Replace the Blood & Bones Pack in Expansion Pass

Age of Mythology: Retold Discussion
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The announcement of the Expansion Pass gave me overall mostly positive feelings, new content being added is just what I want. I’m not the greatest fan of the concept of Expansion Passes as a whole, but if reasonably priced it can bundle a lot of content together so you can buy all of it at a once at a discount. It also gives me a sence of confidence that all the content has been announced.

But, there is one item on the list that stood out to me:
”3. Blood & Bones Pack – Beauty in Battle
Witness warfare like never before. This visual overhaul introduces dynamic blood systems, prismatic essence for myth units, and evolving transitions that make each skirmish feel visceral and alive – exclusive to Expansion Pass owners”

Sounds a lot like the the corpse mechanic from the original game and I’m not OK with it being “sold back” to us, much less it being exclusive to Expansion Pass buyers is going to do more harm than good.

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Now, I’ve already voiced my opinion in the thread of “new expansion pass”. But I think that it needs it own thread of discussion. Because just demanding that a purchase being removed from an expansion pass and be made free is not the right way to go about it, like I did and I want to make it right. This thread should be about, what would YOU be satisfied with replacing this Item with.
Some Ideas of my own:

Exclusive god portraits for Demeter, her presumed new minor Gods and some Aztec portraits, this is my favorite solution as it is a fairly reasonable demand as it is replacing cosmetics with cosmetics. Also, If it’s both portraits for Demeter and Aztecs it can be released in two points, both before and after the release of Aztecs as item 3 and 5 in the Expansion Pass. It would also make more sense as Expansion Pass Exclusive as it is related to other products within the Expansion Pass.

Another 4th Major god. My actual favorite solution, but certainly not the most reasonable one. Honestly this is the dream but it’s a whole lot more work than the other ones and going to be a compounding balancing workload as well. Also, future heads up: don’t release a Major God as a expansion pass EXCLUSIVE, that’s a PR suicide, I’m sure the AoM team already know this but I’m just going to put it in here since it’s very related to this thread.

Mission Pack. AoM really thrives on its singleplayer content and adding a more of those is a great, I would also advocate the hypothetical missions being Co-op available as well.

Blood and Bones+. This thread has up to this point assumed that Blood and Bones is going to be the EXACT thing that the original game has, but if there is anything beyond that I would be a little bit more OK if it was divided with original feature being free and the extra part being paid for is not as bad, I still wouldn’t recommend doing this.

Lastly I want to conclude this post by saying that I will get the Expansion Pass. I’m more than happy support the developers to ensure we get even more content in the future, but I feel the need to make some noise about what we as customers find reasonable and not so that the AoM team can course correct and stay clear of losing goodwill with us.

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I’m generally not a fan of cosmetic DLC. I will only by the expansion pass if it’s worth for Demeter+Aztecs.

I hope the DLC will be more then just adding an old feature back. That would be pretty disappointing.

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For someone with minimal online gaming experience, please explain what an ‘Expansion Pass’ is? Is this an established term with online gaming platforms? What does it mean?

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It’s that you buy a bundle of DLC (downloadable content) that are not yet released. As the time progresses the DLCs are gradually released one by one and those who bought the pass get them as they are released.

It’s like pre-ordering additional content, which is why I said I’m not the greatest fan of it. But In this case, we know what we are going to get (Bit unclear with what EXACTLY number 3 here contains, hence the post), which isn’t always the case with expansion passes.

Here are what we are what we are promised in this expansion pass:

1. New Gods Pack: Demeter – Become a Force of Nature
Command the power of the harvest goddess herself. Unleash new god powers and myth units that reshape the battlefield and bend the will of nature to your strategy.

2. Ultimate Fan Pack – A Golden Mark of Support
Show your devotion to Age of Mythology: Retold with this supporter-themed collection.
Adorn your temples and town centers with shimmering gold, display unique pantheon icons, and stand out as one of the faithful.

3. Blood & Bones Pack – Beauty in Battle
Witness warfare like never before. This visual overhaul introduces dynamic blood systems, prismatic essence for myth units, and evolving transitions that make each skirmish feel visceral and alive – exclusive to Expansion Pass owners

4. Obsidian Mirror – Rise of the Aztec Gods
The centerpiece of the Expansion Pass. One of the most requested pantheons in franchise history finally ascends.
Enter the world of the Aztec gods in a sweeping 12-mission campaign that spans continents and celestial realms. Wield divine monsters, call upon gods like Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, and lead your civilization through an era of obsidian fire and sacrifice. This is more than an add-on - it’s a full-scale expansion introducing an entirely new culture, pantheon, and divine playstyle.

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some guys like @帝皇龙甲兽双鱼是狗杂 who posted about this topic and begged for it so often the last year are VERY happy now i assume. :smiley: i am very happy for them too. i think it will really add more atmosphere and impact to the game but it wasn’t as high on my priority list as other things still VERY happy that this addition will come - even this sounds a bit weird x)

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It’s less excitement and more apprehension. The expansion’s description has been extremely vague so far, with no images released. Blood effects are basically guaranteed, but it’s still unclear whether corpses will decay into skeletons.

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hm… its relative vague but not that vague (even tho they should have shown at least one image for every feature in my opnion)

“Witness warfare like never before. This visual overhaul introduces dynamic blood systems, prismatic essence for myth units, and evolving transitions that make each skirmish feel visceral and alive.”

- dynamic blood systems
→ sounds like blood will either splatter or flows, maybe even staying on units for some time?
- prismatic essence for myth units
→ sounds like myth units have no implied classic red blood but more a type essence (hope its not glitter xD) maybe different types for different units?
- and evolving transitions
→ this definitly sounds like nicely worded for exactly what you are looking for: a decaying process like its in old AoM and WC3.

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They are basically doing what Total War was doing.
Bringing a game without blood and corpses to sell everywhere, and then add the blood effects and corpses to a separate DLC and not sell it where it’s illegal to show blood and corpses.
That way, they can sell the game in parts of the world where they can’t show blood and corpses, have the people who want and legally can get blood and corpses get blood and corpses, and they get some extra buck from those players.
From their point of view, it’s a win-win-win situation, with the one single drawback that the people who want the blood and corpses will complain about paying for it separately. Which is a minor one in comparison, because most people who complain about the blood and corpses being a paid feature will still pay for it.

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Hope so, I want corpse decaying effect so much.

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China, right?

https://achivx.com/is-blood-banned-in-games-in-china/

That makes sense. And thats explain why in games like Genghin Impact, even when there are dead scenes, there are no blood at all.

In any case, get sense if we consider that the next Civilization gonna have A LOT of Blood and Bones in its lore:

sacrificio humano extracion del corazón
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Tzompantli de tenochtitlan
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autolesiones de los sacerdotes
autolesiones de los sacerdotes900×720 322 KB

aztec sacrifice in teocalli - warrior priest b13e491731fc10c5ea9f4c2bade12dee
aztec sacrifice in teocalli - warrior priest b13e491731fc10c5ea9f4c2bade12dee716×900 161 KB

The Nahua rites in honor of god Mictlantecuhtli pouring the idol with the blood of the victims_ aztec priest sacerdotes sangre idolo
The Nahua rites in honor of god Mictlantecuhtli pouring the idol with the blood of the victims_ aztec priest sacerdotes sangre idolo501×600 63.9 KB

I’m very curious how you gonna play the aztec DLC without the Bones and Blood add.

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i mean i could see they add the blood/vioelence dlc for aztec but i am also curious how they want to do aztec for players who won’t have it.

also about china: yeah from what i heard, read and saw china is VERY sensitive about violence in videogames especially regarding skeletons but unlike some big US/ EU gaming companies nowadays they are not afraid to show sexy/very feminine female characters.

that sounded weirder than you might think but i gotcha :smiley:

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personally, i use worm castings instead of blood and bones

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This “new feature” should be available for all players not only Expansion Pass owners

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It should not be exclusive to Expansion Pass, I agree.
I’d prefer it to be just downloadable for free.

But I understand it being a separate download, rather than a patched in feature. China is a huge market, and there is a huge incentive in trying to tap into it.
So much so that for many studios, the commercial success in China makes or breakes the financial success of their releases. Simply because there’s more than twice as many people with the money to buy that in China alone than in the US and Europe combined.
And there, showing blood in the game is illegal. So, adding blood to the game via patch would make the game illegal in China.

So it basically has to be a separate DLC. Or not exist at all.
What remains to be discussed is pricing and distribution.
And yeah, making it a bundle exclusive is a poor choice. But including it in a bundle with Aztecs is not. Those are two different things.
Golden Statues being a bundle exclusive makes sense.

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Why you still believe that any game with blood will be banned in China? Is Black Myth: Wukong got banned? Wukong obtained the official license for publish in China, while Age series not! What’s more, there’s no obstacle for Chinese people to purchase and play GTA series on Steam. The Age series not containing any bloody content is just one of the many incomprehensible decisions made by Microsoft.