đź’ˇ Defensive structures: Speculation and theorycrafting

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
1

Considering the Trailer this is what we know so far:

image
image1106Ă—700 331 KB

Legend
1= Wooden gates
2= Wooden walls
3= Wooden towers/outposts
4= Stone gates
5= Stone towers
6= Stone walls

This might be it or just a coincidece but:

  • Do we have just 2 defense stage progression: wooden and stone?
  • Are the gates working like the past titles?
  • How many tower design do we have? From the picture looks like 2: the classic tower (3) and those patched to the wall (5).
  • Are the towers limited?
  • Do all civilizations get the same defense structures?

Stage
I would like to see upgrades for each age because it will give more satisfaction to evolve/upgrade.
Gates
I hope to see also many kind of gates rather than what we have seen in the past, just one gate limited to open/close - would be cool to see defensive gates with units dropping rocks,tar to the unit’s tryting to go through or gates with archers, crossbowmen or fusiliers or cannons in late age.
Towers
I like the idea to have towers patched to the stone walls but I also like to have stand alone towers like in the past. I hope that we can create/add those patch-towers to each piece of the wall (internally and externally).
I would like to see 3 kind of “patch”-towers (empty towers):

  • Melee - you can full fill with units who can drop rocks or tar - short range.
  • Ranged - you can full fill with archers, crossbowmen or fusiliers - mid-long range
  • Siege - you can build one siege weapon: ballista, catapult, trebuchet or cannon - very long range. Weapons can be destroyed and you can rebuild as long the tower and one siegeworkshop is up.

Said this I still hope that towers will be not limited, I really enjoyed turtleing in the past by creating rows and rows of walls and towers.
Walls
I like the idea to have units on the stone walls but I hope there will be a limit like 1unit for each wall piece.
Asymmetry
I suppose that nearly every civilization got walls/gates and towers so I do not expect too many differences except graphic.
Additions
I would like to see features to create:

  • Traps - hidden for enemy players.
  • Water ditches - Invalicable for units (forcing melee to certain paths)

Let’s discuss!
A. What’s your expectations, what do you like and why?
B. What would you like to change and why?
C. What would you like to add and why?

2

To me it seems like we get the “regular” AoE2 defenses, with more options for wall-placement.
The wooden tower seems like an outpost to me, while the stone tower does seem to have a new feature: it can be integrated into the wall. This was highlighted when only the tower collapsed at the end of the video shown last week. Another new feature is indeed the placement of units on the wall. The one unit per tile sounds fair.

I’m not sure how the melee “towers” would work. As in, I don’t see the purpose: the enemy can just go around them.

The water ditch is something that I like as well. But it needs to have a counter.
The same applies to the traps: it needs to have a counter.

3

I thinked about that just to counter melee troops destrying walls and gates :wink: those might be more powerfull than ranged towers but limited by a close range. Anyway the counter sounds a good idea

4

while the stone tower does seem to have a new feature: it can be integrated into the wall.

Pretty sure the “stone towers” here are not really towers but rather wall joints (they looked tower-esque in aoe2 as well). You can see they appear everywhere where the wall changes directions, except where the wall connects to the gate (because in that instance the gate is the joint). They may or may not act as towers as well though, or be upgradable to such, in addition to being joints.

The wood/stone walls are obviously like the pallisade/stone walls in aoe2. I.E. not upgradabke from one to the other but rather to different types of defensive structures altogether.

1 Like