I just want to share my excitement for the upcoming event, even more for the two short gameplay scenes that we saw in the video.
So, if I’m not mistaken we see the English here again (on both sides) and that they’re possibly scenes coming from a campaign or tutorial mission (?)
My take so far is:
The terrain elevation will probably play a strategic role during battles and looks really interesting tbh.
The visuals are very pleasing, smooth and soothing with a vivid and welcoming palette
The UI looks very clean and well organised but kind of boring I’d say. I just prefer more I,II and AoM’s thematically designed UIs that give a special touch for each civ. Maybe that could change (?) at least I wish it will.
Some kind of hero certainly exists but it is unknown what it does yet
I will definitely need to get used to the saturated colorful artstyle, but looks pretty good overall not gonna lie.
About the UI, I hope that’s not the definitive version, since it’s extremely simplistic and without any personality. In the pictures we can see selected units icons, and well… simply doesn’t look good for me.
That said, I’m waiting to April 10th before saying more, since I need to see all in movement and with more info available. I’ve been dreaming about AoE IV for so long that I’m definitely not going to take anything for granted, not good nor bad.
I have the same thought about the UI, on one hand I like how clean and organized it is, on the other hand I kinda wish it was still personalized depending the civ.
Other things though about UI, I can’t help but notice the flank formation is missing. And that units are not listed individualy anymore like they were in AoE2 where you could click on a unit with lowest HP lets say, and pull it away. They now seem to be grouped together with all units of the same type. Not sure if this is good or bad. You also can’t seem to be able to see the stats of a unit now on the UI, like what attack/armor number it has, what upgrades it has.
The heart (E) button might be for a heal function.
The two arrows (F) might be for running?! I sure hope it’s not a retreat function like in Company of Heroes.
And I don’t think we will have hero units in normal games, I remember them saying a while ago that heroes are more of a thing of the past and they want to make the civilizations the “heroes”.
Visuals seem clear first and foremost, and visual clarity is extremely important in RTS games.
Oh, and the III and I roman numbers at the top mean the age they are in? If so, having such a massive and diverse army in age 1 (like dark age) already in the second picture is impressive.
Edit:
Btw, after their last game, Dawn of War 3, I was worried about Relic’s ability to make a clean easy to read UI. Check this for example:
Are you able to tell what’s going on on that screen? I sure cannot. So I’m glad to see they came up with something so clean and crisp for now. Although it might still benefit from improvement, it’s a good foundation.
they already confirmed in 2019 that hero units are part of the game, for example that the Khan, the mongol hero, could send an eagle to explore the enemy base
I was basing my speculation on the following quote from the dev team:
Heroes have always been a fascinating thing about Age – there have always been heroes in it – but, you know, time passes. And as we talk about civilisations, we thought more about making the civilisations the heroes. That doesn’t mean there won’t be missions that focus on certain people in those civilisations, but that time moves on.
Good catch. You used to have to create groups manually. I actually like it more as it looks here and the idea of having same-type units automatically grouped when dragged sounds good to me.
It could also be an indication that the unit cap will be significantly larger, so that groups will be a must to efficiently manage your army.
Notice however that the tab “All” is selected, so you might still be able to see them individually if you click on a specific group where stats can be displayed.
As of the hero units, I actually dislike the term hero unit myself, that’s more an AoM thing. I like to think of them more as generals or kings, an important figure for the civ’s identity. I’m still undecided tho on what their role should be if they exist.
If they’re the same with the units of the first scene, they should be English since they are called so in the top left corner “Round 1 of 2 - Defeat the English Soldiers”.
I think in the gameplay trailer we saw English axemen running at some point but not sure about the rounded shields. Could be a campaign-specific variant.
Looks beautiful. It is ordinary but like a taste we want. There seems to be no change from the first trailer until this time. I’m curious about the war animations.
and english(red-1) units seem different from blue ones(prob french)
if we look at second shoot,
i will call these guys red-2.they have pikemen,swordsmen and longbowmen.
red-2 swordsmen and pikemen looks different from red-1 ones.so i suppose this is another civ.so this “another civ” has longbowmen too(?)
also they have axemen with round shield.maybe they are vikings/norsemen?
Indeed, the blue ones could be french. I completely missed the symbols on their backs.
edit: I did an all in zoom and noticed that this symbol is not the french fleur-de-lis but just yellow cross
Also, the differences between the first and the second could be because of the age difference (?) I - III
I mean, Hero’s kind of represent those soldiers that excel on the battlefield. Above average warriors, you don’t really have skill levels in previous age 1,2,3(personally I wish they would add that to the franchise) and “Hero’s” would be a representation of those above par soldiers
)
