For all of you that prefeer AoE3 better than other instalments of the series, what's what really make it stand out?

[Quirriff]

It’s also a period of history not covered by other RTS games, they’re usually either modern times, medieval period or set in the future.

[FloosWorld]

Shipments is such an underrated feature. It’s essentially choosing your own civ bonusses and deciding when to use them

[Roman22119456]

I’m also like it too Shipments a.k.a. Home City Cards system. It’s won’t be in AoMR. But do you know why it’s boring without them? You gain XP in the campaign gameplay, and open new cards! Just don’t tell me that accumulating experience points is failed for RTS.

[Amiya1998]

Shipments,20 characters.

[ArrivedLeader22]

You know what. When I was fantasizing about civ designs, and unsure about which lore/period to base the features on, how to represent factions that are not long-lasting/big/independent but interesting enough, how to add more variants while also limiting the maximum options (like I don’t want to have 10 different infantry of the same type at the barracks), the deck system solved all those concerns.

[OperaticShip743]

Creating units 5 at a time is also something I really like, and I don’t know if there are other games that do this. Only Halo Wars that I know of.

[AssertiveWall20]

[FloosWorld]

0 AD has it and also allows you to customize the batch size from 1 to 20

[OperaticShip743]

I have played it and it is a very good game, but I didn’t remember this detail.

[MatM1996]

@LtSturm1

I’ll tell you some about my personal experience. I was origially drawn to AoE III because I was interested in the time frame, including elements like the muskets and cannons. However I soon bacame enamoured by the non-linear experience and how dynamic could the game become, at least in my subjetive comparson with AoK. For me is much more interesting to send a card in the right moment than compete on how fast can you research thumb ring, to put an example.

In my case it was because my dad’s cousin knew that I liked the story and he gave me the demo of AoE 3 in 2004-2005, then I tried it, I liked it and when the game came out I saw it with its musketeer cover and then I saw that it had pirates and I was fascinated, then I played AoE 2 in 2006 and I said it’s so different and then I played AoM and I said “ah right”, then in 2007 I played the AoE 3 expansions, in 2008 AoE 1 and the rest is history…

@ArrivedLeader22

For example, if AOE3’s starting civs were British, French, Spanish, Germans, Ottomans, Chinese, Iroquois, Aztecs (the rest added later in the expansions), and the campaigns were say Napoleon, Ming-Qing conflict and Beaver Wars. You could still let the players start from scratch in skirmish.

@FiveWind6951746

Anyway, I agree with ArivedLeader, the colonial setting limited the game too much, and the campaigns while well done are not what mainline AoE campaigns should be. AoE3 suffers from these directional conflicts early on in development and now we’re left with a chaotic game.

Yes, AoE 3 screwed up because of its original campaigns, the expansions corrected it, but the initial damage had already been done…what AoE 3 DE would need to vindicate itself would be to continue adding civs and campaigns and historical battles to solve that lack…

@M00Z1LLA

The campaigns are all based on fantasy nonsense more than colonial history. I’d welcome the 7 Years War or Beaver Wars as a colonial campaign. Unfortunately we didn’t really get a proper historical campaign for any region except a couple of the Asian ones.

The TWC campaigns are quite appropriate and historically correct…Fire is the entire American Revolution (Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, Valley Forge, Morristown and Yorktown) and Shadow (the original) was Red Cloud’s War against Crazy Horse and the Black Hills War against Custer at Little Bighorn…

@Quirriff

It’s also a period of history not covered by other RTS games, they’re usually either modern times, medieval period or set in the future.

The Cossacks saga, American Conquest and Total War Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2 FoS cover it…

[EricTheRed283]

The Home city shipment system.

Continue to have the ability to choose how to advance in Age after AoM added that.

The ability to revolt (especially in AoE III DE) and having multiple revolt choices.

You can ally with natives of the lands for special units and technologies.

You can hire Mercenaries and Outlaws to fight for you (especially in AoE III DE)

There are established trade routes on maps that you can use to gain resources to boost your economy.

Batch training.

The snare mechanic, which allows you to be able to better punish enemy units that you encounter that then try to retreat to safety.

Having buildings that you can build to gather from for both Coin and Food.

First game in the franchise where you have the ability to easily know what attack bonuses and or handicaps units have in the stats area.

It’s the funnest game to play comp stomps.

It is the game I was the most naturally best at and I am still the best at.

So many custom maps that I had downloaded and had fun hosting games with such maps over the years.

Those are some of the things that make AoE III my favorite game in the franchise.

[vividlyplain]

@EricTheRed283

Batch training

Probably the single reason I can’t enjoy the other games of the franchise anymore.

[SirBarnzy1]

@EricTheRed283

The Home city shipment system.

Continue to have the ability to choose how to advance in Age after AoM added that.

The ability to revolt (especially in AoE III DE) and having multiple revolt choices.

You can ally with natives of the lands for special units and technologies.

You can hire Mercenaries and Outlaws to fight for you (especially in AoE III DE)

There are established trade routes on maps that you can use to gain resources to boost your economy.

Batch training.

The snare mechanic, which allows you to be able to better punish enemy units that you encounter that then try to retreat to safety.

Having buildings that you can build to gather from for both Coin and Food.

First game in the franchise where you have the ability to easily know what attack bonuses and or handicaps units have in the stats area.

It’s the funnest game to play comp stomps.

It is the game I was the most naturally best at and I am still the best at.

So many custom maps that I had downloaded and had fun hosting games with such maps over the years.

Those are some of the things that make AoE III my favorite game in the franchise.

Ooh, this made me all tingly.

[KG19991380]

@M00Z1LLA

(2) Says who? Not being a clone of AoE2 doesn’t mean it was supposed to be a spin off.

says mister sandy petersen, a former ensemble dev who worked on all AOE from rise of rome to ensemble closing down

[FloosWorld]

Bruce Shelley also said it in the infamous interview where he called 3 a mistake:

Developer: Age of Empires 3 Was a “Huge Mistake”

Shelley and his team were so aware of the changes and their inability to return the game to the folds of the series that they wanted to change its name from something other than Age of Empires, but Microsoft, he said, wouldn’t allow it.

[vividlyplain]

Mistake? So was my sister but we don’t hold it against her.

[M00Z1LLA]

So from Microsoft’s perspective it was always intended to be in the main series.

[FiveWind6951746]

I go into some details about it here too:

For all of you that prefeer AoE3 better than other instalments of the series, what's what really make it stand out?

From what I understand halfway through development ES realized the game they were working on would be better as a spin-off than the next mainline iteration because they felt it was too much of a departure from AoE2. Microsoft then forced ES to keep it as a mainline entry. Can’t say I don’t blame them in that regard because 2 back-to-back spin-off doesn’t make much sense from a business point of view. A mainline entry needs to be a big tent. Anyway, I agree with ArivedLeader, the colonial settin…

[EricTheRed283]

AOE3 Deck Building, Homecities, Treasure Idea Origins - Explained By Dev

S1, EP3: Sandy Petersen - A Deep Dive Into The Origins Of Age Of Empires & Game Design

[FiveWind6951746]

It amazes me many of these podcasting hosts know next to nothing about what they’re talking about. This dude annoys me.

Sandy Peterson is the GOAT though.