Last Chieftains - feedback

I agree that it’s the best example of this. A unit with a one-off mechanic that couldn’t be balanced properly, so rather than removing it, they nerfed it so heavily that it made the civ – which used to be insanely overpowered – basically useless.

1 Like

Although the Shrivamsha Rider has been nerfed since its release, I think the Gurjaras as a whole were hit harder due to the nerf to food mill production. The Shrivamsha Rider is still a solid unit, but it now gets countered heavily by spearmen and Fire Lancers (which are part of the current meta). Gurjaras, on the other hand, only really have their unique unit as a counter.

I also think it’s rude to deliberately call them something different, even if it’s meant to be silly.

1 Like

Probably Incas UT Andean Sling will be changed. Currently Andean Sling also gives +1 range to Slinger.

2 Likes

In addition, I think the Slinger’s appearance looks too Inca (with that Inca shield, for example). Perhaps it would be better if Slingers had an appearance more typical of South American peoples, and the Inca could have a special upgrade for Slingers in Age IV instead of the Andean Sling technology. This upgrade would change the Slinger’s appearance to look more Inca, like the current model, and could be called “Imperial Slinger,” similar to the Imperial Skirmisher or Imperial Camel Rider. This would also involve rebalancing or reworking the Inca’s technologies and bonuses.

2 Likes

Incorrect. It gives +1 attack, not +1 range.

3 Likes

Yes, in AoM and AoE 3, cavalry costs more than 1 population because of how strong it is… the stronger a unit is, the more population it costs (infantry 1-2, cannons 4-5, and cavalry up to 7 population)…

Yes, I thought that with VaV coming in 2024, which didn’t include any new civilizations, that they wouldn’t add any more civilizations to the base game and would only do so for Chronicles (and obviously the other games in the series)… and here we are with 8 new civilizations that don’t fit in at all in the game, but oh well, as the saying goes, “money talks…”

Yes, exactly, they sell it to you as medieval civilizations and it’s not, neither the setting, the civs nor the campaigns…it’s mainly Tool Age-tecnology natives fighting against Early Modern European colonizers, guess which game it fits best into?…:roll_eyes:

Yes, exactly… they’re decisions that, when you think about them a little, bother you…

And the USSR anthem plays in the background when you click on it…11

They were a minor civilization from AoE 3 (those you ally with when you build a trading post next to the respective village) that were found on the Amazonas map (Brazil) and Pampas (central Argentina), then in The Warchiefs they put them on the Orinoco map (Venezuela). Already in the DE map redesign, the Amazon region was divided into new maps: Gran Chaco (Bolivia and northern Argentina), Bahia (northeastern Brazil), and Minas Gerais (central Brazil). They also added the Pampas-Sierras map (southeastern Brazil) and moved the Tupi minor civ there, removing them from the Pampas and Orinoco maps (which have their respective Mapuche and Carib minor civs).

This is what it says in the history section of Age of Empires 3:

"When the Portuguese, French, and Dutch penetrated the interior of Brazil, they encountered a number of warlike and aggressive tribes called the Tupi. The coastal Tupi lived mainly by agriculture, growing manioc, yams, tobacco, beans, squash, peppers, and other crops in forest clearings. When the soils were depleted, they would move to a new location, clear the trees, and replant.

In the sixteenth century, they became embroiled in the wars between Europeans fighting in Brazil, mainly the French and Portuguese, who both employed native allies (basically what we see in the Tupi campaign). Many of the Tupi were forced to work on the plantations, but they fared poorly and died. They suffered from epidemics that swept through their villages, and were forcibly taken from their villages to be sold as slaves, often by enemy tribes. European encroachment spread as the trees were cleared, and sugar plantations were established. Devastated by the recurring wars, disease, and slavery, the remaining Tupi withdrew up the Amazon into interior lands the Europeans did not want."

They could have used a regional term at least (either Quechua or Guarani, the latter being descendants of the Tupis)…

Yes, I completely agree… this DLC was an ideal opportunity to add regional skins (like they did with the castles) for the native civilizations, along with the naval rework, but I suppose they’ll save that for a future Mesoamerican (Purepecha, Tlaxcalan, and Carib) or North American (Puebloans, Mississippians, and Haudenosaunee) DLC…

Yes, I thought that made more sense… trebuchets never reached America (except for the one Cortés built in 1519 in the Tenochtitlan siege, but it was destroyed by itself)… the Aztecs had cannons in one of Moctezuma’s missions, so they could have had something similar… obtaining gunpowder, but at a very high cost…

Exactly, that’s a good idea… you could use the Warwolf from the Longshanks campaign and have it launch the ball upwards when it attacks Tenochtitlan, and when it hits, it’ll be instantly destroyed, and your Tlaxcalan protagonist will say something like “these gods and their weapons are acting very strangely,” and you’ll have a good laugh at the situation.

Yes, that’s where it shows, when the developers run out of ideas and are just lazy…

Yes, with HD (2013-2016) they wanted to maintain a certain classic essence because they were still just modders with little money from Microsoft and were bringing the community back together… with DE (2019-present), now with confidence and a consolidated community, they jumped the shark and launched into including mechanics from AoM and AoE 3 (the latest civs and their mechanics are copied from 3 - I still think this DLC was originally intended for 3, but since they abandoned it last year they moved it to 2 so as not to discard the concept art)…

Don’t the Tatars have the Keshik that gathers gold by killing units?..I don’t recall any classic unit or civilization having that…

Exactly, it’s not easy when you’re constantly adding civilizations to the game, you quickly run out of ideas on how to make them unique…

Basically the same unit as AoE 3, but there it’s a minor native unit of which only 20 can be created…

Yes, I think that because they carry their dead on their backs, when a Guecha Warrior dies, it generates an aura of fury in his brothers-in-arms that heals them very quickly to face their enemies…

Yes, and it’s also the first time since The Last Khans that they’ve included a new architecture set…

3 Likes

gold generation while fighting, but yeah, good catch

Yes, that’s why I said it, that you hadn’t mentioned it…

The Feudal Age model of the in-game South American “Settlement” building is clearly based on the traditional “Maloca” buildings of various lowland indigenous South American peoples, such as the Tupi.

Malocas were huge “longhouses” (some being more than 100 metres long) were entire communities of hundreds of people lived together under a single roof. They were also the place were they stored their food and other products, as well as the place were they conducted their rituals. Basically, Malocas were “settlements” made up of a single large building were almost every aspect of social, economic and religious life took place under a single roof. This is in contrast to most Eurasian settlements (both Medieval and Modern) were there were specialized and separate buildings for housing (houses), commerce (markets), religion (churches/mosques), storage (granaries), etc.

I think that the developers had the Maloca in mind when designing this unique building for the South American natives. However, naming it “settlement” rendered it ambigous, since ALL human societies have had some sort of settlement at some point. Perhaps they didn’t go with a particular name since every indigenous group of the Amazon or the lowlands of South America has different names for their own version of “malocas”, with the Muisca, Inca and Mapuche not even having buildings analogous to malocas.

Despite that, they should have gone with the name “Maloca” for the building, it is much more recognizable as a general Amazonian/lowland South American building and would make the in-game function of the building much more grounded to a historical reality than just the very generic “settlement” label. Also, they very clearly based the appearance of the building on the “Malocas”:

Picture 1 taken from WikiCommons, picture 2 from the Age of Empires Wiki, picture 3 and 4 from the following article: https://www.banrepcultural.org/biblioteca-virtual/credencial-historia/numero-351/la-maloca-amazonica

3 Likes

Yes, I saw it yesterday when I was looking the trivia about the Tupi in the wikia…the little house on top of it is a maloca…

So, er… two things: 1. I am perfectly capable of Googling things for myself. 2. If I wanted to learn more about the Tupí, I would not use AoE3 as my source.

Actually, three things! 3. Why do you think the details of AoE3 map design are relevant to me understanding who the Tupí were?

2 Likes

Well, it was just to give some historical context, and just as AoE 2 has its history section, AoE 3 has a whole compendium of its major and minor civilizations, and quite detailed (I trust this because Ensemble used library books, asked ethnohistorians, or traveled to those places to gather information on the civilizations), and even every South American map (actually any map) in the base game and The Warchiefs has information about it, like flora and fauna; that game is literally and truly an encyclopedia…

2 Likes

It’s a good mechanic.

AOE-3 has it for almost all units when attacking in melee, but here it will only be very specific.

SC-2 has it in 3 different circumstances:
For the Terrans, the Marauder with Concussive Shells.
For the Zerg, with Fungal Growth, which slows and damages units within an area.
For the Protoss, the Mothership with the ability called Time Warp, which consists of launching a bubble that slows enemy units in all aspects (movement, rate of fire, and I think ability cooldown as well).

Mapuche should not be having access to Bombard Tower because there’s no need for a Native American civ to have it, but also because it has no access to any upgrades on the Watch Tower.

Nah…I think it’s funny that a civ without Guard Tower has access to Bombard Towers. It’s quirky and unique and makes the civ stand out.

3 Likes

Mapuche used cannons. It’s fine.

4 Likes

solo usaron algunos cañones que fueron capturados pero nunca en grandes numeros ademas depues de campañas exitosas los Españoles lograron recuperar las piezas de artilleria

El compendio de AOE3 es bastante completo y correcto en su mayoria, no es como si fuese una falsedad lo que decia de los tupis

1 Like

It’s a matter of personal taste. One of the reasons I have played AoE2 way more than other RTS games is that it doesn’t (or at least didn’t) have these types of mechanics. I like StarCraft and StarCraft II, but I find the snare and immobilise mechanics annoying to play against. I think such mechanics work much better in RPGs, where there’s more room for counterplay against them.

That may be so, but it’s still way down on the list of sources I’d go to. Plus a big chunk of what @MatM1996 said was about their appearance in AoE3 maps, which is of no relevance here or interest to me.

1 Like

pues obvio, es lo mismo con el conpendio de aoe 2, son solo videojuegos, no enciclopedias, su fin ultimo es entretener y si pueden enseñarte algo de historia pues que bien por eso y en cuanto a los mapas, matm lo hizo mas que nada para dar contexto