For a while, I considered AoE3 one of my favorite games, but it lacked something (I never played AoE2, and played AoE1 as a little kid). And then I realized the problem: it's a very different game.
I and II were not 4X games, but they had a somewhat 4X feel in the way you explored a world, built a civilization... I would have multiple bases, age ups felt like an achievement, and I felt in control of a nation. III feels more like a crowded deathmatch... it doesn't even have a diplomacy feature!
I also rather disliked AoE3's fantasy-ish setting. It actually got me interested in the time period, so much that it became my favorite, but I call it fantasy because it's horribly anachronistic, not really grounded in anything, and has a colonial focus. (Which isn't an inherent problem, but I've come to decide that such epic wars as the Thirty Years War would be much more interesting than little colonial squabbles. It's even clear from the units that it's trying to transplant European warfare into a colonial game.)
The way I imagine a proper Age of Empires III is to get off the colonial focus and onto Europe, and to make it more of a4X than a deathmatch. Taking some of the expansion features of Rise of Nations, some internal politics ala Tropico (of all things), and then a solid diplomatic and economic system would make Age of Empires III an even bigger revolution over II than II was over I while keeping the AoE feel.
I have an idea for an "Age of Empires III: Age of Enlightenment" that I'm currently working on, and will post. It has a lot of the basic AoE, but ramps up most everything.
I and II were not 4X games, but they had a somewhat 4X feel in the way you explored a world, built a civilization... I would have multiple bases, age ups felt like an achievement, and I felt in control of a nation. III feels more like a crowded deathmatch... it doesn't even have a diplomacy feature!
I also rather disliked AoE3's fantasy-ish setting. It actually got me interested in the time period, so much that it became my favorite, but I call it fantasy because it's horribly anachronistic, not really grounded in anything, and has a colonial focus. (Which isn't an inherent problem, but I've come to decide that such epic wars as the Thirty Years War would be much more interesting than little colonial squabbles. It's even clear from the units that it's trying to transplant European warfare into a colonial game.)
The way I imagine a proper Age of Empires III is to get off the colonial focus and onto Europe, and to make it more of a
I have an idea for an "Age of Empires III: Age of Enlightenment" that I'm currently working on, and will post. It has a lot of the basic AoE, but ramps up most everything.