Let’s talk about competitive play or ranked matchmaking.
In simple words (Chinese civ is equal to 4 civs)
The Chinese civ basically got 4 Dynasties that can be chosen.
In competitive play, a competitor that is playing against Chinese civ will have a difficult time because now they have to guess which dynasty the Chinese picker chose. Making it extremely difficult to counter and plan the gameplay.
The Mongols, England, and Delhi Sultanate don’t have this option and is very easy to predict the gameplay as it is much easier to predict as they are just one specific civilization. But Chinese is OP because it covers four (4) dynasties and each has two to one unique units and bonus that the other player has to deal with a lot of guessing or just to be completely owned by the Chinese.
This is another reason why the Chinese civ needs to be dynasty-specific. At the moment it is too wide and general.
If the devs won’t change this, it is gonna be banned in every tournament.
I doubt destroying diversity, which is the focus of this installment (AoE IV), is a good idea considering the fact that we haven’t even begun to play the game yet.
What I expect will happen is that the chinese will be a civ that has access to many builds and strategies. In the real gameplay, I doubt the opponent will really have to guess hard when the meta will pretty much dictate what the Chinese player will go for (with other dynasties a sub-par choice for a given matchup, but can be chosen for an element of surprise).
Consider Terran in Starcraft 2, they can choose to go Bio or Mech and the opponent will simply have to scout the Terran base. Contrast this with the Protoss, who basically have the choice of going Robo, Stargate, or Gateway+templars. Does that necessarily mean that Protoss is OP? That it will be banned? That it is uncounterable? Does that mean that the existence of a possible sneaky dark shrine makes the entire race unbalanced? No.
In an RTS, you need to scout the opponent’s strategies and builds. The flexibility of a civ depends on the metagame (and perhaps, the potential of a mindgame) more than simple mechanics taken out of context. It may happen that there remains only a few choice to the chinese since they focus on eco and gunpowder, pretty late game focused. It may not be, as they might have a few early game options, though probably inferior to some other civs. Even playing a civ without a dynasty system might results in very different viable builds. Case in point, the Chinese in AoE 2.
Edit: I have to add that the choice for Terran and Protoss in my example is not strictly binding (though Terran transition is HARD). Players usually end up using more units in the late game. But in early and mid game the choice is pretty set.
That just seems like its easy to fix by just ensuring you’re scouting the Chinese player. You can solve these fairly easily via various methods
Global notifications of reaching a dynasty
Since you have to 2 landmarks, you’re already forcing the chinese player to sink resources to gain the benefit. Its entirely likely you could have certain bonuses such as the Yuan food bonus, not be worth the up front cost to get.
It may seem that way, but it could even be hindrance. England will get all its units, so thus in balance will have a way to deal with every unit type.
China may have some specialized strong units, but by choosing which to age up with it will have to make a sacrifice to lose the strong arm of something else. Thus will be locked in to playing that tactic while the English player will be able to adapt by making more of the counter units, and playing to the weakness of whatever good unit China will be playing without.
Now it will be interesting if Mongols can make walls. Lets hope so as siege is part of the game and walls are the core of defenses, but as a civ that is meant to be nomadic walls are pretty permanent, So how useful will that ability be? perhaps if losing their base can retreat it behind their back walls. or just inch forward saving wood for resource drop sites, and forward bases etc…
Because it meet the history fact. Chinese strength is flexible depending on the dynasties. Tang dynasty was a great land power conquering the nomads and occupying a huge part of inner Asia. Ming dynasty was a great navy power controlling all the sea area in Asia and sailing to Africa(Just google Admiral ZhengHe). Song dynasty was a power of creation inventing gunpowder compass and printing.
If you find it difficult to compete with Chinese civs players, then do more scouting!
Dude I was really looking forward to this game until I saw how OP and most of all GUNPOWDER strong you are making Chinese. Not to mention the bright colors you use really kills the historical vibes here. Please scrap Chinese and allow for custom adjustment on color brightness so the adults playing this game don’t feel like they are playing a childs game. I can already tell this game is going to have less units in play which will make the game feel a lot smaller and more like a kid’s game. I am willing to bet a king’s ransom that each unit will not just be 1 supply so the argument that AOE takes way more brain power over star craft in late game won’t be there anymore when 200 units vs 200 units in ranked matches will no longer be a thing. ( I.E Elephants and Cavalry and trebs will take multiple supply. ) You are marketing this game to the wrong fans already and pretty graphics wont disguise a lack of core fundamentals and gameplay. More civs and less variety between civs. Just doing new art work for each civ with the same type of bonuses system from AOE2 is more than enough. Tweaking each civ so much will surely lead to less civs and less diversity in the end. Count on it.
Gun powder units are why AOE3 BLOWS and the main problem with AOE2. Fire Lancers and and Nest of Bees is already a sign of riding star craft’s coat tails big time. NOOOOOOOOO! You are just going to cause players to all use the same meta when you make a civilization as dynamic as this. Dynasties should be a system implemented for all civs or not at all. You guys are tooting your own horns. We like realism in our AOE games NOT fantasy weapons/units like a fire lance. You are making the same mistake twice with all that. This game feels like AOE3 trying to be AOE2 BIG TIME. This is why you core players are having a bad reaction. Fix your trajectory before it all goes sideways!
When people think of AOE they don’t think of 3 v 3 all players run a different version of Chinese and tons of guns and gunpowder and explosives. Makes me wretch to think of it.
CHINA NO OP
China and Mongolia show different flexibility in the game.
Mongolia is mobile.
China is very flexible in its choice of development direction
