Because much more is expected of a company like Relic… we do not put them to compete with each other, but they are simply constructive criticisms to improve the games and the saga as a whole…
I’m all for constructive criticism. “made by a company that doesn’t know the saga” is not constructive criticism 
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I have some non-constructive criticism here:
AoE4 is way too focused on e-sports to be likable by some. It has committed itself to be an e-sport more than other AoE games.
And since it’s a conscious decision, I don’t think any amount of constructive criticism will help. They delivered more or less what they wanted to, minus some polish which they’ll eventually add.
But some things which we’ve been asking for (at least in the AoE3 forums) will never be introduced, by design. So while constructive criticism is good, some criticism is just criticism because they have just decided to not work on those areas in order to make the game e-sporty and competitive. Things like:
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Making the maps more than just ‘arenas of battle’. We’ve told them that the maps look plain and everything on there has some gameplay value, making them look lifeless and boring. No other herdable but sheep, no other huntable but deer.
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Siege destruction animations are hilarious. Every siege weapon from the lowly ram to the mighty trebuchet when destroyed turns into a puff of smoke. AoE2 and AoE3 have waay better siege destruction animation. We’ve told them that. We also wanted crew for siege for a long long time. They don’t want to change these things.
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The blue UI is boring as hell and doesn’t have the liveliness of an AoE game. We’ve told them that. They think its good for readability.
As you can see, they have taken some decisions that make AoE4 extremely disappointing for a casual gamer like me, and it seems like no amount of constructive criticism in these areas will be considered.
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And you have it confirmed that none of these things will ever be improved?
Of the three though, the one that’s arguable is the UI. I like the UI. Compared to something like animations, or more Gaia, which are things I’d be happy to see worked on. I understand why you think the UI is lacking, but I genuinely and honestly disagree.
This doesn’t mean I think it’s perfect, but I’ve given my own suggestions before as well.
Even today, Age IV is still a good coupla thousand concurrent players above AoE III Definitive. Obviously some folks want Age IV to be doing even better, and I’m among them. But I also don’t want AoE III to do badly. I’d rather both games had more players. AoE III Definitive was released late 2020, Age IV about one year later, in mid-late 2021 (October vs. September respectively). Neither are “old” releases (people like to say AoE III Definitive is old, but the reality is it’s a completely overhauled game with modern support and new content, that was released within a year of Age IV). I want both to continue succeeding.
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The devs seem to acknowledge the things that they want to change eventually.
They acknowledged that we wanted a color picker (laughable as it is) and gave us one eventually.
They acknowledged the lack of remappable hotkeys … and delivered.
The other things we have asked for ages, but since they never acknowledge it, I assume they don’t want it to change.
I also want AoE4 to succeed as much as you do. Just that I had very high expectations from the new $60 game of my favorite franchise.
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It’s safe to say all of those who adore this franchise wanted AoEIV to succeed, and quite frankly I wish I was part of the council to voice my concerns right off the bat. Would it have made a difference? probably not but at least I’d be satisfied I did my part.
Is it the end of the world I find the game to be mediocre? not at all. I have AoE3De that receives stellar updates and DLC so I have no complaints. Do I have faith World’s Edge can take up the mantel from ES and even FE? not really. Most people who criticize the game do it out of love for the franchise.
Developing video games is a hard business and not every game is gonna hit the mark with everyone. As fans of AoE3 we can all attest to that. Being left out of Redbull is egregious but also not surprising.
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Beware. You are going to enter the torture chamber of “because not 100% of the people think a color picker is essential for 100% of the RTS games, you cannot call it an important feature. And now you already have it so why are you still complaining?”.
ironic you said you dont really care in your original statement, and he sure does his stuff but then gets censored 
im for constructive criticism towards you too!
I just hope Microsoft learns the right lessons from their AoE4 experience, being those:
- It is better to release a game late than to deliver it unfinished.
- Designing it mostly with pro-player input will lead to a good e-sport but not necessarily to a wide appeal with ommon players.
- Why does the above dycotomy exist? E-sport gamers want a functional, predictable game with no distractors and no built-in randomness that can detract from winning through skill. Conversely, they want little variety so they can better apply their build orders and strats to as many maps as possible. Casual gamers want fancy visuals, a sense of adventure, and a sandbox to explore, they cherish variety over repeatability.
- Campaigns matter, and players should not feel they are on a ride on rails, but in an immersive random world were they can make choices that matter.
- Know your market, know your product, and price it accordingly. Other goals should not
- If you straight up copy a game (AoE2) you will be attacked and dismissed ad nauseum for making it too similar by some, while others will hate on you for not being similar enough.
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And maybe I’m wrong in what I say?.. do not get me wrong, Relic makes very good RTS (Being its flagship sagas of Dawn of War and Company of Heores the best) but I do not know if Relic knows how to do RTS well more classics of the AoE type, that’s why I say that if they had stayed in the twentieth century as Ensemble had planned, it would have been easier for them to capture the idea of play, since their games are to be a character faster than the average of rts…
Of course, I would not have said it better…Even AoE online which is a free to play game makes things better…
Yes good point… it is also worth clarifying that both games came out in October but a year apart…
The way I see it, is it’s only going to make them a better developer. They’re taking on things the Age fans want, and have been requesting, and Age IV also gets the benefit of an established RTS developer that has an in-house engine.
UE and Unity are great general-purpose engines, but in the RTS (and strategy) space you’ll often find that developers roll their own. Not just is it a niche genre (so interest is limited compared to the bigger and more popular genres), but what is required for each type of strategy game can be very specialised. I’d rather have that than the DICE team working on an RTS (no slight on them, but we know due to what’s been publicised that DA: Inquisition suffered from Frostbite not being adaptable to ARPG mechanics - the same went for ME: Andromeda).
Maybe Relic would’ve done a 20th century RTS better, I don’t know. I’m not sure it’s a matter of “better”. I think it’s relative to what fans of a franchise expect. Age fans prioritise things differently to fans of other franchises. You even see a difference between Age fans that say “look at Starcraft” and those that say “don’t go towards esports” (which Starcraft has pretty much since Brood War). The fans aren’t wrong, and it’s up to the developer to meet the challenge. That’s absolutely true. I just think we don’t need to put them down in order to ask for more. That’s all.
Yes, good point… just as aoe 4 is very new and needs to settle a little, to then be able to develop its full potential…
@FiveWind6951746 Of course, I would not have said it better…
Yes, you can see that they did not learn anything from No Man Sky and Cyberpunk 2077…
AOE IV is a complete flop, in less than 8 months it lost its entire user base average of 25k-30k down to 5k. Competing vs an almost 2 year game, the fact its competing technically with a bulk content from 2005-2008 roughly 15+ year older and having 500 players leave AOEIV to AOE III DE is pretty much another nail on the coffin(30 day average bump).
AOE III DE new DLCs are killing AOE IV off, better content, better civs and better QoL improvements. The speed of AOE III DE improving vs AOE IV is disheartening.
When I played the beta for AOE IV I cancelled my preorder, clearly World’s Edge went against Relic’s advice and this is the clustercrap they created. I mean its basically on level with TW’s WarHammer III the worst sequel in the Series and it still has more players than AOE IV on the 30 day average and 24 hour peak.
The funny thing is WHIII has like a 6 something in ratings on Steam but AOE IV has a 9/10. Where are the players that rated (most likely paid) it so high? (27k for AOE IV vs 37k on WHIII total reviews).
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Here’s the issue with Twitch the number of people watching it vs actually playing it does not equal there is a larger player base. There are more streamers on AOE II than AOE III and IV combined.
Streamers do = players playing it, most people watch or leave twitch in the background as they do other tasks, or play videos games they’re called lurkers it is roughly the majority of the platform audience Twitch Lurkers - How to Lurk on Twitch - StreamScheme
So I don’t think Twitch viewers/subscribers is a good indication of players actively involved in playing any of the AOE titles but content creators on both Twitch and YouTube are.
My gamer experience says that whenever a game is late the fanbase will pressure for release. So don’t blame them solely for that.
Having that said I just think it was a mistake releasing so soon, right after AOE3DE. The player base had just rendezvoused for renewed games with lots of expansions.
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Fue un error de marketing muy malo para aoe IV para cuando salió, el aoe 3 ya tuvo 2 DLC y el aoe 2 tambien 2 DLC, así que había incluso más contenido para jugar en esas 2 entregas anteriores.
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