How should the devs determine how to pick/group new civilizations (please see discussion below before voting)?
- Preferably distinct civilizations (e.g the Scots, the Irish, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Crown of Castile, etc)
- Preferably grouped regions/time periods (e.g. the Gaels, the Norsemen, the Spanish, etc.)
- Group regions, but allow for transitions during game play into different civilizations/time periods by building different landmarks like they did with the Chinese and the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties (e.g. a “Spanish” civilization could start out as Visigoths, than the Moors in the Feudal age, and then move to either the Crown of Castile or Crown of Aragon in the Castle Age depending on which landmark they go up with and then finally the Spanish Empire in the Imperial Age. Use your imagination on how they could age up into this region of the world’s distinct civilizations/time periods with unique technologies, buildings and units.
0 voters
I wanted to create this thread not necessarily to discuss which civilizations should be included post-launch in the game, but how the devs should determine which civs to pick. There is another recent thread linked below to suggest actual civs. Feel free to discuss specific examples of course and pick a region and suggest why it should be grouped or divided into different civs. Here are a few points for discussion:
- Should the devs include mostly/only civilizations that considered themselves distinct from other closely related peoples or should the devs group civilizations together under the name of their region? For example, we could have civilizations like the Danes, Norwegians and Swedes or we could have one civ called the “Norsemen” (I would prefer not Vikings personally). Or should we have the Spanish or the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon and Visigoths? The Gaels or the Scots and Irish? A few points:
- The less grouping we do, the fewer civs would make it into the game. We would have to pick between either the Scots or Irish or we would end up with a thousand civs.
- Grouping civilizations would allow for more assimilation of technologies, units, etc to create a more interesting comprehensive in-game civ
*Grouping civilizations is less accurate. Spain didn’t exist until 1479. Italy didn’t exist until the 1800’s!
*Grouping civilizations would generally be more in line with modern identity that players could identify with.
*You would have to ask people from Spain if they would rather have the Spanish or an individual kingdom in the game. Devs could make polls to see what the community wants in regard to these decisions (e.g. vote for either a Spanish or Crown/Kingdom of Castile civ)
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The devs could also name the ages/buildings after distinct civilizations/time periods/landmarks much like they did with the Chinese (i.e. Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties). For example, Spain could have the ages: the Visigoths, the Moors, the Kingdom of Castile and the Spanish Empire. I think this is the best solution by far whenever possible. It allows for the unique identities and technologies/units of each civilization to be flushed out while also giving a cohesive identity for the civilization as a whole for modern players. It would be much more educational/historically interesting for sure and your civ would change throughout the ages!
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What time period should we be focusing on when choosing civs? The Dark Ages started around 500 CE with the fall of the Roman Empire. The hand cannon and bombard cannon started to become replaced by more modern firearms technologies like match locks, wheel locks, snap locks, flintlocks and eventually percussion caps around 1500. The Renaissance died out around 1600. It seems to me based on this information and the civs included thus far (and in AoE II) that the time period we’re looking at is approximately 500 CE - 1500/1600 CE. There are some interesting videos on YouTube which will show you how political maps of regions of the world over time changed such as here and here.
General civ suggestion forum: Which civs would you like to see added first in DLC?
(there are older threads than this but they don’t take into consideration the context of the game’s current state post-release)