More the better. Always. Source: Would all of AOE2 history not suffice? 
So it is More the better. Until it isn’t. And we’ll see if and when that future comes to pass.
Let me remind you, this game was brought from the brink of extinction when 5 new civs were added by a pretty inexperienced unheard-of team.
And the big funded and hyped up version which didnt add any new civs was the big flop which almost wiped out AOE2.
Yeah architecture mod is something that benefits both single player and multiplayer fanbase.
We need content relevant to this. Content that have endless replayability and something we can keep for our favourite game. Event icons, or some time limited contests or slight balance changes might be good for a limited time of advertising but not beneficial in the long run.
If the game has to survive for decades to come, things like new civs, new maps, new campaigns need to keep coming. They are something that everyone can play and keep in the game. I don’t want to play AoE2 for a limited time and then move to some other games. I want it alive with fresh permanent contents for years to come.
I would like cosmetic civ specific units the most.
They can actually do that without affecting data mod! They hinted it with the Mongol House to Yurts in one of the events.
Would love to see it. Though it is a bit ambitious and it will be better to keep it optional.
See? I told you, Non data mod civ specific units are totally possible, and will take no effort since the skins are already there in the form of hero/editor skins.
WE WANT IT NOW!
I don’t know if and why this is news to you, but ALL NON-DATA MODS ARE OPTIONAL!
I have confirmed it from a dev in PM that it is achievable.
Nope. Playing since Age of Kings.
Well, no. There many new player who wants new civilization too. That’s because they doesn’t know that adding civilization just because “I want it” or “It should be in the game” is not good for a game.
We already see that civilizations in game are loosing their uniqueness.
Yeah, that is right. It already close to being the perfect game, because for example game still lacks good multiplayer - game crash for many players, you can not rejoin to match. Many players still have problems with performance. Game still lacks important future.
So I believe You need few years more to learn that adding new civilizations and maps is not making game better. As I said before, I would like to see new civilization, but right now game does not need it.
People will always ask for more.
I’m not against more civs if they are really thought-out and well designed, so I would also be fine with 50. But designing a civ is not an easy task and would cost a lot of money. So the next question is: How would you finance that? You cannot sell them as DLCs as you would separate the playerbase and you cannot give them away for free because why should you? Also with adding more and more civs, balancing would get even more complex.
No, there is a point at which it just doesn’t make any sense to add more.
This is wrong HD allows for players with different DLCs to play together, even though they do not have the same content as the other player.
Lots of games do this, like the Age of Wonders and Company of Heroes games.
You can play with the 2 base factions in CoH2, against an opponent that has the US and Commonwealth addons.
I just want to ask this one question: how do you secure the funding for Microsoft to consider spending so much time adding everything you posted here?
Does Microsoft need funding? From me?
The time I spent here is a fifth of @MatCauthon3 in recent days by calculations
I’m not saying you should exclusively provide funding for your mega project. But how do you compensate all the time Microsoft need to materialise your proposal? Their engineers time are expensive, and need justification to conduct such work.
Or, are you expecting the community to do all the free work just for the sake of your mega project, even though the project itself might gain some support down the line?
You mean the 65 civs? We already have all the non visual aspects(bonuses, histories, stats, techs) done for each of those civilizations.
Only things left is the Civ Music, Architectures and UU skins, and some balancing, in which the community will definetly want to be heard.
Cic Music too will find many MIDI track creators ready to contribute.
The “only thing left”, Civ music, those are expensive. UU skins, those are expensive. Architecture, those are not cheap either. Balancing ironically is much cheaper in the short term but ok.
AOEII DE brings real instrument for the music, so MIDI is out.
I am not denying the community’s potential for high quality stuff in the game, but for an overall high polish product it needs people dedicating their time to get the product out in a collaborative way, not poking here and there during free time.
As for the civ, theres only so many choice for civ bonuses without feeling too similar to an existing civ.
Those are all problems needing considerable time and money to solve, even if those 65 civ are all added to UserPatch instead of DE.
What’s your plan to solve all of those problems, and deliver a highly polished 65-civ mega expansion pack to the community?
This is a DE, it is not a good sales policy for them to say now this is not that definitive and here you have 5 new DLCs.
Idk, maybe they will give us more civs or campaigns for free to improve sales in the future, but you can imagine there is not gonna be that much new content.
This doesnt mean that the game is doomed, there are many updates, balances changes, new game mods, etc. I just don’t think we are gonna have dlcs for this game. Specially with AO4E in development
Fix the Inconsistencies:
Add Regional Ship Sail Design to Indian Set
Add Regional monk graphics to Asians and Africans Sets.
Add Regional King graphics to Europeans and Indian Sets.
Add Regional UI design to Indian Set.
Definitive is a name to me as much as HD is one. It’s not a state.
I don’t expect AOE4 being more popular than AOE2, especially with Relic’s latest track records and the fact that AOE4 just seems like an AOE2 rehash. AOE4 development has anyway nothing to do with the one of AOE2, because those are two different game dev teams.
By the way, somebody found three campaign folders in the game data. They probably won’t launch with the November update but I kinda expect them to be launched next year, might it be through free updates or DLC. Maybe those are for new civs, which would be awesome.
Source: ETA of the November patch?
Still hoping for a custom civilization builder for us who want to see other civs.
Still prefer “official” civs done by Forgotten Empires than mods. I already have tons of mods. Before they even add a civilization builder, upgrade the category and sort function of the Mod Manager as searching for mods are tedious if you have more than 50. Imagine modded civs added as well in the list.
Exactly, but at least we deserve a custom civilization builder.