@Skadidesu You know, I used to be a developer, and in development in general, and even more so in video games, sales people and even CEOs are often out of touch with reality. They make promises and that translates into deadlines that are impossible for developers to meet.
Once they realise this, there are usually two choices: release the broken game as it is, or put it off until later. Of course, in the case of aom, I hope they’ve got it right, but we don’t know anything about the size of the development team and if they were already busy with AOE3, the whole thing could have been delayed.
Delays are extremely common in development and what surprised me the most was that they released the trailer for the new DLC so soon after the release of the initial game, usually it takes longer, I would have bet on a release 1 year after the release of the official game personally.
I think they originally planned to include the Chinese in the base game. Maybe even a 2nd new Pantheon.
AoE2DE released with 4 new civilisations and 3 new campaigns.
AoE3DE released with 2 new civilisations and 1 new campaign.
AoMR released with 1 new Major God and 1 new scenario. Way less new content then the two Definitive Editions.
My theory is that a year before release they decided to cut the Chinese out of the release version so they can release the main game earlier.
But they already had a lot of things planned for the Chinese and they likely already started working on the Chinese while they were in the bug fixing state of the AoMR release.
I don’t think the management is suddenly so incompetent that it things a DLC can be released a whole year earlier. They have released so many DLC in the past. Especially AoE3DE is a good comparison because it runs on the same engine so it will be a similar amount of effort to make content for it.
Especially since there was only a year between DLC for AoE3DE so they completed a whole DLC within a year.
Why should they take over a year to make a DLC after they have already shown a tease trailer that showcased almost all of the units and buildings. Almost all of not all models are already done many months ago.
The only explanation for them taking so much longer would be if their team size would have been reduced massively. But I don’t think that happened since they also delayed other content like the new AoE3DE DLC that could have taken capacity away from AoMR.
I mean, didn’t they say the Chinese DLC would come out in 2024 though? It’s early in the year but they’re actually behind the timeline they set for themselves. I’m fine with them taking some more time to do it right, but still, it’s not exactly early in their timeline they gave themselves.
One must realize that when creating a civilization in age of mythology, you are technically creating 3 (or more civilizations which I am not ruling out for the Chinese- China is HUGE and is one of the longest lasting continuous civilizations on earth.), who then each have 8 splits of their own based on minor gods. That’s TWENTY FOUR variations you have to juggle.
They are also probably looking at the various already existing civs and pondering what changes should be made along with bug squashing.
They sure promised it for last year.
But Chinese New Year is at the end of January. I’d expect them announcing the release date a month early and then using the time till release for advertisement.
They haven’t done that yet. I think it’s more likely that they will announce the release date on Chinese New Year.
AoE3DE civs have multiple revolutions that basically turn them into other civilisations. So AoE3DE Mexico is equivalent to 8 civilisations?
And the differences between the revolutions are often bigger then the differences between Major Gods in AoMR.
AoE3DE civs have dozens of home city cards that can fundamentally alter the way you play a civilisations.
They unlock units, change game mechanics and some of them even resemble god powers.
And I haven’t even mentioned Minor Civilisations in AoE3DE which are almost as much content then an entire AoE2DE civilisation.
Yeah AoE2DE civs are boring in comparison.
If they can make 3 AoE3DE civilisations within a year then they can easily make 1 AoMR civilisation in the same time.
AoE3DE got it’s first major DLC with the African Royals that introduced 2 new civilisations with their own architectures and almost completely unique unit rosters plus a lot of new terrains, animals, mercenaries and Minor Civilisations. This DLC release less then a year after release. And on top of that AoE3DE released with 2 additional civilisations (one with a new architecture and almost entirely unique unit roster) and had a smaller DLC with the USA too.
Immortal Pillars already had almost all if not all unit models and animations done months ago. It can’t have been that early in development.
The only reasonable explanation for an extreme delay would be them scrapping everything and starting from scratch. Which I think is very unlikely because the Teaser Trailer was pretty popular.
@Skadidesu So I hope you’re right and that they’d already almost finished the game when they made this teaser! I really hope so!
And if on the other hand they’ve already created the unit models, but imagine if they haven’t created the campaign at all, the 30 missions, if they haven’t balanced anything yet, if they haven’t made the god spells, then imagine the amount of work that still needs to be done …
Because maybe it’s just a teaser set up to anticipate whether or not the DLC will be a success, whether or not they need to allocate a lot of budget, they can’t know in advance, which is also why they’re suggesting adding the DLC to steam’s wishlist. They may have done this teaser with the minimum in mind in order to gauge the number of interested players.
They did announce it. When the game was in the preorder stage, the poster describing what the different editions offered mentioned that the first DLC would be released in 2024. They later changed that part.
Given that the challenge for the new patch ends at the end of February, I’d be surprised if we get the new DLC in February and March. Maybe April or May but that seems early too, nobody was expecting this patch because everyone thought they’d release the DLC instead. This could be a sign of other patches to come before the DLC arrives at the end of the year. But I hope that won’t be the case.
Chinese New Year would be the perfect time to drop the next trailer and announce the release date.
Speaking of things to look forward to, we are also hard at work on Immortal Pillars , the next chapter in the AoM: Retold saga. We can share that it’s been a journey and a labor of love for all of us, so be on the lookout for more as we finalize all the details!
be on the lookout for more
Sounds like they are about to drop the first hints soon.
