So why not add a skin system to AoE4? This way they could keep those em low polygon models and introduce along the way some units that look up-to-date.
Each civ will already have unique visuals for all their units to give variety, however I would also love to see an option for realistic skins. Even if they had to add an option to force default models for competitive games and for people who don’t want to get overwhelmed.
One the other hand Starcraft can get away with different sized and shaped creatures for its units due to its sci-fi theme, whereas AoE remained fairly grounded and is restricted to human shapes and sizes, plus cavalry. Which is why they made weapons so massive - it should help quickly differentiate unit types in the heat of battle.
They could’ve gone with more cartoony, stylised designs to differentiate unit types better, but I’m glad they haven’t.
Huge5000 I’m thinking the same thing. Blizzard even took user skins and made them official & partnered with them. That’s how a good company works with it’s player-base, giving them what they like/ask for.
Age 4 (and RTS genre in general) seems like a game that could have come out 20 years ago- playing for the first time today and I’m shocked at how archaic the options still are after so long in development & support.
The only skin I can think just right now, of that’s “purely cosmetic” and doesn’t affect a civic’s mechanics would be a Mongolian one for the Golden Horde:
Golden Horde (Mongol skin)
Persian architecture for economic buildings and the town center.
Prayer Tent changed to Mosque, but works exactly the same.
Chaman replaced by Iman, Mangudai replaced by Turkish cavalry archer.
Military buildings with “red and black tents (Turkic influence)”
Military units with a different skin, more Turkish and tartaric.
New landmarks, from the Sarai capital city, “Same effect” counterparts
Their army and way of life didn’t differ much from the Mongols’. Today, the Mongols’ buildings represent the Mongols of the Yuan and Northern Yuan dynasties, as well as the city of Karakorum.
This way, they don’t invent a variant that will have little or nothing new about it, and we’re spared the civic variants that did have different armies: like the Timurids.
