Well said mate!
This is what honest opinions is and I completely agree with your points.
I have been criticizing these issues a long time ago. But there are some paid trolls who try to say that we are wrong.
I also do not watch those pro players because they are financially dependent from the game. Therefore, they will not support the players, but only developers. This is why they are supporting “A DLC that was split into half and released as 2 DLC is a good news!”. Actually, it is a milking strategy and the worst decision is releasing a DLC with only variant civs that no one asked for… But as usually, the pros will cheer no matter what, because they will get content to milk us too. But players will have or get less value and content in the end. This is just ethically horrible and without any common sense.
Also, I support the skins for buildings, units and monuments and so on. It will generate large amount of funds to the company and they can actually hire more skilled people and release more civs faster with lots of contents. DOTA2, CSGO skins sell like butter. And trading community boomed when CSGO (now CS2) started dropping gifts whenever player leveled up once a week. It has a value of $2’s at the least. Players make lots of money by playing the game and the community is expanding bigger and bigger (except some cheaters). But it is getting better. So I really support the idea of releasing the skins. Players will benefit from this and artists can showcase their models for the skins and sell it to the World’s Edge or Relic. In the end, players who want skins will buy the skins and play the game with more historical passion.
People are so toxic here. RTS games make no money, they don’t have budget to create entire set of new 3d models and voices and music. That’s why they can’t release 4 new civs per year.
We may get 1 or 2 new actual civs this fall in the second dlc.
And we just told you how to make much more money than these DLCs without hurting really anyone. And they can make enough money to make new DLCs faster and more efficiently. But here you are saying, they dont have money… and saying that is why they cant release 4 new civs per year…
You need solution… Here you just complaining…
We have solutions and criticisms. They are more valuable than your pointless reasons.
Your solution is based on false assumption that people are interested in buying skins for a RTS game. But you have no idea. Also, making skins could take even longer than making new civs. As you require a LOT of different options to feel unique, and need to do that for each civ. So if you just have like 4-5 skins per unit, you need x5 the amount of 3d modeling and/or texturing that the game already has, which isn’t realistic at all.
Lets say making a new civ takes 1000 hours of 3d modeling and texturing (i have no idea but thats just an example). If you’re asking to make skins for all 12 civs, x5 choices, thats literally 60000 hours instead of 1000. And there is a big potential that it would not even sell well. Especially with just 5 choices, not very unique.
Based on them pushing for variant, it seems like they have game designers and programmers available, but not much artists.
Skins would also make it extremely overwhelming for the opponent to understand what is going on, and which unit they are fighting. Units are small and they need to be recognizable otherwise the game is unplayable. Skins are good for games where you control 1 character like a MOBA or shooter. And for games where the models are much bigger on screen.
So your idea is just wrong and bad.
They could sell avatars and the thing you put on your TC, but i doubt it would sell well, they would probably not make much from it. I know I wouldn’t buy any of that personally. I wouldn’t buy skins either.
A lot of the backlash around AoE4’s DLCs comes down to people not actually reading what the developers have said and jumping to conclusions based on incomplete information. The moment they see the word “variant,” they stop reading, assume it means lazy reskins, and rush to forums to complain—without any real understanding of what goes into making an RTS or how much it costs to develop and maintain.
RTS games are incredibly expensive and time-consuming to make, far more than most people realize. Expecting AoE4 to pump out 4-6 completely new civilizations every year at the same standard as the existing ones is just unrealistic. Civs in AoE4 are far more complex than AoE2 civs, which mostly rely on tech tree differences and small bonuses. In contrast, AoE4 civilizations require unique mechanics, new unit models, voice work, art, balance testing, and months of iteration to ensure they actually fit into the game.
On top of that, we still don’t know what DLC 2 will offer. For all we know, we might be getting a ton of additional content in just six months. Jumping to conclusions before we even have the full picture just leads to unnecessary negativity. It’s one thing to want more content, but it’s another to completely ignore the reality of game development and set unrealistic expectations.
I’m a Malians main. What’s wrong with “Africans” and why is it insulting to release it before Spanish?
lol
Wdym it changes nothing about gameplay. It’s hard as it is to distinguish between units when they have one skin each. Terrible take.
UI skins for each civ is a much better option that actually doesn’t affect gameplay and UI art is a highly requested addition as well. This isn’t Fortnite.
Is this guy real? “Make them broken upon release”… New civs every 2 months, yeah that sounds great for new players that are already overwhelmed by the amount of matchups in this game, and how much you need to know. Look at Elazer, and he’s a top SC2 pro and was about to crack 2 days ago learning all there is to know about this game.
You’ve finally said something that’s not…you know. That’s smart. Corporate spending is out of touch, and they tend to focus on things that gamers don’t care about. The latest Assassin’s Creed is a prime example. This game is another example, since they’ve wasted funds on that and the game turned out to be less inspiring than AoE2.
The goal was to have varied gameplay, with Malians they had the opportunity to make the civ very different from other civ, because of their different culture. Spanish would be quite similar to french or hre.
So it was definitely the correct choice to release Malians before Spain. In my opinion.
Exactly. They’re one of the most fun civs, if not the most fun. And I love the architecture. So I’m curious to know why this guy thinks it’s an insult to release it before Spanish.
That is only your imagination. It is about hiring the most skilled people, not DEI artists. Current artists arent very skilled
… And here you go. They can make lots of skins in very short period of time. Plus, they dont have to release hunderds of skins. They can release a few units skins and building styles and so on. They have the choice and the market is ready to consume it. Lots of rich people like me can afford skins without any issue and we are ready to spend lots of money to get what we want. If you dont know, I personally invested more than $20k in skins in CS2. That is how you make a business. More money volatility with great velocity (Cash flow).
Nah, that is false. AOEIV’s civs have same tech and mostly, they are just different in stats. A few exceptions with the Mongols, Otto, Chinese etc. But the upcoming DLC using existing assets to make new units. It is just shameful display. The horse is reused, only the armor and a few capes have little differences. It is like adding a leaf to the apple and saying it is completely different. It is not apple now…
Do you see how laughable this DLC is? Yea you wont understand, because you might be financially dependent from this game. We never know, but there must be a reason why you are defending this game’s horrible decisions…
That is completely independant to the fact that it would take them 60x more time to make 5 skins per unit, than it would to make 1 new civ. And 20+ new civs would probably sell a lot better than skins.
Wether they can hire better artist or not is irrelevant to that. If they can get better artists they can also release more civs faster. So completely unrelated.
The question is just where the effort is best spent, on new civs, or on skins.
You talk as if they are purposely hiring bad artist… And your idea is to "hire better people’. ok.
Also you’re ignoring the problem of making the game unplayable because there are too many units and too many skins and opponents have no idea what they are playing against. Imagine trying to differentiate crossbow from Zhuge nu with all the skins. Javelin from spearmen… etc. Would become unplayable.
As I said the only “viable” thing they could maybe sell is avatars and the statue in the middle of TC. But I doubt it would sell much honestly. They could try it though.
They certainly have all the red flags that they are hiring DEI artists.
Also, they can focus 100% on one thing and can be horrible at their job. That will make them not productive and nothing will come out. And the result is, they are using the existing assets to create new units LOL. The Current variant is the best example. Lazy work…
If you say that to DOTA2 and CS2 players, they will laugh at you.
Plus, Ranked matchmaking can exclude skins. or have an option to play with it or not.
Best solution is giving the option and player consent.
Because those games are not RTS games and the units don’t need as much differentiation and are much bigger on screen. You don’t have 100 units on screen at same time. You have like 5. In CS2 the only differentiation you need is whether its an ally or enemy… In Dota you can just remember the enemy team composition as it never changes during the match.
They should try to sell TC statue and avatars though. I don’t know if it will sell well but i don’t think anyone would be against it.
If the opponent can hide your skins, then it becomes even more pointless to buy them.
As a pro CS2 player. I can tell you that it has more about it. Identifying the enemy’s gun through model, audio and info are crucial and there are 1000s of skins. And we dont have any problem. We just have fun using our amazing looking knifes and guns etc. Sometimes, it is difficult to notice the gun from afar, still we dont have problem. There is a lot of probability we have to calculate since every weapon has its own advantages at certain distance and damage to some areas.
About DOTA2, you can have lots of units. 100 is still possible. I did experience such thing with rubick, warlock and furion. Plus they have lots of skills, lots of aura and effects. No problem.
Plus DOTA2 has hero “persona”. They are completely different than the most. even some normal skins look completely different. but players dont have any issue with it. They get used to it real fast and enjoy their prefered skin and other’s skin. It adds more fun and great moments to the game. Lots of scenery and that is the reason why it is still successful.
AOEIV doesnt have any scenery. There is nothing breathtaking about its graphics, nature and units etc.
Bro playing africans is nice too.Why are you racist?House of lancester is basicly english civ itself i found it weird to added to the game but i will accept it.Atleast its look better than joenne dark.
And lastly if the age of empires 2 can make huge improvements age of empires 4 can make it too.Im calling to investors here fund aoe4 more aoe2 is a old bad game.
We should really stop automatically thinking that an old game will for whatever weird reason become bad over time.
Funny, AoE 3’s Ethiopeans are one of my favourite civs in that game due to their Livestock Market and likewise do I like AoE 4’s Malians despite haven’t played much with them.
Bro its a bad game units hitting to each other while trying to find a way.Every building is acting like a wall.Weird slow motion canon balls.When it first came out maybe good but now its so bad.
Hi Fyrapan, I know you are a veteran of this forum and we can usually agree on some things, but here I am going to disagree.
It’s not just that the word variant is anti-marketing personified (if we add that there is no really made from 0 and well named civilization in the first DLC since a year and a half), but that you need weighty names in civilizations to attract players, regardless of whether the civilization is more or less asymmetrical.
You have bought the narrative of some CC saying that for every DLC we want 6 civs. We don’t, we simply want content given that will attract people and not scare them away and instead you and more people criticize consumers who show their dissatisfaction just because you consider they haven’t read more.
How many developers on average do you think have been directly involved in AoE4? Do you really think AoE4 cost more than 50 million to release?
Let’s not lose critical thinking by swallowing everything they give us.
Sure there are Rod’s comments that are more or less accurate or can be nuanced, but discontent is a fact and pointing fingers directly at the consumer or showing exacerbated positivism is not the solution.
The odd thing is some people don’t want us to make groundless assumptions about the internal workings of the company when it does not favor them.
While they can freely make assumptions about the revenue, HR, project management, timeline, capabilities etc. when justifying whatever the company does.