FE states on their website that one of the features of AoE:DE is going to be “The good old campaigns with proper spit and polish”. I’m wondering what would that mean. We already know that there will be mission intro voiceovers (yay!), but apart from that, what else? Since triggers and scripted scenarios are probably not going to happen, this leaves us with merely some map design or unit placement fixes.
Perhaps the most important addition to many campaign missions would be to make the AI resign at some point so you don’t have to go and destroy every single building they have. Or alternatively the objective could be changed to just destroying their TC or something.
That could be handy, even if I don’t recall that happening too often in campaigns (as opposed to random maps vs AI).
Come to think of it, hard-to-complete secondary objectives would be fun to have. Not only for all the complexity and replay value they add (well we had 20 years to complete the campaigns so a plain revisit may turn out less that interesting), but also achievements-wise. Provided that achievements are supported OFC.
It’s been confirmed that triggers are not coming to the game, so I have no idea what “proper spit and polish” would be.
Maybe improved AI? A check over the balance of the campaigns?
Improved AI, accurate characters for each campaign (no more Xerxes and Perseus in the Yamato campaign, please), and possibly a few modifications in some campaign maps, maybe making them more tematically accurate.
@qweytr24 said:
Perhaps the most important addition to many campaign missions would be to make the AI resign at some point so you don’t have to go and destroy every single building they have. Or alternatively the objective could be changed to just destroying their TC or something.
@qweytr24 said:
Perhaps the most important addition to many campaign missions would be to make the AI resign at some point so you don’t have to go and destroy every single building they have. Or alternatively the objective could be changed to just destroying their TC or something.
This, though scythes do speed up the process.
@the_choson_one said:
Improved AI
Singleplayer missions should benefit a lot from the generic AI improvements, although lots of AI players’ behaviour in singleplayer tends to be script-driven. I’ve got a vague feeling that some mission specific scripting does exist in AoE. On some maps the enemies seem to respond to some events.
@the_choson_one said:
accurate characters for each campaign (no more Xerxes and Perseus in the Yamato campaign, please)
Yeah, those character names were quite silly when used totally out of their historical context. That’s actually rather easy to achieve with editable unit names in the scenario editor. A change to the Gaia player (grey units) enabling the civilisation and starting age selection would go well with this. You’d no longer get Asian buildings when playing the Greeks (remember I’ll Be Back?) or see them always in the age when they first become available (like in Caesar vs Pirates). Not to mention that these recruitable units could finally have the desired statistics instead of the default ones.
Thematically accurate? You mean less palm trees in ancient Greece?
@mlascosmoerel said:
Singleplayer missions should benefit a lot from the generic AI improvements, although lots of AI players’ behaviour in singleplayer tends to be script-driven. I’ve got a vague feeling that some mission specific scripting does exist in AoE. On some maps the enemies seem to respond to some events.
Me too, there were some campaign scenarios in which AI played unusually… a lot of time since last campaign played, so don’t remember exactly.
@mlascosmoerel said:
You’d no longer get Asian buildings when playing the Greeks (remember I’ll Be Back?)
Well, I asume they will correct that freak errors. But wait… ‘‘I’ll be back’’ was not from Babylon campaign?
@mlascosmoerel said:
Thematically accurate? You mean less palm trees in ancient Greece?
Yes, just that. And I don’t thik they will do it, but introducing some bamboo trees would be great.
@the_choson_one said:
Well, I asume they will correct that freak errors. But wait… ‘‘I’ll be back’’ was not from Babylon campaign?
Haha nope, that mission is called I Shall Return. But yeah, I had to double check that myself before posting. That Babylonian one was one hell of a great scenario BTW.
@the_choson_one said:
Yes, just that. And I don’t thik they will do it, but introducing some bamboo trees would be great.
Wouldn’t hurt to have that. And get rid of the Japanese lions, like I posted in some other thread 
@the_choson_one said:
Well, I asume they will correct that freak errors. But wait… ‘‘I’ll be back’’ was not from Babylon campaign?
I’ll Be Back is in the Greek campaign. It’s I Shall Return that is in the Babylonian campaign.
@mlascosmoerel said:
Wouldn’t hurt to have that. And get rid of the Japanese lions, like I posted in some other thread
But what should they replace the lions with?
@qweytr24 said:
But what should they replace the lions with?
You mean what animal from AoE? Would require either a new unit, or again, multiple skins depending on player (in this case, Gaia player) civilization just like with differentiating same units across civilizations.
If you’re asking what predator from Japanese fauna to choose, then Ussuri brown bear or Asian black bear might do the trick. At least that’s what a quick Wikipedia check suggests. In fact, with a model that is generic enough, a bear would fit also most European settings, although a wolf would be a better fit.