[poll] What do you want to see in Age of Empires 5?

Off-Topic Forum
1

If they make an AoE5, what do you want to see in it?

Time Period

  • Antiquity (AoE1, AoM, AoEO, Chronicles)
  • Middle Ages (AoE2, AoE4)
  • Early Modern (AoE3)
  • Modern (none)
  • Future (Halo Wars)
0 voters

Yes I know Halo Wars is not really officially part of the AoE series but it was made by Ensamble Studios.

What part of Antiquity?
  • Bronze Age (before 1000 BC)
  • Classical Antiquity 1000 BC - 500 AD
  • All of Antiquity (everything before 500 AD)
  • No Antiquity
0 voters

AoE1, AoM and AoEO cover most of antiquity with both Bronze and Iron Age civilisations.
Chronicles only covers Classical Antiquity.

What part of the Middle Ages
  • Dark Age (500-1000 AD)
  • High Middle Ages (1000-1500 AD)
  • All of the Middle Ages (500-1500 AD)
  • No Middle Ages
0 voters

AoE2 covers all of the Middle Ages but is more focused on the later parts.
AoE4 clearly focuses on the High Middle Ages with little to no Dark Age content.

What part of Early Modern History
  • Exploration Age (1500-1700 AD)
  • Revolutionary Age (1700-1820 AD)
  • All of Early Modern History (1500-1820 AD)
  • No Early Modern History
0 voters

AoE3 covers all of early modern History and even goes into the Industrial Age.

What part of the Modern Age
  • Industrial Age (1820-1920 AD)
  • Atomic Age (1920-2020 AD)
  • All of Modern History (1820-2020 AD)
  • No modern History
0 voters

AoE3 covers the Industrial Age on paper but in practice the game play is more Early Modern.

What part of the Future?
  • Near Future (2020-2120 AD)
  • Far Future (2120 AD or later)
  • All of Future
  • No Future
0 voters

Halo Wars is probably what AoE5 once was supposed to be (after a Modern Age AoE4). Though the game has a reduces strategical depth because it was made for console first.

Economy

Resources
  • Food, Wood, Gold and Stone (AoE1, AoE2, AoE4)
  • Food, Wood, Gold and something different (AoM, AoE3)
  • Less then 4 resources (Starcraft and Warcraft)
  • More then 4 resources (Empire Earth)
0 voters

AoM and AoE3 replaced Stone with a less physical resource with favour and XP. AoE3 also has a few civilisations with unique resources (Export and Influence).

Warcraft and Starcraft both only have 2 resources.

Empire Earth was made by former AoE1 devs and added Iron as a 5th resource. A reasonable and interesting addition.
Empires Earth 2 added more resources that changed between the Ages making things a little more complicated.

Trade
  • Only with allies (AoE1, AoE2)
  • Neutral markets exist (AoE4)
  • Self trade possible (AoM)
  • Other trade mechanics (AoE3)
0 voters

In AoE2 trade just doesn’t exist in a 1v1 while in AoE4 it depends on the map.
In AoM you can trade with yourself but you only get half as much Gold.
AoE3 has a completely different trading system that pretty much just gives you a fixed trickle of resources.

Civilisation differences

  • Very symmetric civilisations (more then AoE2)
  • Semi symmetric civilisations (AoE2)
  • Hybrid (AoE4, AoE3 European civs)
  • Asymmetric (AoM, AoE3 none European civs)
  • Very asymmetric (more then AoM, like Stracraft or Warcraft)
0 voters

AoE2 has relatively similar civilisations with most civilisations having access to the same core units (Crossbows, Knights, Cavalry Archers, Light Cavalry, etc.) or in some cases even all civilisations (Long Swordsman, Mangonel, Scorpion, Spearman, Skirmisher, etc.).
AoE4 has the core units being shared between civs but unique units often replace them so much so that there is almost no unit available to all civilisations despite the game having a lot less civilisations then AoE2.
In AoE3 the European civs have a very similar tech tree with each civ having some unique units replacing some generic units (besides the French). The none European civs have a lot more unique tech tree including different buildings and technologies.
AoM is the most diverse with not even the villagers being generic units and only half of the buildings being shared between civs.

Game Speed

  • Very Slow (slower then AoE2)
  • Slow (AoE2)
  • Medium (AoE4)
  • Fast (AoM, AoE3)
  • Very Fast (Starcraft 2)
0 voters

Mostly about how long it takes until the first action and how defensive you can play.
It takes longer to reach the 2nd Age in AoE2 compared to most other games in the series. AoE3 has home city cards that make it easy to get your first military units as soon as you reach the 2nd Age. AoM just has high resource collection rates and fast villager train time.
This is also kinda related to Stone being a resource. Allowing strong defences without making games last forever.

Should I add more polls?

I thought about more polls like Home City Cards, what kinda units should exist or other special game mechanics.
But those would be too specific I think. Also heavily depends on the time period and other factors. Most other questions here are mostly time independent.

2 Likes
2

Personally i’d love to see an AoE5 and AoE6 from that released image years ago. But AoE5 would be what was goign to be AoE4 in the industrial and modern times, and AoE6 the future.

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I’ll say Chronicles can easily be AoEV. It needs to be separated from AoEII and more contents need to be added.

4

We all know how to play AoE by now. The 4-age advancement system is a little tired and trite by now (i.e., Dark → Feudal → Castle → Imperial). I would like a much heavier focus on single player skirmishes that take longer to win, perhaps multiple sessions. Civilization games suck the hours away while you play. Similarly, I think AoE shouldn’t be so afraid of matches that might take hours and multiple sessions to finish. Not to the extent of Civilization. I just think I’m a little tired of AoE feeling like a fairly superficial gameplay experience lacking depth

To achieve this, I want more ages to go through, going from Neanderthals where you have to invent fire and the wheel, and survive weather events (cave shelters) and more at the mercy of animal predators, and go up thru AoE2’s timeframe. This all means more technologies to research, more tech paths to take (some paths should be forks in the road so you can’t research the other fork), and so on. Maybe more econ focus in some parts of the game, too

Just an overall deeper gaming experience, with ‘very good’ graphics and animations (not mediocre ones), as well

If this needs to be called Age of Civilizations due to fear of change from diehard fans, then so be it

Join me in buying this new DLC. AoE2 is going to do very well soon
5

I’m kinda surprised by some of the results of the polls.
Most results are currently looking like people want to have another AoE3. Not really surprising I since that’s the one game that just got abandoned.
We have 2 ancient games (AoM and Chronicles), 2 medieval games (AoE2 and AoE4) but no early modern game anymore.

You’re not the only one who wanted AoE4 to be a modern setting game instead of a (failed) AoE2 replacement.

I personally think it works well as part of AoE2DE. I’m looking forward to seeing where they are heading with it.

Would it still be AoE if it took hours to finish a match?

Neanderthals are a different species, they are not humans, lol.

You want to go from Stone Age all the way to modernity or even future in one game? Sounds like Empire Earth or Rise of Nations to me.

So you basically want a spin off like AoM? Sounds good to me.

I generally like the idea of having longer matches with a slower progression.
Not super slow though. Like I don’t want to have to fight lions to survive for an hour before starting to build my first settlement.

1 Like
6

Most of the answers are ‘I want it like Age 3’

7

Some thoughts that I had.

Time Period

Early Modern seems to be the best pic.
Antiquity is covered by AoMR and Chronicles that are both still getting updates.
Middle Ages is covered by AoE2 and AoE4 so it’s not surprising it got now votes yet.

I know there are always a few people talking about that one image showing AoE4 as WW2. But I feel like that doesn’t fit AoE that well and would not sell that well either.

Economy

Resources

The AoE3/AoM model is leading but I don’t think it would be the best choice.
Going for the traditional 4 resources is probably the safe option.
Making Stone a resource is in my opinion the best way to balance defence with offence. It allows fortifications to be strong because they are finite.
Artificial limitations like AoM and AoE3 have are unpopular for good reasons. They just don’t feel right and you can just infinitely replace buildings that get destroyed.

I also like Gold being more finite in AoE1/2/4 compared to AoE3. In AoE3 Coin is less valuable then Wood, which just feel so wrong.

Trade

Gold is too hard to get in 1v1 games in AoE2 but too easy to get in team games. I think the contrast is too big.

The easiest solution is adding neutral markets that you can trade with bit give less Gold then trading with an ally.
Also the trade mechanics itself should probably be changed. The current system that has everyone build markets at the edge of the map and then has a massive line of trade carts going back and forth extracting infinite Gold out of thin air is pretty goofy.

Civilisation differences

The AoE1/2 way of having a base techtree and then taking away some technologies never felt right to me. Having all those holes in the techtree feels wrong.
Also every civ always having all of the same base units with some unique ones sprinkled in is boring.

AoE3 and especially AoM reinvent the wheel a lot though. Like does it need to have 5 different Spearman with very similar but not identical stats?
AoE4 just gives everyone the same base units, gives them unique skins but then doesn’t shy from replacing some of the lines with unique units entirely.

The big thing I like about AoE2 though is regional units. Giving multiple civilisations from the same area a shared identity. Making them actually feel like they belong together.
AoE3 does that though shared mechanics but it feel kinda forced since it puts the civs into buckets instead of naturally having some sense of similarity.

Game speed

Most people voted for Fast but I don’t think that would be the best option. It’s always harder to get people to learn a new game when it’s fast.
AoE2 is more accessible because it doesn’t force you to make to many decisions very early on. I also think many people subconsciously like gradual ramp up in excitement that the game provides. AoM and AoE3 switch to aggression very quickly.

But starting with just 3 villagers and then having the lame train time from AoE2 kinda drags out a little too much. AoE4 might be the sweet spot.
Maybe just AoE2 speed but with 6 starting villagers (TC provide 10 population) for all civs while still having enough food to queue up some villagers (unlike Chinese in AoE2) would make the start quick enough.

8

I found this really old fanmade trailer in my old youtube favorites again. From 15 years ago.
We envisioned Age of Empires 4 in the ‘industrial age’ back than.

Enjoy

9

Age of Noob recently posted this video.

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Yes, I agree
 following the saga’s cycle chronologically, you have:

AoE 1: Ancient

AoE 2: Medieval

AoE 3: Early Modern

Then the saga restarts with AoE Online:

AoE Online: Ancient (spiritual sequel to AoE 1)

AoE 4: Medieval (spiritual sequel to AoE 2)

So AoE 5 should be Early Modern as a spiritual sequel to AoE 3
 and then AoE 6 and 7 take you to the 20th century and the future, respectively


It’s a shame there’s already a series with that name


Neanderthals are human, they’re just called Homo neanderthalensis and they had a “lower” intellect
 I even recently read about a science fiction novel called Neanderthal Parallax where scientists create a multiversal portal at the Ontario Observatory, which transports a Neanderthal scientist to our universe. He mentions that on his Earth, it was Homo sapiens who became extinct instead of the Neanderthals (due to a change in the magnetic field), and that in this modern Neanderthal society they have technology similar to ours with quantum computers, helicopters, cell phones, and solar energy (there is no global warming, so it’s a colder Earth). It’s also quite peaceful (there haven’t been wars for years, and in the last one, only a couple of Neanderthals died), communal (everyone consumes what they produce and the rest is distributed among their communities), and quite specialized (that is, each Neanderthal knows specific things in their field). those things they will dedicate their entire lives to, and the rest they simply discard), therefore neither philosophy nor art as we know them exists, perhaps music does
then in matters of politics, that world is divided into tribal states that are represented in a great world tribal council (which would be like the Neanderthal United Nations) and which total 185 million Neanderthals. Culturally and socially, punishments are paid with castration, environmentalism exists to protect the megafauna (woolly mammoth, glyptodonts and saber-toothed cats), dogs do not exist (only domesticated wolves) nor currency (only bartering), medicine is performed by robots without anesthesia (since they have been hunter-gatherers since childhood, they have no problem seeing blood and organs)
The language is simpler and when they insult, they only say “you are rotten meat”, since this is the interesting thing, they have no religion or taboos with sex (it’s not that they became atheists after abandoning religion, but (who never had a concept or any idea of ​​religion)
for them the concept of the Big Bang does not exist, and the universe has always existed, and the creationist concepts of Homo sapiens since prehistory were simply a misinterpretation of scientific evidence


Yes, it’s great that Empire Eternal exists as an “Empire Earth remake”


Empire Eternal en Steam

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Yes, the first game that appears in the video is Aggression: Reign over Europe from 2008 (it came out on Steam in 2007 as Aggression: Europe under Fire), which is a Russian Total War between 1914 and 1950 (basically both world wars and it all ends with the atomic bombs in the Cold War).

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Aggression: Europe Under Fire en Steam

Aggression - Reign over Europe

And there were even several videos of Age of Empires 5 lol too


Age of Empires V Fanmade/Unofficial Trailer

Age of Empires 5 - Trailer “New Beginning”

Yes, I saw it and it makes sense
 if they see that AoE 4 doesn’t maintain the current state of the saga and if they don’t want to overexploit AoE 2, then they’ll simply move on to AoE 5 to continue with the future of the saga


1 Like
11

If they make an AoE5 one day this will be probably about the Antiquity but with the gameplay of AoE4 (units on the wall, civilization slightly asymmetric).

That I want more in order of preference : 1 more AoE2 DLC, 1 more Chronicles DLC (yes I put two time 1, for me AOE2 and Chronicles are the same game), 2 more AoM DLC, 3 more AoE4 DLC, 5 more AoE3 DLC, 6 AoE5 in Antiquity with the gameplay of AoE4.

I don’t want any Return of Rome DLC, makes Chronicles DLC instead.

1 Like
12

Yes, it’s going to be like AoE 4, only we don’t know if it will return to Antiquity (like AoE Online but with realistic graphics and mechanics) or continue forward in the timeline (being like AoE 3 but well done and focused on Europe and perhaps Asia from the beginning)
as for Return of Rome, they haven’t touched it since it came out, so I don’t think they will now


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I think it’s better to put him in antiquity because AoE3 is a very beautiful game with a lot of content. An AoE5 put in the same era of AoE3 will not sell very good because AoE3 is already free to play.

Putting him in Antiquity is more safe in term of sale.

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True, in my opinion they’ll play it safe with the Ancient setting, since they were able to somewhat fix AoE 3, even though it was a controversial game in every way
 and also because the two games set in Ancient times, AoE 1 DE and AoEO, failed spectacularly and never managed to take off like AoE 2 DE through 4


15

His reasoning makes sense. He overlooked the direct hints we have for AoE5 and some of the technical issues with AoE4.

AoE4 uses Relics in house engine but Relic is not working on the game anymore, so Forgotten Empires has to work with an engine they don’t own while AoE5 seems to be using Unreal Engine 5, which is the most commonly used engine in the industry right now, so it will be a lot easier to find people that are good at using it.

So AoE4 development has a few technical difficulties.

Not sure if the cost of voice lines is really that high though.

Neanderthals are of the genus “homo” but that doesn’t make them “humans”. Also there is no evidence for them being lower intellect. Their brains were actually a little bigger then ours so maybe they were even more intelligent, but that’s hard to know.

But anyway they are not our ancestors. The most Neanderthal genes some groups of humans have is less then 10%.

Still in development though.

But they stopped making AoE3 content years ago. If they would see it as a popular game then they wouldn’t have stopped, right?

At the same time they still make AoM and Chronicles content which would both be competing with an ancient AoE5.

It would make more sense to make an AoE5 that attracts the AoE3 players.

AoE3(DE) has a one major issue that are core the game game, the colonial setting. It’s not particularly popular, which they tried to address with the last DLC and a bunch of free patches that added a lot of European content to the game, but still the core of the European civs is colonial. Some other minor things like that villagers don’t need drop off buildings are also indirectly because of the setting.

The Home City system is probably the most loved and hated feature of the game. It gives a lot of strategic variety but it also makes it a lot harder to get into the game and switch between civilisations.

An AoE5 could simply avoid those issues completely by not having a colonial setting at the core of the game. That doesn’t mean it should completely ignore colonialism, but that European civs should be designed around how they would look like in Europe and not how their colonial settlements would look like. Having rise of the Ottomans, 30 Years War and Napoleonic Wars as core settings for Europeans.

Asian civs would also benefit from not having a colonial setting. There are so many conflicts in Asia that don’t involve Europeans. Only really the Japanese campaign was a truly none colonial campaign in AoE3.

16

Yes, that’s true
with UE5 they could do many things and significantly reduce costs


Yes, good point
 for me, Neanderthals simply went extinct due to the post-glacial warming. Since there were few of them and they needed a lot of calories, and they couldn’t find their prey, they simply interbred with Homo sapiens until they disappeared through evolutionary hybridization.

That’s true
look, if you’re not going to have European conflicts to exploit properly in an Age of Empires 5 more focused on Europe
regarding Asia, the Chinese campaign wasn’t technically colonial, but more about exploration, but since it’s fictional it doesn’t count, and besides, they could have centered the Chinese campaign on the Koxinga rebellion against the Dutch and then the Spanish in 1661-1662, and that way they would have included a civilization that wasn’t used at all in the campaigns, like the Dutch


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Care to share us more? Thanks in advance.

18

A while ago Worlds Edge posted some job offerings for UE5 experts.

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19

I believe it could extend until the end of the American Civil War (1865). I really like the technologies of that era, such as the telegraph, which could be an additional improvement on trade routes.

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Yes, Age of Empires 3 goes up to 1876, and the telegraph is a technology of the United States Civil War, so I wouldn’t see a problem with it
 In theory, Age of Empires 3 could have had an American Civil War campaign playing as Chayton, Holmes, and Custer, but they were afraid of backlash after everything that happened in 2020 with BLM
 So, the Antietam and Gettysburg maps would be something like this


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1 Like