I’m convinced that the current developers are giving their best. AoE IV will be a great game for sure as long as there is enough money to maintain it in the next months/years after the release.
I think developers do what they’re paid for with a specific deadline or time allocated for a task. I personally think that they actually lack of programmers, and that majority of game companies have difficulties to hire/keep programmers. Programming is not an exact science in terms of investments/results when it comes to developing/maintaining a game.
I just had a look at Relic official website inadvertently :
Let’s be optimistic, and think it’s for a future project, and that they don’t need anybody for the AoE series…
By the way for “developers” of the AoE series : Good luck 