The game has tried many things and none continued

[ArrivedLeader22]

Disclaimer: some would come up with the argument of “uh but that was not very well received”. But it does not make sense to drop it immediately. There is a critical mass point where the game would suddenly become rich and interesting.

Also, the playerbase mostly only plays skirmish (which is in turn the result of not offering anything else). No wonder if you just release 3 scenarios to those players, they won’t be interested. The goal is not to horde all skirmish players to sp, but to attract the sp players who did not try the game because it lacks sp contents. For that you need continued support and the critical mass.

For example, not all AOE2 campaigns are good or liked. Campaign achievement rate is always low. First few DLCs of AOE2 HD did not do miracle. They never dropped that immediately. Now you can recommend AOE2 to your friends using the campaigns as one of the major selling points. Not sure if I can say the same for AOE3.

Here are the things that could be great if continued, but dropped after one or two attempts.
1. Event scenario: We got only one.

2. Historical battle or any form of sp scenario: Each AOE2 DLC adds 3~4 full campaigns. Here we got no more than 3 scenarios each. And we haven’t received a single one in two years.

3. Co-op: Because no new sp scenarios, no new co-ops either.

4. Historical map: Added one batch, hidden behind a DLC and buried in the random map list. Nothing more.

BTW, scenario editor: it has been difficult to use since legacy. DE does not improve it at all. So the custom scenario community is inactive as well. Guess why?

It gives me the feeling that time after time the devs made one attempt on something, did not achieve an immense success, and quickly lost heart and switched to something else (or forced by the highe-ups). And now we are left with a few different modes, each only offers a very limited amount of contents, and neither is rich enough to attract or retain respective potential players.

I hope to see at least one of these things worked on before you pull the plug.

[SirBarnzy1]

@ArrivedLeader22

I hope to see at least one of these things worked on before you pull the plug.

Yup. It’s so annoying because can you imagine the hype if they added to the various map/scenarios listed above plus spearheaded it with Persia (or insert another hugely popular civ suggestion) as a new civ, and then actually promoted it on social media?

Capture the attention of the folks that have decided to give the Free Trial version a go and incentivise them to buy the base game (and DLCs!).

Many players (and many potential players) out there would love to see a bumper pack of historically-themed battles, maps and scenarios, especially when it features ‘their’ civ.

Marketing missed a trick with the recent Napoleonic film - we’ve got an AoE game here that features that era!

[ArrivedLeader22]

@SirBarnzy1

Marketing missed a trick with the recent Napoleonic film - we’ve got an AoE game here that features that era!

Well they greeted the huge influx of new players with two months of literally nothing. Back then we had a major update for free right before the anniversary and they barely mentioned the game in the anniversary event. Back back then we had a big DLC with a lot of new stuff and they entirely skipped the game (not even a showcase to promote the DLC) in the tournament for the entire “series” a week later.

And now there are people wondering why non of those worked like magic.

I don’t believe in the company’s ability (or will) to seize any opportunity for this game now. I don’t want to attribute this to incompetence. Incompetent companies can still hit the spot sometimes. The fact that they almost intentionally missed any spot can only be explained by negligence.

EDIT: we know recently CA has been very incompetent and doing really poor in both their games and community management, but even CA knows to salvage Napoleon Total War to catch the hype train (a 10+ year old game with ~1000 regular players, now raised to ~3000, guess why?). Maybe it’s because they don’t really hate it if one of their not-so-favorite games can still make some profit. Maybe they don’t have the self-esteem which rejects money from the wrong game that they don’t want people to play. Who knows.

[TheLiberator236]

I like so much these ideas
Nice work bro!

[M00Z1LLA]

@SirBarnzy1

Marketing missed a trick with the recent Napoleonic film - we’ve got an AoE game here that features that era!

It’s such a shame that there’s not even a single historical battle with Napoleon. I’d buy some historical battle packs based on his campaigns in a heartbeat.

The Egyptian campaign alone would be a fantastic set of historical battles. It could go something like this:

1) Invasion of Malta

Play as French against British and Maltese
(Co-op could have Maltese collaborators as a faction)

• Get your fleet to Malta while avoiding a vastly superior British fleet
• Land and conquer the island
• Flip sympathetic French Hospitallers to your side to make the conquest easier

2) Invasion of Egypt

Play as French against Mamelukes and Bedouins
(Co-op could have one player take the coastal route and another take the desert route)

• Land and conquer Alexandria
• March inland to the Nile flotilla at Rahmaniya while withstanding desert attrition and Bedouin harrassment
• March along the coast to Rosetta
• Use your savants to complete secondary objectives of collecting scientific and archeological data like the Rosetta Stone
  
  

3) Battle of the Pyramids

Play as French against the Mamelukes and Ottomans

• Defend from an Ottoman flotilla on the Nile in the Battle of Shubra Khit
• Use infantry squares to protect your artillery and baggage from Mameluke cavalry charges
• Use artillery and infantry squares to defeat and drive off the Mamluks cavalry and Fellahin militias

4) Battle of the Nile

Play as British against the French
(Co-op could have one player as British and one as Bedouins harassing the French on the shore)

• Outmaneuver the French fleet at Aboukir bay and defeat them
  • French ships were roped together with all their guns facing the entrance to the bay and Nelson slipped through a channel behind them and attacked the vulnerable rear
  • The shoals you need to navigate through could be semi-random for replayability
  • The French may redeploy if they detect your movements too early
• Explode the flagship Orient and prevent retreat
  
  

5) Siege of Acre

Play as Ottomans and British against the French (Co-op could have one Ottoman player, and another as the British navy and artillery)

• Use your well trained Nizam Fusiliers and Albanian Stradiots to repel repeated French infantry assaults on the city
• British artillerymen support the defense
• Use the British fleet to intercept French artillery transports
• Help secure the retreat of troops defeated at the battle of Mount Tabor
• Lure the French into plague infected areas to further weaken their army
• Regroup and hold off the final French assault after they’ve broken into the city
• Harass the retreating French army

The Revolt of Cairo and Canal Expedition/Siege of Jaffa could also add a couple more battles, but they were quite brutal to civilians and not really turning points in the campaign so I left them out.