I think, it could be a nice challenging twist, if there would be an option that civ. and mil. units have a limited life span and vanish after (e. g. 15 real-time minutes). Maybe, this life span could be increased by inventing medicine or alike.
Imo, an optional setting like this may be disruptive to common player strategies and thus an enrichment of the gameplay. Maybe something for further releases (or mods)…
A weird idea or something to think about? What do you think?
Sounds like an unnecessary change that would be pretty annoying and needlessly push the game further away from all other Age games.
This would be a fun game mode in all Age games tbh 
Not necessarily a default option or anything, but just a fun idea for casual games, although I think this feels like something more for modder community than for dev team
I don´t think it would have place in ranked or even singleplayer (It would only bother the player and time condition win is better).
Maybe a infinite resource game but every building or unit dies after 2 minutes. Would make an interesting APM battle.
I really like this kind of open discussion!
The strategic implication of that thought (and that’s just what it is) would be, that e. g. town centers die out while you are proceeding to your enemies land. Further, building up huge armies in advance won’t work - thus, you have to build up structures while proceeding.
I’m not sure, if this pushes the game too much away from the other games. For sure, this should be just an optional option.
I won’t say it can’t work, but on the surface, I don’t think I’d want this. It’s nice that tech researches in AoE2 are permanent.
I know it’s not the same, but it reminds me of hero units in RTS games where when they’re alive they provide a bonus to units around them. (I think Rise of Nations and Age of Mythology had hero-like units, if I’m not mistaken.) That benefit is temporary because once the hero dies, their benefit goes away. (I don’t like the hero mechanic, in general, to be honest… as AoE is more fun to me to have all unit types equal to each other so you’re not having to micro one specific ‘special’ unit.) There’s something about that temporary/non-permanent mechanic that I don’t care for with heroes, and in a roundabout way, having a similar artificial temporary boost to your military (or even econ) from a vaccine, steroid, hallucinogenic, etc. – or even just units that all the sudden up and die after, say, 15 minutes – just doesn’t sound too fun to me and a little gamey. (Akin to stamina in FPS and RPG games.)
I could see it maybe working for one civ, like Vikings (because I’ve heard they maybe drank hallucinogenic herbal tea before battles? – unless this is already in the AoE2:DE game)… but aside from that, I don’t see it as a good thing for AoE. With the Viking example, would there then be a cool-down period to worry about before re-using it? Do they only get to use it once per match?
I’m sorry, I just realized this is an AoEIV area not AoE2:DE. Either way, I’m not too big of fan 
But what you describe with buildings sounds neat. Regardless, isn’t what you just described how the Mongols will be in AoEIV? Where they’re more of a nomadic civ like that. Is that right, and did you hear about that already? If so, I guess I misinterpreted this last statement. I do look forward to trying the Mongols civ
Hi, Darkness01101,
No, I did not hear about something like this.
Yup! I am talking about AoE IV. However, as they have chosen almost the same historical time period for four as to two I would appreciate this option for a strategical twist - as this might force settled players to think in new ways.
But maybe @anon45959656 is right, that this idea is one for modders and less for the devs.
Let us see, to where this discussion leads us.
BTW: my hart still beats for AoE II as I could not get warm for III. Call me vintage, but I even love to play my original II CD* (with WINE via PoL on Linux, though) - but this is off topic for this discourse…
I’m looking forward to AoE IV!
*)For the younger ones: CD or CD-ROM was the predecessor of DVD which was the predecessor of steam or alike 