Cut content

Cut content refers to material planned and produced during the development of games in the Age of Empires series, but not appearing in the final retail version of a game.

Technologies

 * Leather Armor was available in the Stone Age.
 * Metal Working was available in the Tool Age.
 * There was a technology in the Bronze Age called "Trade Workshops"
 * There was a technology called "Mining".
 * Metallurgy was available in the Bronze Age.
 * The Bowman was planned to get upgraded into Composite Bowman.
 * There was a technology called "Longbow" which became "Composite Bow"
 * Scouts could get upgraded into Cavalry.
 * Afterlife was known as "Baptism".
 * There was a technology called "Scouting" which improved unit LOS by 1.
 * There was a technology called Advanced Metallurgy.
 * There was a technology called "Targets".
 * There was a technology called "Mathematics".
 * The player had to manually research technologies to train the:
 * War Elephant
 * Light Transport
 * Elephant Archer
 * Ballista
 * Chariot Archer
 * Chariot
 * Horse Archer
 * Writing used to be called Cartography.
 * There was a technology that improved Villager fishing.
 * There was a technology called "Pottery".

Tech Tree

 * A building called the "Pasture" was cut, it allowed you to train Goats and Horses (like the Sheep and herdables of Age of Mythology) as a faster way of gathering food than Farms.
 * A building called the "Mine" was cut, it was built over Gold/Stone Mines in order to gather them effectively.

Units

 * Ruins2
 * Volcano
 * Goat
 * Stone Fence
 * Wood Fence
 * Discovery2
 * Horse
 * Trade Workshop
 * Cow
 * Spaceship (cut cheat unit)
 * Pile of Stone
 * Pile of Wood
 * Hero 12
 * Explorer
 * Traitor
 * Numerous Flags and Banners
 * Pasture
 * Originally, Composite Bowmen were called Longbowman, this is also the reason why their bow is longer than a traditional composite bow.

Other

 * There were two more ages called The Prehistoric Age and the Republic Age.
 * There was a fifth resource called "Trade Goods" which could be "made" at the Trade Workshop.
 * Land Trading was available.
 * Two types of acacia trees were cut, an autumn one and a standard green one.
 * There was another tree that was cut, it can be seen in the demo.
 * A beta tree from the 1995 development was left over.
 * Roads had to be built to allow further construction.
 * Leaves and the stump would be left over if the player (or AI) used attack ground with a Catapult against trees.
 * Numerous buildings were changed.
 * Berry Bushes were called "Forage Sites"
 * A lot of beta buildings were smaller, and more historically accurate.
 * Axemen were Topless (they looked like a Villager with an axe)
 * The Catapult Trireme was an upgrade to the Trireme.
 * The Ballista was built at the Archery Range.
 * Mines could be built on 4x4 or 6x6 ore deposits.
 * Iron was a planned resource
 * Barracks were called "Military Training Centers"
 * Buildings called Outposts were planned, these functioned most likely as a Town Center that could research Ages.
 * Farms were unique from Age and buildset like Houses
 * Archery Ranges had a Shared Tool Age variant, like Stables.
 * Barracks had a separate buildset unique Tool Age variant.
 * Siege Workshops were known as "Engineering Shops"

Units

 * Janissaries were originally archers in the Castle Age, and could be upgraded into unique Hand Cannoneers, this was later changed due to an archer unique unit already existing.
 * Elite Janissaries looked similar to Ku Klux Klan members and because of this their hat was removed before release. However, The Forgotten reintroduced the original Janissary sprite-sheet for the untrainable Royal Janissary unit.
 * Spies were a trainable unit, while they appeared to the player (wearing black armor) they appeared to the enemy as Villagers.
 * Off the map Trade Boats could be trained, they functioned as Trade Cogs that were large and would go to the edge of the map, and "despawn" for a short time, and return with a large flurry of resources. This system however was extremely buggy, and was cut due to time constraints, the system is still usable.
 * There was a fifth ship line, called Boarding Ships, they functioned as boats that would come up and convert ships, similar to the Monk, it had no range, but an extremely high success rate. The system as expected, still functions.
 * There was a unit called "Builder Ship", which could build Sea Walls, Sea Towers, Sea Gates, Docks, and even repair ships. These buildings are still found in the campaign and scenario editor.
 * Camels had the ability to capture enemy Villagers, and drop them off at the player's Town Center.
 * Archers and Crossbowmen were originally two separate lines, similar to the first Age of Empires, Archers were to cost food and wood, and Crossbowmen costed gold and wood. Of course both had advantages and disadvantages to use.
 * Gaia units called "Outlaws" (in the form of Archers) would spawn randomly near trade routes, and rob Villagers and Trade Carts. Those units would later appear in the The Sack of Rome campaign scenario in The Forgotten DLC.
 * Various units had different designs and functions, they were eventually changed most likely for design quality due to the pushed date.
 * The Saracens had a ranged infantry called the Dervish instead of the Mameluke.
 * The Knight line originally used lances as their main weapons, before they were replaced with swords.
 * Interesting enough, Knights were originally meant to be armed with Swords, before they were changed into Lancers, and later Sword-units as they are now.
 * The Throwing Axeman did not exist, instead the Franks had a unique cavalry called Frankish Paladin. However, the Frankish Paladin was later changed to be a hero unit and replaced by the Throwing Axeman.
 * The Samurai was originally meant to have both melee and ranged attacks, before developers ultimately removed their ranged attack due to being too unfriendly and cumbersome to use. The risk of quickly ordering a Samurai to attack a Ram in a melee attack, attend to other things and check back to see the Samurai accidentally having been ordered to attack with a bow instead of his sword was deemed too much.
 * As an alternative to Middle Eastern Camels, Western and some Asian civilizations had the ability to train Lancers, which functioned as heavy anti-cavalry that was more expensive, albeit more effective.
 * Mangonels and Onagers had to be packed and unpacked in order to be used. This was most likely changed due to how ineffective and tedious this system was.
 * Villagers had a drop-off resource button, which would drop their resources off at the nearest building.
 * In the scenario The Scourge of God, the Scythian prince was meant to be appear as a Light Cavalry hero but was changed to a Scout Cavalry with 1000 hit points for unknown reason.
 * The Genitour was meant to be the Spanish unique unit as a mounted Skirmisher, but it was scrapped and replaced by the Conquistador. The Genitour remains available in The Conquerors as an untrainable unit in the Scenario Editor that uses the Militia sprite set, despite their Skirmisher-based nature.
 * In The African Kingdoms, the Genitour appears as mounted Skirmisher as the secondary unique unit, and team bonus of the Berbers. The original Genitour unit (after Patch 5.1) is now hidden in the files, and cannot be placed in the Scenario Editor.

Buildings

 * Houses generated small amounts of gold (aka Taxation).
 * The Trade Workshop was removed, it functioned not only as a Trade Cart drop-off, but also as garrison post for up to 10 Villagers, which could convert gold to trade goods. This is evident by the fact that the Trade Workshop has a garrison count in the stats when selected. The Trade Workshop is still found in the scenario editor and campaign.
 * Blacksmiths were used as drop-offs for gold, ore, and stone. They could also be built in the Dark Age. It would function similar to the Storage Pit in Age of Empires.
 * Similar to Age of Mythology, Town Centers could be fortified, it is unknown how this would work, although it is likely that they were able to fire upon enemies without garrisoning units.
 * Mongols, Celts, and Vikings originally used packable and unpackable Town Centers to reflect on their nomadic culture.
 * Monasteries were buildable in the Dark Age, as such Monks could not convert units until the Castle Age, and functioned entirely as healers until then.
 * Ports were a building that was cut from the game, and is hidden within its files, it functioned to train only military naval units, and research naval warfare technologies and upgrades, whilst the Dock could only train and research economic naval content. It was spirtually succedded by the Harbor in the AoEIIHD DLC Rise of the Rajas.
 * The City Wall was the original Fortified Wall for the Central European architectural style. The wall can still be found in the campaign and scenario editor.

Other

 * There were up to 6 resources (7 if population is counted) which included: Ore, used for military units and military upgrades (whilst gold was used for economic units, trading, and economic technologies) and Trade Goods, which were used for unit-based trading.
 * Various terrains were changed before release.

Many features that were cut from the final game can be found in the Portuguese Civ Mod II for The Conquerors.

Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology is the first fully 3D game by Ensemble Studios (ES), and was shown often by ES between June 2001 and October 2002. As such, it has the most documented cut content out of all games.

Units

 * The Norse Hirdman was cut, it was a counter-infantry, infantry unit.
 * The Apep was cut, according to one of the designers, it was due to not knowing how to refine the animations properly. Otherwise it functioned like a melee Petosuchos.
 * An Egyptian Swordsman was cut, it was replaced by the Axeman, it's models are used by the Khopesh Swordsman
 * The Chariot was cut, it's anti-cavalry role was merged with the Camelry.
 * The Oxybeles was cut, it was essentially a Greek Ballista.
 * The Norse Siege Tower was cut.
 * The Norse Catapult was cut.
 * The Deerman (or Trollkarien) was cut, it was a Norse myth unit, and was replaced by the Troll.
 * The Frost Giant was originally a support unit and could not directly attack, it also resembled an Ice Golem.
 * The Golem was cut, it was essentially a Colossus without the ability to eat, it was replaced by the Colossus.
 * The Norse Bondi was cut, it was essentially a Norse Spearman. It's function as anti-cavalry was given to the Ulfsark.
 * The Greek Cataphract was cut, it was an anti-infantry cavalry, and Hades unique unit. It was replaced by the Gastraphetes.
 * The Norse Light Cavalry was cut. It was a Norse Prodromos.
 * The Norse Heavy Cavalry was cut, it was the Norse version of the Hippikon, it was replaced by the Jarl.
 * Egyptian and Norse Scout Cavalry were cut. They were replaced in function by the Priest and Ulfsark respectively.
 * Norse Bogsveigir were cut, they were upgraded Norse Archers.
 * Norse and Egyptian Archers were cut.
 * The original campaign hero, Misenus was cut.
 * Generic Greek, Norse, and Egyptian heroes were cut.
 * The Unittypes MythUnitCavalry, MythUnitArcher, MythUnitInfantry and MythUnitSiege present in the protox-Files indicate some Counter-System among the Myth-Units.
 * Originally there was a MythUnit counter system similar to what Human Soldiers have, in the way that Myth Units were divided into Myth Unit Infantry, Myth Unit Archer, Myth Unit Cavalry and Myth Unit Siege, the system most likely played out similar to the Archer, Infantry, Cavalry and Siege Weapon system, the system is mostly intact, only without the DamageBonuses, below are the MU's under their classes:
 * Classified as MythUnitSiege are the Scarab, Behemoth, Colossus and all three Norse Giants.
 * Classified as MythUnitArcher Argus, Medusa, Manticore, Centaur, Troll, Lampades, Satyr, Jormund Elver, Petsuchos and Wadjet.
 * Classified as MythUnitInfantry Scorpion Man, Mummy, Minotaur, Einherjar, Anubite, Cyclops, Avenger.
 * Classified as MythUnitCavalry are Valkyries, Scarabs, Behemoth, Nemean Lions, Fenris Wolves, Hydra, Sphinx and the Chimera.
 * Mummies were originally meant to have both a ranged, special and hand attack according to the Atef Crown and it's MythUnitInfantry unittype.
 * War Turtles were originally a Greek unit, it was unknown what Mythic Age Greek Minor God they were available to originally.
 * Light Cavalry units (Norse, Chariots and Prodromoi) were originally ranged, and would throw Javelins.
 * Wild Camel units were cut. It's icon is used for an AoMEE Achievement.
 * Wild Horse units were cut.
 * Short Bushes nature objects were cut, although it can be seen in the Atlantis Tile and Egyptian Temple objects.
 * Originally Predator animals would attack Huntable animals, similar to the original Age of Empires game.
 * Units had the ability to Run, it is unknown how it would've functioned, although it was likely similar to the similar feature in Praetorians where in order to run, units would require stamina (similar to Heroes, and Myth Units special abilities)
 * This also was used by Hunt, and Predators, as they were confronted they would run away (instead of walking away) and run after villagers.
 * Originally when Ranged units were tasked to Walk Attack they would move and fire upon enemies at the same time, likely at the cost of accuracy. It was most likely cut due to being too cumbersome.
 * Icebergs, Ice Sheets, Tall Grass, and other nature objects were hidden in the data files. Using modified anim files, will make Tall Grass appear in Watch That First Step, and Icebergs to appear in the The New Atlantis campaign intro-cinematic and Main Menu screen for The Titans.
 * Medusae were originally a support unit, and could not attack using a bow and arrow, but with it's gaze, similar to it's later special attack.
 * Greek Giants were cut, they functioned likely as a Mountain Giant/Cyclops hybrid, but were likely cut due to being too similar to the two.
 * Titans were intended to appear in the original release, as buffed up Mountain Giant.
 * Dogs were cut from the original game. They later reappeared as the easter-egg Bella unit, and in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon as a unit that was originally intended to be trainable.
 * War Chariots were a Classical Age unit originally, most likely the War Chariot was intended as an Anti-Archer cavalry similar to the Hippikon.
 * Mnevis, Amanra's commander was intended to appear in Fall of the Trident likely during the Abydos scenarios, he was a man of great size, and rode a hippo into combat. All that remains of him, is concept art of him, and developer comments about him.
 * Skult originally had the ability to fight, looked like the original cut Norse Hero, and he himself would wield the banner of "his clan".
 * Setna originally used the assets of the original cut Egyptian Hero unit, wielding a sword into combat instead of his magical cane.
 * At one point there was Archaic, Classical, and Heroic, and Mythic Generic hero units, if early screenshots, and the Board Game, are any indication. This was spiritually succeded by the Greek Heroes system.
 * The Germanic Heroic figure Beowulf was meant to appear, likely for the Norse, according to early information.

Technologies

 * Wheelbarrow
 * Hand Cart
 * Writing (Similar to Loom from Age of Empires II)
 * Map Making (Unit LOS increase technology)
 * Steering Rudder (increased the speed of Ships)
 * Composite Bow (Increased the range of Archers, Fortresses, and Towers)
 * Horn Bow (Increased the range of Archers, Fortresses, and Towers)
 * Military Foresight (Unit LOS increase technology)
 * Myrmidon (Greek technology that upgrades Hoplites to Myrmidons)
 * Shield Wall (Njord)
 * Levy (Units train faster)
 * Conscription (Units train faster)
 * Feral Cats (Bast, likely became Sacred Cats)
 * Tower Garrison (Increased the garrison capacity of garrisonable buildings)
 * Blessing (unrelated to Blessing of Zeus)
 * Red Tide (Sekhmet)
 * Venom (Scorpion Man upgrade technology)
 * Shepherds (Classical Age Herdables technology)
 * Butcher (Classical Age Hunting technology)
 * Originally, Berserkergang was known as Regenerate (according to it's icon name) meaning that at one point, the Ulfsarks (or possibly other units, if not even other civilizations) were given the ability to regenerate lost health.
 * According to the Language.dll from the Multiplayer Alpha Regenerate was meant to allow infantry to regenerate.
 * Murder Holes was originally planned to be in Age of Mythology, but was replaced with Boiling Oil for historical reasons.
 * Atef Crown was supposed to increase the attack of Mummies by 10% but due to human error, the effect is non-existent.
 * Valley of the Kings was supposed to decrease the training time for Migdol units by 66% but due to a Mathematical error, it decreases it by 200%.

Buildings

 * The Shrine was removed from Villager build lists. It functioned as the Original Classical Age (see below) temple.
 * The Naval Shipyard was cut
 * The Charioteria was cut.
 * Greek and Norse Siege Workshops were cut
 * Egyptian and Norse Archery Ranges were cut.
 * The Norse Stable was cut.
 * The Outpost was cut, it's function was replaced by the Obelisk.
 * A University-type building was cut, it was brought back in The Titans before being cut before release.
 * Palisades were cut, they are mentioned in an unused quote from Just Enough Rope, and functioned as a wood-costing cheap wall. There models were reused for the Wooden Walls.
 * All buildings used different textures, were cleaner, and more colorful.
 * Farms originally had to be built on Fertile Field sockets and were used for increasing population.
 * Town Centers did not require Settlements.
 * Buildings had higher quality destruction animations, and would appear as ruins after they collapse.
 * An Atlantean building called the Signal Tower was cut, all that remains is the model.
 * The Atlanteans were originally intended to use the Ballista Tower, similar to the Egyptians.
 * Town Centers were originally intended to be upgraded, increasing their attack, and population limit (10 to 15 to 20)
 * This feature became the Fortified Town Center and Citadel respectively.
 * The Atlantean Buildings were originally different, originally appearing as mudbrick buildings, and later as more elaborate.
 * The Atlanteans were meant to build a building called the "Siege Shop" in order to train siege units, and research their upgrades.

Godpowers

 * Snowstorm, a Norse god power that would blanket the map in snow, lowering the LOS of all units, and stopping the training of new units.
 * Rebellion, a godpower that would cause all hostile villagers to be uncontrollable for 2 minutes. It was originally Ares' godpower.
 * Bramble/Growth, Hades original Archaic God Power, which spawned roots from below the ground to sourround the caster's Town Center, giving it more hitpoints and armor.
 * Inferno was originally an Egyptian god power.
 * Enrage, a god power that would boost all units attack, attack speed and speed.
 * Originally Heroes (the aforementioned generic heroes) were used to cast god powers, Misenus also had this ability.
 * A god power called Divine Defenders was cut. It's effects are unknown.
 * A god power called Wilds was cut. It's effects were combined with Snowstorm to create Fimbulwinter.
 * Goatunheim was originally meant to be an actual godpower called Shepherd.

Maps, Scenarios and Campaign

 * Golden Fleece
 * Forgotten City
 * Savannah and Watering Hole originally used palm trees and the grass terrain set instead of acacia trees and Savannah grass.
 * A cut scenario, or example of a cut Delta random map could be seen in a pre-release screenshot.
 * Old Atlantis was originally supposed to have Overgrown temples.
 * Regicide originally had a Fortress spawn instead of the Watch Towers the players would end up spawning with.
 * The original campaign with Misenus was cut. The campaign also went through several design changes, one of the most notable was a 140+ page script.
 * The Fall of the Trident campaign was originally intended to have 40, and later 36, scenarios before finally settling on 32 scenarios, and 3 tutorials.
 * Originally Theseus, Charon, Achilles, Mnevis, Zethos, Shaba Ka, and several other characters were cut from the campaign.

Misc

 * The game ran at 60FPS.
 * There were three ages, Classical, Heroic and Olympian, the first functioned as a hybrid between the later Archaic and Classical Ages, whilst Heroic and Olympian stayed the same and became Heroic and Mythic.
 * In-game lighting was different, appearing more saturated.
 * Many terrains were cut, including a Greek Citytile, several forest textures, and others.
 * Terrain, and depending on the Civilization, Cypresses, Palms or Pines would fill in between Heroic and Olympian Age buildings close to each other.
 * Depending on Major God selection the player would get 4 unique Myth Units, and heroes, as Minor Gods were absent.
 * The Building/Training UI was changed three times, from an Age of Empires II-like UI, to a 4x3 under 3 subsections UI, to the final, and current UI.
 * Extended Edition originally had darker lighting, with better ambience, and more visible shadows. This was later replaced with recreations of the original games lighting.
 * Extended Edition didn't have the ability to directly read textures from the original game, instead they had to be converted directly, or they would appear black.

Age of Empires III

 * Many terrains that could be seen in pre-release screenshots were changed or removed.
 * At one point European random maps were planned, but were removed to focus on the Americas.
 * The Trireme and Fortress from Age of Mythology were going to appear as Easter eggs.
 * The Musketeer originally has 4 visual upgrades in total but the first upgrade is unused in the game.
 * The Dutch and the Germans originally had the Musketeer. Musketeer's unused game file voices for the Dutch and Germans still exist in the scenario editor and game files.
 * The Musketeer wasn't available to the Russians.
 * Spahis were originally planned for the Ottomans instead of Hussars, but this was changed.
 * Gatling Guns were planned, but were removed, they were trained at the Factory.
 * Fusiliers were planned, they were a unique Musketeer for the Swedes, and is their only known unique feature.
 * Architect units were planned for the Italians, as a unique Settler but they were cut.
 * The Heavy Cannon was originally trained at the Arsenal, whilst the Gatling Guns were trained at the Factory.
 * The Heavy Cavalry was a generic Cavalry most likely trained in the Fortress Age that wielded a Musket, and had a bonus versus Infantry. The Italian Elmeti, and Spanish Lancer, were unique versions of this unit.
 * The Germans, and Dutch originally had a unique shared Dragoon called the Reiter, which would've been one of one many Neo-Medieval units planned.
 * A Steam Ship (possibly an early Ironclad) was planned, most likely as a Transport Ship.
 * A SPC hero called "Neamaltha" was cut.
 * There was another Infantry-type unit called the Swordsman, which was available to the Italians, Russians, Germans, Ottomans, and Spanish.
 * ES planned for the Discovery Age to include Knights and the aforementioned Swordsmen (along with Crossbowmen and Pikemen being in this age instead of the Colonial Age), but this was changed.
 * A ranged infantry Mongolian mercenary was planned.
 * The Colony Ship was planned, it's function was unknown.
 * Watch Towers were set to reappear again, this time being an AoE3 version of the AoK Outpost.
 * The Swedes were cut, not much remains, however it was Sandy Peterson who shed light on them.
 * There was a  Zweihander unit planned, most likely intended to be unique German Swordsmen, the assets were reused for the Boneguard's Swordsmen, Landsknecht, and Doppelsoldner.
 * The Zweihander also became a technology used to improve the Doppelsoldner later in development before it was cut.
 * Originally there were Special Resources that would (depending on their type) appear, these included: Cotton, Tobbaco, Sugar Cane, and Spice.

Italy

 * Originally Italy was planned to appear as one of the civilizations.
 * Elmeti were planned to be their Heavy Cavalry unit, replacing the generic unnamed Heavy Cavalry.
 * Their Home City was Florence.
 * The Italians units were mostly "Medieval" compared to other civilizations, much like the Ottomans.
 * They had general "Cannon" units instead of Falconets, and Mortars, these would later become the Li'l Bombard in The Warchiefs.
 * They most likely would've used Hoop Throwers, instead of Grenadiers.
 * They had unique Crossbowmen called Genoese Crossbowmen, a similar unit would feature under the same civilization in Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten.
 * They had a Mounted Crossbowman, which functioned as being a mix between the Cavalry Archers and Dragoons.

Technologies

 * Numerous technologies were removed or replaced by Home City Cards.
 * Many Home City technologies were planned to be available in the retail version of the game, but were cut.