Hill bonus is a HUGE strategic factor. I like it in AoE2, and I am upset that it’s not in AoE4.
Add this as #2 Horrible Decisions, right after #1 No Hotkey customization…
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It’s lack of existence in AoE3 is pretty questionable, though, isn’t it? Why remove it? Maybe for elite/pro gamers it’s no good or fun(?), but as a casual player, I enjoyed learning that it was even a thing in the first place, and then keeping it in mind during skirmishes/battles or castle/tower placements on occasion over the years. (Especially castle placement.)
For AoE4, the only thing I can think of is that the maps are so hilly, with high hills, and the maps fairly small. Every battle/skirmish will have some units getting OP’d by the height advantage
I would like to ask if they will add crew, better destruction animations and bigger cannon balls to siege weapons? and ragdoll animations
I hope they add in hill/height bonus…maybe in an xpac or dlc.
That’s classic strategy…just ask obi-wan
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The answer to the 2 question are clearely no.
What you have played in open beta is prety much the game.
Don’t worry about hill, they are doing their best to let you play on a plain field, whit no feature.
This is their answer to the zoom out problem players talked about.
No more montain figth on short cliff edge, where you are not able to zoom out.
I still think they can implement/rework bonuses around hills post-launch. Certain maps that deal with hills would otherwise be meh. It doesn’t even have to be bonus attack - slower movement speed going up or something along those lines to give some reason for people to care about the high ground.
It’s really a fun part of the strategy and holding a position. I also don’t think hills would be as bad as AoE2 because bad hill generation around your TC in AoE2 could actually be game changing based on Archer/Mangonel micro. Since a lot of those elements aren’t in AoE4, I suspect small hill bonuses wouldn’t be too detrimental. Heck, worst case they could avoid hills around the starting TC to give some breathing room as a worst case scenarios. There are ways to work around this. 
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Fun fact, castles were built in front of each other in history lol especially during the 100 years war.
At the siege of La Rochelle, the french king surrounded the city with like 5 or 6 military forts that took months to build lol
Not super useful to this discussion, but I always found it fascinating that these fortifications were built in the face of opponents without intervention
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Hill bonus is there you get more LOS and on walls archers get reduced damage and more range. AOE 2 mechanic of Hill bonus is just illogical, all of a sudden hill makes the person do more damage? How does that even work? In fact there is a higher change your arrows will miss if you are on a hill.
AOE 4 bonus makes more sense.
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Couldn’t they make it so that hill could slightly affect the speed of units?
Like for example units getting a 10%speed penalty when going up hill?
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Its actually a pretty well established fact that an army fighting downhill has a significant advantage over an army fighting uphill in reality, especially in kinetic situations like hand to hand combat.
I don’t know if I mind the mechanic being removed or not really, but it is actually pretty realistic. I think it would make more sense if the lower units lost damage instead of the other way around, but really its all the same either way.
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Archer on wall keep their maximum attack range, whit no extra range bonus, because of our planet gravity, that pull objects down.
The closer is a enemy, the more piercing a arrow do to his target, because of the atmosphere friction, that slow down arrow the more it travel, to match the gravity pull of our planet.
The enemy need to be very close to wall, to fire arrows on units that are on the wall, because of the balistique of the arrows.
Also, the closer an archer is to the wall, the less angle he has to fire at the enemy, because of balistique of arrows. it allow archer on wall, to have extra protection behind the wall stone and are only exposed to attack when the archers are firering from the arrows slit, on the wall.
In real world the damage values don’t increase magically when on hill, they are able to because the uphill people need to climb and takes times. Vision makes much more sense, than actually changing the damage values, troops in AEO 4 slows down uphill, but no movement bonus down hill.
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It wasn’t in AoM and that was fine. so when it wasn’t in AoE3, I don’t recall issues. Then when it wasn’t in AoEO that was fine too. I get that AoE2 players expect it.
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I’m willing to sacrifice the high ground damage bonus in order to have the random map generator, which helps to avoid getting bored of playing maps that aren’t random generated. We will still have the LOS advantage, which is pretty useful.
The ranged/melee switch for ranged units seems to be removed as well. They just keep removing stuff lol.
I wasn’t even aware of the fact that Zero Empires was an actual Designer for the gamer. Now I’m super concerned.
??? thats because “damage values” don’t exist in real life, but in real life, the guy with a height advantage is more likely to win the fight. The reason a fighter on top of a hill has an advantage over a fighter lower on the hill is several reasons, first is kinetic energy, they get to add gravity to their force on the opponent. Second is a height advantage, which is incredibly helpful in sword fights for reaching over shields and things, see Gauls (naturally taller) vs Rome. Finally, there’s the exhaustion factor of walking/running/fighting up a hill.
In fact, one of the battles represented in Age of Empires 4 is the battle of Hastings, during which one of the main advantages for the Saxons was that they were atop a hill, which caused issues for the cavalry and the archers of the Normans.
"On accessible terrain,
He who occupies high Yang ground
And ensures his line of supplies
Will fight to advantage.
On precipitous terrain,
If we occupy it first,
We should hold the Yang heights and wait for the enemy.
If the enemy occupies it first, do not go after him,
But entice him out by retreating."
- Sun Tzu, Art of war
I don’t really have any preference for the mechanic in Age 4 either way, but I don’t understand the argument that it’s “unrealistic” when it’s been a fact of war for a very very long time.
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Is he? I thought he was just on their balance team.
aoe2 have both. U can select there to generate hills on the map
What sacrifice u should make if there is option to have both
Did they? Or u want to believe?
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Another thread, another ask for AoE IV to have AoE II mechanics, sigh …
Anyway, I understand that having so much orography in AoE IV it’s expected to have some impact on the game, like Altair.
What I see differently in AoE IV hills to those of AoE II, is that these hills more often than not are surrounded by cliffs which you almost never see in AoE II. This alone makes for better positioning strategies with a lot of choke points, where you can put your archers and defend them more easily with spearmen for example, heck even the tutorial teaches you that now that I remember.
So yeah, I don’t think they don’t give absolutely anything to the game as AoE II fans want we to see it.
As other users pointed it out, this bonus wasn’t used in any AoE after AoE II, so once again (and again and again and again…) It’s just you asking for AoE IV to be AoE II remake. Please try to leave your AoE II fan bias at the door before analyzing how things work in AoE IV.
On the stream he is listed as a “Game Designer”