The way I see it, name Hussar felt always out of place. As far as I know about history, it was a reference to Polish Winged Hussar which acted more as a Knightly/Heavy Cavalry rather than something raiding. Currently the way everything is set up, we got 3 Hussars with reskin(Normal/Polish/Magyar). I think it can be solved just by renaming it to something like “Medium Cavalry” with new sprite. After all Hussar is just inferior Knight line when it comes to stats. Camel renamed to “Camel Rider”. I can see Hussar being renamed to Medium Cavalry with new sprite may look controversial at first but we have seen far more radical changes in past. We went from severely low res graphics to DE.
It should be renamed Elite Imperial Medium Semi-Heavy Goldless Man-Upon-Horse.
I get where threads like this are coming from, but this is incredibly nitpicky given the kind of game that AoE2 is. It relies heavily upon “approximate” units/techs (Crossbows/Halbs for civs that never used them, Iron working techs for new world civs) all of which are good for purposes of simplicity/accessibility. There are dozens if not hundreds of issues which are far more worthy of discussion (bug fixes, balance, regional skins/unique Castles, QoL features, etc).
Also, despite initially being a Hungarian/Polish unit, the Hussar came to be a model for the best form of light cavalry for many European kingdoms and Empires, so it’s appropriate in that sense (if a little anachronistic), and certainly as much or more so than Japanese Knights, Mayan Galleons, Inca Two-Handed Swordsmen, etc.
Medium cavalry doesn’t fit, it has low attack and low melee armor. Elite light cavalry is literally what hussar already is. They just gave it a different name. Much like cavalier and paladin are used instead of heavy cavalry and elite cavalry.
No reason to change stuff just for the sake of change.
Grandfather clause. It has been around since the classic era, they’re part of the core game experience and there is no gameplay benefit to changing them now. So it’s fine.
Hussar is like super regional in the word itself. They were essentially Knights. Sprite doesn’t look anything to be encompassed by other civs. Even European units itself which is primarily the setting for the units. Halberdiers/Crossbow are good enough to be encompassed by others but Hussar isn’t too much. Hussar that we see is used by other civs than Polish which wasn’t even a civ not long ago. Also Hussar itself goes out of AOE2 time period and more suitable for AOE3.
Atleast far more than Hussar. There is Scout/Light Cavalry itself got its own way of naming pattern. In Medieval History most troops used to wear Medium armors instead of super Heavy that we see in fantasies/movies. In game a big portion of units that we use are Medium armors.
Hussar name itself always feels very out of place. The way I see it, AOC expansion was more of a promotion to AOE3. Spanish, Aztecs, Mayans itself says it. Also original AOE2 devs had more of a orientalist approach to develop the game. Saracens name itself is a problem. Saracens itself was more of a slang word to Muslim Empires. They never called themselves Saracens. Like Hindustanis(which was umbrella Indians in past), it should be renamed to Arabians. In Muslim world, Bilet/Villayet is referred to British. Won’t you feel odd to say Villayetians instead of Britons?
Hussar is firstly used by Serbians as Light Cavalry and there weren’t Knights. After that Magyars used Light Cavalry Hussars extensively. Polish Winged Hussar came after Serb and Magyar Hussars. Hussar then became general term for Light Cavalries in Europa. That’s why Game’s name choice of Hussar for Light Cavalry is in place.
I don’t care. If you were making a Fantastic Beasts movie you wouldn’t go “You know, this Dumbledore guy feels kind of weird to me. I get that it’s pivotal to the plot that this is the future headmaster of Harry’s school, but can’t he just be a woman named Trixie instead? Maybe a trans-woman while we’re at it?” Okay, bad example, people might be tempted to actually do that. The point is: this is not Age of Empires 4, or an entirely separate historical game. It’s still a continual rework of a classic, catering for a large part to people who liked the classic to begin with. There can be changes to the old stuff, but they should serve a clear purpose, preferably to make the game more fun. Trashbows instead of I already forgot what it did for Persians was a good change, made them more fun. “The name feels out of place” is not enough for me. Especially when as others have pointed out there is a broader historical context in which it does make at least some sense, and “elite light cavalry” is a boring uninspired name.
There is a mod for AOC/HD Edition, which had Wingless Hussar. Looking from south side of sprite is fine. From north side, it does create a small issue.
Devs got hands in 3d models after all than what it was in AOC/HD days. Changing saddle and slight armor change with current model should resolve this. We are getting reskin Battle Elephants and other things for events which I find unnecessary. Seems like money should be spent somewhere else instead of those temporary events which is uncalled for.
now imagine this in an actual fight where you can’t just tell at a glance as other units block part of the vision. not so easy now is it?
or how about we don’t change stuff just to change stuff and leave it alone?
yes they absolutely should spend that time and money elsewhere. like bugs, balance, bringing map voting in game, and ladder fixes, among others. not on changes that serve only the purpose of change for the sake of change.
you want stuff like this? ask for it as a client side only, optional, non data mod. you get to see what you want and others get what they want.
I think you totally missed my point in my later para as well.
I still remember just within this forums people saying Indians are totally fine. When it clearly wasn’t and was a total bad design. If not I was one of the vocal here about Indians design and got this “make yourself a mod” replay. Yet here we are. Original AOE2 themselves said they made many bad design decisions in past due to time constraints. You can still see old forums post in past and they themselves admitted having oriental approach to design civs and units.
There has been far more radical changes like Feudal water battles. Many old school players were fine with Feudal Galleys. So why added Feudal Fire ship and Demo? Many old school players didn’t liked Multi-Queue of Userpatch and wanted optional. Now its mandatory, Xolotl Warrior of Stable in DE was the sake for it, Hardly mattered at all and was just for the sake of it.
This is not the first time I am making this thread. Many others did it already not long ago. I still remember posts from HD days even. Its just a simple tweak and move on. Don’t get this elitist way of thinking. I still see it a UU for a specific civ but somehow ended up becoming an all rounded unit for all civs.
boom you get what you want and you get to be happy. and others get what they want and get to be happy.
zero reason to change the sprite and name of the unit. Just because you’ve been right about some stuff in the past doesn’t make you right about this. just because stuff has changed in the past doesn’t mean you have to change everything.
asking for unit skins to be non data mods is the easiest solution to your perceived problem.
it was an umbrella civ, which at the time was pretty much the status quo, nowadays we are breaking umbrellas. so it made sense to split them.
for diversity in water play in feudal, obviously. and also because of balance - if you can start massing up galleys in feudal, it doesn’t matter if fire ships are the answer if you can’t make them in feudal.
oh no they added an easter egg unit. a fun unit. who cares?
it’s not a simple tweak. and your logic isn’t even accurate. you ask to call them medium cavalry when they aren’t even medium cavalry.
well first of all this is just wrong. Hussars were around before the polish adopted them and made the infamous polish winged hussars.
Second of all, I don’t see you talking about taking away Paladins from every civ that isn’t the French and Burgundians, despite Paladin literally being a French thing.
Thirdly, it’s not elitist to put READABILITY over Accuracy. Readability caters to literally everyone.
It can be. am I fighting light cav with +2 or hussars with +4? makes a bit of a difference.
if you have 30 arbs and you see 20 knights heading your way you are less worred then if 20 cavalier are coming your way no?
again, if you want something like this, is having skins as a mod such a bad option?
In that case make everything a skin mod and solve all those ridiculous issue which belongs in this game which is just few tweaks away… Just change armor texture and half of the things said here can be solved. Not even a re-3d modelling
