Hello, first of all I apologize if I make any spelling errors in English writing.
As the title says, I cannot understand how Microsoft leaves itself behind several of the most important civilizations in ancient history.
I understand that the game goes from year XXX to year XXX and is focused on a specific era, but they leave aside civilizations such as the Western Roman Empire, Hannibal & Carthage, Alexander the Great & Macedonia, the barbarian tribes that attacked the Roman Empire and the Medieval Kingdoms that came later, I cannot understand how Microsoft has let these episodes of history escape in a game of this type, civilizations that most of us have grown up with in movies, books, video games…
I understand that they want to innovate by bringing civilizations different from what is usual in this type of games such as the Malians or the Abbasid Dynasty, but you cannot miss the most famous civilizations in history and the cradle of Western civilization, it is something that I cannot understand, I don’t care if a civilization is 800 years apart, I want to manage the Roman Empire or charge against it with Hannibal, manage the barbarians who tempered Europe, I think the potential of the game has been completely wasted.
You essentially have AoE 1 for those civs.
Yes, but the fun thing would be to be able to play with those civilizations with the Age of Empires IV graphics on current computers, plus it would bring new players.
The game ranges from the Medieval to the Late Renaissance or Early Modern era. So civilisations like Byzantine and then Ottoman do make more sense than ancient Rome.
You could ask a modder to do it, but it’s quite likely that the priority of the game is not going towards the goal of designing those civilisations on the part of the developers. There are still things to keep improving the game.
Also AOE2 and its Rome DLC have civs that might catch your attention.
This game is about the medieval period not antiquity.
Age of Empires 4 is set in the medieval era, which is from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476AD, to roughly the fall of Constantinople in 1453, although many would put it later. Age of empires 4 design wise is highly centered around its medieval theme, and it just really does not make sense to have most of these civs you mentioned represented in the game. The medieval era saw vast differences to that of classical antiquty that civs like the western roman empire or macedonians, just would not fit at all, the technological gap between antiquity and the medieval era, depending on placement, could equal that of the first firearms to nuclear bombs. The best bet is to have the next age of empires game focus on classical antiquity.
If you want to manage the Roman Empire the Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire) are in the game already.
What about the Olmecs? The Mauryans? Can’t include Alexander the Great without including the Aechemenid Empire.
The Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) They advanced science, art and philosophy during what is known as the Islamic golden age. Also they facilitated the transfer of hindu-arabic numerals from India to Europe.
The Mali Empire (1226-1670) Was the wealthiest empire throughout the history of the world. They were also a pioneer of education.
Well, rather than forgetting about the Roman Empire, I suppose that when they chose the first civs, they also considered the planning of the campaigns and that by the time of the game’s release, they could only release 8 civs.
- English: 1st Archers Civ, and for the English and French campaign
- French: 1st Cavalry Civ, and For the French and English campaign
- Holy Roman Empire: 1st Infantry Civ, and To use as an enemy in the French, Russian and Mongolian campaign
- Abbasid: 1st Camel Civ.
- Delhi Sultanate.- 1st Elephant Civ.
- Mongols: To innovate with being a Nomadic civ with mobile buildings, like Terran from Starcraft, also for their own campaign.
- Rus: For their own campaign, being enemies of the Mongol campaign, and well, Streltsy, was the only gunpowder-only musket-using unit that they wanted to represent coming out of the game.
- Chinese: Necessary as enemies of the Mongols in the campaign, as well as being a civ with difficulty 3/3
Not enough mercenaries: In fact, they couldn’t release Byzantines head-on, because there weren’t enough Civs to get mercenaries from. With the 16 that now exist, now it is a piece of cake, and there are still several historical mercenaries missing (Genoese, Venetians, Aragonese, Wallachians, Armenians, etc.)
Enemy Civs for possible Campaign.- That being the case, if they had included the Western Roman Empire, (as in AoE2 DE), they would hardly have other civs to fight with if they campaigned against them, because there are still no Goths or Huns , nor Celts. (Maybe they can come together in a future DLC.)
Initial Competitive Factor.- On the other hand, the game was developed considering the competitive factor, and as a certain stability, unlike AoE2 where certain civs have Handcannoneers and others do not, without any balance, at least for the moment all Civ from AoE IV have both Handcanonner and Bombard ias endgame units (Imperial Age); I think that was also a trigger for which civs would be chosen in the end.
And in the future?
Of course, it is not ruled out that in some future, just like the Mali, or the Japanese, many civs with new Builds may come out. If they decide, for example, to take out Aztecs and Incas, I suppose we will have civs without the classic build with Handcannoneers and Bombards, so I imagine that the Western Roman Empire could also come out.
How do I imagine the “Romans”?
At least if they released them, I think it would be like the Byzantine Variant:
- 2 types of villagers: citizens who speak Latin and collect food, and slaves who collect other resources and speak Greek (hehehe) and use the Byzantine template for it.
- The model of most buildings with red roofs is saved.
- Archer, Horseman, Limitanei, Cataphract, Explorer, shared
- They no longer have Varangian Guard, but Comitanenses (II).
- They obviously have nothing with Greek fire.
- They don’t have powder units, they make up for it with powerful siege.
- Shared Aqueducts and Olive Oil Mechanics
- New buildings of houses and Mill: “Insula, Domus, Villa”
- Roman officers (Centurion, Decurio) as Japanese Bannermen, unlocked but limited in number
- New Set of Landmarks: Roman Theater, Arch of the Emperor, Temple of the Cult of the Emperor, Christian Basilica, Amphitheater, Roman Curia.
- New set of Mercenaries, or “Auxiliaries” with special Roman troops from ancient times. Many are modeled on units unique to the game, but in a weaker version or with another set of abilities. Because they are old, they don’t have as much HP as other civs, but they are cheaper.
Curiously, I’m making a model for a Byzantine variant that would be “The Western Roman Empire”, hehehe.
I’m still putting the finishing touches on it before revealing it.