This DLC is absolutely TERRIBLE along with Knights of Cross and Rose. The effort put into creating a balanced and unique gameplay is horrible. Whoever decided to come up with the variant civs since Sultans Ascend should just leave the team. The variants that came with Sultans Ascend were not good impacts to the game. The only good qualities they’ve added to the game have been the unique civs. This game is absolutely terrible and all they want to do now is create variant civs. The best thing they could do is delete all the variant civs they’ve made and start from 0. Such a dissapointment to what they’ve done with this game.
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I wouldn’t delete any of them. It adds variety to the play. When there’s a team game of all French or English, how boring is that? But when it’s a wider landscape of civs and mechanics and unique units it really enhances the game. Some of the best stuff to come out of the DLCs is the amount of unique units it brought!
IMO new civs and campaigns should be the bottom line of any dlc unless it’s purely SP focused. I personally think that the variant civs are cool and could add to the gameplay experience if done right.
But asking me full price and have it be (as far as I know) be civ variant focused, some MP additions and with crucible is a ripoff. If I had to use a comparison, this dlc feels like a meal that consists of only side dishes with the main dish taken out.
I’m glad that people are still enjoying the game but don’t let them hurt the bottom line here. They will keep on giving less and less until it starts hurting the MP, too. If it hasn’t already (I mainly play sp content).
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The Crucible functions as an addition that several people requested, ie repeatable singleplayer content.
Because of the way it functions the addition of the variants actually offer more in terms of singleplayer content than a single campaign module.
Your metaphor of it being like paying for a meal and only receiving only appetizers/sides makes sense if you equate things you wouldn’t enjoy as being not food, or campaigns as the most substantial addition.
Where it breaks down is that this DLC doesn’t represent an absence of content, rather an absence of content you prefer.
It doesn’t add singleplayer campaigns, true, but in terms of content offers more than what you have been implying. In fact, since it offers 4 scenarios and 4 variants, it is greater in terms of quantity than the DLC that we got earlier this year.
Anyways, I can really sympathize with the lack of singleplayer campaign. It doesn’t line up with how DLC has been handled in other titles, so it feels like there’s something missing.
I enjoy the campaign, yes, but my post is not about me not getting the content I prefer. It’s pure math: 4 scenarios are less than the 8 campaign missions and variant civs are not the same as actual new civs. Sure the variant civs add to the replayability of the scenarios, but the same thing could be argued for 8 campaign missions combined with variant civs. Why didn’t we get that? And yet they ask the same price as a full fledged dlc.
My point is, we get less for the same asking price. I leave out my personal feelings as much as I can when I view this. This is just a blatant ripoff. And when customers let sellers get away with this stuff, it will only get more brazen overtime. This is just blatantly anti consumer. I would not be on here right now if they had asked like 5 euro for this. But 20 euro is just f***ing wild to me.
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The price is not much more than the knights of cross and rose DLC which had only 2 civs and 4 historical battles. This DLC has 4 civs and 4 maps in the new crucible game mode and the crucible is much more replayable, I’ve played 20x more of the crucible than I have the historical battles already.
The DLC for me is like the same price as buying 2 beers in a bar but you get many, many hours of use from this DLC.
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If you think a fair asking price is 5 Euros, maybe you don’t understand what a fair price point is?
If it’s not worth for you, don’t buy it. That is your right, and nobody should pressure you to buy it for any reason. But to then say “I wouldn’t be complaining if it was a quarter of the cost” is exactly how DLC stops being made.
Maybe it could’ve been priced a little lower. Maybe they could’ve done true currency conversion (Relic did this for Dawn of War: DE, but this doesn’t seem to happen for AoE IV). Maybe that would’ve been enough.
But at the end of the day, if you don’t like Variants, then maybe this isn’t for you nomatter what it costs. And if you don’t like the Crucible, or prefer new campaigns, then maybe this isn’t for you nomatter what it costs. The Crucible alone makes this DLC worth it for me. Different things for different players.
I hope they do more campaigns and non-Variant civs in the future. I hope they are competitively priced, and this is enough for whoever makes the budget decisions (far above anyone who is involved in making the game or its DLC) to keep greenlighting support for the game.
Man I just want Spanish and Aztecs added finally….
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In terms of money worth yeah the last DLCs are underwhelming compared to Sultans Ascend
TL;DR you got less content for more money
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About that pepperoni analogy, do you imagine everyone lives where you do, which is probably in a country that’s economically better off than the rest? Not everyone pays 20 euros for a pizza. I pay 12 euros for a large (40cm) pizza. People also value things differently. You can’t just compare food with games.
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I’d say variant civs are fine, as long as new civs are also being added. But it’s a shame they’re burning game design on recycled assets with little historical/thematic value.
Until they start adding new civs, they’re not going to see a dime from me. And if they make enough from 1st world players who lack restraint, then good for them. Those players get the game that they deserve.
SP content I don’t care much about. I’ve tried this Crucible thing from a friend and couldn’t finish a single mission. It’s way too boring. But to be fair, most SP content is for me in RTS, unless it’s a high production game with good atmosphere.
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Isn’t the crucible little more than a wave defense mode?
It’s like a tower defence game, you unlock perks which are really cool. It’s surprisingly addictive.
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most people still don’t seem to get the point that I’m trying to make here. So I’ll drop the matter here.
I got my opinion out here. So that’s that.
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In my country 10 euros is family pizza I was just trying to relate to the majority of the modern world. I still think my point stands. you buy the game once and you have it for the rest of your life, pizza however or other similar products are gone and we still buy them. But to each their own I guess.
Honestly - I think there’re worse (like, way worse) ways to spend 10$ or whatever it costs depending on the region.
While some of the concerns about the quality not being super insane jaw-dropping etc. are valid (and so are complains about all the variants), it’s still a decent enough product to buy if you enjoy the game. Could have been much worse.
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The Price is too high and should be max 15 €, i agree but nobody need a campaign. The new Mode is better than a campage and can be play many time and feels every time different. The new Civs are Fun and its 4, thats good. Last DLC only contain 2.
i like the new DLC 
the devolper did great Work
A false statement!
You only say this cause you dont need a campaign but there are casuals and SP players that only plays the Campaign Only content.
See what is happening with AoE II and their continuous Campaign and Scenarios DLCs
Last DLCs were about Antiquity with nice story, narrative, gameplay and structure!
To be honest with you, both variants as well as new game modes like Crucible should be content put on top of original civs and campaigns but not the main content.
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I think the game should get new non-Variant civs, and new campaigns too, but the Crucible is so much more of a standalone, curated experience compared to the traditional game modes applied to skirmish and MP games. It definitely qualifies as main content, imo. It’s fantastic.
For historical reference, Relic did something similar a long ago for Dawn of War II - The Last Stand. It proved so popular they sold it as a standalone product on Steam (called, cheekily, The Last Standalone). It’s still played to this day (I can jump into Retribution and still find matches using automatch). I don’t think wanting new non-Variants civs, or new campaigns, require undercutting how neat the Crucible is.
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