Weekly Blog #5: Age II Town Center, Scout, Watch Post

Hello there Celeste players! We are back with another Roman reveal blog.

As we develop the Romans, each week we will be revealing the Romans to you building by building, unit by unit, and technology by technology. We are not just showing you what the Romans will be, but showing you how we are building them, who is building them, and also why we are building them the way that we are.

This week, we will be revealing our Scout and Watch Post as well as the Age 2 version of our Town Center.

Town Center (Age II)
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We revealed last week that the Town Center will be an Improved Building. Though that Improvement will be available to players by Age 2, but we are not going to show it to you yet.

As you may have noticed, the Town Centers' colors change slightly depending on which age you are in. In the case of Age II, the Bronze Age, you can see that the column tops (and the eagle on the rooftop) change their color from Copper (Age I being the Copper Age) to Bronze. You can expect the same pattern in the Age III (Silver Age) and Age IV (Golden Age) TCs!

We will, however, show you how the Town Center will look in Age 2. As the Town Center is a single building with four separate models, it is a bit easier to judge when you can put the versions together.

Scout and Watch Post
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As discussed in more detail in our Building Design Blog, the Watch Post and Town Center are two of the 13 Common Buildings that every Age of Empires Online civilization share.

As discussed in the blog, the game already includes an Advanced version of the Watch Post: the Norse Outpost. That was our first big clue that the Roman Watch Post was likely to remain a simple Common Building. Our second big clue was the concept art, which looks like a standard Watch Post.

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Similarly, the concept art for the Scout also looks very standard. As we gathered that the Romans were designed to be more of a booming civ than a rushing civ, it makes sense from a design perspective for its Watch Post and Scout to be pretty standard.

Here's a preview of the Roman Scout with Legendary Gear (Sword and Helmet):

Finally, historically, the Romans were known for a lot of things, but good scouting was certainly not of them. They were ambushed several times in well-known battles in the Second Punic War and during Caesar’s invasion of Gaul. In Gaul, something like 30,000 Celts ambushed the Romans while they were hanging around chopping wood at camp. How do you not see a city worth of people hiding in the bushes? We made sure to follow the concept art closely for our Scout and especially wanted to include the horse’s laurel, which is just so wonderfully Roman.

Let's take a look at all civs' Watch Posts and Scouts together now, shall we?

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Now that we have revealed most of the "Basic" structures of the Romans, it's about time we start revealing more of their unique Buildings.

The way Roman military buildings are categorized are not based on the Unit type they train, but rather the military ranking and the origin of the unit. We already revealed the Castellum which trains the regular/standard "Roman" military units. The next military building in Romans' arsenal would be the Auxilia Camp, which trains units recruited from nearby territories neighboring the Roman Empire. This building will be revealed in next week's blog, but we will leave the 2nd reveal up to you guys!​

And, of course, here is an updated photo of our slowly-revealed Roman base:

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Thank you for reading, and we will see you all next week!

Project Celeste Development Team

What do you think about Roman Age 2 Town Centers, Scouts and Watch Posts? What would you like to see next? Let us know in the comments below!

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Missed the Roman Civilization's announcement? Find out about it HERE.

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As always love the design, but what really interests me was this statement:

"The way Roman military buildings are categorized are not based on the Unit type they train, but rather the military ranking and the origin of the unit. We already revealed the Castellum which trains the regular/standard "Roman" military units. The next military building in Romans' arsenal would be the Auxilia Camp, which trains units recruited from nearby territories neighboring the Roman Empire. "

So no barracks, archery ranges and stables? How will you balance that, since all barracks, archery ranges and stables give bonuses to their units. Anyway looking forward to next week

Great work devs!

 

So no barracks, archery ranges and stables? How will you balance that, since all barracks, archery ranges and stables give bonuses to their units.

Barrack and Archery Range also merged in Egypt. I think the Auxilia Camp will be a merged version of Archery Range and Stable. Possible units (!) in this building should be: Balearic Slinger, Cretan Archer, Numidian Cavalry, Sarmatian Cataphract, Syrian Camel Troops.

 

The Castellum is the barrack but then with a special tech.

 

I like the the TC very much, it’s feels unique!!! Something that I was wondering,the romans will have milestones too?

 

sure, every civ has them, so romans too

 

I really like the approach you guys are using to as faithfully as possible predict and reconstruct what a Roman civ made by the original devs would look and play like. Keep it up!

One thing though, the age 2 ornaments on the tc actually look more copper-y to me than the age 1 ornaments in the previous blog. Bronze should be lighter and greyer than copper because it's got tin mixed in, which is a silvery color.
But I suppose I get it because when you look at the difference between the copper age and bronze age icons, that doesn't seem quite right either, and I imagine you were trying to fit in with that?

 

I really like the approach you guys are using to as faithfully as possible predict and reconstruct what a Roman civ made by the original devs would look and play like. Keep it up!

One thing though, the age 2 ornaments on the tc actually look more copper-y to me than the age 1 ornaments in the previous blog. Bronze should be lighter and greyer than copper because it's got tin mixed in, which is a silvery color.
But I suppose I get it because when you look at the difference between the copper age and bronze age icons, that doesn't seem quite right either, and I imagine you were trying to fit in with that?

Correct, we based our color set from the Copper Age and Bronze Age icons in the game.

 

Even though the watch post is "normal/common" for Romans, it still looks very cool! And the subtleties on the scout are also awesome and make Rome feel unique. Blown away with the work so far!

Excited for the Auxilia camp (hoping for some cool units from "civs" not in the game! Thracian/Dacian units? Other Middle Eastern units?)! Also excited to see how the "not organized by unit but by rank/origin" plays out. Sounds like yet another unique feature and I'm pumped!

 

Finally, historically, the Romans were known for a lot of things, but good scouting was certainly not of them. They were ambushed several times in well-known battles in the Second Punic War and during Caesar’s invasion of Gaul. In Gaul, something like 30,000 Celts ambushed the Romans while they were hanging around chopping wood at camp. How do you not see a city worth of people hiding in the bushes?

I dunno what's better, getting to see the content several months in advance, or the little historical tidbits that feed back into balance and bring a smile to your face.

 

I dig the town center. I know a couple people were kind of down on the T1 version, but honestly, that’s the version you spend the least time looking at, and it’s supposed to be kind of sparse. This one is starting to look very Roman. Nice work.

I’m very curious as to how y’all are handling sound design for Rome. Will you be pulling unit responses from other Age of Empires games? Voicing them yourselves? It’s funny, I know, but the little voiceovers the units have really add to the flavor of the game.

Also, will you be showing off the Capital City at some point? I’m looking forward to that.

 

Each week you reveal these minute details. I had noticed how detailed the game art was over the years but never to this extent. This week I learned how the tops of the columns change for each age. Amazing! This weekly blog makes me love this game more and more. Thanks again.

 

I’m very curious as to how y’all are handling sound design for Rome. Will you be pulling unit responses from other Age of Empires games? Voicing them yourselves? It’s funny, I know, but the little voiceovers the units have really add to the flavor of the game.

Also, will you be showing off the Capital City at some point? I’m looking forward to that.

We are doing our own sound design. Other than a few unused tracks we scavenged, we will do brand new vocals and music. I’m one of the ones working on vocals. It’s a lot of Latin phrases and a surprising amount of time saying the same couple of words over and over into a microphone.

 

Everything looks awesome, although I was wondering why they added the extra floor in the Town Center, it doesn't looks ok for a Age II Town Center. Personally I prefer the version of the concept art, without the extra floor and with the edges of the floor between the columns.

 

We are doing our own sound design. Other than a few unused tracks we scavenged, we will do brand new vocals and music. I’m one of the ones working on vocals. It’s a lot of Latin phrases and a surprising amount of time saying the same couple of words over and over into a microphone.

Even your own music? That’s really neat. This is the most professional community developed game I have ever seen. Keep up the great work.

 

We are doing our own sound design. Other than a few unused tracks we scavenged, we will do brand new vocals and music. I’m one of the ones working on vocals. It’s a lot of Latin phrases and a surprising amount of time saying the same couple of words over and over into a microphone.

If I don't hear your voice for the big, ugly Roman senator/general looking guy with the three chins, I will be severely disappointed!

 

It looks absolutely fantastic, really matches the other buildings giving them all a uniquely 'Roman' feel while managing to fit the aoeo style.

 

If I don't hear your voice for the big, ugly Roman senator/general looking guy with the three chins, I will be severely disappointed!

I am not sure whether Pompey has vocals, but I am definitely voicing the male villager.

Actually, now that I type this out loud, I recall that we were able to harvest some quest giver vocals (perhaps all quest giver vocals that we need -- I forget). Those are brilliant. As far as the unit voices in the game, though, I believe we are starting at zero.

 

Even your own music? That’s really neat. This is the most professional community developed game I have ever seen. Keep up the great work.

Yes, this is my understanding. We have not yet begun work on the music, though I know @PF2K has big plans.

 

Yes, this is my understanding. We have not yet begun work on the music, though I know @PF2K has big plans.

I kind of forgot that you guys had to do voices, music and sounds for the Romans too, that's absolutely amazing, can't wait for the end result