Though even it does, it is difficult for junior modders like me to create my own destruction anim. But rather than to hope they create new church building for Byzantine, and upgrade east Asian buildings lest they still use straw as roof in castle age (it is very strange design, as they are only straw buildings in castle age) , modding support is a better way.
I say that not because I consist on historical accuracy, but let Korean wonder be a Japanese building is not endurable for me. Just correct those too ridiculous designs for players who realized that.
To support modding will be the best way for developers to solve this problem since modders will correct them theirselves, without more money or time to pay on their game.
Considering the games publishes to Steam and how good the workshop works for AoE2:HD I think there won’t be any problems creating own mods, maps etc. and publishing it to others.
Having the same mods available for both platforms is a very good reason not to use the steam workshop. However, that means the website has to deliver as a good modding center. For Aoe1 DE you can currently only download scenarios, and you have to place them manually. That definitely has to improve a lot.
Game could still have Steam workshop in addition to AOE website. Modders like to distribute their work to as many people as possible so it is reasonable to expect that they would distribute to both Steam workshop and AOE website.
Players using Steam could use workshop and players using Microsoft Store could use AOE website.
That still means that different mods would be available depending on the platform you play on, which is not ideal. If the website offers good mod support, I’m in favour of not using the steam workshop for that reason. If it’s a massive downgrade in features, not so much.
Ideally there would be an in-game mod manager using the website in the background.
I worry a lot that AOE2DE have only scenarios as AOE:DE. Developers only give out vague words on reddit about that, and whether support steamworkshop or not is unknown still. They really don’t know how to communicate with their players, and all questions on this forum seem unanswered.
In my memory they once said similar words about modding of AOE1:DE, while we get only few user made scenarios at last. I wonder what’s “mod” in developers’ mind.
If I remember correctly it was said that existing mods would need to be run through a conversion tool, but then they will work. So I expect most regular mods to work. There might still be some restrictions on stuff like data mod support. I’ll see if I can find the source on that.
What you makes you think the graphics engine is new? From what we know that’s not the case. It still uses sprites, just with more directions for units and at a higher resolution. So an upgrade, not a replacement.
Not all graphic mods might be convertable, e.g. unit mods probably won’t function correctly because of the missing directions, but it shouldn’t be a problem of graphics mods themselves. E.g. different looking resources should be convertible just fine.