: If you were a big fan of Halo Wars like me, it's just nice to know that they
: haven't forgotten it.

: Maybe an RTS could really shine on XB1 with some of the features they've
: added. Here's to hoping, I guess :)

:
: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/31/microsoft-talks-pgr-halo-wars-and-dance-central-prospects

I'm glad MS hasn't forgotten about our beloved 'Wars. However, I can tell you right now that Robot Entertainment wouldn't go anywhere near it. It's just not what their studio is anymore. Hell, they no longer even list it or AOE:O on their games list (they did earlier this year, before the site redesign and release Echo Prime release).

If they went with a third party RTS developer, I fear that developer would push for using their own engine instead of what was developed by Ensemble. Which is a no-go IMO. You know what, throw some more money at Hidden Path Studios, the guys who made, and continue to support, Age of Empires II: HD. Hell, I'd help.

No, not help, I would slave away on a sequel that used ye 'ol engine which Ensemble built. I respect the tech and the developers who built it and would not want to see it go to waste. Besides having experience with the game's guts, I'm a junkie for the game itself, but I think that goes without saying.

Use the original tech. Build on it. Keep the original MP maps (except Exile, unless there's a lot more 3v3 maps) on top of doing some new ones. If people like what they get, make some more and sell as DLC if the bottom line is really that big of a deal. Release it on the PC. 'License' out the editor for content creation (I'd pay 10$ to be able to create custom maps and such, I'm sure there are others). Or 'license' the pipeline to put that content on the console. Devs look at content creation and think and seem to think "DLC revenue killer", yet the tools (ones that are beyond Forge) to do so could be sold just like DLC.

Do an actual campaign for the Covies. Again, there's the DLC route to handle time and resource issues. Also, continue to make the campaign truly unique from MP (in terms of the playstyle/missions). I don't know about everyone else, but I think this was a good formula (playing one doesn't make you tired of the other, and still teaches you the game).

And yes, add voice commands. You don't have to look too far to see how this could be used. Tom Clancy's End War used voice commands (without Kinect). If anything, on the console version at least, it would be frickin' great to be able to select a range of units, and belch out "assign alpha squad". Then from there, designating a point on the map as "rally point alpha" (which you could then share with your teammates) instead of having to set a global rally point. Then you could say "alpha squad, guard rally point alpha". Or have it shortcut to just "guard alpha", which End War did with a lot of its commands IIRC. All major units/objects could accept voice commands, so your one barracks could be set to send trained units to a different rally point than the parent base's.

Oh, and fix the path finding. Please