Siege still go “poof”…
Someone got hit by a cannonball just like he took an arrow in the knee…
Most siege still clip into terrains…
I wouldn’t attribute these to some “specific style they went for”, or someone would “personally prefer this”. These are details that they ignored (or a safer way to say it: haven’t had the time to attend to yet). Because AOE4 itself has variable death animations for units. Idk why siege is largely omitted.
Even AOE1/2 with their 1990s sprite-based engines tried to make those units as impressive as possible.
Like they couldn’t really interact with the environment of course. But they had detailed collapsing animations…explosion and dust effects (sprites of course)…and loud “mechanic” noises.