New civ is coming

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
21

While the project started as a Age of Empire game.

It is quite clear the Devs did not have the Intention of making another AoE.

They clearly wanted a new vision for the game and try out new ideas.

So much so that during the developtment of the game, it started to diverge so much from the Core that makes AoE1 and AoE2.

That requested for it to be its own Title.

That way, they would have further freedom and avoid heavy backlash from expectation of long time AoE players who expected AoE3 to be more in line with AoE 1 and 2.

Now that Backlash did come quite heavily when AoE3 got released. Feeling like a ancient relic my self when remembering the release of AoE3.

It was enough for me to be discouraged at getting the game for quite some time.
As most of my friends and class-mates at the time who were quite into AoE2 had wrong expectation of AoE3 and got super disappointed.

Now I did get myself a copy of AoE3 later on when i got myself my first fully fledged gaming PC. But i never really got into it.
As I was pretty preoccupied with other games especially WoW and SNES emulators at that time. (Yes i know, ironic i used a expensive gaming pc for that, but it was mainly because of BF2 in lan parties)

Now I later seen AoE3 and I think it looks great and interesting enough that i might give it a proper shot one day.
And it is great the devs tried out new things and concepts.

But i feel for AoE4.
They hit the nail in catering to both fanbases.

Me who comes from AoE2 side of things.
One of my long time friend who had his AoE background from AoE3.

We both quite enjoy AoE4 thinking it brought good game ideas and designs from both things.

While its certainly more leanient towards AoE2 style.
Its has enough AoE3 concepts incorperated that AoE3 players dont feel fully alienated.

Now there is many more elements they should have added or could have added.
And there is more to come such ss the complete naval rework.

I think AoE4 has done great at being similar, yet unique enough to be a seperate game from AoE2 and 3 and not a direct competitor.

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22

AoE3 was and continues to be very successful. I don’t at all follow along with the pretense that it somehow isn’t an age of empires game. It’s card system was definitely a strange feature. But it’s still ours.

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An awful lot has happened in civ design since AoE2. After AoM, AoE3, and AoEO, AoE4’s civ design is extremely stale.

Please don’t attack others personally, and please leave this place better than you found it. We promise to do the same, too. Even when we are personally attacked by players who have apparently not played any games from this franchise after 1999 yet oddly have appointed themselves the gatekeepers of franchise discussion. Cheers.

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25

AOM, AOE3 and AOEO exist.

Well never mind. As they have already advertised “UNIT THROWING TORCH AT BUILDINGS” in AOE4 as an great innovation I would call this a great innovation as well.

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26

God, did they actually say that about torches, a mechanic that existed here since at least 2005? please tell me you are joking.

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Well it’s not directly saying “it’s new” but this whole interview only compares it to AOE2 and only mentions features from AOE2 (and no other games) that exist or do not exist on AOE4, so this is the impression it gives me.

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28

What’s it say about the majority of the AoE fanbase that ES was so worried about innovation they wanted AoE3 to become a spin-off? nothing good to my eyes.

And that brings us to AoEIV.

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Ugh. You’ve got a sharp eye. I actually want to hit buildings with a sword, but that’s a separate topic.

I cannot believe they didn’t actually know enough about aoe3 to realize the mechanic already existed. But it does sound like that based on that quote read in isolation.

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And let’s not forget Adam Isgreen was shocked that people suggested a card-like system for AoEIV. Makes me think we know where he stands on AoE3.

Pretty sure the torch throwing was also mentioned in patch notes as some grand feature.

31

Because when talking about a feature from AOE2 they directly give credit to the game.
Now they are talking about a feature from [insert another AOE], a natural logic flow would be to briefly say where it comes from.
But they intentionally avoided it. That’s the perspective of the people who designed the game (or their assumptions about the perspective of their audience).

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32

Card-like system from AOEO.
I’m more shocked when seeing this honestly.

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Jeez it certainly feels that way to me, too. I’ll keep an eye out for their statements like that.

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AoEO has advisor cards but no real deck building like aoe3. I’d be curious to read/watch what Adam was asked and how he answered.

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35

Yeah I know that.

From the exact same interview:

Disclaimer: I’m not aiming at anyone. This is just to show how the developers are so afraid of mentioning any AOE other than AOE2, or giving the impression that the game is inspired by anything other than AOE2. That may not be their genuine thought but marketing strategies.

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36

Thanks. “In disbelief” really changes the sentence. Journalists can totally screw up an interview with that kind of commentary. I’m sure Adam was thrilled to read such a ham-fisted flourish. Or maybe he really can’t believe how the lifelong fans of the franchise he was hired to join and steward would ever enjoy those games and want sequels in their image. The world may never know with journalists like this. Oh well. This is a horribly uncomfortable thing.

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37

Yeah nobody knows what he said exactly but this is the message that this article tries to convey.

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38

It was not, the torch throwing was in the game all along, it was there in the beta.

When did they supposedly do that?

To be fair, in regards to the card system from AoE3, most people did not like it.

I know some people around here feel like AoE4 “wasn’t designed for Age fans”, but AoE3 diverged from the formula FAR more than AoE4 does (which does not mean it is a bad game).

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39

There is a magical wheel between the left and right button of your mouse. Have a try on that.

But AOE3 developed its own player base and it is an Age game. Or if you want to exclude them from “Age fans” you’re free to advertise it as a “game for the Age fans excluding AOE3”

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41

I love age lll but I don’t like the cards system,

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42

And excluding AoM and AoEO fans, while you are at it. Possibly AoE1 fans, too.