Almost all generic units in the game looking very Western European is one of my biggest issues with AoE2. If just feels so wrong to play civilisations like Aztecs or Ethiopians. It really sucks the enjoyment out of the game for me.
And I think it’s one of the diving factors behind people wanting more European civs despite already half of the civs in the game being European. I’m not the only one that things other civilisations feel wrong even if it’s subconsciously for many people.
I made a poll a while ago [poll] Cosmetic DLC and the willingness to even pay for regional skins is surprisingly high.
It can’t take up RAM client side if your client doesn’t even have the regional skins installed, can it?
As far as I know it was like 5 years ago when they said that and things have changed since then. They can also very easily make the regional skins a DLC that just simply requires more RAM then the main game.
Doesn’t mean it has to be payed, it could be like the hight resolution sprites DLC.
Chronicles now actually implements regional skins, so maybe they are testing the waters here.
It is interesting to see how close the sprites are the the default AoE2 sprites. Some units look very similar (like (Elite) Skirmisher) while others look pretty different (Knight Line).