Age of Empires IV

Well, now we know why there's an Age of Empires Remastered coming — to whet people's appetites for Age of Empires IV, and it's being developed by Relic Entertainment! I guess if you're not going to employ Ensemble aka Robot Entertainment, you might as well get them to do it.

I am cautiously optimistic, but considering how... lacking Dawn of War 3 was.... Fingers crossed.

edit: Also, going by the trailer and all the time periods covered, this feels more like Empire Earth, instead of Age of Empire which tended to pick smaller time periods.

edited 21st Aug '17 6:40:00 PM by Ghilz

I would not be so sure about that as that trailer pretty much entirely consisted of animating the box artwork of some of the games that came before IV, and possibly a few new ones in the same style. It could have just been a nostalgia trip.

edited 21st Aug '17 6:59:24 PM by VutherA

It could be Dawn of War 3 was lacking because they got the contract to do AOE4 from Microsoft mid-development, and their priorities shifted.

Some parts of the trailer genuinely sounded like they belonged to a Civ game. "Standing the test of time" comes to mind.

Which would still be weird "So we got the contract from Microsoft, time to stop working on the contract from Sega" . Also supposes the games were in development at the same time which we don't know yet.

edited 22nd Aug '17 10:55:01 AM by Ghilz

No. That doesn't happen. What I mean is that their attention got divided.

What, no one guessing out of anywhere how the hell the fourth entry of one of the most quintessential RTSes is gonna be like when Relic Entertainment tends to make much less standard RTSes?

Much faster paced RTS like Company of Heros and Dawn of war

Age of empires was always a slow game with a LOT of turtling

Hard to say in light how how Dawn of War 3 abandoned a bunch of series staples to simplify gameplay and crib a bunch of MOBA elements. Had you asked me at the time of Dawn of War 2 to speculate, hell yeah. Now... I honestly don't know what Relic's gonna pull.

Which is still unprofessional as all hell if that's what happened. Though honestly I don't think so. DOW 3's issues are clearly design issues. Not coding or polish.

edited 22nd Aug '17 11:46:37 AM by Ghilz

Which my AI-controlled enemies just keep fighting their way through. x_x

"Hard to say in light how how Dawn of War 3 abandoned a bunch of series staples to simplify gameplay and crib a bunch of MOBA elements."

Don't forget Executive Meddling. Every publisher wants a piece of the eSports pie.

Microsoft's instructions for AOE would be, "You see the classic AOE? Do that, but bigger."

If only Microsoft was that sane. >_> The history of Windows and the original design plans for the Xbone show that this kind of logic doesn't necessarily always exist at Microsoft. It's a come and go thing.

edited 23rd Aug '17 4:04:37 AM by Ghilz

Really? Microsoft trusts Mojang. I'm sure they'd trust Relic.

Probably because Markus Presson had enough clot, what with Minecraft's HUGE success, to demand that Microsoft do as little meddling as possible, or stick to a very particular set of demands. Not so much in the case of Age of Empires, especially since the original developers lost control of the franchise years ago.

Incidently this is an old AMA with Bill Gates

Sometimes just asking works?

" Markus Presson had enough clot,"

Persson has no clout. At all.

EA also trusts Popcap.

I worked at EA. EA doesn't trust anyone.

It will at best tolerate you having your own ideas so long as someone in the chain doesn't decide his ideas are going to make more cash.

And yeah, Notch had clout at the time. He sat on one of the largest gaming phenomenon in decades. The words "From the Creator of Minecraft" carried weight. Most people knew Minecraft - even people who are not in videogame, and few knew of Notch's particularities outside the more hardcore gaming public. Any publisher at the time would've sucked his cock to be able to get a cut of the money of the "Creator of Minecraft's" next creation. Microsoft knows he could've gone anywhere if he felt so inclined, and any publisher would've bent over backwards to have him.`

edited 23rd Aug '17 8:56:37 PM by Ghilz

I wonder if the empire building/capital city mechanic from III is going to return.

I'm hoping IV is a return to their roots so to speak

3 had some interesting mechanics that lacked some refinement. That said, I am curious of what they'll do to keep true to the franchise's root but not make this a re-ash of the previous games.

Some Age of Empires Remastered in the meantime.

I really missed units moving in variable formations in III. It was one of my favorite little quirks about II.

For a second I thought I was looking at Rise of Nations... such good memories.