It’s been a couple of weeks now since release, and most people have had a chance to have a bit of a play. I’ve done an extensive play around with the MUs and GPs (what makes the game Age of Mythology ) Here are my thoughts and opinions on that. I’m definitely more mythology focused, so if there’s other feedback you have please share (and if you disagree of course).
What I really liked:
The art style for this expansion is great. I really like the details of all the units. I think Tlacanexquimilli might be the creepiest MU yet (displacing Wanuydo), with its little backwards facing feet. I love it!
The pairing of gods with their MUs and GPs is very well done.
I appreciate that most of the GPs and MUs are unique (see feedback for ones I think missed this mark a bit).
The music is great!
The sound design is mostly good. Some of the MU sounds are a bit quiet.
There are some really fun MUs. The rabbits and Maquizcoatl are probably my favourite. I also enjoy the armadillo, soul guide and Ahuizotl. Having a unit that can pull units in from far away is unique and very fitting. Good way to break up formations or protected units.
What could have been done better or improved:
My biggest gripe/ disappointment is Pillar of Tlálocan. This is a really boring power, especially as a mythic age power. I did mention earlier that a better power for a god of storms, water or earth would be something like Landslide. It acts similar to Great Flood, but does slightly less damage over a wider area. The terrain become muddy and slows units considerable, and building training times are increased. I feel a power like this would have had far more impact as a mythical Age destructive power. Sorry, but I dislike this power so much I can’t see myself playing that option often.
Tailwind is a fairly unimaginative and boring GP. I understand it might fill a potential niche, but it’s quite underwhelming. I would suggest making it a global power and weakened the speed slightly, to give it more versatility (such as villagers moving quicker between gathering nodes or a boost to trade).
Volcano is a natural choice for a destructive power. However, visually and playstyle-wise it is far too similar to meteor. I preferred the way this was handled in RotGs. Making the terrain unbuildable for a short period of time makes it more unique, and has consequences for player’s who just use it to wipe out a town centre (making them unable to claim it for several minutes). It adds a extra layer to this power. Also, the fiery patches should actually do fiery damage.
Not all the MUs upgrades are visually unique. You kind of painted yourself into a corner here. You clearly stated at the start that all MU upgrades should come with a visually unique appearance. So far the rabbits, Maquizcoatl and Obsidian Butterfly are missing changed names or appearances (see suggestions below)
The rabbits needs to have their wounds from the Blood and Bones pack reworked. The rabbits all form identical wounds, so when you have 6 rabbits with symmetrical wounds it looks a bit silly. Additionally, they need a unique visual upgrade (glowing red eyes?).
Maquizcoatl needs a visual upgrade. A colour change would be fine. A name change like Dark Omen Maquizcoatl would be good.
Chanque researched ability doesn’t work as intended. The trap is terrain dependent, making is far less than a 50% chance. Either fix the traps or replace his ability with a sleep powder, putting enemies to sleep when he dies.
Obsidian Butterfly looks great visually. However, her ability isn’t the most unique. Throw abilities are very overdone. Could I suggest adding a reflect attack to her, so her sharp wings damage close-combat enemies for something more suitable. She needs a visual upgrade and name change (Razorwing Obsidian Butterfly??)
Tzitzimitl should have a lifesteal on all attacks imo.
Soul Guide sounds weird talking? I thought dog noises might be more appropriate, but I suppose it looks too much like an Anubite already so you don’t want it sounding like one!
Tunkuluchu as others have pointed out should be called Tlacatecolotl. Tunkuluchu is Mayan. I really appreciate this unit being interesting and unique. However, its animations are visually a dog’s breakfast. Its attacks look awkward and clunky. There is far too much vfx going on with each one too. Its two attack animations (the body slam particularly) look more like a special attack. And its special attack looks more like a regular attack! The body slam attack needs to be less chaotic. Remove or reduce the shockwave. The special attack needs more visual impact.
Ahuizotl is a really interesting unit. I can see that originally it was supposed to be able to grab units at different ranges (close and far). However, due to technical or time limitations, you just went with the short option. Can I suggest implementing the far option if you can’t get both to work? Being able to grab units 15 range away would be more impressive than grabbing something 5 range away. It is supposed to be a mythic age unit. There are also bugs with the animations, which cause the Ahuizotl to not use the correct animations when in stealth or swimming. Please fix this.
Mutant Axolotl an interesting concept of having a ‘monstrous’ version of a monster. It needs its own sounds. Either it is using Scylla sounds, or it sounds very much like a Scylla. It should use its unique icon to transform. It needs a transformation animation.
Quinametzin needs a special ability. MUs without special abilities are poop. Can I suggest something called ‘Inspiring Presence’, making nearby solider do additional damage (based on Kitsune’s ability).
Animations are great, but we need more variety. Each unit only has one bored, death etc. animation. Many only have a couple of attack animations. I really like what you did with the Demeter pack. Please give us more animation varieties. Especially with human units that we are going to be seeing more of. Make them feel more alive.
AI is pretty rubbish for gaining favour. I did a few test runs and it doesn’t devote villagers until well into the Classical or Heroic Ages. Can you please make it devote a couple of villagers in the Archaic, because otherwise its really slow on the favour gathering side. More favour for AI = more GPs and MUs and more fun!
What else do you guys like or think needs to be improved?
I agree it def looks less flashy and thus less cool than other mythic age god powers. That said, its current effect is very strong, the damage over time is very good with how frequent it happens, the damage it deals and that it cc´s units, its kind of like a shockwave on repeat.
Agree that its not the most flashy thing ever, but imo at least most archaic age god powers arent. That said, its not niche, and rather strong, but requires micro. Being able to flip the tables on a fight is quite potent. Suddenly heroes outrun myth units, anti cav is faster than cav, and your myth unis cant be caught by your opponents heroes.
Also works to save villagers, retreat your army, reach a key position better (to deny a tc or fortress). Personally i like more this type of god powers that are focused on an area and not global since they do create a need for strategy and not just 2 click it anywhere on the map.
Being unable to build on the terrain can be very costly if you take it for minutes. Your opponent is just playing down -20 pop for quite some time, which can be just game winning on the spot. As to being similar to meteor, maybe they could make it more about it lasting longer and being damage over time and less burst. This would work vs buildings, since those dont move, but any player would move their units away before much damage is done.
This one would feel better if it was a guaranteed trap every 2 deaths than a coin toss each time, less rng and more securing you actually get to see and have the effect play out while encouraing to make the myth unit.
i have some positive and negatives (hopefully constructive criticism) too. mine is mostly design stuff (viuals/sounds/animations) since thats what is important for me so i want to leave the numbers and details like tech n stuff to others even tho i think many techs (or the siege giant) cost a bit too much favor and it feels like you either have a tone of favour or always not enough (but thats just me maybe?)
i’ll write most down when i have the time but its good to see and know there is a thread for that now!
A broken tonali system that I cannot appreciate.
A strangely functioning economy that forces you to play 1 TC. With an unpredictable result.
The trap placement isn’t working. A trap activation effect should be added so that it triggers immediately upon death. That might solve the problem. But how useful this will be for the back line unit is questionable.
The volcano could be upgraded. After the eruption ended, it would remain there forever.
The Siege Stone Thrower is prohibitively expensive and useless against anything but buildings. A myth unit should be at least as strong as a scarab. That’s the whole point of a myth unit.
I would say that tezcatlipoca should receive more bonuses for generating favor, but with the broken tonalli system, I can’t know if this is the case or not.
Honestly my impression is very positive and I do love this DLC. But this is mostly a place for me to provide feedback I hope they act on so will really just be talking about my main drawback.
The big problem I have with Aztecs is that late game all of their sources of favor turn off. The sacrifice system is excellent but diminishes so aggressively that it becomes near worthless late game. This also means technologies like Coyalxauhqui’s favor bonus and Tezcatlipoca’s major god bonus that increase favor from devoted settlers is not very good. They only affect the flat bonus, not the trickle, and the flat bonus is not affected by things such as new fire ceremony so they get like 30 or less favor for Tezca and like 15 favor for Coyal in an entire game.
Then tonalli starts pretty low in the first place as kind of a side method of getting favor, but for some reason reduces to 25% of its original effectiveness for like 37.5 favor for 200 kills. 1.5 mythic age myth units for 200 kills is a rough trade, and that’s assuming you brought enough priests to have one alive at the end to collect all of it. Then there are the bugs that are still active where shorn ones and owls do not generate any additional tonalli, so Itzpapalotl’s small buff is the only way to impact it. And it gets pretty useless reduced by 75%.
I really think the sacrifices need to have a minimum value of 3 or 4 favor so sacrifice is worth it all game, and tonalli should at the lowest go down to 50% effectiveness same as the norse. I just don’t understand why these systems all diminish to practically zero. Bloodletting also got hotfixed to be essentially worthless outside of the extreme early game since the number was already less than the favor relic gives you and has aggressive diminishing returns on numbers of priests too. The patch to improve it gave them 2 more favor in their lifespan for 22 less hp after it is drained which is even worse than before.
So in summary bloodletting needs some love to work at all (especially making select army hotkeys not select priests bloodletting) and sacrifice and tonalli just need less miserable minimum values for the end game. Trying to buy a 20 favor quinametzin in the late game with no functioning favor sources is brutal.
) Here are my thoughts and opinions on that. I’m definitely more mythology focused, so if there’s other feedback you have please share (and if you disagree of course).