Hi conquerors and dreamers. I’m posting here to share ideas about what the perfect Age of Empires game would look like for me, and I invite you guys to speak your minds. For me, the dreamed AoE game would use AoE 2 as the foundation (this is why I’m posting this under AoE2). The game’s success and resilience to stand against more modern games with better graphics are undeniable. I believe that its success relies on its balance between simplicity in its mechanics, giving players the freedom to try new things and be creative while being very deep, like the case of science.
However, there is a lot of room for improvement if Microsoft would be up to launching a new AoE game ever or moving AoE2 to the next level. So let’s just daydream. I’m presenting my thoughts below.
1)Stronger link between army (land troops) and navy (water):
I strongly believe the weakest factor in AoE is the dichotomy between land and water warfare. Water is a flat-terrain miniature of the interesting rock-paper-scissors model we have on land. No hills, all the same ships, no amazing multitasking villagers. In that much more simplistic world, whoever takes the upper hand via civ water bonuses and resource-gathering through memorized build order will always be victorious. Water mostly encourages all-in strategies without caring much about the balance between land and sea.
To connect the two worlds, I believe that all ships should be able to transport land troops. Moreover, ships could benefit differently depending on the units they carry. For example, infantry could give mobility, archers could increase the fire rate or accuracy, and villagers could slow down the ships. Transport ships could be used to transport cavalry and siege (with a tanker/larger design). I suggest the price for all the ships should be largely increased (as they would have transporting capabilities and can benefit from having a crew, or maybe ships shouldn’t count as pop and be only useful when adding units, including villagers for fishing boats.
I think this tighter connection between land and water would add more dynamic gameplay to both mixed maps and water maps like islands. Players would need to keep a balance between army and navy to succeed, as opposed to just snowballing one or two units. Investing in the navy would provide high reward for high cost and risk (sinking ships full of units for example). But it can also give the player a chance to catch up if they are behind in the navy (by upgrading ships with existing units or use ships to ride by land as counterplay).
I don’t believe that just adding more variety of ships like in the upcoming Greece DLC is going to solve the problem per se. Why would we want to learn more new units in the still flat, disconnected world? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they are adding variety, just saying that variety by itself won’t encourage more people to play with water.
- 3D graphics and dynamic Line of Sight:
We all love the charming 2D graphics of AoE. However, the 2D models have their limitations. Walls distortions hiding big holes; missing sense of perspective in otherwise beautifully designed maps with hills, creeks, and rivers where all the units look the same regardless if they are at the top or at the bottom; to mention a few limitations of the 2D graphics. To exploit the full potential of the game, 3D graphics like the ones of AoM retold or AoE 3 are required.
Adding the third dimension won’t only enhance the aesthetics of the game. This could be huge for strategizing and interacting with the terrain. It would enable a dynamic Line of Sight, where the LOS is obstructed by large objects. For example, units shouldn’t be able to see what is around a hill. I remember back in 2005, when AoE 3 was showing off its astonishing graphics; one picture had two armies, one on top of a cliff and the other one at the bottom. I was wondering if the troops could see each other. A dynamic LoS would be massive for planning ambushes using the terrain (forests, hills, cliffs) adding more possibilities for overcoming adversity as opposed to just pushing it with micro or brute force. After all, isn’t this a strategy game?
- Immersive reports during matches:
I enjoy playing a campaign and getting notifications from my generals and scouts. That Barbarossa campaign, 10 minutes for the Saracen attack, we must hurry! Nothing of that happens when we play against each other. Of course, this is not for everyone; for experts, this would be a distraction, but for the rest of the mortals, who wouldn’t like that our scouts tell us if the enemy just built a castle, or a massive army is approaching us? Another use case for the notifications is for new players, where, upon a castle being detected, a notification could tell them what the opponent castle unit is good for and weak against. So they can jump in without having to memorize every UU before a match online.
I also believe players should rely on active exploration and reports, rather than looking at the score bar which I believe we shouldn’t be able to see at all during the game. For instance, in chess, players cannot see the gauge bar to tell them who is doing better.
I believe this could attract new players as well because you feel more like part of a team with your own army. Again, not for everyone, but these notifications could be voiced (no AI please) with avatar and text, just text, or just mute them all! I don’t believe it would hurt having them.
- More regional units and graphic options:
To the point, I would rather pay for a DLC that gives me more regional units according to the civs I’m picking than a DLC that gives me a whole new civ. In the case of AoE 2, I believe the game has plenty of content already and should improve what it already has (prioritizing bugs and pathfinding of course).
Regional units also mean adding more immersion. Black and blond villagers, Asian outfits for Asian villagers, monk looks, not all European men-at-arms! I am aware of the problems that more regional units could bring. We all want to easily identify what a MaA, archer or villager is. I wouldn’t ask for too different looks. Definitely, it would be a bad idea to have different unit designs for every civ, but at least something more representative for their regions (African, Mese, Indians, Asian). Still, I believe it would be much easier to learn to identify the units rather than learning new unit statistics every couple of months.
Also, some replacements can be made for the units themselves. For example, I loved what they did with the Indian civs replacing rams for siege elephants. This could be done for meso-civs using animals to ram. I would leave space for creativity regardless of historical accuracy. My eyes would be more pleased to see a giant slingshot pulled by a robust bovine led by people as opposed to a sophisticated European trebuchet or mangonel. Again, these units don’t even need to have existed; they just need to fit in!
… A couple of other graphical options… I will never get tired of asking to bring the AoC skeletons back! And also, an option to have medium trees would be nice, because the default ones are large enough to affect visibility, and the small ones are practical but look too unreal. Finally, adding some animations like the AoE 4 workers building would be great! Or modifying the animations when technologies are applied, like murder holes throwing down stones (and some civs could have boiled oil too).
I believe most of the changes in this point are perfectly feasible for the current game. These things cannot be just left for modders because there are always bugs here and there, and they won’t always be there to maintain.
–Final thoughts:
AoE is not a fighting game, where adding new fighting characters would maintain or grow the player base. Simple but clever game mechanics that stimulate creative playing and historic immersion is what makes AoE great.
I’m conscious I’m asking for too much for the current AoE, but who knows, after all, dreaming is free (still).
I would love to hear from you what from AoE 3, 4 and AoM, would you pick for a dreamed AoE game (I read that oysters from AoE3 are now in the new DLC for AoE2)… who knows if the next AoE game becomes AoE 1 retold?! (Mortal Kombat came back from 11 to 1 recently).
–Disclosure:
I’m just a mediocre player (14++ - 15++ rating) that hasn’t touched the game in the last 20 months or so, but still love it. I have only played AoE 1 (old one) and 2 (kings, conquerors, and DE). Writing this post purely out of passion.
