I don’t think that a new game should try to be nostalgic.
But even if I think it’s not the fact that AoE1/2 are 2D it’s the design of units, buildings and terrain that makes it look the way it does.
I think the same models would work in 3D too.
I’d love to see AoE1 and AoE2 units in a 3D game.
I wouldn’t make a new game in the AoE3 engine either.
If your studio doesn’t have a good modern engine itself it’s probably the best idea to use a popular engine like Unity or Unreal. That way you can easily heir new people that know how to use the engine instead of having to tech the engine and it’s tools to every new person.
To make 3D models for AoE3DE (and AoMR) they need to use a >10 year old plugin for Maya3D that can export an ancient 3D model file type correctly.
I was talking about a hypothetical new game (AoE5 or something like that).
It’s of corse a good idea to keep the same engine when remastering a game, then the game feel and the balance stays the same.
AoE4 feels like a reboot of AoE2. It has most of the same mechanics but with some new ideas on top.
ok but then you just don’t want a new game do you? You just want AoE2.
Making AoE5 (or whatever) a perfect copy of AoE2 would be pointless because AoE2 already exists.
Same for me.
I love every AoE game for different reasons, including AoM.
The only one I haven’t played yet is AoEO, but I’m not the only one who didn’t, the game just doesn’t look good and has annoying mechanics on top.
I somehow have troubles warming up to AoE4 though. It is basically a better AoE2 in almost every way but there are just a few things that feel wrong and I can’t really put my finger on them.
You don’t need a high-end computer for any AoE game.
You can easily run every game in the series with a 5 years old mid-range computer.
Unless you want to play 4v4 on a giant map with increased population, the hardware to run that doesn’t exist yet.
What I e.g. like about AoE 3 is the Home City system where you make a deck with up to 25 cards you spread around the first 4 Ages. These cards provide different bonusses such as making a unit available an Age earlier, reducing training time of infantry or sending resources, so that’s basically choosing your own civ bonus and deciding when you want to use it.
If your PC can run AoE 2 DE, it should be good to go for AoE 3 DE.
Funnily enough, for my modern Age of Empires concept, I kinda came up with something similar, where you have to build a Wonder to advance to the next age, but you have an option of two Wonders, each with a different bonus; you can only choose one. With five ages, there are 10 total Wonders for every civ, each with a unique effect, so it’s really hard to conceptualize.
Unfortunately, despite the mechanic being really cool and unique and setting itself apart from AoE2, I thought it was too hard to brainstorm and got rid of it. However, I did make normal Wonders actually functional as a compromise, unlike how they are in AoE2.
What I did was take some things from newer Age games but insert them into the same basic gameplay style as 2. It reduced the brainpower needed to come up with new concepts, but it also kept the formula relatively fresh.
