Could be wrong, but it looks to me to be designed after the Egyptian Mau cat.
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Its face is based of the African wild cat:
https://twitter.com/Ageofmyth/status/1777470988588073061
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I saw that, I just think they made it look more like a domesticated breed than the wild breeds its supposed to be based on. It looks more like the cat MissionLemur suggested, which is a domestic breed.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551774
Look at the depictions in their art, way less cute.
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This portrait looks like some random AI generated bullsh*t.
Anyway, the point is not if it’s human/AI/whatever generated, the point is that it looks bland and boring, something that looks amateurish at best.
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I wonder it that’s the image that will actually be used ingame in the age up UI or if it’s just some promotional art they made.
I’m generally not the biggest fan of the 2D art they have done for the franchise but it looks alright in the UI of AoE3DE where all the unit icons are hand drawn.
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I personally think, that the new art we’ve seen so far looks awesome. Okay the title screen has some ‘‘marvel’’ feel to it (thor’s small hammer, odin’s space helmet, Gaia’s alien groot face) but overall they all look artistic well made. The new Bast art (or also the Loki and Poseidon ones) look clearly well thought out and made. They are clearly based on the original ones but with their own (a little bit more detailed and modern, yes sometimes with a little different direction) charm. The whole ‘‘it looks AI generated’’ point… for me they are clearly not. It’s a phenomen since the hype about AI art that every artist struggles with now. People throw this assumption against every new art without real reasons. I personally think the ‘‘new art lacks charm’’ thing is (as for the most part) a nostalgia symptom based on the fact, that it doesn’t look near to exactly like the original. Just my two cents. In the end it’s a matter of taste as always 
These kind of ‘‘new art lacks charm’’ discussions kinda always happen to franchises that have a long life like Age of Empires. It’s the same for Warcraft. Long time Warcraft fans criticize modern World of Warcraft to look too cartoonish and childish despite it looked always like that since the pixel portraits of warcraft: orcs and humans and the cartoonish artstyle of warcraft 2. It’s the whole point of the warcraft artstyle: childish and cartoonish in a brutal fantasy war setting.
In the end i am very happy about AoM retold and i don’t want to lose my joy about it in the great quest of finding gaia’s nose 
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I really hate them for ruining Norse mythology.
I don’t like their art style and their Super Hero interpretation of the gods.
I’m afraid they irreversibly damaged the way the majority looks at Norse mythology now.
There is always a nostalgia for the old art even if it’s not actually that good.
In my opinion most of the Age Up panels for Minor gods looks kinda mid.
I don’t really like the new Bast but she looks better then the old one. If that ends up being the actual ingame art of her.
btw. did anyone notice that her art was shown now because of her god power?
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I heavily dislike the new Bast art because her head does not attach to her body in a way that makes sense. The way it attaches just feels wrong and really makes it feel like an AI piece of art.
I know it’s not, but it’s the same sort of disconnect and inability to mesh that makes it feel like it is AI art.
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Personally, I think there is no problem.
The recent trends of the Age Series have not been good, but the reputational damage caused by some people is really severe.
My personal opinion regarding that topic is something like @Azmac93 and also what @Skadidesu wrote.
- It’s better than the old one but it’s definitely improvable
- old art was most of the time not the best art one drawn amazingly well BUT it had character and especially the poses of the characters were great and brought character to the representative god - this is in my opinion THE thing which lacks the most in the new art and that’s why some call Loki’s Art the best so far
- I think the new one has potential and looks better than the old one BUT they maybe should overhaul the fur colour ofo the cat head and make the pose better (it doesn’t have to
- I do rethink the art is AI drawn even some parts might give the impression but it’s still a good art have the pose of the old one but a pose/gesture which represents her emphasis/powers maybe?) just an idea
- I agree Odin and especially Thor look too marvel like instil personally don’t have an issue with Gaia
That’s my opinion.
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latest aoe3de unit icons are AI generated 
where are those “unit icons”? so i can see
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In my opinion, it’s fine, it’s a beautiful art, but it has only one thing that doesn’t look good, the face looks like that of a “domestic cat”, it lacks that wild Egyptian wild cat face that the original art accustomed us to, I think that the “Egyptian cat” should look more like this:
But I also understand that the “desert cat” (Felis margarita) should have been used as a reference:
I do not believe that the art was created using AI, but given so many complaints and doubts (that I have seen on Twitter) about it, I think that the artists on the team should confirm that this is not the case, not only the AoM account (has already said that its artists did), it would be good for them to share and confirm to reassure the community, the last thing the game needs is bad publicity.
On the other hand, I like the art, but it can improve, and I hope it improves, with the examples I shared it shouldn’t be difficult to update the art a little, is there a way for the developers to look at this?
Anyway, I’m very happy and looking forward to seeing more art and news let’s keep the excitement going!
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Please, please, PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE stop calling everything you dislike “woke” or “political correctness”/“politically correct”.
Rather than the cat face, I’m more bothered about the light skin.
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I don’t think you realize, whatever they pick, you will put up with it. So #####
I’m curious. What makes you think it’s AI generated?
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If you can’t have even the bare minimum of trust in the Devs, I think it’s better to stay away from the Age Series.
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Most people have no understanding of how generative AI works and how to spot AI generated images.
So they will randomly claim things are AI generated or just blindly believe AI generated images to be real.
The African Royals DLC was released in 2021.
That was when generative AI was completely new (DALL-E was released in January 2021) and it was pretty bad back then.
DALL-E 2 or Midjourney where only released in 2022 and they where also not even that good back then.
Before claiming random images to be AI art, do at last a little research, like checking when they were made or use an AI art detector tool.
You are free to now like the art, but than criticise it as it is and not for the tools you think they used to make it.
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His uncanny eyes, awkard hand size, perhaps it generate 1 more figer, thus the big had but was fixed so now it just looks awkard, some stuff looking painted ‘over’ an existing drawing; like the shirt button, cap helmet missing its ending button on the left part (right from screen), AI likes to use ‘back light’, potrait actually not matching the unit details in-game.
Check out age of world… it has been using AI generative art trained on AOE3 pics from some yrs now already, did you notice any difference from official art from far away?