I was very specific with my words, “Pro Esports” players.
That wasn’t a dig at you
AOE2 has just fine proportions and the gameplay is great, people can distinguish the units.
But AOE4 has everything so wrong!
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So we’re back the circular back-patting over how much we can insult the devs and their attitude to the game, instead of actually discussing graphics. Alright lol.
I doubt we’ll have other games. Remake (as AoM Retold) and DLC, for sure. But i would not to see Relic as the main developer: i mean, they’re a good team and i like COH3 (i preordered It) but i think they made a bad work on this franchise.
The big problem Is: there aren’t manu RTS developers.
Amen, this Is the first time i hear this from you. Do you remember how many discussions we had about that on the graphic thread?
This game have been developed on the e-sport target and developers confirmed it on “The Art book”.
These are the actual models
These were the First prototypes (very realistic)
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Did you see any graphic update since launch? We could arguing all the time you want and with all of the respect for developers. But there’s a senso only when you could receive some feedbacks from the same developers. All i seen from the updates, PUP, and pacthes are changes which have a impact only on the multiplayer matches.
And for graphic updates i mean: differente and improved textures, more zoom level, more gaia and fauna, improved water etc…
I mean, zoom level’s the easy one, because the devs literally added a separate zoom setting. And yeah, people have noticed all sorts of minor updates to the art in the game over time.
I get that people want more. That’s completely understandable. I’ve agreed with enough criticism in this thread alone. Doesn’t justify what I was talking about though. Nothing does. People can try to say otherwise, but they’re just fooling themselves.
I can guarantee if I walked into the AoE II or AoE III subforums with that attitude, I’d get reported into oblivion within a day. Maybe I should give it a go, just to prove a point 
I’ve already had someone mock me here for not liking the art style of an Age game I don’t own. The whole point of having marketing materials (screenshots, etc) available is to make a decision before you buy it!
. . . just like people judge Age IV on its marketing materials 
Oh, and to add to my list from earlier, I think destruction animations for siege would benefit from work. People notice it a lot, especially considering they have good setup, teardown, and moving animations - the falling apart bit is very noticeable as being simplistic / recycled.
the art style of an Age game you cannot recognize the screenshot.
Because:
And you cannot make a decision on a game based on the screenshot of another game.
Funny. I have been criticizing other aspects of other AOEs in the subforums all the time. Never got flagged or reported there. The only one case is because I was showing the door to you who jumped into another subforum of the game which you do not own (or recognize the screenshot) to defend AOE4.
You act as if poor little AOE4 is the only game ever that gets this kind of treatment. How do you think AOE2 players have been speaking about AOE3 for 15 years?
And there is one fact you cannot avoid: a wide majority of players of AOE4, especially those on this forum, have enough experience and well established opinions on previous games.
Or you’re free to suggest Relic via the council to call it a different name to spare poor little AOE4 of this atrocity.
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No, I got it was AoE III. DE or not, it’s still AoE III - that much I recognised.
If I called it a different Age game, or a different RTS game completely, I’d understand you, but nah.
Not even close buddy. But if I were invested in AoE III, I’d have the same reaction there to AoE II players dunking on it. The whole “my game is better than your game” attitude is silly.
There’s some of it in the Civilisation scene (another strategy game I’m heavily into), but nothing like it is here. It’s silly.
I remember you saying AOE3 DE is a different game than AOE3 so some comparisons with AOE4 are unfair (while AOE3 DE has also been developing for 15 years so some other comparisons with AOE4 are unfair).
BTW, the “art style” (whatever it means) changes between the original game and DE. For example, the lighting and the destruction effects. And there were arguments about these before.
There is a difference between “my game is better than your game”
and
“the game needs to improve on xxxx because aaa game did it better”
If someone wants to remove the entire card system or unique units from AOE3 because AOE2, they will get fiercely objected (but not reported BTW). There is one thread going on right now.
However if someone says AOE3 needs better matchmaking, or single player contents, which are lacking compared to AOE2, or even better optimization (which is much more difficult technically) because AOE2 can run on my potato computer , rarely will one object it, or find excuses for it, or say it is not fair.
And of course these are subjective but are also valid arguments.
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Yes, and? Nothing to do with me mistaking a screenshot from the base game as being from the DE. I was surprised at how good water looks in base AoE III, at least from the screenshots that were shown. I assumed it was from the DE. I was wrong!
I still don’t like how the assets have been uprezzed and upscaled for the DE. They’re great individually, but the game as a whole doesn’t fit as well aesthetically together because you have some really flat grass textures and then modern remodelled + textured Gaia. Sticks out like a sore thumb (again, in my opinion, to me, people who like it are 100% allowed to, etc). But this isn’t just a problem with AoE III: DE - that’s my opinion of most upscaled classic games. It’s just a me thing. It doesn’t mean that AoE III isn’t a good game, or that I’d want it to look different.
It’s just not for me. I’m cool with that.
I agree. Though I always think that “better” can be subjective when it comes to art.
I’m just saying, if people were dunking on AoE III as some folks are Age IV, and I was as into III as I am IV, I’d be saying the same things.
You’re the one who asked “do you think IV is the only game that gets this kind of treatment”. I don’t. I object to this treatment wherever and whenever I come across it.
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It’s just that you cannot have AOE3 and AOE3DE being same games and different games whichever is in favor of you.
And in terms of art styles specifically, there are differences, so it’s not “still AOE3 anyway”, like you mentioned next:
As we are diving in this topic: not so much actually.
The proportions did not change between units or buildings. Units did get a slightly more “realistic” body proportion (if you look at the original, units have longer heads and shorter limbs) but that does not affect the rest.
And they allowed (yes a word I used all the time when people were defending the fixed zoom levels of AOE4) further zooming. The map and property sizes are still the same
So I wonder what you mean specifically by “most upscaled”. If it is zoom level, I just mentioned it. If it is building-unit proportion, AOE2 is much larger.
As for the grass, there is long grass depending on the biome.
Fair enough. There are people coming in just randomly bashing. I don’t agree with that behavior either but I do not want to waste my time arguing about that.
But as all your replies and most people who reply to you have specific points, when you talk about the whole “attitude” thing when replying to a serious criticism post (which, again, will never get flagged or reported), it makes me think you consider the criticism as malicious.
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When it comes to “how much development time each game got”, AoE III: DE effectively was developed twice. That’s all I mean when I talk about that kind of thing.
My opinions about the art style of AoE III: DE in particular (I never really expressed a preference r.e. AoE III, and yes, again, I own it) are to do with how all classic games tend to get upscaled.
When I say “upscaled”, I mean in terms of polycount, texture size, and so on. Nothing to do with zoom levels, or building proportions. So you had a critter that looked like a grey blob, and now you have a complete rat, or whatever. Random example, I don’t know if AoE III has rats. But there’s more of gap between the detail on the critter (which has been completely remodelled) vs. how the ground looks (because even if you increase the texture size, the underlying mesh still has a very similar level of detail to the original game).
That’s the impression I get from AoE III: DE. And other remastered games. It’s not just an AoE III: DE thing, I’m not trying to say the game’s bad or whatever. Just that the way it looks to me, aspects of the art look jarring, and I’m able to spot the “seams”. The “seams” are nowhere near as obvious in IV, because of the art style and how it’s been implemented. But IV is weaker in other areas (stuff interacting with water, other stuff I’ve already mentioned, etc).
Nah. We have a bad history, and certain posts you make don’t help that for me. It’s easy to see something as you just arguing for the sake of it, even when you might not be.
There’s been plenty of good criticism here, even when I haven’t agreed with all of it. EricGonzalezM and TheAchronic have both made good points in this thread recently (not talking about back in 2022 - talking about the recent discussion in the past couple of weeks). Where the discussion tends to turn into a mess is when someone tries to make it about a group of people personally, or the devs personally. I’m just bad at letting that kinda stuff go.
I can hardly see the same way. Maybe you should look at some videos (in high quality) before commenting on this.
Actually one frequent criticism I see is the other way round: the ground is “too detailed”. It produces too many small patches of different colors (easy comparison: the landscape is more “spotted” than AOE4 and the transition is not very smooth).
Alright. Let’s settle this once and for all.
It doesn’t speak too highly of the game we say…
Yes, and all 3 are beautiful and amazing games… the 3 more for personal issues and preferences, historical period, graphics, cards and minor tribes, the AoEO because it closed my mouth and that in 10 years became the game that should always be and good,AoM for the mythology…
Yes, FE understood better than Relic the magic and soul of the saga… They even improved everything that the original devs left in the pipeline (more continents and playable regions, more civs, better campaigns, more playable mechanics and a long etc) … if AoE 4 goes back will be by FE, not by Relic that is already focused on CoH 3…those of Relic told FE: "we throw the dead, improve it that we are going to continue developing CoH 3 "…
I would not say incompetent, but oblivious to what the saga itself is…besides that they already had a lot of work on top with CoH 3, which shows that it is its main saga, after screwing it with DoW 3 and not wanting to repeat the same as that game…
It helps that it is a 2.5D game and has almost no volumetric effects…
That’s true… I think that after releasing AoM Retold and several more DLCS for the 4 games (2DE, 3DE, 4 and AoM RE) until 2027 and maybe launching the 3 DE and Retold for Xbox and little else … after 2027 Microsoft will cann the saga for another decade…
In short, the pro players ruined the game…
I fully endorse…
Yes, he complains that AoE 4 is criticized a lot and that AoE 3 is still criticizing it 17 years after it launched…
That’s true, we have to value games for what they are… making constructive criticism if required…
I wouldn’t have said it better…
Yes, nothing happens, all right… it usually happens when you play a lot of 2D games or spend a lot of time without going back to the original AOE 3 and you say “wow how good the water looked” and then you see that it is a 2005 game and you compare it with games of the time like EE2 and LoTR: BoME1 and you are surprised by the graphic and technical wonder that ES achieved at the time…in fact AoE 3 won the award for best graphics for a game at E3 2005…and that award was only won by FPS until that moment…
Yes, there I give you the reason, it looks weird sometimes, but it is still a remaster so it is normal…you should see comparisons between in-game cinematics of aoe 3 and aoe 3 DE to see the brutal change that the game had…
No, it does not have it, but it could have it xd …
Yes, each game has its pros and cons…
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Look at the little torties, aren’t they cute? aw.
And the swans and their young?
They serve no purpose other than eye candy.
Immersion. Details.
This is the kinda stuff AoEIV needs IMO. Small graphical additions like this go a long way.
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For a game that was admittedly incomplete at launch, AoE4 sure hasn’t added very much in a year and a half to hold a candle to the Gaia in the other games. It’s maddening
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You start crying because of the graphic difference between one game and another…
Yes, for me if AoE 4 doesn’t go back, it will end up as DoW 3…
I’m glad you saw this if only for the Ethiopian flag.
Btw, we quite enjoyed your drive-by in the AoE3 discord months back. Really appreciate your AoEO talk and passion for the game. You are always welcome there.
Maybe I’ve said this already idk.
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