AoE3DE in 2022?

Reading AoE2DE’s recent patch notes they have assured people that the game will receive support for a very long time in lieu of AoEIV. A roadmap was also teased as well.

As for AoE3DE?

We know there is a new civ coming, new game mode, historical battles co-op and presumed patch reworks which is really awesome. We don’t know the timeframe for any of this though with new achievements recently added we might get the new civ and co-op battles before the end of the year?

Great!

How long can we realistically expect support to continue? what is the future for this game? I understand we have a bit of a roadmap but it would be nice if we got some assurance AoE3DE will get the same treatment as AoE2 will. Many seem to assume we’ll get a few more DLCs down the road but perhaps it is just wishful thinking?

There is so much that could be added to this game and the enthusiasm of the playerbase is fantastic even if we don’t always agree on what we want. It would be quite disappointing if this roadmap is it. While there is so much more we’d like to see added to the game it also sets up disappointment.

The support has been wonderful and has exceeded expectations and it seems things are firing on all cylinders in regards to patches and QoL improvements. The game itself is in a good place and watching the increasing review percentage on steam db is great. If AoE3DE had the playerbase of AoE2DE I wouldn’t doubt it would receive longterm support but that isn’t the case with our dear AoE3DE.

We all know what we want but what can we realistically expect? maybe all this is moot if even the devs have no longterm plans for the game.

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I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, AoE3 still should have a good run of updates coming next year. I’m pretty sure the devs have plenty of new content and features planned, but ultimately, it will all depend if the game is selling well and there is enough of a playerbase to justify keep releasing more expansions. I would say that, if the playerbase remains stable, we might get support all the way into early-to-mid 2023.

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AOE 2 DE and AOE 3 DE won’t die, both still will have a stable and dedicated playerbase.
I wish if AOE 1 DE ever gets another look because was left behind.

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AoE4 should really have been “AoE1 DE”. A remake of the ancient era where the game first started would really be a reboot to the series and be a good middle ground between AoE2 and AoE3 players.

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i hope we see content for at least another year, a lot of fun stuff that came this year :slight_smile:

that said, i think this depends on the devs, african DLC probably sold around 50-60k copies, which probably ain’t quiet what they where hoping for so the next “proper” DLC has to be a good seller.

i was personally expecting to have seen more content lately now that the most egregious bugs and performance issues have been fixed. like i thought we would have seen faction 20 by now, and maybe even a hint into next year, but its not like they haven’t added content, we gotten a few maps every patch for a while now which is great.

i really hope faction 20 wont be the last.

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Not gonna lie, I was thinking the same thing.

The way they actually reassured AoE2 fans made me a little jealous haha.

I know the devs love us and we love the devs, but I think it’s fair to ask them how long support will continue.

But I guess we know the answer: As long as there is interest and sufficient sales.

All I want to say is: it would make me very sad if they don’t want to make content for this game anymore. This game was literally my childhood.

Side note: I think more single player content is helpful for this game. And may draw in more players. Things like more historical battles, maybe even full campaigns with many scenarios, and some new game modes that AoE2 players might enjoy.

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I would love to see an event equal to the current AoE2DE one they’re having at the moment with awards from the previous events for newcomers/players who missed them.

Given we didn’t see any reassurance for aoe3, its support might die next year…

They reassured AOE2 DE players because AOE IV is set in the same frametime, so someone thought that the support will expire soon

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To be honest I’m expecting to get at least another DLC (2-3 extra civilizations in a package with a bunch of new maps and native settlements). A brand new campaign would be super cool. I love AOE III campaigns and I was hoping to get more stories in DE or at least in African expansion but sadly we didn’t. But still, I hope they keep updating AOE III: DE “AT LEAST” for another few years, the game has so much potential because of its novelty with the card system and game mechanics.

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I think MS won’t see any purpose in further suppoting AoE DE as AoE2 is pure upgrade over AoE and most players just play AoE2 DE .

I wouldn’t count on any updates to AOE1 but AOE2 being a “pure” upgrade over it isn’t true. AOE1 is very much its own game with unique features and a faster gameplay style. AOE2 is by far the slowest game in the franchise largely due to gates, garrisoning and high building and wall hp.

Yeah perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. On the other hand according to steam db the game is barely breaking 3,000 players daily and some days it’s under. There’s been a trending decrease and the charts are concerning. It seems AoEIV may have impacted AoE3DE more than AoE2DE. Many AoE3DE youtubers and streamers have completely abandoned the game, some of whom have said they’re not going back.

I think there will be updates into 2022 but content? eh. As someone said earlier I hope civ 20 isn’t the last but I’m dubious.

AR has 224 mixed reviews on steam with many complaints about a lack of a campaign. People compare AoE2DE’s DLC to AoE3DE’s which is unfair considering it requires more work and more voicelines for a potential campaign. I think historical battles are a nice middle ground but they’re only a couple hours worth of gameplay with each and that’s being generous.

I guess all we can hope for is the devs give us the same reassurance by the end of the year AoE3DE will be supported for a long time.

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The finishing touch of AOE-3 would be a European-centered campaign on the Napoleonic era. Hope consider it.

I hope that this game continues to receive support for at least 4-5 more years, as it has a long way to go to be considered complete and it still has a lot of unexplored potential.

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The way I see it, we are already incredibly lucky to get the amount of content that we got. 5 new civs, 40+ maps, new minor civs, new mercenaries, new customizations for home cities and many other minor features is a lot of stuff. Microsoft could have just released AoE3:DE and forgotten about it, but they didn’t.

We can’t expect that they will keep supporting the game forever, the playerbase will naturally diminish with time and the devs will move on to new projects. But the fact that we’re still getting frequent updates a year after release shows that AoE3 still has enough steam to stay alive for quite some time.

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Do we really need more civs? I kind of prefer it when civs have been around long enough to be game balanced. Constantly adding new civs makes me kind of feel like waiting to play until everything is balanced. I feel that we have enough civs and enough content, rather the balance just needs to be focused upon. I realize that may not generate money for them though.

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The original game had the original asian dynasties addition and then stopped all the support of the game before they were balanced. That really cost this game in it’s popularity IMO.

I don’t think it ever recovered from that to this day.

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Exactly! Game balance is really important, people play and its not balanced and then they stop playing and they are gone forever.

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In a game like this there’s never gonna be a perfect balance between civs. Heck, look at the copy and paste civs in AoEII and how difficult it is to balance them. It is impossible to make people who constantly complain about balance happy (not accusing you of this) I’m not saying balance shouldn’t be addressed at all, in fact I love what the devs are doing now with the native civs, whether Euro and Asian civs get the same treatment is unknown at this time.

Look at it like this, new content/civs helps generate more support and for Ao3DE specifically civs are a major if not main selling point. Look at the spike in players right around when the USA civ came out.

@KarlosBR96 I agree. The frequent updates have been amazing, but we cannot expect them to continue forever. If we get one more DLC in 2022 I’d be very happy. The fact of the matter is we’re not all gonna get everything we want but that in no way diminishes what we have gotten so far. The game has been in the best state it has ever been in and it’ll be hard to see a good thing fade as it is with anything. There’s still a ton of enthusiasm in the AoEIIIDE community and that is wicked awesome.

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I feel like the civs Japan and Sweden made me actually want to play the game less instead of more though. Japan actually eventually made me drop the game completely back in 2008 or 9 until DE came out. In AOM EE almost nobody likes/plays the Chinese civ add on (meanwhile the Atlantean add on was well liked). So adding civs is not necessarily always good, especially if they aren’t balanced properly. The original warchiefs native civs are outstanding though and make me want to play the game more for sure, so it can go either way.

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