It is understandable that European civs share some architecture style because the “civ density” in Europe is quite dense in the game.
But I do think some “grand” “ultimate” buildings like forts and capitols (maybe even the town center) need to also have a unique style for each civ like the churches, based on some iconic buildings of the nations, to add more flavor.
Take cossacks for example. They have very iconic town centers for all civs:
Of course by AOE’s convention they should be standardized to a similar footprint. This is just a showcase. You could modify the main tower of the current AOE3 “standard town center” shape and also change the style of roofs, walls and windows, according to the civ’s iconic styles.
Also now that Europeans are no longer colonial exclusively, “capitol” sounds too American and maybe parliament is a better name for the building.
I had thought something similar, but with crops. If I’m not mistaken, all civilizations have cotton plantations or vineyards (I don’t know what it is exactly). Why not include sugar and coffee plantations for Spain and Portugal respectively?
All non-European civs (excluding post-colonial ones) have their own unique architecture. Asian civs also have 5 Wonders as their Age Up mechanic. Meanwhile, European civs only need to share three Architectural Sets with each other. In AoE 2, every civ has its own unique-looking Wonder building by default, and it’s possible that in the future every civ will get its own Castle model.
I think adding unique Capitol and Fort models to each European civ would be an eye-catcher. The old and boring models of these units could stay in the Scenario Editor and in Campaigns (as well as Historical Battles).
I will also add from myself that the huge October Update added a lot of unique units (including practically completely changed Ottomans). I think this proves that the creators are not afraid of reworks in vanilla civs that need novelty. That’s why I think a fourth “unique” resource could be added for European civs, which would be used even in the Capitol (which should be renamed to Parliament).
It would be a dream come true - especially since it is not difficult to find a famous Fort and even more so a Capitol (Parliament Building) for European civs. Revolutions could keep the default Fort models - controversially, so could the Capitol (some Revolutions could get an HC card giving access to the Capitol).
I can see unique capitals for sure but I’m not so sure about unique forts? I was considering doing some concept art for them for each civ but the fort model is so specific (and strange) it seems really hard to do many interesting and unique things with it…
The biggest thing is that the fort has a large footprint yes, but it’s also really really tall. More like a castle than a fort… If I wanted to do a concept for e.g. a dutch fort I would want to do something like a low star fort, which does not work at all with the fort model. If I went the route of using references from earlier in the time frame I suspect I would just design castles for all the forts.
I dunno about the Capitols if done like the OP’s images (from Cossacks:European Wars) - we’re going the Asian Dynasties’ route of having singular, real landmarks popping up which feels a little strange. For example my British settlement (whilst being supported by HC London) grows up and eventually builds its own Captol, which turns out to be London’s Westminister/Big Ben building…
Unique forts on the other hand - yes please. Go crazy with them. The original forts are terrible-looking, and don’t actually look like forts.
Of course, the problem with forts is that the most iconic and completely era-appropriate look is the Bastion/Star Fort style. Almost all forts of this era had a central ground for military drill surrounding by long garrison buildings and then the walls. A central keep wasn’t really a thing (unless we’re talking very small forts or singular battery towers), which is what the current ones are.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, if the footprint of the current Forts could be made larger that would be fantastic as that would tie in better with having a more identifiable Early Modern fort style plus it makes sense - these are should be huge defensive behemoths, right?
If the footprint has to stay the same I’m sure we could get an ‘almost’ realistic Fort style (maybe losing drill grounds and having a singular garrison building inside).
Also it would be rather great if all fort start of as log forts first. The majority of forts began life as pallisade log style defenses to secure an area before being rebuilt with stone eventually. Researching Star Fort (or another earlier tech) could upgrade the aesthetics to Stone (much like Baston to Walls).
This gives me an idea, what if it is not a single building, but rather it is made up of several structures? Something like modules or architectural wing.
In this way the building would not take up so much space from the beginning and when finished it would have the desired appearance.
It would be very cool to replace the Capitol with a not-too-expensive Wonder exclusive to each civ (Along with adding Wonders for other civs such as great temples for the Aztecs and Incas), and that these buildings can be built in IV age (but the ultimate economic improvements can only be investigated in V age). Additionally, each Wonder may have a useful technology unique to each civ that can be researched in Age IV (so you have an incentive to build the Wonder in Age IV).
(Consider that if the IV age cards deliver content equivalent to roughly 1600 resources, then if the Wonder + unique technology cost a combined value of around 1600 resources, then it would be like paying the cost of an IV card, then the power of this unique tech could be equivalent to that of an age IV card)
In any case, it would not be mandatory to convert the Capitol into a Wonder to implement this unique technology mechanic, it would be enough to move the Capitol to IV age and add the unique technology…
Not meaning to be rude but can you clarify what it is between the forts you’ve shown here that makes them unique for each nation? If you hadn’t said they were from differen countries I wouldn’t have been able to tell. At a stretch maybe I could say the buildings inside the French fort look French, but that’s about it.
To be absolutely honest, my post kinda slid into ‘just better looking forts’ rather than bespoke forts for each individual civ. Yes, once we get into the Bastion and Star Fort style territory, they are all very, very similar.
Basically all Euros get the squat, star fort-style buildings, instead of the crazy haunted mansions we have now. Like the current one, it gets split into regional varieties that get shared - however can be split a little more, for example French, Dutch, British, Germans & possibly Italy could share one model, Russians & Swedes another, Spain & Portugal an Iberian style and Ottomans get their own, more appropriate-looking one - in a similar vein as previous, it’s really just small differences - different building material (stone colour) and whether or not they have Bastion towers (just graphical - see below) which were a very Iberian (and in some cases Ottoman) touch.
Yes, the early screenshots even show soldiers on the walls as well. Those star forts in the early images were still fairly big IIRC and possibly multiple structures. They would need to be a singular (or modular!) structure and somewhat brought to the standard fort footprint.
It would be nice to be able to place ranged units on walls (as they are in the scenarios). This could then be added as a structure buildable by European civs (other civs could get a similar structure).
Finally, I will add that I am in favor of separating civilian and military buildings on the list of buildings to be built by Settlers - this is the case in AoE 2.
The above is from an early, pre-release version. It’s made of multiple parts so would have certainly been a scenario setup and is much too large and modular to replace the current fort. I’d love a large fort over the current smaller building as it’s meant to take a little planning (space) to build and would look rather intimidating, however for (well-established) gameplay reasons it should probably stick to the same foundation size.
An updated fort model could take that same style of star fort wall from that early image and reduce it to fit the current footprint. Inside it would just need a rectangular building to signify the garrison.
