I said something similar in the AOE4 thread about “AOE3-like designs” and got banned for two days for being off topic. But with the new DLC I want to expand on the same thing:
AOE2 is an RTS with a medieval setting and people love it for its setting and gameplay.
It is not your minigame launcher.
You’ve already stuffed an AOE1DE, then a “real” AOE1DE (what it should have been) and now yet another campaign that diverges so far both in the setting and gameplay, into AOE2.
What next? A Napoleonic campaign? A WW2 campign? A Star Wars Galactic Battleground porting?
Look at your own series.
If you want to make pre-medieval or early modern contents, there are three games for that.
If you want to play with fantastical mechaincs, there is a game for that.
If you want to sell gimmicky civ designs and impactful interactive map elements, there is a game for that.
If you want to introduce “variant ways of playing the old civs”, there are two games for that.
They have their audience. Not as big. But still big enough. And they are eagerly waiting for contents.
Expand those games. Or make your own separate games if you hate your own “not profitable” games.
Don’t exploit AOE2’s popularity to sell its players whatever you want that does not fit in the game. If you want to sell anything to AOE2 players, and run out of civ designs, make AOE2 campaigns, maps, special modes, etc.
It is not your minigame launcher.
49 Likes
I don’t know why it could happen and why Dev excitedly tell us AoE2 is moving into a new stage, doesn’t he know this will anger us all? Or he even think we will welcome it? Why a man can have such idea when he hasn’t gone mad?
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If only one of V&V, Chronicles and 3K happened, or they came between real AOE2 DLCs, people would have given them passes just like ROR. But it’s three DLCs like that in a row.
What I feel about WE is the complete lack of a clear idea about their games and what makes them great to their own audiences. All they care about is things that can sell, needs minimal cost, and can be rolled out asap. They don’t care about the games’ own theme or consistency. They don’t mind a whacky roster or 10 different icons on the sidebar for their out-of-place sub-games.
The omens were already there when they chose to add “Jeanne d’Arc” or “Zhu Xi’s Legacy” alongside real nations and civilizations (when there were 100 more valid and expected choices before them). But people defended it fiercely, and they got away with it. So now prepare to embrace more BS in every game they keep supporting.
22 Likes
I’m seriously baffled it took the players so much time to figure out this game is going to die that way. I knew after LotW DLC slapped an absurdly out of place AoE3 civ (Burgundians) right into my face that this will be a Sims 4 style DLC hog with little coherence.
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Burgundy at least was in the timeline
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But it also had zero non-AoE3 new content. Unique techs? Revolution and Rice Paddy.
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Three Kingdoms should be its own separate thing. Design is very very awkward to play and doesnt even belong to the timeline. Either its own SP only thing or make it something to Chronicles timeline.
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This DLC is not what I expect when I made this meme last year
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Worse —— the Three Kingdoms are added to the base game not a Chronicles 
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The aesthetic and look of AoE2 is unique. I like it. A lot can be done with it. I never did like how in gaming, once a really good game is made with an engine, they never try to make a super good game with the same engine. They always jump ship and build stuff from near scratch, and it often doesn’t work out nearly as well.
If a lot of new unique stuff, like Jurassic era, inter-galactic era, and all points in between can be made in this engine, why not do it, imo. The engine is really cool, and the engine’s magic and gameplay has been impossible to recreate in 3D or in any AoE game since AoE2.
The devs have a love and passion for the game engine and what it can do. I like the thought of the engine lasting forever through the creation of lots of content, some of which isn’t pigeon-holed to AoE2’s specific medieval era.
Then again, they could package that ‘other stuff’ up and make a completely separate release rather than putting it in AoE2’s Chronicles or DLCs, but I’m not convinced that would accomplish a whole lot; just a different way to access the same content. I’d rather open up AoE2:DE and access all that. At least for a while. If it becomes too big for its britches, will chat again
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They could just use the same engine to make new games. That’s a common practice.
The bottom line is those 3K civs should belong to another Chronicles just like Athens and Sparta. I think most people, except for the pvp only tryhards who sees all units and civs as merely a pile of numbers, would prefer to have a consistent skirmish roster, not Chinese vs Wu.
The only reason is these will get less exposure if not sold as AOE2 DLCs. And they don’t want to spend the effort.
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Even Multiplayer folks will hate Shu, Wei and Wu because they’re even more gimmicky than Burgundians, Sicilians etc.
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I saw it coming with chronicles tbh with which people were too excited with imo. It already felt like the game lacked direction. Yeah cool and dandy stuff but it felt like lacking in vision and random for the sake of surprise.
Now honestly my problem with the 3 kingdoms is not the timeframe, after all medieval China is sometimes considered to start with the 3 kingdoms at the earliest. Yes it’s still a bit of a stretch but it’s acceptable, it’s not they added Macedonians.
What feels wrong to me it’s the civ design and the fact that single states were never added, they should have added cultures, even Di, Xianbei or Xiongnu would have been ok if they really wanted to make a dark age DLC.
And also the mechanics like training heroes maybe would have been better for chronicles.
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For me, even the Huns and Romans shouldn’t have been added, since the original game clearly stated it covers history starting from the fall of Rome.
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It’s an outdated vision of history, don’t take a line written in 1999 so seriously and lastly Asia doesn’t bother too much with the fall of Rome so the 3 kingdoms is not entirely out of the timeframe.
Either the fall of Han or the rise of Tang is the beginning of the middle ages in china so the middle is their late antiquity / dark age which can fit in aoe2.
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I agree completely with OP. The last three DLCs (including the upcoming one) feel weird compared to the rest. I would have hoped the most unorthodox thing would have been the new civ designs and not stretching the theme of the game to something it wasn’t supposed to be.
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I’d take unit looks as the reference.
The earliest-looking units before Romans (which I think is a bad idea) are from the migration period (400s), like throwing axeman. I consider that as the starting time of the game.
1 Like
Romans I agree with but Huns started the Great Migration and had their peak roughly around 500 unlike Romans which are just a dead corpse by then. In my eyes, Huns are fine. Especially considering that Ensemble added them.
I can’t wait to see Homo erectus vs Neanderthals in AOE II.
10 Likes
I actually like what they did with the spartans in chronicles, as I think that microing around with a polemarch in early game would be really cool (also if they are not in ranked), but I see that it is very gimmicky. Limiting this to one ranked civ would be fine in my opinion. The polemarch also isn’t completely op and it is an anonymous entity. It’s gimmicky, but cool.
But what they did with the 3K civs is really lame. When you only can build one hero unit in imp for 1k res, the game probably has progressed far enough that the only real viable thing a human can do is to boringly place it behind your army for the boost. In addition to this it’s a specific person with totally broken and unrealistic stas, so it doesn’t feel cool, but unrealistic and weird.
So even as someone who is more open to gimmicks and such than the average person here, I still find the 3K hero units really lame
(btw I am also really not a fan of the 3K civs from a historic perspective, but except the hero units I am hyped for more civs to play in ranked, purely from a gameplay perspective. I still wish that it were different civs)
1 Like