If you look at Relic Entertainment game history, these guys got purely experience with games based in modern to futuristic era.
Another reason, AoE series seen it all, from ancient greek, vikings, egypt, through knights and swords until American revolution. Seen everything but modern days.
I have very bad feelings about it. I dont wanna play another Starcraft 2, I dont wanna play another Company of Heroes and I definitely dont wanna play another Warhammer.
What you guys think about it?
I think the title to this thread overstates your proof. You don’t have any. You could be right, but I don’t see any evidence you are.
Yeah, it’s way too early to be writing it off. A lot of us suspect a modern setting, but;
a) it is -all- speculation at this point
b) Modern does not mean StarCraft or Company of Heroes. Empire Earth and Rise of Nations both included modern settings. Say what you will about either title, but they were hardly StarCraft or Dawn of War.
c) Relic may have done futuristic and modern stuff far as themes go, but their games cover a VERY wide range of styles. Homeworld, Impossible Creatures, Dawn of War 1, 2 and 3 and even Company of Heroes all play very differently from one another, so its rather unfair to say that we’ll necessarily get a copy of their previous titles.
Before I get bashed for saying AoE4 will take place in the modern era. I love the age series and I especially love the classic games, but times have changed and the series must progress one way or another; I intend to support Relic in whatever direction they take the series.
I do believe the next AoE will be in late 19th to the late 20th century for two reasons…
It has been a pattern for the main titles in the AoE series to follow suite of it’s predecessors…
AoE 1 was bronze age to the iron age to the Rise of Rome (aprox. 1000 BCE to 200 CE)
AoE 2 was the Dark ages just after the fall of Rome to the colonization of the Americas (aprox. 500 CE to 1500 CE)
AoE 3 was the colonial era to the industrial era (aprox. 1500 CE to 1880 CE)
It only makes sense now based on the pattern…
And my second main reason is the announcement trailer…
In it, the trailer depicts events through history in mostly chronological order…
A Greek Phalanx fighting what appears to be Persians (AoE1) “Time changes everyone, and everything”
What appears to be an Emperor standing before a crowd in Rome (AoE1 RoR) “Empires will rise”
A city under siege, possibly during Crusades (AoE2) “Kingdoms will fall”
A Spaniard, possibly a conquistador (AoE2 C/AoE3) and an Englishman on a wooden ship.
A caravel surrounded by canoes (AoE3) Native Americans and the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan (AoE3)
More Native Americans (AoE3 WC) and British Redcoats (AoE3) Feudal Japan (AoE3 AD)
And it finishes off the trailer with "Now, a new age is upon us
What else could “A new age is upon us” mean after a video showing us a chronological depiction of the Age series?
The trailer definitely made me feel a little queasy.
I actually wonder if the main take away wasn’t the nations depicted, rather than the ages. Most of the ones shown were fairly easy to identify, rather than just being generic “warrior of XYZ era”.
My bet is on them -ending- with the early 1900’s, as cavalry (and by extension melee combat) were still employed but on their way out. As far as “pushing the time line” goes, that does seem like the furthest off it can reasonably go while still maintaining the feel of AOE. Either way, my guess is that guns, like in AOE 3, will still be a focus. What I hope for is a more gradual change though, maybe have the first few ages make heavy use of melee and infantry but gradually give way to ranged combat as the ages go by.
After watching the AoE IV announcement trailer for the first time my initial impression was AoE IV will be a “greatest hits” AoE, with AoE, AoE II and AoE III timelines. We’ll just have to wait and see.
As soon as I saw the trailer for the first time I was literally throwing money at screen, getting preorder money ready. But when I saw that Relic works on it, my attitude change. No day 1 purchase for me. I will wait and see what it is. If it is another Starcraft, Microsoft will not see my money.
I got AoE 3 complete collection and I also bought it for my 2 brothers. I would love to do the same for this game, but if they come out with ■■■■■■ company of heroes, tanks and planes bullshit they wont see any money.
Did you then literally pick up your money off the floor? Or maybe it literally landed on your keyboard?
@“Andy P” said:
Did you then literally pick up your money off the floor? Or maybe it literally landed on your keyboard?
If you got anything to do with that Relic click (which I believe so hence Mod) you boy tell them how to handle this game properly.
If it mixed 1,2 and 3 I would be ok with it. If it goes all future I’m ok with that as well.
I loved AoE and AoE II, AoE III is a little different with the cards, and the maps seem smaller. Age of Mythology was ok, but I didn’t like having limitations on town centers. Bought the expansions for all of the games because I really liked the game play compared to other RTS games. When Lucas Arts decided that building their own RTS was not working out (Force Commander and Rebellion were painful), they partnered with Ensemble Studios to make a Star Wars version of AoE called Galactic Battlegrounds. Turns out, I loved playing that one too, because it was still the AoE mechanics. So I am not concerned with what era(s) they select, even if they are modern warfare or in the future. So long as they make it play like an Age of Empires game, I’ll be fine with it.
The trailer I saw implied that we would “battle through history”, so my money is on an “Empire Earth” scenario spanning all of world history.
I don’t think an exclusively modern setting would work for a traditional Age game. The fundamental theme of the series has always been developing a small tribe into a larger civilization by “advancing through the ages”. This would be difficult to simulate in a modern setting, because established nation-states were already widespread across the world by the beginning of the modern era. It’s not like a typical WWII battle would open with three villagers and a town center in the wilderness for each faction.
The only way I could see the experience of a small community evolving into an empire being adapted into a modern setting is if they regurgitated the AoE3 theme of exploration and colonization. But where would these modern powers be exploring and colonizing? Most of the Earth was already mapped when the modern era began, and Civilization has already done the space exploration/colonization theme. Potentially, they could do a “Terra Nova” and have the civilizations develop time travel colonize various periods of Earth’s prehistoric past. But that wouldn’t be very historically accurate, would it?
I don’t think the time period will change how good the game can be. It depends on how true it stays to the AoE formula with the time period it is given.
A more modern period would fit the pattern so far. (Orlando’s list of dates starts aoe1 pretty much after the bronze age, I’d move the starting date maybe a few tens of thousands of years back, but that’s the one nitpick I have.) If they go that route I would expect the game going from maybe just post-Napoleon (Maybe with the US civil war as a learn to play campaign?) to WW2.
That period can be made to fit the series formula. Age 1 has muskets, horses for scouting, possibly sailing ships. Age 2 has rifles (revolvers, shotguns), steam ships, possibly machine guns, armored cars and/or scout planes if they feel like that would be best mechanically. Age 3 brings out all the remaining main technologies, fighters, bombers, tanks etc and age 4 is the bigger and better age. It would undoubtedly play as an Age of Empires game, and it would still fall within the domain of historical wars, in the sense that the amount of people that will ever play the game that have also fought in the second world war will be rather limited, given the time gap of over 70 years and counting.
Is that the way they’re going? I have no clue. None at all. Literally. That seems to have been half the point of the announcement trailer, not giving people a clue. The a new age line seems to hint at going forward, but without any images that support that sentence the link is rather weak. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the time period isn’t nailed down yet. They’re probably working with a certain period in mind, but in this stage (or at least the stage they were in when the trailer was made) they will be focusing on core mechanics rather than specific units and such, and not announcing the period means having at least the theoretical option to switch or slightly tune their periods if that improves the game that follows from the mechanics. Another good reason for not giving anything away yet is reserving the ability to create hype by releasing that information later. I know I will be hyped when the period is announced, pretty much regardless of which period it end up as.
And to counter myself a bit further: keep in mind that there were two years between the release of the first two games, and six years between 2 and 3, which was cut right down the middle if you include aom. It’s been 12 years and counting since game 3, any patterns established are solidly out of the window by now. (Aoeo was released in the middle of those 12 years but it broke the pattern itself, so if anything it counts against the idea of progressing time periods.)
I honestly don’t know what I’m hoping for on this one. I always, coupled to the mechanics of an aoe game, liked the setting of game 1 best. But there are so many cool historical periods, and even if they don’t match the age progression idea quite as well they can all be amazing games. In short at this point I’m just plain curious.