Hoping we get to see how it plays tomorrow. Fight, die, fight again with a little bit more power until you beat the final boss. They did good with the historical battles, this addition opens the door for an entirely new way to play the game.
As long as it isn’t like the AoM Retold Arena of the Gods, which was more rogue-adjacent than rogue-like.
What’s not to love about the infinite cycle of roguelikes? Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, FTL, Slay the Spire, Crypt of the Necrodancer… even things like Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress rely on the concept. It’s fertile ground, fitting for the RTS genre.
To be frank, the reason that SC2’s co-op mode was so successful was that it was a roguelike… one can dream I suppose.
Hey Blade, been a while! Mind pitching in? Are they calling the Crucible a tower defense?
I mean, I like tower defense games (I’ll always cite the ElementTD WC3 mapmod as an early favourite of mine). But the Crucible really doesn’t give me that impression.
I’m also pretty sure it’s not literally a roguelike either. It’s still going to be AoE IV, with some roguelike inspiration.
From the blog post it looks close to the Ottoman art of war challenge. Hold a central location with a wonder, build a base and defend it from waves that increase in difficulty the longer that you hold. Randomized challenges during the match, randomized boons that you upgrade outside of the game.
This expansion also introduces The Crucible, an all-new singleplayer roguelite RTS experience built for replayability. Players face unpredictable enemy waves, randomized objectives, and unlockable upgrades. No two matches are the same, and each decision shapes the path forward.
Whether you’re defending your Wonder, unlocking powerful Perks or testing your endurance, The Crucible delivers a fresh twist on traditional Age of Empires IV gameplay.
The rogue-like features are the randomized features during the game and the random boons that you upgrade outside of the matches. No doubt we’ll see a portion of it tomorrow morning.
(it looks like the perfect place to have 2-3 player co-op)
There was a vote on the reddit site asking if people liked variants over new civs. It appears to have been taken down now. Well at least i cant see it.
But last just say the vast majority of people are not happy with variant civs.
I have to wonder what is going on behind the scenes that is responsible for these half-assed DLCs across the franchise. Are the devs not operating at full capacity or something?
Tower defense games are games where you defend against waves of enemies by building nothing but towers. Hence, “tower defense”. You don’t (tend to) get base building, unit production, or the like.
I know you pinned your hopes on the idea of there being co-op… but you haven’t seen any of the gameplay for it. “Replayable but half baked” is just bitterness.
After 48 hours it all starts to feel kind of like… okay, and?
Exactly after a while it would be getting you tired and bored
But If they have done it with Co Op/Multiplayer in mind it would have been so much challenging, so much engaging and fun!
Did you get a chance to see the preview they did for gamescom? It looks like one of the better additions to the singleplayer experience, full stop. If you liked the Historical battles, they are basically that with a ton of additional features.
Yeah already see it
Also some of your other posts
Is a great addition, but a missed opportunity already
Hopefully they would deliver a Co Op mode or FFA/Multiplayer for it in the near future!
Imagine playing with your partner, your buddy or your group of 3 friends for a new challenge every time and getting engaged on its new way of play AoE IV.
Some being the attackers, some the defenders, one the builder, one the boomer and so. Like Art of War Challenges but with REAL PEOPLE. Pretty fun right?
AOE3 had a “historical map” mode. EIGHT of them, all different flavor, mechanics and unique units and bonuses everywhere. Nobody plays them.
And all the different modes they tried in the 2 and 3: battle royale, economic-only, empire wars, this challenge that challenge, ROR’s “restrict everything” rule in Vietnamese esports…all just glorified skirmish with strange pacing, for which the game is never designed and balanced.
Then the strange restrictions in the long and arduous missions in V&V which basically let you fight 10 men with one of your limbs tied, as for which one, it depends on the “creativity” of that scenario.
Even as recent as arena of gods, do you see anyone talk about it anymore?
That’s why I think AOE4 players should play or at least look at the other games: you’ll find all the mismanagement, unnecessary experiment, out-of-the-touch decision making, non-existing communication, directions that fight each other, that you are experiencing and will experience.
I don’t believe they have any ability to make anything interesting enough outside the bread and butter which they refuse to make for two years. I hope to be proven wrong.
And more importantly, do you think this worths the same price of 2 full civs and 1 full campaign?
Arena of gods is a free update.
I’ll praise this one immediately too if it is free.
I would really like us to stay focused on talking about the DLC instead of making personal attacks against each other. I would like to solve this amicably and find a way that we don’t need to ignore each other.
Please find a way to treat me with more respect, thank you.
I found this Crucible game mode very interesting. Maybe in the future they’ll add some co-op experiences. It would be interesting to have you and your friends defending a wonder together against increasingly strong enemies that are besieging your city.
Hi Gorb, Yes I think they are calling the new game mode a roguelite to make the game mode sound more interesting than if they had said it was a tower defense. Co-op would be great. Even Age of Empires Online had that with the Defense of Crete game mode.
