More Cultures or More Skins?

[SBA77]

So one of my biggest issues with AoW4 is the lack of visual diversity and customization for the different factions. Having 6, soon to be 7 and 8 or 9 after all the DLCs are released, rather rigid cultures that mostly look the same (except for Mystic, and the new Reavers) is stifling for for a game that is built upon faction creation and encourages creativity. I think the solution to this is for them either add more cultures, or add alternate "skins" options as well as adding more cultural units and army mount customization options, though the latter two ideas are a topic for another day.

Before I believed that the best solution to this problem was adding more skin options for the culturesr because I didn't think adding more culture was in the cards after Eldrich Realms is released; but after seeing the Reavers I'm starting to feel that adding more cultures is possible. Which do you guys they should do or is more likely for them to do, release more cultures, possibly in free updates and DLCs after Eldrich Realms, or add extra skin options for the cultures to allow us to make them more look more unique?

[Rhalius]

Personally I would like the idea of variants of mirror cultures being added.

They would use the same mechanics as another culture, but would have different looking cities and units, their units could even be slightly different and their affinities would also be different.

Could be a great way to double the number of cultures without adding new mechanics.

For example of Feudal culture, we could get a high medieval variant where the knights wear plate armour and surcoats, riding barded horses, becoming very Arthurian in style with merlin type mages and cities looking like Camelot. Order and magic could be their affinity.

For barbarian culture, a viking looking variant could be added.
Cities with longhouses, ships are longboats, soldiers wearing armour, shields and weapons fitting for Norse vikings, taking some after Norse Mythology from which most species in the game hail from. They could have a chaos and order affinity.

For Dark culture, a dark gothic looking variant could be added, with the cities looking like Dracula's castle sort of. Having a more eastern european aesthetic. They could have shadow and chaos as their affinities.

For industrial, a renaissance looking variant could be added, with some steampunk elements. They'd have arquebusiers or musketeers instead of crossbowmen, would wear all kinds of fancy feathered hats but also have plate armour. More of the landsknecht style.
Their heavy infantry could wield two handed swords, the troops trading in a bit of defence for offence. Could have materium and nature affinities, or materium and order.

For mystic culture, a far eastern inspired variant could be added. With long bearded sorcerers in high collared robes, chinese looking cities, etc. Could have magic and nature affinities.

For high culture, an egyptian variant could be added, with Egyptian looking cities and troops. Like the tigrans in AOW3. Could have order and shadow affinities.

For reavers, a scavenger like culture could be added that is full chaos affinity. Would have a style more fitting for goblins and ratpeople, a more subterranean look fit for such beings.

[oddball]

MORE GUNS

BETTER GUNS

BIGGER GUNS

[Blanch Warren]

Originally posted by moca loca:

MORE GUNS

BETTER GUNS

BIGGER GUNS

I don't know if everyone would agree, but I agree with option for more guns, including a later option for rolling out the guns. Dreadnoughts can start with them (tier 2 anyway), but more guns as an option is the way to go.

[SBA77]

I have been away from an haven't tended to this thread in so long, and I have a lot of catching up to do.

Anyway after going through all your posts, I think I've come full circle.

At first because they had announced all the DLC that would be released in the Season Pass, and thus I believed that were the only DLCs and only two more cultures were being released, I thought that the way to increase faction diversity would be if they released alternate skins to choose from the existing cultures during faction creation, as this guy articulated, or like this guy's mods. I figured they'd be easy to implement, relatively speaking, and they could be included for free with the free updates.

However after the promotion of Empires and Ashes began and they started to showing off the Reavers and the birdmen, and how distinctive they were, I thought that maybe there is a chance for them to add more cultures and that may be the way.

Now however I am starting to believe once again that the chances of adding more cultures is slim and how much more goes into them than just being the aesthetic of your factions, despite that being how many people see them as. I think the way to increase visual customization and diversity of factions is to introduce alternate skin options for them like a couple of mods have attempted to do and add a few more (and customizable) cultural units of new unit types, because let's be honest the ones they have given us are the blandest ones they could have come up with and that probably contributes to the homogeneity of the cultures' appearances (though I will say that Mystic and in some ways Barbarian do stand out). Perhaps they can add a new war animal unit type and a flying scout?

I even have a few ideas on what some of those alternate skins could be for some of the cultures.

[SBA77]

Originally posted by Forever Dead:

I use these mods, it helps make your army look different.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2979105072

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2991355200

My feudal Orcs now have a more Greek aesthetic (using some of the archon cosmetics) for example.

And about this, well the issue with mods is they are limited to using the assets that are already in the game, modders can't create new assets, they only create new units by mixing and matching assets that are already in the game, so we aren't going to see things like Japanese or Chinese-like cultures or units, or at least not without them looking really janky and weird.

[SBA77]

And finally:

Originally posted by Aliceskysareblue:

the next known dlc will have a primeval culture, they are basing these factions off of real life and fantasy settings. I dont know if the last dlc "eldritch realms" will contain a new culture

Originally posted by Blanch Warren:

this is an idiotic question, I wouldn't be surprised if both primal fury and Eldritch realms turned out to have cultures. I could be wrong, but while you do have mod options, I find it highly unlikely that they will add skins the entire roster, which is what you would have to do.

The issue with this, is one or two more cultures isn't going enough. I just like the rest of you have known that we are getting at least two more cultures via Empires and Ashes and the Primal Fury but that just isn't enough. We need more cultures like those based on real-world nations and civilizations and some other things too. There's a reason this trope[gamerant.com] exists and is so common and popular.

[Toddasaurus Rex]

I'd pay for a small DLC that adds more units to each culture, maybe a couple tomes, more narrative choices, pantheon expansion. Just that alone is worth more than what we've gotten in the DLCs so far.

[SBA77]

Originally posted by Toddasaurus Rex:

I'd pay for a small DLC that adds more units to each culture, maybe a couple tomes, more narrative choices, pantheon expansion. Just that alone is worth more than what we've gotten in the DLCs so far.

Nah, it should either be folded into one of their current DLCs or as part of the accompanying updates. New war animal and flying unit types (which would both involve mounted animals) would fit right into Primal Fury for instance.

[Rhalius]

I think it would go a long way just to give each culture one additional unit, I don't think they need more than that since it's good for them all to have their specialities. It's just that with scouts not really counting for combat purposes, I feel like we could use another unit there that's either tier 2 or 3 depending on what makes sense for the culture.

For feudal for example I think a stalwart spearman at tier 2 would make sense that's a direct upgrade of the peasant. Feudal culture needs better spear infantry than peasants.

For High, I'd add lancer cavalry at tier 3.

For Barbarian, maybe some sort of dual wielding battle maidens that move fast and can deal a lot of damage.

For Dark, some tough slow infantry.

For Mystic, some sort of cataphract cavalry.

For dwarf culture, maybe some sort of siege since Marauders get it too. (with crew though, I still think the marauder cannon should get a gunner so it's no sentient siege weapon.)

[Midas]

Originally posted by SBA77:

Originally posted by Forever Dead:

I use these mods, it helps make your army look different.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2979105072

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2991355200

My feudal Orcs now have a more Greek aesthetic (using some of the archon cosmetics) for example.

And about this, well the issue with mods is they are limited to using the assets that are already in the game, modders can't create new assets, they only create new units by mixing and matching assets that are already in the game, so we aren't going to see things like Japanese or Chinese-like cultures or units, or at least not without them looking really janky and weird.

They can, it's just considerably more work. Basically anything that the devs have added, players can add.

I don't think it's likely we'll see them add stuff that exists just for modding, but my hope is that adding new types of NPC units will broaden what's available. Planetfall had a lot of neutral 'groups' of units (myconids, RPRs, etc) that weren't part of the base game and were added gradually with the DLCs. If they do that for AoW4 as well, anything they add there willl translate to assets that can be used in modding as well.

[SBA77]

Originally posted by Midas:

Originally posted by SBA77:

Originally posted by Forever Dead:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2979105072

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2991355200

And about this, well the issue with mods is they are limited to using the assets that are already in the game, modders can't create new assets, they only create new units by mixing and matching assets that are already in the game, so we aren't going to see things like Japanese or Chinese-like cultures or units, or at least not without them looking really janky and weird.

I don't think it's likely we'll see them add stuff that exists just for modding

They wouldn't be adding new assets just for modders, they'd be making their own version of those mods, essentially. They could add an extra option slider under the appearance that let you choose from various different skins for your race, such as for High they could have a "Greco-Roman/Archon" skin and a "Mesopotamian" skin to choose from.