The Environment of Age of Mythology
Hey there! While I am excited for the Aztec DLC for the same reason that everyone else is (new pantheon, units, and campaign), I’ve noticed that no one is talking about the environment! Given we are traveling all the way to North America for this one, I’m excited to theory discuss about this and more. However, as someone who enjoys checking out the environment design in both skirmish maps and the campaign scenarios, I’d like to open up a discussion about what we hope to see in that in our ever-expanding game.
Additionally, these are typically non-controversial things as their addition to the game typically doesn’t throw balance or existing mechanics in any way shape or form, so it’s nice to thread full into theory zone in this one without consideration of completely breaking the game. I’m sure the art team does a great job of stylizing it in the art style context of Age of Mythology.
So I wanted to review what we’ve gotten in other expansions so far, to set a precedent, and then maybe start a discussion on exploring what kind of stuff concerning to the environment we can expect.
Immortal Pillars
Added the following animals: Spotted Deer, Red Crowned Crane, Golden Pheasant, and Black Bear.
*Panda was added but not as an interactable huntable
Added the following trees: Bamboo (Bamboo Single), Chinese Pine (Chinese Pine Dead), Ginkgo (Ginkgo Autumn), Metasequoia (Meta Autumn), Peach, Pear, Willow
Although some terrain were expected such as a basic alteration of grass, water, and cliffs, the Immortal Pillars DLC actually added two types of river (Chinese and yellow river), added their own version of the desert which marks the only other version from the Egyptian desert, and then added their own underworld variant with blue magma instead of the usual red. This was an excellent amount of effort into the environment and I appreciate it to this day.
Heavenly Spear
Added the following animals: Green Pheasant, Snow Monkey, Serow, and Japanese Wolf
Added the following trees: Pine Buddhist (Pine Buddhist Snowy), Maple, Pine Brown
*Cherry trees were also added, but Cherry Trees are a gameplay element, like Gaia trees.
The amount of terrain here was mostly the standard stuff, but I do not blame them given how Japan is limited in its biomes while the Immortal Pillars had the entirety of China, a very large region, to pull from. Their tile variants are pretty nice though.
Demeter?
While Freyr did not come with anything additional besides a mythic battle, I do have the slightest of hope that Demeter will finally add sheep to the game with an attached map. Sheep are referenced in several areas, but are actually nowhere to be found. The very closely related sibling, the goats, are often used in their steed instead. I think sheep deserve some love, being an animal the original 3 pantheons are familiar with surprisingly not make it to the game. It would be a pretty simple reskin but would add a bit to our very limited herdable pool of goats, pigs, and cows.
Obsidian Mirror
Alright, the juicy part, the part I’ve been itching to talk about. There is so many things to talk about here
To start, the turkeys and the pumpkin reskin from November feel like they could be added as permanent reskins instead of replacing the existing models during the months. They’re definitely from the region, and would fit, and would make great additions to the scenario editor as separate items. I wouldn’t even mind if they kept the plate animation of the turkey death as opposed to adding an actual proper turkey death. Those things already exist and would just need an image made for them. Just mentioning something that we know already exists before I delve into theory territory.
Now for animals we haven’t seen in the game yet, I definitely would like to see the Jaguar added as a predator for the jungle skirmish maps and campaign scenarios. Currently all the DLC gave were reskins of existing predators, so this would make the first new predator added to the game. I could also see coyotes or something else being used for the desert region as the predator there. Huntables could be things such as rabbits and ducks. I would just love to hear duck quacking in Age of Mythology. These are things that are regularly consumed in my local region to this day. Although given their size, they might be better off as chicken reskins, but we already have the turkey for that, so maybe they can be used like a baboon/monkey kind of situation where if they do spawn, they’ll spawn a bunch on the map? Ducks and rabbits can also have several variants to reflect their many fur coats.
The game could use a new bird variety. Flying in the sky of many maps are hawk and eagles. Some desert maps have vultures, and underworld maps will have harpies. Peach Spring Blossom interestingly has flying red crowned cranes and seagulls can be found in scenarios. They could re-use the duck model as a new flying creature for ambience and have them do their signature V formation as they fly across the sky.
Not sure if we could fit a new herdable. The only reasonable one I could think of would maybe be alpacas, but last time I checked they are not in the Aztec region but further south in Southern America. Someone may have to fact check me on that.
Additionally for the terrain, a jungle environment feels given. However, I hope we get a third form of desert. We have so many forms of snow now and a limited pool of desert variation. Maybe we can get cactus as a decoration in the same way bushes and flowers spawn as an environmental thing you simply just build over? On top of that, hopefully we get some more trees for the desert. Currently, the Chinese Desert only ever uses Chinese Pine and the Egyptian Desert only ever uses palm trees. Expanding the desert tree pallet would be very much possible with the Aztec DLC.
These are bit of a stretch, but maybe we could get another underworld environment, perhaps with black and green this time instead of black and blue or red? Would be very spiritual and colorful. Additionally, some colorful tiles as opposed to the more neutral colored ones we have so far would be nice.
Anyway those were my takes and hopes, what about you guys? Just wanted to start the discussion. Also let me know if I forgot anything that was added in the previous DLCs.
but i primarily tend to want to see more jungle thats why i would have prefered Maya over Aztec but hey we know jungle was spread wider back then and before that. (as far as i know at least)
Something with that name would fit in well 