Sometimes these differing ideas occupy the same space; so it’s not always possible to give everyone something they want to enjoy in their own spaces. For example these hero faction APPEAR be mechanically juxtaposed to the original design. When they meet in head to head what happens if one design completely displaces the other in raw functionality? I may not be a mere re- balancing act.
Having said this; suppose the hero faction really really push the limits on core design BUT by popular demand you could only use variants outside of rank matches?? That could be one way to settle the disparity, and artificially segment the opposing worlds.
The basic principle of your objection is balance, if I’m not mistaking. That’s a different topic but I’ll answer anyway.
We will have to wait and see. For now, let’s take the case of Jeanne d’Arc being OP mechanically. If it’s dramatically OP, she would most certainly be temporarily kicked out of Ranked, like a broken map. After that reworks may fix the situation and have her return to Ranked or they may not fix it, so she’d stay out.
If it’s a slight superiority maybe competitive players will have to ask loudly to suspend her, because changes would come slowly, gradually.
In the case of Jeanne d’Arc being mechanically UP, she’d stay in Ranked but nobody would ever pick her if not for the memes. Subsequencial reworks may bring her up, so somebody may start playing her again.
She really is an oddball. I don’t know really what to expect. She could fit surprisingly well in the current matchups and mechanics or not at all. In the first case hero vs civilization would be an accepted norm, in the second it would be best to have hero pit against each other in a separate game mode. Give us a hero for every civ and have them available in a “Hero Wars” mode.
I care for balance ALONE; and I understand my preferences are of the minority. Therefore, if a design decision that cannot obey both immersion and balanced RTS gets introduced, it should favor immersion.
Thematically, I grief the forums because these hero concepts, in what we know so far, detract from our origins…BUT HONESTLY??? (I dont care… i just want it balanced…)
AoE always tried to deliver balanced matchups, because it is mainly an RTS, after all. Gameplay always came before historical accuracy.
So, looping back, that’s why I say that one can’t demand a 100% accurate (and so, immersive) gameplay. We wouldn’t be talking about AoE anymore. It has to be fun and balanced in the first order.