AoE4 got an graphic update since the Fan Preview.
E3 2021 Trailer
Some of this issues had be addressed to some degree:
- Arrows
- Weapon sizes
- Unit scale
- Animations
- Unit textures
- User interface unit stats
- User interface icons
Some options have already been confirmed:
- Saturation
- Player colours
What is your opinion on the visuals of AoE4 on the videos and screenshots released during E3 compared to what we saw on the Fan preview?
- I liked it before and I like it now
- I didn’t like it before but I like it now
- I still don’t like it but they can fix it
- they have to completely redo the visuals for me to like it
Which recent Age of Empires game is the best looking in your opinion?
- AoE1DE
- AoE2DE
- AoE3DE
- AoE4
This is not a question about which on is your favourite game or which one is the most fun to play.
Please take a look at screenshots of the games you haven’t played yet before just choosing the only one you play.
Steam pages of all Definitive Editions and Age of Empires 4:
Age of Empires
Age of Empires II
Age of Empires III
Age of Empires IV
Specific aspects
Buildings, Architecture and Town Decals
- Beautiful
- Good
- Decent
- Bad
- Awful
Landscape and Environment
- Beautiful
- Good
- Decent
- Bad
- Awful
Land Units
- Beautiful
- Good
- Decent
- Bad
- Awful
Ships and Water
- Beautiful
- Good
- Decent
- Bad
- Awful
Harmony between those aspects
- Beautiful
- Good
- Decent
- Bad
- Awful
User Interface
- Beautiful
- Good
- Decent
- Bad
- Awful
When did Age of Empires 4 look the best
9 Likes
I liked it before but understood the criticism in scales especially of arrows. Now thats fixed, I like it even more. Only the unit models could do with a bit of an upgrade, bt I assume that will be the case on release.
10 Likes
I wonder if people really thing AoE2DE is the best looking or if they just don’t play AoE1/3DE and didn’t even bother looking how they look like.
I personally thing AoE1DE is the better looking 2D AoE.
13 Likes
Really some people think that AoE4 is the best looking??? Ok, i understand that could be your favourite but… the best looking???
2 Likes
For me it’s close between AoE3DE and AoE4.
Problems with AoE1DE
- Scale of units and buildings is very off
- Some units have strange proportions like elephants
- Units look identical for all civilisations and often don’t fit in
- 2D looks bad on big monitors
Problems with AoE2DE
- Lower quality sprites compared to AoE1DE (half as many rotation angles)
- Generic units often don’t fit in
- Buildings have strange portions or look incomplete
- Rooms in most buildings look super small because doors are scaled compared to units
- Some buildings, especially wonders are only a part of the real building (Wonder of the Franks for example)
- ships more and clip in ugly ways
- 2D looks bad on big monitors
Problems with AoE3DE:
- Buildings have similar issues than AoE2DE buildings
- Generic units sometimes don’t fit in (Ottoman Hussars)
- Shared architecture sets don’t fit (Shared Russian, German and Swedish Architecture can’t fit all of them)
Problems with AoE4:
- Some units don’t look as good as AoE3DE units
- Water apparently doesn’t look as good as AoE3DE
But I like AoE4 more overall.
The buildings look much better for most Civilisations.
The overall environment look beautiful.
The dynamic decals and road placement is something that no other AoE game has and it looks so good.
In the other games you need to use the scenario editor to make a town really look like a town and not just some buildings placed on dirty grass.
AoE4 random match towns look better than most AoE1-3DE towns placed in the scenario editor.
9 Likes
i am really weirded by the fact they are returning to non-manned siege equipment, like you improved the walls to have people on them and then you for some reason haven’t added artillery crews.
like what year are we in? 2003?
3 Likes
But if that’s true than people can’t argue that AoE2DE looks better.
I think manned siege looks better and I like the way AoE3 did it.
AoE3 also cheats a bit. A real cannon would have a lot bigger crew.
Like a horse artillery would need like 8 horses and the heavy cannons too.
Than than the horses just disappear when switching to bombard mode.
But that’s ok it’s a compromise.
I’d prefer it if AoE4 would have done the same.
Their compromise is the golden silents that operate the siege weapons but completely disappear when they are idle.
3 Likes
i think it is fine not to have the correct sized crew for gameplay reasons, but just having a couple of guys aiming, unlimbering and reloading cannons adds a lot to the model i think, and similarly having a horse pull does as well.
1 Like
@Jonasnee8581 @Skadidesu
You can go here and ask for the existing big topics about siege engines to get merged into a larger one so that we can finally discuss everything in a single big place about them.
It should at least get noticed that a significant portion of people liked this change that aoe3 introduced very much.
https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/can-we-merge-and-pin-the-topics-about-scale/134795/4?u=lostcord3
AoE4 could seens so more beautifull… but when you see images like that, it seens like that something is wrong.
Proportions are vital for something to look beautiful. If they do not exist, you can already have good graphics that will look bad.
8 Likes
I mean to me playing Age of Empires was always like a digital way of playing with action figures. It is a somewhat integral part to me that the proportions aren’t realistic. So I think it looks actually beautiful and a lot like it felt when I was playing as a child on the carpet in my room.
I don’t like the idea that other people have that the game should become some sort of medieval simulation because that is not what the game is and never was to me.
3 Likes
Each person has their own way of perceiving the game. For some of they, these details do not matter to them and others cannot accept them.
3 Likes
Not even mentioning the choice of colors… That green hurts my soul lol.
1 Like
Likely it will be customizable like in AoE3 DE
1 Like
Nope, still looks like a second rate mobile game. Hopeless.
3 Likes
im one of the guys who isn’t bothered that much by the graphics of aoe4 and i’m trying to not enter to the graphics discussions, but oh my god when i saw the water and the ships i was disgusted by it
im wondering how can anyone consider aoe4’s water and ships decent or good when the most recent installment of the game (aoe3de) has such a high quality version of water and ships?
i can deal with other parts of the graphics in aoe4, but i really REALLY hope they redo the water and ships, it just looks so weird and outdated
it’s one thing to have a different artstyle and altho i generally don’t like it i can understand and respect the choice, but it’s a completely different thing to have something look objectively bad compared to the previous version(s) of the game
7 Likes
Please, tell me which mobile game looks like this, I can’t wait to play it!
7 Likes
Come on bro, just give me a name of mobile game like this, can you?
2 Likes
In AOE3DE (even in old AOE3) the jungle in the Act 1 Blood campaign or Yucatan map looks beautiful. Same for the forests and clearings in e. g. Act 2 mission 1 or New England map. So far the terrain and the forests look dead to me in AOE4. Water also.
(Building size bad too, crews missing on siege and ships, but I have said those on other pages.)
This is a really interesting topic huh,
I would prefer not to have manned crews I think, but that may be because artillery in Aoe3 felt so clunky and hard to use compared to aoe2.
Interestingly, aoe2 has a manned artillery piece, the bombard cannon. I suspect that getting the animation to a level that works well in 3D is just a bit too tricky without sacrificing gameplay? I know siege units fire far faster in the game compared to real life, it may be that to animate something realistic for a trebuchet being manned would just look ridiculous no matter how you slice it, so its easier, clearer, and just better to leave it out. Regardless, having non-manned artillery is certainly a easy mental concession we all make when playing many of the age games. I personally don’t notice the lack of people manning things in aoe2, and am often surprised by how much people really care for and want people manning the siege weapons.
It is interesting to merely note how divided on this issue many people are, with many people demanding artillery crews and people on boats as a must-have, and many others being completely apathetic to it.
1 Like
