Many new players were drawn to Age of Empires IV by the epic battles they saw in the trailers, expecting to experience massive army clashes. However, when they played the game, they found it didn’t live up to those expectations. As a community, we knew this, and it’s clear that new players find this frustrating.
Initially, I was against the idea of increasing the population limit. The current pop limits serve a purpose, preventing certain civilizations from snowballing too easily. But after thousands of hours of playing AoE4, I’ve come to ask myself:
What am I doing with my life?
Increasing the population cap beyond 200 in the late game could be a good idea. But how should it be implemented correctly? We can achieve both: huge late game battles and game balance.
Here’s my proposal: Introduce a technology called “Imperial Splendor” in Age 4. This tech would cost 1.5k of food, wood, gold, and some stone, and it would grant an additional 50 population.
Idea : This technology could be researched once to increase the pop cap to 250. To prevent trade-heavy civilizations like the Mongols or Abbasids from exploiting this, the cost of the tech could increase. If this isn’t enough to prevent snowballing, we could introduce an additional requirement, such as making the tech available only after achieving 150 eliminations (similar to the command points system in Company of Heroes). Alternatively, it could be researched twice, increasing the pop cap to 300 with a more expensive price. However, let’s stick to the 250 cap for now.
Why Does the 200 Pop Limit Hurt the Late Game?
The 200 pop limit restricts late-game army sizes, leading to awkward situations like villagers being slaughtered just to free up population space. In a typical late-game scenario, you might have 130 to 140 villagers (and even 150 in pro matches) supporting only 60 to 70 military units. This has become a common practice in competitive play, but it feels more like a workaround by the players rather than an intentional game design. There are post in reddit asking devs to add retire option to villagers instead of deleting them, but this proposal does NOT solve the actual late game scenario.
Some argue that a 200 pop limit should be evenly split between villagers and military units, but this doesn’t hold true in practice. With around 100 villagers, you are in Age 3 or early 4, it’s challenging to sustain a 100-pop army. However, with 130 to 140 villagers in Age 4, and with most imperial economic techs researched and unique buffs enabled, your economy is roughly 200% stronger compared to Age 3. This means you could theoretically support a much larger army—perhaps 110 to 130 units—in the late game, as the cost of units remains same while your economy jumps up to peak.
A 250 pop cap would allow for more strategic flexibility in the late game. You could confidently split your army, avoid having to sacrifice villagers, and better support your teammates in team games. We want to open multiple fronts in late-game battles, but it’s difficult to do so effectively with just 60 to 70 units. While raiding is possible, splitting your army too much can be risky.
Addressing Periodical Economic Overflows
With 130 to 140 villagers, players often experience periods of economic overflow. At times, you accumulate too many resources but need pop space for your army, leading to the periodic killing of villagers. This cycle of killing and rebuilding economic units seems contrary to the intended design of the game.
Enhancing Late-Game Tactical Options, Improves team game experience.
The 200 pop limit also restricts your ability to 1v2 in team games. When fully popped, 60 military units are easily overwhelmed by 120 enemy units. However, with a 250 pop limit, 125 units could potentially defend or at least buy time against 200, especially with a solid defensive setup.
In team games (3v3 and 4v4), we know you cannot really help the other side if they are losing, because you only have 70-80 units, you need them to defend or attack, sending them across map will result crumble of your frontline. With 250 pop, you can send some of your units to your teammates aid, and still hold your line. You have tactically more options. The team can really work better.
A Message from the Heart
I love AoE4, and I want all players—especially new ones—to experience the epic battles showcased in the trailers. That’s the magic that drew us to this series as kids. I don’t believe this game is dying, but we all know it’s not particularly friendly to newcomers, and our community is NOT growing. The issue isn’t the difficulty, but rather that new players can’t experience the large-scale battles they envisioned and bought the game for. If they could, I believe they would be more inclined to stick with the game, regardless of its challenges. While the 200 pop limit is a long-standing tradition in Age of Empires, that doesn’t mean it’s the best fit for AoE4.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.