I too have some experience with NDA’s after a somewhat contentious episode leaving a job a few years back.
I also can understand the first and vaguest part of each response, as being dodgy. What isn’t dodgy is the subsequent sharing of specific details, which turned out to be false.
I can assure you that when I was under NDA, technically still presently under NDA, I did not answer questions from my former co-workers in the form of a vague response, followed by deceitful specifics. NDA just doesn’t make you a liar.
Again, if Cysion had only responded with the first vague part, you’d be correct. But he shot himself in the foot by continuing past the vague answer and providing erroneous details.
But will it have new random, natural-looking (non-mirror world) maps using new scenery, environmental, water, and animal details that can be played in skirmish matches? Or is all that relegated to the campaigns again? If the latter, I’ve learned to just let DLCs pass me by or wait for steep store sales (Summer/Winter) since they don’t bring much new to my gameplay experience
At the very least the Amazonia map needs a rework. It has turkeys which don’t exist in South America, but is missing Javelinas which do, there’s too much walkable terrain and the river is too big (it should either be smaller, have walkable shallows, or both). I’d make the “Andes” out of regular elevation instead of uncrossable hills, or make more of the map be the actual rainforest instead of including the Andes and Pacific for no good reason.
Also, Idk if humans eat it (or if it’s harvested for wood), but another plant that could be added is the Wolf’s Apple
It could go along with the maned wolf if it’s added (and I hope it is)
I’m not sure what you mean, the only thing the dlcs unlock is the ability to play the new factions and the campaigns.
When they added new trees and animals in the three kingdoms random maps they appeared for everyone, even if you don’t have the dlc. What exactly are you asking for?
More skirmish random map options that aren’t hand-crafted, contrived map areas, and that look cool – borrowing more of the coolness in DLCs.
So:
A lobby option:
Which type of map layout do you prefer?
[ X ] Natural / Organic, or
Unnatural perfect mirror world arenas (i.e., maps that would never occur in nature, but are good if you want equal map and resource location footing for each player)
Maps that come with the new DLCs that greatly take advantage of the new graphic sets and environmental clutter. Not just a random red tree here, or a panda bear there. New trees and animals is just the tip of the iceberg of what could be made for random maps with new DLCs.
I heard in the early 2000s, AoE expansion packs would bring new random maps along with them that totally utilized the new assets. Even if it didn’t, it’s a missed opportunity, because “new factions and campaigns” mean virtually nothing to some players, like me. (I don’t play campaigns, and I play the same civ every time. I’m happy you get enjoyment from the DLCs, though.)
When is the last time you saw random maps in the base game + DLCs that look like this:
Yeah something like more specific detailed versions the ‘real world’ maps would be neat. The new Great Wall map they added had some more eye candy like temples and bridges on it.
Though outside of the real world maps they haven’t really done anything like that before. It would be interesting to see more tailored maps like something you’d see in Company of Heroes or C&C.
For sure. The Great Wall map is cool, but, yeah, given its nature (being real world) I’m pretty sure it looks exactly the same every time… so it was good for one or two matches
User “Zetnus” makes some really neat modded random maps that are more organic in nature they alerted me to, so if you like Great Wall you may want to check those out if you haven’t. I play them on occasion, but they still don’t really fully scratch the itch I have regarding all this.
I don’t need the map to be so expansive it goes across climates and biomes, though, as Great Wall does and some of Zetnus’. I just would like some standard maps that aren’t laid out like arenas. Like, I like the concept of “Four Lakes”, but the lakes are perfectly nestled in each corner and each the same size. I wish randomness could make their size and location a little more organic, and maybe add a little random organic pond here or there to help it not feel completely contrived. I also like the “Highland” map, but the river is always perfectly bisecting the map (or more, depending on # of players), with the exact same width the entire length and never very wide. I modded this map a long time ago because I grew tired of how easy it was to wall off the river crossings, and added more map items/clutter with special objects and some other tweaks
Just things like that. I guess I’ll try to mod Four Lakes and Continental next. I enjoy the green grass and trees biomes more than others, so I focus on maps like these. And I like that I can rotate through to have Arabia be grassy, do I don’t rule Arabia out as a playable map
Shortly after discovering AoE2, I used to make realistic maps of various parts of the world.
Sadly I was very perfectionist and hesitated to share them, so when my PC died, they were all lost except for this one published on AoK Heavens.
It’s a realistic map of Asia that I made by eye (hence the strange scale) that goes from Turkey to China, from Siberia to Nubia. It would allow Byzantines, Ethiopians, Arabs, Slavs, Persians, Mongols, Chinese, Tibetans, and any civ from SEA. I was as detailed as possible back then lol so there are rivers, navigable waterways, ice, mountains and cliffs, and all the trees available.
I had also inserted timers to simulate changes of diplomatic stances; Triggers for changing ownership: when the Mongols destroy the Chinese/Persian/Slavic wonder, all of its buildings become Mongol simulating their expansion; and maybe (I don’t remember) it also has the “Silk Road” mechanic which, through triggers, makes both a trade cart and a trade cog run all over the map and, when passing through the market/dock of each of the 8 civs, automatically gives them gold.
Thanks, I guess? That’s actually what I originally had because it seemed more inclusive and maybe more grammatically correct?, but on a whim I decided it didn’t feel right to me when I re-read because I didn’t like the two “th” words back-to-back (“that they”)… it didn’t flow very well, imo, at the split-second moment I re-read it… so I changed it. And I thought the revised version was maybe more grammatically correct. Plus, I was typing from phone (which is already hard enough on this forum due to lackluster mobile-authoring tech; editing can be worse), and didn’t have time or energy to try and re-word the sentence or re-think a better flow sans two “th” words (because… life). If you rewrite it for me without two “th” words back-to-back while including “they”, I’ll edit it.
Are your motivations purely grammatical? If so, I don’t appreciate the English Grammar nudge, considering the wide variety of non-English first language participants here on this forum and world-wide backgrounds present. Or if your motivations were otherwise, I’d appreciate more transparency via PM rather than the passive-aggressive nudge (or the somehow polite reminder if you feel it was that?) that you could have PM’d me about anyways. (Or should I have said, “… which you could have PM’d me about…”?)
You could have put a comma after “but” and not started the sentence with “But”. Isn’t it neat when someone corrects your forum post wording?
I’m sure there’s a pic somewhere in the forums, but I’m pretty sure 3219700 hadn’t previously been updated since late summer/fall of 2024.
Now no one can be sure but that app is most likely the medieval stuff that eventually got added into the 3k app/dlc.
Now, and this was before they made everything private, but i remember sometimes these updates are pretty innocuous. Updating urls to promo imgs, etc.
It might just be some backend cleanup/update that means basically nothing.
So I wouldn’t say splitting 3k is confirmed or anything.
That being said the cancelled aoe3 dlc has also been seeing updates. Again, could just be meaningless backend stuff. But Maybe, just maybe, we might be seeing some course corrections coming down the pipeline.
Yeah don’t think it would be a split of 3k, but i’d love it to be something that finishes Khitanguts and Jurchens (voicelins and campaigns), adds a Mainland E. Asian architecture, and maybe gives us another new civ and campaigns for China and Koreans. Tbh a DLC with that stuff in it would for me personally fix a lot of the ills of the 3k DLC even if they don’t remove the 3k factions, because honestly I think if they remove civs people have paid for that would cause more issues/backlash from others that feel like content they paid for is now being cut.
