Aoe4 poor and slow support, we want an answer [To Microsoft/Relic]

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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Since release, aoe4 has received very poor support only.
Not only has it had severe bugs since beta, which exist until now and are not at all addressed and also not even on a roadmap, no communication about it.

But at the same time, aoe2DE is getting MASSIVE updates nonstop.
In the time aoe4 receives 1 patch, aoe2 easily receives 5 patches and 5 hotfixes.

Since Sultants ascend - according to Microsoft’s official statement - has been the best ever selling aoe DLC, how come the game is barely supported?
So much profit and just milking the players who purchased it?
Where is the support?
Where is the roadmap?
Where is the communication about coming changes?

Where is the fix for the horrible pathing, especially for melee units?
Where is the fix to archers getting stuck on attacking buildings while units are in their face?
Where is the fix for knights and men at arms attacking farms when villagers are RIGHT NEXT to them?
Where is the fix for attackmove?

Where are the hotfixes for OP stuff in the game?
Why do the fans have to wait half a year, HOPING for a fix and don’t even receive any communication about the coming changes, being let down eventually and having waited for nothing?

There have been so many surveys, which people did participate in, in large numbers.
There is massive feedback, but barely anything is being fixed or worked on.
The amount of cash this game has generated is massive, but barely anything is being reinvested.

This is honestly very very very frustrating and a shame for the series.

I have left aoe4 a few weeks back, after my patience has eventually reached its limit.
Many of my friends left me, for the same reasons.
They just could not see any hope for this game anymore.
The chances for me to return to aoe4 are extremely minor, due to the management of the game.
It has massive potential, but all I can see is that Microsoft wants to milk the cow.

Roadmap and communication please, asap!

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on the same boat with you buddy

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This is what happens when game companies add politics crap into there company and need to sit around a desk all day having meeting.

One of the Company of heroes players was asking the relic devs to improve animations for the tanks in coh3 to be as good as the cohs 2. And it just shows they don’t put the same passion into there newer games. I wish the siege from aoe4 had as much detail and amination as ccoh2. Would make the game look so much better.

Company Of Heroes 2 - tank animation

Company of Heroes 3 - tank animation

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It is not new, in AoE 3 they do the same, although it is justified there because AoM Retold is developed simultaneously…

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I miss the old days when there was frequent communication and updates, sometimes I enjoy the community more than the game itself…

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As I said, they are inefficiency in the work as always, I don’t know if they are really short-handed.

BUG problem emerging endlessly.
Visual mistakes like wrong Oriental Spear models still not been fixed after 2 years.
This DLC even brings new visual mistakes, such as the texture break of Varangian.

Come on, don’t forget this is far from a perfect game, its details are so poor like these.

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Please be kind to the devs, remember Relic has just split up from Sega and laid off staff .

Also the lack of communication has more to do with legal reasons on Microsoft’s side ( a combination of management decisions and general hostile language from “fans”).

They have even posted on the Discord that they are still regathering after the split and layoffs and we know the new update is coming out with the new season in about 3 weeks time.

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Which also affects the other games but is especially an issue for AoE 4.

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I wish they were around more but I’m sure behind the scenes and it’s a mess/Short Staffed/Other issues. It stinks but that’s how it goes for some game companies.

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I agree with almost all your improvements requests. But dont give up. The game is good, even needing some improvements.

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We should have at least 2 major updates per year, without excluding small ones to fix balance and bugs.

One for the launch of the DLC’s and other for QoL,anticheat and other improvements requested by the community.

But without a doubt a roadmap and better communication from Microsoft/Relic would help a lot.

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Very honestly, I could not care less.
This game will soon be 3 years old and from day1 on, the support has been absolutely poor.
It’s like blaming the support on Covid.
Absolute nonsense.
Ok, Relic has had cutdowns, so what? That might be a problem for a month or 2, maybe 3.
But the situation has been the same since day of release.
Blaming it on cut-downs of the team and internal struggles, is just a blatant lie.
THe truth is, Microsoft does not WANT (!!!) to invest as much.
They wanna milk the cow and invest as little as possible and take the cash that was generated with the DLC sales especially.
They don’t care how good/bad the game is or how disappointed the community is with this game and the state of it.
More profit for minimal investment = big win for them.
They don’t care that the name of the series just landed in the trash bin and that never again under the name of Microsoft and Relic an aoe title can ever be accepted again as a triple AAA title and that the fanbase now is absolutely destroyed.

And that there is no communication about all this and no roadmap, speaks volumes.

I might get banned/cancelled or whatever for this post/thread, but I could honestly not care less.
Microsoft just killed the series and through dirt on its name and I don’t hold a paper in front of my mouth.
I say it out loud how it is.
Aoe is dead and it’s ONLY and PURELY because of Microsoft’s greed.
First step was closing Ensemble Studios.
That was the first major warning sign to the public.
Aoe4 was the final message of: “don’t buy this game, it’s a waste of money!”
I wish, I could get my aoe4 money refunded.

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I don’t see aoe 4 sending that message. I see disgruntled internet posters waxing poetic on the death of the series. You are entitled to your feelings, the thing that confuses me is pressing this onto the community. It’s been a constant in the community discourse since they released the first images during the beta. No one has been cancelled or whatever for exerting a negative opinion.

You made a lot of points on what can be improved, it’s a conversation worth having. They do make active effort to make a better product.

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With both AoE 4 and 2 going strong (despite 4’s issues) and AoM:R just being around the corner I doubt that the series is dead.

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I remember when you said this days or weeks after one of the big seasonal updates. Wasn’t it Season 5 (the big one with the terrain detail overhaul and a bunch of other stuff)?

Still funny.

I agree the current silence is frustrating, but that’s what happens when a studio is cut by a third and then spun out from their publisher. I disagree that this is comparable to the previous Seasons, however. We’re in uncharted territory here.

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Why do you think it happened?
It sounds pretty obvious to me…

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Yes, I agree…they do it well with the DLCs, but the marketing of the entire saga is fatal the way they do it…

Yes, you are being very pessimistic and apocalyptic…the saga even when it was in the shadows in the late 2000s-early 2010s (2007-2013) was not close to dying…look at everything you released from the AoE 1 release in 1997 to today:

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This is the only part of your post I can take seriously, because their communication does suck.

It seems communication and marketing is mostly on World’s Edge though. AoE has never been great at it.

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I think marketing and communication on AoE 4 used to be better when Grant and Elliot were still working at Relic.

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I fairly new in aoe4 and actually this is my first rts game, but i can clearly see these problems and i personally i add more:

Select all units/villargers randomly centers your camera anywhere

right click behavior attack behavior attack move behavior. You select all units, you right click one, he die all units stop, you do the same with A+click on the ground same behavior, i want all my units in my base going directly to enemy base non stop while im fighting its hard to do that?

Archers are way too strong, specially england due +range bonus

TC attack range and capacity should be increased with age up, games are way too fast, early units are cheap and kill workers in a burst, even in late game a group of 6 knights can kill 10 or more workers in your base ignoring everything

Actual defense should exist for late game, everything just explode with a few canons or these siege with long range (This one are cheap)

Matchmaking recalibration every x matches, elo limit im gold 2 playing against bronze sometimes and when i was bronze i played against gold at least for the first 10 days or more

Ping limit, im from argentina playing in us west server against chinese people, last day i tried a skirmish match and difference was insane, i have almost no micro but gameplay its super clunky with 300ms

The main problem of aoe4 its … a online videogame semi competitive videogame and game need constant updates, balance, fixes and more options to personalise not just hotkeys

The game still solid, but imo what is holding his back its how looks, how sounds, civ behaviors/techniques and these stuff, because matchmaking, balance, and all the online stuff included beginner experience its really bad

I have 2 months in aoe4, started bronze 2 now im gold 1-3 only hre, im tired of having 4 archers in my base at early game, im just tired. Its not a scout problem, its not a tower defense problem its how this meta work and how poorly balanced is, can be france knight in feudal, can be england archers, can be xin lu archers etc etc