Introducing Age of Empires 3 and other old/dead games into Retold as DLC

Age of Mythology: Retold Discussion
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It occurs to me that games from abandoned developments could be included in Retold.

Firstly, Ao3 may or may not appeal to the public, but it’s clear that Microsoft doesn’t want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. However, I think one option could be to include it in Retold in the same way that Ao1 became part of Ao2 with Return of Rome. AoE 1 and 2 are compatible because they were made with the same engine. Ao3 in turn, was also made with the same engine as AoM(well, actually, Retold is a modified version of the Ao3 DE engine, which is itself a modified version of the original Ao3 engine, which is a modified version of the original AoM). Therefore, they should be compatible, at least technically. Logically, they wouldn’t be designed to be played together under normal conditions.

The other suggestion is quite ridiculous, putting Warcraft 3 Refoged inside Retold as well. It’s ridiculous not only because they’re made with different engines, aesthetics, and designs/gameplay, but also because they’re from different companies; but Reforged is dead, and Blizz now belongs to Microsoft, so well, at least they’d be making use of material by putting it in a clearly more successful game (who would have thought that the time would come when AoM would surpass WC3 and that I’d live to see it).

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No, it is a terrible idea.

Return of Rome is not good – they didn’t port the original campaigns of AoE 1, and no one plays RoR multiplayer. Now it is pretty much forgotten, just like AoE 1. Do you really think the devs will actively update it if AoE 3 gets ported to AoM?

And AoE 3 has a larger daily active player count than AoM. Do you think they will come to AoM to play AoE 3? It will only make the game unnecessarily heavier.

Not to mention that the settings of AoM (fantasy) and AoE3 (history) is no small difference.

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I didn’t say it to save Age of Empires III or because I think RoR is good (I’m not really interested), I just said it to do something about that game. If it’s not going anywhere because the developers (or Microsoft) don’t like it, then put it in another game that, at least for now, seems to be more popular.

And I said it because, as far as I know, you can’t pit the Age of Empires I factions against the Age of Empires II factions in normal modes; so the same should apply—the Age of Empires III and Retold factions shouldn’t be mixed.

I think the players have nothing to do with it, you already said it, the 3 has better numbers, and yet they let it die, Microsoft never liked the premise in the first place.

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The engine of AoE3DE is only marginally worse then the AoMR engine.

AoE3 was more modern then AoM in the first place while AoE1DE didn’t even have the same features as the original AoE2.

It would be awesome if they ported back the AoMR improvements to AoE3DE. Especially the Editor is so much more powerful and easy to use in AoMR compared to AoE3DE.

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That would be another option, okay, it won’t be implemented in an advanced game, but the editor and performance of AoMR in Ao3 DE would be welcome. There are quality-of-life and gameplay improvements in both games that would be interesting to see in each. While I never really liked the card and trade system, it would be interesting to see something similar in Retold.

Using mods, it seems that the population limit in AoMR is partly due to internal memory limitations, and I’m only referring to mods that increase the population limit, not those that do strange things. AoMR simply handles a large number of entities at once better, not to mention that it handles without problems what causes lag in AoMR. I honestly don’t know how different they are from each other.

In theory, resources, like units, should be compatible between engines, regardless of their power levels.

To be honest, I’m quite ignorant on this subject. I don’t know much about the technical specifications of each engine. I know that AoM 1 and 2 were made with the same engine, only that AoM 2 is an improved version. It’s also the same engine as SWGB, which I don’t know how modified it is. The base is the same, but it’s not identical, and the AoM engine couldn’t run AoM 3, although in theory, it could in reverse. That’s why Retold could use AoM 3’s resources.

Of course, I don’t know to what extent they might be incompatible. I don’t think I could put a Janissary or a soldier in Retold just by copying the data.

Anyway, it’s just an idea. It was tried by putting Age of Empires 1 inside Age of Empires 2. It didn’t work, but at least it’s there. If Age of Empires 3 were put inside Retold, it wouldn’t necessarily work either. And as mentioned, the Age of Empires 3 players wouldn’t necessarily jump to Retold, but instead of just throwing it away like they did, they should at least put all the units together in the editor. I think it would be better if they used it somehow.

And it doesn’t matter that Age of Empires 3 still has players; Microsoft doesn’t like that game. I think it’s for political reasons, you know, controversies surrounding the colonial era (that’s why Age of Empires 4 is medieval instead of the modern era as originally planned, because certain infamous factions from the First and Second World Wars would have appeared).

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It doesn’t make sense. But they could potentially add a pantheon that plays “AoE3” like with cards and such instead of godpowers. I am sure it would have target audience. Same applies to couple civs from AoE4 (Malians), and even AoE2 has some units (scorpions, heavy cav) that would be interesting to see in AoM.

But of course I wouldn’t mind if they start updating existing pantheons too. Water could use updating for example. I wouldn’t mind seeing different kind of docks and ships being able to build. Perhaps add some other resources like Bamboo (Wood) and Gold to water as well. Also unique units like Greek have in every gods castles would be nice.

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It’s a crazy idea. There’s no point in doing this at all. 6,000 players won’t switch to AoM to play a cut-down version of AoE 3.

Then civilizations will lose their uniqueness. Everyone will play only with these units. Or, like with the Myrmidons, they won’t be used at all.

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There are not sufficient words in the English language to explain how terrible of an idea this is.

The studio betrayed AOE3, but the solution is simply for them to resume support for AOE3 in the actual game.

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Please no. Retold is a terrible game with worse pathing and everything is a downgrade compare to how AOE3 feels.

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Good idea but no.

I think they should drop both AOE3 and AOM. Then remake them on AOE4 engine. Four games with 3 different engine is a waste of resources.

If they are crazy enough, I think they can merge AOE3 and AOM with AOE4. AOM civs have no Artillery, their Myth units work as Artillery,

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As “good” as that sounds for a player i dont think that will ever be viable

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The truth is, I never really liked the third one. It’s good, just good. I agree that Retold has a lot of path-finding problems, but I wouldn’t call it terrible.

And overall, I think the third one is inferior, at least in my opinion.

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Meh, I prefer a game with an older engine that runs perfectly on any PC to a more modern one that doesn’t know how many resources it will consume or how optimized it is (for example, I really like Total War Warhammer, but its performance is often as bad as trying to push an elephant with your bare hands).

I’ve never actually played Ao4, although lately I’ve been having problems with more modern games that have an excessive number of effects. There’s so much static that you can’t see anything. I’m not saying Ao4 is like that, but the light columns when building structures definitely bother me; aesthetically, it’s too much “game.”

As for wasting resources, I don’t think you can call the Ao3 and Retold engines wasteful, considering they’re modified versions of the original AoM. I don’t think it’s wasteful when they literally recycled software from over 20 years ago.

Actually, I always thought AoM advantage over Ao3 would be the myth units, but no. Use them not as an equivalent to artillery, but rather for their advantage of being monstrous, dealing more damage and receiving less from human units.

I say this because Ao3 units are stronger, well, depending on the unit, like the chu ko nu, the Retold version is stronger in base, but range upgrades increase stats more proportionally, and Ao3 has one more range upgrade per unit (I’m referring to Imperial upgrades). And since most units are ranged, AoM units don’t stand a chance.

That’s what happens with the Ao3 samurai. They aren’t bad units in themselves, but in a game with so many ranged options, a melee unit with such mediocre speed and damage isn’t cost-effective. I think many melee units from Ao3 would have a better chance in the late game in Retold.

And who knows how Age of Empires archer units would perform against artillery, since technically they aren’t artillery units. Ranged infantry, like in the third game.

And because of their bonus and resistance against humans, any mythic unit would be effective against everything in the third game, since there’s really nothing in that game that isn’t human. Sure, there are heroes like the scout, but that’s just one in most cases.

I wonder how artillery would be classified; ¿would they be human units?

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While it’s mentioned that Ao1 is part of Ao2 now, the idea actually came to me from a Star Craft mod that adds Warcraft 3 factions, something as absurd as elves with bows and arrows fighting marines. The concept is fun and brilliant, and it enriches the limited number of factions in those games. Besides, that’s the concept behind Warhammer 40k (40k is Warhammer Fantasy in space). If it worked for them, ¿why wouldn’t it work for other franchises?

And it would be interesting to see the Ao3 and Retold factions.

Although, in terms of fantasy, Retold would fit better with Warcraft.

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At least RoR is in the same relative ballpark as AOE2, in terms of swords and cav (at the most broaded view of it).

Mythological creatures and ancient civs AOE game hosting a little enclave of 1500-1800AD era combat seems far more out-of-place.

The answer is that W.E had dropped the ball big-time with AOE3 and there’s a whole fan base who’s opinion of how the AOE series is currently running has been tainted. Considering the player-base activity is still larger (at points larger than this game), it was a real stupid decision. Support should either be picked up again or just left alone (i.e current situation) - it doesn’t work for both games to have AOE3 in AOM.