Here’s the thing: having these pointless timed events for cosmetic unlocks just doesn’t make sense to me for the remaster of a 22 year old game. I don’t want to rant and I’d like to keep this rather short but I really get the sense that the people who came up with this system don’t really understand how this just doesn’t work… like at all. Basically this whole event stuff ends up feeling anti consumer while it should be about having some extra fun and “lols” with the game.
The main reasons for why the system is terrible:
Timed events don’t really work for a game as old as this. As somebody who plays somewhat regularly in campaigns and skirmish I usually just miss most of this stuff or notice it too late. A 22 year old game’s cosmetic events is not something that most people pay attention to.
No, I don’t want to do specific things or “challenges”, I had time to find out how I like playing Age of Empires, I just want to continue the campaign where I left off or just play some skirmish. One of the biggest reasons why I love Age of Empires is how much freedom you’re given when it comes to approaching it: you can play the campaigns, skirmishes against the AI, come up with crazy custom scenarios, play online in a ton of different modes etc. The idea of timed challenges demanding when and how you play undermines this concept so obviously that honestly it’s a bit baffling that anyone thought that doing this would fit the game.
The events are just too short, like 2 weeks or something like that. Even when it comes to f2p games that live off systems like this a battle pass is usually going on for months.
Even if you do decide to participate there is a time limit ON TOP OF the initial time limit and you can only accomplish one thing per day. That’s awful and I really hope I don’t have to explain why but here’s a nice argument: even the worst, grindiest f2p games don’t do this, they just don’t because telling the player “okay go away now, come back tomorrow” is just bad. Like why do that?
This is also somewhat connected to the age of the game: a ton of new games do these stupid events now so they are the last thing I want to see in a game that I return to basically because it’s a comforting, classic masterpiece. AoE 2 should be above current trends.
So long story short: this thing has to go in my opinion, it should be replaced with something that makes sense. Shockingly the first game that comes to mind in doing this right is another Microsoft produt: the Halo Master Chief Collection. The MCC doesn’t care when and how you want to play the game, you can go back to past cosmetic seasons and just… unlock stuff… by playing any of the available content. Why can’t I just select an event that I want to get stuff from, play any mode, complete a game and just unlock the thing I’d like?
Also I know that Microsoft is doing this to artifically bump the player counts from time to time but here’s the thing: the game doesn’t need that, it’s doing really well without any of that tinkering. I can’t say this enough: Age of Empires 2 was alive and well for more than two decades without any timed events. It was alive even in the dark ages when Microsoft didn’t care about it.
And really the weird thing about this is if any of this worked fine then I guess I’d have nearly everything unlocked. I played around 150 hours since the game came out and I’m a fairly regular player yet my page for the event mods looks like this:
They should remove the time-gate for the challenges which I tried to suggest since the dawn of the first event. It just limits and actually hinder players especially who have busy schedule to actually complete the events. If a person works more than 80 hours a week and has a single day off, there should be a choice for such player to complete all the challenges in a single day.
The goal of the devs is to say with the game, to unlock this cosmetic stuff.
My suggestion to solve the issue would be to instant unlock the stuff after some months. So if you have time for the events, then you can get the stuff during the event. Otherwise you will get the stuff after for example 3 months after the event. So in the end you dont really miss out on the event stuff, but there is still a purpose for the events.
My biggest complain with the current set up is that new player never have the change to get the stuff from before they join the game.
Also i hope that the devs will stop with pushing to xbox live accounts for steam users. It make no sense to me that you need a xbox live account if you own the game on steam.
Agree. On everything. Not only the events are unfitting for a classic game, but most of them are awful. I mean, it’s ok to have a christmas, or halloween event. But an event for “celebrating” the AI? or that event about memes… I don’t understand what’s the point. I can’t remember the last time we had a normal period. It’s one event after another with no breaks.
And the “challenges”…Except for the last event when you had to defeat the AI at increasing difficulty levels, the challenges are not challenging at all. “Train 5 archers”, “Play a standard game”. What is the point?? They’re not proposing you a challenge, they’re asking you to do regular stuff in exchange for a reward.
I think these have to be commands from above. Microsoft’s marketing team must be directing FE to include these silly events to attract players. I can picture the businessman in a suit like “But kids like these things. Don’t they? Let’s put some challenges and give them icons so kids will play our game”
It is really making the game less serious. It takes away the feeling many old-school players have about the game being a classic, cult, real time chess game and turns it into a childish mobile-like game.
The overall design, menus, dialog box, panels, everything is taking that direction.
You should be glad they limit it to cosmetics (with respect to ranked gameplay, at least). In Forza Horizon 4 they have cars that are only available for a week, and cars differ in performance, so not having a particular car has an impact on ranked gameplay. It’s better than AoE, though, in that cars can at least be bought from the auction house if you missed them, albeit often for a number of credits that will take a lot of gameplay to accumulate.
I’d just like them to make the AoE timed events work properly with Steam if they’re going to have them at all. Steam can support up to 1GB cloud saves, so there’s no reason the information can’t be saved to a Steam account.
I think the events are fun, the May-hem and Comp-Stomp Extragavanzas gave access to tons of fun mods and I think the next event should be naval-themed.
you’re just describing the generic micro transaction pay walls on tons of games now… they specifically do it that way to make more money off the plebs…
I am not against the presence of challenges to unlock cosmetical stuff, but I don’t like the fact that all of these “challenges” are actually pretty silly tasks to accomplish in a limited time. Instead, I would change the requirement to be something actually fun and challenging to do, but have the challenge be permanent, that is once it is introduced it stays there and you can unlock the skin whenever.
A have already posted similar topic few weeks ago.
In my opinion every timed event becomes more unfair to new players with time. It is baisicly punishing people for not buying and playing game earlier. For me extreme example is World of Warcraft - this game is 16 years old and during this time many timed events were ran. Is it ok that 15yo who want to start playing will never be able to get all this stuff in game paid for? It can happen to AoE DE too.
Also during whole pandemic situation there are high chanses that some of AoE II players won’t be able to play due to being sick, or even worse, hospitalized. Does devs really want to punish people for this?
Being able to “win” cosmetic stuff is good and sometimes even fun, but it should be available to every player regardles of time spent in game. Maybe just allow to rerun each event for short period of time for all those who didn’t got 100% during first time?
This one resonates with me a lot. It’s very true; I play AoE how I want to play it… and I have for years and years. Being rewarded for that somehow, some way, would be nice; instead of having to jump through hoops that force me to play in a way I don’t really want to play. In fact, whenever I do the events, I usually go the path of least resistance because I either don’t want to do what is required of me or I don’t have time to (and the rewards don’t usually do much for me). So I put the AI skill level on Easiest when possible, do Tiny map, fast speed, unlimited resources if allowed, etc., etc. just to can crank through it ASAP and resume my normal way of playing
Obviously, I’m okay with trying out any new game modes or maps, or, maybe the first campaign mission of a new campaign they’ve created, via timed events, as it’s their way of publicizing that and getting us to try something new. (If we even need more game modes.) But you’re right, I just would prefer playing how I normally play.
(Actually might not be bad idea to throw a free campaign mission from the new expansion pack into an event )
You and I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d personally prefer a different way of doing them, if possible. Events are a neat concept, in theory… and I really enjoy seasonal/holiday ones… but I hope they can evolve someday.
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Profile icons/avatars do nothing for me since I never play Multiplayer online ranked or use the matchmaking service. Some rewards that I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to see, since I would actually get benefit from them and find them more interesting include:
Different map colorization options/choices (sunset, sunrise, twilight, more/less saturated, fall season), and different unit colors/outfits, etc
New audio taunts (including bringing back the old ones as a non-mod option)
New soundtrack songs (including bringing back the old classics as a non-mod option)
Easter egg mini-game or new mode unlocked (use your imagination for this)
Sneak peek of new AoE4 stuff
New cheat codes that do neat things, maybe a nuke weapon (I know they’ve done some already, which is nice. When I first posted the idea, I don’t know that they had yet done any cheats as rewards)
Etc
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I made the following suggestion a while back. You may enjoy the read, as there are some neat artwork ideas from others, too:
Permanent challenges are already in the Steam achievements. These “challenges” are actually events that are doable by all levels; not everything should be “challenging”. These “silly tasks” are meant for beginners and casuals. The pros dont even give a damn about these events but they’re also meant for completionists who like collecting icons and mods, etc. The hardest event was the Barbarossa Brawl yet.
Same thing I did… then I started thinking “what the hell am I doing?” and stopped. Occasionally I enjoy playing on easiest because I just enjoy doing a fast castle and just watch the eco grow but it’s not really something I’d call super exciting. And even if you just want a long eco game there are better ways to do that.
Yeah, I think the idea (giving some minimal cosmetic content to the remaster of an old game) is okay because this stuff can attract a few new players, I just don’t see the point in the events being this limited in terms of time. I’m pretty sure that Hell won’t open and the armageddon won’t come if I can unlock stuff from the Christmas event on Easter and new events being released would still give a bump to player numbers.
Yeah, I’ve felt for a long while that having it be a limited time is okay for a while… you know, create some intrigue, excitement, and exclusiveness for a while… but then after, say, 1, 3, 6, or 12 months, go ahead and open it up. Someone above mentioned the same thing.
I have a feeling they will open them up to everyone at some point, maybe in a rolling fashion rather than all at once… but until they do this with at least one event, it’s hard to know what their plan is
Totally agree! I like events in games but they made it wrong imho. They must be at least 1 month and need to remove timer only 1 mission per day! I’m aready almost or missed few events cause logged in and found new event will end in few days but it need minimum 5-7 days, so i was sad.
The events of the game are so useless, they just ruin 1 or 2 game, by turning those stupid mods on automatically. The biggest question is why we get nonsensical sunbathing Gbetos instead of proper and realistic historical images.
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