I saw a YouTube clip, can find the link, someone looked through the data and found references to “Japanese villagers”
Thoughts?
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Leftover data from AoE 3. Nice try MacGuyver.
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I think they should focus on Hindu mythology first.
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I don’t think that’s true. As though they had a folder on some server as they created retold that they had all kinds of data for AOE 3 and just accidentally left it in there in the beta. Using the same engine doesn’t mean that kept a ton of AOE 3 data. Not likely
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I feel that evey AoE franchise game will eventually have Japanese civ. The Japanese flavor is almost a perfect guarantee for sales.
Hindu mythology is very rich, but I think Hindus don’t seem to be as open to having their myths adapted for entertainment as the Japanese people are.
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AoE3DE was released with a Historical Battle where you play as the Barbary Pirates and later one where you play as Morocco itself.
But they still haven’t added Morocco in a DLC yet.
The US and the Ethiopians that both also appear in Historical Battles were added within the first year of DLC.
So even if there are actual Japanese Villagers in the game it doesn’t mean Japan will be the 2nd DLC.
I don’t think a Civilisation that is geographically so close to China will be the 2nd one.
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exactly what i thought and wanted to write. thx for pointing out.
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I would put money on the second DLC civ being the Aztecs or Olmecs - something from that region.
Firstly, they were considered by Ensemble as an expansion civ before they settled on the Atlanteans, and secondly because they are highly requested/mentioned. They’d also be very unique, geographically/culturally isolated, and have lots of interesting potential mechanics - such as sacrifice.
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I’m curious what people datamined out of the 2 betas.
Are the units from the Extended Edition or the Chines DLC still in the code or is the game based on an older code base anyway?
I’m pretty sure they have already started working on the 2nd DLC by now but it’s likely still in a very early phase, unless it was originally planned as release content.
I still have the theory that they originally planned to have the Chinese plus an addition Pantheon in the release version but then decided that this would be too much work and delay the release too much so they decided to concentrated on the 4 old civs for like the last year or so.
If my theory is correct that it would not be unlikely to find traces of those Civilisations in the game files.
But if I’d hat to bet:
33% chance it’s Mesoamerican
33% chance it’s Mesopotamian
33% chance it’s anything else
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I know I’m a faint voice in the wind here, but I really don’t want an Aztec faction, at least not yet. I believe Mesopotamians or Celts (my option of choice), makes more sense, primarily for two reasons:
- Geographically. Mesoamerica being as isolated from the other civs as it is just makes them feel like an outlier.
- Time period. I know AOM is a little flexible with their time periods, but bringing in a civ near 1000 years out is almost too much. Sure, we have the Olmecs or even the Maya, but we don’t know their pantheon and mythology as well as the Aztec so much would either be conjecture or anachronistic.
- Knowledge of Aztec mythology. The truth is, while we have knowledge of the names of deities and supernatural beings, the hard truth is that actual myths, stories etc are sparse. Much of AOM ties in various actual stories and mythologies based on the gods from their actual mythological counterparts - Horus having avengers, signifying his vengeance story. Aphrodite having golden apples from the Trojan war, Loki and Hel, etc. All these tiny little details that actually help bring the real myth into the game itself, even tiny wee stories. There simply isn’t that breadth of knowledge for Aztec mythology.
Having said that, I am not opposed to a Mesoamerican pantheon. I don’t want people to think I’m bashing it at all, I know it’s very popular and I am in a minority. However, for AOM, I think a Mesopotamian or Celtic pantheon fits much better, as well as being able to be fleshed and brought to life in far greater and truthful detail.
Just my opinion, but would lov to have my mind changed by anyone who feels particularly strongly about adding Mesoamericans!
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Going back to Isgreen interviews a year or so back, it does seem that China was supposed to be included in the base game, as he was pretty clear about the fact that all existing AoM content was being remade, not just the old Ensemble content. This is also consistent with the fact that the AoE: DEs included all prior content.
It may just be that they decided at some point in development that they weren’t happy with China’s design and wanted to more or less completely re-do it, and that would have meant a major delay if they were to be included at launch.
And we do know that some content from the old China expansion is in Retold - although it’s mostly maps.
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I agree with you for the most part, and actually my preference would be Celtic, but doesn’t mean I think they’re the most likely to be added. The Aztecs give you a completely unique visual style (which is important, and something the Atlanteans arguably lacked), gods and units with little to no overlap with existing pantheons, and a bunch of new, visually distinct map types based around Mesoamerica.
They tick a lot of boxes - gameplay, cultural familiarity, visuals, unique geography (like Egypt, like Norse), and as a result strong monetization prospects.
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Smite has Hindu pantheon in it and they love it. It is just how they will be portrayed in AoM Retold. As long as there is respect in how they will be represented no problem.
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That is something I kinda dislike about AoM that basically all civilisations are Isolated.
Greeks and Egyptians are kinda close enough I guess but Norse and Chinese are really out there.
Atlanteans are a wild card and can be considered Neighbours of every civilisation around the Atlantic and Mediterranean so Aztecs are actually less isolated then the Chinese.
Atlanteans clearly had contact to the Americans, where else would they get Llamas from. And if your are a famous ocean going civilisation in the Atlantic you gotta be able to get to the new World, right? Even the Norse managed that.
Considering how much they changed about the other 4 civilisations I’ll assume the Chinese will be almost or maybe even completely unrecognisable from their AoMEE version.
Same for me.
Celts would be the magical civ that could basically cover any hole on the European continent since they have been basically everywhere.
You can even place them in the Balkans and Anatolia.
Mesopotamians are just pretty cool and also could indirectly cover a relatively large area. They clearly never had any contact with the Chinese though.
I don’t really understand why people are so afraid of adding Hindus to AoMR. It’s not that hard to avoid major scandal but just asking Hindu people about what stuff could be added. Not unlikely that there are even some Hindus in the Forgotten Empire or Worlds Edge teams anyway.
Even the CEO of Microsoft himself is Indian.
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It’s possible that those are in there because the new Chinese civ has a campaign with Japanese. However, this has not happened in vanilla aom where you play a unique civ in campaign only. The mechanics of aom are totally different. To design an entire new aom civ for just a campaign seems unlikely.
As far as AOE 3 goes, there may have been some unique units in those campaigns and levels, but those were not fully built civs. Just a a minor reskin with some name changes.
I still think it’s possible that there’s more to the Japanese villager being in game files. They also removed it from the stress test beta.
And I don’t think it’s unlikely for them to do 2 asian civs because if they plan on adding one or two pantheons a year, it would mean a non Asian cov would be added at the end of 2025.
Anyways who knows will be fun to see what happens
At the end we all just make random guesses.
I would love to see almost all civilisations people suggest.
I have not seen anyone suggest the United States or something similarly outlandish though.
Civilisations added to AoE2/3/4 in recent year aligned pretty well with what suggestions were the most popular.
I suspect they’ll have made up their mind a while back now on what civ will be the second. I feel adding a new civ to AOM requires a lot more research beforehand about the mythologies themselves before they even start thinking about how the civ would function, balance, units etc, more so than any other AOE game. No doubt, if AOMR is as successful as we all hope it’ll be, they’ll add more and take consumer feedback into account for which civs to develop next. For now though I suspect it’ll be one they’ve had in mind for a while.
I’m pretty optimistic that AoMR will be very successful (for AoE standards) and maybe even be able to overtake AoE2DE in popularity.
Very likely that it will at last overtake AoE3DE.
It’s also the first game in the series to release on Console on day 1.
So I think it’s very likely that they will add more DLC in the future.
They also invented the whole new Gods pack DLC which we only know 1 off so far.
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So long as they’re fun, interesting, well-designed and draw from generally understood mythologies/lore, I’m all for new pantheons being added. However, I don’t want many of them, and would be happy if the two already in development are the last two added. I know people will disagree with this, but I do think less is more with these things, and I really dislike what they did to AoE II: DE by constantly spamming absolutely any new civs they could think of, to the point where they even added Burgundy. I absolutely do not want that for AoM.
If we end up with the Chinese, Aztecs, Sumerians and Celts then that would be great. There’s an awful lot of content there, and especially if we’re viewing each major god as a civ (which is reasonable).
And as @Skadidesu says, we have the “God pack” concept now, which means they can essentially add new civs to existing pantheons, so I would expect to see some interesting new content there.
It’s likely Retold will overtake AoE 4 an AoE 3.
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