Our latest dev blog had some content redacted at the last minute, but we’re happy to reveal that now! The producer of the Age of Empires series at Microsoft, Ryan Chaply, was present at E3 and teased some upcoming goodness for the whole Age series.
Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms
First and foremost, the name is out! Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms will be the name of the new expansion pack, coming out later this year on Steam.
Additionally, a new civ has been announced, including a small teaser video with further information regarding the Malians and the Berbers. As well as little hints for further additions to the game. We’ll certainly cover more of those in extended detail in future posts, but we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out on some possible speculation 😉
E3 Teaser
We’ll keep you posted with more goodness next weeks, including some in-depth detail on the latest patch notes and the strengths of the new mod manager.
a good idea for the new DLC would be if the wonder bring a particular bonus for each civilization. because when a player build a wonder the wonder brings actually not (except in the play where you win with it). Accordingly, in Conquest games, etc. If a player build a wonder and than he get a bonus and when the wonder will be destroy the bonus will be go.
Sry for my English
that’s a lovely idea – sort of like Asian Dynasties in aoe3
There are mods like that already made.
that would be great, adds to civilization differences
even if it’s just minor bonuses like 5% faster units
maybe there could be a few wonder technologies that are the same for every civilization or just one that is different for everyone (would be like a third unique technology but with another symbol and not the crown- maybe a ruler’s orb or ring ?)
Would be cool if the Wonder had some technologies that serve you only if you are about to lose or to protect the wonder like thr Revolution tech in AoE3 where all villagers become soldiers. The wonder shouldnt lose its function to be a desperate last try to win
automatically produce gold, or temporarily boost units’ speed and attack, or temporarily prevent every player to fight~~~ or provide some unique techs …… but I dont agree to make each civ receives different bonus from wonders b/c it will be huge work to balance the game
I hope the new models will fit better into the game than last time! Since last time the looked like totaly out of place! Not all but most… refering mainly to the buildings
Hmm… since it seems we’ll also have Abyssinians and Portuguese if the image is anything to go by, would the fifth be the Swahili?
I understand if this stuff takes a long time, but please stop saying there will be more information “next week” or “mid-June” and then have nothing for a month. I’m excited to hear more, damn it!
I want to talk about fixing some things of the current expansion, the forgotten In my opinion, the appearence of elephant archers in the game are very wrong. It doesn’t fit the game graphics. Not only it looks weird, it doesn’t fit existing elephants as animals in the original game. If you compare existing persian elephant to this one, if you put them next to each other, you will notice how different they are. Like they are different animals, which they aren’t. Actually, all new animal-units do not fit the actual graphic style. All horses look alike (like they should),… Read more »
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and youre entitled to it… but i disagree
I must be a dumb as never noticed anything wrong with the new units graphics and animations. The only thing that bothers me it’s that “Ludakris” map size name, seems unprofessional.
I agree with the comment on Ludakris maps. I assume it’s some sort of in-joke, presumably because one of the devs is called Kris. It just comes across as egotistical and doesn’t fit with the tone of the game. The devs get their names in the credits – that’s the only place where they should be mentioned. It’s not like they’re famous and people can appreciate the joke. I have no idea who Kris is.
They are different elephants Persian one is based on a African elephant and this one is a Asian elephant.If the game can have 2 types of camels why not 2 types of elephants?Besides the original game does not have accurate animal models,all the horses are based off Arabian horses and the Mameluke unit is riding a Mongolian camel.
Yeah, and by the way, I think the Indian elephant is more historically accurate.
Well, actually all war elephants in history were Indian elephants. Persians were no exception. No one ever used African species in battles, because they can’t be tamed.
African Elephants were used by medieval armies in Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, and Tunisia (also Ancient Egypt and Carthage) – there are subspecies of African elephant that no longer exist which were just as tamable as the Asian ones
The war elephants used by Carthage where aisan elephants as far as I know.
Carthaginians used the North African Elephant (now extinct) – there were other subspecies used in battle by people in North and East Africa, and even the Middle East. One famous account exists of Yemeni forces invading the Hejaz (the region around Mecca and Medina), fielding a large number of African War elephants.
The music is very silly.
Why? It’s just the standard theme with an African sound. It’s very fitting.
I wonder where they got that castle idea from.
The building you see on the clip is a wonder, not a castle.
It’s obviously Malian architecture, probly based off a famous Mosque or University?
Now if you need another civ to add into The African Kingdoms pack, I know what you guys can add in: You can add in the Egyptians. However, here’s how the Egyptians will be: *Architecture Set: Middle Eastern *Language: Egyptian (please voice the AOE2 unique Egyptian voices) *Wonder: Either a cool looking Pyramid or a big size Mosque *Unique Techs: ??? (You guys can think of unique techs since I can’t) *Unique Unit: ??? (You guys can also find it yourself since I also don’t know what unique unit to give to this civ) *Unique Bonuses: ??? (Also couldn’t think… Read more »
“Language: Egyptian” – Medieval Egyptians would speak Arabic
…that’s one of many issues in this post
Well, the first 2 centuries of middle age their language was copto.
very true! assumedly that’s when egypt was under byzantine rule, so again, it doesnt really warrant it’s own civ eh.
Some people currently still speak it, and sometimes they’re considered as the true heirs to the ancient Egyptians (which is a bit weird, since they are mostly christians).
I think it has to do with them not having Bedouin/Saudi ancestry.
No idea if indeed there is a genetic difference between Copts and other Egyptians.
safe to say that (for the most part) contemporary egyptians (Copts and Arabs) can still trace their genetic heritage to Egypt’s indigenous population. Being ‘Arab’ is more about language and culture than it is about race, and Arab invaders never really supplanted the populations of places that they controlled – the occupied people (in places like egypt and iraq and the levant) assimilated into arab culture over the generations.
Exactly, there is certainly a continuum, although throughout the centuries some population changes/shifts (not replacements, otherwise no continuum :P) took place there due to assimilation of foreign populations. For instance, slave trade had an impact on Maghreb population/genetic makeup. Roman conquest probably didn’t, it was just a military occupation that forced a new culture/etc on the region – although people form other areas of the Empire could have moved there afterwards. Generally it’s migrations that cause significant changes, especially if they are hostile or into a region lightly inhabited. We’d need genetic studies from Egypt since early days up to… Read more »
So….any new info updates coming anytime soon?
I am also anxious. More than a month without news.
Yea, and the last “news” was just a short clip from E3 with the xpack cover image. If the game is indeed scheduled to be released in Fall 2015, they don’t have that much time left, so a bit more info would really be appreciated at this point in time.
Things are quite hectic atm, we’ll share new stuff as soon as we can, but I cannot put a date on it now, sorry! Safe to say development is still going smooth. =)
Thanks
By the way Cysion, I admit I feel (just a feeling, as I have no info, of course) that the Autumn 2015 deadline is in jeopardy.
There’s like 4 months left, and so far we know very little about the expansion. Personally I’d rather good content delayed than poorer content on time.
On the other hand, it’s nice getting (pleasant) surprises when things come out :p
I’ve been working on a campaign for the steam workshop, and was planning on using the upcoming expansion’s features (civs, units, terrains, etc) in it before publishing. With the new way that the scenarios are saved as of 4.0 (separating by the different data sets), will I be able to open the scenarios which were made in aofe so that i can add stuff to them from the new expansion?
Were you the one who made that fan art with the unique units? :p
I’d like to see your workshop content eventually!
yeah that was me 😀 thanks! (i changed my name on steam but that art should still be uploaded)
i would like to congratulate this hard working team and they should know they are doing a great job! also i would like to ask them to make the game easy modable and maybe include some tools directly build in with a smart interface so that most mods are basically graphic changings! also please include some new features like tax collectors, wells, and some sort of faith/energy like seen in star wars galactic battlegrounds! i am glad you people have started this and may God help you all in your cultural quest! best from DJeronimo!
How do you suggest those could work?
It could drive the game further away from AoE2, which I doubt is something the dev team wants.
leovigildo, the game is in a continuous modification, which is very good because the developpers could try different perspectives and see what works and what not. my opinion would be to have as many features as possible so that these features could teoretically replace even triggers. the game should get complicated but as i wrote on heaven forums the game should get complicated in closed bubbles somehow exterior to the game play so they do not interfere with the hack and slash of the majority of the buyers. but at some point they must try and bring new things to… Read more »