The REAL problem of the variant civs

[MatM1996]

@GoldenArmorX

And for Aoe IV?.-No idea. In fact, Dutch/Burgundy would be good enemies of Spain, France and the HRE, as well as the culprits of the 200-year confinement of Japan and many other misdeeds. Of course, I’m not sure if it would be better if there were 2 separate civs, one its beginning, and the other its variant. Let’s consider that the Dutch as a powerful state are already too far away from the period of the game (1550-1800), and the Burgundians themselves would not have much difference in technology with France… because they were part of France in theory. If anyone comes up with a concept, welcome.

Yes, for me they are not going to include the Dutch, maybe Burgundy but as a French civ variant…

[ArrivedLeader22]

@BitStuffer

these philosophies get stretched, mainly the second. The idea of JdA is just as crazy as it could be, I’m most definitely certain no real civ could have been properly represented that way. It would need a civiliziation/Empire characterised by the presence of a extremely strong leadership (not just a single person obviously) throughout it’s whole history, one it would have had no hope of existing without. Something like a Khan but even more influencial and vital.

That is not new. Back in AOM you have civs with strong individual heroes, civs with supportive heroes, and civs that can produce massive “hero-like” units.

It is not difficult to imagine a Teutonic Order faction which centers on upgrading the grandmaster, or a Mongol sub-faction “variant” which centers on upgrading the Khan (more than the current Mongol civ). You can even make the Order of Dragon centered on upgrading Vlad III and he eventually gets a bloodsucking ability (already in the game).

Like I said you can still justify these features from historical backgrounds. You can also justify NOT having these features or giving them to many other civs, if they were done the other way round.

For example, AOE3 Malta is also a comically defensive civ. It has a lot of crazy designs for an AOE game. Units teleporting through buildings. Buildings you can blow up to deal massive damage. Units with extra range and speed when next to buildings. Flaming towers. Overly exaggerated use of flamethrowers and rockets. All because they won one famous defensive battle.
But that civ is still given the conventional name of Maltese”, not “Defenders of the Mediterranean” or “Jean Parisot” as a variant of Italians.

By the same logic, it’s not hard to design a hero-centric faction from scratch.

The reason of why the Jeanne d’Arc variant is the only one that we cannot come up with a proper faction name for is that one person does not have sufficient content to make up a whole faction. It becomes especially difficult if that person is NOT a faction leader.
Jeanne d’Arc was part of the French army and remained allegiance to the Kingdom of France. The “unique units” of Jeanne’s raider/champion are purely fictional. There was no personal troops of Jeanne d’Arc.

So the real underlying reason is not that they want to force a hero-centric civ in, but they want to force specifically Jeanne d’Arc in.

(Disclaimer: I’m not saying this is a bad decision. I’m just explaining why it causes inconsistencies, which can be a problem to some people)

[BitStuffer]

You’re right, after all. The future is open to any possibility, maybe next time we’ll all be happy. Well uncontentables aside.

[MatM1996]

@ArrivedLeader22

Units teleporting through buildings.

It is because it symbolizes that the Order of Malta was throughout the continent…