Interesting idea perhaps the main challenge to the colonizers would be the new environment itself with harmful animals and vegetation.Humans fighting aliens is already a overused concept.
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Yeah all good and funky but what about doing something, anything for aoe2? You know the actual game.
I think there is a time gap between AoE2 and AoE3.
Yes technically AoE3 starts before AoE2 ends and has units like Crossbows but the game does not represent the Pike and Shot era of warfare well at all not does AoE2.
For technical reasons AoE2 can’t really represent Bayonets. Having to manually switch between ranged and melee mode kinda defeats to point of a Bayonet for all but the highest skilled players. So AoE2 can’t really go beyond the 17th century.
On the other hand AoE3 gives you Musketeers with a strong melee attack in the Commerce Age (2nd) so it basically skips forward to the late 17th century.
Even the Spanish get Musketeers. It’s only a few civs that feel right for the 16th century like Aztecs, Incans, Haudenosaunee (before the Fortress Age), Germans (before the Fortress Age), Japanese, Chinese, Maltese (before the Fortress Age) and maybe Ottomans (Janissaries use Swords instead of Bayonets).
So I think there is a potential for a Spinnoff that does cover a type of warfare and a time period that neither AoE2 nor AoE3 cover well at all.
Similar to how Chronicles is completely within the Iron Age and scraps all the Bronze Age and earlier stuff.
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There’s a lot more to it than that.
One of the big requests the AOE2 community keeps asking is for a Chinese expansion pack a la India, but for political reasons that will never happen. The CCCP would punish Microsoft heavily if it dared publish any materials that countered any of their propaganda. Tibetan Empire? You are mistaken, there has never been a “Tibet.” Want to make anything based in the Middle East? You are walking on eggshells.
There’s also the lack of records. Subsaharan Africa is skimpy on written records of regional powers, and North and South America are completely bereft of any pre-colombian writing outside of Mesoamerica and the Inca. It’s hard to build a Puebloan civ in AOE2 when we don’t even know what they called themselves.
But this is better suited for a different discussion thread.
Yeah, starting in the “not-too-distant future” would be a nice touch.
I don’t believe that aliens exist, so all of the enemy factions would be other humans or robots.
I’d be okay with aliens. Maybe they can be human-like so players like you can relate more. They don’t need to be blobs and tentacle monsters. Star Trek and Star Wars have other civilizations from across the galaxy or universe that are grounded enough in our reality and have an appearance that is human-like.
Psychic powers, super-human strength, giants, hive minds, barbarians, explorers, locust-minded colonizers, and other civ/culture variations could bring some interesting spins on gameplay, techs, units, and AI personalities.
I’m guessing you probably don’t believe that Cyclops, Pegasus, Medusa, Kraken, and Zeus were real, but Age of Mythology exists. I think it’d be a nice option to open the doors a little on the AoE2 engine so we’re not always restricted to playing with human civs only. If this needs to be a new spinoff game rather than a new “Chronicles: Galactic Conquests” button in AoE2:DE, then that’s fine by me. I just thought it would be a neat idea for a future Chronicles expansion, since it helps avoid one taking place in or leading up to modern day’ish with predictable units, weaponry, and environments, which I really don’t want.
SWGB? Star Wars Game Boy? Ha, sorry, I’m really not sure what this acronym is.
Some decent asymmetry is what I’d like, as well. Many new civs for AoE2 have felt mostly like re-skins, all with very similar tech trees. Through alien civs AND alien worlds, there are numerous ways to create asymmetry and creative environmental factors.
The Chinese government is fine with Tibet depicted in historical context as they’re a formable nation in EU4 and EU4 itself is sold in China as it has a store price listed on SteamDB:
As for the Middle East, AoE 2 (only DE, HD is still fine) is apparently banned in the UAE after the release of Lords of the West as it has no store price listed:
People suspect this is due to the 2nd Mission in the Longshanks campaign which would be weird because we already had a Crusade-themed campaign with Saladin.
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It could partly be because of the 4th Hautevilles scenario as well. I guess the difference between these and the Saladin campaign as that you play as the crusaders. (Although you do that in Barbarossa too, so it’s still weird.)
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Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds
You mean East European? Yeah that explains a lot of things.
If you are against it because of the time setting then you are so wrong my friend.
You would like to have a Futuristic DLC instead 
, pretty off considering the time period.
Thankfully AoE I and II are linked on time frame with the Fall of Rome and the begining of Middle Ages!
BTW, developing content for AoE III is the best they should keep doing for early modern era period content!
So, I end to agree with you on this!
Please, do not forget XIX century also to be recognized as the First Industrial Revolution and the Victorian Era!
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But remember that there still some Middle Age gimmicks in AoE III
In Commerce Age you have Crossbowmen, Pikemen and English Longbowmen so? 
AoE III spans from XV to XIX century!
The problem is that those Medieval Units appear at the same time as Musketeers.
Long Bowman never exist without 18th century gunpowder units.
Even the AoE3 campaign jumps from the early 15th century to the 18th century.
The only campaign that covers the 17th century is the Japanese one.
You have to bend the tech tree a lot to make a 30 years war scenario that makes sense in the game.
Also Pikeman are really bad. They extremely focused on countering Cavalry and suck at everything else pretty much.
So you can never do Pike and Shot formations in AoE3 at all unless you heavily modify all unit stats. But then you are basically modding the game to be something that it isn’t.
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Well, yes
Those units are still in the game even reaching later ages (Industrial and Imperial Age)
But you have to consider that in fact there is a gameplay update on those with the addition of new cards and shipments that upgrades them to the latest centuries.
P. g.
- British Longbowmen become Rangers
- German Crossbowmen become Landwhers
BTW, The fact that pikeman is intended to use as a Anti-cavalry and Anti-building unit is a gameplay related thing!
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If we compare AoM with AoE2/3 we can see that it’s possible to make a strong all round Infantry unit that also does counter Cavalry.
In AoE2/3 Pikeman are super weak against everything that is not cavalry, they practically even have negative pierce armour in AoE2, in AoE3 they even lose against Musketeers in melee.
In reality Pikeman made up the majority of soldiers in Late Medieval, Early Modern armies.
In AoE2/3 you can’t ever do that because they are so focused on only fighting cavalry (and buildings in AoE2).
AoE3 is shifting it’s focus more towards 18th and even 19th century now.
Portuguese also got a Crossbow replacement too now. Generally the European civs are now more focused on the later part of the AoE3 timeline.
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So let me see
You are telling that your solution is to make the Pikeman a multipurpose unit?
Why? For historical accuracy? To be on parity with AoM gameplay?
hahahah 
. What would be next? Lock all gunpowder units for all civs until the Fortress Age?
No man. Its fine as what is like now. A cheap anticavalry and antibuilding unit.
The all-ground multipurpose infantry unit should keep being the Musketeer or Musketeer-like units
And yes AoE III is shifting more in the later time frame with the recent gameplay changes and content additions!
FE: “Eh, not a bad idea” *They adapted the AoE 2: The Next Chapter mod and sold it as a DLC…
Still, at some point they have to touch on the 20th century, otherwise it’s boring to always revisit the same 3 periods (ancient-medieval-colonial)… if AoE 5 is colonial, we’re in the same boat: you’d have the original/DE trilogy and its modern remakes (AoEO in ancient times, AoE 4 in the medieval era and AoE 5 in the colonial era)…
Yes, AoE 3 is an uncomfortable game for Microsoft and World Edge, for some reason in the trailers they only show AoE 1 DE, AoE 2 DE and AoE 4…
Yes, in order not to leave Europe they prefer to cover other historical periods in AoE 2…
Yes, but you see that there are people who don’t like the decks (which is ridiculous because you can still play without them)…
Yes, for that it is better that they make SWGB DE…
Yes, that’s how it was originally (in fact, in the AoE 3 collector’s book there was a marine from the Vietnam War for AoE 4 and the Master Chief for AoE 5 xd)… but after Ensemble Studios closed in 2009, they decided to do a soft-reboot with the saga by releasing AoE Online in Antiquity in 2011 and now you have AoE 4 but in the Middle Ages to attract more people (if Ensemble Studios hadn’t closed we probably would have seen AoE 4 in the 20th century in 2011 or 2017, since in 2006 there were people on the internet who expected it)…
Yes, an AoE 6 that would be like AoE 3 but set in the middle of the 21st century and beyond (2030-2500) that serves as a prequel to Halo Wars 1…Based on the ages of EE1 and EE2:
- Digital Age (2030-2080): Laser weapons and cybers (robots) appear, warfare changes forever. Ships, helicopters (except the Spectre AT), infantry units and tanks use laser weapons. Planes are much more powerful than before and nuclear weapons reach gigantic power
- Nano/Genetic Age (2080-2130): Robots change to be much more powerful, human villagers become robots, everyone now has a very futuristic vision. There are some tank and infantry upgrades. The advent of genetic engineering and the common use of genetic mapping make living in this era exciting and terrifying at the same time. While genetic research is allowing all kinds of diseases to be cured, genetic experimentation and identity confusion are causing great social unrest. On a more artificial level, robotics is seeking new horizons in the creation of affordable machines to carry out all kinds of tasks, from house cleaning to bomb detection and deactivation.
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Synthetic Age (2130-2180): Advances in genetic engineering, computing, and robotics have combined to create something truly impressive: true artificial intelligence. Although the debate over whether “androids” feel any kind of real emotion is still heated, it is obvious that they demonstrate the ability to reason without any human intervention. However, with the risk to human life minimized, the use of “intellibots” spreads in another spiral of world wars.
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Space Age (2180-2230): Turrets/towers, the capitol/Town Center, walls, and houses take on a more futuristic appearance than ever. The last human soldiers are transformed into robots. Spaceships and the colonization of other planets appear.
Yes, although later in the legend of Korra everything became very 20th century (1910-1930) and it no longer seemed like the Middle Ages…when Korra dies, the world will seem like the 80s or 90s or early 2000s xd…
Yes, AoE 3 could have a Chronicles DLC too also set in the Pike and Shot era (1500-1550) (Europa Universalis IV had a DLC in that era I think)… AoE 2 already has many campaigns between 1500 and 1550 (Moctezuma in TC, Almeida in TAK, Bayinnaung in RotR, Babur in DoI, Ismail in TMR), instead AoE 3 only has the historical map of the Italian Wars…
Yes, although now in Civ 7 they showed the Mississippians and they are more or less well represented…
Yes, AoE 3 starts in 1421 (you have the Chinese campaign, the German War Wagons and Henry the Navigator) … then you have a gap until 1494-1559 (the Italian Wars) and the 80 Years’ War (1568-1648), you have the historical battles of the 16th century (1516-1586), the Morgan/Blood campaign (1565-1566), the Japanese campaign (1598-1600) and if you want the Tutorial (1587-1607) … then in the 17th century nothing, except the historical maps (1618-1683/1699) and then in the 18th century, you have the Great Northern War (1700-1721), Fort Duquesne (1754) and the 18th century campaigns of Ice and Fire (1756-1781) and then everything you already know about the 19th century: historical maps, historical battles and campaigns (1803-1876)…
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I like Pikeman but there is no game in the series where I can use them as a main line unit instead of a special focused counter unit.
Is that a strange thing to want?
I never said I want to change AoE3. I’m saying that AoE3 does effectively not cover that time period so AoE3 is not an argument against adding it to AoE2.
The thing is, if they are making grand campaign DLCs like this where it’s it’s own ruleset, you could make, for example, a 30 years war grand campaign, and in that grand campaign the ruleset changes. No cards, pike and shot formations are dominant, etc.
Heck, you wouldn’t even need to buy the base game to play it since AOE3 is F2P.
Making single player content like this really fits best within AOE3.
What I proposed immediately above solves this. A 30 years war grand campaign mode in AOE3 that changes the ruleset.
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