Longform Gamestar article full of more details

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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I apologize if this has already been posted. Here is an english translation from the original German.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamestar.de%2Fartikel%2Ffuenf-details-age-of-empires-4-trailer-nicht-verraet%2C3351276.html&sandbox=1

Off the bat, I am concerned about “[T]he focus is again on Europe, “but we want to broaden it.”” I read this against the announcement of the English and the statement that there will be fewer than the 13 civs of original AoE2. AoE has a long history of launching with European civs and relegating other continents to expansion pack afterthoughts. Medieval Europe had maybe 2-3 strong civs, and the English were affirmatively not one of them. They were a very small empire that did almost no conquering, unless you consider getting sacked by the Franks. For god sakes, the English word for conquer is itself Frankish in origin. England didn’t even have a word for it until the Franks taught them what it meant to be conquered.

I look forward to learning more about the civ choices around the world. The article says the launching civs will be fewer than 13, and there are many, many more worthy civs in Africa, Asia, and the Americas that would fit on a list of 13 civs well before England.

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The developers want to put a greater focus on the fact that the ethnic groups play really different.

Yes!! Fewer civs with more depth and greater differences. I wanted that.

That’s why many gameplay mechanics will be familiar to Age-2 veterans.

I hope there will be something, even small for us aoe3 fans. There’s often the feeling that our community is the most neglected.

This also includes small nuances, such as that the languages ​​of the peoples change over time

Now thats interesting, I can think at least of Byzantines, having both Greek and Latin speakers.
Although it was just the official language of the administration that changed not of the people.

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AoE2 appears to be receiving a disproportionate amount of references. Anyone who has played AoM, AoE3, or AoEO well knows that the game improved dramatically over the years. If Relic ignores all of the advances we saw, they will be stepping backwards.

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Exactly my thoughts. Hopefully they have been looking into the the newer titles as well to get the most of the franchise’s overall success, not just of AoE2.

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