As the title says, these are the features that I would like the developers to take into account for future updates,
I hope we can see them in the future!
We will start strong, so fasten your damn belts, this is the completely polished and renewed Interface that I would like them to update, with not only a better organization, but also new features, such as:
Map Size: Give us the possibility to choose the size of the map, whether normal, large or gigantic, without depending on the XL maps, as does AoE 1, 2 and M.
Day/Night Cycle: with different periods to select, either 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes or 120 minutes.
Reveal Map: To be able to choose if we want a map with war fog, explored or completely visible in real time, without the need to depend on Deathmatch.
Shipments: The possibility of choosing whether or not we want the shipments to be enabled on this map, games without decks, somewhat slower and in the classic AoE style.
Shared Exploration: It does not matter if it is your ally or enemy, you will have to build a market to share the exploration with your ally.
Seed: I did not include it in the concept, but I suppose that more advanced users will know what this is for, a set of random numbers that generate a variant of a random map, if we copy a seed already used and introduce it, it will generate exactly the same same map identically (I think for maps like âThe Unknownâ this would come in handy).
More Custom Player Colors: Being able to choose more than 8 custom player colors, without having to modify the existing 8 in accessibility and replace it, I think that extending it to 12-14 would be a good number!
A new Map selection interface inspired by those of AoE 2 DE and AoM, with the chance to see all the minimaps and choose more comfortably which one we want for this game, without having to search a list, select it and see if Like or dislike the map according to its preview, the best thing would be to have all the previews at the same time, also with filters either by regions, biomes, etc.
Arrange the order of the decks: The second feature would be to be able to order and move the decks to our liking, for greater comfort according to our priority.
Reset Camera Button: A button with the letter âRâ for Reset, which when clicked will allow us to reset the distance and rotation of the camera to its default version.
Inverted Definitive HUD: A fourth and new HUD, it is a mix between the classic interface and the definitive one, where the build panel and the minimap prevail in its classic version, while the resource bar in its definitive version, that is, in the top.
Tech Tree in HUD: Technology tree in the upper right panel, a form of direct access for those who want to view the technology tree in a faster way without having to access the menu first.
Animated Fog War: When I played the Closed Beta MP of AoE 3 DE when it was announced, I was surprised that we did not have animated war fog, being that we came to see this feature in its predecessor title, and later we would see it again in AoE IV according to its gameplays, I would love for an option to be added in the graphic configuration to enable it, I also made a concept of what it would look like and this was the result:
Fog of distance disabled: Option to remove the fog that is generated when the camera is zoomed out with the new Ludicrous Zoom feature. This does not happen in all maps, since it depends on some values ââadded in the gameâs .LGT files, it would be great to have an option in graphics settings to disable it, here is an example of the difference:
New cosmetics for civilizations that already have: It would be great for example to have a night version of the Home City of Spanish, among all the others that there are, I think that the skies and lighting can be exploited more.
Noddinagushpaâs New Arrangement for African Home Cities: It would be great if African civilizations have their own musical arrangement when you choose their home cities.
European Civs and United States = Noddinagushpa
Native Civs = Geldovamagushpa (The WarChiefs)
Asian Civs = Baktumagushpa (The Asian Dynasties)
African Civs = Noddinagushpa Again?? NO! (The African Royals)
Fix the bug causing the Civilization Jingle to fade when you start a skirmish: When you start a Skirmish, after 5 or 6 seconds the Jingle of the corresponding civilization disappears and begins to sound âHappy to youâ and the only way to hear it in full is to click the âRestartâ option so that the skirmish restarts and so on. the full jingle is heard.
Improve the visibility of the numbers of units grouped 1-9: Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them a little in moments of speed, I remember that when AoE 3 DE was launched the number of shipments from metropolis looked exactly the same, then after weeks it improved and it became better visibility, it would be a good idea to do the same with the numbers of the groups.
Villager Banner Transferred: Transfer the idle villager banner below the bar that indicates your age, AoM does something similar so as not to confuse these banners with those of the groups of units in quick moments, this place would be something more comfortable and close at the same time. In addition, it would be differentiated from other posters to avoid confusion. Adding also, that a banner was added to also find your explorer more quickly.
Well, with this I finish, I know, there are many things, but the main one that I would like to see would be the most advanced selection of maps, since that list is somewhat lazy hehe, I hope that several of these will be added in the future!
Map size: yeah I miss this feature so much. Itâs a simple but cruicial element for match customization.
Day-night cycle: I donât think engine is capable of any dynamic system like that. Too much investment into tech update imho. Looks great, but not a lot of practical impact, mostly cosmetics and mostly something that appears in sp games, especially survivals. Like it, but very small chance.
Map reveal: yeah I like that. Simple enough it shouldnât be a problem to implement. Simple 3 options are enough- normal/ revealed/ fully visible.
Stock civs w/o decks: never had a need for it, but itâs interesting. Also shouldnât be hard to include checkbox to disable cards.
Shared exploration: meh.
More player colors to chose from: yes yes yes. Iâd love to have more. Also sounds very simple.
Map selection like in 2DE: 100% needed feature. With African expansion map list is quite long and itâs annoying to browse. Best feature on the list.
Deck order: personally I have no need, but why not.
Camera reset: yeah itâs quite common in these games. Should be implemented. Very small and simple but useful and many people will be grateful.
New HUD layout: I like current ones, but sure why not.
Tech tree button: personally no need but seems both simple and useful for new players.
Improved fog: anything that will make game look more fancy- yeah sure.
I donât want to resort to Deathmatch or a cheat code to reveal a map at the start of the game. I agree with all the suggestions here. Please devs look on to this! We love AoE 3 DE
Just to add, if possible we can add âseasonsâ or âbiomesâ to the Map settings as well. Like a rainy weather or a winter version of Korea map, etc.
@Soldeo Yes, the biomes I have come to consider, but I think it would be a higher priority for the maps of AoE 2 DE, sometimes it is annoying when you want to play map âXâ and you have the biome or climate that you do not want hehe, I personally like to play âBoglandâ a lot in autumn and when I get another version I generate the map again until I get autumn
The problem with biomes is that AoE III map design doesnât fit that. Maps in that game are a specific, defined real world regions. Even seasons would often hardly make a difference, especially for regions around the tropics. How would winter in Amazonia look like? Snow on palm trees I mean I like Crysis butâŠ
Still, probably not impossible. Biomes- much less. Interesting, but a lot of work with little in return. Much better to just make more new maps. It makes sense for map types in II or IV, but in III⊠Having taiga Texas? Desert New England? Idk.
Lots of good ideas here. Providing visuals help so much, especially when looking at how superior the map selection is than the one we have now. More players colors would be cool. I canât tell you how many times I restore to default settings after altering the colors.
The day/night cycle is cool but not needed imo. Iâm indifferent on map sizes. The devs have acknowledged we want deck arranging.
The climate will already be determined by the type of ecosystem or region. If the map is snowy, snow will fall, if it is a jungle, rain will fall.
Snow in the Amazon or Yucatan is the end of the world.
Exactly, that is why I have doubted it for AoE 3, but there are few maps that are generated with different seasons or biomes, and that option could be added for maps like Great Lakes or Araucania
In fact this function would be better in AOE-3, than in AOE-4 (Unfortunately). Because even the base game of AOE-3 is more diverse in fauna and flora than in AOE-4.
Well nothing is preventing devs from making non-real world maps, like âhillsâ, âcoastlineâ, âriversâ etc. That would enable potential inclusion of all mentioned systems. But at the same time it might be confusing for new players: some maps would have these options, most would notâŠ
But Iâd like to see heavy random map generation like in AoE2. Not sure if engine of 3DE can do that. Would be interesting. All maps are pretty and interesting but in the long run some of them are a bit less exciting than abstracts maps known from AoE2 and many other RTS games. At the same time I think real-world maps are super cool and very unique and there is a lot of interestign locations that can be turned into AoE3 maps
Good list. Better map select UI is probably the most important one as you say.
Actually, I would claim this one is quite easy to implement. The engine already supports day/night cycle in custom Scenarios and maps using triggers, also this very same option was added to AoM in its remaster (on the same engine).
Yeah, adding a day night shouldnât be that difficult, maybe in a certain part if because each map uses a different lighting with different values of the post-processed effects, and that would make each RM have to have a different DN, since they would be like 7 illuminations .LGT by .XS, but the easiest without complications would be A Generic DayNight Cycle that is the same for all maps, it should be easy, as you said, it was added in AoMEE by Skybox Labs, I do not see any problem in which it is add to AoE 3 DE.
I like every option but shared exploration, I dont see any reason for that really.
About no decks mode I was thinking about it some days ago too hahaha. It could be attractive for AoE2 players that dont like crates or units shipmens. Obvious some fixes ared needed for this mode:
-Spanish (obvious reason): Gets 300res each time a shipment would be earned in normal matches, being more in later ages.
-Germans: they have a counter of uhlans that can be trained free on stables, each shipment add more uhlans to this counter as normal matches do.
-Dutch get +3 banks limit on imperial. No tulip speculation.
-Indians: Same as Spain but villagers (1each time of course. Get wood trickles aging up.
-Europeans: Get a factory wagon with the 2 first âshipmentsâ on industrial age.
-Native Americans and Russia get infantry train cards automatically aging up. (They have limited barracks)
-Asians get extensive fortificatios in order to train art by easier way.
-Japan: Torii gates gives them export by killing units maybe??
Add new cosmetics for home cities especially more climates and periods of the day, be it night, twilight, afternoon or dawn, even rain why not?. A Spanish home cities in its night version would be great!
Noddinagushpaâs New Arrangement for African civs.
Fix the bug causing the Civilization Jingle to fade when you start a skirmish.
I was expecting something better: Researching/Creating times, friendlist showing who is online, elo of your opponent on loading screen, legacy ranksâŠ
The only point I agree is the option to order decks.
This is the maximum size possible in the scenario editor. It is quite large, but I would like it to be able to make maps up to 2000 X 2000.
Can it be made bigger with modifications?
They really need to improve how you can interact with your friends. Right now you canât even see who is online. That should be a minimum. The chat should also be more easily accessible, not hidden away behind 2 layers of UI.
All of this wouldnât be needed if we could contact other players through steam by clicking on their AoE3 profile. That would make it so much easier to make and interact with friends which is crucial if they want the community to thrive.
Good job with that list. Almost all are good, but I donât believe much at night/day cicle because visibility, but just my humble opinion.
My top suggestion would be deck rearrangement.
Good point on rescueing the musical themes of the expansions.
My itching point would be giving proper icons to some revolutionary units that hadnât (Comanchero variants, Grenzers, etc.), specially when you can see that some artist is still working on the game having new portraits for challenges and the redesign that has been done recently to some units.
I mean I like Crysis butâŠ
