It is hoped that the existing resource gathering method will be simplified to the model of Age of Empires 3

Except that the AoE 4 keeps taking things from AoE 3 and acting like it is new and innovative, such as wonder age up, among other things. That being said the eco on AoE 4 is fine the way it is, I like AoE 3 eco but that is much to big of a change to make on an existing game.

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villagers gathering without storehouses is not an unreasonable game mechanic, but I think it is one best suited as a civ-specific deviation from the standard model. AoM, and to other degrees AoEO, do a good job with those kinds of deviations ā€“ different civs have different number of storehouse, other civs use movable storehouses (ox carts), other civs do not use any.

the trick to designing these games is usually to establish a standard model for every aspect of the game and then use the civs to riff off that model in different ways. this creates an very interesting tapestry of civs that all orbit the same game but in different and unique ways.

so it would be fine if one or maybe two civs in aoe4 had no storehouses, but it would be bad if they all did

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You forget the Ottoman Imperial council system with Vizier Points that came straight from the AOE3 deck and shipment system

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Of course, in fact it is a pre-defined deck but in a small oneā€¦

iā€™d say the current resource gathering is fine, however, if thereā€™s one area of eco iā€™d port over from aoe3 to all others, its the hunting, the luring of herds etc. that one just makes hunting deer actually functional (instead of pushing individual deer like a maniac)

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If only the game had a built-in voice function, like CSGO, press and hold the button to communicate with your teammates

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I am a very faithful AOE-3 player, but this I think would be wrong for AOE-4.

Iā€™d even like drop locations in AOE3, but somehow this lack of realism was compensated for by the diversity of mechanics, so auto-depositing resources doesnā€™t bother me.

What I would like with the drop off locations is that they are portable and can be assembled/disassembled, or at least recyclable. I think itā€™s ridiculous to build a deposit every 5 minutes and abandon a fully functional one.

Maybe thatā€™s why AOE-3 opted not to build storage locations.

True, itā€™s kind of ugly to leave drops off locations all over the mapā€¦

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Besides environmental graphics, I think one thing I would like from AOE3 and AOM, is when you command move units through your minimap, it shoes a little notification of where youā€™ve clicked. Currently in AOE4, you get no feedback when using the minimap to move, so you could be mistaken for not having made any commands at all.

Itā€™s pretty neat. Feels good too.

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very good point, this is also absent in aoe2 as well (had me thinking if any commands were given, but they added this for console version so maybe itā€™ll come to steam as well), also big one aoe2 is missing, aoe2 can only display explored and unexplored map, it doesnā€™t show your actual line of sight on the minimap, smt 3 and 4 do

I will pass on that. Thats why I have a hard time playing that game

another aoe3 exclusive that should be common is how shift queue is done, when you shift queue orders, it plays a different sound effect compared to a single order, imo this is a must

Iā€™m pretty sure AoEO has this. AoEO was developed by the same people on the same engine and thus represents the apex of QoL in the franchise. Shame more present players (and every dev?) donā€™t have AoEO as a point of reference, Had AoE4 stood on the shoulders of the predecessors, many common complaints around here would never have been uttered.

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The issue is that AoEO is very influential in AoE 3 and the devs decided to go back to AoE 2 and put things from AoE 3 like ā€œnew things never seen beforeā€ā€¦

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Yup. AoE3, especially at the very beginning was like: ā€œletā€™s try all these weird new things that have never been in AoE before. People like fresh new stuff, right?ā€. Most of it didnā€™t work and I remember the game not being well-received by fans back then. I even remember the AoE3 team having to explain in interviews that the colonial era had more unit diversity than the Medieval times. They were certainly worried the game would bomb.

You can see the love for the RTS genre in AoE3ā€™s graphics, physics and attention to detail but they went too far with the resource gathering mechanics, cards system, etc. At least one can respect them for risking it all out, even leaving potato PCs behind.

Couldnā€™t say the same thing aboutā€¦ ahemā€¦ a more recent AoE iteration.

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Yes, with AoE 3 they were too innovative and with AoE 4 too conservativeā€¦

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You both are correctly raising the issue of AoE3ā€™s novel deviations from the core AoE design, most notably its card system.

Iā€™m trying to highlight the objective improvements in quality of life features that improved in each iteration ā€” UI, civ design, details, etc.ā€” that improved from 1997ā€™s AoE1 through 2011ā€™s AoEO.

AoE4ā€™s devs appear to have never looked past AoE2 and essentially brought the series back to the QoL dark ages with AoE4. Itā€™s very discouraging for those of us who left aoe2 in the dust back in 2003.

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Iā€™m not gonna bother discussing the pros and cons of AoE3 as that topic has been beaten to death and quite frankly itā€™s a waste of time these days. The AoEIV crusader brigade will find that out too.

With that being saidā€¦

While I donā€™t think the lack of drop-off points is such an intrinsic part of the AoE experience I will say it would not make sense at all for this game. AoE3 hyper focuses on map control and aggressive play. It removed some of the more tedious gameplay elements to enhance this. Iā€™ve played all the AoE games and AoE3 presents its own unique challenges that are not present in the other games. I donā€™t know why people equate the lack of drop-off points to be game being ā€œeasyā€ as if placing a lumber camp every 5 minutes to limit the distance villagers have to walk is really skill intensive.

As for what I think AoE3 can bring to AoEIV there are two main things: more flora and fauna and graphical details. I hyper-focus on those two things because that is something AoEIV could really benefit from. People think features can just be shoehorned into AoEIV. Biomes are such a great feature that really should be better than it is currently. It actually frustrates me as an outsider.

It is funny to me when I see more AoE3 mechanics make their way into AoEIV without a peep about where they came from. Many AoE3 players speculated the 3DE dev team had their hand in the Ottoman and Malian civs. The Rus levy is straight from AoE3 too, among many others.

I have to give credit to Relic as theyā€™ve been adding stuff from other games but doing it in a way that meshes well within the game. Seems to me AoEIV is trying to distance itself from AoE2 in its mechanics and design and taking inspiration from the other games. I mean, I could have told them a long time ago trying to win over AoE2 players was a futile endeavor.

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If you are going to attract aoe2 players, you need to make a game that is better at being aoe2 than aoe2.

Foolā€™s errand.

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you could make a 100% copy paste of aoe2 but in 3d and people would still complain because its 3D, or lack of content, thereā€™s no winning in this scenario

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