Is this the marketing AOE team is doing? Counterweight mechanism is just a mechanism, it’s used in many applications across the world, literally every human knows what happens when a counter weight its applied to sling type mechanism.
I can agree if the counter weight has an important role to play while using tebs in AOE 4, like player has to manually crank the treb like a micro action, adjust firing angle, research technology to make all projectiles same weight etc.
The game offers none of that, it’s traditional right click on enemy and the unit unpacks at min range of firing, simple, effective and easy to use.
I believe these type of videos are good for a documentary, but it doesn’t add anything to AOE 4 as a videogame. At the end of the day AOE 4 is just an abstraction and not historical documentary, most of the things are just symbolic.
So maybe get some very good players who are know in community and show the actual gameplay, showcase the devs discussion on AI improvements, what micro and new mechanics are the game bringing.
AOE 4 has so many new and wonderful mechanics, new UU, but the team decides they will do a docu about trebs with a person who has PHD in mechanical engineering. It has nothing to do with the videogame AOE4 or game development.
I don’t have any issues with those videos and I find them fun to watch, that being said that doesn’t mean that they can’t show us proper gameplay once in a while as well.
But those small documentary clips I enjoy watching them, nothing wrong with those.
The trebuchet video is an example of an in-game cutscene from the campaign.
All they were doing is showing off the quality of the video content in the campaign.
Agreed. This is just fluff that eats budget and adds nothing to the gameplay.
I see it coming: It will now be defended by the same people that keep telling us that the graphics are not important and they should concentrate solely on the gameplay… the irony…
They could be ignored, if the devs wouldn’t emphasize their love for history so much in EVERY interview, while all they can come up with is the same cringe that television keeps showing people.
I’m talking about dumb dumb statements like “the [technology] was invented by [civ] in [year]”, completely misinforming the viewer. Like no other person on the whole planet came up with some similar contraption to hurl a freakin boulder at the opponent. Give me a break.
Next they will show us some agincourt arrow-rain-cringe, and be prepared for the steppe barbarians in cheap repro leather armor and their “interpretation” of Jeanne d’arc
I thought we were over this kind of re-heating of historical myths. Guess the designers watched too much “Deadliest Warriors” and History Channel garbage, with a bit of early 2k’s BBC documentaries sprinkled in. I agree though: the tea sipper accent makes everything sound smarter (nooooo, get out of my head, David Attenborough!!!)
It adds depth. That there are things to learn and discover, not just a game to play for pure fun. I did read some of the history section of AoE2, though not that much as it was a wall of text. If those were been videos I would probably watched all of them. Curious to see how deep they will go with that.
. . . why would you assume this? I mean, I know, but I’m not everyone.
Not every piece of marketing content will be for everyone. Knowing how a counterweight system works is not a prerequisite to be a fan of Age of Empires.
content should be appropriate to the place. For Gamescom - it was bad. really bad.
Let’s imagine new total war show some documentary on gamecone. Mb i would check it, but i wont be interested in game. Why should i play the game, cause ingame youtube lessons?
Watch/skip/close → move to the next game.
And some ppl were waiting for insides but recieved that.
While I understand that someone who primarily sees age of empires as an esport doesn’t get a lot of value from mini documentaries I think it’s hard to argue that these have nothing to do with AOE4 or game development. They contribute to the narrative the game is creating, just like the voiced stories from the campaigns in aoe2, or the historical setting of the game.
a game is more than gameplay, its also the layers of imagination that are built up around it.
AOE 4 doesn’t have anything to do with E-sports it’s just a very good RTS game which is currently hiding it’s new mechanics and flagship features. This is what community needs, at the end community will be playing with a videogame and not with a treb.
I can agree with you that marketing wise this was a controversial move, It seems that today they plan to show more content which hopefully will be more closely related to gameplay than the treb video. that said I still believe that interspersing a few small documentaries will meaningfully improve the product and make it stand out as more than just a game especially to younger players.
I personally really enjoy videos like the treb one, shows they actually did their research for the game. But IMO they do need to show actual gameplay and all the content that will be in the game… We are around two months out and the game has still been very much in the dark.
The subject is not the treb but the new mechanic of Hands on History, could have been treb or anything. I do understand we want more gameplay but stop bashing what they are putting out, this video is fine.
So why are there people talking about the competitive scene? About competitive players? The nature of a “competitive scene” predates “e-sports” as a phrase, but “e-sports” came out of competitive MP gameplay. For any game.
The phrase is kinda a dirty one, I get that. But folks need to look past the stigma and understand what people nowdays mean when they’re saying it.
This video is an example of historical cutscenes that will be in the game.
In AoE 2, there was only text in the History section, in AoE 4 there will be similar videos about various interesting historical facts.
