Well, I can’t only blame the ROR ,realizing that these regressions are ported from the AOE DE.
I just think that when they are making AOE DE, the whole direction are not quite right.
ROR brings some improvements to it such as gates、 formation. But still, the problems remain as follows.
- Decaying effect
Sometimes I get back to play the original AOE1 and AOE2 HD just because that.
In all the DE versions, battlefield doesn’t feel like what it should be，just because the poor decaying effect.
It is too obvious which is better.
ROR
OG(mod)
ROR
OG(mod)
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You can even see the whole precess how corpse decays in the OG.
Plus, the skeleton will remain long enough to remind every player that a bloody fight has occured here.
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- unit animation
In OG AOE1，a swordman have four attack animations, and watching him fighting is quite enjoyable.
hack
lift
stab
slash
But in DE and ROR,a swordman can only repeat slashing, which makes him look like a numbnuts.
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Besides，the relaxing animation is also abandoned.
In the OG, every unit looks vivid due to the relaxing animation.
a phalanx will look right and left, and sometimes raise his neck.
A horse will paw the dust.
In ROR and DE, the only thing they can do is breathing.
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You are comparing a high quality game from ensemble studios with a rushed poor low budget remaster from few years ago, also with better looking graphics, the game will never more get the detailed level that it got before.
It’s same for AOE 2 De, mass of people asked for the skeletons decays, and they don’t listen, as they ever say. “We listen to you, the community” it’s all about money, that’s all.
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As for death animation, in the OG a unit may have 1-4 different postures.
Four postures can be seen from this picture.
Chriots also have two postures.
But in the ROR and DE, only one posture remains for each unit, making it as neat as supermarket shelf.
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Yeah I agree, such tiny details should definitely be improved.
1 year is 1 second in the game, so skeletons should form. I don’t get why they have such a big problem with it. There’s skeletons in the scenario editor.
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To make matters worse,devs not only abandon things but also ruin things.
In the OG, cavalries trot naturely and nicely.
But in the ROR and DE, cavalries walk as they are crippled.
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Why do people see everything ensamble studios did back then as something holy, perfect and untouchable?
They cut so many corners when they made AoE1 and AoE2 and did many questionable decisions.
All the units that were made by the Fallen Empires look a lot more realistic and historical. No horns on helmets or throwing scimitars.
The thing with the skeletons is likely outside of their control.
They want to keep their current age rating so they can’t just add things like skeletons to the game.
Considering that you can manually place skeletons I can’t tell you why that’s ok but not for decaying units. I don’t know the legal stuff, nor do you, I assume.
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Even the only improvement DE and ROR got- better graphic- is not better at some point.
Apparently,elephant archer in OG has armor and helmet,which makes him look different with composite archer.
However in ROR and DE, devs juts paste a composite archer onto the elephant.
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In OG short swordman has crest.
In ROR and DE the crest has gone and the swordman has become a hunchback.
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Even the Hoplite and Phalanx in OG looks much nicer. I’m not telling that they are historically accurate, but still, they look good.
It might because the spear looks longer and the shield looks larger.
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I think that’s for readability reasons. They have exactly the same attack so it makes sense that they look the same, right?
But them they changed the attack damage to 6 so now it’s not the same anymore.
I also miss different attack animations from original, but DE1 and DE2 both got rid of them.
However I like AoE1DE centurion more because it looks less like 15th century knight.
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Good post! The animations were much more fluent and natural. Especially the trotting of cavalry like you pointed out.
This villager javelin animation shows how unnatural the new animations can be… just look how powerful the throwing is in the original. Compare to actual pro javelin throwers and you will see how clumsy the new DE animation looks.
Also see how long and deadly the lances of hoplite and centurion look in original! They must be heavy though. That is why they hold them in their armpit, instead of down on the side like in DE, which I think looks dumb and would tire their arms.
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Every different type of villager also had their own death and decay animation:
In DE the farmer hat and the tools magically disappear when they die. I understand the new animations have much more frames so it would have meant a bit more work, but still, the 20 year old game managed to do this better too.
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I didn’t notice how many things changed between AoE and AoE1DE/RoR.
This thread has been really informative.
In some ways it’s sad how many details got lost, but on the other hand I didn’t notice most of them.
The Cavalry looking goofy is probably the biggest one I noticed, but I apparently just forgot how it walked in the original.
Some of the changes get hidden by the fact that units now have different path finding and will walk in formations, that makes them appear a lot different in practice because they fight more bunched up.
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I don’t think it is an age rating issue.
Games | Games Rating Authority (videostandards.org.uk)
AoE DE is rated Pegi 12 just like Aoe2 DE. AoE DE contains the 1998 Rise of Rome game, with the original decay sprites. They just decided to not do the skeletons for some reason, maybe not enough resources.
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I’m 99% sure it’s not a resource thing. It’s either Microsoft lawyers telling them not to do it or it’s them not liking Skeletons.
I think having graphics from 1997/1998 is a different thing compared to adding new ones. Also if the original game was already rated then the rating will not change.
The age ratings in some counties got more strict (while getting less strict in others) but I don’t think older games ever get changed to more strict age ratings later on.
I’m personally absolutely in favour of having some visible trances of battles on the map.
If skeletons are not possible why not graves instead?
I love looking back at a map after a long match to see where battles have taken place and how there are still traces of them.
I wish ruins of buildings would also last forever in a reduces form (until you build something new on top)
Dawn of War 1 had corpses stay on forever (but they would only generate when you watch the battle).
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