What would you like to see in Myth Retold?

It is possible to define what is the “age of mythology” for most regions:

  1. Lack first-hand recorded history.
  2. Heroes and leaders confused with gods.
  3. Supernatural beings have frequent contact with the mortal world.
  4. Creation and founding myth

So its definition is roughly 2000~3000BC for the Egyptians and Chinese (around the first dynasties), 1000BC for Greeks (Trojan war, before the Greek dark age), and the first few centuries AD for the Norse.

Some folklores have gods and creatures but the periods have well documented recordes history, and the gods and myth creatures are less influential. E.g. Christian saints, the beast of Gevaudan, Dracula and Eastern European vampire legends. A lot of classic Chinese historical novels like The Three Kingdoms have supernatural characters but limited to curses and spirits.

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They could’ve done a better job with that.

Pointing out that some of the content just given to China DLC was just thrown in from the editor. e.g. the cataphract, the general, possibly more.

China never had cataphracts, wtf? The ‘general’ should have been a core part, much like the Egypt’s pharoah and AoE3’s chiefs. In doing so they also closed the avenue for a Persian civ where the Cataphract and Horse Archer would be a core unit combination.

As a civ that traditionally suffered large casualties in senseless wars, I feel the mainline units should have been cheaper and train faster; much like how some game dlcs are again, simply overpowered, it would have allowed less microing and more cheap spams that would favor lazy gaymers who want to pay-2-gain a bit, but still leave it defeatable by better players of course.

It simply lacks the soul and flare that made ES civilizations seem incredibly diverse and cool to use.

would agree that this is just an announcement and they’re probably 1 or 2 years from releasing something, unfortunately.

It would be great to allow the free placement of TC’s, and to add more hero customization.

Also, adding neutral creeps would be great, because they can give rewards to heroes, and also boost the economy of players focusing on high-risk rushes or 1 TC all-in agression. In BFME2, neutral creeps made the game more vibrant.

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Please introduce a co-op campaign with the Fall of the Trident and Titan campaign that you can duo with your friend. Just like there is in age of empires 2. This would be a great interactive way to bring back old friends to the game in a nostalgic environment playing legacy campaign missions which are loved to this day

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It’s obvious that the people who made the Chinese civilization were mandated to do it on a shoe string budget from greedy business types who wanted to cash in on china’s rising market and over one billion people. The thing is, in order to do such a thing properly, you need more than a passing knowledge of the region, culture, and its myths in general to do such a thing right. As such, it would probably be best for there to be an expert or two on Chinese mythological traditions as well as their military (though the Chu-Ko-Nu is basically mandated to be a part of the Chinese techtree as per Age of Empires tradition).

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Please implement bridges! This would be a game changer!

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Much of the chinese mythology is already on japanese folk lore (you can even see in some animes): the turtle of the north, white tiger of the west, vermillion bird of the south, azure dragon of the east.

The devs could have developed a better history and crafted some scenarios a little different than they did. The only flaw from Forgotten Empires in all their works was just… the tales of the dragon. The culture is very rich and could be approach very different and better. Now we are facing different and better times since the expansion release, but even FE would do a better work if the conditions were better.

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It went extinct 12000 years ago and Plato’s Atlantis was around 13000 years ago. And it’s not like there isn’t a precedent, seeing as the Behemoth is canonically a glyptodon, which went extinct 11000 years ago.

Basically, anything that went extinct during the Quaternary Extinction is fair game for having existed alongside Atlantis.

I’m so excited to see my favourite game in the series finally get the DE treatment. Here are my thoughts (I didn’t read all the prior comments so apologies for any repetition).

  1. It may be an obvious one, but I’d like to see EE and Tale of the Dragon included (I’ve never had the chance to play these!)
  2. The Voobly community has put in a lot of work keeping the game alive with regular updates to the original game. I hope notable people from the community, such as ChronoJJ, are provided the opportunity (if they’re willing) to consult with any balance considerations. Similarly, I’d feel better knowing elite players like themista and Iammagic are involved too.
  3. AoM has my favourite of all campaigns in the AoE series. I’d love to see more added, with similarly compelling story telling.
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Yeah wrote this too I also had the idea of a different floor like underground but I came to the conclusion that this would make things too complex on a certain level and hard to use for the competitive scene.

But bridges are I think a nice middle way but I would be already happy to see day cycles (which could buff or nerf certain units), more immersive rain, snow and MAYBE terrain which slows units could be very welcome I think this is even more important than verticality. But I do love bridges too :wink:

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First off, just wow! Thank you so much for engaging with the community to get first person accounts of what the players want. Its a similar design process to how Ensemble Studios developed the title back in the day, and its a good first step in the right direction. I’m already looking forward to the masterpiece you all will inherit and tend to.

E.S. really struck a fine balance between history and mythology for a video game, let alone an RTS when they made AoM. However, the part that really shows its age nowadays is the technical limitations they encountered when undergoing development. With modern hardware being so much more powerful than it was 15+ years ago, one thing to keep in mind is that some concessions were made in terms of gameplay in order to meet a wider audience in the early 2000s.

A great example of this is the population costs and limits within the game. Many military units cost 2 or more population slots, while the population limit hovers around 200. While it has become somewhat of a standard in the RTS genre to have population limits set around 200, mainly as an archaic keepsake, I feel that when designing AoM:Retold, you could strongly consider following the AoE:2DE treatment and add variable population control in the lobby settings and edit the population costs of many units within the game to be less expensive. A Colossus certainly shouldn’t cost 1 population slot though! Balance is still a factor to consider.

Limitations on certain buildings could probably be relaxed for similar reasons as to what is stated above.

The User Interface could always use a new coat of paint, but keep in mind the balance between History and Mythology I mentioned before. A series of preset UI designs could be implemented and toggled on or off in the settings, giving players the option between more cumbersome but decorative UI, or sleek and minimalistic UI.

The campaigns should certainly be revisited with the intent of polishing within the confines of new graphical and technical fidelity. Humanoid faces should be more than a beveled rectangle. Endless abyss, devoid of detail in background shots and cinematics could be filled with accurate scenery and action.

The building crumbling effects we have seen in AoE:2DE could be used as inspiration for building destruction in AoM:Retold, considering they currently just disappear into the ground.

The Atlanteans, while a hot-button issue for some players, are generally widely accepted. And honoring the design choice(s) of the original creators would involve including the Atlanteans within the base game of AoM:Retold. On a similar note, the Chinese are even more controversial, but should also be included. I don’t like the Chinese civilization in AoM;EE, but I still bought and played them! In their current form, they are actually quite close to being a good civilization like the other four. With a bit of “elbow grease”, the Chinese could be polished to an acceptable level for casual and competitive play. Do not discard the Chinese. They are an important part of history and their mythology is rich for design space.

The editor in AoM is actually quite good. With that said, it is not without its flaws. Many new options could be included so that players do not have to create workarounds to existing issues and technical limitations.

Tying directly into the point about the editor, set AoM:Retold up for success. Games with active communities and modding scenes last far longer and generate more revenue over time than many similar titles. Ensure that their is reliable modding tools and support for creators to utilize. There will always be a large group of players who prefer official content releases over supplemental community content, but if you provide both, then you gain the revenue of both audiences.

The original soundtracks are iconic! They must stay, but thats not to say they couldn’t use a helping hand. Even one or two new tracks goes a long way to subverting the rythym many players have grown accustomed to, and thus spur that feeling of: “Wow, look at everything they’ve done to the- wait, the - thats a new song!”.

Its taken me this long to even think about it as I write: Graphical fidelity. In reference to the technical limitations AoM was originally developed with, you have the opportunity to provide a makeover to the title. More than just cinematic or campaign related improvements, every unit, building, tree, ground texture, and wild animal can be visually redesigned from the ground up. Show us how intimidating a Manticore can be!

Settings. Customization. Freedom of Function. There are many factors in current AoM:EE that cannot be adjusted. They are purposefully kept set in stone for a variety of reasons. I would hope that when working on AoM:Retold, the team takes the time to give players the option to customize the experience to how they see fit. More Population? Sure. Custom hotkey rebinding support? You got it. Number of relics per match? How about none, or a hundred, or anywhere in between.

Unit pathing in AoM and AoM:EE leaves a lot to be desired. If there’s one thing the Age franchise has had issues with, it has been unit pathing. The RTS that has always stuck out to me as having acceptable unit pathing has been Starcraft 2. The units feel fluid, but just as important, it creates design space for melee units of all kinds. Bad unit pathing hurts the balance and competitive integrity of the game at its core. When unit pathing is bad, melee units suffer the most, which creates the scenario where players over utilize strategies including ranged units. When an infantry focused civilization’s main strategy is to use archers, because the pathing is so lopsided - there’s a serious issue.

A new civilization should be the LAST thing on your mind when designing AoM:Retold. Yes, there is room for additional civilizations in the Age of Mythology universe, but when working on AoM:Retold, the focus should be on improving the core experience first and foremost. You can always add a new civilization in the inevitable DLC. But reiterating on existing systems is far more difficult post launch, so focus on those first.

I wouldn’t have mentioned, but someone else in the discussion mentioned excluding “Woke $%#&” if at all possible. I’m not pleased to say this publicly, but for the sake of the game doing well - include as little of it as possible. It works wonders for generating positive headlines and clickbait articles, but it actually hurts your sales and community relations. I see the responses the AoE:2DE developers and news posts get and its a bit disheartening to see the negative reviews, on an otherwise great game, that come from it.

I have faith in your teams’ abilities and look forward to playing Age of Mythology Retold, as if I were a kid again. I’ll be supporting you all either way. Voulome!

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I like how Atlantean villagers are so efficient in their work, only 2-3 of them are equal to 7-8 villagers of greece. Playing as a Greek feels like a chore as I have to spam villagers till heroic age to achieve a stable economy, hence please look into this issue in Retold.

If possible give each villager a name, it adds empathy towards them.

It will be cool if Symphian bird has a special attack where it can snatch humans from below and drop them high from air.

Add blood in fights, show blood on land, on solders, myth unit’s mouths etc…give the impression of real war with bloodshed and all…

Have special attack animation where whole body of soldier can be cut in half by sword at an instance and similar attacks.

Keep the towncenter gameplay, it forces players to get out of their comfort areas and to go in enemy space.

Bring on great graphical details.

That’s all I want. Thanks for listening.

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A new campaign in Age of Mythology Retold like War of the Ring from LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth, or the campaigns from Dawn of War: Dark Crusade and Soulstorm, or Total War: Warhammer 2 or 3, with a campaign map and a battle map could be interesting.
I’d like to see hero character creation and customization, with more RPG elements such as loot/equipment and levelling/experience with improving and gaining abilities in a non-linear campaign like the aforementioned, while maintaining a good original story, with lots of characters.

On another note, it seems fitting to make some myth units do splash damage, such as the Colossus.

And I’d like to see an option for blood and gore.

In my opinion the population costs of all military units should be halved and devs should introduce 0.5 population costs. Villager pop cost should remain 1.

We are talking population again. I still think removing or greatly increasing the hard cap of 300 and making the build limits (10 houses, so-and-so many fortresses and towers) per town center, rather than absolute, is a good idea.
Like; you could still build 10 houses with your first town center. As it was. But when you build a second town center, you can build 10 additional houses, to a total of 20. 30 for 3 town centers, and so on. If you have 15 houses, and one of your two town centers gets destroyed, you can’t build more houses, because you are 5 houses over the limit. But you’ll still have the 50 pop from them.
Currently you can get about 160 pop out of 2 town centers. Maybe a citadel would allow you to go higher, but I don’t remember off the top of my head by how much. And having two town centers or more isn’t out of the ordinary. You will find yourself a lot in that situation.

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I would like to see Diomedes added to the game in some way. He’s one of the most important heroes in the Trojan War but he’s always forgotten.

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Will magic units with spells be added to the game?

I’ll give the game a try if it has the same hoykeys as aoe4

I like this idea too. I’ve implemented in several scenarios i made through towncenters adding more pop and not allowing houses. But a system based on towncenter amount would be very intriguing.

This x1000. The only thing I disagree on is the Atlanteans. If you’re remastering AoM1, then there are no Atlanteans. Plus they are a Greek re-skin anyway. But other than that point, I love this comment.