they have only to keep on making an option to choose for.
Pretty reasonable for both performance and visuals quality
You see how they brought the Ambient Occlussion an option to choose even to turn it off
Animations are a part of a unit. They can’t be turned on or off.
Yeah but those are VFX not animations
In fact animation quality is already an option in Graphics
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It could be VFX for the death animations, I’m not sure how they’re done these days in Essence. But animations in buildings are definitely actual animation (when done).
Speaking of animations…
There’s an animation that’s awful in AoEIV.
However, in AoE2:DE it’s great.
I’m sad that it still hasn’t been properly animated.
The animation is the “elephants’ melee combat”.
In AoE2:DE it’s very easy to see the exact moment the elephant delivers its blow.
In AoEIV, the animation is still very bad; many times it doesn’t even look like the attack was delivered.
This was literally addressed in this DLC. When was the last time you played?
If we’re going to criticise animations, look no further than Streltsy.
Yesterday I played with Delhi… I noticed that the elephant subtly shook its head… it really seemed like there had been some alteration.
However, it’s difficult to see this in a battle with many units on the screen.
Note: Or maybe my memory recorded the bad animation so strongly in my nightmares that I can’t see almost any current improvement. Rsrsrsrs
But I would expect a more noticeable improvement.
Example:
- In AoE2:DE the elephant violently shakes its head forward. It’s very easy to see, even in a battle with many units on the screen, it’s very visible.
- In AoE4, the animation, despite having been subtly altered, is still very unnoticeable in a battle with many units, when compared to AoE2:DE.
AoE2 is fundamentally a very different style. Its animations are retro rather than following realistic movements. From units gliding across the floor, to 0-100 physics breaking zero momentum swings.
They’ve absolutely improved the Elephant Melee attack. It’s still not bombastic, but this is genuinely how Elephants swing at things. More importantly, this is a massive improvement over the very soft sway they did before.
You mentioned that you played Delhi. It’s possible that the slow attack speed is contributing to this feel. Because they’ll attack and then stand around for 2 seconds. Try Tower of Victory Tughlaq Raider Elephants and you’ll get closer to that AoE2 feel you desire.
Remember, they’ve also added Trample which is an entirely new animation. And their charge attack animation is pretty solid too, though they rarely get to use it.
Again. Streltsy’s animation is actually broken. And while Elephant’s animations aren’t incredible, they have made it better and it feels believable now.
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Yes, really,
I just finished a match, playing as Delhi.
They finally have a new attack animation.
It’s quite calm and smooth, nothing too flashy. But at least they have it now.
But as you said, each attack takes almost 2 seconds…
With this slowness in the attacks, I ended up with that bad memory from the past, where the elephants were almost standing still…
And wow, it took them years to make this new animation, it’s 2025 and they only did it now.
But I’m more relieved that at least they’ve listened to the community… despite the delay in fixing it.
I haven’t tested this “Streltsy” unit yet.
I hope they fix it at some point.
Yes, I suppose it will be done in a future season or DLC…
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I wonder, could they reuse the existing camel asset to replace Deer in desert biomes?
I figure they’ve avoided adding diversity due to lack of funds, but this should be pretty cheap. Though it is missing the carcass asset, I don’t imagine it being too difficult to put together with existing assets and textures.
Seems like an easy win.
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We have already a replacement of Berry bushes for Prickly Pear Bushes. They should replace all deer and wolves in other Biomes. So we could have gazelles and Crocodiles in Savanna/Sahara Dessert, Grizzly Bears in Europe Temperate, Reindeer and Snow Leopards in a Siberia Biome, and so on and so for
On another note, I really appreciate the addition of lotus flowers to one of the new biomes too. These kinds of details are lovely.
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this here reminds me of those ponds some aoe3 maps and aoe2’s jungle biome black forest map can generate, a nice piece of great looking ambience
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They just need turtles and swans 
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those middle lakes on new england and their logs with turtles just off the shore
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Where are the bird flocks. I want them. An Age staple not present.
There are seagulls by the shore, but that’s about it.
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A nice example of what if things are done pretty well