants/is going to pay for this kind of standart Features.
-Rating System when launched, that’s working like on voobly (in addition you can choose between 3 ratings at start: 1200/1400/1600, only thing voobly lacks atm)
-mod Support thats working like on voobly
-Moderators+anti cheat mod
If MS is very, very smart they simply buy voobly for a few 10k bucks, then they have a working plattform, can fully control aoe2 distribution (monopolism is cash), solve the lag and ratingsystem problem at the same time and save a lot of time + effort. Or if they’re cheeky they simply copy voobly’s core Features. (dunno if thats cheaper)