[Request] Give unique unit skins for civilization groups

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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In the current game, all civs are categorized into architecture groups. The civs have different building styles depending on which group they fall in. I am making a request to the developers to extend this to units also. There was a mod which gave different unit styles to civ groups for legacy aoe2: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1394515968.

This unit graphical pack would be optional so a person can go to settings and choose between default and extended unit styles. Default makes all units look the same (and maybe the buildings also) while Extended changes the unit visuals depending on civ groups.

This would enhance the look of the game. I have seen people comment that all the civs blend into each other because all the units look the same. There is an increasing demand for unique units to be more usable to show more visual variety. I think it is much better to bring visual variety in the normal unit roster than making unique units more prominent as they are designed to be restrictive. If a player sees two different graphical styles of Knights and Crossbows fighting on the battlefield they might like it more. It might also bring some cultural flavor to the civs. I think this should be the direction aoe 2 can go to retain interest in the game. I think it makes aoe 2 more interesting.

In short,

-Give the normal units different graphical styles like the architecture.
-This will be optional, players can switch it on or off depending on their preferences.
-This will bring visual variety to the game, making it more interesting.

8 Likes
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I think it’s better off left as a mod for scenarios and unranked play. It’s going to be quite tricky to get used to the looks of the units. Competitive may be over the place. Veterans of the game my often might even get confused sometimes over what unit counters what.

For example. We might get confused if a knight is a scout or a scout is a knight. Or even what upgrade level a unit is.

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This will not be an issue because there will be an option where you can use the classic look. So you will only see the vanilla unit skins. This will stop any confusion. Most Pro players would use the classic look and would only use the custom unique skins for showcase purposes so it will not change how the game is perceived by spectators of competitive matches.

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Basically Player A uses classic version. He sees the default unit skins on his Knights and the Knights of the enemy.

Player B uses custom extended version. He sees his civ specific Knight Variant and the civ specific Knight variant of the Enemy.

I noticed this working with the Musketeer skins for Hand Cannon mod. I saw Musketeers, my ally was seeing Hand Cannons.

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Yeah. If it can be turned on and off it would be cool. Could be great for scenarios.

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Visual mods are already possible at ranked… What is wrong with that?

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That could be a dlc, and optional that doesnt change the Game

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I thought everyone would be forced to use it. Maybe I didn’t read OP’s post more clearly.

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This has always been my number 1 request from this game since 1999. I cannot believe its 2021 and we have horse riders that get up off a fallen horse and keep fighting but we still dont have geographically appropriate units.

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Could be stuff for a nice DLC to be honest, wouldn’t mind paying for it as long as it is reasonably priced. Certainly more useful than wasting the talented artists in the dev team on silly town center decorations.

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This is an intresting idea but u can easily confuse cavaliers with hussars and things like that, good idea but needs some work

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I don’t think there will be a problem in unit recognition if this is done properly. Take rise of nations for an example:

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Age of empires 2 is a game that has stood the test of time. Perhaps this visual change puts him in almost equality with the 21st century RTS games.

Excelent idea.

I could pay for such DLC.

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I don’t think it will be confusing if it is limited to regional differences, like for buildings.

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It shouldn’t be so confusing, is not like we have so many units:

5 infantries with swords 3 infantries with spears

3 light cavs 3 heavy cavs 2 camels

3 archers 2 shielded javelinmen 2 cavalry archers 1 handcannon

Those are 9 unit lines that should be easilly recognizable (i don’t think anyone will confuse a handcannon, or a camel) and 24 models, right now you have to know almost 2x UU

siege and villagers shouldn’t change a lot and may remain the same, i would like skins and hair colors for vills, but someone somewhere may call it racist.

But 24 models for each culture group is a lot of work, it should be a DLC

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16

Can we all get a petition or something going to show how much support this idea has?

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Yea I mean if you can spend the time to make penguins and snowmen with swords why not some simple regional variations?

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Exactly, and the changes can even be fairly minimal, like different emblems on shields, slightly different swords, different helmets and so on. They dont have to reinvent the wheel with each unit.

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19

They should at the very least start with implementing regional monks, kings, and ship sails to the civs that are missing them.

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I don’t think they care about anything requested on these forums, we are just ranting among ourselves. They take their decisions in mysterious ways. There have been numerous pressing threads on multiple issues in past but they don’t care.

1 Like