there was a variant civ used in the Rus campaign that i feel like not enough people have talked about, Novgorod, this variant civ i believe first appeared in the mission ‘Fall of the Novgorod Republic.’ (but correct me if i’m wrong)
I feel like we should go back to the campaign and bring those variants to life, i honestly expected those variants to come first like the Normans and Novgorod and honestly off topic would love to see more Scandinavian civs and maybe even a Viking variant for them.
The only problem I see with thinking about a civ for Novgorod is that historically, it seems their army wasn’t very different from other Russian states.
In fact, in the campaign, you’ll see that their army lacks unique units or special mechanics. They’re practically a “reskin” of the HRE. The devs took advantage of the HRE to use it as a substitute for all the Eastern European civs in the Mongol and Rus’ campaigns, including Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, and Novgorov, just as they did with the Teutons in AoE2.
At least since Sultan Ascend, they’ve had the decency to create special units for the campaign, which offer more immersion. In fact, it’s the reason many wanted a civ for the Crusaders, and in the end, we got one for the Templars.
So far, no one has come forward to create a real concept to differentiate them; and saying vague things like “they had different literature” in a wargame isn’t enough. That being the case, I don’t see much potential for them as a civ in general.
If anyone is up for making a Novgorov concept that isn’t a copy with 90% of the bonuses and the Rus tech tree, go ahead, but if not, well, it would be better not to want a civ if you don’t even have a real idea of their background, much less just to fill the Variant slot.
I see where you’re coming from but in my honest opinion because Novgorod was just used as a name over the HRE template that means it should be easy to create because they honestly have a blank slate, no? they haven’t created unique units, unique tech or anything so it should be open for threads or even a discussion to create this cause i feel like alot of the same civs are getting variations, like when i look at the templars, they are no where near French in my eyes, JDA is alot like French but then templars is just not even relatively close to being French.
I would honestly love to put out a thread to develop Novgorod or any of the unused civs to make variations for them cause i think i can speak for 90% of the community when i say Cross & Roses was nothing compared to sultans.
I disagree with the last point: Knight of Cross and Roases is great. Templars are a well-crafted variant of the French.
On the other hand, many people hate the Sultan Ascend variants, both for being lazy copies without much variation from their original civ, for being a resource-saving choise, and in some cases lacking historical elements that would have made them richer:
In fact, that’s why many people are excited about a possible JoanDArc remake. And they’re right; when it came out, it was basically: Joan: France + Dota Heroes.
We had to wait two seasons for France to be given different bonuses to differentiate itself from Joan, including 10% cheaper castles or the exclusivity of the free blacksmith upgrade. And even then, “It’s not enough.”
It’s not that the variants are bad… (Or they are? Well, it’s debatable), but they could be better.
Personally, I hope any new variants are more like Lancaster and Templars, with new mechanics and landmarks, as well as a great deal of “historicity”.
Well, the Templars use models from the “Franks” Campaign civ from Sultan Ascends, so it’s likely that civs like Vikings/Norsemen/Danes, or Genoa, Mamluk Sultanate will see production in the future.
And about Novgorov, I already said it in my previous comment: “Anyone who wants to make a Novgorov concept as a variant can do so.”
I didnt say the Cross & Roses DLC was bad, actually i love using the Templars my point was just Sultans introduced more civs/variants than Cross and Roses did and to give benefit of the doubt it was released quite quickly after Sultans but still, We know the age of empires series isn’t lacklustre when it comes to making new civs cause look at AOE2, AOE2 has 45 civs, AOE3 has 22 civs with 2 more to come in the DLC announced while AOE4 is exactly at AOE1’s civ numbers at just 12 civs (no including the variants which would bring it up to 18 civs) but there is honestly so many campaign civs that i feel like could be worked on. (obviously excusing the “campaign only” civs that have already been added) i mean theyve already got the names of the civs it’s just down to designing them which shouldnt be entirely put into the hands of the community, Novgorod included.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh… ok.
Yes, it’s true that there are fewer civs than the first DLC.
Some consider that Sultan Ascend DLC should have cost more, but others believe the price is worth it, considering that the first four variants “were so cheap to make” that it’s a good thing they didn’t add their price to the DLC. Personally, I prefer to keep silence, because “the cheaper the better”, hehe.
As for the rest of your message, well, I already gave my personal opinion of Novgorov before.
Bye
I agree especially for DLCs, unless they’re adding hours upon hours of campaign content or like 10 new civs, a DLC should not cost more like £15, please god i hope AOE series don’t start milking their fan base.
