I would like the battlefield in AoE4 more realistic and immersive than previous series.
Armors and weapons covered with blood after killing.
Soldiers’ voice lines when fighting and killed (like a explorer say something when killed in aoe3)
Death animation where units crawl on the ground for a few sec.
and etc…
Some people would hate it but others would love it!
These can be turned on and off by option settings.
All this is implemented in COH2 , so it may be implemented in aoe4, and I hop so.
It would be awesome to see a bit of ragdoll like in Starcraft 2. Totally agree with you
Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this, but I don’t believe we need all those details. I mean, they work well in other types of games, but in a RTS there’s no need for all that violence and gory details. The beauty of the game resides in other elements.
SANNGREEE!!! 
I agree - I don’t think beautiful death animations are the point of RTS games tbh. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to add it in as an option though, so long as it doesn’t negatively impact game performance.
I concur 100% the more historical and violent realism the better. It’s a game of war as well as culture , we wish to see more detailed emelents of both in game.
Not going to happen.
AoE was never a dark and gory game series and never will be.
It would shy away potential customers.
The Definitive Editions already have less gore than the original games.
I wouldnt mind seeing that
I am not asking for female villagers running around from enemy cavs, screaming, crying and begging for life, either (I wouldn’t mind seeing that, though lol). But BLOOD IS SOMETHING COOL RATHER THAN GORY imo. And I even think it is essential when it comes to a war game. I was disappointed when I found DE has less blood effect than the original ones.
The death animation of hersir in Age of Mythology is close to what I wanted to imply by units crawling on the ground.
Hydras in AoM increases the number of its heads as it goes through more battles. And I liked seeing it, thinking about what it has been through. I think the enemy blood on weapons and armors of survivors would give me the same feeling. With that a soldier will be not just another, but an individual who fought on your side, who has seen what you have seen!
Voice acting by soldiers would give you the feeling that these small units are people with emotions. It doesn’t have to be “I don’t want to die” or “it hurts! I’m scared! aaahhh”, but maybe “eat this!” or “watch out!”
Age of Empires/Mythology are wonderful because they are great in many ways. When I was a small kid, I was into its beautiful animations. I randomly moved units just because I wanted to see them walk. When they fight, I always zoomed in camera to see them fight. I don’t know how many hours I spent on scenario editor to see animations I loved (the death animation of cyclops and hoplites were my favorite).
As I grew up, my interest shifted to strategy and balancing, and I agree that animations are not the point of RTS games. But hey, AoE/M is more than just that! It is also an art to watch, material to learn history from and something that connects people from different generations with different interests!
I have a very long time to open up AoM but now than you mentioned, yes, I can indeed recall some gory animations in there that I had completely forgotten of.
I can recall I think the Cyclop who was grabbing soldiers from the neck and throwing them away, exactly like ragdolls.
Or the Minotaur that was doing something similar by giving a hard push I think (?).
And if I’m not mistaken there was blood in there as well.
It would be a shame if AoEIV’s turns out to be completely stripped and washed from the violent nature of war.
If you come to think about it, the “bloody” element of the series is actually gradually decreasing:
AOE1 and AOE2 have fallen soldiers spilling blood on the ground, and then gradually decaying into skeletons. AOE1 generally has a little more blood than AOE2.
AOM is not as bloody but still has the decaying corpses.
AOE3 is even less bloody (some blood animation when hit) and the corpses just disappeared.
And the DEs for AOE1 and AOE2 almost removed the “decaying bodies”.
I wonder if this is because the series has been trying to appeal to a larger audience.
Skeletons are not allowed in China.
They still exist as props though so I don’t know.
I forgot about the skeleton part.
Ok, I’ll admit it, that was pretty cool, was a fun feature.
If this is implemented, i think this should be off by default, and since its a non-default option, it is a low priority and would not be bothered with.
The reason for this is that in a competitive RTS, visual and vocal noises are distruptive. you basically want as little sound/movement as possible, in order to be able to focus as much as you can on the important bits. units saying stuff when they die would be a huge vocal noise in large battles, and dead units that keep moving makes things look like they are still relevant to the fight, when they actually arent.
Even blood on the units would make them look a bit different and harder to immediatly recognize, especially if the blood could be spread in different ways.
New players that watch trailers/gameplay or pick up the game to try it, might be annoyed by all the useless noise and wouldnt want to keep playing, therefore the feature should be off by default, and therefore is redundant.
AoE3 has some kind of screaming in battle that even varies between civilisations but it’s not very loud and no clear voices, it’s more of a background noise.
I assume AoE4 will be similar, you wont clearly hear one person bagging for mercy or something like this, no way.
They don’t want to make this game 18+ because of some small little details. I mean yes as an adult I’d like to have a choice but I don’t think it’s a good strategy for the company and they definitely don’t seem like they want to make AoE4 violent.
The original Down of War had a lot of gore and blood. Units had finisher moved and corpses (when you saw them dying) stayed forever.
They know how to make that but I don’t think they will do it for AoE4. AoE was never a dark and gory series.
AoE is always sunny. That’s an important part of the series. That’s not realistic but they want it this way and I understand it
Hi. I agree that AoE has never been dark. But if you mean that AoE didn’t have such details by “sunny”, I doubt it.
I guess you are probably new to this series, but before recent DEs were released, such details existed.
Units left blood on the ground when killed and skeletons remained.
Hunted animals showed its blood and bones inside their bodies while lying on the ground.
Units spilled blood when shot even when they are alive.
There was an asset of a headless man with his head pierced through a stake beside his body.
Those things are not something that makes this series dark and gory. They were beautiful details to entertain players. I just want them back.
Though the lighting has always been bright for all the games I’d rather not describe the overall theme as “sunny” especially for the earlier games.
Tbh when I first played AOE and AOE2 as a kid the death animations were freaking horrifying to me.
I have the impression that many series were generally more gory or “cult-like” around the 00’s. Then as these series became more mainstream and popular the theme of the later games became more “mainstream” as well. Compare AOM/AOE3 to AOE/AOE2, Starcraft 2 to Starcraft, Diablo 3 to Diablo 1&2, etc. (which might also due to the limitations of early full 3D graphics)
There might be the possibility for a “blood & gore” pack like total war games. Though I strongly hate that marketing strategy, it is one way to appeal to greater audience while leaving these features viable.
AOE3 actually had an option to turn on/off blood effect (though still negligible even when turned on).