This list is a sum up of the ideas our visitors had on our forums until april 9th. It is meant for Ensemble Studios but it isn't complete yet. We invite you to tell us what you think about all these suggestions here, and if you are inspired, you can make new ones here.

I. Already in AoK and to keep absolutely in AoM

Customizable shortcuts
Recorded games !
Market-like building with carts, which allow to trade resources
Screenshots + possibilty to have all the map in the same picture.
Possibilty to play with other players on the Internet with a 56k modem.

II. New things which could bring much to the game

1) In the game

a. Customization of the standard attitude of the units produced in a specific military building: a simple choice similar to the one you have when you click on a unit, but on a casern for example.

b. Keep the "random maps", but take care of making perfect scripts to make the maps absolutely equitable. At the present time, the map is sometimes decisive for the victory. For example, in Arabia, you can have : mines on the front for a player and on the back for another, height problems which slow a player in his development, wood too far away for one of the players. Another example is that on Continent, some players start just near the water or with a stone mine less than the others, etc. In fact, all players should have more homogenic starting conditions and, above all, without any huge unbalancement.

c. The naval part of Aok could be improved in AoM with the followings:
Having more naval units than in AoK is essential. We miss "boardings", or boat-converting. The boats should change given the units in them, as it was (still is?) foreseen a few months ago.

d. Possibility, like in Empire Earth, to launch the unit improvements (attack, defence, etc.) from a unit.

e. Several levels of economical assistance (choice in the "lobby" of the game):

an "expert" level with villagers as stupid as in Age of Empires I: they would stay static after habing built a gold mine for example. there would not be any rally point in that level.
a "beginner" level with villagers as smart as (or smarter than) the villagers in Age of Empire II: The Conquerors 1.0c patch, with eventually an option for automatic production of villagers (like in Battle Realms)
1 or 2 intermediate levels

f. Similarly, there could be several levels of military assistance:

an "expert" level in which the military units would always be "agressive"
an intermediate level in which the military units would be as "assisted" as in AoK.
a "good beginner" level with some new features. For example:

=> Select unit + CTRL + click on a Target: all selected units firstly attack units of the same type as the target in their range.

=> Select unit + ALT + click on a Target: all selected units firstly attack units of the same family as the target in their range (for example: archers, cavalry, infantry, mythological creatures,etc.)

a "beginner" level in which the choices above would be done automatically, i.e. the counter-units would automatically attack the units they counter. For example, with AoK units, a skirmisher would firstly attack cavalry archers in his range, then archers, then pikemen and then the other units.

g. Possibilty to see at the same time the number of villagers (and their affectations: woodcutters, farmers, etc.) AND the number of military units.

h. Real 3D with free cameras (like in Warrior Kings) and no improved isometric 3D (like in Empire Earth).

i. Addtional building: bridge which could be built on reasonably large rivers.

j. An indicator which would warn the player when the pop limit is about to be reached.

k. Terrain anf formation should have more impact on the battles.

l. Personnal XP for the units that would get better and better through won battles and killed ennemies (in addition to the blacksmith improvements and such.)

m. Logistic lines (like in Warrior Kings): some resources would be necessary to keep the military units alive (food for example)

n. Automatic healing for the units (like the viking's unique unit, but slower), which could be default or consequence from a researched technology.

2) Ergonomics

a. Shortcuts

At the present time, MSN Zone or Goa automatically load the last user profile which was used. The poblem is when threr are several users on the same computer: the user must launch the game, change user, quit the game and go back to Zone or Goa.
Another problem is for the user to use his profile in LAN: the management is quite heavy. It would be great to be able to give a name to a shortcut profile, export it (save it), import it (load it), or change it in the game's "lobby" room with a simple interface.

b. Recorded games

More flexibility for the watchers, with a scroll bar to get immediately to the good moments of the game, and the possibility to jump back in the time, etc. In the worst case, introduce an automatical chaptering of the game (everytime a player passes an age for example.)

The possibility to copy, cut and paste some pieces of the game in order to make movies would also be welcome.

Confidentiality options: if a player ticked that option, it would be impossible to watch this player in the game (and the fog of war would always be enabled nad it would be impossible to swith on that player)

Possibility to see all dialogues, ie. the allies of the player you're watching and his enemies.

Possibility to give a precise name to the recorded game before recording it, ot just after having recorded it, and accessibility to the "delete recorded game" option when you quit the game.

c. Show

The game would be better if it was more spectacular in offline tourneys. Mythological creatures and GPs seem to go on that way, but some additional features could help it being more spectacular: adding an "observer" mode to the "cooperation" mode, in which the viewer couldn't act on the game and in which there would be different modes:

Mode 1: Watch exactly a player's screen (like in recorded games) with the possibility to swith between players.

Mode 2: Your map is a player's map but you are not locked on his screen, you can watch what interests you, with the possibility to switch between players.

Mode 3: Splitted screen in order to watch several players at the same time.

Mode 4: Totally free: the viewer has no fog of war and can watch what he wants to watch.

Each player would have the possibility to allow or not each mode: "Allow mode 1: Yes/No". A player could choose not to allow a viewer who watches an ennemy to watch himself or his allies.

d. No included multiplayer system. A Zone, as practical as it was before its 2 last improvements...

e. The scenario editor should be improved.

f. Active patch policy (like Blizzard) to correct quickly the bugs and unbalancements of the game (in order to avoid that a civilization rules over the game during 6 months.)

g. Easier dialogues for more interesting Shimo games (F5 to F12 for the 8 players?)

h. Middle player: possibility to choose in the game's "lobby" room which player(s) would be between the others in 3v3 and 4v4 games.

i. Possibility for the host to decide what maps could be chosen by the computer for "random" maps. Moreover, it would be great to implement the possibility of making new random maps: for example, a "Water Maps" list with "Rivers, Baltic, Islands, Archipelago, Team Islands, Continent". If that list is chosen, one of those maps will be randomly taken by the game. Another option could be added: "Blind random: yes/no". If yes, the players will discover the map while playing it. If no, they will discover it in the settings while the game launches.