Is it true? Do we only have space for five civs left?

Apparently, in the code of the game, there are five remaining civ slots. This alarms me and makes me concerned that Caucasus civs will never get added. Is it possible for the devs to add more civ slots if necessary, or is the DLC forcibly coming to a close soon?

They have the source code, so they can most likely expand the civ limit.

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That’s what I figured.

Yeah, the “civ limit” stopped being a meaningful constraint a long time ago. This isn’t like a fan project of modding an ISO where you only have limited space within a certain data sector. In practice, the eventual civ limit will manifest due to other constraints though (time and other resources).

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As others pointed out the limit does not exist anymore. I found this post very interesting, as it explains the backstory of the civ limit l:

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They are starting to rewrite parts of the code that had limits in it.
Some of the IDs in the engine are only 16 bit that means 65,536 different things, for example 65.536 different graphic assets.
With 32 bit they can have 4,294,967,296

https://www.ageofempires.com/news/age-of-empires-ii-definitive-edition-update-83607/

  • Allowed using 32-bit numbers for technology name and description IDs.

I assume they will do more changes like that in the future. There is no real performance gain on modern systems from using 16 bit numbers for things like that but it means changing every line of code that touches those values. In 99% of cases that’s a trivial change but in 1% of lines you have to be more careful what you do.

So I don’t think they will stop adding new civilisations, units, technologies, terrains, decorative assets etc. because they run out of “space”.

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Well I hope they’ll be all used for an Italian split, which I think it’s the best option.

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No, that would not be the best option. There are plenty of important civs that aren’t represented at all. Plus, we have enough Mediterranean civs for now.

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An Italian split would be so fetch. Meaning it shouldn’t happen.

*Queue 50 posts conversation about how spliting a giant subcontinent with hundreds of languages, cultures and dozens of different INDEPENDENT polities, is the same as splitting Italy.

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?

Yeah, Italy’s culture had regional differences, but it was still largely unified. India’s various subregions all had completely different cultures, ethnicities, and even languages.

People not knowing what fetch is makes me feel old

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Well, you misspelled it, so I wasn’t sure what you were saying. But yeah, The Conquerors came out a year before I was born, so some slang might be unfamiliar to me.

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Every thread has to turn into a discussion over what civilisations are more important to add.

It wouldn’t be the official forums otherwise

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Is it true? Do we only have space for five civs left?

No, I don’t think so. At least from a technical point of view.

BUT
As it was clearly seen with the romans civs, we’re running out of deisgn space. Bonuses are being repeated and devs don’t stop adding mechanics and gimmicks to the game.
I don’t see more than 5 or 7 more new civs, at least not without making them very assymetric.

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I dunno, I’ve come up with at least two dozen civilizations at this point, and I’ve only encountered overlap with ideas now in the game a few times.

I could came up with 30 new civs without gimmicks, before the first DE DLC. It is not that hard.

With these mechanics I can easily see even more civ designs.

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If it’s just tweaking numbers and mixing and matching stuff, sure you could. However, can you come up with 30 new civ concepts which are meaningful, offer unique experience to players, and are fun to play as and play against? I’m highly doubtful.

This is not even getting into the fact that each additional civ is a drain on players’ cognitive load. They add to things you need to learn about the game, dilute the experience if they aren’t managed carefully, and turn off newcomers who don’t want to get a PhD before playing the game.

Sure, there’s enough space technically for maybe a thousand more civs. But I don’t think there’s space for more than maybe 5-6 before they begin to take their toll.

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7 years ago i did civ designs for 28 civs. No strange gameplay gimmicks, just the rules of at the time game and its limited engine. Its possible indeed.

wont let me link my reddit profile sad.

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i think i am fine with no further civs being added for a while. I think they should focus on polishing other aspects of the game:
-make campaigns for civs which dont have any
-make more coop campaigns, as this is an amazing transition into PvP. This can grow the online communtiy
-maybe even make a version of a coop scenario where you play against one or two other human players, to smoothen this transition even further.

The people who play on the ladder daily aren’t the ones who need to be catered to in order to grow the game

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