Based on the reveal and prior info, I feel reasonably confident to assume that FE's original post-Rajas plan was to develop two DLCs:
- A scenario pack of full-length campaigns for major civilizations that lacked one, a.k.a. the "world map" campaign thumbnail found in the Rajas update;
- "The Last Khans" Central Asian civ pack, now advertised as new content for AoE2DE.
When FE switched gears to work on the Definitive Edition project, the campaign pack was canceled, leaving only The Last Khans to be integrated into AoE2DE.
Now for FE devs still checking this forum, I have a few questions.
As you may have noticed, before the DE project was announced, I had been one of the community members avidly discussing further expansions for AoE2HD. I'd posted extensively about the difficulties of adapting Central Asian civilizations, especially Turkic peoples to the AoE2 format, but still strongly advocated for their inclusion as essential parts of the Eurasian historical memory.
And one of my important suggestion was that I noticed a cultural dichotomy in Central Asia between sedentary residents ("Sarts") and nomads. I suggested to represent both sides of the dichotomy using two civilizations, the urban Karluks/Uzbeks/Timurids/Chagatai Khanate, and the nomadic Kipchaks/Kazakhs/Golden Horde.
Additionally, my "Chinese world" proposal also included an "original Siberian Turkic" civ with a pillage ability, to represent early medieval steppe powers like Gokturks and Uyghurs.
Since FE's Central Asian set borrows heavily from Timurid architecture, and the Tatar wonder is the Ulugh Beg Observatory, it is assumed the "Tatars" have Timur's empire covered. The other civ, "Cumans" seem like a curious choice, since they don't have much pop history presence; some have presumed them to stand in for all Kipchaks/Golden Horde, though one wonders why the name "Kazakhs" isn't used, as FE has shown a preference for modern demonyms when medieval names may be too obscure (Burmese vs Bamars).
(As an aside, I also idly suggested - with the understanding it's unlikely - that the Chinese can have an observatory wonder to reduce Temple of Heaven over-representation among AoE games, and convey the civ's science specialty.)
Anyway, I absolutely don't want to oversell the little thinking and research I did compared to the mountains of work FE had done, but there seems to be the remote chance that my ideas bear some minuscule similarity to FE's. So my question for FE devs is:
Have you seen my Central Asian civ pitches? If you did, what was your impression? Was there any delight in the serendipity, or "sigh, it's that guy again"? Can you explain the reasoning behind the name choices?
Due to NDA and everything, obviously the questions cannot be answered immediately to the last detail. But I do wish to see some reply
eventually down the line. Thanks![This message has been edited by atrican (edited 06-10-2019 @ 10:00 PM).]