This game is very different and has way too many unique things. Everything pops up and can be identified easily. Moreover, the art design and animation of everything is great and unique.
Remember this is a turn-based strategy game. Fewer units, smaller buildings, etc. AOE is different and people struggle to understand this.
AOE games always had a lot of units and bigger buildings. That means more details are needed. However, the CIV units are more detailed and have better animations and even stances. This is where the problem is.
The UI of the AOEIV is very bad looking and the same for every civilization. There is no uniqueness and soul.
They did (more than) fine:
There’s nothing I can do to convince people who have a different opinion, nor do I want to. All I want is for the game to continue improving.
Well, one is ranked at 95%, the other at 85%. And considering the average steam player today is a zoomer, yes i can see why the latest thing™ is more popular…
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I was referring to the visuals. I could’ve written “saturated colour tones”, caricatures instead of realistic faces, cel shading instead of proper textures - that’s what distinguishes mobile art style from classic. But i thought a picture is better than thousand words
Video from a year and a half ago and I didn’t know it existed, KEKW.
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I’d be very surprised if that discrepancy is solely because of the graphical style.
(which by the way in no way relates to quality - the style of CiV was more realistic but the level of detail was much, much poorer than in VI)
Ultimately, preference is preference. But objectively, photorealism isn’t and can never be automatically "good: just like stylised can never be automatically “bad”.
This is why the terrain visual overhaul in Season 5 for AoE IV was received so well, despite not changing the art direction at all. It simply upgraded the quality of what was on display.
I think that’s all a lot of people want from IV in terms of aesthetics. Greater fidelity; greater polish. More atmosphere.
Cel shading has nothing to do with “proper textures”, and neither have anything to do with “mobile art”. Cel shading has existed for decades in animation and indeed video games (anyone remember Viewtiful Joe, for the Gamecube? That was released in 2003!).
Comments like these really illustrate the issue in taking opinion as fact.
May I propose to you the contrast between AoE Online (supported through Project Celeste) a PC only title, and the AoE mobile game in development?
Cartoon style PC game
Realistic style mobile game
Bonus round!
AoE IV, a _______ style game!
My god, that mobile aoe looks a million times better than aoe4 honestly…
That’s a shame WTF
Just shows what budget game aoe4 is…
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100%, but it’s a common marketing strategy to mix pre rendered cutscenes that aren’t available to the game. Mobile game ads always have a crazy glow-up!
For example:
Took time to find gameplay, and… wow! They did make a very pretty game:
################################################ (I guess only official paid reviews are allowed, so below is a channel that is permitted. I would have preferred a no commentary video. Capitalism 
)
Remember, that is the minimum requirement.
Your video just underlines it…
Aoe4 is a freaking budget game.
I’m really sorry for Relic so say it so directly, aoe4 is absolute trash tier for 2021 triple aaa rts graphically.
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I see a difference in style more than anything else. I really don’t understand what you’ve witnessed that has left the impression of AoE IV being a low budget production.
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Very interesting that this differs to the official image for Byzantines. There looks to be some asian units in the background, featuring even the Roman walls that surrounded Constantinople. So my dreams of having actual new wall assets for Byzantines were seemingly crushed early on.
Hell, it looks like there is 3 versions of this image.
The last one seems the most polished? But i does look different, notably the fire, axe and lighting.
You still don’t know why?
We can talk about plastic weapons
It’s not that I don’t read the comments that people make, it’s that the complaints are ill-defined, even non-sensical at times. The onus of explaining the issue is with the people who take issue, not with people who don’t understand what they take issue with. It would be nice to have a conversation on the matter without being asked loaded questions that assume automatically that the game is:
- low budget
- poorly conceived
- in general bad
while also claiming that everyone who doesn’t agree with the dissenting opinion is in some way biased or ignorant.
I’m asking for the common decency of an explanation to a perspective I do not share.
also important to note is that the graphics looked acceptable (nothing special but not terrible either) at best even in og 2019 trailer, now the real kicker, why is the lighting on every single map available the exact same tone and angle exactly? even aoe2 handled this better and its not even 3D, this is another council call from my understanding (ig esports boys, who btw are overrepresented big time in the council, called this one with 90% certainty)
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mobile
Really just different versions of the same saturated, cartoony graphics. I mean if it’s what you look for in a RTS, more power to you. But to me it is unappealing.
Look at this fanmod of a game from 2008, (c&c generals: evolution). The engine is 16+ years old by now, but look at the proportions. The colorscheme. Plus it’s a title exclusively made by fans, for pro play, for free. Imagine if you gave these guys millions of dollars ontop…
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As a council member and without going too much into detail (bc NDA), this is definitely not a decision made due to “esports boys”. Almost every pro competing these days in AoE 4 joined the council after the release.
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doesn’t make it any less puzzling, with how easily this could be fixed
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Oh for sure. I just wanted to throw that in because I noticed people like to use the council as a scapegoat for literally everything 
I think Age of Noob also played around with the lightning settings in his videos showing how much better AoE 4 could look if devs do something with it.