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This article is about the building in Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms. For buildings in other games in the series, see Palace. |
The Palace is an unconstructable building in Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms. The Palace has exactly the same stats and appearance as a Wonder, but does nothing in-game and is only available in the Scenario Editor. The Palace was removed from the Scenario Editor in the Definitive Edition, but remains in the game files.
According to scenario designer Filthydelphia, the Palace was created as a way to include the Byzantine Wonder as a stand-in for Zamora Cathedral's dome in the first scenario of the Francisco de Almeida campaign, without actually having to include a Byzantine player in the scenario. The Palace is also useful for scenario makers because capturing it won't start a countdown on standard victory mode.
Unused Wonders[]
There are two buildings represented by the Palace that appear to be unused Wonders for The African Kingdoms, as they don't match their equivalent Wonder: The Sankore Madrasah for the Malians and the Church of Saint George in Lalibela for the Ethiopians. In the former, this is further revealed by the fact that damaging a Malian Wonder will cause flames to appear in places that would be occupied by graphics of the taller Sankore Madrasah, but are not in the case of the shorter Mosque of Djenné. These two buildings were turned into their own buildings in the Definitive Edition.
The Ethiopian Palace appears in the HD Edition version of the Welcome Home scenario, as decoration outside Aksum in the north.
Additionally, the Portuguese Palace resembles a more wooden Portuguese Wonder. While technically unused, it is simply an older model of the current Wonder, rather than an entirely different building.
In the Definitive Edition, the Aztec Palace differs from the Aztec Wonder and is apparently an older model of the latter. The other assets of the Palace are identical to those of buildings regularly available in the Scenario Editor.
Trivia[]
- During development of the Definitive Edition, it was considered to give the Ethiopians a unique Monastery sprite based on the Ethiopian Palace. This would've been used solely by Ethiopians, with the Malians retaining the current African Monastery.
Gallery[]
