Not my handiwork, thank the good people on Reddit for digging this up.
These were in the Chronicles folder, NOT the main DLC ones.
EDIT: I just went into the files myself to double-check in case this was a hoax; it’s not. This is real.
The plot thickens
Did you find anything about galactic battlegrounds?
6 Likes
Not wholly unsurprising. Hopefully we get some sort of rename/rework like what happened with the Ayyubids in AoE4, and we get a satisfactory outcome to this wierd situation.
9 Likes
Can’t wait for future AOE 3 in AOE 2 graphics.
7 Likes
Here’s a discovery while I was looking around in there. Some of the levels will be recycled.
E.g. The Battle of Red Cliffs appears three times, just with a different character having a halo around them. Basically you just have control over a different player each time you play it.
I also can see how many levels each, 5. Meaning it’s not actually 15 levels, but 13.
9 Likes
Now to the apologists yelling “3K in the main game makes perfect sense!”
Well at least the developers don’t think so.
12 Likes
This adds evidence to this likely being two DLCs that were stitched together, and it all makes sense now. The misplaced Tangut castle and Poxi, the rushed unfinished nature of the Khitans & Jurchens, the weird themes of two High Middle Ages civs and three Antiquity ones, the 3K civs randomly having buildings and units from…all over the place (e.g. the Wei being basically the Xianbei), misdirection as to what this DLC was and contained.
In all likelihood this was originally:
- A traditional East Asian DLC with Tanguts, Jurchens, Khitans and perhaps Xianbei.
- Another DLC in the Chronicles style (but not by Capture Age) set during the Three Kingdoms and not aimed for the civs to go to multiplayer.
But for reasons that so far are unclear, they were stitched together.
Also to be clear. This does not look like something the devs have any part in (willingly), but higher-ups giving them instructions that likely messed up what they were originally working on.
24 Likes
The Wei civ in game has such massive elements of the Xianbei i’m included to believe they were intended at some point. The wonder is a Xianbei pagoda, the castle is in North Wei style, the Tiger cavalry with actual tiger skins is very much not the typical look of Cao Cao’s horsement (see Age of Mythology: Immortal Pilars, which has the unit) but rather more common in the early medieval era of north china as far as i know.
7 Likes
P.S. Take a look at this:
Still no DLC5. I wonder where it is? Perhaps this DLC contains elements that were intended for it? Bit more of a stretch than what the original post was showing. But certainly adds more clues to this mystery.
4 Likes
Let’s be fair, there have been myriad scrapped work and repurposed assets in all the games that don’t feel particularly fitting. I think most people would be fine with them, and the devs did fix some later.
But this entire DLC and almost all its civs based on scrapped and unfinished work stitched together in an awkward way is a huge disrespect.
13 Likes
Honestly, nothing to me says more about the rushed nature of the DLC than the complete lack of unit audio to me. None of the civs, none even one of five, have unique unit voice files. Even Return of Rome added those for Romans and latin is a literal dead language. Chronicles added two different versions of ancient greek and persian.
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The final scenario seems to be the Battle of Red Cliffs (208), when none of the Wei, Shu or Wu is established!
Cao Wei is established at 220AD.
Shu Han is established at 221AD.
Sun Wu is established at 229AD.
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The last DLC from FE was developed in 2023. Now, this comes to light.
Add another notch in the belt of those who have been raising the alarm that something is very wrong at WE.
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What do you think could be that “very wrong” something?
Oh wow. They really are focusing on the early period before the Three Kingdoms just like Total War. That and Sun Jian being the Wu hero for no good reason have me convinced the DLC was someone trendchasing the sucess of Total War: Three Kingdoms.
1 Like
Poor leadership. Things started to go downhill when Shannon Loftis retired.
I think WE is full of people who don’t know what they’re doing.
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I have no idea who that is. Wonder if she (?) is related to my uncle who has the same last name. Probably not, but that would be a crazy coincidence.
Could it be that the Three Kingdoms part of the DLC wasnt developed by FE?
That would be even worse