New DLC just dropped? New steamdb file

[MatM1996]

@SirWiedreich

Here’s a screen from the stream showing the new battles:

a) 5th century: Fall of Rome (395-476):

1. Gaisceric (406)

2. Voritgern (440)

b) 8th to 11th centuries: Rise of the Carolingian Empire/Holy Roman Empire and Viking Era (768-1000)

3. Charlemagne (768)

4. Ragnar (850)

5. Ironside (859)

6. Finehair (870)

7. Robert (921)

8. Otto (936)

9. Seljuk (985)

10. Karlsefni (1000)

c) 11th to 13th centuries: Byzantine Reborn, Anarchy of England and Rise of Mongol Empire (1081-1203)

11. Komnenos (1081)

12. Stephen (1135)

13. Temujin (1185)

14. Mstislav (1203)

d) 15th century: Fall of Constantinople (1453)

15. Constantine XI (1453)

16. Fetih (1453)

e) 16th century: Sengoku Jidai post-European arrival and Drake in Spanish Main (1543-1572)

17. Shimazu (1545)

18. N0bun4g4 (1551)

19. Drake (1572)

What is the allergy that the devs have with the 6th and 7th century?..

@Akoskaaa10

“new battles”
14 aren’t even new. Extremely disappointed.

Sure, new battles BUT FROM THE COMMUNITY (I know that Philtydelphia is a dev of the game, but they are charging us for free battles that were already part of the mod finder)…

@Darkcirclepanda

Just 19 independent MAPS, NO CAMPAIGNS.

Well it is equivalent to 4 complete campaigns, but ok, at least they are official battles now…

@DynasticPlanet5

Gaeseric as goths? What.

I know i shouldn’t and probably have no right to feel slighted but I kinda do as a big Vandal advocate… wel beyond advocate.

It must be that they didn’t bring the Vandals into the game…

@SMUM15236

What does this even mean? “Scenarios” vs “Exclusive scenarios”?

They added scenarios that were already part of the community and also created 5 new scenarios (those of the fall of Rome, those of France and some more like that of Temujin and the Seljuks)…

@Quasibrodo

Just don’t lie to us and tell us the expansion will be “campaign focused” when it unambiguously has no focus what-so-ever on campaigns.

Yes, it should have been “historical battles only-expansion” to be more exact…

@Josh1Axel

Disappointed that the only setting in America is Francis Drake’s expedition of 1572–1573

Furthermore, in 3 DE you already have a similar or the same battle, but it does fit better there because they were pirates against Spanish colonies…

@Akoskaaa10

I think all 19 are made by that guy on stream, he deserves all the money, not the lazy devs.

@PaidPlains6999

This isn’t a “Campaign” focused pack. This is a bland, “long-lasting” ludacris “battle” scenario pack. I evaded these comunity made scenarios always since they take away from the classic and thrilling, personal story campaigns the game firstly introduced. I would have been fine if those scenarios were classic historical battles, but these Filthydelphia style of battles doesn’t go well with the initial game design… I’m disappointed…

Yes, they are the same battles that were already in the 2 HD mod search engine since The Forgotten…

@SirWiedreich

The Pros:
-More of Phillysouljah’s campaigns are now canon & have been updated/officially supported.
-Voice acting, music, etc. for those who are into that.
-5 Fully new scenarios. While this is less than expected, it’s on par with the content of a single campaign. Some of us hypothesized that the DLC might be small, e.g. a single campaign.

The Cons:
-No New Campaigns
-No New Editor Units or Objects as far as I can tell (this is what I had been most interested in about the DLC)

Price? I think if it’s $3, nobody should complain. I even think up to 5 is fair, and I would pay 10, but I imagine there will be a lot of grumbling if it’s above $5. I agree that calling it “campaign focused” was beyond misleading, OTOH it’s important to not get too invested in one’s own speculations. More than a few people seemed convinced it was going to be an East Asian Triple Campaign DLC.

@Hohlenwerger

I hope the price of this DLC is low, just for support the game. Because, in fact, little things was added.

@conqueror060

This is the first time I’m not sure if I will buy this. I always support our favourite game but this is a real insult to the community.

I don;t know if I will buy this DLC. I want to support, but… I don’t want to feel like an idiot

Yes, that’s true… if they lower the price of the DLC later, it won’t sound so bad anymore…

@Hohlenwerger

Idk, deep in my heart, I think I was hoping this would be a campaign DLC with unique units for civilizations.

@Apocalypso4826

They don’t even have a Didgori scenario. Pass.

I guess they will do it later…

@SchwarzeGarde49

Let’s hope the scenarios won’t suddenly “disappear” from mod section. As this “dlc” seems like a tax for people who didn’t learn to install mods^^

Troy burns if they do that…

@PersiasRerising

what are the really new missions and on the other hand, which mods will now be official content?

@anon57851381

The other ones I don’t remember so I can’t tell which ones are the 5 new scenarios.

Those of the fall of Rome, those of France and some more like that of Temujin and the Seljuks)…

@anon57851381

One of the japanese (if it is a big fucking map you can deploy ninjas)

Shimazu…

@anon57851381

I’m suspecting that Charlemagne one is a reworked version of that old Verden fan made map from AOC.

Yes, the Saxon rebellion that is now official…

@DynasticPlanet5

Gaeseric ruins our dreams of a Vandal civ pretty bigtime

I don’t think they’ll add another civ from late antiquity…the Romans already generated a lot of controversy in RoR…

@PersiasRerising

Guess there will be another “campaign” dlc next year.

Just hope kings of West Africa will add kanemburo Songhai and Hausa with it.

Yes, this would be like The Forgotten 2, next year it will be The African Kingdoms 2 but with historical battles…

@Martinurello

I’ll go far… the community should boycott this DLC… don’t buy it… don’t talk about it in social networks… Just pretend this DLC never existed…

You can not buy it, if it does not bring any new civ, only historical battles… when the dlc is 1 usd there, then yes…

@conqueror060

Unfortunately yes. And even worse, they will disappoint many users which might avoid next DLCs as well. This will definately damage the game comunity if happens

You can buy it in the summer, which will lower the price of the DLC, but still support the game…

@TwerDefender

this makes it sound like 19+5 scenarios, when it’s just a total of 19. Combined with the price tag this is shameful. I didn’t think age of empires would stoop this low

That is, 14 scenarios that we already know and 5 “new” ones…

@conqueror060

They should consider to adjust either the price or the content of this DLC. Why so high price for 14 already played scenarios by most of us? 13 euros for 5 new single battle scenarios???

Yes, it sounds like AoE 3 dlc but at least they bring new civs and historical maps…

@Toil3tJuice

The last traditional DLC(TMR) went for £12.49, ROR for £9.99. The rest, by £7.99 but this feels like robbery.

Yes, there are times when you have to stand up and say “not this”…

@PersiasRerising

Maybe we will get some new game functions.

@anon57851381

The icon left of the stop button is for what? Villager follow crazy pathing before garrisoning?

Yes, villagers who run faster at the expense of throwing away resources…

@MUTYLATOR5553

The scenarios of Ragnar Lodbrok, Bjorn Ironsides, Harald Fairhair, and Thorfinn Karlsefni sound epic Viking Saga’s, but I would prefer full-fledged campaigns in the North Sea DLC. Vortigern as a Briton ruler would also fit this - a scenario inspired by the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table…

Gaiseric could be the perfect for Vandals civ campaign. Otto the Great could be the perfect for Saxons civ campaign.

All of this is wasted potential.

Yes, with this you waste many future dlcs… we continue with the same civs without campaigns…

@SirWiedreich

Like it’s weird to me that people seem to be reacting worse to this than the Icon DLC in terms of being a cashgrab, considering the latter provided no actual gameplay content and opened the door to a very questionable form of monetization. Or than to RoR or the Roadmap in terms of building up massive hype over a long period of time only to largely subvert those expectations. Or than to the general laxity towards quality, bugfixes, or lack of new visual content over the last couple years, and the numerous claims to have fixed pathing. Overpromising and underdelivering is the rule more than the exception, so I guess I’m surprised so many people made it this far into DE with so much hopeful credulity intact.

Yes, at least the animated icons in 2 DE or explorer skins in 3 DE get a pass because at least they are original… neither this nor that…

@TwerDefender

rather remove them from the game entirely

@TwerDefender

yes please, that would make them playable for me

No, they would lose what makes them more unique…

@Atsavin

Also why not add a Samurai on horseback. That mounted samurai waiting.

A Naginata horseman…

@MUTYLATOR5553

Ninja also is good potential unit for Japanese civ.

Yes, the Japanese at this point would have to have at least 2 UU… otherwise you go to AoE 3 and 4 and you come across more than 15 UU for them…

@Nordsultan

i’m looking forward to the dlc. i rarely play Custem Campains. so i get 19 new missions to play. that’s awesome. and as long as they’re polish and fun i don’t care if there are remakes

I didn’t even finish the official DoI ones…

@SMUM15236

Other than RoR, all previous DLCs gave not 2 but 3 full campaigns.

All AoE 2 DE dlcs since its release come with 3 campaigns (2 new ones and one for a civ that didn’t have it)…

@TommoChocolate

I’m not outraged the way some people are, but I do think the criticism is justified. I’m not sure what I think about freely available custom content having an official paid-for release – not that it’s the first time in AoE2’s history that that has happened.

Yes, that’s true… I mean, at the time The Forgotten was a mod that ended up being an official and paid expansion when 2 HD was released in 2013…

[SMUM15236]

@TommoChocolate

2024 is going to be a great year for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition , with some surprises we’re pretty sure you’ll simply never guess.

I’m pretty sure no one guessed they’d do this. On the hand,

Oh yeah. Not a single one ever thought Steam Workshop scenarios will be official.

@MatM1996

What is the allergy that the devs have with the 6th and 7th century?

May I state a political reason? Nah. I’ll get banned from this forum.

[MUTYLATOR5553]

@SetsunaFTW41

This DLC could have new hero units.

Let it be so, because heroes such as Ragnar, Harald, Bjorn, Karlsefni, Gaisceric, Charlemagne and Otto are Giga Chads.

[MUTYLATOR5553]

I hope that these Scenarios are not the only content of this DLC. Architecture Sets such as Nomadic, Northern European, Byzantine and Caucasian are a must.

A regional skin pack for default units (military, peasants and monks) and Castles would also be nice.

[Velk413]

@TommoChocolate

I suspect this isn’t the reaction they hoped for. The response on Reddit seems less negative, but still not what I’d call positive.

I’ve seen much less negativity elsewhere as well; this is by far the most negative space i’ve seen reactions to. I do hope this reaction doesn’t disincentivize MS from doing something like the 3-4 multi-mission scenarios for civs missing them that people were expecting this time.

[MatM1996]

@SMUM15236

May I state a political reason? Nah. I’ll get banned from this forum.

The thing is that if you don’t want to include the Arab invasions because of what is happening now in that region, go ahead and pass, but you still have the restoratio imperii in the 6th century and Mayan campaigns at the end of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th…

[anon57851381]

@MatM1996

Temujin and the Seljuks

Those were available. Seljuk one is pretty lengthy by the way. All of the reworked scenarios took me way longer to beat than the Conquerors and Forgotten ones. Save for York, but York is just an immense map with a straightforward approach.

[MatM1996]

Ah, it happens that I had not seen them in the campaign search engine within the game, that’s why I thought they were new, maybe only the battles of the 5th century would be really new?..

[anon57851381]

Feith looks new. Also that Robert guy I’ve never heard of 11

[anon57851381]

Just checked Wikipedia… Robert I of France and this should be Franks x Vikings. This is what, the 6th scenario featuring Vikes in this DLC?

MS tryna surf the Vikings wave (thougu a little late I guess). It is more like Vikings and Vanquished.

[MatM1996]

@anon57851381

Feith looks new. Also that Robert guy I’ve never heard of 11

Feith is the conquest of Constantinople but seen from the Turkish/Ottoman perspective…Constantine XI is just resisting the Turkish waves and changing history…in AoE 3 there is a custom map that does the same…you play with Ottomans and you conquer the city or you play with the Spanish (who act as Byzantines) and resist the attack of the city…

@anon57851381

Just checked Wikipedia… Robert I of France

Of course, I was also looking on Wikipedia xd…it is Robert I of France, who overthrew the last Carolingian king Charles III in 921 and who would be the grandfather of Hugh Capet (founder literally of all the royal houses that we see in AoE 3 xd)…

[TwerDefender]

@Velk413

I do hope this reaction doesn’t disincentivize MS from doing something like the 3-4 multi-mission scenarios for civs missing them that people were expecting this time.

if anything the reaction here should show them that this is what we expected and want, instead of this dumbster fire, so should be more incentivized

[Velk413]

@TwerDefender

dumbster

I know you meant dumpster, but ngl I kinda like dumbster; adds another layer to it lol

[TwerDefender]

I’ll just claim that was intentional

[TommoChocolate]

@Velk413

I do hope this reaction doesn’t disincentivize MS from doing something like the 3-4 multi-mission scenarios for civs missing them that people were expecting this time.

I don’t see why it would. If anything, it should do the opposite.

EDIT: replied and then immediately saw that @TwerDefender said basically the same thing, but in a funnier way.

[SirWiedreich]

@Velk413

I’ve seen much less negativity elsewhere as well;

Yeah, sometimes I’m annoyed with what I consider the blind positivity and undiscerning consumerism on Reddit, but it’s not all bad.

I have a friend who’s an AoE2 fan, but not very online, and he regarded this controversy as a nothingburger when I told him about it. From his perspective, the communication problem was resolved before he ever heard about it, and the DLC will have 18 new or reworked scenarios he’s never played before (he played one of Philly’s Viking scenarios before). He thinks it’s a bit odd to break with the pattern of adding a civ or two, but apart from that likes the idea of a Single Player DLC.

I mention this not to invalidate the feelings of those who are upset about the situation, but to offer a perspective that we’re mostly not getting here, but is probably pretty common among more casual players and those who are generally less “plugged in.” Yeah, I wish the devs listened to us more here because we’re more involved and passionate, but at the end of the day it seems that money talks louder than anything we can say on the forum. So by all means boycott this DLC if you feel so inclined, but I don’t know that the average player is going to be very concerned about the initial “campaign” misnomer or the fact that buggier and less polished versions of some of the incoming DLC content already exist. But we’ll see how it goes.

@TwerDefender

if anything the reaction here should show them that this is what we expected and want, instead of this dumbster fier, so should be more incentivized

IMO it’s debatable which signal devs will pick up. If this DLC does poorly, their takeaway may well be that “people don’t want Single Player content DLCs,” rather than the bits about communication, campaigns, and all-new content. But I hope to be mistaken.

[Quasibrodo]

@SirWiedreich

I have a friend who’s an AoE2 fan, but not very online, and he regarded this controversy as a nothingburger when I told him about it. From his perspective, the communication problem was resolved before he ever heard about it

without one iota of sarcasm I find this extremely insightful. I do still think it matters, and what MS did was wrong, but I genuinely appreciate you having your ear to the ground and reporting back stuff like this. THX.

[culgil1014]

Interesting new DLC concept. Years ago, I explicitely suggested such a DLC because there are many great fan-made scenarios of high quality, parallel to official campaigns.
So I am happy for Ramsey who totally deserves his own DLC! He created so many high-quality scenarios (also official campaigns) and pioneered new mechanics.

The price is definitely too high, though. Mountain Royals’ regular price of 15 euros also is too high, but it includes 2 new civs and the missions cannot be played via mods. Even considering that Ramsey’s scenarios are huge maps where you spend much more time for each (or may replay them with a different approach), it’s a mismatch. Plus, I still have older campaigns to play, so I just wait until its down to around 5 bucks (The price of TMR is already halved)
I also hope Ramsey gets a fair share of the revenue, as he created these scenarios in his own time, if I understand it correctly. So MS should not charge high prices for his work or let him profit from it substantially.

By the way, they could also include the Aegidius campaign into the game as a part of RoR (free for owners of this DLC), which was criticized for good reason. Thus, Romans would also have a campaign.

[Mahazona]

If this one is a success maybe in future they will make other good scenarios mods official content.Is it a good thing or not is up for debate.

[AlphaCreator727]

@MatM1996

What is the allergy that the devs have with the 6th and 7th century?..

Which big names are on those centuries?