The devs showed the Zhu Xi’s Legacy. Another civilization that no one asked for. The main problem here will be the same as that of Jeanne d’Arc. This variant is not a civilization, which means it should not be in the Age of Empires. And the discussion will be only about this. And in fact, it doesn’t matter if Zhu Xi’s Legacy has interesting gameplay or not, it’s a alien object in the list of civilizations. Neither a 19-year-old girl nor a philosophical teaching not are civilizations.
But it seems that the devs have finally decided that this game needs to stop being what we loved the Age of Empires for. And the fans will either have to put up with it, or go back to AoE2. Where for some reason the devs had enough imagination for 45 real civilizations.
By design, it is basically a collection of random “Chinese elements that are not in the original Chinese civ”, with the same dynastic mechanics.
Why did they think Empire of Jade or Zhu Xi’s Legacy are the only fitting names for it? The civ seems to have nothing to do with either.
“Nooooo wait for the actual gameplay and you’ll find the name fits perfectly well”.
(I know I know there is a landmark with that name. So let us also call this civ Shaolin Monastery no? The concept art is a Shaolin monk which has nothing to do with jade or Zhu Xi)
Beside its name i like this more than other variant civs because atleast they get new and different looking landmarks.Ayyubids felt cheap to be honest with same landmark look.We dont know the landmarks of jeanne.
You don’t really change the design or anything, just rename the civ to “Southern Song” would make so much more sense as Zhu Xi is indeed from Southern Song
And rename the “dynasties” in the dynasty system. It won’t make sense anyway, Tang dynasty was around 200 years before Zhu Xi was even born.
Having Shaolin temple & monks in the cover art, and the civ somehow specialized in Siaolin, while themed around Zhu Xi, is a pure insult to both Buddhism and Confucianism. Those are different things and can’t be mixed. I don’t know how Chinese players would think about this.
But again, all of this can be changed by just renaming it to “Southern Song”, with a bit of respect for Chinese history, then things will be better.
I would say ZhuXis Legacy gives a chance for average players to enjoy a Chinese civ, this could be a solution to those vast players who like Chinese but find it is too hard to manage, including me. This design purpose is completely fine and satisfying, now we finally don`t need to argue if current Chinese is playable or not, we just leave the choice to players and they choose the one they feel better to play with. As for historical accuracy, I would not make any comment on that as I do not know a lot about it, and the name I would say it still sounds a bit weird, but again, this in game content is exactly what players need.
A few days later But if now the game is fantasy, let me try the other games, to see what they are like, we might as well try them, since we are no longer attached to the story
I mean Order of the Dragon is still historical, and Jean of Arc “technically” historical, Zhu Xi is also a historical figure. So I mean, you might not like them. But there is still a historical merit.
In the end, if they are fun or not is more important than what they are named.
Majority. Most in the community are dissatisfied with the variants of civilizations. Not a few people.
This problem is clear to everyone. Not even in the community. You can approach a random person and ask: “English, French, Chinese, Malians, Zhu Xi’s Legacy, Byzantines, Japanese. Who stands out in the list?”
Absolutely anyone on the planet will tell you exactly where the problem is.
And the main reason for the outrage is that the problem was created out of the blue. It was possible to take absolutely any historical civilization. Make any gameplay. The mechanics of the civ do not matter. But it would be a civilization!
Gameplay looks okay, which further proves how bad the names are.
One excuse people liked using was “wait for the gameplay and you’ll know why they choose those names”.
Now you see what the former Empire of Jade now Zhu Xi’s Legacy is: a confucian school, Shaolin monastery, and early palace guard, and the same old dynasty system.
All of them have nothing to do with jade at all.
There is no Zhu Xi’s Legacy in Tang dynasty because he wasn’t even born.
Shaolin monastery has nothing to do with Zhu Xi either.
Neo confucianists do not fit the access to early palace guards.
People defended “Empire of Jade” because “they might have some really unique and thematically coherent ideas on mind”. Now you see it’s simply some random elements stitched together.
I’ve said before. There is no way that name would work. The only viable name for this civ is “Chinese II”.
However you can simply reskin the dynasty system into something else, and reskin the current elements that are all over the place to fit in a really coherent civ. There are not many really innovative designs in this civ (unlike Jeanne d’Arc, ironically), so every of them can be implemented with another name. Dunno why they thought this whole thing is a good idea.
Personally i really love the civ concept, we got 6 new landmarks which is nice, and tons of new units.
The name is definitely the worse one of the new civs, but I guess we will just have to accept it.
I think even Jeanne D’arc is a better name because at least it tells the player what the civ is about. Didn’t like the Jeanne D’arc name at first, but after seeing the civ reveal I definitely think that’s the best name for it in terms of conveying gameplay, since the focus is so much on her. Duchy of Orlean would be more historical but at the expense of less meaningful in terms of gameplay.
Zhu xi on the other hand, i’m pretty sure there are better options out there that would just improve both of my points.
Ayyubids
Name fits an historical nation or faction →
Conveys well to players what it is about →
Order of dragon
Name fits an historical nation or faction →
Conveys well to players what it is about → TBD
Jeanne D’arc
Name fits an historical nation or faction →
Conveys well to players what it is about →
Zhu xi Legacy
Name fits an historical nation or faction →
Conveys well to players what it is about →
Alternatively, if you explained that Zhu Xi was a “variant” (as described by the developers) of the existing Chinese civilisation, then most folks would at least understand.
I don’t get this fixation with “they’re not civilisation names”. No, they’re not. They’re variants of the existing, named, civilisations.
And I do hope that the UI in the expansion makes this clear, but based on what the developers have told us, it’s hard to misinterpret without trying to. This is separate to not liking them, which anyone can and is absolutely fine to do.
Personally i can agree with that, and I’m more moderate in the middle of the debate.
That’s why i think Order of the dragon is fine, and Jeanne D’arc is good considering the focus of the civ.
I still think Zhu Xi is very generic and not very representative of the variant, as it was for “The Sultan Army” and very glad they changed that one. I do think Zhu xi is the only one left that could benefit from being improved. But i’ll be ready to accept it as it is as well.
We have fantasy now!
But if now the game is fantasy, let me try the other games, to see what they are like, we might as well try them, since we are no longer attached to the story
