I’ve decided to bring this subject back to keep it fresh. I imagine if the devs could consider adding the first game as a DLC into Age II, but as a separated game. Like, two games in one, but one working independently from the other - only for the sake of functioning on the same engine.
Those who own the Definitive Edition of the first game would have this DLC for free, while the ones who haven’t it should need to buy it. And then, the Definitive Edition could become for free.
I think they could make an AoE 1 port per engine from AoE 2, but it would be a separate game (much like Mafia 2 DE) that would replace the current game in stores. It would be free for the owners of the current version.
This game should be promoted as “AoE 2 in antiquity” as AoE 2 is more popular and liked than AoE 1 - that’s true.
AoE 1 could get in this version - 4 new civs as the base of the game. For the sake of variety in the game, these could be Barbarian civilizations, with their own architecture, e.g. Scythians, Slavs, Huns and Germans. These civilizations would add variety to the game and provide more publicity and interest.
AoE 1 DE did not offer any new civs. AoE 2 and AoE 3 gave new civs. I think new civilizations encourage you to buy the game.
This would be a better option! But only, I think, if the current version were replaced by this one with the Age II engine.
If Microsoft do a marketing campaign promoting this new version of the game with new civs included for free, I believe it would attract lots of attention even from the Age II community!
Like EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II and No Man’s Sky redeemed themselves lately, it is possible to promote again an old game if it receives the adequate support, like these two!
I think the potential is there and the game can be redeemed, the only issue being whether microsoft cares about it or not which so far it seems like they don’t…
I think that this idea is just a really weird way to present the actual problem which can be put quite simply as a gut feeling: AoE 1 DE kinda sucks as a remaster. As a huge fan of the first AoE (and somebody who doesn’t want too much AoE 2 stuff like formations in the remaster) the Definitive Edition is just very disappointing in a few aspects:
It’s just so ■■■■■■■ buggy, I can’t believe that I still get notifications about a bug I reported more than 2 years ago because other people encounter it and keep referring to it yet MS didn’t bother to fix it. How can a game have pathfinding that sometimes makes units stuck permanently, like how does that get through testing and then not get fixed for 4 years?
Horrible performance, it’s kind of inexcusable how badly the game can perform even on competent machines.
I still don’t get why the zoom detail setting exists instead of high res graphics being handled the way they are in AoE 2 DE. The assets should be repackaged that way.
A bunch of really badly animated models, the animations are actually worse and stiffer than what we had in the more than two decade old original. Just look at villagers carrying stuff and cry yourself to sleep when comparing it to the original animations. And what happened to composite bowmen because those mutant, Toxic Avenger looking creatures that are in the game are surely not composite bowmen.
The “lighting” is really bad, it washes out the colors of the game too much and as a result the game just doesn’t feel like AoE 1. Lighting should absolutely be handled the same way as it is in AoE 2 DE, that’s how classic AoE actually looks like.
The presentation is just weak and weird, I have never seen a more boring looking campaign menu for example.
These flaws are quite serious and bring the game down a lot. The music is fantastic (better than AoE 2 DE in my opinion), the campaigns got reworked in a really nice way, the gameplay is smoother and smarter yet still faithful to the original etc. but these strenghts shine a lot less when they are put into a very mixed bag.
So what the game actually needs is not some Frankenstein monster AoE 2 DLC or “port” but a serious rework that makes use of what the team learned from remastering AoE 2. Yep, that would most likely include bringing the game over to the much better AoE 2 engine on a technical level but let’s call that a “rework” instead.
Keeping the two games separate would I think benefit both since if you look at AoE 2 DE without rose tinted glasses then it’s quite clear to see that it has its own issues too. That’s a lot less than what AoE 1 DE has to deal with but hey, we just had 2 months with broken pathfinding and the game still suffers from just dumb things like a freshly introduced fps lock that’s buggy. It’s evident that they can barely keep AoE DE 2 together so mixing that with AoE 1 DE stuff would surely end in disaster and I don’t like waiting months for patches to fix my 22 year old game, thank you.
Perhaps a better solution would be to simply change the engine from AoE 1 to an engine from AoE 2.
AoE 1 as a DLC is weird. A better solution would be a common launcher and the fact that when downloading, for example, AoE 2, we simultaneously download files from AoE 1. If we have both games on our account, we do not have to download the second one separately. A common launcher could also be more interesting for AoE 1 players, as they could easily switch to AoE 1 while playing AoE 2.
We don’t need AoE 1 as DLC for AoE 2. We need DLCs for AoE 1.
Or make a Age 1 a dlc with a bunch of the classic civs and maps … Soo you can enjoy the first part of the game .
but if you want the whole experience buy age 1 DE
I still don’t think much of it. Yes, it would have advantages, of course. Nevertheless, some of the buildings from the first game are too different. Besides, historically it makes no sense at all (sorry if I’m so pedantic).
Some improvement works, like this one, bring tears to my eyes (sorry for my irony):
That can’t be so difficult to program.
In general, you can say - they had the chance. Namely at release. They should have all these things, at least the serious ones, already during the redesign of the game. They didn’t do that. And now the game is just going through the motions.
I don’t like mixing antiquity with the middle ages. I know it is just a video game and obsessive adherence to historical accuracy is usually a bad thing, but ancient Babylonians duking it out with Teutonic Knights is the line for me.
AOE1 is a very different and unique game - mechanics-wise - compared to AOE2. AOE1 may be more similar to AOE2 than 2 is to 3, but I still think people vastly underestimate how different AOE1 is. You aren’t getting the AOE1 experience in any fashion when you play as Hittites in the slow-paced, wall-infested, castle-age world of AOE2.
You might like this, then? The potential on this is better than nothing. Seems like they’re doing a great job so far Scroll through the thread to see some assets they’ve made:
I agree with your points, because the ideia is not to incorporate the Age II: DE mechanics into the first game, but to remake it in the Age II: DE engine! In this proposal, they would launch as two separate games, but working on the same engine, for technical purposes only. But I’m not sure if it is the best ideia to help keep the game alive.
Scroll through the thread to see some assets they’ve made: