Graphics and gratitude

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
1

Hello, ladies and gentlemen!

First of all, I want to say that I am very much looking forward to the Age of Empires 4, as well as many people here. I read the forums and saw a lot of angry comments about the graphics of the Age of Empires 4. + - a lot of people said that the graphics are too cartoon. In general, now I will try to explain why the graphics are not very important (especially for RTS):

For an example, you do not need to go far: Sid meier’s civilization 6. This strategy has the most cartoon graphics (it is much more cartoon than in the fifth part of this game), but right now Sid meier’s civilization 6 is played by 25 thousand people and it is on the 18th place in terms of the number of online steam users! I very much doubt that all these people are playing it because of the graphics of this game.

For comparison: Sid meier’s civilization 5

1920×1080 424 KB

Sid meier’s civilization 6:

1919×1080 709 KB

As we can see, compared to the previous part, in Sid meier’s civilization 6, the graphics have become much less realistic. But why do people play this cartoon game? - Because the game has nice gameplay, good mechanics and cool additions. All these factors simply overlap the cartoon graphics, because it is not the main thing.

For this reason, I believe that in the Age of Empires 4, the game mechanics and the gameplay itself will play an important role, not the graphics (by the way, please note that the graphics in the Age of Empires 4 are not very cartoon-like and are better than in sid meier’s civilization 6). And given the fact that the fan preview showed us a lot of new interesting mechanics, then I think that the Age of Empires 4 will be a success. (All of the above is my opinion, if it does not coincide with yours - this is normal)

In conclusion, I want to thank the Age of Empires 4 developer campaign-Relic Entertainment Studio! Thank you so much for your hard work. You are really making a cool game of the future. I’m really looking forward to beta testing and the game in general. I believe that you will succeed!

24 Likes
2

Even if graphics of aoe4 are cartoony they ARE BEAUTIFUL

image
image1920×1080 1.06 MB

Look at that man. It’s incredible , I love it

17 Likes
3

there are people who disagree. why not make everyone happy and create an official graphics mod that shows higher detailed models and more realistic colors.

5 Likes
4

Kisses to your words dude)) An example with Civilizations is spinning in my head myself. Indeed, most people play Civilization 6, despite the wool style, probably because all the same strategies are more about gameplay than about appearance. Despite the very “noisy” minority of “historians” on this forum, the majority of fans of the sho series are looking forward to the game with interest and impatience. Yes, I’ll tell you a secret, not all people who are going to play AoE 4 are registered on the forum or write comments under trailers or videos on YouTube, most are just waiting for the game (As was the case with WarCraft 3 Reforged, and this increased the effect of not understanding the final product, since the announcement showed something completely different.), without yelling about the fact that the game does not have such armor as I imagined in my head before the announcement, excuse me if I hurt someone’s feelings.

5 Likes
5

Civ 6 has cartoony proportions, but very realistic coloring and lighting. If you look at the weapons and armours, they have shades and reflections, and look like actual metal.

AOE4 (from the current footages) feels like the reverse. The model proportion is not cartoony (except the oversized weapon), but the color looks plain, and has large chunks of uniform bright color lacking shades or reflections. This makes the weapons look like plastic pieces.

Edit: people may ask for a comparison

image

Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 9.56.22 AM

DISCLAIMER: I’m not implying which one is better. I’m not going to hate AOE4 simply because of the graphics. I’m not saying the game is going to fail simply because of the graphics. But I think (personally) that the overall style of graphics can be improved or at least adjusted (based on my personal preference).

5 Likes
6

Well, yes, there is such a thing. Fortunately , this is fixable, since the game has not yet been released. In general, I like the Era of Empires 4 as it was shown (with the exception of arrows, unit animations). We need to wait for the beta test, because the developers have already fixed a lot of things, I’m sure.

1 Like
7

Perhaps there will be color correction settings

But I like it anyway)

8

The criticisms are justified, that is why there are so many :wink:

Here you should differentiate. The units and weapons look like comic art style, but the vegetation graphics not. The problem is, that the graphics of the units and the graphics of the vegetations do not match, which is visible even to laypeople.

The graphics are also important for a RTS games as well as the game mechanics.

It may well be, that comiclike units, buildings and vegetations can also provide a very good game. On the game Civilization 6 is that the case. There fit together the graphics of the units, the buildings and the vegetation. But the graphics in general also look much better in Civilization 6, than in Age of empires 4. The color saturation is clear, not as pale as in Age of empires 4. In Age of empires 4 is that all not the case. The interplay of the various graphics does not fit together in this game, especially the countryscape graphics with the units graphics.

This comparison is not applicable. The graphics in Civilization 5 and 6 are good and consistent in the various graphic elements of the game. In Age of empires 4 is that not the case, so your criticism in this sense is not justified, concerning the comic elements of the graphics.

You have not carefully read through the critics of the entire forum. It is not only the graphics that are criticized, but also the game mechanics. The difficulty is, that the game mechanics of Age of Empires 4 have also major weaknesses. In Civilization 6, on the other hand, the game mechanics are reasonable, which means, that the game can not be compared with the previous Age of empires 4.

Partly wrong. The game mechanics and the graphics will both play an equally, important role in Age of empires 4. So far, this will be a bad role, if no hard work is done to improve these flaws up to the release.

Rather wrong. The units and their weapons are definitely comic like in Age of empires 4. And really no, the comic art style of Civilization 6 looks out more sensible than in Age of empires 4.

The fan preview shows unfortunately also bad game mechanics. The bonus abilities of the special units seem striking unrealistic. I have already described the reasons for this in a separate topic.

Unfortunately no. The hard work is done by the historians in this forum, who legitimately issue criticism. The developer has done so far mostly a very poor job.

There is no way, that the game will be successful, if they remain the game as before. Because the game is significantly worse than Civilization 6, this comparison is therefore not tenable :wink:

5 Likes
9

The art style isn’t to my personal taste, but it’s not awful. I know balancing detailed/realistic visuals with the ability to actually see and differentiate between a huge number of units at once isn’t easy.

My main concern is performance, as I could buy TWENTY copies of AoE4 for the going rate of a midrange GPU and I have no idea when that will change. The performance in the gameplay demo did not really inspire confidence.

2 Likes
10

Thanks for the same point of view.

Not simply yes, but doable. There are quite a few examples of RTS games, that prove this. Civilization 6 is one such case, the graphical correspondence is right there between countryscape, buildings and units.

You have correctly observed that. The game showed clear performance problems in the preview, which i have already pointed out.

11

What’s your problem?

12

It is insane how you can’t make a post that talks about how you like the graphics or what part of the graphics you like, without having the same people over and over start complaining. There is already a post if you want to talk about how you dislike the graphics. Go and write your dissatisfaction there. Just let the people who enjoy the graphics talk about it without making it about your opinion.

You are just driving everyone else away from the forum.

5 Likes
13

Not always and not everywhere

Absolutely not

No, that’s right (If the mechanics and gameplay are bad-the graphics don’t make any sense, because the game won’t be played)

Too subjective

arrows and zooming are already fixed. They will also fix the movement of units. The game has not yet been released

In your opinion - is it harder to write on forums than to create a game? :joy:

Maybe you can do better and show developers how to really create better games?))

The chances are there, and not weak. My opinion. Thank you for your attention.)

14

Thank you for your opinion, but the opposite can not be changed - my post is already here)

1 Like
15

I am sorry, but you must not know anything about game development, or you wouldnt write such unfairly harsh words about “the developer” having done a poor job.

You may like or dislike the design decisions made. You may like or dislike some of the game mechanics, or even all. You may even not believe the game will be a success if it stays this way in design/gameplay (which it luckily will be though :stuck_out_tongue: )
HOWEVER just because the game is not to your taste, and the graphics are disliked by a proportion of players (were they satisfied i am sure another proportion wouldnt be), doesnt meant the developer did a poor job. Thats very unfair to anyone working on the game. Especially since you only saw very early beta material yet.
Please mark your words and maybe stress that you dont like the current state of the game, mabe a bit more positive critizism like the devs have much work to do still, but plainly saying they did a poor job seems unfair to me.

Maybe color saturation is a problem, maybe it isnt.

I can agree with you that comic style and realism shouldnt be mixed, which is a fix so easy even if devs dont make it, modders will do in a very short time)

5 Likes
16

you may also post whatever you like, of course anyone may have different opinions on topics, but in a thread that seems to be clearly made for thanking the devs, maybe you could have chosen nicer words :wink:

Of course what is done is done.

I mean I also did kinda bring another side to some topics, which wasnt nicely received, so of course there is always discussion. its a forum after all^^

2 Likes
17

Nope it doesnt, wtf? People complaining about aoe4 graphics are common since 2019 and it’s only for the “it looks cartoony”. And I don’t see this as a problem

Oh yeah not to mention

image
image3840×2160 2.13 MB

From a player POV it looks normal for an RTS and is really beautiful to see imo

Excuse me , WHAT? Why the graphics in civ5 and civ6 agree with each other ? Why? I don’t understand , like graphics of civilization are people and they talk or what? Pff if you are gonna make a response of a post at least explain what are you talking about pls.

WHAT? They not even show more than two mechanics and are we are already complaining? We need to know the unit mechanics , civ mechanics IN gameplay , naval mechanics and the rest of mechanics of the game so it makes no sense complain about that.

That is true , because civ 6 is a full cartoon game.

Personal opinion. Most of the people like graphics but not like units or proportion and that is fine :smiley:

,converting a cattapult to Christianity in aoe2 is also really realistic :smiley: , aoe4 have more realistic mechanics than aoe2 SHOW so far

Oh yeah , we got the future guy here , you don’t know nothing , it is just the time will decide if this game is gonna succeed or not.

Bye :stuck_out_tongue:

4 Likes
18

For whatever it’s worth, as a longtime Civilization player (since version 2), Civ 5 was the series pinnacle graphics-wise. I was really disappointed when I first saw the previews for Civ 6 after they set the bar so high! I’ve just never been a fan of the more cartoonish styles in these games. For me, greater realism is the way to go!

More to the point, I have to confess that I have mixed reactions to the previews of AoE4 graphics. The landscape looks lush and gorgeous! The people, however, at least when zoomed in closely enough, look way too simplistic and cartoony to my taste. Aside from the cartoony proportions putting me off, once or twice, I caught myself wondering if the any of the human figures even have any facial features or fingers. Now, granted, this may be the best they can do given the demands other aspects of the game put on processing power, but if that’s the case, just limit the zooming-in capability to where the lack of detail isn’t noticeable. I doubt any of the units in AoE2 have actual faces or fingers either, but it works there because you’re never up close and personal enough to notice. Some zooming is great, like in the DEs of previous installments, but unless the developers are willing to up their game detail-wise to keep up with the zooming capability, too close zooming may only serve to emphasize the game’s limitations.

4 Likes
19

That is nice , I agree :slight_smile:

20

Personally, I’m fed up with people who put bad messages in gratitude posts for developers.
We all have our opinions, please respect.
In short, a little rant against people who criticize.

I just saw an update that talks about appreciation posts on a PC games article.

Finally I say a big thank you to the developers for their work, I can’t wait to play it. I have been playing since 1st Aoe and I also like Aoe4. I also talk about it around me with people who play video games and they are also looking forward to playing it.

3 Likes