Although the predecessor Age of Empires 2, as well as the recently released Definitive Edition, is said to be set in the Middle Ages, it actually takes place in the Iron Age, this means at the antiquity, apart from the tiny, inaccessible Castles. The typical economic buildings of the Middle Ages are missing. In Age of Empires 4 these should be added to the game, if they want to be much more authentic. That the old Age was and is not a Medieval game, can only be seen from the fact ,that no Soldiers can be stationed on the Town walls and on the Castle walls . As can be seen in the last official Announcements, this circumstance will be remedied with the walkable Town walls. At least half an improvement.
New medieval buildings for the peoples:
New “old” building: “Grainfarm” instead of “Seedmill” from the Feudal period
The previous grain mill produces grain fields, but they only look and are like green seed fields. A circumstance that is bad and looks bad too. The fields should be changed to yellow grain fields, at least when the fields are fully loaded or have been re-sown by farmers. As I saw in the last preview, this is now how it is handled. Since the game is set after the Iron Age, i.e. in the Middle Ages, it should also be played there and not in the Stone Age or the Bronze and Iron Ages, where there were no farms in the regular form. From the feudal period onwards, the seed mills were therefore to be converted into Grainfarms. Including a mill area in the building field. So the mill and the farm were housed in one building. It should then also be possible to plant not just one type of grain, but several. Here I can imagine rye, oats, corn and millet. These should then generate different amounts of food depending on the species and also the people. Just as it was common in the Middle Ages.
New building "Cattle breeding"
Cattle breeding is to be introduced as a new building, where the sheep, pigs and cows that have come up can be domesticated. That is missing in the game. In the dark ages the inhabitants are still hunters and gatherers. So game hunters and berry collectors. This means that in the feudal period they were also allowed to be arable farmers and cattle breeders. But not just arable farmers as before. Sheep, pigs, cows, goats, geese, turkeys and now also chickens should be able to be raised and thus give the players another building for the food supply, which further differentiates the game and uses the available resources to the full. You can catch these animals and lure them into the village center, so you should be able to domesticate them in your own building. Up until now they have only been around in the area of little significance in all game variants, from campaigns to battles, with the introduction of cattle breeding, if that were no longer the case and these animals would have a greater use. They could reproduce through the game in cattle breeding and their meat should then always be usable. In the case of cattle breeding, you should then be able to click which color of the animals you want to produce, in the case of the cows brown, red, black or red speckled, black spotted. The same for all other farm animals. Only the amount of meat received should then differ per animal and people.
New “old” building: "Tradeyard"
The Tradeyard cannot yet be built on or used as a player’s building. That should change. In the Tradeyard, the players could produce ox carts, which can carry more gold resources than the market or horse carts, but drive more slowly or cost more than the horse cart. The packed ox wagon could be built as a mobile village center. Using the normal ox cart like the ox cart would have the additional advantage that it would produce food as well as gold when trading with trading houses of other parties. Llamas, camels and water buffalo should be given the same tasks as the ox, just for different cultures.
New building: “Forest House”:
According to official announcements, it is planned that they can hide military units in the forest without being detected, which was not the case in the old Age of Empires 2. So the forest gets more weight in the new part. They should handle that with an appropriate building. I see the Forest house as ideal for the game, as the forester is able to plant new trees and can in fact be introduced as a new border guard. The only raw material necessary for construction is wood. The Forest house is therefore cheap to build.
Final remarks:
The proposed changes would not change the game significantly, just make better use of the options available. But to be more believable, you should make these adjustments. A step in the right direction has already been taken, by automatically creating paths and roads becomes of building construction. Roads are a must for a game, that should be played in the Middle Ages.
