I’d like to see expansion packs someday, as past AoE expansion packs were nice to get… where it is actually worth my $15 - $25.
But since we now already have soooo many civs and campaigns to choose from, I’d want something different and more impactful than just new civs, campaigns, skins, and scenarios.
New civs nowadays just kind of seem like the same stuff with new skins to me; and I never play them. They don’t bring a ton of additional joy to my gameplay experience. (I give them to the AI to play, which is cool, but limited enjoyment.)
For an AoE2:DE expansion in the year 2020+,
I'd want things like...
NEW AGES
- A fifth age before the Dark Age... like Stone Age, perhaps. And/or some in-between "sub-ages" between the existing ages.
- For a Stone Age, I'd love getting plopped into the game world with nothing and having to slowly find resources and research stuff to get past the opening parts of the game, where you're much more at the mercy of the the elements and wildlife. (A lot more at the mercy than either AoE1 or AoE2.)
- Learn techs such as fire just to survive, the wheel, stone tools, arrowheads, etc. Would be cool to see your Neanderthals make their first fire and have to forage for food in different ways than we're used to.
- Putting caves on the maps and having to find a cave to live in would be necessary in this age. A cave would be your civ's home during this age. Or maybe for certain maps or world regions, just natural terrain or vegetation cover could suffice.
- Upon advancing to the Dark Age, the terrain would evolve where the caves and natural 'homes' get closed off in a believable way (e.g., boulders, grassy dirt, fallen trees, or plantlife cover entrances) and they can now build houses.
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- Having the same four ages with the same tech tree structure, more or less, has become a bit trite and predictable. We all just do the same general things, from start to finish. Don't get me wrong... it's fun, for sure! I just want to learn completely new and different technologies and have new technology branches that coincide with new buildings, techs, and units, within the AoE2 game engine. Not just for one unique civ as might be the case in a Rise of Rajas or African Kingdoms type of thing, but for all civs to get to experience.
- For in-between "sub-ages," surely there are blips in world history between the Dark, Feudal Age, Castle, and Imperial that could be nice lines of demarcation. And, if not, some could be invented. To advance to a sub-age, maybe it could be triggered by a certain unique tech being researched, a certain unique unit within each civ being created, enough of a rare resource being gathered to allow for a small wonder to be created (marble, quartz, diamond, etc.) and that small wonder provides some civ benefit once created -- which signifies advancement to that sub-age, etc.
- I might be okay with a post-Imperial Age, but that's not my preference. Dark Age would be better, funner, and more appropriate for AoE2, imo.
- This 'New Age' type of change would cease to be mainly cosmetic or new scenarios using the same basic philosophies, and instead brings a whole new level of gameplay challenges and excitement
- If the multiplayer ranked world would get upended by this and bring about revolts -- which I'd hope it wouldn't, but if it would, since the MP ranked players often have unique ways of seeing things and don't always want change or random, organic variety... then just make it for Single Player, Friends vs. AI, or unranked match players to enjoy.
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An Age of Mythology spinoff,
or alien world maps
- I feel the AoE2 engine is so cool, I wouldn't mind seeing an expansion similar to Age of Mythology in it. Or an alien world with alien civs/techs in it; or just alien world with futuristic humans vying for ownership
- Alpha Centauri was a game I wanted to enjoy, but it just wasn't that great, imo. I wanted it to be more like the AoE franchise, to be honest.
- If an alien world expansion were instead done in a true Age of Empires sense (new techs, new civs, new tech trees, new ages, etc.) without deviating from the AoE gameplay core too much, I think it could be nice.
- Or if alien races aren't desirable, it could instead be futuristic human civs battling it out on a distant world.
- I'm okay with such experimentations in expansion packs. I just don't want major/main releases like AoE 4, 5, or 6 to be Alpha Centauri 2, Rise of Nations 2, or Starcraft 3
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TIME OF DAY CHANGES (COSMETIC)
- Time of day adjustment capabilities from lobby. Allow specific time of day to be chosen.
- Possibly also morning to sunset cycles. Not completely overnight, though, as that'd get too dark for my tastes. I'm okay if cycles aren't implemented, but a time of day setting noted in first bulletpoint would be great.
- Would be purely cosmetic. I just want to see different lighting impacting the map appearances, along with shadows getting longer, shorter, etc. If you start impacting gameplay, that doesn't sound too fun and just isn't my preference. I don't want to see a clock in the corner whereby at 5:59pm my Trebs have 250 attack and 16 range, but then at 6:00pm, they have 300 attack and 12 range. Or if the map has reached a guesstimated sunset saturation level of 75%, all the sudden my military walks 10% slower. No thanks! Hard pass. Cosmetic only, please.
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MAP SELECTION IMPROVEMENTS
- When choosing a map where it shows a bunch of map tiles to choose from, the artistic representations aren't detailed or clear enough to get an accurate account of what the map will look like.
- I find myself having to actually launch a game with the map with "All Visible" to see what it looks like, then back out and pick another one because I don't like it.
- So, I wish you could hover over those artistic map tiles to see an enlarged pop-up preview using in-game graphics of what the map will actually look like in-game. (For simplicity and speed, it could just be a .JPG or .PNG image that pops up.)
- Would like for that pop-up to rotate through different versions of the map you might see.
- For example, rotate through its various foliage, trees, gaia, sheep/turkeys/buffalo food it might have, season possibilities, etc.
- Personally, I'm not a huge fan of turkeys as my food source or snow on my maps. I would be less apt to choose a map if I knew it had turkeys for food or high probability of snow.
MAP SELECTION PREFERENCE CHECKBOXES
- Dovetailing off the above section, I wish there was a pop-up module in the lobby creation area where you could specify what you want on a map in terms of its cosmetics.
- It would only show options for which the map is designed for/capable of.
- You could still have randomness, which I like, but just being able to de-select a few things you don't want to have on a map would be great
For example, how I might choose mine:
- Herdable Food Source Spawn Possibilities:
- [x] Sheep
- [x] Water Buffalo
- [ ] Turkeys
- Terrain Cover Possibilities
- [ ] Snow
- [ ] Permafrost
- [ ] Ice
- Forest Possibilities
- [x] Oak
- [x] Pine
- [x] Cedar
- [x] Spruce
- [x] Coconut Tree
- Etc. for the main cosmetic components, but the above all might be all that I'd recommend/want
- [ ] Etc.
Audio Improvements
- Better taunts and better recordings on the taunts. Different voice actors for the taunts.
- Separate audio volume and frequency sliders for the repetitive and loud sounds (i.e., battle alarm.
- Removal of annoying doorbell sound with chats.
- Make taunts easily customizable again, and make adding additional taunts easy
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Actually, these last three (map selection and audio) should probably all just be in a free patch.
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