Age of Empires IV
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,723
In January, 2015, Microsoft created a job advert that stated the following:
"The Decisive Games team is focused on world class strategy game development, and is building a studio that will bring the next installment in a beloved strategy game franchise to the next generation of gamers around the world. This is a highly-collaborative, agile team, with a play-centric approach to game development."
http://www.gamer-uk.co.uk/2015/01/09/microsoft-may-have-a-new-age-of-empires-title-in-the-works-age-of-empires-iv/
We all know that "a beloved strategy game franchise" is Age of Empires.
So, Age of Empires IV has been in the works for almost a year already.
Also, it's a known fact that AoE IV will be about World War 2 (maybe including the years before and after it).
This is the official artwork by Microsoft:
The last proper entry in the series though, by original creator Ensemble Studios, was Age Of Empires III in 2005. Not long ago, the AoE 2 HD was released with 2 new expansions.
"The Decisive Games team is focused on world class strategy game development, and is building a studio that will bring the next installment in a beloved strategy game franchise to the next generation of gamers around the world. This is a highly-collaborative, agile team, with a play-centric approach to game development."
http://www.gamer-uk.co.uk/2015/01/09/microsoft-may-have-a-new-age-of-empires-title-in-the-works-age-of-empires-iv/
We all know that "a beloved strategy game franchise" is Age of Empires.
So, Age of Empires IV has been in the works for almost a year already.
Also, it's a known fact that AoE IV will be about World War 2 (maybe including the years before and after it).
This is the official artwork by Microsoft:
The last proper entry in the series though, by original creator Ensemble Studios, was Age Of Empires III in 2005. Not long ago, the AoE 2 HD was released with 2 new expansions.
Post edited by JuliusBorisov on
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I'm not saying that it isn't true that they are working on it (they could very well be for all I know), but that picture isn't the best evidence for that (the Age of Empires 2 image also doesn't seem right to me).
Edit: The only info I could find out about that picture is that it may be from the Age of Empires III Complete Collection, first published in 2009.
'Next instalment' does not mean a 'new and in a beloved franchise.' If that dates back in January, it could mean the next instalment of HD remakes, from Age of Empires II: HD, Age of Mythology remake—the next instalment would be Age of Empires III: HD. The image is from the Collector's Edition, and the images and titles were probably thought up prior to Ensemble Studios being scrapped. The book is a decade old; it was released in 2005, the initial release saw both a standard edition and a collector's edition. Unless Microsoft actually comes out and says it, I wouldn't lend it too much credence. Rumours of a possible Age of Empires 4 have been making the rounds ever since that book was released.
Either way its not evidence of anything. I think Microsoft at this stage has largely dismissed the PC. At least compared to the Xbox anyways.
I, too, would very much like a game about ancient Egypt, or ancient Greece, but I still think they'll go for periods that took place much later.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/49jkhn/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/d0s9j8s
Edit: Spoilering this since it takes up half the thread)
Love the Lego buildings for AoE.
Age of Empires was one of my first PC games, along with BG, Star Wars: Rebellion, and Star Trek: Birth of the Federation. Loved them all. Age of Empires II was such a step up and just about perfect for what it was. Never got into III. It didn't grab me and I just never went back. Would love to see what somebody would do for AoE IV.
I would probably end up being sorely disappointed with it though, as I am with most newer games. I'm still in mourning about Fallout 4. It could have been so amazing...
Side note: Any reason "a beloved strategy game franchise" couldn't be Rise of Nations/Legends?
So much so that I still load it up occasionally and have a play. And in the early turns I still sometimes forget to check the course of my federation Science Vessel and it flies into a neutron star and gets destroyed.
Happy days!
Yep, it's one I still play sometimes too. Once you can build Defiant class ships, the Federation is unstoppable. The memory leaks in later turns make it near impossible to play a really long epic game though.
So it will be interesting to see some more actual gameplay in the future, and maybe I won't sound so negative then. I see a lot of people in the youtube comments complain about it apparently being set in medieval times again. While it would've been really cool with another game in the classical era, I still like the medieval setting a lot.
What is in particular in the "style" that is worrying? Is it much different from AoE 3?
I definitely like the medieval setting too. It will be interesting to see how they'll approach it this time around. With all the expansions, AoE2 ended up with something like 35 playable civilizations, while AoE3 had far fewer, but much more unique. Just by this quick look in the trailer, it seems the civilizations are quite distinct from each other visually, which I like.
"It's always had this wonderful attention to it," said Isgreen. "Even among our focus testers, it's fascinating, because we have people who have been playing Age IV already, that love other Age games. It gets to some things that are silly but so charming. 'Wait, my knights don't hit the castle with the sword anymore?' […] But the funny thing is that a lot of people, as they play the game and getting exposed to it, say 'You know what, this is a different beast and I enjoy it for what it is.'"
https://www.windowscentral.com/age-empires-iv-interview-learnings-technology-mods
At first glance at the trailer, it kind of looked like they were just remaking Age of Empires 2 (as people in the comments mockingly said: Age of Empires 2: 2). But judging by that interview, it sounds more like they've grounded the game in what people liked most about the series (the second game that is), but aren't afraid to try a very different approach and introduce new stuff. A difficult balance, like they say, but it all feels very promising!
My expectations are that they keep its original simplicity , make interesting single player scenarios (Im a single player mostly because I'm terrible at multplayer) and don't demand much from our computers graphic-wise (My pc is from 2014, for heaven sake).
Like look at Red Alert 2 vs Red Alert 3. Red Alert 2 was a much better game in part because units were so much simpler to use. By the time of Red Alert 3 they decided that every unit needed its own special ability, they made an entire nation out of transforming units (Japan) instead of just a handful of units that could transform, and basically just made things too complex for something that you are supposed to be playing in real time.
So yea. Just keep the units simple to use themselves. I'm not the young buck I used to be and don't want have to micromanage every unit ability
I'm not going to pretend like I like everything about it (they changed some things about the UI I don't like, especially things relating to how the scores are shown and the icons). But there are a bunch of small improvements made in it that really set it apart from their earlier HD edition.
A big one is that you can queue upgrades with unit building. You can also queue multiple upgrades at the same time. This is so nice.
Waypoints have also been made easier. You still have to hold down shift but you don't need to right click on the last waypoint at the end. The unit just automatically starts moving. This is nice because it means you can't really screw up waypoints now (not that a great mage like myself has ever done this).
The AI is better. I know in the HD edition you'd get wonky AI behaviour sometimes (where the AI freezes and doesn't move when you are attacking it). So far I haven't seen this and it seems to just be acting smarter.
The visuals are generally better. You get like buildings that visually collapse when they are destroyed (although I think there may have been a mod that covered this). No skeletons though which is pretty lame.
Overall though its a pretty solid experience. There are also 4 new civs bringing the total to 35.
Edit: Looks like units still have pathfinding issues. Especially villagers.
I agree with @elminster 's opinion above - all those new features are amazing.
I actually haven't tried the definitive edition of AoE2 yet, though it looks great. Instead I've been playing some AoE3 lately. It's weird that I prefer to start up the third game, even though I can always tell why it wasn't as successful as the second one.
I mostly know about the DE from watching Spirit of the Law's videos on youtube. I got the impression that the most challenging aspect for the developers was to create new civilizations that were both unique and balanced. And that it has required some later tweaking in patches.
Age of Empires: Fan Preview on Saturday, April 10th at 9am PT/ 12pm ET/ 5pm BST
I feel like I mostly stick to older games in general now, and don't have the time or energy to get into new ones (I never thought I would totally ignore news about a Baldur's gate 3 for example). So I'll probably not try the game myself. But I'm still interested in seeing how they design the civilizations and campaigns and things like that.