According to official sources the new “Premium Edition” includes a DLC that unlocks the god Freyr for the Norse.
But it’s not really clear if she will be a new Major or Minor god.
New Gods Pack: “Freyr”: Age of Mythology: Retold Premium Edition adds Freyr to the Norse pantheon. Unleash the power of the Norse god of prosperity and fertility with the Freyr God Pack. The blessings of Freyr will elevate your reign to unprecedented heights.
A new Major God would make sense as a DLC. It’s basically a 1 civilisation DLC, while a new full civilisation is practically 3 new civilisations.
But if it was a new Minor God then this would become a massive pay to win concern.
In no other Age of Empires game (ignoring AoE Online) you could buy more options into an existing civilisation.
This would give a clear advantage to people buying the DLC.
Edit:
In case people get confused:
Freyja is not the same as Freyr, but they are (likely) siblings.
If Freyr is a Major god it is an interesting question how this will develop in the future.
Most important gods already exist as Minor gods so they would be the most obvious choices for gods to be turned into Major gods.
There isn’t really any real reason why that should not be possible.
Also Major gods could become Minor gods too.
Why shouldn’t I be able to worship Thor and Odin at the same time?
My guess is Major because I have no idea how they’d implement her as a minor god to the already existing ones. That brings the question… will the other three civs also get a 4th Major god?
Adding a Minor God would mean you get a 3rd choice in one of the Age ups I guess.
I think it would generally cool to be always able to choose between 3 gods on every Age up.
But yeah I assume they will make more God packs in the future. Likely not limited to 1 per civ. Popular civs might get more new Gods then unpopular ones. I guess it’ll be a lot more likely that the Greeks well get multiple new major gods.
Kinda strange that he was entirely missing from the base game.
I still wonder how they will deal with that for other civs as most important gods are already represented as Minor gods.
I could see Osiris become a Major God for example.
As I’ve mentionned in another topic, Freyr is most likely a major god. Furthermore you can notice the plural form in “new gods pack: Freyr”. That makes me think we’ll get some minor gods alongside Freyr.
I can imagine some minor gods becoming major gods. Remember the aztec, haudenosaunee, lakota and incas in aoe3. They were minor tribes before becoming full fledged civs.
its not clarified yet if its a major or minor god (minor god would really be a problem, major god could be interesting)
if its a major god what are his minor gods???
why just one major/minor god for one civ? makes no sense they should have called it “trinity-pack” with freyr and one for the each other civ. like this it looks like norse will have more options than the others which is odd.
also: isn’t freyr the brother of freya? since some here call freyr female. or is it one of these gods who mythology calls both female and male depending on the source material? i still think hel could have turned into a major god but whatever i guess.
anyway i hope we get clarifications about this asap
That would explain the plural and it would make sense.
It would be strange if a new Major God would only reuse old Minor Gods.
Each Major God is essentially it’s own civilisation. The difference between Major Gods is bigger then the difference between many AoE2 civilisations.
The different Pantheons are basically just regions of the world so it makes sense that they can have different numbers of gods.
I’m pretty sure we will see more then one such DLC in the future.
Maybe not all civilisations will get a 4th god and some might even get a 5th.
There are some cultures that we just know a lot more mythology about then others so it makes sense. Also some civilisations are more popular then others too.
Not that different from the Variant Civilisation concept of AoE4.
It also allows them to keep the game fresh by releasing new God packs inbetween major DLC.
okay that sounds like logical step/idea. i personally am all for new major and minor gods. wouldn’t have thought of such a strategy but well it makes sense.
still hope we get one or two new for each and every civ. would be still odd if some would have much more variety than others.
also don’t forget you have to mix the new minor gods if thats plural. cause minor exclusive for just one major god seems unbalanced and against the hole idea of AoM’s age system IMHO
Respectfully, this is a bad comparison. That there is the Greeks & the Atlanteans that both come from the Hellenic mythology is not the same thing, as they play differently from each other in the game regardless of them sharing the same culture/mythology, and they have the same amount of gods to choose from with every age.
Here they are adding assuming a new major god for the Norse, meaning that 1 out of 4 pantheons will have a bigger advantage on the battlefield because they will have 1 more way to play and new strategies that might not be easily countered, and thus providing an unfair experience for every other pantheon.
As I previously said, my bet is that this is the first of many new gods being added to the OG pantheons, most likely to make the OG pantheons stronger before the two new pantheons come in to play with expansion 1 & 2 post launch in order to make them more balanced.
It it’s a new major got then there is no balance concern at all.
Every major god is essentially it’s own civilisation.
The now 4 Norse Major gods are as if another game like AoE3DE had 4 civilisations in the same region of the world.
AoE3DE for example has 3 Asian civilisations, 4 Native American ones and 2 Africans.
Each of the regions have a lot of shared mechanics, units, buildings and technologies but each of them has a different number of civilisations.
Forcing to game to always keep the same number of Major Gods for all Pantheons means that it would be very hard to expand the existing Pantheons.
Now you would have to make a DLC with 4 Major gods at once already, if the 2 new Pantheons are out such a DLC would have to have 6 Major gods.
Also every new civilisation would have to start with 4+ new Major Gods instead of 3.
It seems really bad idea to force every civilisation to have the same number of Major gods.
If it’s so much of an issue, then why introduce a special case for the Norse in the first place? I find it odd to just do that for 1 out of 4 pantheons.
I’m pretty sure this is just the first of many to come.
It’s a lot easier to just make a new Minor god instead of a full new Pantheon so it’s a nice way to make small DLC that are released in the gaps between the big DLC.
But helenic culture is overrepresented. May be you can´t or you shouldn´t duplicate nordic culture releasing… Icelandic for example and making them to workship Vanir gods instead of Aesir for example.
Instead of this, it´s good release a new major god to complete a little more their pantheon…
This argument would only make sense if you started the game without choosing a major God. Because then the Nordics WOULD have an increase in their alternatives. But since you choose the god before the game, if there are 3, 4 or 6 it is something that does not affect.
I think this too to complete them. But if one pantheon remains without adding a new Major good, I wouldn´t see a problem
There is a reason why the Hellenic culture is represented in such way, because it’s the biggest and/or most famous in the west compared to all other pantheons. Not saying that one is better than the other one, but I think no one will deny this.
The fact still remains that the Norse in that case will have one extra god to choose from at the beginning of the game, that probably comes with new powers, units and strategies that other pantheons doesn’t have, so how does something like this not affect the game in any way unless all pantheons get the same treatment? On top of that, it doesn’t make sense to just let the Norse get this treatment.
I’d find it strange and weird if they left out pantheons, surely they have thought this through if they are willing to give this treatment to the Norse, that all other pantheons has to receive the same treatment or otherwise why do it at all? Time will tell.
But that in what way affect you if for example you are playing with Thor?
I repeat, if you would start the game without chosing a major good, I would understand your point. Because in that case nords would have more options within the game.
But each major god is like their own civ in others AoE. It would be like saying that in AoE3 europeans have an advantage because there are more europeans civs than asian for example. It have no sense.
I was going to mention the plural which everyone seems to miss. Considering it is a Gods Pack my guess it is contains a new major god, Freyr in this case, and three new minor gods (one for each age). Otherwise I don’t know what they would package with him. Obviously new minor gods would come with new myth units, tech/upgrades and god powers. I’d assume Freyr would get agricultural bonus techs and I have a feeling Idunna will be a minor god for him