I hardly can’t understand this because I have been playing AoE 3 for too long.
Yes
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One question, is there really any information about a potential Age of Empires 5 or is this topic pure speculation?
The AoE4 forum has something on it (and I thought someone posted something in the AoE3 forum because I found the 4 topic just now based on a search) I haven’t looked into it much, so idk maybe confirmed? But as far as I know everything in this thread is pure speculation.
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Okay, thanks for responding. 
My prediction is as follows.
The first thing I think we’re going to notice is that the game is going to be very poorly optimized, because the UNREAL Engine always has that problem.
If the game is set in the Napoleonic Age, it’s very likely that the starting civilizations will be France, Spain, Portugal, and England. (Maybe one or two more, depending on how much time Microsoft gives the developers.)
I think the first expansion will be China, Japan, and India (because they’re important markets, and Microsoft will want to capitalize on them both economically and in terms of player numbers).
I think the next expansion will be the United States and Mexico as full civilizations. (I say this because they’ve already shown interest in the Mexican market, and the United States was originally in the Napoleonic Wars mod, so I think it’s pretty certain they’ll add them.)
Finally, I think they’ll add Brazil as a variant civilization of Portugal and they’ll add Argentina and Gran Colombia as variants of Spain. (mostly to try to attract the South American community and inflate player numbers a bit with minimal effort)
From now on, they’ll probably just add more variant civilizations, and at best, maybe a civilization that Microsoft deems profitable. I say this because I think making standard civilizations is going to be quite expensive.
I’d love for them to add the Incas, Mapuches, and Mayans, but I highly doubt they’ll do it. (Although who knows?)
I believe the evidence was a job posting looking for an Unreal developer lead for World’s Edge → Search Jobs | Microsoft Careers
And some other vague posts by World’s Edge staff saying things like they’re exciting to be working on new stuff.
Personally, straight up, I don’t see AoE5 advancing the time frame from 2/4, I think the view has crystallised as Age of Empires being a historical (medieval) real time strategy series. If I was going to put money down I’d say it would be ancient era again, a remake of AoE1.
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The same can be said about having cav run wild through your town. Snare forces you to be careful and creates other opportunities to micro.
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Unfortunately I think you’re right on the game’s time frame. In general antiquity interests me less than AoE3’s timeframe. I’m not saying it can’t be done well or in a way I would enjoy, but it’s not my favorite historical military period.
The lack of Snare would bring more rewarded raids to the game (more aggressive play with cavalry) and a weakness of melee units against ranged units.
Instead of seeking to incentivize players who micromanage or are more active on the map, the goal is to punish those who try to be aggressive, who are the ones who “have to be careful,” having to “fight the mechanics more than the opponent” or “deal a lot of painful damage,” as @EricTheRed283 said.
As much as some may not like AoE4, its melee unit charge mechanic (both cavalry and infantry) is a good substitute, where one can have freedom of movement and the other can use a momentary speed boost for melee units. It’s all about balance.
In a hypothetical AoEV, there’s no way we’ll see the snare as a core mechanic.
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Where did you fine them?
Yes, i have the same opinion.
i def agree as age 3 enjoyer alongside enjoying 2, that snare presents too great a punishment
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You know there’s dozens to hundreds of RTS games that involve aircraft already… right?
Both are Indian subcultures, no? You could call it something else, absolutely, but I figure in a first game you want to hit large population centers to maximize potential sales.
Ever realized how the civ in AoE4 is called “Delhi Sultanate” rather than India?
Same idea
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Melee units already suck. Why would you want them weaker?
Also, plenty of other ways to promote aggression.
The aoe games without snare don’t necessarily incentivize aggression simply by not having snare. In fact aoe2 has very defensive play and is so slow people play it on 1.7x speed lol
Viewing this as punishing the aggressor is really nearsighted imo. More like punishing the careless player.
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That’s more of a byproduct of whatever Ensemble did with the original game. Iirc in Age of Kings and Conquerors the 1.5 setting (which was actually 1.7 due to a bug) was labelled as “Normal” speed. Same in AoE 1.
From AoM on they eventually fixed that so that ingame time now equals real time.
As an AoE 2 and 3 enjoyer, I can see arguments on both pro and contra snare.
Yes, in AoE 2 your cav units can outrun pikes without any significant penalty, however the penalty on behalf of the aggresor is that their units may not find any targets, effectively making the units a waste resource-wise.
In AoE 3 on the other hand, snare makes you think whether fights are worth engaging or not as you’d not only loose a sizable amount of your army if it’s a bad fight but your opponent could likewise then look forward to tons of free XP for the next shipment due the kill bounty.
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Same in aoe3… melee infantry STINKS… you can easily outrun them and break the snare or sack one cav…
its only good if the cav player completely botches their unit control or goes afk
Aoe3 is much more punishing and I can see the drawback but I think the snare mechanic has its place
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I play a relatively small number of games. I’ve seen Sci-fi RTS handle aircraft, but I’m actually not sure I’ve seen a period RTS handle aircraft. I can imagine a few ways one could do it, but it would seem harder in a historical game if you care significantly about realism.
Typically sci-fi or fantasy games have hovering air units that just float in space when not moving. This is the easist system but is the least realistic for a historical game with aeroplanes. Some examples
- Rise of Legends (Ensemble Studios)
- Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds (AoE2 Engine)
- Warcraft
- Halo Wars
- Warlords Battlecry
- Total Annihilation (kind of, all aircraft are VTOL and when not moving they land and stay on the ground)
Some have systems where aircraft live at an airbase type building and when they are ordered to move or attack they fly out. After their order is done, or they run out of fuel or ammo, they usually have to return to the airbase. They don’t hover. This is a more realistic look. Examples:
- Command and Conquer (some hovering aircraft too)
- Rise of Nations (Ensemble Studios)
- Earth Series (e.g. 2160)
- Empire Earth
More tactical RTS games usually only have aircraft as off-map call ins that fly overhead and leave the map once they’ve done their order, e.g. Company of Heroes.
Also, I swear I’ve seen it in some game but I can’t remember where, there is a system where aeroplane units remain in place without landing like the hover system, but instead of hovering in place they just fly in circles when idle.
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Don’t forget about Astro Industry Wars (soonTM)
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Personally, I think making a good game set in classical antiquity would be ideal. However, it should be a period that spans a few centuries, not millennia. I don’t want to see Sumerians vs. Romans like in AOE-1. I think three or four different games could be made from the classical and pre-classical periods.
There are practically 10 thousand years represented in AOE-1
Empire Earth featured aircraft. They had limited flight time and e.g. bombers returned to their airport once they dropped their bomb in order to refuel.
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Other AoE games (and RTS titles in general) handle melee combat through positioning, acceleration, charge bonuses, or light movement friction, not by almost freezing the opponent’s control.
You can still promote aggression through tempo, map control, faster reinforcements, or economic pressure, without relying on a “you touched me, now you move slow” mechanic.
As for AoE2 being defensive…that’s not because it lacks snare. It’s because of map design, economy snowball, and unit movement speeds. Snare isn’t what creates aggression, strategic incentives do.
Removing snare doesn’t punish the aggressor…it just removes a mechanic that punishes the act of retreating or repositioning, which limits tactical play for both players.
A better system would reward timing, spacing, and precision, not just one-click contact.