Firstly, I know TheViper showed awesome games, but …
Tournament’s experience based on GENESIS games:
5 min delay + 10 minutes before any real fights.(in average) The minimum: 10 min nothing to watch.
Do not repeat aoe2 history. Possible changes: +20-30% speedup ingame timer && extra vils.
I know games is new, but The changes better to make earlier than to have situation like aoe2.
0 voters
Dark Age literally lasts 5 minutes in this game, any shorter and you may as well remove it.
To be fair: in aoe2, dark age also takes 5 min real time.
21pop = 20vils*30sec = 600 sec == 10 min ingame = 5.8 (minutes of real time cause 1.7x speed)
anyway, for me it’s long to watch, may be it’s okay to play.
Hey let us have some time to get into the game. Maybe it’s a bit tedious to watch the early game (although I believe that it also gives the caster to present the map and the players), but in game the pace of the dark age is fine IMO, you have plenty of stuff to do until feudal, where the game really opens up.
Darkage is currently just long enough for there to be a reasonable benefit to spear/horsemen rush strategies.
I feel the opposite were the Dark Ages doesn’t last long at all, to where it feels like almost not needed in the game. No game-play happens in this age, and within a few minutes everyone is in the Feudal age.
I’d say that if anything I’d like to see them make it a bit longer, to introduce some game-play in the dark ages.
Dark age is much quicker than in AOE2. I’m happy with it. Unlike AOE2 there is a lot more military available in dark age too. It’s in a good place. More can happen in it AND it’s shorter as easier to reach feudal quicker.
I like the current timing of dark age tbh.
But it is quite fast, to the point that I think some civs like England having unique units for that age makes it pretty useless considering how fast you go.
I don’t know about English but for the Mongols with their early horsemen remaining in dark age to try and end the game early is a viable option.
Watching others is not playing the game. The time is FINE for PLAYING!
The dark age is okey. This game only needs a bug fixes and little balanced path.
dark age is too short
villagers get attacked by knights before even seeing what the map looks like
stop watching games where they reveal the whole map. that has nothing to do with age of empires
we need 10 minutes of time to plan and strategize so the game isn’t just some idiotic clicking contest. right now we get about 2 minutes. it’s nothing
I think maybe you are not scouting enough. The enemy are only attacking you with knights (early horsemen) in dark age if they are Mongols. You should scout them earlier to see if they have stable etc. My comments are based on playing.
villagers are literally getting attacked by knights (not horsemen) before i even see the map because french gets to skip dark age and just play the whole game in feudal
the fast pace dumbs down the game so that you have to do strategies blindly (and counter them blindly) instead of evaluating what will or won’t work based on the geography
first 5-10 minutes should be about finding the resources on the map. if i have to scout french base while french gets to steal all the sheep, that’s not balanced at all
If you are playing against French make spears as it’s likely he will be making royal knights in feudal age. Maybe even make a tower or two if you know for sure he’s coming. 5 minute should be more than enough time to gather up sheep AND scout opponent though.
You want dark age to be shorter because you are spectating and there aren’t any battles. Do you want a pony too? Give me a break.
If the game want to have better viewing experience they need to up their casting budget and the observer function. Other games show highlight from previous games and discuss what happened during the wait period. In this game it’s literally just us joining them for observing games instead of doing it ourselves.
Other games also have better casters. And the casters are in a studio. The best duo I’ve ever seen is Tastosis casting together for starcraft. Their high game knowledge, good casting energy and hilarious comments make the game potentially interesting even if you have no idea what starcraft is. The casters should take a look at some of those casts and compare them to their own. Not copy, but maybe get some ideas.
In Starcraft 2, the best expansion is the current one (LOTV). The reason is because you no longer start with 6 workers, but now 12 workers. That was an awesome fix and now the first small skirmishes and “all-ins” occur at say 3:30 to 4:40. And you can get to max supply at 8-10 minutes.
I don’t think anybody wants to watch or play going from 6 vils to 12 vils. It takes like 5 minutes and is 100% the exact same every game.
Age of empires is much more advanced than starcraft and needs to have a bit longer start. I don’t think anyone wants 12 villager start in age of empires.
Ok i hear ya op… im a weak player in general… but i agree gamespeed… should have a small tweak “eventually”! Maybe 
in a couple weeks when everyone is more comfortable, it could be raised. But u still have alot of players complaining the easy ai rushs them and swamps them…