The Titans and Behemoth in the screenshot have red-blood so don’t hold your breath
Where does your “100% sure“ come from? Chinese players are also waiting for the blood & bones DLC. Up to now, there is no news that it won’t be released, unless something suddenly changed in the following days.
And there are two points that are logically incorrect:
- All AoE legacy games (which contain skeletons) can be played and streamed with no issue in China. Right now, there still are some people streaming AoE2 HD everyday.
- For Retold, these DLCs are bundled together and the expansion pass is the only way to get them. If blood & bones DLC is not being released, then Chinese players shouldn’t be able to buy the expansion pass at all. This is clearly wrong as many have already played Demeter.
IMO, blood and bones in RTS games is a joke compared to some FPS or RPG games. Those games will be more likely to receive the government’s attention, rather than a niche game of a niche genre.
I’m a bit surprised because I found your other comments on this forum are generally knowledgable and reasonable, why just say “100% sure“ w/o evidence and careful thoughts on this particular matter.
As for the DLC itself, based on the picture it’s a bit better than I expected, but still it looks a bit messy. The OG AoM did a superior job in terms of immersion and clarity.
- Well censorship in China is widely known. Particularly with the depiction of bones/ skeletons. World of Warcraft has an entirely different client in China in which undead creatures do not have bones.
- The skeletons and blood were removed in Retold, with most people (rightly so) stating it’s to get past Chinese censorship. Mummies and Minions (that used to show bones and decay) no longer. God portrays like Hel have been massive toned down.
Making a separate feature that is only available to some parts of the world would be a logical option for giving fans back blood and bones and still being able to not include it in China. I guess we’ll see if it launches in China?
Aren’t the packs available separately? I seem to remember reading in a few places that they were, and the bundle was for saving. Thought I can’t seem to find a straight answer even on the Steam forum. Is it possible to buy Demeter seperate? :: Age of Mythology: Retold General Discussions
Agree that the original AoM did a really good job with decay. For low spec computers they come up with a really unique way of showing corpses progressively rotting (that read really well) without driving the specs through the roof. Though, the Atlantean ones were really rushed and didn’t look as good and the Chinese didn’t have any at all…
That’s true. But like I said, WoW is a popular MMORPG, while AoM doesn’t have a big market in China (AoE2 & 4 is much more popular). I’m not saying censorship doesn’t exist, but the Chinese censorship theory is just a speculation, and I doubt if it’s the sole reason why Microsoft removed skeletons and blood.
I’m not a big fan of the Mummy and minions model in Retold either.
Regardless of whether the packs are available separately or not, some already bought the expansion pass, so they should have everything from it. Chinese players will be really pissed if it doesn’t include the blood pack or the human blood becomes green in the Chinese version…
Tale of the Dragon is a joke btw, don’t ever mention it. The only thing I like was the great flood godpower, which fortunately made it way to Retold.
Fun fact: in the TotD main menu, the Chinese characters on the folding fan behind the ugly dragon reads 玩笑, which means joke. Apparently, even the devs themselves thought they were making a joke!
一谈到血腥暴力和政治历史就censorship，一谈到censorship就“China！”，这套逻辑真的很好笑。明明能举出的例子也就只有十几年前的WoW。
GTA5够不够血腥暴力？中国玩家可以正常在steam买到，没有任何内容缺失。
Paradox的历史游戏够不够胡编？哦，中国玩家也都能正常在steam买到，仅仅买不到描写二战的HoI系列。CK、EU、Vic都没少把东亚胡乱拆分和瞎画地图哦，中国玩家还天天和制作组互动呢！
中国玩家能在steam上买到Total Wars系列的血腥DLC，为什么AoE系列就不行呢？
别老把责任推到别的地方，你们觉得“敏感”的内容很多时候只是开发商和发行商能力不足或另有所图——例如降低游戏在各个地区的评级。对了，上面提到的steam游戏，包括AoE系列其实都并未在中国市场正式发行，对中国而言“审查”根本无从谈起。顺便一提，这些游戏如果想在中国正式发行，都必须在中国境内设立独立于境外的服务器。在steam上发行是法规上默许的灰色领域。
（懒得写英文了，希望论坛的机器翻译功能能正常运作）
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说的好！steam的游戏本来就不需要被政府审核，除非要运营国服，想把锅甩到我们头上就是扯蛋。这个所谓的血与骨DLC本质就是个额外圈钱的玩意，而且其质量就目前官推所展示的图里看来，不如原版一根，像是在肆意挥洒番茄酱一般，毫无观感可言！
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Ah, I didn’t say anything then… I still think they missed an opportunity to have different blood types, depending on whether it’s human or mythical units. Also, I think the Atlantean titan should lose lava, not blood, since he’s a mass of stone…
“Most people stating so“? Now you see it’s simply because “most people“ you saw does not include the Chinese. Some chinese don’t bother going to these forums because of the bias and arrogance.
Same goes for the Three Kingdoms DLC in AoE2. Some people claim that the devs chose 3K because the Chinese like 3K. Sorry, it’s not about the Chinese like it or not, it is beacuse your dear Microsoft simply assumes we like 3K in AoE2.
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They said something about “prismatic essence for myth units” whatever that means.
To me it sounds like “special blood”…human units and, in theory, heroes have “human” blood, but mythical units wouldn’t necessarily follow the same pattern…Hades’ shadows are ghosts, so they would use ectoplasm; Egyptian scarabs, for example, are beetles, so they don’t have human blood; behemoths are supposedly “triceratops”; Atlantean big-eyed creatures are “octopuses,” and so on…
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Age 2 needs this. The decaying corpses/skeletons on the battlefield in the original were awesome. Would also be good if you could adjust the level of blood. I will say this particular version in Age of Mythology looks a bit too cartoony. The most important thing is the way bodies decomposed and persisted on the map, it was impressive to see all the carnage after a big battle
Yes, but that’s because Retold uses the 3DE version of the Bang Engine, meaning the environments can look more realistic, but the units are somewhere between realistic and cartoonish, without reaching the level of AoE Online…
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I know Tale of the Dragon gets a really bad rap, and in many ways it deserves it. But I still liked the fact that after 15 years, it sparked new excitement in a classic game. Who knows, without Forgotten Empires testing the waters with their crappy amateur mod, they might have never realised how much hunger there was a a remake of classic AoM.
There was also a lot I liked about TotD. It introduced me to Chinese mythology, which atheistically has become on of my favourite. The God Powers were fun, some of the myth units were interesting and the art from the God Portraits was more consistent than the ones we get today. I am secretly hoping they bring back some more elements of it with the fourth Chinese god. I’d love to see Monkey Kings or Earth Dragons in battle again as a nod to this expansion. However, I realised that Forgotten Empires probably wants this version to die a quiet death so they can distance themselves from the disastrous fallout.
Ngl this dlc is kinda meh. Myth units dont have their own special skeletons and only turn into a pile of generic bones compared to other units. All the animals have uniqe skeletons however.
i think the blood is ok. could be better but is ok. (the zoomed in blood looks fine IMO)
the different blood types is a nice move but it looks too colourful for me especially since the puddles look really quite big. did you already adjust/reduce it @EricTheRed283 ? anyway the first thing i’ll do is to reduce the size and intensity. nothing against a more immersive and brutal atmosphere in an rts but this isa bit too busy for the eye for me personally.
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I stand corrected. This is quite sad ngl
