Well yes but no. They say they bring content. And content sounds much less than the game. So i will still hope for an overhaul / 5 year anniversary patch for aoe1de or something bigger.
i’d even buy aoe1 dede again. What ever just give me more campaigns and a stable multiplayer
5 Likes
I’m still not sure what they plan.
- AoE1DE will be made part of AoE2DE as a DLC (that is hopefully free for AoE1DE owners)
- AoE1DE will be ported to the AoE2DE engine as a separate game but they will also add the AoE1DE content to AoE2DE because why not, it’s already been made for the same engine.
I assume it’s the first one.
7 Likes
If its the former (that the AoE1 civs are brought into AoE2:DE), imagine the scenario editor potential!!! Not to mention campaign reworks - actual Goths vs actual Rome. But I’m letting my imagination get ahead of reality at this point.
Just so long as the gazelle gets ported along with the rest of the contents (I think the other AoE animal species are in AoE2 now).
It’s 99% going to be option 1. My main concern with this is going to be the level of integration, though.
If it just becomes some alternative mode that consists in a reskin for the buildings and messing with some units my hype is going to plummet.
But if they keep the stats, techs, civs, soundtrack and base gameplay true to AoE while adding quality of life improvements, formations, gates and so… then sign me in rn. I need more info so badly.
5 Likes
Things that are technically different in AoE2:
- Tiles are 1.5x as big and therefor buildings are also bigger and units move less tiles per second.
- Buildings have 5x HP but units do full damage against buildings. In AoE1 units only do 20% damage against buildings.
- Some tags are different. Towers don’t have a building tag or Phalanx don’t have an Infantry tag.
- Trade requires you to export resources and also has a limit per dock.
- Relic victory instead of Artefacts and Ruins.
Those things might be impossible or need a workaround in AoE2DE.
Fundamental gameplay differences in AoE2:
- Unit upgrades are only half as powerful in AoE2
- Units attack a lot slower
- Villagers work slower
- There are now upgrades for piercing damage and piercing armour upgrades for every unit type not just Infantry
- Nothing comes close to the Wheel
Those things are just numbers. They can just copy them form AoE1.
2 Likes
Hopefully they port it over as a separate game. I’d much rather have that, as a dlc for aoe 2 that would just be very confusing and not make any sense
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They already announces it as an AoE2DLC.
So likely it will be a toggle in the main menu or something like that.
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So you startt AOE2:DE and then select the AOE:1 campaigns?
Will it be the whole game or just the Rome campaign?
So many questions. SO. MANY.
I think it will be like the Fall of Samurai DLC for Shogun 2. You can buy and launch it without the base game. You are basically playing the base game but only have access to the DLC contents.
4 Likes
That’s true, what makes me doubt is whether aoe 2 will end up engulfing its brothers…
1 Like
Oh and I forgot that the storage pit works differently then any AoE2 drop off building and that can’t be recreated by a datamod. It requires some engine rewrites.
Not sure if they’ll recreate that too.
1 Like
They have to make engine changes anyway. Another thing impossible to achieve with datamods is the technology Sacrifice where you can delete your monk during the conversion to get an instant conversion.
2 Likes
Yes but that’s a technology no one really uses.
Unlike Storage Pits that are a core to the game.
But I think both things are likely solvable for the developers with access to the source code.
The huge difference is that the AoE2 tiles are 1.5x as big. (2.25x the area because it’s 1.5x1.5)
I’d be perfectly happy for the DLC to use AoE2 conventions: all food types collected at Granary, units do full damage to buildings, free trade, artifacts becoming reskinned relics, whatever. They’ll have to do some rebalancing and create some new art to implement requested features like gates, garrisons and land trade anyway.
Just so long as it has all of the AoE1 art, sound and music… and the data remains true to the historical period.
3 Likes
I’d rather they keep the AoE1 gameplay, add some extra stuff if needed and it has smoother gameplay like the 2nd. No need to make it exactly like AoE2.
9 Likes
They have the genie engine source, so probably if they want to stay closer to the original they can make the needed changes.
2 Likes
Word of advice from a player who has spent years on the original AOE 1:
Whatever a lot of people might say, it will not be a good idea to mix the two games together… The mechanics and the engines are very different, Age 1 has a lot of imbalanced OP units that just demolish everything, buildings have like 3-4 times less HP and when u mass heavy horse archers or catapults there are barely any counters to that. While AOE 2 is based around balance in attack and defense, there is a counter to every unit and you can rarely mass 1 unit and be successful in every possible scenario with it.
IMO the best idea is to keep them separate, like place an AOE1 and separate AOE2 mode, but include options like Record scenario and maybe triggers for the scenario editor, as AOE 1 has amazing potential for custom scenarios. Also the historical settings of ancient civilizations that are long extinct fighting against medieval powers that are predecessors to modern countries just doesn’t feel realistic. But this option IMO will give great potential to the original game for improvement, because other than the improved graphics it hasn’t really been given any attention, as the AOE 2 game, because it isn’t really played a lot. However it is a classic and it needs to be given more attention, because it feels like a really good representation of the ancient world and there aren’t many games that focus on that time period.
One problem with the original AOE is that when gold runs out on the map and there’s no water, there is no possible way to gather gold. Which means that once gold runs out, the game dies out. Some type of a lwo HP merchant and making use of the trade workshop will be a balanced and realistic improvement to the game IMO. Also buying and selling resources from the market or the trade workshop. Also like I said before record scenario option is a must.
Other minor additions could be adding more unique ancient heroes and buildings, like the Palace of Knossos, Ziggurats, The Hanging gardens of Babylon or the Babylon Tower to give cool options for scenario design.
5 Likes
“We will be bringing Age of empires: Definitive edition into the Age of empires II: DE engine”. Seems like an upgrade, not a DLC for AOE2DE. But another official source says otherwise. Looks like it’s going to be a DLC for Age of empires 2:DE, after all, and not an upgrade to AOE1:DE to have its sequel’s engine.
I hate when community managers/people who work for a big company say things the wrong way…
3 Likes
Good to know, although it’s not what I wanted. I would’ve loved AOEDE being ported to the same engine of AOE2DE so to act as an expansion, with updates of AOE2DE being mainstreamed/linked to AOEDE (similarly to Half-Life 2 and its so called Episodes/expansions).
But it’s nice to have all campaigns ported to the much better game -feature, technology and depth wise. I don’t want existing features in AOE1DE to be missed out in the new port though, like ‘no formation at all’, ‘selecting villager per resource from the HUD’, and some others I don’t remember right now.
Yeah,probably happens that eventually…