So in past titles there were elephants, Antelopes, Crocodiles, Lions same trend continued in AOE 2 with more farm animals, Boars, Bears, Wolves and AOE 3 finished it with most diverse ecosystem with natural fauna and flora native to a land. The devs actually took time and energy to animated them and carefully place them in the geographical areas. In AOEO we have all sorts of animals ranging from bears, lions to timid sheeps and they all ooze with personality and character and everything has unique, exaggerated animations.
In AOE 4 there is only sheep, deer and Wolf there is not even a flying bird. AOE 4 devs need to put more effort into the environment and Gaia. All civilizations and cultures exists based on Geography and what nature offers as the bounty. Every rituals, beliefs, clothing and everything related to human beings is associated with the nature around humans and where they grew up.
Even today nature causes massive changes to the world which we cannot deny or stop, so despite AOE team claiming they did a lot of research, they forgot about nature and geography and how it contributed to war, clothing, culture, habits, architecture. Wars were fought for land and their bounty, and what land had to offer.
I believe Gaia is not a tiny thing and AOE 4 team needs to put more effort into it after release.
This is not a competitive play argument and does not have anything to do with “I don’t care, I play PVP”, If you play only PVP, do not participate in this discussion, as this is not meant for you.
I think they even removed the mannequin chicken around houses in the stress test. I didn’t see them (?).
But yeah, agreed. The maps feel… empty. Is anyone here old enough to remember Midtown Madness? It had huge cities for its time, but they felt eerie. Same thing here.
this is actually a good sign, could be someone is working on animating those chickens (they’ve been removed from the static mesh of the house so a dynamic mesh chicken can be added on top).
In so far as the main post goes, I completely agree - however I would not hold out hope just yet, as much of what we have seen so far is very much a non-variety / bare minimum kind of build that is actually done like that on purpose.
Different types of deer and boar may well be 100% already made and in the works, they just don’t put that into the builds.
Obviously the opposite could be true, but from a game-development perspective it makes sense.
That being said I am 100% all for the idea, variety is fantastic in the world building of aoe, and I think if for some reason it was missed then it 100% needs to be added!
I just doubt that its not already in the works for the released version of the game.
I wish I shared your positivism. I hope you are right.
I know I sound like a broken record, but the Battle for Middle Earth games did gaia right. Stray dogs running around, river sounds, wind, birds chirping, wild animals that ran away from you.
Nature is very important to me (mainly because of my faith). I feel like the flora is already pretty nice, but they could add more variety. Cosmetic wildflowers, reeds, etc.
The fauna side is very much lacking. If I’m in the black forest of Germany I’d expect Wisents, foxes, rabbits, and maybe even birds flying over. In the archipelago there could be parrots and maybe even monkeys (depending on where the archipelago is set.
Unfortunately, it’s best I do not expect these additions as I will get over-expectant of the full release. Would still be a shame, but of course all of the things I said above aren probably not a necessity to the average player. Nor are they necessarily for me.
The diverse gaia and little details was one of the things that made me go wow when I first played AOE3. I don’t think it’s the most urgent thing that needs changing for AOE4, but I really hope this is something that does get added.
You forgot to mention the boar.
As we haven’t seen all the maps the game has, we can’t judge. I think it makes sense to have alligators on a wetland map, for example, or zebras on a desert map.
Discrimination.