I agree!
I would prefer Microsoft to invest more in Age 4 than in the release of Age 5.
Age 4 has a lot of potential to be the best RTS of all time. Just a few improvements and It will attract New players and more players back here.
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Building to unit scale does not need to be realistic but the scales need to be consistent. Like you wonât make some human models 1.5x size of the others.
That is the case for some buildings: in later stages of development they were directly âshrunkâ into a smaller grid without adjusting their internal parts. It makes some structures proportionally smaller than others. Like the similar-looking towers as part of some buildings are much smaller than the standalone towers.
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We have the Order of the Dragon variant civ and the units are boosted with testosterone and are huge. I think this is one of the worst scaling choices of the developers. They could have done something better.
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I donât mind it, and I love OotD, I think itâs very cool that you can have really strong units that you can pull back and heal with your Prelates, and maximize their survivability, itâs a very specific and satisfying gameplay.
I donât often post on these forums, probably because Iâm enjoying the game, but seeing how negative most posts are, I thought Iâd share my opinion for what itâs worth. Negativity at launch was warranted, but it seems it stayed this way in some corners, and Iâm not sure how many of the regulars here play the game vs how many turned into professional posters, but the game is absolutely amazing right now. Best RTS game hands down, from all points of view. Thereâs an insane amount of gameplay with the 130+ matchups. If you play random, every game feels like youâre improvising and playing on your feet. I really love it, and I hope they keep improving it where they need to.
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I could care less about the appeal of graphics versus having a more optimized game. I can currently run it on my toaster, and thatâs all that matters to me.
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The size of the units compared to the buildings has always bugged me tooâitâs hard to feel like youâre commanding armies when they look like giants next to their own barracks.The textures could use some work as well. Everything does feel a bit too clean and polished, which takes away from the gritty, war-torn vibe youâd expect from a game like this. Adding some wear and tear would definitely help with that. And yeah, the bright and colorful aesthetic kind of clashes with the medieval theme. A filter or color adjustment could go a long way in setting the right mood.Itâs tough with Relic going through layoffs, but seeing what they did with Company of Heroes 3 shows that the engine has a lot of potential. But I donât think the developers will do anything.
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I was watching the CIV7 gameplay trailer and iâve been shocked by the graphic quality of unit models. They are Amazing
Mongols archers
Medieval knights
Nave with crew (also Relic were imaging this kind of naval warfare as clearly showed into the AOE4 art book)
But what impressed me a lot is the representation of Roman legionaries and greek Hoplites. I never seen this detailed units in RTS before except for the Total war games.
Legionaries are incredibile
CIV7 looks for more realism and reading many previews developers choosed to preserve the readability reaching more realism trough High detailed models, cities and terrains and new zoom options wich let to player to look Battle very close for a cinematica experience: this Is immersion.
Why CIV7 looks so beatiful and detailed in comparison to Civ 6? Because CIV6 have been very critized for the graphic and developers listened.
we know that CIV6 sold many copies but the new CiV7 graphic showed how criticismo by players and reviewers have a such of impact for the future titles.
This Is my Hope for the future of AOE titles: i would like to see High detailed units.
AOMRE Is the First step into this direction (i posted a lot of screenshots and i really like the graphic) and i wanna see the next AOE set new standard in terms of graphic quality.
This Is the reason why we seen all of those graphic questions during the latest poll.
PS: iâm on the side of those people Who think that next DLC will not change the graphic quality (i mean a totally remake of unit models)
For everyone Who could be interested to Civ 7, this Is the gameplay trailer
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Oh, those look super cool!
This is what Mongols need! A heavy Horse archer unit.
Same for the Ottomans.
They need a horse archer unit, it was one of their main units, so why not?
Whoever denies the fact that aoe4 is a budget game, is delusional.
From a italian interview to CIV7 developers
"On the purely visual front, the Executive Producer told us that the team took the best of Civilization 5 and 6 to mix it with a concept that the Art Director called ârealismâ. He was always inspired by museums and dioramas and wanted players to be able to focus on a single portion of the map to admire it in detail. The Art Team is larger than the one that dealt with the previous chapter and apparently emphasized the cultural characteristics of the various civilizations.
âIf you zoom in and take a close look at the units as they fight, youâll notice that they all have a combination of clothes and pieces tied to their cultureââŠ
Source
Realism Is the future of the RTS games. With the launch of many RTS on Console at the day one with PC, Many players, especially on console, are interested to the graphic and level of details. This Is the reason why AOMRE looks graphically Better than Aoe4.
Worldâs Edge will learn the lesson for the next AOE?
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Incorrect. Because they took what VI did and evolved it.
You even mention this in the Italian interview. They didnât ignore VI. They didnât abandon what they learned. They took it and built on it.
As for AoM: Retold, Iâm excited for it personally. But there are some ways the graphics can never exceed AoE IVâs, while the areas IV is weak in, can be improved because theyâre not limited by the engine so much. I donât see Retoldâs heightmaps improving, though the terrain already looks better than in III: DE.
Itâs not incorrect. I said that they listened the criticism. And CIV6 have been very critized for cartoonish graphic. They took the readability from CIV6 but mix It with realism of CiV 5. The result is CIV7 thatâs readable and realistic ad the same time. Realism Is determinated by the quality of texture and models (and these are the main questions in the latest Age of Empires Poll) and this Is what Worldâs Edge should try to reach dot the future.
If you remember i said that i like AOE4 art style but not the quality of textures.
Improve them (Civ7 could be a good ispiration) and youâll probably have the best Aoe game.
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Correct!
Many people criticized CIV6 because of cartoony graphics, now CIV7 has much more detailed and better gritty graphics. And most of the people loved it, including me. I already pre-ordered the game and thatâs how good businesses attract more players. Listen to the players and make lots of money,
Realism is determined by the adherence to realism. It doesnât have much to do with the quality of the textures. Civ VI is more detailed than V in a whole bunch of ways despite V being more realistic in its art direction.
Realism != quality.
Stylised != a lack of quality.
Thatâs all Iâm trying to say (as someone with hundreds of hours in Civ V and VI).
VII looks to be both more realistic (less stylised) and more detailed than VI (or V).
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Civ7 graphics looks amazing. I think they nailed the art style. It looks stylized and realistic at the same time. But you canât compare the budget a franchise like Civilization has to Age of Empires. Itâs a different league.
Other things Iâd like to point out is that AoE4 unit models are highly detailed. Itâs just the art style which is dictated by visibility reasons that youâre not fond of. There is a dev mod that allows you to zoom in much more and you can see just how much detail there is.
Another thing that I disagree with is AoM Retold looking better. The engine is much older and you can tell. And the animations are stiff. The only thing that arguably looks good is the art style of the units. Ground and buildings look much better in AoE4, as well as the lighting and shadows.
AoE4 went with a certain unit style for visibility, because itâs primarily a competitive game: bright fluorescent team colors on units, and weapons that emit light so you can see them from afar. This hurt immersion for hyper-casual players that primarily play for immersion. Itâs like an artistic filter you need to view the unit model through. Together with the foliage and the ground, it gives it a painterly style. Where they went overboard with detail is the building models, sound design, and idle animations (i.e. not unit contact animations which could have been better) even if some aspects of building textures were clearly rushed in the base civs (and I hope they improve on them).
EDIT: Thereâs also the fact theyâre using Unreal Engine for Civilization, which is made possible by it being a turn-based game.
That is completely false.
AOE3DE units have better textures.
AOEIVâs style and player color patterns on units are horrible.
Most civ unit textures lack metallic texture and make their weapons and armor look like plastic.
The worst in the franchise.
Nope, the lighting and shadows in AOEIV are also horrible. AOE3 and DE versions are much better.
Just look at AOEIVâs water, horrible. AOE3âs water is much better as it uses proper lighting and shadow.
Castles are all the same for every civilization.
English MAA has leather helmets which is funny.
Poor decision-making, plastic-like and non-shiny metal weaponsâŠ
I donât wanna say anything about that. We already talked too much about it.
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I disagree. Except for the water, where they had a dedicated programmer working on water physics, and you can tell.
AoE3 looks much worse to me. The building textures and terrain look old even in the remake, the engine is old, the units move very weirdly, with a rubber-band like effect. Most units have guns, making it difficult to distinguish (same for cannons), the UI is a mess overloaded with information. It does have more features, more fauna, more details to the world, but thatâs it.
Thatâs a negative.
EDIT: Because Iâm too lazy to install AoE3DE which has 50GB, this is from a post Iâve found on these forums, coincidentally made by the same Jimmy I was replying to above, where he was trying to make a point that AoE3DE details look better:
What hyper-casuals usually dislike about AoE4 are the enlarged weapons that emanate light, hence their âplasticâ impressions. Metal when made to radiate light instead of reflecting it, gives them the impression of plastic. But itâs a tradeoff the devs made to make units identifiable by their weapons.
Ask a friend whoâs never played an AoE game which screenshots they think look better.
No, Itâs the same league. We are talking about AOE. Itâs one of the most beloved RTS in the world.
Not, unfortunately not. Models have low textures and see them with âfree camera modâ itâs a pain fo the eyes.
I posted many screenshots about that. Here some of them
This Is AOMRE
Yes, and It has been the First mistake since the launch. The main base of AOE players are casual who play only with campaigns, missions, skirmish and co-op. The Multiplayer matches are a Little percent of the Total count. And now, many famous Streamers are leaving AOE4.
This is also One of the main reasons why the Sultanâs DLC sold so well: new campaign and new requested Civilizations.
This Is another point: U5 Is the future also for the RTS. Many of them are going to be developed with this Engine: Manor lords (the most acclaimed RTS in the latest months), CiV 7, the next Stronghold game, Tempest Rising and more.
Itâs the future: DLSS3 for strong FPS also with the best graphic settings, ray tracing and all of support by Epic.
Essence Engine Is a good Engine
But i think itâs s not ready for the future of AOE.
But iâm sure that graphic details are now a priority also for Worldâs Edge. If you partecipated to last AOEâS POLL you probably know what i mean.
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Looks like the marketing team is watching the conversation, mobile graphics > pc graphics
Disclaimer: this is a joke post⊠I donât think AoE IV looks anything like a mobile game (does have issues though), but itâs clear graphics are the main selling point for AoE Mobile
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All of my Friends tought that AOE3de was AOE4. When i said them that It was the latest AOE in the franchise they didnât trust me because Aoe3de was graphically Better. So for them Aoe3de was the last title.
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