Wildlife is a great way to add more… well, life to maps and improve the experience. It’s a very light labor-intensive aspect that greatly improves immersion and enjoyment from (let’s be honest) rather boring initial exploration&build phase.
Hostile animal creatures are one thing, but AoE3 went further and incorporated some of them (along with human entities) into optional micro encounters- treasures. They offer (mostly) small but not insignificant resources and in-game XP or units, in exchange for delayed and slower exploration and injured scout unit that can be more easily taken down. And losing hero explorer in AoE3 is much more significant than losing just some random scout horseman or infantry runner scout. These treasures are present even on seas, and they are scaled pretty nicely. There is a chance of spawning high-end treasures, that are for example guarded by 7 bandit horsemen, that grant +xx% explorer XP. Just like trade or native posts, this is a great added layer that improves the game in all modes.
It’s a shame this layer is so basic and barren in IV.
The medieval setting offers a lot of opportunities, especially for Relic out of all devs, to introduce neutral/hostile highwayman camps, improvised strongholds, micro settlements, raider scout parties etc that could greatly elevate enjoyment from that boring and still relatively slow period in gameplay.
But ofc they do bring some amount of randomness to the table, and you can’t have it in a barren, streamlined, pro pvp fest.
AoE1 was developed in ancient times when it comes to computing power, but even then ES tried to overcome some limitations by adding ‘king’ variations of a few existing animals, that would pose more threat to players and thus force them to pay more attention to what they do with their scouts, on top of adding just a lil bit more immersion to the whole thing.
Also having lush and vibrant environments in some way makes up for borderline non-existing gore, dated destruction mechanics or simplicity of 3D game assets.
And for fun since it’s the weekend- some of the available animals/bandits in AoE2’s brother: Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. It is ofc SW, and has been refreshed with a fan patch, but still having a unique set of units dedicated to certain regions/planets improves the atmosphere, enriches the world (also in a literal, scenario creation way) building and enhanced the atmosphere. Well-defined and distinct environments prevent everything from blending together into a sloppy mess.
Not including bigger/very tech advanced units, water units and few other groups.
