almost there. But also:
Double the size of ships. Its rediculous. We are grown ups, not 8 year olds.
And give the turning animations more frames. Make it 64 frames at least. Again, this is not an Anime cartoon, this is a game for grown ups.
The size is limited by the size of the map, if you were to compare the size of the map to the size of units it would look only a few football fields wide, and by any realistic account the range of units is ridiculous (a longbowman should throw broadheads halfway over the map, even though his famous bodkins were much shorter-ranged). Thatâs partly why 3D RTS look weird when you move the camera away from the usual top-down view.
The scale retains some abstraction. Just like a castle is only twice as big as a house instead of sometimes massive complexes. So having boats quite small isnât a major issue.
As they are now, sure ships are much smaller than they should be (but there would be a massive difference between models, a Chinese lou chuan or treasure fleet ship would ridiculously dwarf an european caravel) but it doesnât feel shocking, it still feels like you could have a few soldiers on it to man it. Armies are also considerably smaller than they should be, so you may see an unit as an abstraction for a full company. Cossacks tries much bigger numbers though it still doesnât reach army sizes of the time, but itâs very clumsy compared to AOE.
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yea, but that would be great. Give us that variety
For a TW it would be great as it tries to imitate real-size (not there yet, but their engine doesnât use modern hardware to the potential it could use. A shame, they could make a real size Leipzig if they really triedâŠ). For AOE2 youâd have one monstruosity taking up half the screen, making the result unplayable.
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donât try to speak for everyone! (first of all what kind of word is undimensional?) second of all I (and large parts of the community) like the current water meta. hybrid maps are amazing to watch. effectively removing demos like the current proposed water patch is a downgrade
does the engine support having different death animations depending on the final hit?
why? if you want a visual overhaul like that get a mod? if you also want them to go into formation based on this new size itâs a strong NO from me. imagine how clunky this would get on a map like 4 lakes. 10 ships in a pond and the entire pond is full.
we are currently at 16 frames? considering that units almost jump into the orientation they are meant to be in, this change seems pretty pointless. if you want them to turn slower this would severely affect how the units feel
No idea but the engine can be tweaked if need be. The engine already supports having different things happen depending on which unit gets the kill (some unique techs giving some resources if some units destroy others), so why not tie it to death animations too ?
i think with so many things genuinely broken other things should be prioritized, but I wouldnât be bothered by this being added
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Surely mere animations wonât break pathing even further, right ? right ? 
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It will cause lag for older pcs tho.
Not the same thing. Ships would then spastically switch between rotations when moving to attack for example.
It doesnât rotate to attack at all. Maybe that would graphically work for ships that donât only have 1 weapon in the front, like nearly all the ones in the game right now. It could work with a ship full of guns on every side.
While watching thalassocracy2, I rediscovered the strange details of AOE2 naval combat, as discussed here. This is something that I really want to improve. (though I accept some strangeness of land combats. Of course, if you ask me to do AOE4, I say thatâs true.)
- AOE2 ships overlap a lot. They overlap so much that itâs hard to find the difference between ship types. The collision sizes should be larger (or prohobiting stand-ground&patrol stacking?).
- Ships are generally too fast. Theyâre like cavalry on the water. They should move as fast as spearman-line.
- Galleys do a strange pulling attack micro. They alternate between attacking from the front and turning fast. They should either be able to attack from all directions, or take longer to turn.
Iâd like to see these improvements, along with the new naval update implovements. I think theyâll not only greatly improve the visuals, but also make naval fights fun.
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The HD version has a mod for unique sinking ships, I was surprised that DE did not have something similar
Sorry, but this is AoE2, not AoE3 or Anno. AoE2 favors snappy, responsive animations and gameplay mechanics over realistic visuals and slow, lumbering animations
Let AoE2 be AoE2, AoE3 be AoE3, and Anno be Anno.
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Sure. But this is not an excuse for bad quality. Do the best in your given setting. Aoe2 setting is mainly 2D, and instant response. In this setting, you could do A LOT better ship battles than currently.
You mean classic design.You not liking something dosent mean its bad quality.
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I donât mind them. Look okay to me
But the water on the other hand. I hope they can figure out a way to make water someday look a lot better. Maybe some illusion of translucency for shallow water and reefs at least
Most any graphic could probably be picked apart in the game. I guess each of us has different opinions on what is and is not important. Trust me, I have my own laundry list of things I wish the game could do better graphically or add more of. Mine is mostly environment and set dressing stuff. Iâm passionate about that, while youâre passionate about ships, so I think I understand you and can relate at some level
I donât wanna make AOE2 AOE3-like or Anno-like, but wanna make AOE2 navals better.
Btw I realized that the strange ship stacking was due to smooth pathfinding and stand-ground & patrols rather than collision size. This makes it difficult to distinguish between different types of ships, makes it difficult to recognize the number of warships, and makes overwhelming firepower in a narrow area.
Smooth pathing is good, but stand-ground & patrol stacking seems bad (really? It needs more discussion).
Yes, the combat in the water should be slower, and they should take the opportunity to improve the sinking animations, like the shipsâ masts disassembling and them sinking sideways (like in AoM and AoE 3, but I doubt theyâll include it like in that HD mod)âŠ
After further consideration, I came to the conclusion; it is the most important to make ships slower.
The current ships, especially in Thalassocracy 2, are like motorboats. I canât understand everything what the fight goes on.
By making them slower, you can enjoy medieval naval battles at your own pace. You can calmly analyze the progress of naval battles. Because theyâre slow, it will be easier to mass your navy. Depending on the placement of the opponent navy, you can probably reverse the game after the opponent get sea-map control.
You can get a feel for what itâs like by watching Thalassocracy 2 on YouTube at 75% speed.
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