Age of Empires II HD – Dev Blog #7 – Marco Polo, new maps!

There’s one subject we have yet to cover – and one that is more often than not sorely Forgotten (yeah… :P). All previous expansions have so far introduced new random maps and/or real world maps. We have seen interesting and even groundbreaking concepts be brought to fruition. However, with the The African Kingdoms, no matter how much more extreme or unconventional maps we wanted to make, we knew deep down that similar ones have been done before and the fountain of map-making possibilities has been nearly exhausted. It was time to take the random maps to the next level.

Special Maps

Over the past years we have heard clamours for maps that would challenge team play in unconventional ways, force players to cooperate. Maps where a statement like “kill your guy” would not make sense. One of these was a water map with two islands, where each island was inhabited by three allies and one enemy.

Oh wait, what is this?!

But are these maps still random? Are these not simply scenarios? They are random indeed. In fact, they function on the same basis as real world maps – the only part of the map that is set in stone is the shape of the land. Everything else, forests, resources, and most importantly, players’ positions are in the stars. Good luck to the fella behind enemy lines!

As we have a look at some of the other special maps, we can see there’s often a short straw to be drawn.

Now this is all hunky dory but what happens if there are fewer than 8 players? How do 3vs3 or 2vs2 work if the land shape is set in stone?

Like this! Of course this means the size of the map is still optimized for 8 players, so with fewer players you either have more room to expand, or more room to run away to prepare your comeback. It’s a matter of perspective really.

Now before we wrap up, feel free to check out few more minimaps of other special maps. Don’t hesitate to think up some potential strategies!

Release

The release date is crawling closer and we have only revealed 2 civilizations so far, gasp! Keep an eye on our website and social media for the coming week, we’re slowly revealing everything!