We need some Expansions

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
62

It’s not a lot of work to just take one of the revolution nations and expand it and either remove it or make a new one. A bunch of them are almost identical.

Brazil’s got a cute trick with the town centers but is otherwise almost identical to Chile, Gran Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Argentina. Two of them have the extra hero, but that’s it. There’s like a one unit difference, and one or two cards with reinforcements. Pretty much just like allying with different natives.

If the European nations have so massive differences between them, then surely these nations could too?
Hungary and Romania are extremely similar as well. Barbary States and Haiti too.

The only ones that really feel cool and different are South Africa, Finland, Canada, and Indonesia. US and Egypt are distinct from other revolutions, but don’t really feel like they do much interesting or fun.

Barbary States treasure bonus and Letter of Marque (Haiti) and Suez Canal (Egypt) also feel like they don’t do anything. How often are there easily claimable trade routes to upgrade and treasures left at that point (and how impactful are the resources from treasures at this point in the game?)? Feels like wasted design space. There’s so much overlap with the Cattle Drivers, and Native Allies too.

Don’t get me wrong, I ADORE the many different options for Revolutions, exploring new options is one of my favourite things, and I’ll often do it for fun even if it’s not strategically viable, but there’s lots of room here.

63

Just add the scheduled new civs Barbary coast, Ethiopia and maybe another Africa civ so we have three new civs like previous expansions. Give the new civs a unique play style, and it is pretty done adding new civs.

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64

True. I suppose some of them work on content and others are programmers, so why not?

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65

I’ve found in data files, between the jingles of every civ, the one of “Ethiopia”. Maybe it’s a hint for an expansion?

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66

indeed it is a half created civ. they may complete it in future

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I became very excited when I saw it in the game files but then there is also a civ jingle for Barbary Coast which is a campaign exclusive civ for historical battles. I have a theory that you were actually supposed to play as Ethiopia in the Cristopher Da Gama historical battle but for some unknown reason the devs make you play as Portuguese. And there is this unused villager skin for Ethiopia which is named as “african_villagers_portrait” and also there are Ethiopian styled buildings and units in the historical battle.

african_villagers_portrait
african_villagers_portrait512×512 82.6 KB

I guess only time will tell it, let’s hope for the best.

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68

A three expansions:The Europeans Wars (1494-1815):Italy (campaing and IA of Cesare Borgia;1501-1507) and Austria (campaing and IA of Karl von Schwarzenberg;War of Sixth Coalition March 1813-May 1814),europeans maps for skirmish and multiplayer and the history battles of Lützen (1632) playing with the Swedes and the battle of Kahlenberg (1683) with the Polish winged hussars.Second expansion:The Easter Kingdoms with Persia (IA of Abbas I and the history battle of capture of Bagdad;1624) and Korea (IA of Yi Sun-sin and the Aoe 3DE version of the history battle of Noryang;1598) and more asian maps for skirmish and multplayer,i.e. the Middle East.And the third and final expansion:The African Kingdoms version of Aoe3DE:Egypt (IA of Ali Pasha and the history battle of the Pyramids;1798 playing with the French) and Zulus (IA of Shaka Zulu and the history battle of Isandlwana,1879) and african maps for skirmish and mutiplayer.

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69

I don’t think that making an Expansion is getting in the way of Bugfixing. There are different parts of the team working on different things. A guy that makes 3D models doesn’t fix balance issues.

I have the strong feeling that an African Expansion was at last planed at some Point, but more likely is in work right now.
Ethiopia has it’s own skins for villagers, outposts and houses. On top of that Ethiopia and Somalia have multiple units made already.
Algeria is even playable and might end up in the game with just the units it has already. They’d need some interesting unique feature though.
Marocco would make more sense but it could use the already made unit models.

Italy is a strong candidate for an African Expansion because they had colonies there later in the AoE3 timeframe. Defending Ethiopia against the Italians might be a really nice campaign setting.

Oman would would make sense to as a foreign power that hat lot’s of influence in Africa.

But than we have 3 new civs using the same Mediterranean building set making it 6 civs with the same set.

For other African civs it would be hard to decide if they should be major or minor. Might not just be historical importance but also which ones would have an interesting design.
The Lakota where likely chosen because they have a unique game style and not because they were a big empire like Inca that only got playable in the DE.

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70

I would love to see Korea and Persia as well. There is already a Korea map in the game, it feels wrong not to be able to play in Korea as Korea!

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71

I’m Italian and I’d love an italian civ, btw I think it should be different from other european civs: Italy wasn’t a state but was divided in a lot of entities. It could have a revolution-like mode, where you can choose in the second era your italian state and flag (Reign of Naples, Papal States, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Republic of Venice and so on).

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There is a fixed budget though. So if they don’t fire or hire anyone it is true that an expansion doesn’t get in the way of bugfixing, but as soon as they change the resource allocation to areas of the DE budget prioritisation has to be made.

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I guess a system similar to the natives where they get special shipments for each tribe seems more likely.
“Germany” that was even more divided doesn’t have any mechanics like that.
They even have a unit based on Czechia, the war wagon. I think Germany could very well split into 30 years war mercenary style HRE/Habsburgs as they are now and Prussia with elite line infantry as a new civ.

There is a chance we are unlucky and they stop being interested in AoE3 because more people like AoE2.
But I feel like there already is an Africa addon being worked on. I don’t think they made so many African unit and some building models just to use them in 2 historic battle missions.
I could see the USA as a potential playable Civ too as it’s the first country in the new world to revolt and it predates the depiction of other nations in the game like the Lakota that likely didn’t even have horses yet when the USA got independent.
Maybe when they try Civ DLCs that just contain 1-2 civs without special new features like the Natives or Asians and without a real campaign.

My dream future for AoE3 is:

  1. Africa Expansion with multiple new civs and African mechanics.
    Morocco, Ethiopia, Zulu?, Songhai?, Oman, Italy

  2. Small DLC with Persia and the USA.
    Persia mixes European mechanics with Asian ones. They have wonders but no consulate.
    USA mixes Native mechanics with European ones, they have war huts (Western style Blockhouses) and instead of tribe support cards they have one for each state. Villages/Citizens instead of Settlers.

  3. (Eastern) European Expansion.
    Poland, Prussia, Hungary? maybe even the Golden Horde(Or one of this parts like the Kazakh Khanate or the Crimean one) as new civs.
    Maybe mercenary caps instead of villages of minor civilizations.

  4. DLC for additional nations like Korea, Tupi, Cherokee, Vietnam, Malaysia(Malacca).

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74

Michael Caine: Am I a joke to you?

75

With no new money coming in there’s no budget for bug fixing though. A DLC or Expansion would pay for more bugfixing. Without some way of generating more money they can’t keep fixing the game forever. That means either new content (to get more money out of existing players) or new players (to get revenue from them buying the game for the first time). The latter’s ideal, but very, very difficult. Pretty much only AoE 2 and Blizzard are successful in that regard.

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77

? What do you mean no money? Does the developer not budget money for bug fixing, continue to sell copies of the game and have a fixed budget that never changes that isn’t linked to the company as a whole but is strictly confined to one game and isn’t flexible?
All these alternatives being false are necessary for your point to stand @PrincessAg47

78

As long as the new civs don’t have any more houses that gather resources I am up for it

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79

I’m in SHOCK!, SHOCK! i tell ya.

I’m shocked that greedy companies still think that launching a game full of bugs and with so many flaws (the campaign and frequent crashes, among so many bugs) is not going to create bad publicity and will not eliminate its growth potential. No one, and no game has ever experienced this - “irony” - (SW battlefront, Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077, and the list goes on and on…)

3 months into the game and the bug list still is large and the devs still do not know why some bugs and crashes occour.

I would agree with this, but you cannot market a DLC for a game that is till not profitable, and in many ways is still in playtesting.

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80

My pics for civs are:
Africa

Morrocans - They dominated the north africa beating the Ottomans and the Portuguese in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries;

Ethiopia - The only kingdom not afected by the scramble of africa, and the only one apart from the ones in mediterranean and mali that had a modern state structure.

Zulu - It was already mentioned.

African Civs - They should have a gimmick like the Consulate that would allow players to train auxiliary units from their trade partners:

Example: If Ethiopia or Zulu would ally with Portuguese they could train Organ Guns and Cassas from theirs Foundry. But if they allied with the duch they would get ruyters and Falcs if they go for the english they would get muskets and hussars…

This would be different from the consulate as these would not be brigades, but actual units you could train from your buildings, just like the barbary corsairs can train jans after getting the ottoman allies in the first scenário.

New Asian Civs (same asian mechanics):

Persia - Which was independent and fought several wars against the ottomans and the Portuguese

Majahpati (indonesia/malay) - Which fought wars against Portuguese, Spanish and then the Dutch, French and English.

Europe:
Italian States or Papal States - Focus on Eco Mercs and Monks (wololo)

Austrians - This would require a bit of tweak on the german civ as the Germans are more the “austrian” civ with the mercs and less the Prussian Civs

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81

I would not say Morocco dominated North Africa, and only defeated Portugal with Ottoman help, but non the less I would like to see them.
But Ethiopia would be my first choice.

I would also like a bit more of depth and difference (like skins or whatever) on troops, for example Cassador on fortress age does my head in.
A bit more of depth on the civs units.

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82

I like your idea of the African consulate variant.
My idea for that would be:
Africans can choose between 5 different foreign advices on Age up.
Like the Natives those are the same in ever Age but with different benefits.
It can unlock units that can be trained as Mercenaries like in a building that also trains the usual mercenaries but in limited number (Like max 25 for age 2 infantry and max 5 for age 4 artillery) maybe without population cost to equal out the weaker troops they have so they can have a strong army at 200 pop.
The fact that you can only choose one civ every age and you can only choose that civ in one age so you always have a mix.
examples:
Portuguese (Age 2 Crossbow, Age 3 Cassador, Age 4 Organ Gun)
Ottomans (Age 2 Janissary, Age 3 Abus Gun, Age 4 Great Bombard)
Spanish (Age 2 Rodelero, Age 3 Lancer, Age 4 Culverin)
Dutch (Age 2 Settler, Age 3 Skirmisher, Age 4 Mortar)
British (Age 2 Longbow, Age 3 Hussar, Age 4 Rocket)
French (Age 2 Musketeer, Age 3 Cuirassier, Age 4 Horse Artillery)
German (Age 2 Dopplesöldner, Age 3 Uhlan, Age 4 Heavy Cannon)
India (Age 2 Sepoy, Age 3 Gurkha, Age 4 Siege Elephant)
China (Age 2 Old Hand Army, Age 3 Territorial Army, Age 4 Hand Mortar)
In case they exist:
Italy (Age 2 Italian heavy melee infantry, Age 3 Italian heavy cavalry (Elmeti), Age 4 Falconet)

Tired to get similar units for most civs in the same Age because of balance. The limit for Artillery like Rockets and Heavy Cannon should be lower, like 2-3 instead of 5. They all cost only gold and there is a tech to upgrade all of them to Veteran, Guard, Imperial at once at about the cost of natives.
I left out Sweden, Russia, Japan and the Natives because they didn’t have anything to do with Africa.
Germany had some colonies later and China send some trade ships (Ming and nut Qing but you play Ming in the campaign so it’s ok I guess.)
Each of the African nations has 5 of those to choose from depending on their location. Like Morocco doesn’t get China of course.
At Age 5 they get a other bonus instead like a bonus to their troops or economy. Maybe going to Age 5 increases the limit for the support troops.

Morocco, Ethiopia and Zulu seem to be the civs most people can agree on, and they cover 3 different corners of the continent with very different cultures.
Morocco would be the most European like while the Zulu would share similarities with the Natives.
Would be nice if Ethiopia would have multiple different religious buildings (Church, Mosque and Synagogue) to reflect their religious diversity.
Idea: they can chose one religious building each age (2, 3, 4) that has different technologies and units (not just reskins like Imam and Priest).

Africa has so much potential. But I kinda feel we have to wait till at last after the next AoE2 DLC, maybe even AoE4 if it comes out this year but I guess it’s more likely that well get an AoE3 DLC before AoE4.
Wouldn’t mind an AoE1 expansion though but that’s a different topic.

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