It will just make the pantheons in this game feel less unique. That is a downside to other Age of Empires games. The civilization often play too similarly. Starcraft and Warcraft prove that you don’t need a dozen+ races to make for a replayable game. The unique civ designs and lore of Age of Mythology was a huge appeal. Don’t water down the game.
Did Atlanteans make AoM better? A lot of people would disagree with that. The Chinese civilization in EE also wasn’t necessary. I realize that DLC is how this game will continue to monetize, but it might not be AoM anymore once they tack on a bunch of extra civilizations.
That being said it’s possible that new civilizations could improve the game, a lot of it just depends on how it’s implemented.
That’s my concern too, but the Atlanteans were very unique in many areas and they did not borrow concepts from other civs. The Chinese on the other hand (and the EE as a whole) stole many things that made different civs unique and that’s one of the reasons the game became worse than it was before.
If they introduce a new Chinese and other pantheons that play quite differently, then I’m all up for it. But if they introduce a new civ that plays a bit like the Egyptians here and a bit like the Greeks there and does some other stuff like the Norse, then that’s a big no-no.
I fully disagree.
More is better. You can always choose not to buy them if you don’t want them.
At one or two new pantheons a year there is more than enough time to learn them.
Unless you want to stop playing the game and come back in 10 years or something.
Starcraft is a very different game.
You love comparing AoM to LoL and Dota, how many heroes do they have?
I think the joy of being able to play the civilisation you want to is bigger than the annoyance of having to play against them unless they add stupid civs no one asked for (like Atlanteans).
The issue is not the quantity but the quality of the civs.
Just see how many fitting ideas are there in many other RTS games AoE 1-4, Starcraft, Warcraft, RoN, etc… that are not implemented in any civ in this game. They can be the basis for how a new civ works.
There is room for planty of new pantheons with unique gameplay.
Too many civilizations makes someone feel overwhelmed with choices of civilizations to play as and against. That as well as complaints about balance are the 2 major things (outside of game performance, bugs and needing more campaigns) that people have issues with. Balance complaints never ever end no matter how many changes are made because its all about peoples perceptions of balance. Not a lot of civilizations make people want more. No matter what there will always be someone unhappy with a game.
I hope we get more then just the new Chinese Pantheon that has been announced and the 1 more unnamed civilization. Even just adding some more new major gods to where each of those civilizations have at least 4 choices to play would still make me want more new civilizations because more civilization to learn and play are very fun for me. Also more Mythical Battles I want to see as well as some new maps.
I want each civilization to have the same amount god choices. I also wan’t more then just 6 civilizations that just doesn’t feel like enough especially when you have many great Mythologies excluded from the game.
The main difference between AoM and WC3, SC2, Command an Conquer and so on is that AoM is based on real world mythology.
That means that we know that in the universe of AoM there are other very important and big factions that are simply not in the game yet like Chinese (soon), Mesopotamians, Mesoamericans, Indians, Celts, Persians, etc.
The map also clearly has blind spots, like what is going on in all the lands between the Norse and the Greeks?
There are so many potential pantheons out there that many people want to see. It would be sad never being able to see most of them in the game just to make the game more “competitive” for the ranked players.
In the worst case they could add a ranked mode where only the original 3 pantheons with the original gods are playable and let the other people have fun with more new civs.
I personally wouldn’t mind Single Player (and custom lobby) only civs either but when they released the Romans in AoE2 like that the majority wanted to see them in Ranked too.
If we go back to WC3 though, the game doubled the number of civs compared to WC2 and they almost added a 5th one (Naga) in the Expansion. Blood Elves are also a kinda half faction.
Since it released at the same year as AoM and even released with 1 more civilisation it’s not really a good argument against more civs.
I wonder if WC4 would have as many factions as WoW has races?
That would be kinda cool. Maybe one day Blizzard will make an RTS again.
That is only really the case if you pick up the game at a later point.
I don’t think 1 new Pantheon every 6-12 months will be too much to learn. After a month or so everyone will have figured them out for the most part.
And learning something new is also fun, isn’t it?
It’s not necessarily a bad thing.
in WC3 or SC2 most people also only focus on one faction.
AoE2(DE) is kinda unique in that many people play random.