What do you guys think of DLCs designed to change the look of a faction to another civilization, but change the whole aesthetic?
For example the English have long bows and the Japanese had Samurai Archer. Honestly most Samurai used the bow, the sword was the last weapon they used.
So there is historical precedent for it and exploiting that instead of releasing an entire new faction that would need balancing and whatever else we can have a Japanese skin of the english where all the units and all the buildings are renamed and changed to Japanese architecture and weaponry.
Would such a thing be cool to have in your opinion or is it better to leave it as is?
Could maybe make sense for factions that geographically and culturally are very close to each other, so you can for example swap between Viking civs (norway, denmark etc.) changing the voicelines and landmark aesthetics.
Reskinning the English to Japanese though takes it a bit too far
Latest Historical Total War entries like Attila distinguish factions between cultures, so for example the roman empires share the same cultural traits and bonuses and have individual faction traits additionally.
I didn’t really think about the culture or their proximity but more like their similarities.
Like the chinese faction getting a japan reskin. I don’t think the special units and buildings for the chinese really works for the japanese. But English are so basic and their longbows are so similar to the famous Samurai archers it just fit imo.
Pretty sure they will do similar visual stuff to AOE2DE, as they already give you a TC statue for the extra expensive edition.
AOE2DE’s customization includes:
TC statues (seen by everyone)
Unit skin replacements (client side)
Missile graphic replacements (siege shooting something else than rocks, e.g. Bretzel for the Octoberfest event - client side)
Icons and avatars for social stuff
AOEO had similar client sided customization (I remember replacing a units sword with a fish). Maybe that included full-civ stuff?
Fun that they gave those vanity items out for free around real life events and now will most likely ask money for it (in a 60€ title with paid DLC civs). Also makes you question how moddable visual aspects of the game will become (they can’t sell a vanity item if a modder creates it for free).
I don’t think that would go over well with the Japanese and Chinese players. They really hate mixing East Asian cultures into a blend in media.
But Japanese also had horse archers which the English don’t have. Also a I don’t think the civ specific bonuses like stronger villagers or network of castles fit the Japanese.
For some cultures it makes sense. For example reskinning the French to be Burgundians could work. Maybe even something like the Rus being reskinned into Serbs, though I’m not sure if the latter used horse archers. Point is, if they do that, it should be for smaller civs that are unlikely to become a civ on their own and are culturally similar to an existing civ.
It’s just my prediction based on how they introduced customization into AOE2DE combined with how they treat AOE4 more like a service platform rather then a feature complete release title.
Feel free to have your own. Time will tell which one aged better : P
Just change the game skin? So the units and buildings of this civilization in the game inherit the previous civilization? So there is no difference… It’s just different skin.
