Some ideas for home city customization

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
1

Asians

  • Patrol
    Sentry patrol the home city.

  • Rickshaw
    A fully loaded rickshaw. There are two types, and the player can choose one of them.
    One is that it moves around the city. The other is that it is parked beside the Customs House without the man and horse since the owner is going to look for a horse to pull it.

Chinese:

  • Noble Lady
    Similar to French Noblewomen and European Nice Lady. Beautiful young noblewomen in traditional Manchu costume. Her dress is more gorgeous and has differences from the current female pedestrians.

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  • Imperial Official
    The high-level officials of Qing Dynasty ready to travel around the city to collect taxes.

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  • Porter
    A male villager wearing a bamboo hat is in a hurry to deliver the goods on his carry pole.

  • Sedan Chair
    Similar to European Royal Coach. This sedan chair and its porters wait upon the royalty/bride beside the house.
    There are a royal one (golden) and a bridal one (red), and the player can choose one of them.
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Japanese:

Indians

  • Brahminy Kite
    Similar to United States Bald Eagle. Soaring in the sky of Delhi.

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  • White Tiger / Lion
    In the cage next to the Merchants’ Guild, there is an untamed beast waiting for the monks to take care of. The player can choose either white tiger or lion the beast is.

  • Cannon
    On the tower of the Fortress an European cannon bought from the British is defending the capital of the Empire.

  • Running Gurkha
    A Gurkha who is running fast through the street seems to be running away from something.

  • Angry Rhinos
    Require “Running Gurkha”. The rhinos are chasing that Gurkha angrily. Oh, perhaps he need a bamboo.

Haudenosaunee and Lakota
I’m not sufficiently familiar with Native American culture, so not sure which is good advice. But I think it should be possible to give the Tribal Leader, Wise Woman, Messenger and Warrior some new outfits.

  • Hunting Dog
    Tribal Leader’s best friend.

  • Prey Fur
    High-quality fur, can be exchanged for something good with Europeans.

  • Bags, Wooden Boxes and Clay Pots
    Used to store food and daily necessities.

  • Rifles
    Weapons given by Europeans in exchange for furs.

  • Sun-drenched Lighting (Haudenosaunee)
    A beautiful sunny day in Caughnawaga.

  • Starry Night (Lakota)
    Night fall on the Great Plains, and stars shine on the Great Council.

Incas

  • Peruvian Dogs
    Some Peruvian dogs frolic in the marketplace.

  • Priestess
    The priestess come out of the Palace and preached to the people.

Aztecs

  • Turkeys
    A flock of turkeys is raised by the Marketplace, waiting for consumers to buy them.

  • Plumed Archers
    A group of outlanders with bows visit our great Tenochtitlan. They say they are Mayans.

  • Macaw
    A brightly colored New World parrot soaring in the sky.
    Similar to Chinese Imperial Official and Plumed Archers above that implies the AoE2 and 4, the Macaw here is also an Easter egg that implies the design of AOE2’s Central America map.

Mexicans

  • Macaw
    Same as the Aztec Macaw.
    Even though the empire is gone, it is still in this sky.

United States

  • Amelia Black
    She comes to Washington D.C. for business. If the player chooses the statue of Nathaniel Black, Amelia will stop in front of the statue and reminisce for a while.

  • Major Cooper
    He comes in person to persuade Capitol to give more budget. If he meets Amelia, they’ll stop and chat for a while.

Europeans

  • Academy Guards (ALL)
    Similar to United States Academy Guards. The War Academy of each European civs also need them.

  • Iron Horse (British)
    A steam locomotive on the railroad, like the one in St. Louis in the campaign.

  • Bullfighter (Spanish)
    Well dressed he is on his way to the bullring.

  • Snowmen (Swedes)
    On sides of the street, there is thick snow and snowmen made by children.

  • Envoy (Dutch)
    Don’t send him to the colonies! He still has a mission in the homeland.

  • Imam (Ottomans)
    The others have Reverend, and the Ottomans should have Imam too.

  • Japanese Emissary (Portuguese)
    Based on TenshĹŤ embassy. Coming to Europe with the help of the Jesuits, he is observing this exotic country. If the player is using Portuguese to fight against Japanese, he will not appear.

Africans

  • Merchant
    A merchant leads his camel full of goods from afar.

  • Water Carrier
    Woman carrying a pot of water on her head.

  • Guards
    Some Neftenya (Ethiopians) or Maigadi (Hausa) stand guard on the top floor of the Palace.

  • Mortar (Ethiopians)
    A Sebastopol Mortar is placed on the top floor of the Palace.

  • Canoe (Hausa)
    A fishing canoe is docked on the shore next to the Waterplace.

  • Thick-billed Raven (Ethiopians) and Hooded Vulture (Hausa)
    Birds soaring in the sky. The former one is a corvid from the Horn of Africa and the biggest one in the world. The latter one is a kind of vulture native to sub-Saharan Africa, typically unafraid of humans and frequently gathers around habitation.

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15 Likes
2

The Mughals had formidable cannon. It doesn’t have to be bought from the British lol.

Also monks cannot magically train or calm down untamed tigers. Don’t know why this is in the game.

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3

From what I read, the artillery of the Mughal Empire was very worn out in the later period and had to rely on Europeans.

The relation between white tigers/lions and monks is based on the mechanics that the Indian monks can train white tigers and lions in the game. I do not mean that the monks can truly train or calm down the beasts, so I use the neutral word “take care of”.

4

You are basically enhancing the problems that the India civ has in the first place.

The India civ doesn’t know whether it’s British India or Mughal India. It’s a stereotypical mishmash of the two.

Since the AI personality is Akbar and it’s the “elephant civ”, I’m going to assume that it’s the Mughals. And Mughals already had formidable cannon at their peak, i.e, around when Akbar was the leader.

In that case no need to buy European cannon.

The Brahmins training tigers is such a weird thing. It’s not like Indian Brahmins can tame wild animals. It just furthers the “Hindu spirituality” stereotype about India.

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5

So clearly that is not the issue about customization.
I agree that the Indians are worth a remake but not the point of this thread.

Even a great chef go to other people’s restaurants for dinner.
Of course they can use their own cannon but they still can use foreign cannons too.
Especially, there are already the module of the European cannon for home city customization. Reusing them is a wise choice.

It is the problem of the gameplay, not the problem of customization.
It is just a white tiger or a lion in a cage. No any monk beside it.
The monk will only be mentioned in the text, and the text can definitely be modified if the dev or people think there is something better.

Even so, “take care of” an animal I used is a more neutral words than “tame” an animal. Not the stereotype you said. Even the monk who lives near my house is also a volunteer who takes care of stray dogs. So please don’t worry about that.

6

With the introduction of Mexico, players have more access to Revolution.
I thought maybe we could make the revolutionary home city customizable as well.
Some building modules of the revolutionary home city can be replaced with the building modules from Black Family Estate.

The Chinese home city can also have an option to change the entire home city module into the Imperial Fleet Treasure Ship. Other options about people and skybox could also work on the Treasure Ship. It can be cancel to return original Beijing.

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Any idea about home city customization is welcome.

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7

The ninjas running around along the tops of buildings is so captivating. I love it.

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8

I forgot to say that the Atakabune in the Imperial Fleet should be replaced with War Junk or Fuchuan.

Perhaps in the future, the second home city can be introduced if there’s a possibility. The modules of the second home cities will have different city design (for example there is a railway station or post station instead of a river dock for an inland city), and players can switch between the first and second home cities to choose their favorite city appearance.

Some candidates I think…
British: Birmingham
French: Lyon
Dutch: Rotterdam
Germans: Vienna
Swedes: Gothenburg
Russians: Moscow
Chinese: Guangzhou (If Imperial Fleet cannot be regarded as second home city)
Japanese: Osaka
Indians: Mumbai
(About Spanish, Portuguese, Ottomans, Native Americans, United States and Mexicans, I’m not sure.)

When the options for the first home city are saturated, the second home city can be a good place to add new options. This will be a good news for players who like customization and AI skirmish.

9

To suit the seasons and events.

The cherry trees in the Japanese home city can be replaced with the ginkgo trees or the snowy cherry trees without leaves (if the skybox is snow). Ginkgo tree is a common ornamental tree in Japan, often planted in shrines, temples, parks or roadsides, dyeing the city in autumn and winter with a charming golden yellow.

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The boats in the Chinese home city can be replaced with dragon boats. The Dragon Boat Festival is the most important summer event in the Chinese speaking world with a history of more than two thousand years. Modern dragon boats are usually used exclusively for competition, but ancient dragon boats have many styles, such as some with towers.

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Btw, the guard who walks back and forth in the Indian home city can also change into a new attire.