The ideal Age of Empires game

[FelipeELBravo]

@Efaisto

3D graphics and dynamic Line of Sight: AoE4 has that.

Oh really? SO you can hide your position using the terrain? That sounds awesome! I’m getting more and more interested in AoE IV. I understand what you mean about the awkward position of AoE IV. One thing I didn’t like from the videos is the cartoonish graphics and lack of blood. A bit gory to me means more realistic.

[FelipeELBravo]

@icicle83

I would say the trend in development of adding more variety is not motivated by better replayability but rather resellability (is this even a word?!). Game development nowadays is not meant to yield good games, only good sales.

Hahah the green devil

[Efaisto]

@FelipeELBravo

@Efaisto

3D graphics and dynamic Line of Sight: AoE4 has that.

Oh really? SO you can hide your position using the terrain? That sounds awesome! I’m getting more and more interested in AoE IV. I understand what you mean about the awkward position of AoE IV. One thing I didn’t like from the videos is the cartoonish graphics and lack of blood. A bit gory to me means more realistic.

Not only that, there’s a special kind of forest where the trees are a bit spaced and you can hide inside, and only towers/outposts and scouts can see from outside.

I’m also getting more interest in AoE IV, just need better hardware to run it…

[Atsavin]

I know that. I was saying there should be a a mode where you can do that. I do it in scenario editor. I like Sim City but it like the period and design of AOE 2. Of course there are similar games to what I am describing but none of them have the same style.

[Doeswegotta]

An ideal AoE game for me would include all civs being from the same time period and a general shared base tech tree like aoe4 - civs would develop their identity from a larger selection of unique techs/units, and also regional techs/units. Also a departure from the ‘rock-paper-scissors’ counter system. Specifically:

Civs have a basic missile, cavalry and infantry troop as universal units;

• Archers - Basic ranged units. Moderate damage and rage, high rate of fire, fragile, and slow. Large attack delay.

• Light Cavalry - Glass cannon units. Very fast, high attack, moderate hp, and weak armor. Also has extra damage on the charge and increased line of sight.

• Shieldmen* - Standard infantry with moderate speed, damage and hp, but also high armor with a bonus vs buildings. Watered down eagle warrior.

• Pikemen - Infantry dedicated to formation fighting. Moderate hp and damage, weak armor, and slow, but has a large bonus vs cavalry and +1 attack range (max +2).

*Shieldman has a shield and a weapon - either a short spear, sword, axe/club, etc. for cosmetic, but still the same stats and role.

These all would be the core and ‘trash’ units. The counter system would be:

• Archers hard counter pikemen

• Shieldmen hard counter archers

• Pikeman hard counter light cavalry

The rest is soft counters;

• Light cavalry soft counter shieldmen, and archers

• Shieldmen soft counter pikemen

Critical change is the dynamics between ranged units and light cavalry. True to life where early, unarmored horses would be vulnerable to arrow fire above all, but would also be the biggest threat to archer lines if the got a successful flank.

If you run light cav into archer or shieldmen, you barely win.

If you run lightcav into anything that has a backline of archers, the cav evaporates. Early cavalry were for breaking deadlocks with flanks/shock charges or to rout escaping enemies - thats would be a neat role to have.

For regional units;

• Knights/cataphracts/keshiks - most did use them but not all

• Horse archers/crossbows/longbows/javelin throwers - higher damage archer variants

• Elephants - High hp and damage, low armor, just fast enough to be a chase down siege and has a bonus against it. Countered by advanced ranged units and pikemen.

[MatM1996]

@CouguarLoup7693

So maybe an AoE5 set in antiquity with the gameplay of AoE4 (AoE4 is a good remaster of AoE 2 : traditional Age of gameplay + unit on the wall + asymmetrical civ like AoE3) plus the naval system of Sparta ancient war (with some stuff like greek fire, Corvus boarding device, demolition ship) and maybe the possibility to capture mount and siege weapon if you kill their crew. Plus a squad unit system can be good like Ancestors legacy (but if you can control more than only 10 squad and with more than five different unit, in AoE4 there is 7 generic unit + the unique units + many siege unit + many naval unit).

Yes, in short, AoE Online but with hyper-realistic graphics using Unreal Engine 5 and with units on the walls…