Hey. In case any of the developers read this; please keep developing this.
For the rest of you, have you ever wondered why clicking a Siege unit prompts a human voice as opposed to creaking or mechanical noise? it very well could be because they were meant to have humans pushing them.
And here I’ve found some evidence from the Editor. Here you have the Siege Crew!
How do I know this is the Siege crew? I found them whilst browsing the assets and in the middle of the picture below, you can see a peculiar name. “base_siege_crew”. Another bit of evidence was that one of these assets, the Mongol one, had a little hammer. And they all seem to be artisans of some kind, with a little pouch and some sigils on their chests.
One interesting thing to note is both Malian and Ottoman have models, the two white models to the right as well as the caped guy next to them. Now, I’m 99% sure that the Malians are reusing the Delhi and Abbasid crew models, and that the Ottoman one is reusing somekind of Abbasid model. What is interesting however, is that they are even there to begin with. Named as such, under those civilizations. It could mean they are still intending on following through with it?
Another interesting thing to note is that the Mongol one seems the least finished out of the base civilizations. And that both Delhi and Abbasid shares the same models. So it is very likely that the developers stopped developing this as they ran out of time, because some of these assets have quite a lot of effort put into them. They seemingly have two stages to them, likely for Castle and Imperial. Look at the HRE ones for example. Lots of effort.
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I have noticed some statements that adding crews may leading more unrealistic. I disagree pletely. Actually, we already have an excellent example, the Age of Empire 3.
But to be honest, I don’t have confidence that they will really focus on the issue of realism. After all, it seems that Relic really don’t have peoples to improve this game.
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That is the kind of reasoning people improvised to defend a particular thing.
I could make a lot of logic like this: horses walk with their legs, but they still slide when turning around, so it becomes more unrealistic. Then we should make them float so that the sliding does not look unrealistic anymore.
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Yep, we modders have found a lot of unused stuff, unused buildings, unused icons, unused mechanics etc.
This is interesting…
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It was there since the Content Editor was released.
Then it was never really updated and stayed the same.
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It does make sense that they were planning this in hindsight. It was kind of featured in AoE2 and definitely featured in AoE3. There is also lots of small evidence of it in the game. Like the fact that Siege don’t make a mechanical sound when selected, but instead have a human voice.
Or how icons of for the Mangonel and Bombard both feature wheels, despite being wheelless.
Probably ended up being too expensive to develop, but seeing as they have many of the models already made, heres hoping they’ll keep working on it!
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If the modding was as permissive as the other AoE games, we could make a visual mod. But sadly the current modding system doesn’t allow to do that…
An official mod (like Age of Empires 2 events) or, better, an official graphical option could be really cool.
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Wait, there’s no wheels on those things? They just of magically slide around the map? Wow.
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I’m always bewildered when I see former AoE3 pro players/content creators who shifted over to AoEIV never say a thing about how bad the siege is compared to AoE3. Between a lack of siege crews, going poof upon death, and poor animations/physics upon getting struck by a cannonball that is an area that objectively imo AoEIV took a major step back. Even AoE2, AoM and AoEO have superior siege.
A well-placed Onager shot mowing down ten units is still a highlight in every AoE2 game. I’ll never tire of that feeling of satisfaction when a handful of Falconets in AoE3 send an entire army flying all over the place. It is so rewarding.
The siege in AoEIV is just less engaging, fun, and memorable. When I reflect on it, I realize that is something that put me off the game completely.
Two areas that I’d love to see addressed are siege and graphical details ie more flora and fauna, etc. Make the maps feel less sterile. AoEIV has a real immersion problem. The charm and personality of previous games are nowhere to be found. It saddens me.
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I think you kinda answered your own question. People who make money playing a game have an incentive to mask their criticisms of that game. I don’t have very much regard at all for the opinions of content creators.
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Something I love about Mangonels/Onagers in AoE 2 is how its projectiles have visible weight as they fly much slower than their AoE 4 counterparts. That makes it satisfying watching a well-placed shot. It’s even more satisfying due to this unit doing friendly fire, causing a devilish joy when the opponent hits its own units.
As for the AoE 3 example - I’d love if AoE 4 had Havoc to enable units flying all over the place after being hit by Mangonels.
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Not holding my breath, but my god would this be amazing and a step in the right direction!
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Siege weapons have a packed and unpacked state. In the packed state they roll around on wheels 
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I really hope these actually got implemented because:
- 25% I think it will be great
- 75% I’m looking forward to the new theory of those who taught me crewless is a genius design.
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So they have considered implementing them… probably dropped because of the early release or development problems. Considering everything it would be surprising if they are still doing it…
If they already implement it on engine, then release it and let players toggle it on/off!
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