The art style of this game

[Huge5000RTSFan]

@IamDalv

It’s a very good thing for us Dawn of War 3 and AoE Online happened. Now they can look back and learn from that. So it is unlikely they are going to make the same mistakes again.

Somehow, they don’t learn from their mistakes.
After AoE Online we got Age of Empires: Castle Siege.

@Ziad5241

@Huge5000RTSFan

Dawn of War 3

while plays part of it but it was because of it being a warhammer 40k game but it was just small reason here is the big reason why it’s failed

-Lack of direction and focus as every dawn of war game didn’t feel likes it’s similar in term of core gameplay.
-sega’s allotted budget for Dawn of War III was $3.5 million with a 1 year development time.
-MOBA-style play
-reduction in faction count
-Poor map design
-not so many maps at the release
-Poor faction balance
-you can rush the mid core but rushing your enemy’s base is not allowed? this is bad game design
-Limited strategy
-Very poor matchmaking
-very poor campaign and storytelling

There have been made several maps and mods for the game to fix those issues,
several times was game free2play for some days, still it didn’t save the game.

So its probably more issues, that were not fixed.

@Ziad5241

because this artstyle doesn’t fit age of empires series?, let games with realistic to have realistic graphics, as aoe series never went with these kind of art direction and change it to same as manor lords would be very weird, let manor lord be manor lord.

It’s not about to make Graphics hyperrealistic, but pleasant to look.

@Ziad5241

i still can’t tell since what we saw was just 2 seconds of gameplay, i will wait for the event to see more footage to judge.

Look, for over a decade we have seen Gamers,
to complain about 2 things in general: Graphics and Gameplay.

Lets take as example Conan Unconquered vs They are Billions here in Summary

Summary

2 games with same gameplay, but one is a failed AAA,
the other a very successful indie game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99dSg5VOcdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtmZtTBsN1E

I wondered myself why Conan Unconquered died off so fast, while still several thousand people do play They are Billions online. They are Billions started with just a survival mode, Conan had campaign, co-op, much more different unit types. Both games are about to build up your fortress, hire units and defend against waves of enemies.

But if we compare what exactly people are experiencing. It is significantly different.

The art style by They are Billions is simply more pleasant to look, it feels like you are pushing the darkness away and slightly enlight the so rounding, so it still maintains its own charm, you are not distracted with extra intense animations and colours, it does stay calm, so its easy even for hours to keep track at the development.

Conan Unconquered feels like your hero and units do by each attack activate for short a laser sword, with extra intense animation, what for? As battles get bigger, it starts to be distracting and changes, from greyed out fog of far, to intense short flickering laser sword fights. This switch is very bad. And it hard to keep focus by those intense colours and animations, it starts to look milky /blurred if you play long.

And it does transit into gameplay as well, while in the indie game you start to command bigger and bigger army, in AAA your army keeps small.

While economy is similar, you are in the end generating by They are Billions more units,
if you merely did build 10 in Conan, in Tab it can be already 50. And by unit types their gameplay feeling is in Tab more different, Tab archer and sniper are very different by their damage and movement speed. In Conan you have maybe 3 different melee and 5 different ranged units, but they move in very similar speed. Conan is in comparison simply more simplified and streamlined.

Is They are Billions realistic ? No.
It’s simply about to have an Art style, so the game looks properly.