What do we know about “randomly generated maps” so far?
It’s just gonna be like it was with all the other Age games before. What else could they mean?
aoe3 didn’t have randomly world generated maps. Aoe3 was the only age game I ever played.
Aren’t the resources in AoE3 dispersed randomly on the maps? If so then my bad I was sure it is the same. Random maps then means that maps have a theme and based on that theme the resources and landscape (like cliffs) are generated randomly.
1 Like
I thought randomly generated maps entailed that the actual maps themselves were randomly generated not just the placement of the resources locations on a pregenerated map.
So you are saying that the randomly generated maps in AOE4 doesn’t entail generating a map “from the bottom” up?
What do you mean by that? Because it the landsacpe as we’ll as the positions if resources are generated randomly with the only thing in common being the theme of the map, wouldn’t you consider that being random “from the bottom up”?
I think we’re essentially saying the same thing. Landscape generation isn’t an option in aoe3 though, however, I am pretty sure random resource dispersion is.
judging from age 2, you can see it as the following: there is always a base map layout, like arabia, or like islands, defining the general locations/ map structures and availaility of resources.
Team Islands for instance will be islands on an ocean, one for each team.
However the exact layout of these Islands is not set in stone, that part is random.
The resoucres placed on the maps are usually placed in certain areas, biut not always the same spots, so random aswell, but somewhat predictable. There is for example a certain amount of gold tiles aleays near your bases. If you are lucky very neat, if you are VERY unfortunate on some maps it might be unreachable at first.
This is qhat random map means from age 2 standpoint, and I think thats the most viable for an RTS with no set maps, to be viable in PvP Ranked matches
Oh well, that is kind of disappointing, it would be better if the entire base map layout was randomly generated. Or actually, I guess it doesn’t matter as long as you aren’t told what base map is used as the game loads (which most likely is the case).
I expect it will work like it does in AoE 2 where you pick a map type, which for the most part is a biome and then everything is randomly generated within the constraints imposed by the map type. For example, black forest maps are always densely packed with trees and bases are connected by thin passageways through the tree lines.
AoE2 also had a map type called MegaRandom which seems to just generate a random map with no constraints (other than size).
1 Like
Isn’t it weird that aoe2 had random map generation, but aoe3 only had it to the extent of randomly dispersing resources?
I assume it was easier with 2d maps and stuff than in a 3d environment, which is why they didnt do it there
AoE4 is going to have randomly generated maps in the same sense as AoE2 (picking a map type of a certain thematic, and from there everything is randomly generated), they confirmed that.
And thank goodness for that, that’s one of the best things about AoE, which makes every match play differently, having to scout the map, adapt to it and think on the go, rather then only following a specific build order and doing the same moves every game. In other words it’s one of the things which makes AoE to be AoE.
1 Like
Technically AoE3 had random maps by the same priciple as 2. It was just dialed to be very conservative, and for various gameplay reasons the randomness didn’t matter that much anyway, so it ended up feeling/playing very much like static maps as opposed to AoE 1/2.
I think AOE3 just called it UNKNOWN, which was a general clone of other maps, but different features, resources, and natives… usually not so balanced of maps though.
All AoE3 maps are still heavily randomly generated, they have a set basic layout, yes, but are randomly seeded with features and altered in shape based on the number of players and teams.
This is in contrast with games like Starcraft, where the maps are entirely hand built for a set number of players. That’s what they mean, they mean it won’t be like Starcraft and other RTS games that use static maps.
1 Like