"the biggest content update in Age II: DE history"

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
21

And the campaigns too?

22

Yes, that is, they said that they would put all the content of AoE 1 DE in AoE 2, both civs and campaigns, although perhaps they still do not have cinematicsā€¦

23

I wonder if they will make it free, having to buy the same game 3 times would be kind of sad.

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24

Maybe itā€™s free for those who already have AoE 1 DE and paid for those who only have AoE 2 DEā€¦

25

Could be a rework of water gameplay, more buildings, more technologies, modifications to something generic like university techs, DWL 9 vill start as a new game mode, Lobby improvements, matchmaking improvements - could be one or more of these or something else totally new as well.

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26

I think the ā€œbiggest content updateā€ and RoR are two separate things.

27

For me, it also reads as if the update and the DLC are not related. I really hope for a water rework and an improved UI on PC.

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28

That sounds one of the most likely things to happen.
A lot of rebalance on land seems unlikely. The game is not in a particularly bad balance state.
Naval is not fun and definitely not balanced between civilisations.
Getting all civs on the same level would be unreasonable but at last having a set of 10+ civilisations that are equal on water would be nice.

One thing that fits the description of balance and content would be alternative Unique Technologies.
In the Romae at Bellum introduced the feature that you can select between two Unique Technologies in each Castle and Imperial Age.
This would allow to give more civilisations options for different map types like open vs closed maps or land vs water maps and 1v1 vs team games.
So you wouldnā€™t have the issue of having completely useless unique technologies.

Also not to hard to make powerful civs not more powerful by giving them unique technologies that only help on certain map types. If the Franks only get alternative unique technologies that help them on water maps then they wonā€™t get any stronger in Arabia 1v1.

It would also help civilisations with some matchups without making them stronger at others.
If the Vietnamese get an anti cavalry bonus then they wonā€™t get any stronger in matchups against archer civilisations because they would not chose that unique tech int those matchups.

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29

Content, sure. But balance? Itā€™s hard enough for the devs to create an agreeable state of balance for 42 civs with static techs. Alternative UTs would make civ matchups extremely unpredictable and weird, and coming up with 84 new techs to create a situational alternative universe for the existing 42 civs would be a massive waste of time and design space. Cool idea for a Mod (R@W), or AoM (which has a small fraction of the factions of AoE2, and needs alternate tech paths to provide varied gameplay). But not for (competitive) AoE2

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30

I agree.

This is something I donā€™t ever see coming, since it is already hard enough to find useful bonuses for new civs.

31

Originally there was plan for 2 different buildings - Port for non-combatant ships and Dock for warships. There is a small chance on that.

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32

It wouldnā€™t be easy for sure but thatā€™s why it fits the description of biggest content and balance update.

An alternative to that would be to only add an alternative UT in Castle or Imperial and not both.
A lot of potential UTs could be just focused on water maps. There are barely any water UTs.
And some could be things that would never be helpful at a high level of play but fun for less experienced players.

Maybe just a 3rd UT that you can always research but itā€™s designed to only help in some matchups or on some maps.

I donā€™t know if they currently struggle to find good UTs for new civs or if the opposite is the case and the have a big internal document of scrapped UT ideas they would love to use.

Anyway just trying to think what would match both new content and balancing.

I would actually like that. Docks are too easy to spam.
Having a more expensive one for military ships would be nice.

Shipyard:

  • Costs Wood and Stone
  • Shoots arrows like a Harbor but stronger
  • Builds Warships

And then the game could add some new ships:
Scout Ship (trash ship), Mangonel Ship, Melee Ship, Monk Ship, Builder Ship etc.

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33

clearly you donā€™t know who I am.
I recommend you proceed with caution.

34

Cool. That has nothing to do with this thread.

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35

Iā€™m not sure tbh. Water games may reach stalemate more than often after that.

Originally there was plan for this unit as well. They

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36

This is exactly what RaW mod has. SOTL even made a video about it:

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39

Iā€™ve seen that video. I donā€™t think something like this big overhaul will ever happen.

40

Iā€™ve seen that.
Most things they added are things that were originally planned for AoE2 but then scrapped. Thatā€™s why there is code in the game for things like the builder ships or the monk ship.

41

I think this is on the right track; the new update will surely feature thousands of (mostly Medieval) recipes added to the civ history section, and a new DLC that will port a historically-themed cooking show into AoE2 (Delicacies of India? Dawn of the Cooks? Lords of the Zest? The Last Prawns? Rice of the Rajas?)

Not only does this satisfy the ā€œcontentā€ and ā€œbalanceā€ aspects - particularly in the sense of one being content after eating a balanced breakfast and being capable of peak gameplay - but it signals the delayed fulfilment of the ā€œsomething different and unknownā€ from the Roadmap.

7 Likes
42

This statement is probably as true as the things promised in the road map for 2022. I dont think these things seriously until they be more specific and really clear about it.