That’s a good point, as someone who had been just short of begging them to just drop a little bit of something for people to start speculating on, I think that’s what they did; just a little bit to assuage concerns and get conversation going. Especially since this DLC isn’t coming out until Spring at the earliest, I wouldn’t be surprised if they drop more hints as we get closer to release, kinda like they have for the AOM Chinese DLC with giving more details as the release date gets closer.
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If they’re only seen in campaign or custom player-made maps, then makes no difference to me; I’ll never see them, or very rarely.
That’s the main problem I have with every DLC being “new civs”. As far as I know, you only see that type of thing in their associated campaigns, or maybe on a certain map or two if they add a new map to the map selection screen.
I don’t think they become a part of RMS random scripts where I would see them every now and then on most any map, including Four Lakes, Highland, Cenotes, Bogland, etc. which is what I would want since I never play campaign. I would like more biome/terrain/plant/tree/wildlife graphics and textures for the random map scripts so I can actually see some of this stuff once in a blue moon when doing Skirmish SP games.
That’s why I’ve been hoping and still hope they will someday just make a graphics pack DLC that adds a bunch of cool map stuff that most any (or all) map RMS would randomly leverage – and/or that we could hand-pick on occasion from a lobby UI (even if it’s an Advanced UI that we’d have to open from the lobby, to say, add “Rainbows”, “Puddles”, “Caves,” certain tree types, “Statues”, “Graveyards”, “Collapsed Trade Carts”, “Ship Wrecks” etc. in rare but random places
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Well if we count biological “grenades” as grenades then such weapons were ubiquitous in the ancient and medieval world. Mayans used beehives as grenades as well, and this was even reflected in Mel Gibson’s movie the Apocalypto, where the protagonist covered himself in mud to prevent being stung and then threw a beehive at his pursuers. This beehive grenadier could probably even be a regional unit for Mesoamerican civs.
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Please allow me to be pedantic again, cause there’re a few errors with your statement.
First of all, the Sha was a Han era weapon from 2,000 years ago (thus predating the Iron Pagoda by about 1,000 years) and nothing suggested that the Iron Pagoda ever used this weapon. It was a sword staff used by Han era infantrymen, as shown in this video
LK Chen - Han Sha Comparison - Bat Wing Han Sha and Classic Han Sha
The Iron Pagoda (as well as the Jurchen army) likely used a variety of weapons, such as Shuo (lance), Qiang (spear), Fu (axe), Guduo (mace), and Lianjia (flail), to name a few, but the Sha sword staff was not one of them.
Furthermore the name Iron Pagoda itself is somewhat questionable, and so does the public opinion of it being a cavalry unit. It was a Song name for a group of elite Jurchen soldiers and we aren’t sure what was the Jurchen name or if there ever was a Jurchen name. Although generally depicted as heavy cavalry, I know at least two primary sources (one from 1134 and another from 1140) which described them as heavy siege infantry.
A better name for a unique cavalry unit for the Jurchens would (surprisingly) be the Iron Flail from AoE 3.
I’m thinking it will be.
Pretty sure this DLC was intended to be the 5th anniversary DLC
Now MAAAAYBE once BFG took the anniversary slot and DLC5 slipped into 2025, they cut some content, back down to the normal 2 civ dlc.
But to me it boils down to one thing. Money. MS has definitely not shied away from trying to cash in those nostalgia bucks before. LOTW was basically the nostalgia bucks dlc, not knocking it, just stating facts.
Now, you’re going to try telling me that we have a china dlc, we’re adding Jurchens and Tanguts, so almost certainly more north and northwest china focused, they’ve already teased the two civs needed to round out “Into China”, this region is perfect for OG AoK ghengis khan nostalgia bucks, but I’m supposed to believe they’re going to leave the “for they are without honor” civ of “Crucible” and “Life of Revenge” on the table.
This dlc was intended as the 5th anniversary dlc, is now being re-purposed as the double down on consoles dlc, and I’m supposed to believe they’re going to show restraint instead of smashing the nostalgia button.
Also if you’re going to tease something, and you have any basic competency (tho I often question that after V&V), I’d think you’d want to try saving you’re best for last. tease, build hype, tease something more exciting, build more hype, etc, etc.
We got 3 civs with DOI and we got little puzzle pieces that didn’t facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the dlc’s content. We knew there’d be elephants and new stuff and that was about it. They start teasing this dlc with two full images that basically confirm Tanguts and Jurchens, and show off their castles and UUs. If this DLC is Tanguts and Jurchens, and maybe Chinese and Koreans also get fun new regional units, then we basically know everything about the dlc already beside the campaign protagonists. If this is all the dlc has to offer, then they’ve basically just spoiled the dlc. Which seems stupid.
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Players - How many Genghis Campaign enemy players civs you want to add?
Devs - Yes.
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Can’t be helped that the Mongolians fought a lot of different people.
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Yeah. From Malay at the southeast to Poles at the north west.
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Sorry, I don’t quite follow what this has to do with “every DLC being “new civs””, since you can use the new civs outside of the campaigns.
I would like to see the new trees and terrains appear in the official random maps though – presumably as part of a new or updated east Asian biome.
I’d like this too but I find it hard to see how it would work. Currently all official random map scripts and I think all terrains and gaia objects are available to all players – presumably to avoid compatibility issues between players with/without certain DLCs.
Love all those new assets, can’t wait to see more.
Is the unidentified animal grazing? Maybe Cows and Deer will finally do that as well.
I wonder whether the Mounted Samurai will get a proper skin this time.
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It means every DLC spends time on making new architecture and units for the civs, but I will only see them once every 50 matches because I play random AI opponents. There are already a ton of civs (enough for me), and adding more takes a lot of time and money to create, and then there is a slew of post-launch tweaking/balancing.
I’m just saying it would be wonderful to finally have one single DLC focusing entirely on set decoration elements, terrains, waters, map features, that every map could potentially benefit from.
Notice I only quoted your comments about the environment (trees, water, shallows texture, grass terrain, cracked terrain), and not your civ-specific architecture bulletpoint – because I was wanting to focus my post on the terrain and map decoration details that are coming with the DLC.
The devs can probably figure out a nice way. If not, it really isn’t that hard to add ‘create object’ clutter stuff in all map scripts rather than just campaign maps. I’m sure they could figure out a UI for us to toggle stuff on which then ties into the RMS scripts to add/delete stuff we want.
When is the last time you saw a randomly placed statue or shipwreck in a random skirmish map game? I don’t know that I have ever seen either in any random map
- I didn’t even know they existed until I looked at RMS modding docs, because I don’t play campaigns
- I shouldn’t have to make my own custom RMS to do that sort of thing when I want such decorations in all my maps to help make the maps feel more realistic, more natural and authentic, and less player arena-like
- I’ve already added that stuff and more to my own custom map, and did so like 10 or more years ago, but I don’t want to play my own map(s) every time
I’ve seen screenshots of campaigns and I’m like, “Why aren’t these cool things in random maps, too, so I can see them?”
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New achievements have been added. We don’t need to wait much longer. Maybe next Monday or Tuesday…
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For those of you who’d rather not jump through the links
"Provoke Fu Jian before he is ready in “Xie An (383)”.
@Tyranno13 I saw your comment on reddit and thought it deserved to be shared here.
The title of the level being a name and date means this is a Historical battle. This looks like we are getting more than just the usual campaigns.
Perhaps the lack of content set in China and the surrounding area means they are making this a pretty extensive DLC?
This being an historical battle makes sense to me. It’s also quite early. With all of chinese history, seems odd you’d stretch the bounds of the aoe2 timeframe, when taizong is probably the best choice anyways and two and a half centuries later.
Seeeeeee, basic competency. Now there’s another hint, looks like we might be getting another set of historical battles.
—EDIT—
Looking into it more, might have been an accidental leak. The achievement is only visible on xbox, not on steam apparently…so the opposite of competency I suppose.
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Are we sure this is even real? I don’t even see the hidden achievements in Steam…wondering how they would have even gotten this info
Per one RedBaboon on Reddit:
Was looking at achievements in the Xbox app on PC and saw this one about provoking Fu Jian in “Xie An.” It’s not on Steam, only Xbox
So not sure exactly what to conclude from this.
The two teaser images were got were titled
ageii_sneakpeek_screenshot_2-1.webp
and
ageii_sneakpeek_screenshot_3-1.webp
not sure if there was a first screenshot they ultimately didn’t use, or perhaps these are from the first scenarios of the two of the campaigns.
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eh. Personally this is pity in someway if they choose campaign about Easter Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms while adding Jurchen, fire lance, thunder bomb - which used in Song - Jin war and later - for new civs
Green has both Camel Catapult and Iron Pagoda. Meanwhile red haa Steppe Lancer, Fire Lancer and too many THS. Had they not have the Tangut castle, I might think of Khitans because of Steppe Lancer.
Here’s hoping we get campaigns in addition to historical battles and not just the latter.
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Since Chronicles campaign files are named as “CCAM”, I’m wondering if new DLC campaign files will be named as " CHCAM" or not.