I like the age system in age of empires a lot. A narrative set in the 1900s is a bit too advanced for me, I don’t really see how the typical 4 age system fits in that timespan.
One of the reasons the medieval/ancient eras work so well for the Age series is the significant leaps in technology through the eras, and how it reshapes the battlefield. Armour, cavalry, siege weapons, and gunpowder all have a big impact on the ‘tech advantage’ feel.
The more modern eras would condense that, with advancements being less impactful. We would also lose out on the typical rock-paper-scissors counter system (infantry → cavalry → ranged). AoE 3 represents the beginning of the end of how AoE can be depicted, with the Napoleonic era being the last point that we see a valid reason to have cavalry on the field.
WW1 warfare was, in terms of tactics, dreadfully boring. It is most defined by the stalemates formed through trench warfare, and the development of weapons of mass destruction.
Whichever era the game is set in, advancing through historical periods to ‘tech up’ is a core identity for the series. The more modern you go the less that is represented.
However, many people don’t play it and don’t like how the Ancient Age is currently handled.
I’ll give you an example: I bought Age of Empires 1 DE, but I haven’t played it much. The reason I haven’t played much is because has very limited gameplay, and it’s very unpleasant to play with civilizations with skins that don’t represent them correctly.
I didn’t buy Age of Mythology Retold and I won’t buy it. I don’t like “monsters” or “creatures” or “strange gods.” I believe many who don’t buy it do so for the same reason. If I’m going to play a game with “creatures,” I’d honestly much rather play a “Lord of the Rings” or a “Warhammer 40k” game.
Age of Empires Online. Well, I literally don’t like it. I hate cartoon-style RTS games. Most of my friends don’t even know this game exists and they also don’t like this art style.
Honestly, where’s a serious game from the Ancient Age? What we have from the Ancient Age is horrible. I don’t play any because they’re all crap. Do the following test… —> Remove AoE2 and AoE4 and replace them with AoE5 being a new medieval game, however, as follows: - limited gameplay - creatures, monsters, and powers - cartoony art style. Do you think that if a medieval game were like this, it would be widely played, loved and taken seriously? The community would definitely freak out!!!
Age of Empires 1 DE is extremely limited. I won’t play a game with limited gameplay and Greek/Roman armor for every civilization. It’s horrible and inaccurate.
Age of Mythology is weird… because the Norse seem to be much more medieval than ancient. And it’s bizarre to have monsters and creatures. If having “little monsters” and “powers” were attractive, it would be a successful game, but it seems that most people don’t like that in the Age of Empires series.
Age of Empires Online… I don’t count. If it’s anime, I’d rather watch Netflix.
But I repeat!
I understand you.
Honestly, I’m also interested in seeing an Age of Empires game depicting the 20th century. It would be perfect if it’s well-crafted.
Something that depicts the beginning of the 20th century, the First World War, the Second World War, and much of the Cold War, or even the entire Cold War.
Definitely, having a variety of tanks, submarines, modern ships, helicopters, and various planes would be incredible if done well.
However, to get this response from Age of Empires fans, I recommend holding a poll, not only on the forum but also on Reddit or other sites. Vote for the following themes… Age of Empires V should portray which period??: - Ancient Age (Stone Age to Iron/Steel Age) - Medieval Age (would be a new AoE2/AoE4) - Enlightenment Age + Victorian Age (would be a new AoE3) - Age focused on the 20th century (World War I, World War II, Cold War) - Contemporary Age going up to the present day (encompasses the 20th and 21st centuries) - Age of Fantasy (medieval-style game, based on races and creatures, such as: Wizards, Dragons, Elves, Orcs, Undead, and so on)
Totally agree. We don’t have new AOE game set in the ancient times.
AOMRE Is a great game and i love It but It’s a Fantasy game with a ancient times contest. There are not Romans, Carthaginians, Persians, Britains, Macedonians and more;
AOEde Is a joke, unfortunately. I like Chronicles, they are very very good but It’s a old Engine and you can’t do what you could do with a 3d Engine.
So, Yes, we should have a new AOE game set in this beatiful period.
About WW2 or futuristic themes, there already are many game set in this epoc or contest:
Your argument is hilarious because you are one of the few minority constantly asking for ancient times on reddit, its always the same person which is you,
there are also many games set in Ancient Times, why not go and play them? if thats your argument of saying other games exist
Rome total war
rome total war 2
rome total war definitive edition
Imperator: Rome
Imperator Roma
Old World
meanwhile we have literally 3 games set in ancient times already for age of empires, age of empire 2,also kinda counts since you can play as Romans, Greeks, Persians, Britons, etc. we have 0 on Modern
and none of the modern games u mentioned play like an age of empires game
How would resources be handled in a modern setting?
In all of the Age titles we see food, wood, and gold as the standard set of resources. Some have stone while others do not, and IV has a fifth civ specific resource (olive oil, silver).
Food still makes sense, but gold, wood, and stone are kind of confusing in a modern setting. AoE 3 trades gold for coin, but has the least resource diversity.
How far from the blueprint can you go before it becomes unrecognizable when compared to the rest of the series?
You might remember…
When Age of Empires IV was announced, polls were held to see what people wanted to see most:
And the two most voted options were the Medieval Age and the Ancient Age.
The Contemporary Age (20th century and present) was around halfway through, or perhaps at best, it would be the third most voted option. But I don’t remember if it was actually in third place.
If you were to conduct the survey TODAY, with new players, people’s current lives, and the current hype… the result might be different… but I still think the Ancient Age will win, but I could be wrong.
But to know that, they’d have to conduct a new poll, as I mentioned earlier.
When considering additions to AoE 4 to improve its profitability, why not add cosmetics or battle passes?
Live service games generate a much larger amount of money over a long term, and it offers more for the series in terms of shifting gameplay.
If not in AoE 4, they could implement this in the next game. Instead of DLCs we could have seasonal battle passes, with a premium edition that offers limited time skins for popular civs.
Imagine how much better the game would be with a Santa skin for traders, or a Minecraft crossover ala AoE 2.
Oh, but that’s easy to solve.
There’s already a Rise of Nations game, which has the basic gameplay of collecting resources aand building your city (AoE-style), and even moves to the contemporary era.
Well, if I were to say what the resources would be for an Age of Empires set in the contemporary era, I’d do it like this:
Food (planting, hunting, and gathering. There could be food industrialization through a unique building, or a “landmark,” as seen in AoE4, maybe working a little differently.)
Wood (basically, wood will always be available. There might even be a new building, requiring coal for extra energy in factories, which would be interesting to see).
Iron Ore (gold and stone, no longer needed! Now it’s just iron ore)
Oil (well, that already exists in Rise of Nations, and it’s something that will be used to manufacture vehicles in general)
Perhaps there could be rare resources on the map that could give your economy a boost, allowing you to acquire certain types of technology faster, or improve your production, or provide special discounts, etc. For example:
Uranium (improves your speed in acquiring weapons, defenses, and nuclear technologies, in addition to granting an extra discount value).
Other extra options that could improve the cost or manufacturing could be: Aluminum, Silver, Sulfur, Salt, Sugar, Rubber, Tobacco, and so on.
Well, as we saw in Rise of Nations… you build your cities, collect these resources, and attack neighboring cities.
What changes here is that there won’t be a strong focus on walls or castles.
Basically, instead of walls, there will be trenches, minefield, barbed wire fences and “Czech hedgehog”… and instead of castles, there will be different fortified defenses, each designed to contain different situations: infantry, vehicles and aircrafts.
I can still see the essence of Age of Empires… but with much more technology. Just like we saw in Rise of Nations.
Of course, I confess that I would be curious whether it would actually be cool or not. But if they do it well… it would be a cool game.
I think they just need to remake AOE3, in AOE5. Just like AOE4 was a ‘remake’ of AOE2. Many similarities, but a vastly different game. There was a lot of conquest and empires during the period that AOE3 is placed.
Thanks for posting your poll. I’ve already cast my vote!
When AoE4 was first announced, the theme wasn’t confirmed; they released a teaser without saying what it would be. From what I remember, that was it.
Consequently, many polls emerged at the time… about what the theme of AoE4.
Regarding AoE5, I think it will take a while for new polls to emerge… a teaser would be needed to boost interest in the survey.
I think if we’re lucky, the first teaser will appear in the year 2027.
The right thing to do would be for AoE5 to be a reboot of AoE1.
Starting in the Stone Age and ending in the Iron or Steel Age.
And thus bring numerous improvements and details.
I would really like the developers to also be inspired by Rome 2 Total War and its respective DLCs, to bring a lot of detail to the units, civilizations and everything else we have the right to.
I hope that now we have large armies, gigantic maps and that the Campaign is carried out from the beginning to be Cooperative, with large, well-set and scripted maps.
While I loved Empire Earth and Rise of Nations, I realized one thing.
There is simply by RTS a problem with scale, range and variety.
Rome-Knights History/Fantasy works because they fight close
and there is interaction between many unit types.
While they move and fight in nice formations.
If we go to Sci-fi, WW2/3 units are too similar and too far away from each other.
And the battlefield turns into quite a mess.
C&C works because they focused to make a game, not a simulator.
Starcraft works, because it fights like a medieval/fantasy game.
There are too many reasons why modern setting, doesn’t work with a base build game,
because it needs modern day units to fight like Medieval/Fantasy .
