Instead of thinking of the game as “another RTS” “another historical RTS” “another potentially-esports RTS” and make it collide with other games of the series, I’d consider it as an “RTS with early modern setting”. That is actually a big vacuum. There aren’t many major RTS games on this setting, not to mention in recent years.
I didn’t do the market research and have little idea of how big that niche is, but at least it has its own (potential) audience. I never thought say different series of Total War games or Paradox games replace each other. EU4 probably replaces EU3 but not HOI or CK. Especially Paradox tries not to make all their games feel like “another strategy game that plays the same in its core but with a different skin” but in turn designs core gameplay that fit that skin.
The setting itself and related gameplay elements that are specially designed to represent the setting could be a unique selling point of the game. I believe a lot of people go and play medieval games not just because they like the gameplay, but also because they like knights and castles. Similarly in AOE3’s setting we have fast evolving technology, combination of a wide range of weapons from primitive ones to gunpowder, exploration, interaction of the whole world for the first time and subsequently clash of very different civilizations, mass army, nationalism, revolutions, industrial revolutions, etc. that other setting would not feature., and AOE3 has several gameplay designs to reflect them, and there is large room for more.
So I hope the company does not think in this way: “well we have a lot of RTS games running so let’s drop this RTS game”.
This game is not just an “early modern RTS” but an “early modern RTS”.
This is true. The mix of the unique card system and the setting is what pulls me in—that second part even causing me to want to learn more about the period.
I was thinking of Cossacks. It’s a great game but handled by a much smaller team. It does not even have voice acting.
AOE3 is managed by a bigger company with much more resources and experience. It should be able to take greater advantage of the setting.
There was American Conquest by the same devs… infamous because each game took an eternity to finish.
There’s a few other games in the setting but they are extremely obscure (No Man’s Land anyone?)
Personally I see AoE3 as my Sandbox, literally no other AoE game allows such freedom when modding, but I would be lying if it weren’t also the setting that brings me back.
There’s not much for me in AoE2, the game is built in such a way that trying to do anything non-European feels like trying to fit a square peg down a round hole, the Americas are just an afterthought at best. Compare with AoE3, where even with all its faults and shortcomings, has the Americas front and center.
That’s absolutely a feature that should be emphasized more, if anything it’s a shame that this part of the game’s been left by the wayside since DE.
Age of Empires 3 has a similar number of online players to any of the popular historical Total War games, and more players than any of Relic’s Company of Heroes games, but we like to compare it to Age of Empires 2, which makes it seem like an RTS that no one plays.
The thing that constantly sticks in my craw is people will belittle AoE3 just because it doesn’t have AoE2 numbers as if the game is a complete failure. I’ve seen this same bad faith argument over and over again.
A lot of dev teams would be ecstatic with 3DEs numbers.
AOE3 could shine as an early modern history hodgepodge party game if properly advertised (need quite a few more contents of course).
It could provide something fresh to players tired of medieval and medieval fantasy.
I don’t think it necessarily has to have a huge fanbase of loyal and sticky players that grinds the ladder every day. This game does not run on micro-transactions so daily activity has a weaker impact on income. If it can bring a steady amount of people back with every new major content DLC, it is still good even if those people would not stay forever.
Aunque “Cossacks” tiene gran variedad estética en sus edificios todas las facciones tienen la mismas mecánicas. Una que otra unidad única pero todas las civilizaciones iguales.
True, there aren’t many early modern RTS…in Total War you only have Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2 and little else…
Yes, you are right…
Yes, they feel uncomfortable promoting AoE 3 (either because it is colonial and touches on sensitive topics in the US such as natives and plantations or because it competes with AoE 4)…
Yes, it happened to me a lot…I was in a Facebook group called “AoE World” and I saw that many posts about AoE 2 were uploaded, so I wanted to do my bit by promoting both AoE 3 and AoEO with my publications of my streams…and when It came out that AoE 3 was not going to be at RBW 2020, a moron competitive fan of AoE 2 came out saying “what does it feel like to play a dead game?”…
I agree, I have been playing it since 2005, first because of the musketeers, then because it had pirates, cowboys in TWC and finally ninjas in TAD…
In a way, it’s hard to compare Total War to Age of Empires even though both games are RTS games. They actually defined two subgenres of RTS games. When I think about RTS games, I often forget about Total War, Company of Heroes and similar games - for me, my first association with RTS games is AoE…
Yes, but I mean that except for the Cossacks saga, American Conquest, some Total War and AoE 3, the RTS of the early modern age are very scarce and niche… I hope that after they release Stalker 2, GSC releases Cossacks 4 and American Conquest in UE5 and in the case of CA, let them release Medieval 3 so that later they can have Empire 2, Napoleon 2 and Shogun 3 Total War…