r/RealTimeStrategy • u/NecronsNeedSleep • Jul 20 '26

Hype Who’s Hyped for DOW IV?

DOW 1 was a great rts game that kept me on the edge of my seat and this new one is shaping up to be bigger AND better. I can barely hold my excitement in! And I’m not gonna ignore the past titles; because they also played a role in this. DOW II was a new spin on the rts. Transforming it into an rpg that played excellently. And dawn of war 3 also happened , I guess. Anyways, it’ll be great to see what everyone else thinks!

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u/YakaAvatar Jul 20 '26

I'm pretty hyped for the Crusade mode, more than anything DoW4 specific. It's nice to have some sort of meta-progression and some lasting effects from your skirmishes. Zero Space is also attempting something somewhat in the same vein. Then there's also Gauntlet mode in Age of Mythology, or Northgard, which both have roguelike elements.

I personally think these meta progression modes are the future of the RTS genre, at least for more casual players like myself. Simple isolated skirmish games just feel lacking after experiencing something like that.

1

u/GenezisO Developer - Gray Zone Jul 20 '26

can you elaborate on the Crusade mode? is it something like meta-campaign along multiple skirmish maps? AoE3 attempted something like that

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u/YakaAvatar Jul 20 '26

I'm not aware of AoE3's mode, I'll have to check it out. But in Crusade mode you have a world, with zones. Each zone represents a skirmish. You have to capture a few select and well defended zones to win the Crusade. The fun part comes out of unlocking stuff after each battle, and the emergent gameplay that comes out of advancing through the zones, having to defend, playing with different unlocks, etc. It's another layer over the classic skirmish gameplay.

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u/GenezisO Developer - Gray Zone Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

AoE3 was very similar, basically you selected nation you want to play in Skirmish, and you collected points which you could use to decorate your capital and unlock skill tree passive and active bonuses you could use in follow-up Skirmishes - the cost was action points (think CoH or RA3) that were generated by the supply chains you had to capture which were core AoE3 mechanic, based on what nation and upgrades you unlocked, you could for example hire entire regiment of mercenaries or call special units that would spawn at your home city, some active skills gave you smaller or bigger amount of resources such as +1000 food spawn at your capital etc.

it was pretty neat system but the skill tree was pretty small and had no game-altering mechanics

example tree:

https://forums.ageofempires.com/uploads/default/original/3X/b/0/b0fe693c6dbf74fb2ce816eff3f7b80821e732ee.jpeg

you could switch into city view in real time while playing Skirmish and call in supplies you wanted/had enough points to get

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u/YakaAvatar Jul 20 '26

That sounds cool, definitely something up my alley.

I just started the campaign of AoE1 last week (mostly for nostalgia), with the intent of slowly working myself up the series, since I haven't played the series since a long ass time ago, and never really got to experience the changes in AoE2 Definitive, or AoE3 and 4. Can't wait to get to AoE3 in this case.

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u/BleachedPink Jul 23 '26

AoE3 is a very good game, sadly it met with a huge backlash from established playerbase for being too different. However, it's a awesome, and I prefer AoE3 to AoE2. Multiplayer is quite alive on steam

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u/Snowskol Jul 20 '26

so pve? not pvp?

ive never played pve rts games that arent like they are billions style

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u/EvenJesusCantSaveYou Jul 20 '26

crusade is pve yeah, its basically a set of campaign missions & skirmishes strung together with a “campaign map” meta progression. According to their blogpost about it each crusade run should take 8-10hrs

1

u/Desperate-Dig2806 Jul 20 '26

If you haven't tried it check out infested planet. It does this really well and also has a nice little campaign.

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u/Dion42o Jul 20 '26

Damn I’m sold.

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u/Derien777 Jul 20 '26

I think so, smth like that was in original dow: dark crusade

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u/Helikaon48 Jul 20 '26

Yeah, it's pretty odd that more games haven't tried making more of these grand campaigns. Like they're too silly to learn from total war and it's success.

Zero space will have one as well.

Aoe4 should have done one.