I think we pretty much knew everything in this already, but they just posted this:
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I am excited, but I kind of wish every map wasnât a defend the wonder map.
Other options though would have to work as a timed challenge and ALSO be able to continue infinitely.
Some ideas:
- A map where there are caravans moving through it that you have to defend, losing a certain amount is defeat.
- A map where there are caravans moving through it that you have to destroy, a certain amount getting through is defeat.
- A map where it is the sacred sites you are defending instead.
- A map where periodically a control point spawns in a random location and you have to secure it within a certain timeframe or youâre defeated (or maybe losing it x times is defeat).
I would like to see additional maps in the future, but how does adding those work? Just a free addition? If part of another DLC it would mean you also needed this DLC to use them? I think ideally another DLC would also offer the Crucible mode, but with 4 new maps. So you could get that one or this one or both.
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Nothing special, as i supposed. Itâs not a turning point for the SP.
This Is a Tower Defence mode: It could funny but the lack of Campaigns and new civilizations are a big problem.
Developers should introduce, if they wanna incentivate the casual players, a âconquest modeâ with a Risiko Map similar to Company of Heroes 3 or Dark crusade.
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Out of everything Iâve asked for over the last year, this mode represents almost everything I wanted. Randomized challenges, with multiple varieties of scenarios to choose from, abilities that create area denial (may be useful for a future civ), even new masteries. With that last one thereâs something I didnât expect to see with this:
Masteries that can be completed in any order! Thatâs kind of a big deal for future expansions on the Mastery system.
I also want to see them expand on The Crucible further in the future. I think based off of what Iâve seen, and with previously implemented mechanics in seasonal modes, this could easily be a co-operative mode.
Between The Crucible, Historical Battles, and Art of War challenges, I hope they add more to each of these over time. The additions youâve suggested with caravans that need to be defended, or holding sacred sites instead, sound awesome.
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Can you just improve your skirmish AIs?
Introducing new gameplay is good but I donât want âexciting twistâ since I bought this game for âtraditional wayâ.
If Stronghold introduced this, then I would super exited but It is not i expected for AOE4âŠ
At least please keep the skirmish game style.
Skirmish with good AI is already highly repeatable and no two matches are the same.
Conquest mode sounds good.
I canât tell this is a bad idea since It seems there are people who like this mode. But definitely not for me.
Itâs clearly not that.
I donât understand that at all.
But yes the skirmish AI does need a lot of improvements.
If you build units and not towers, itâs not a tower defense.
EDIT
To be clear, this is a Tower Defense game (the successor? Inspired by? The original WC3 and later mapmods):
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Yes, Itâs similar to a Tower Defence " mode": you donât build towers but you have to Defence your wonder from waves of units, nothing more.
I used âTower Defence Modeâ to explain this.
Tower Defence Is a subgenre of RTS but It could be implemented in different ways.
Crucible hasnât towers but the core of gameplay Is the same of Tower Defence" blocking waves of enemies and using new abilities along the 45 minutes of the match to defend your Wonder".
And Personally, i donât think this mode will reach new casual players.
The most of them are left the game year ago, so we returning to what i said into my previous thread.
That is not what a Tower Defense âmodeâ is. There are no towers to defend. There are no towers to defend with, except the regular towers you can regularly build in your regular RTS basebuilding gameplay.
The only similarity is that there are waves. That is not the defining feature of tower defense games, and I have at least two on my phone alone that can demonstrate this (nevermind the original ElementTD for WC3, if it even still works, plus others from my old DotA days). One even has a PC version.
You can not like the game mode without misusing existing, defined genres of strategy to try and make this seem lesser than it is. It still plays like an RTS. You still play AoE with your chosen faction, against the enemies that spawn.
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If they want to attract single player, they should improve the AI to the same level as AoE 2
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Iâd prefer they did better than that. The AoE2 AI is a bit better, but not great.
We seem to be getting somewhat off topic though. This thread is about The Crucible.
Those are SC2 CO OP based ideas and Sultans Ascend Campaign Missions
I like them
The thing is all of this is a missed opportunity already.
Would be so much better if they have done it 2 players CO OP or PVE mode with 3 human players
And the variety and depth are not that much as they are pretending to show
The mission is to defend your wonder and nothing else!
Are there randomized OPTIONAL objectives? Yes
Are there randomized bonuses? Yes
Are there randomized enemy army compositions? Yes
But the MAIN objective is to defend the Wonder
Nothing more exciting than do it with a Wonder Victory only Custom Game + mods and a bunch of pals
Iâm very curious to see how these opinions evolve as people get a chance to actually play the mode. What theyâve advertised is having perks and abilities that completely reshape each play through. Whether or not thatâs hype is kind of undetermined. But what theyâve previewed is having significant game altering abilities like âremove every gold mine on the map in exchange for a constant gold trickleâ or âbring every gaia creature to base for harvestingâ.
- The pirate infested Mediterranean waters of the Byzantine empire in Contested Coastline.
- Facing down three mighty clans of the Sengoku Daimyo in Daimyo Dynamics.
- Hunting bandits and dodging man-at-arms of the Holy Roman Empire in Forest Lords.
- Holding fast against the mounted hordes of the Mongols in Watch Your Steppe.
This seems to be a pretty decent amount of variety and depth to me. Maps that all have a signficantly different focus, and while they may have the same enemy type (you canât fight anything other than Byzantine on Contested Coastline for example), what theyâre saying is:
Even though the enemy civilizations are set per map, the units they throw at you will change every playthrough. Outside the initial militia wave and later boss waves, each wave is randomized as the match progresses. Culminating in hundreds of enemy units all intent on burning your Wonder to the ground.
That sounds like peak cinema. It is also something that we havenât seen to this degree in mods. There are tons of user-made game modes focused on defending against waves of AI. Itâs frequently seen in custom game lobbies. This looks a lot more in-depth than that.
If it doesnât hard a âdifficulty levelâ setting Iâll tell you right now some of the missions are going to be impossible.
They love to make stuff stupid hard.
They already said there are 8 difficulty settings, plus a âConqueror modeâ (literally in the link this thread is about).
My worry is actually that it wonât be hard enough considering all the bonuses that will start to stack up.
Nothing in the game is very hard so far. The hardest thing is maybe getting a perfect score on the one Lancaster historical battle (post HoL nerf) or getting a crazy fast time on the other one or the KT one.
Been doing some theory crafting on different civs to try first, and it hit me.
There are tons of mechanics that never see use in a standard aoe game because of how defensive they are and how incentivized we are to maintain aggression.
Factions like Knights Templar, who gain massive bonuses to their stone walls, are going to be awesome in this mode. Definitely going to try them after some of the DLC civs.
Anyone else looking forward to playing a particular civ on release?
One of the screenshots I saw of The Crucible showed you could not build walls.
Gamescom had an old build though so who knows. Or could even be map dependent.
I suspect you wonât be able to build walls, or they will make plenty of terrain that cannot be built on in the maps. Itâs really easy to abuse the AI with walls.
Looks like youâre right, no wall building on the villagers from this video.
That changes a lot, looks like keeps and towers are going to be our only defensive structures. Seems very similar to the Ottoman Art of War challenge in that way.
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Indeed
100 accurate
100 percent of agreement!