The minimap is one of the most frequently used game mechanics. And in fact, keeping track of it is crucial in high-level gameplay. I think the minimap in AoE 2 is at least as important as the minimap in League of Legends.
However, I think we haven’t received any updates to the minimap in 25 years. I think this great mechanic deserves a few updates. The first thing that comes to mind is that special buildings like the town center and castle should have distinctive icons.
Perhaps the minimap size could be increased. This is possible with mods, but I would prefer it to be large originally. There are a few buttons that serve functions, but these are rarely used; they could be revised and made more visually appealing.
Have options to set it up : size, and which custom icon to use for what items of interest (you may also want to quickly see relics, the enemy king when he’s outside…).
AoMR has the option to switch between 3 different mini map sizes, which is really convenient. I would like to have a similar minimap in AoE2DE too.
I’m not really a fan of the AoE4 minimap, I don’t really like how many icons look on it like all the animals and stuff.
Capture Age gives a good example for how the minimap could look like in AoE2DE. Give us dedicated icons for TCs, Castles, relics and Hero units (for the campaigns).
some older strategy games like empire earth also allowed you to have viewpoints of other places to watch them while you are in other (right bottom corner)
I never missed that feature. It’s easier to move the camera instead of looking at a tiny part of the monitor, especially back then when most people were still using CRTs or tiny LCDs.
here’s a feature that needs to be added to aoe2 minimap, your line of sight, all we see rn is explored and unexplored, we don’t see active line of sight, to me no other suggestion on here is as significant as this would likely be
CaptureAge’s minimap already has unique icons for important buildings, and they’re partners of Microsoft, so the official game could reuse CaptureAge icons.
If you have a second monitor (unlikely on a laptop, but more common for desktops), what about an option to use that second monitor for a much larger minimap that takes most of the screen ?
Because the most common use of multiple monitors is already grouping several ones as an ultrawide one, then most games are compatible if the HUD can adjust to uncommon resolutions (say 5760 x 1080 for a triple 1080p monitor).
Indeed it would be different, the game using a second tab. But it’s possible if they think it’s worth the investment. Probably not indeed as most players don’t have several monitors.
So glad to see that I am not the only one that the AOE2DE mini-map bothers!!! Finally . It’ s been years that I wish to have a mini-map like all decent games that show units’ line of sight: SC2 , LoL , Dota, even AOM and AOE4 have this feature. Most of all, CaptureAge has it but aoe2 still not….
I want to list the most important and easiest things to implement:
Enlarging the minimap size to a suitable scale, as the standard size is insufficient.
Rearranging the colors to make them more distinctive. The ground and trees are too similar in tone.
Showing buildings like the Town Center and Castle with an icon (like in Capture Age).
Making the existing functional buttons (economy map, troop map, etc.) more useful, increasing their resolution, affecting other functional buttons, etc.
Making felled trees disappear from the map (if explored). In other words, updating the map live.
We definitely need a rework. Many old mechanics in the game have been reviewed and updated. But the minimap is still a 25-year-old minimap.
