The next priorities for AOE4

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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Hi everyone, so aoe4 is finally getting out of these dark ages we lived through 2024-2025. We are getting new civs, we just got a new campaign, great. Things are moving forward again.

However.

There are some issues that should be, well, made priority before we get the next age of empires game, we know things are moving behind the scenes as Worlds Edge and Forgotten Empires are looking out for UE developers so before moving to the next aoe game, i think its time to seal the deal with aoe4 in a good note, that has a couple of implications.

1-) Modding Situation

So modders need their complete tool, remember, the tool is still in beta with little to almost no changes in the last 3 years, a situation that should not continue being as it is. Modding is the backbone of any game that wishes to survive the test of time and age of empires 4 needs to get their things together in this matter, changes need to be done.

Recently a game breaking bug that caused a controversy in the modding scene was revealed.

See it here: Crash when joining a custom lobby with new mod
And reddit post here: We Lost Another Great Modder : r/aoe4

2-) More civilizations and campaigns.

This is the current map of aoe4 civs, credits be to @Seicing for this awesome illustration.

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Looking at the map, some really important medieval areas are still not represented, the iberian peninsula needs representation as the reconquista was one of the most important events in medieval history, and the longest war as well. Lots of players have been asking for a while for spanish civilization too… Eastern europe is also missing the lithuanian and polish common wealth, hungary… America is not represented at all either, and we have some really cool empires to represent in the americas, like the incas and aztects. Asia while fairly represented, Khmer is missing.

These are all civilizations that should be added, eventually.

3-) More Customization Options

Do you know why Advanced Game Settings has half a MILLION downloads? Because aoe4 still lacks some important match customization options, and disclaimer, i dont think adding all the customization options AGS offers is either realistic or necessary, but some of them are and should be added.

More player colours would be awesome, or heck even better why not, a full colour picker!

4-) Improved Graphics and textures

Hey, this is not an unrealistic thing to ask for, the guys at Relic Entertainment have been making small but important graphical changes in the last months, first with water in the japanese landmark & byzantine cistern, then with metal reflections in some unit weapons, keep it up!

Also, what about that saturation slider you guys promised at 2019, it was something you guys announced after the first gameplay showcase, it would be neat to have it, along a bloom slider to make the game look like it was back in 2019, when the game was way more colorful and live than it is now.

Some textures and models should also be definitely looked at too.

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I really don’t think It wil happen anymore.

Relic is focusing on their projects and World’s Edge and Forgotten Empires are moving to Unreal Engine for next projects.

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But not relic! Relic is still set to work on this, and remember, even if they are doing a new game, aoe4 will not stop being supported, after all the best example is aoe2, still being supported even with aoe4 being a thing, i hope aoe4 recieves the same treatment.

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Graphic improvenents similar to what we seen in Season V, required a lot of investements and developers.

Only Relic has a Deep knowledge of its Engine.

XBOX wanna focus on new titles. There will be support and other Dlcs but major investements will be on new titles.

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I greatly agree with you on this department

Content Editor tool must be updated and bug fixed quite a lot

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I remember when fans were thinking about adding Lord of the Rings and Warhammer mods to the game. Did anything like that ever happen?

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Maybe there are those mods
I must revisit them

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They try but they can’t.

The thing is, the Editor has programmed blocks to prevent the addition of new textures or models to the game, even if they are Mod models.

I don’t know if this is a limitation due to legal issues (Mario mods?) or gameplay (preventing cheating with Mods).

I remember something similar happening with Age of Empires II when it came out (1999). They had to create Mod programs (Genied2, Aok trigger study) to apply mods, but it was limited to “modifying” existing units. If you wanted to add more units, you had to use an Advanced mod that worked with a very complex language, and at that time, the machines didn’t even have protection against overheating or errors caused by mods.

  • If you made a mistake, your computer would crash, so nobody dared to try it, only the most skilled players or those who were already hackers or systems engineers before becoming AoE2 fans.

In AoE4, a team was formed trying to break that barrier, the “Future Kingdom Studio,” and so far I don’t think they’ve succeeded.

Mods in other games of the Franchise

Currently, most games in the franchise, such as AoE2:DE, AoE3:DE, and AoM:Re, allow graphical mods to an enormous extent.

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I enjoy many of those mods, but i personally complain aggainst its use in Ranked games for AoE2: You end up turning the game into a code-driven try-hard instead of one with skill or at least some love.

Maybe the devs could let us import our 3D own models for Mods.

If they prioritize this possibility, perhaps we can make more cool memes and mods for the community.

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For many, the Spanish and Italians are a priority for AoE IV. There are benefits to releasing these two civilizations: Spain could be introduced as the Kingdom of Castile, allowing the Crown of Aragon or the Kingdom of León to be added later as a variant civilization; similarly, the Italians could be introduced as the Venetians, with the Republic of Florence or another duchy added later as a variant. I still don’t understand why these civilizations aren’t in AoE IV yet, given that they are among the most played in AoE II and have been highly requested for the new title.
:confused:

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Of course, but with a stable relic team (which seems like we’ve finally gotten one as relic is back developing the bigger expansions) small but continuos graphical improvements are possible, and if you ask me, this is more important than a total revamp. In my opinion the game already looks very good, the graphical side just needs to continue improving, they improved weapon metal texture last season, maybe they can add FXAA or some AA to the grass next

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I am from future kingdoms studio, and our goal wasnt to break the barriers of limitations or to make the applying of mods easier, that was not why we were born, we cannot change how mods are applied to the game or break limitations, we were born as an organism to make the best mods around the limitations and to elevate the publishing of said projects to the next level, in that department we’ve definitely succeded, our mods are top notch and we have in our ranks the best modders that still mod age of empires 4. However, we cant turn bronze into gold, the limitations cannot be broken, that is a truth we all have to live with, there is no way to change that without the developers wish.