The devs wanted a fun game first and foremost. This obsession with E-Sport is just a recent thing. Games in the past were supposed to be fun in the first place. Tournaments were a rarity considering that the Internet was really expensive back then.
Pushing for this just leads to bad games, just look at how they massacred Empire Earth III or Dawn of War III. The same thing might happen to Age of Empires IV if Relic is not careful.
Actually there are more civ variations in arena these days 11
The maps is fine the clownish part of it is the market abuse, it allows to play without economy and just abusing market to go up and pushes that couldn’t be sustained playing the game like it has be to be played.
Arena would be a really competitive map if there is one variant that removes the market exchange.
so has death match / empire wars
arena is fine. it’s just not what RM is about
The only change I want to in Arena is an extra 2 tile gold within the walls (currently 4 tiles of gold are outside the walls, and 11 tiles within the walls) and an extra tile of stone within the walls.
Games usually drag to post-Imperial situations with units like Paladins, Siege Onagers, Elite Teutonic Knights and Elite War Elephants being seen.
Sounds like you’re being frustrated after a couple of games. I had the same feeling when I started playing arena after a llong time of essentially playing arabia only. And although there are some cheesy strats that can work here (which wouldn’t do so on other maps) it’s really versatile and just requires a lot of decision making. If you go from ara to arena you basically need to switch your playstyle but this doesn’t make it less competitive. In contrast to stuff like bf your front isn’t protected by impenetrable wood lines so map control in castle age is quite important and all-in castle age strats can totally work. Also arena is one of the most build order oriented maps in the game so tbh I don’t see why it’s not competetive. As for all maps: If you don’t like it, ban it! I mean it’s the only closed map that is consistently featured in the 1v1 pool.
RM shouldn’t be about anything 
I think all the current maps should be merged into one mega-megarandom (and also adding more stuff into megarandom). It would at least solve ALT+F4, no point to ALT+F4 if you don’t know what the next map is going to be anyway
and I guess a separate lobby for those who want to play only one specific map
You can always break through in feudal. Figure the far side tower with fleching and 5 vills have mma or scouts with archers ready when it opens. You will run into 3 type of people then first will give up right away after you break through and start to wreck the place. Next will try to build a house to block just use tower and archer on vills. Third will onion wall or counter tower. You’ll have to build another tower to continue the push. If you do pick the far side you should quickly break through before your enemy is expecting you. You could also play Cumans for the early rams.
See, vs cumans is what got me so put off on Arena in the first place. With how economically strong their feudal is fast castling seems like the only strategy as any time spent in feudal is just time spent vs better options like siege and double the TCs to you, but by the time I was aging up he has knights and Rams on my door and while I was able to repel the assault it ■■■■■■ my economy for castle age and he just rolled over me in imp with mass paladins because the exchange won him so much map control over the course of the game from that point, it’s like a free win presuming you do basic adherence to the build order for it, that head start is uncompetitive, it’s like Celts in forest nothing. If I had stayed feudal he would have ■■■■■■ me, going castle also ■■■■■■ me.
No you just need to chill. Think it through. What civ did you have?
it actually is about something
RM stands for RANDOM map
arena is more like a scenario than a random map. it’s a fake enclosure that’s always the same every time. no elevation. no water. no dynamic forest locations. it skips half the ages of the game too. it doesn’t belong in RM for so many reasons.
It changes each time just as much as anyother map.
That’s why a completely random cycle of maps would be good, instead of being able to pick 
That way the very occasional Arena map wouldn’t really be a problem
The map in match making is the true Arena.
If you want a map like Arena but with palisades, then give it a different name.
Sounds more like the Cuman’s fault than the map’s fault, since whenever there is no Cuman in an Arena game the situation you described can’t happen.
Of course attacking cumans in feudal doesn’t make too much sense here because trushing can be a bit tricky on arena. Adapt your strat according to your civ. With a lot of civs you just need a good fc into boom built and cumans won’t have such a vil lead over you that you can’t compete anymore. If it’s just about vil numbers khmer can even outboom cumans and civs like Malay can totally keep up with them. Also fc siege/pikes has been proven a good strat vs cuman boom if your civ cant match their eco. And lastly picking cumans basically means donating all the relics to your opponent which you can also use to your advantage.
Look man, i hate arena as much as the next guy, but stone walls are it’s identity. For pallisades there’s hill fort and hideout. I agree, that arena is a bad map thats not fun to play, but removing stone walls would be like removing it from the game.
Grrrreat idea!
One ladder where people play “true” RM (as said elsewhere in this thread) and one ladder where people play what they have been playing for 20 years, which is Arabia, Arena and another map or two on rotation, unlimited bans. Perhaps call it Not-So-Random Maps… Or Competitive Maps.
Thanks, can this be implemented?
rhe map is perfect, please dont break it
“Unranked Lobby”
We already have unranked lobby if you want to play literally any map, some of which just don’t need to be in a ranked lobby because how badly balanced they are.