What biomes of the world are missing in aoe2?

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

The depiction of nature has made great progress on the last 2 years. We can recreate most of the world realistically with the available terrain, clifs, plants and animals.

But what is missing?

I think Europe and Asia are quite well represented. South and meso America as well. For North America we would only need the buffalo, cougar and maybe a caribou.

Northern Africa is well represented but for the more moist areas we are missing a lot. The rainforest of Africa would be needed for the Kongo and yoruba. Also giraffes, hippos, hyenas, mandrills would be iconic animals that would improve the immersion alot.

That leaves us with Australia. Kangaroos, cassowary and dingos or alligators would be sufficient I think. We have a Australia real world map, that could use them.

What else did I miss?

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I beg to differ. At least for my region - South Asia. I don’t see enough tree from South Asian forest. Also current wild elephant and Rhinos are clearly African.

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I always thought the elephants are all Indian?

Which trees would you add? I would like to see a Thai DLC in the future, so it would be nice to know what else could be added.

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These 3 are obvious:

For berry bush alternative - Mango tree, Karonda tree (Carissa carandas)

Mango tree can also be a regular tree.

New idea - Some trees can supply both wood and food. In that case Mango, Jack Fruit and even Lychee can be considered.

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While I think about it, the red wood Forest would also be a unique experience.

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I think more South American biomes would be really cool. It’s not just the Andes and Amazonia, though some people really seem to think Amazonia covers everything.

Also, cougars would fit most of South America along with North and Centel America.

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7

Nah, they are African Bush Elephants. Head and back shape are very African. Asian Elephants also tend to be darker too. Wouldn’t take much effort to edit for the devs and keep all the African Elephant mechanics, like the different bear colours.

These models were added with the African Royals. Along with the Zebras, Rhinos, Ostriches and Lions.

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8

Another topic just for me !

Africa

African elephant (the actual one is an asian elephant who doesn’t look like an african elephant). The elephant in RoR is an african elephant.

African buffalo : take the actual buffalo and remove the collar, you have a wild african buffalo.

Giraffe
Hippopotamus
Hyena (spotted)

A gold animal (like the fox)

Panther (no lion in the rainforest and can be used in Asia too)

Gorilla (decorative object)

Madagascar

Here I listed some extinct species who were present in middle age.

Archaeoindris (still alive in middle age see Wikipedia)
Dwarf hippo (Hippopotamus lemerlei and Hippopotamus madagascariensi)
Aepyornis (biggest elephant bird)
Mullerornis (ostrich sized elephant bird)
Fossa (gold animal)
Giant turtle (Aldabrachelys grandidieri) Madagascar and most of the surrounding island were home of giant turtles
Crocodile (Voay robustus, one endemic specie who disappear and was replaced by the Nile crocodile, not necessary to make a new model, the actual crocodile ingame is enough)

Ring-tailed lemur tree (decorative object)

Baobab : Madagascar is home of various baobab species

Mound-building termites : a decorative object useful in Africa, South America and Australia.
Tsingi rock (see here)

Asia

Saiga
Indian rhinoceros : The actual Rhinoceros is an white rhinoceros an african specie. It’s better to represent the indian rhinoceros who have a single horn instead of two (two of the three asian species have a single horn)
Malayan tapir : reskin of the south american tapir

Asian buffalo : reskin of the actual herdable buffalo who are an african buffalo.

America

Beaver, can be as gold animal and as beaver hut decoration, beaver dam destroying building.
Bald eagle (flying bird)
Pronghorn
Ocelot (gold animal, also useful in South America)

American buffalo (the most north american animal)
Caribou seam necessary because there is many scenarios in viking world (Karlsefni, Vinlandsaga) and if they ad a finish civilization one day or a siberian people like the Tsattan (can be played by the mongols) who herd reindeer.
Cougar (useful also in South America)

Beaver hunt (decorative animal with beaver swimming around the hut)
Manatee (decorative animal)

Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) (If they put a Mississippian civilization, also can be useful in the Drake scenario)
Sequoia

Europe

Reindeer (huntable) Aurochs (aggressive huntable) , european wisent (aggressive huntable)

One type of terrain : Columnar basalt
There is this type of terrain can be used in Ireland, island and any volcanic part of the world (basalt was used in Micronesia to build Nan Madol for example). Can come in various form : terrain, rock, cliff.

Oceania

In Oceania we must have three biome

Australia

Kangarros
Emu
Cassowary is useful as aggressive huntable but with very little range in Australia
Dingo
Tasmanian devil
Thylacine (gold animal) according to recent studies he was not an apex predator like the wolf but an opportunistic predator like the fox
Saltwater crocodile (no alligator here, the biggest species of crocodilian)
Wombat (hare like huntable)

Koala tree (decorative object)
Platypus (water decorative object)

Cockatoo (flying bird)

Australian baobab (Adansonia gregorii)
Bunya-bunya (Araucaria bidwillii)
Eucalyptus
Nothofagus tree
Pandanus (see here , also can be useful in various part of the world)
Wattles tree ( Acacia dealbata)

Tropical Oceania

All Oceania outside Australia and New Zealand

Cassowary (aggressive huntable)
Moa-nalo (chicken like animal)
Feral pig
Tree-kangaroos (huntable)
Saltwater crocodile

Albatross (flying bird)
Frigatebird (Fregata minor or Fregata magnificens) (flying bird)
Flying fox (bat of the genus Pteropus) (flying animal)

Columnar araucaria ( Araucaria columnaris)
Pandanus (see here , also can be useful in various part of the world)
Tree fern (see here) tree fern can be useful in most of the tropical world and in some of the subtropical world like New Zealand)

Corral (new type of stone deposit)

New Zealand

Adzebill (huntable) The second biggest flightless bird specie after the moa (good to not put two species of moa)
Bush moa (little moa) can be avoided and replaced by the adzebil
Giant moa (huntable) If you put one huntable, put the biggest.
Penguin (huntable) already present in the game, make him huntable
Seal (already present in the game)

Kiwi (decorative animal)

Haast eagle (flying bird)

Cordyline australis
Kauri (Agathis australis)
Fern (bush tree) fern are very important in the New Zealand culture
Nothofagus tree
Totara (Podocarpus totara)
Tree fern (see here) tree fern can be useful in most of the tropical world and in some of the subtropical world like New Zealand)

Good idea gaining two resource from one deposit.

Another idea : food and gold animals. Already present but only for the varangians. I propose that the animal who were hunted for their horn and their tusk give also gold in addition of food : Elephant, Rhinoceros, Walrus.

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9

Huntable aggressives missing in Polish and Lithuanian campaigns: auroch and wisent (European bison)

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Penguins exist all over the Southern Hemisphere (as far north as the Andes and I think Galapagos, though not on the Brazilian coast that I know of), and there are various species, so they’d need multiple variants. Supposedly Incas hunted them for meat, by the way.

Also the Great Auk (which the term penguin referred to originally) and Steller’s Sea Cow would have still existed around this time, so they could be huntables/fishables(?) in Arctic Maps/scenarios.

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I know, I just put the actual penguin ingame in New Zealand because there is some of those in this country.

For AoE2 ideally we need 3 types :

Crested penguin (the actual one) in new Zealand. Various species if the genus Eudyptes in New Zealand and the surroundings islands. The Moriori people hunted one specie into extinction in Chatham islands.
Penguin for the one of Africa and South America, represent the genus Spheniscus
Yellow-eyed penguin in new Zealand (Megadyptes antipodes) The local people hunted two subspecies of this one to extinction.

For the other species they are too tiny (Little penguin) or live in subantarctic islands. But the great penguins (Aptenodytes) can be good addition in AoE3

I support the great auk in AoE2. For the Steller’s Sea Cow it’s a good addition for AoE3 but not for AoE2 because it’s unlikely we gain an official scenario featuring the Bering sea in middle age.

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I would like to see aggressive fish like sharks and whales.things like lobsters octopus and crabs would be interesting too.