Town Hall AMA with Cysion

[Plokmijnuh]

Cysion the lead of AoE2 DE agreed in spirit with Viper that Vikings and Saracens are too broad and could be considered for changes. Not confirmed just Cysion agreeing with Viper that these civs are too generalized in the current game.

However, he confirmed that Chinese are not being split in the sense that Indians were changed in DoI. Chinese is staying one civ with 5 brand new civs. Due to NDA he cannot name the 5 civs but its implied they are Tanguts, Jurchens, Khitans, Tibetans, and Bai.

The upcoming skins are free because World's Edge decided to include them for everyone and not charge for them as a graphics DLC. Cysion is not complaining and is happy for the community.

One thing Cysion mentions is a desire to keep the game size of AoE2 on the smaller size GB wise.

In terms of number of playable Civs, Cysion believes there is a limit but doesn't want to give a hard number of what he has in mind. Bottom-line, new civs will be added but the criteria won't be reduced simply for the sake of adding more civs. Cysion gives the examples of adding minor duchies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Perhaps this hints at not adding city-states such as Venice.

[chaoticbalrog]

While Vikings a.k.a. Norse are quite big, Saracens I think should not get an Indians-style split and should instead have some groups like the Kurds splintered off of them while preserving the base Saracens civ much like what happened with the Slavs.

[Plokmijnuh]

Originally posted by chaoticbalrog:

While Vikings a.k.a. Norse are quite big, Saracens I think should not get an Indians-style split and should instead have some groups like the Kurds splintered off of them while preserving the base Saracens civ much like what happened with the Slavs.

If you watch the town hall Q/A with Cysion, Viper it was more so at the end just throwing out their that the calling that Vikings and Saracens are very generalized civs and perhaps more could be added. Not necessarily a split like the Indians got. But additional civs added while preserving the original identity. This was the most informal aspect of the town hall.

[Crossil]

I mean, it was pretty obvious no Chinese split when the Chinese civ remained unchanged in the patch notes. It was simply updated.

Skins being free is, imo, the best choice they could've made. Cosmetic DLC, at least to me, is always a horrendous idea on principle.

I hope that the number of possible civs is in triple digits.