Stealing Villagers + Other Planned Features Cut From AoE2

Here are 8 rumored features the developers wanted to put in AoE2 that never made it to the final version.
0:26 Special abilities (shield wall, cavalry charge, etc)
2:08 Naval special abilities (ram, greek fire, grapple and board)
3:30 Raider civilizations
4:21 Stealing enemy villagers
5:15 Pillage buildings
6:00 Buildings block projectiles
6:40 Gaia regeneration (trees regrow and animals repopulate)
7:47 Outlaws
8:35 Forced treaties
8:57 Fealty (give 50% of resources and control of units to another player)
10:08 Relics given attack and conversion bonuses
Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Kidnap mod on Steam: steamcommunity...
Kidnap mod on Voobly: www.voobly.com...
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsou...
Game: Age of Empires 2 HD with Forgotten Empires, African Kingdoms, and Rise the Rajas expansions

[@n00bnetrum]

>play Forest Nothing >Trees regenerate This is a new kind of hell.

[@jackdaws7125]

n00bnetrum omg

[@kartiknikam3423]

They are saving trees in AOE2

[@uzairahmed4832]

Wow, you'd be fighting other players on one end and frantically trying to keep the Forrest from swallowing your town on another.

[@ismaelsantos5378]

@@uzairahmed4832 That... sounds like a cool idea. Now imagine trees respawning in the middle of a battle, trapping units in trees. Siege Onager would be the most used siege unit on it.

[@Alpostpone]

@@uzairahmed4832 Onagers vs Ents

[@Araneus21]

A simple day-night cycle would make wonders for the game. Imagine your town during the night with windows in buildings lit up, gates adorned with torches, certain military units able to also bear torches and increase light radius for others. Despite limited sight radius during night, towers and outposts maintain their line of sight and allow other units with range to also target enemies in their range. Also, the night would make for a better raiding time, giving certain units no line of sight penalty and making certain civilizations bonuses during the night.

[@reeceengineering3560]

Oh yes

[@ahmadkhatibmursadi]

Underrated coment here

[@anonanon8447]

We need a mod for that

[@flamewheel1747]

and when Chemistry is researched by the time you reach Imperial Age: all the arrows and siege weapons that can attack with fire light up the area as the projectile is launched

[@mansbestcomrade6315]

Warcraft 3 have that and its cool but its not so detailed

[@jodecisanchez8785]

I would have liked if the Road tile set was craftable and gave a speed bonus to carts and troops.

[@estellebright2579]

Yeah, some sort of terrain buff or something. For example, deep water ship moving speed is normal while shallow water moves 50% slower. Or on ice, infantry move speed is 10% slower. Or on desert, camels gain 20% moving speed boost while elephants moving speed is reduced by 10%. Lots of potential.

[@senox9905]

@@estellebright2579 omg that idea with the camels is brilliant! We need a mod which does some things like that, it brings so many possibilities :0

[@willdbeast1523]

@@estellebright2579 there are already kinda terrain (de)buffs in the game, specifically with the cracked ground terrain, so there is definitely room for this idea to be expanded upon and I think it would be nice to be used in more maps like eldorado to give specific areas more focus in a specific way

[@thomasyeretzian4041]

@@willdbeast1523 There is only cracked terrain.

[@willdbeast1523]

​@@thomasyeretzian4041 yeah what I mean was since there is one, it's not too far fetched that they might add more if there are expansions in the future (maybe with DE?)

[@tvremote9394]

7:13 "deer could repopulate as long as at least ONE was left" Apparently parthenogenesis was also a part of the cut features

[@sauromatae9728]

oh come on, we can repopulate our villagers even if we have only 1 male left. its not a big deal

[@krankarvolund7771]

@@sauromatae9728 We can repopulate our villagers with zero left if we still have 50 food XD

[@markpapenfuss1111]

“Life, uh, finds a way” -Ian Malcolm

[@Guilherme-J]

Empire Earth animals reproduce like that too :D

[@owlblocksdavid4955]

@Hoàng Nguyên yeah, like what I do in my basement, but instead of people, it's deers.

[@henriquiferreirasegantini474]

"Once a player starts to lose, and they decide to switch to the winning team" I'm sure the Italians would receive a bonus for that ...

[@Dalinar.Kholin]

And the French?

[@aquajasa]

Lol double bonus if switching to chinese player correct ?

[@olefredrikskjegstad5972]

Too early in history for that joke

[@MrGenericNickname]

@@olefredrikskjegstad5972 I agree but it had to be made :D

[@petrmaly9087]

Arijit - No, just the Italians. French player would receive a speed bonus for running away form a battle while temporarily losing attack ability. It would be activated form the town centre military bell.

[@agustinurrutia6095]

Its funny how some of these or variations of these ones ended up in AOM or AOE 3

[@matiasparra297]

Agustin Urrutia like which?

[@coolboy1ful]

@@matiasparra297 Relics giving buffs, Inf resource, special abilities (land and sea)

[@rodrimelendez6911]

@@matiasparra297 Resources can stay in boxes and barrels on the floor and be gathered faster (AOEIII)

[@solace6633]

@@matiasparra297 even different types of attacks for different modes and proper resistance

[@ryankasch5650]

Rise of nations also got a lot of these

[@Lavaflow9000]

It's amazing how many of these you can see in 3 or AoM

[@SarudeDanstorm]

I was just thinking about how they really did accomplish a lot of these in AoM.

[@nergalsmom]

AoM is a severely underrated RTS

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

@@nergalsmom I Completely Agree. AoM deserves more love than what currently has.

[@midnightproductions3442]

People dislike it cause theyre allergic to anything non historical HAHAHAHA

[@Alias_Anybody]

The special tactics are in 3 (sorta). Is there something else I'm missing? Edit: Oh yeah, boxes with ressources and outlaws in the wilderness.

[@demoncard1180]

I'm surprised they didn't consider a dismount ability for knights.

[@azh698]

Stronghold

[@xotl2780]

El Cid will fall to my... Chopsticks!

[@sphat7031]

@@xotl2780 if you dismount el cid it become a zombie!

[@BlueSmoke216]

The opposite is also true, especially after they included Horses in Conqueror's Edition. Would have been neat if they spawned like sheep, and could be a long-term resource that you could use to mount up Long Swordsmen to become Knights or Crossbowmen to become Cavalry Archers or something. Would've given you a resource you have to protect and keep others from stealing too.

[@mrkirby8622]

Just imagine random horses being another resource on the map. Having to lure them like deer or something and once your military unit is close you can mount it. Same with umounting when creating mounted units. (Once mounted it won't run away anymore)

[@1Sladman1]

Always thought being able to build bridges would be pretty cool. Maybe make it only possible in castle/imp, make it cost a fair bit and be squishy during construction. Would give a different dynamic to island maps and allow players to make interesting strategic choices around rivers.

[@stuvius]

Yeah would be super sweet

[@aoecaviler943]

That'd be amazing. Especially considering the AI sucks on island maps and makes long games on island maps boring

[@demoncard1180]

You can already build bridges by sending players friend requests after a match. There is no stone cost, unless your heart is made of rock and such thoughts are unbearable to you.

[@zihenglao3591]

@@demoncard1180 who needs.friends when you can spam onagers and hold a single bridge checkpoint and kill whatever tries to cross

[@ahuzel]

Bridges to reach islands? What are you? Alexander the Great? At Tyre?

[@aryamaanborah7698]

Let us all appreciate the fact that SOTL has used the trigger mechanics so beautifully to explain all these features. Well Done Spirit!

[@quangduybui2181]

Walls blocking arrows Saracens, you could have been freaking useful.

[@retro2621]

hehehehe 69

[@Dueilangoisseus]

Some of these features made it to Age of Mythology, like unit special attacks and relics with bonuses instead of just a trickle of gold.

[@johannesha186]

Different Mechanic tho 11. No taking it Into battle

[@cinderheart2720]

And Outlaws became skraelings but that was on only 1 map.

[@kesiazezebajki1982]

​@@johannesha186​The only difference is still keeping them in the temple, so it's 50/50.

[@aknotienenestefito]

You can see many incarnations of this things in AoE3, and honestly they are pretty fun.

[@MrMarinus18]

I think it felt a little too much like magic. AoE2 is supposed to be quite grounded and historical so they would want to avoid mechanics that feel too out there.

[@dudewhersmacar7062]

I'd imagine the Raiders were dropped due to the AOE I "rush problem"; games basically boiled down to who could build a barracks fastest. The fact that town centres defend themselves, and how all early units cost gold, and how quickly early units are outclassed an you'll see how much effort was put into removing this problem.

[@lucaskang548]

Kind of like docks and galleys before the Expansions, but on land.

[@MrMarinus18]

I don't know about that last argument of yours since it seems like it's the opposite way. In AOE II the early units are on the same line as the later ones. In AOE I the clubman/axeman becomes completely obsolete while in AOE II the militia can be upgraded all the way towards the end. I think they mainly wanted to streamline the units. Having fewer unit lines but having more on each. In the first one there were many lines that didn't really go anywhere and were pretty much just wasting space in the menu during the iron age.

[@knightartorias4487]

@@MrMarinus18 I think what he was trying to say is that a Militia with no upgrades would get stomped by a Man-at-Arms, a MaM would get stomped by a Longswordsman, so on and so forth. Therefore, unit matchup and researched techs play a big role. If you put a single fully upgraded Champion or Elite Samurai against 10 unupgraded Militia, I have full confidence that the Militia will lose 99% of the time.

[@ayush885]

@@knightartorias4487 nope, numbers matter a lot. It can only defeat 6 without any civilization bonuses. Also, don't you feel that Spirit of the law is a little biased towards rushing, and against booming/turtling?

[@Seriona1]

I think Spirt hit the nail on the head where it cripples the raiders in late game where everyone is teched out and if raiding was a serious problem, then walls is a great full stop

[@Bean-mx1dh]

Also, honestly if animals reproduced it would be pretty cool, players would make little farms to stockpile them

[@shahranmahmood3366]

Well in AoE 3, you can build livestock pen to make sheep and fatten them fast. Also the animals you herd from the map can be fattened to increase the food you collect from them.

[@Bean-mx1dh]

@@shahranmahmood3366 true, but is aoe3 as good as aoe2? not really, but still great game :D

[@srinitaaigaura]

Proper animal husbandry

[@ParietalCell1492]

@@Bean-mx1dh It's better imho.

[@antenna_prolly]

long before _Minecraft_

[@caelumarisen]

Gaia regen should’ve been in; every map going slowly barren always bugged me

[@jonathanschloemer6846]

I would've liked it as a setting you could turn on.

[@MaartenvanHeek]

But this is exactly what happened in medieval times, and why the oldest forests in Europe are basically only 300-400 years old

[@MrMarinus18]

Maybe they did that for performance reasons. Remember AoEII was made with 90's PC's in mind.

[@lucaskang548]

I agree with that... but at least the trade mechanic is okay...

[@Jay_Sullivan]

I want modern survival games to have more realistic ecosystems. It’s funny that AoE2 almost had a more realistic system.

[@evetslon]

That fealty thing would be amazing. I would love to see some matches with that enabled

[@PhotonTrooperGaming]

It seems to be doable through mod magicians, imo. Maybe someone would be interested on that :P It would add an extra fun factor on FFA matches!

[@glenn7443]

That was the same thing I was going to say. It would be awesome

[@T2266]

It'd need a mechanic for you to revolt against your overlord though.

[@scrm3377]

@@PhotonTrooperGaming I've done something like that in ffa. Whenever I'm almost destroyed I try to convince another player that I'll help him as long as he doesn't attack me, then I rebuild my TC and support him with trash units. It can be quite fun.

[@garretgang8349]

For free for all games it would be awesome!

[@marcwillis236]

It seems like some of these were integrated, in a modified form, into AoE III. Particularly thinking of outlaws.

[@aknotienenestefito]

Yeah actually quite some, Outlaws, the auras of some civs doing different things, Indian wonder ability for peace, cover mode similar to the shield thing, hope AoE IV takes a lot of inspirations from AoE III.

[@nemou4985]

and the arrows and walls thing=?

[@ZemplinTemplar]

Shield walls were also popular in the early medieval period, so it's not like the tactic went out of fashion after Roman antiquity. ;-)

[@BenColc]

Hey Spirit Of The Law, guy here.

[@priyanshu7851]

Nice lol

[@shahraihan4738]

I am ashamed that I am not the one that tought of this.

[@nostalgicdouchebag1912]

Pulled en Austin Evans on this one, didn't ya?

[@GoldenRoyal5]

The relic idea was carried on to Age of Mythology but the relic would have to be stored in a temple in order to gain its benefits

[@hiroshinamikaze6848]

Yeah but if they kept the original idea then the relic can be a real game changer in head on battles. Imagine longbows and a monk with relics. And if the enemy manages to grab the relic mid battle, then it would have that game changing element. Which in my opinion, Aoe 2 needs.

[@rickychardzz]

Hiroshi Namikaze naaa i believe aoe 2 is perfect you know being so use to this game..... having a game changer like this is weird

[@randommfer-k6w]

I really liked the idea of having bandits generating in the map

[@shahranmahmood3366]

Kinda like neutral camp spawns in Warcraft 3.

[@paco3523]

Where do they come from? There is only void outside of the four sides of the map

[@piotrgrzelak2613]

@@paco3523 Historically, both destitute peasants and nobility as well as unemployed mercenaries sometimes engaged in robbery or piracy

[@greywolf7577]

The Civilization games have barbarians. The Age of Empire games should too.

[@alg7115]

Aoe 3 had this.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

Stealing villagers, that OP tactic in Cossacks

[@badgerlordpatrick6493]

The Duke is a true strategist! And then the buildings you've captured light afire and blow up... killing the vils you captured. Unless you save enough to build THEIR town center and THEIR barracks!! :-D

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

@@badgerlordpatrick6493 yeah, I always try to at least built the construction site for their town center next to my town center. Then I boom with double the population capacity.

[@srbishkrst]

@@badgerlordpatrick6493 you dont have to build their town Centers. Its enough to only "order" the buildig by their vills and finish it with your own vills

[@badgerlordpatrick6493]

@@srbishkrst That is technically true, and probably useful. But is that what most people do? Somehow I doubt it.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

@@badgerlordpatrick6493 that's the trick I'm using, so that I don't even have to bother escorting their villagers back to my town.

[@AntZen85]

Coming back to this after AoE4 and the expansions and it’s clear the devs still want these mechanics in the game and even found a way to give at least one Calvary unit a charge attack.

[@ivan55599]

I've always wished that there would be something raiding or pillaging for some civs, and being nomadic by building yurts etc.

[@Pa_blito]

I would love something like mongols don't being able to create monks, but they can heal by killing enemy units.

[@zeroomega3781]

@@Pa_blito too OP

[@Ayy_Doll_Fiddler]

@@Pa_blito or create shaman units where you can toggle their roles between healer or buffing units or debuffing enemy units, ets.

[@PotatoSmasher420]

Special abilities? Crates of resources? Forced treaties? Stat buff relics? Gaia controlled bandits? Looks like they implemented it all in AoE III or AoM (in weaker versions)

[@zekramnordran9526]

I actually like the idea of deer/boars regenerating, hunting is my favorite means of getting food and I hate the fact that it only lasts you into the early game

[@DominatorLegend]

Let me guess, if you were playing as the Britons and a monk came with a relic, you'd be given the holy hand grenade.

[@siraguswolf2604]

One, two, five!

[@saulofontoura]

Which is only fair if those Gaia Rabbits are attacking you

[@Sir_Robin_of_Camelot]

You tit! I soiled my armor I was so scared!

[@The_Room_2_Doggys_Revenge]

after it explodes, you would be like : Look at the bones!

[@lionzion619]

And the franks could catapult cows and fart in your general direction.

[@hjelsethak]

It'd be kinda fun to play survival AoE2, where the world is out to get you and you have to fight man AND nature to survive.

[@RennieAsh]

Make it a mod ;p

[@praevasc4299]

I agree that walls blocking all enemy arrows and letting own arrows through would have been bad. But just giving enemy arrows a -10% or -20% debuff would have been great!

[@keeganlafferty1395]

yeah, there should've been SOMETHING to make walls more useful against archer units, rather than outright blocking non-siege projectiles it could've reduced the damage, accuracy, and possibly range of non-siege projectiles, increasing the priority of siege units if you wanna get those walls outta the way but not requiring it if you aren't concerned about efficiency, granted Hand Cannoneers and variants (Janissary and Conquistador) would either suffer a greater penalty against walls or be blocked anyways due to the more direct path of their projectiles, of course that more direct penalty against the gunpower ranged units would also warrant a buff to them in general

[@Gary_oldmans_left_nut]

@@keeganlafferty1395 or garrison archers on walls and get something like the uphill firing bonus from aoe2 definitive

[@antenna_prolly]

​@@keeganlafferty1395 'cause I mean, you really believe enemy archers have echolocation and can arc their projectile at just the right angle to land on...? I don't think so!

[@NolDragon]

Packs of wolves randomly attacking your villagers or even your sheep or deer could have been quite fun !

[@HandsomeGamerGuy]

Yeah.

[@MrMarinus18]

Though I could imagine it could be seen as obnoxious as well. If a pack of wolves attacks you early in the dark age when you only have like 10 villagers it will basically mean your defeat. Since even when you do win it will put your economy so far back that you will never be able to recover. You could have it though that they only generate and attack a player who has been in the feudal age for at least a little while. However then they are not afraid and more a nuance that you can't prepare for. In AoEII you want to predict what your opponent will do. But with the wolves you would have to account for completely random attacks as well. Also if you suffer a raid and you get a pack attack at the same time you might get overwhelmed and lose several villagers even though you successfully fended off your opponent.. Therefore having that would make rushing extremely risky since you don't have troops at home to defend yourself. It would also make scouting less relevant since knowing that your opponent has no intentions of rushing you does not mean you are safe. They mostly want to encourage that people go out and fight and having random attacks that can happen at any time without warning is going completely against that. I can see this being fun but only if you can turn it on and off. Maybe also ramp it up in that you can have outlaws that can happen all the way to the imperial age and scale up appropriately. Such as that in the late imperial age you can get attacked by a group of paladins. A way to implement this could be that it actually preserves a very small number of the units that are killed in battle at random. However they can only appear once.

[@spacewargamer4181]

NO

[@morva4498]

@@MrMarinus18 I think you are over thinking it. A group of Paladins is way overpowered for that. I'd start this type of thing in the castle age and add the gaia regen effect to the maps so that way there is challenge but support so that it pays off.

[@longethdayv770]

Thank god for magyars c:

[@arihantkuba231]

Sounds like a AOE4 wishlist

[@lekhaclam87]

Haven't heard a thing from it since the trailer.

[@raifikarj6698]

Some News say it will in E3 in 12 june

[@muratakpinar9094]

They did that already in aoe3 and aom

[@KC-bg1th]

lekhaclam87 Let’s just pray it’s not another Bannerlord. lol

[@alexvvvssr3307]

14 of november...

[@Imperiused]

I really like the fealty mechanic. Too bad it didn't make it in. The Relic mechanic looks fun too.

[@MrMichelangelo]

About that shield wall, there is a special ability for footmens in Warcraft 3, they get -30% ranged dmg but walk much slower and that makes sense. Btw in AOE there could be different types of armours (just like in W3, some of them have de/buffs against melee weapons and/or ranged units)

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

It's cool to see how many of these features made it into AoE4.

[@xXExtremeRampageXx]

When you mentioned the relic bonuses it made me think of the AoE 2 Intro Video where you can see two monks carrying a Relic into the battlefield which I always thought was strange. But now that I heard that they wanted to implement this feature it makes more sense.

[@mrmbada]

Thanks to you I now saw the full intro for the first time. Thank you

[@thrashes6208]

I like the monk relic one a lot, fleshed out a bit with perhaps a preset number of potential forms of relics with corosponding colors (aka maybe a green one no matter your color that increases wood gathering rate within 7 tiles)

[@richardvlasek2445]

the special abilities legit just sound like late 90s version of Total War Attila

[@hendriklobe577]

to me Special Abilities sound like Warcraft 3, which was published about 3 years later.

[@Kensuke0987]

@@hendriklobe577 the very first Warcraft had special abilities too tho more in the form of abilities you have to activate manually

[@silvaries9884]

I kinda like the idea of raiding civs and all the gaia stuff That would have give the game a much more realistic feel as well as a better strategic start.

[@padpai_]

Pillaging? >early feudal >enemy makes market >spam scouts >attack the market >get resources Profit guaranteed. but... ah nevermind :(

[@Qfungi]

Step 1 create villagers step 2 ? step 3 Profit!

[@pericanet]

And make wall and archee and your market is safe. :)

[@pericanet]

Kreate a wall and archer and your market is safe. :)

[@ShirosTamagotchi]

but tbf in the current game you can build tradecarts and "attack" the enemy market to get gold. So "pillaging" is implemented

[@raidarthegunwizard4520]

@@pericanet but archer will block by wall

[@TheKobasen]

I heard that samurai can do both melee and ranged attack at first for realistic purpose. But it was too hard to implemented so they scraped that idea

[@PhotonTrooperGaming]

this would be Spirit of the Law ultimate argument for Japanase civ on AoE 2 (and I actually would love it as well)

[@hiroshinamikaze6848]

I want a patch which introduces samurai archers as the second special unit for the Japanese. Like Genitours. They should be trained at an Archery Range, not a castle.

[@zeroomega3781]

@@hiroshinamikaze6848 Yumi Samurai ni gozaimasu!

[@TheKobasen]

Yumi archer could be a good unique unit for Japanese, but they already represent by full tech tree for archery range just like saracens

[@xvista]

Cavalry charge attack... You mean Coustillier?

[@stefangavril3906]

Yeah, but this was posted 2 years ago

[@jaishkhan7442]

Once a player starts to lose he can change alliance, *Every FPS game nowadays*

[@joedalton155]

Outlaws and wolves would have been an earlier equivalent to warcraft 3 creep camps basically

[@silverwoodlawn4913]

Some of these ideas are really cool. I wish they made it to the final version, especially that Gaia-regeration and early hostilities.

[@trngquangvinh1067]

Some of these did made it into AoM though

[@silverwoodlawn4913]

@@trngquangvinh1067 yeah but I'm talking bout AoK

[@IDONTGETTHEPOINT]

Weren't samurai supposed to have both a ranged attack and a melee attack?

[@ahuzel]

And Aztecs should get bonuses for sacrifices.

[@nia5370]

And deal 80 siege damage within 5 tile radius when they die.

[@Alias_Anybody]

Gaia regeneration didn't even make it into AoE3. I always wanted that.

[@shahranmahmood3366]

And I don't like how the removed all drop off points in AoE3. Its like all settlers are Atlantean Citizens from AoM Titans. But at least the citizens had donkeys with them.

[@Alias_Anybody]

Okay, I disagree about that. Creating those small buildings was ultimately just a waste of time.

[@alfonsovallejo2665]

The gaia thing sounds so freaking fun and the relic thing sounds great with a couple of changes without interchanging the gold generation (it would be a risk and a bigger role for monks).

[@nathangamble125]

Fealty seems like a cool mechanic for FFAs

[@Santibag]

I had an early version of AoE2 when I was a kid. It was a game my dad was playing. It had things like: -Middle age instead of Feudal age and Feudal age instead of castle age -Some nice looking castles firing bolts -Scout boat -> Galley -> War Galley. Scout boat is like equivalent of current galleys. I'm not sure if they were available on Dark age -Galleys firing bolts -Cannon galley instead of cannon galleon -Military unit creation sound is the same as AoE 1 (something like "shhh... WOLF") -Trebuchet was from siege workshop after its research -The most important one: MONKS WERE GOING "WOLOLO" !!! I don't remembers something other than these that are worth mentioning. Lol, ai was attacking with "big ships" while I only had scout boats. I wanted to have "big ships" and built trade cog to fight :D Crossbowmans and longbowmans were the most scary units to me. Because they are at the phases were I was losing. I was playing childish though.

[@Kensuke0987]

AoE2 Alpha? did it have battering rams which turn into chariots when attacking? the boarding ships that go WOLOLO when converting an enemy ship? skirmishers that turn into phalanx/centurions when attacking? i had that too

[@sparta2705]

@@Kensuke0987 that sounds badass

[@maxs713]

Great vid! Some of those sounded like really good ideas

[@AshKaperdon]

Funny thing about the relic thing. In an earlier version of the Original intro, showed just that when the red king moves the bishop. Although, they stand right next to siege as knights ride by, implying it has an affect on the siege. Also, there was a heavy emphasis on archers in the defense of the castle at the end, and the attack only really beginning with siege, like the blocked arrows implications. So, maybe the cut scene maker was operating on these early concepts. Which would explain removing the relic scene from the intro in certain versions, as to not give the impression it does something.

[@ArthurDraco]

The building pillaging is pretty similar to the one the Lakota Cav Archers get in Rise of Nations, where by damaging enemy building that generates resource(like a farm), they can get some resources out of it.

[@schmid1.079]

The animal reproduction is actually implemented in Empire Earth, its quite vital in the first two ages. In AoE it wouldnt be particularly usefull because you unlock farming right away.

[@marosam236]

schmid1.0 wait i never noticed this! Although i never played alot of empire earth 1... was this removed from empire earth 2 ?

[@spacewargamer4181]

:O

[@TheAwkwardGuy]

Damn charge did show up in AoE2 after all these years!

[@jonathanperigo6853]

I havent play aoe2 in years and your channel just came up on my feed. Now im watching your whole backlog and i love it. I want to get into it again and possibly get into scenario making like i used to in aom

[@BierBart12]

From the title, I expected him to steal those features and implement them in the game as mods. Also, 7:15 the animal repopulation mechanic exists in Empire Earth, which is highly inspired by AoE. I always loved playing around with it for some reason, there seems to be no limit on how many times animals can cell divide. Though, it happens very slowly and doesn't seem to be multiplying, so it takes many hours for overpopulation to happen. It did make the map look better.

[@1un4cy]

Wolves were gonna be saiyans?

[@TFLWProductions]

I'm early, hell yeah. I just got into this channel about a week ago, and while I'm a very casual player, I love this shit. Keep it up!

[@personthehuman1277]

10:30 they actually added this in AoE 4. in the gameplay trailer, a monk with a relic did a range conversion and converted all enemy units within a radius of him.

[@Stelphy876]

try a Rus monk, they have a tech to give boosts.

[@user-pn2vd1pi3d]

I like how those ideas ended up in AOE4 after all this years.

[@YuenHsiaoTieng]

WE NEED (most of) THESE! Especially the infantry abilities!

[@LordVilmore]

No we don't. You can play plenty of games that have these mechanics. Why don't you play them? ah right those games aren't better because they include these mechanics, in fact they are worse and most of them are long forgotten.

[@Frogkhan915]

@@LordVilmore I think the problem with them is that they add more micro in an already micro-intensive game (that requires constant economic management too). It would be too much.

[@shaifuseth5566]

8:20 Help! Crusaders are attacking our trade routes XD

[@slapstickisfunny7531]

Hush kaka boi

[@Eryomis]

Outlaws, gaia regens and wolves packs and relics giving buffs in battle are absolutely fantastic. I'm sad it isn't in the game now... Also force treaties and fealties is really interesting. Oh what could have been.

[@nathanokeefe7063]

I love how some of these were implemented in Age4.

[@reubendias18]

Gaia regeneration would be great. Imagine, Celts not running out of trees. BTW SOTL... Please make a top 5 navy civs review video. :(

[@owlblocksdavid4955]

If my Korean siege onagers have anything to say about it, that wood's not going to last you very long...

[@ronaldambatoho]

Viking, Malay, Portuguese should be in the top 3

[@zechico2009]

Fealty for regicide FFA! That would be cool. If your king dies, bown to the new one

[@GusZiliotto]

the visual representations were so good man really appreciate the effort

[@FloosWorld_AoE]

Interesting to see that some of these cut features now somehow made their way to AoE 4

[@ashina2146]

the Wall feature... Might be a good idea with a Super Late game tech tho, at that time you might have some siege.

[@martinmullender-taeter5163]

Well i would love to play with a few of these, i mean it would be different but it would be quite fun ... Then again, the balance

[@gaylynnhorncri]

This is one of your coolest video. Nice job Spirit

[@spectreseed6029]

There can definitely be a use for the shield wall. Particularly, if you were trying to hold a choke point when your enemy has a lot of archers.

[@bendtnerdave8368]

i would love to have zoom in and zoom out and wounded units should get lower stats Kreygasm

[@RennieAsh]

Zoom should be coming to AoE2 DE at least

[@clandestin011]

We need an in-depth video about the eagle warrior line. What are the matchups? Which of the 3 civilisation has the best eagle warriors?

[@voidgods]

I'm sure that already exists. Maybe under a mesoamerican civs comparison video

[@voidgods]

That being said, Mayan is always best with 100 HP

[@callmemrduck7142]

dont incan eagles have better armour??

[@clandestin011]

@@voidgods looked for it, didn't find it

[@voidgods]

@@callmemrduck7142 For general use, it is the Mayans. Incas do get armor, but most of the time the armor is overkill against archers, and against melee +40 HP will be stronger than +1. Plus Mayans can take a siege onager shot and survive, for example. On edge cases they can perform differently. For example, against trash, Aztecs will be the better to clean up, with higher attack. Incas become faster huskarls (without the bonus attack), which can be great vs some archer Civs. But overall, I think Mayans are more versatile.

[@T3AMKILL]

Yay SotL video!!!! Happy Easter!

[@_antares031]

I suggested this one before, but it would be cool to cover the lost technologies and features of the older version of AoE II. Remember that you had to research hand cannoneer and bombard cannon, even after the research of chemistry? And remember that teutons TC had +5 range, and korean siege onagers had 12 range in total? Those were the good days.

[@aquajasa]

S teutons range i remember

[@moro6108]

the gaia regeneration thing was used in empire earth I

[@garretgang8349]

Relics buff your units, they implemented this in Age of Mythology, but they made it map wide

[@DEATHRAGE157]

We have the "raise shield" ability on Warcraft 3, ti slows the footman for 50%, but it has a 35% of chance to block ranged attacks

[@unimportantcommenter4356]

They are slowed down by 30% only.Also, In the Frozen Throne it also reduces pierce damage by 50%. I dont know about RoC tho. Interestringly enough, the Huskarl and Footman are quite similar in style, purpose and price(the cheapest human unit). Creation time is not equal tho.

[@DEATHRAGE157]

@@unimportantcommenter4356 damn dude it nas been like 7 years i played Warcraft 3 but wow i bet you are still playing it

[@unimportantcommenter4356]

@@DEATHRAGE157 Well, I occasionally make maps for WC3. I give almost every unit with a shield the Defend ability, that's why i am familiar with it. Also, did you know you have a few extra-options regarding the Defend ability? For example, you can make someone magic proof with it, and it can be used to nerf or boost attacks damage with it.

[@DEATHRAGE157]

@@unimportantcommenter4356 i saw a vídeo about unused stuff on Warcraft 3, and the Blood elf knights(i dont remenber their Unit name, but it one of those guys that can be trained on the sanctum and they have control magic), at some point had a defend Magic ability so sounds good that you can make Units defend Magic.

[@unimportantcommenter4356]

@@DEATHRAGE157 I guess you watched Abelhawk too! And this is the only ability which is still in the game. (Out of the scrapped omes, of course)

[@UncleSheogorath]

10:10 The game intro with the monks carrying relics while walking around during the castle siege scene makes a lot more sense now.

[@sauromatae9728]

funny how this things were actually implemented in other strategy games

[@jondeoliveira8248]

They made the game much simpler, and it was better for it. Now, if only they had made Macemen, Axemen/Poleaxemen, Lancers, Mantlets, and gave Siege Towers the ability to allow garrison ranged units to fire from inside; we would have an even better game.

[@PhotonTrooperGaming]

great idea about siege tower by the way. If they could that now I would certainly approve!

[@HideorEscape]

How about a new Siege Tower unit on a raft as a Boat Tower? (From Vikings TV series, season 3) This would be useful on water maps where a guy built walls all around the shores.

[@jondeoliveira8248]

@@HideorEscape Boats already have all niches filled, and represent medieval navies very well. Land armies could use some more variety, specially civs that lack Camels or cavalry altogether.

[@kajmak]

The Halberdier is a Poleaxeman, just named incorrectly. Poleaxes and Halberds are almost the same, poleaxe being slightly longer(and suited for anti-cavalry) but more unwieldy for formation/1v1 combat.

[@jondeoliveira8248]

@@kajmak Halberds and Poleaxes are different weapons. Poleaxes are an anti-heavy infantry weapon, made to break shields and punch through armour.

[@PureRok]

3:50 This sounds just like the RTS game Battle Realms. If I remember correctly you trained villager units in various buildings (like a barracks) into combat units. www.gog.com/game/battle_realms_winter_of_the_wolf

[@DB-47]

Same way you get military in American Conquest with european civs. You have to train peasant in houses, send them into Fort or Fortress, pay resources and then you get your soldiers

[@Yurioh]

i like how some of these were worked into techs or civ bonuses down the line

[@imMIB123]

these seem fun and interesting for the novelty of it but i could quickly see them becoming very irritating, so im glad they kept it as (relatively) simple as they did.

[@lermi389]

imagine even MORE annoying wolves

[@Frogkhan915]

Games would have been a ton slower if you combine a much more hostile map with massively buffed defensive capacity (with the wall arrow thing). Which would be frustrating in one sense, but hey it would be kind of more medieval with ridiculously hard to destroy fortresses sending their armed bands through a dangerous wilderness against each other.

[@nishankkankas7195]

@@Frogkhan915 with that wall stuff people might use it in attacking also. So it would be really annoying.

[@Frogkhan915]

@@nishankkankas7195 Yeah I think that's probably the main reason it was cut for sure

[@TheHaighus]

@@nishankkankas7195 They could've have implemented a similar bonus to elevation- ranged attacks crossing a freindly wall are reduced in damage. Maybe 5% for palisade, 10% for stone? Adding the reverse ability (increased damage for attacking across a friendly wall) is probably a bit much.

[@moshmosh26]

Spirit of the law, can you please make a video about 'age of mythology' and your thoughts about it?

[@hiroshinamikaze6848]

The Titans one was bad. They just did not want to add anything to the campaign.

[@moshmosh26]

@@hiroshinamikaze6848 I don't remember much from that expansion. I'm just finishing the original campaign again, many years since I last played it. Good times

[@aaronlarsen1074]

@@hiroshinamikaze6848 The Titans expansion added the Atlanteans, who were kind of a 'proto- AoE 3' civ. Their villagers behaved much more like Age 3 workers than previous games, and the multi-use god powers were a definite upgrade from the base game civs (an idea I see later reflected in the home city shipments). That said, a lot of the expansion content felt extremely insular or out-of-place, with the Atlanteans feeling like a slightly tweaked (better) repeat of the Greeks. The addition of titans to the game was...lacking to say the least, but the idea of a 'combat wonder' was an interesting one. The main complaints I had with the game were the awkward 'stop-gap' measures used to address complaints about how AoE2 played. God powers and myth unit abilities were meant to make combat more interesting, but their glitchy implementation or severe limitations rendered them a little less useful than might otherwise be the case. The town center and population limits made early-game expansion and fortification more powerful overall, but the hard build limits on defensive structures made it difficult to defend large areas of land. The infinite resources (farms, fish, vaults of plenty, trade) made long-term defensive play less risky overall, which made it easier to stalemate during the lategame.

[@hiroshinamikaze6848]

@@aaronlarsen1074 yeah but, adding the titans made it kind of a race. "Who gets to the titans first?" Which was something that I did not like. It kinda just took away the whole "strategy aspect" of the game. The new units didn't excite me either. And like you mentioned, the glitches didn't help either.

[@PhotonTrooperGaming]

idk how it could happen nowadays even with mods without massive lag or exploit possibility, but wolves and outlaws spawning at the borders of the map and ransacking the land would be awesome! Although I think that the final decisions were much better for the game in the end

[@aquajasa]

There should be a tech research to stop them in late imperial or slow n weakening them like. It must b fairly costly

[@Goabnb94]

7:41 triggers my PTSD. Got decimated on a Black Forest map with little resources near me. Venture out and oh look at that, 5 freaking wolves!!!!!!!

[@GreatgoatonFire]

I hope they would reconsider adding a lot of this stuff for the new AoE game. Honestly a lot of the AoE2 civs seems VERY same-y.

[@randomness6498]

GreatgoatonFire not seem, they are, only few bonuses here and there and special units

[@PrimordialNightmare]

yeah you got a point. but on the other hand, that's soemthing I like about Age of Empires 2. Would still be interesting to divert more in the next title.

[@Marcoz588]

I liked the way Medieval Total War (1) offered a strong distinction of both units between Western (Catholic and Orthodox / Slav) and Eastern (Islamic) ones. It feels odd when the Turks, Mongols, Vietnamese or Inca run around with a “men at arms” unit which looks it came from 10th century Normandy or Nottingham.. 😏

[@MarcioLiao]

For a singleplayer game this ideias would be amazing. For multiplayer, maybe a fun mode xD

[@philipkinscherf7430]

Not sure if anyone played “Empires: Dawn of The Modern World” but it was made by one of the creators of AOE. It included abilities like the charge ability and the raise shield which increased pierce armor at the expense of moving much more slowly and taking more melee damage, so you can see that influence there. There’s also the ability to “tribute” units to an ally

[@bulldozer9337]

I really love the Raider civ, and could definitely see myself playing them.

[@deusifex_wil]

I really like the idea of Fealty. It’s a shame that it was scraped.

[@estellebright2579]

Resource regen is a common setting in command conquer series. It’d be cool to implement it in aoe2 so that all players would be a bit more conservative when collecting resources and think about longevity and sustainability.

[@hbarudi]

Thanks, this video explains some of those unusual units that I have seen when fully unlocking all possible units in the game from civilization specific relics to outlaws and more weird stuff especially that packed trebuchet with lots of hp and unpacking it usually crashed the game. Then there is that weird ship and other things that existed in the game. Many scenarios and campaigns existed on heavengames used those ideas.

[@GustavoGplay]

It's interesting how some of these features made into later games in a way or another Outlaws became the pirates from gold treasures in AoE3, forced treaties became the cease fire in AoM...

[@DJD5b]

Where did you get this info though?

[@reeceengineering3560]

I think walls and buildings blocking arrow fire is a good idea because in real warefare segies DID rely heavily on seige. The outlaws raiding trade routes was also a really good idea. Fealty was also a good idea, though 50% transfer of resources is too much. A 10-20% tax of all income along with an inital amount of gold would have been better. It should have restricted this player's diplomacy settings to the same as the conqourer's and allowed the conqourer to begin deleting their units if they dont do as told. Though another way to do fealty would simply be that when a player resigns all of ther units, res, & buildings go to the conqourer. Conqourer could be defined as the last person who killed a given % of their units, or perhaps a given #. Also the relic plan was really cool too though the current gold generation rate is perfect. Ransoming off relics for other civs would be a lot of fun too and representative of real ancient combat. Overall I have to say this video highlighted how much the creators missed out on. Thanks for the vid this one was really cool. But it did kinda ruin the game for me haha.

[@Romer70]

When I was a kid, I used to pay tribute to the enemies and hope they will turn to allies.

[@denizumut1]

As far as I know, Samurai's also had an ability to switch weapons between sword and bow. Jannisarries were designed to use bow instead of rifles originally.