It doesn’t really matter what is real because the game is mythology anyway, so they might just be represented in an unrealistic way but that’s completely fine.
Maybe you need to fill it up with resources to get the buff or something.
Many possible options.
I just think some military supply unit would be a really cool concept.
It could also be related to favour generation. Many possibilities.
That’s odd, I heard they completely retranslated things in some languages, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t change the German names to be more accurate.
Because it has been like this for almost 30 years.
It’s just something that is a core part of Age of Empires and Age of Mythology.
If you think about it logically the building should be renamed in English too.
Village Centres should be Town Centres because they are closer to AoE Town Centres.
They don’t shoot without garrison, can be built anywhere and are weaker then a Fortress.
AoM Town Centres should be called City Centres since they are stronger than a Fortress and have building restrictions.
But now people are already used to the current names so they are keeping them.
That can also be said for the other languages where they did change the translations though.
Yes, maybe it was a wrong decision there, I can’t judge.
But the series has been very popular in Germany so it’s been ingrained into the generation of gamers. I don’t think it was as popular in most other countries.
Having to store resources in every one of them in order to get a buff would make things unnecessarily complicated in my opinion.
Also, as mentionned before, the wooden ox served no religious purpose, so it wouldn’t make sense to gain favor with it.
It is much more likely to be an economic unit. Either as a caravan/ox cart hybrid as I’ve suggested or simply as the Chinese caravan.
Depends on how it would work and how many you’d need.
Them being a Caravan would be the most simple but also most boring thing.
I don’t think that they will do an Ox Cart like unit again, especially not for a civilisation like the Chinese.
A mobile drop of buildings is something that I could see happen again for nomadic civilisations like Mongols or Scythians.
It was really strange that the Babylonians had them in AoEO.
I just generally think a unit with a military purpose would be cooler.
Maybe it kinda works like a Caravan but for buffs.
It walks back and forth between your army and the next Town Centre.
Every time it arrives at the army it gives all the units a temporary buff and then goes back to the TC.
This would make Chinese stronger in defence and weaker at the offence since you need more of those Oxen to keep up the buff all the time.
Not sure how that would work well automatically, like how to they know where your army is at any given time.
Random idea, not based on any evidence or anything: What if it’s a kamikaze unit? Like, when it dies while loaded, it deals massive AoE damage upon death, and that’s the only way it can deal damage, so it dies by itself, even without being attacked, if attacking something, so it can only deal damage once, like the shadows in the one underworld mission with Arkantos.
IDK how loading/unloading it would work, but while unloaded/empty, it just falls over upon death, and that’s it. You don’t want it to go off inside your village, or next to your army.
If that’s what this is, it might be very micro heavy and fiddley.
I wanna know what this is too. If it’s based on something that was meant primarily for the economy, rather than the military, then an economy unit of some type makes more sense.
Of course, that’s why I also said this would be a waste.
I shouldn’t have said “caravan / ox cart hybrid”, as it seems too confusing now. I suggest you read my first post again. I think I made my theory pretty clear and it gives a clear distinct role from the Norse ox cart.
Your last sentence basically addressed the main issue with your proposal. This would make things way too complicated.
As I’ve mentioned previously, it seems that the wooden oxen may have been “trapped” in order to prevent theft from enemies. So they could possibly explode upon death like you suggest, but I wouldn’t make it so powerful that you can use it offensively. It should maintain its economic role in my opinion.
I’m not generally against a unit like you suggested. Not sure about the details of your proposal. A drop of building that has to drop off sounds kinda annoying in early game because it would delay your income a lot.
But generally mobile kinds of drop of buildings should be preserved for more mobile civilisations I think.
Shouldn’t be too hard to find a solution for this issue.
We are just speculating here. So I’m trying to find more possible things it could do.
Alright, let me give you an example. The way I envision it, you’d assign a wooden ox to a storage pit simply by right clicking on it. In doing so, it would continually go back and forth between the storage pit and the nearest town center, taking whatever amount of resource has been stored in the storage pit (although there could possibly be a carrying limit, thus encouraging you to produce more wooden oxen later on).
This could be a disadvantage, absolutely, but every civ has weakenesses right? That’s why I suggested that there could be a small % gain depending on the distance traveled by the wooden ox. Also, villagers could deposit resources in the town center by themselves if they are close enough, or the Chinese could have a little bit more starting resources. There are many possible ways to balance this.
The only way I could see this working is if the wooden ox goes to one specific unit only, like a hero for example.
We’re all speculating here. I’m not saying it’s not what you say it is. I’m simply adding an additional idea of what it could be. Nothing I say stops it from being what you said and vice versa.
Neither of us is a dev, unless you are and are actually giving hints rather than speculating.
If you’re not, then what you’d add or wouldn’t add has little influence on how true one theory is over the other. I wouldn’t make something as cool and fantastical as a robot bull into something like a caravan-like unit for wood gathering. If I wanted to do such a unit, I’d do a cart pulled by a human or a horse or a donkey or something.
Reading your message, I have the impression that you felt attacked by what I said. I wasn’t being hostile toward your proposition, I simply added to what you said while sharing my opinion about it. I just don’t think it should be an offensive unit. That’s all.
I get why you say that, but this is exactly what the wooden ox was: a caravan-like unit. Of course, the devs could take liberties with it and make it a siege weapon or anything they want, but that would be a huge disappointment in my opinion.
As for me being a dev, I’m not. I’m just speculating like the rest of you, but I genuinely think it makes more sense for the wooden ox to be an economic unit than a military unit.
Sorry for being defensive, then. I did take it as being hostile to my idea. And it really was just a random idea, as I said, not based on any evidence, bei it in the trailer or otherwise.
I don’t even believe it’s actually gonna be like that. There’s still many things it potentially could be. I simply brought up a possibility that came to mind.
So, you know the history behind the thing. I don’t. And I doubt many people do.
Hadn’t you said otherwise, I would have assumed this thing is part of a legend, like the wings of Dedalus, or made up entirely.
My first guess wouldn’t be a siege unit available to everyone, but a myth unit, similar to the automaton or the colossus.
Another possibility is that it’s related to favor generation. Like, it loads up resources from villagers, and brings them to the temple to be converted into favor, for example. Doesn’t have to be that, either, but I think that would be more interesting than it being a hybrid between the ox cart and the caravan, or the literal caravan.
Without making it a siege unit.
We’re good.
Yes, this could be a myth unit actually, since we don’t know for sure what it really looked like actually. There are written sources about the wooden ox but this led to different speculative reconstructions. The quadruped model being one of those.
But still, I’d give it an economic role. An economic myth unit would be a first in AOM and it would be interesting. I’ve always liked the idea of a caravan-like myth unit. Basically a caravan who could fight back. Either a major god exclusive or obtainable with a specific minor god, as you suggest. Of course, you’d still have access to regular caravans.
It could explode upon death or maybe mirror some damage to its attacker.
I agree with the interesting part, tho I’d argue the Norse dwarf counts or should count as an economic myth unit. Even if not code wise, certainly lore wise.
Yes, I was excluding the dwarf here because the game doesn’t recognize him as a myth unit. But lore wise you’re right.
Thinking about it, maybe it’s a variation of the system from AoE4.
Resources are directly deposited but 10% or so of them is stored in the building in addition and that percentage can be collected by the Ox instead of a imperial official.
Or a building.
Like a supply depot.
It could be a balance thing.
Chinese have the best siege in the game but they need to supply it to maintain their strength.
I don’t think so because there are already so many other myth units being shown in the trailer to easily give one to 9 Minor Gods plus some God Powers (like Nidhogg) and the Titan.
Unless the Chinese somehow have more Myth units then the other pantheons.
I do agree that it would be a cool concept.
I think Demeter is a good candidate for a Major God that could have access to an economic Myth unit and maybe a unique economic human unit in the Fortress.