Dedicated AoM sites surely do a better job explaining this (source):
“Each culture contains three civilizations, based around a “major god” such as Zeus, Ra or Odin. The player chooses a major god before the game begins, then, every time they advance to the next age, they choose one of two “minor gods”, such as Bast or Hel. These gods are generally less significant deities in the mythos than the major ones. All gods have unique god powers, special spell-like abilities that typically damage an opponent or benefit the caster in some way, plus unique technologies and myth units.”
The great thing about this is that if your opponent chooses a civ that counters yours, say, you went British and your enemy Goths, you can tweak your tech tree “on the fly” to better adapt to the circumstances. As I understand it, AoE IV will do this but with the Chinese civ only and by constructing some specific buildings before advancing.
The difference is that AoM had a pretty big competitor already around: AoE II. When the AoM expansions tanked, AoE fans went back to good ol’ trusty II, which due to the expansions had a ton more content and complexity by then. AoE IV will have arguably a bigger threat even: AoE II:DE, so it has to be right the first time around.
I’m afraid it isn’t going to be enough. It’s trying very hard to stay under AoE II’s shadow. All of that is covered in plenty other topics in this forum so it doesn’t bear repeating here.
That’s why I stopped paying SC2 after 1 year, Game was basically the same than sc1 with less aoe damage ( colossus instead of reaver) there were some cool features like mothership blackhole ( it was removed later because of Korean cry babies instead of balance it). It was so bored after 1 year with almost no innovation. that’s why I don’t want age IV to become age 2 all over again, age2 DE is pretty good right now, if you want me to play age IV at lest give more more features/innovation, good graphics as well, show me the power of essence engine at its maximum!
The minor god age up system was so good. I’m hoping something similar here as there are “age up buildings” maybe you can choose. Also in aoe3 i was satisfied with the card system, you could tweak your strategies around unique upgrades, and you could make your civ a bit “your own” by customizing it.
It doesn’t change the gameplay in such a way that it doesn’t feel like an age game anymore, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be a good idea. It adds to the randomness of battles
aoe3 took a lot of things from other games, and there was aslo a lot of innovation. Not a bad game at all.
The risk with that way to develop a game is to go a bit to far away from the origins. Since the first day, people from aoe1 and aoe2 does not like it that much because he went to far away. Card system is not an aoe system. And this will not be in AOE4 for sure, they said it.
That said, if they want to develop a new game that is inspired by AOE3, they can.But aoe3 and aoe2 cant be used as models together for aoe4. One of them as to take the lead, and in features it seems to be aoe2. But in gameplay; there is probably a lot of things that are same as aoe3. (Way faster gameplay, 3D etc…) So maybe even aoe3 players will like the game.
RELIC games have a very dynamic battlefield ,their physics is very good
but aoe4 is completely different
it seems to have been intentionally made at the request of Microsoft
the strength of the RELIC game is completely invisible in aoe4
i predict there is no cavalry charge (units that are pushed or flying)
Yeah cav stopping dead on tracks at the point of impact looks ridiculous. They should add dome some ragdoll there even if it is only show with no extra dmg effects.
Along with a good cav charge physics, I HOPE finally… melee cav will get to run and attack so that fleaing archers out of position are not outrunning horsemen… those horses should be keeping right up on the units as the cav swing away until the unit dies… even more damage from having the backs turned to the enemy is fine with me…
This really gets to me in AOE 3 because Cav is so ineffective in that it has to stop to take a swing (unit is already too far away to make sense) then has to run again, and catch up to strike again, while the rifleman reloads while doing this, turns instantly and fires away and walks again… They did add a little but of Snagging but its not enough…
In addition to cav charge I would like to see shield walls as well. I think it’s nearly as important visually. It could be just as simple like a 10% less damage received in terms of gameplay.