Demeter Feedback Thread: What you liked, what you'd change?

Age of Mythology: Retold Discussion
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I just wanted to create a thread where people can share their feelings about what they liked and disliked about Demeter, and possibly for the Devs to see and weigh up the feedback.

I’ll start things off with my opinion/ take:

What I like:

  1. I appreciate the attention to mythology when making techs, powers and myth units (mostly, see feedback regarding Pan and Hestia) honouring the God they come from. I appreciate they went a step further than +x% on farming as a bonus for Demeter and actually create brand new and unique conditions for play.
  2. The new myth units and heroes look and sound good. There is room for a polish here and there, but they are all solid. I really appreciate them taking on board feedback regarding sound and animation. I am pleased to see a high degree of variety in the sounds, and they went the extra mile to add additional bored, attack, birth and even death animations for even more variety.
  3. The God Powers are absolutely on point with the mythology of the Gods they come from.
  4. The myth units and heroes have very unique special abilities. I appreciate them taking time to code new conditions into the game to avoid recycling the same old knockbacks and throws over and over. I’m sure modders are excited for new possibilities too. This point is honestly the one I was most impressed with! :clap:

What needs attention:

  1. Harpy needs a swoop animation. The attachment point needs to be rotated so that the units she’s carrying isn’t clipping through her. The unit needs to be carried at a perpendicular angle to her body. There needs to be a weight limit (carrying a hydra or colossus is a bit silly).
  2. Demeter should have received a human unit as her unique unit. Having a myth unit (thought I like it) is a bit jarring compared to the other Greek Gods. Demeter also has zero to do with Harpies, so its a bit weird they have been assigned to her.
  3. Pan and Hestia’s myth unit and some technologies are completely confusing and seem like a last minute switch. Pan should receive Hamadryads and their upgrade; Hestia should get Lykoans, their upgrade and the pioneers research. To me it seems this was originally the plan, since Pan and Hamadryads are a thing in mythology, and a villager type MU would go well with the goddess of the hearth.
  4. Wither needs a bit of a rework. IMO it should slowly dry out berry bushes and trees (as stated in the tooltip), reducing the amount of food or wood they contain permanently over the period of the duration of the power. If the resource runs out it is destroyed. Having an archaic age power that is stronger than forest fire is a bit odd (a power that was already very situational). I also don’t think it should slow units, but instead could do very minor tick damage to enemies who stay on it. Destroying and preventing farming is fine.
  5. Lykoan villagers should take 1 pop and the wolf form takes 3. They are essentially villagers, with a boost to meat gathering, so having they take x3 pop when working as a villager provides less versatility.
  6. Hamadryas should get get their special ability as a base. The upgrade should boost the damage and reduce the cooldown of their special ability. Having the only special ability (which is standard requirement for every MU) behind an expensive research isn’t great.
  7. Arcadian Meadow could use a little visual boost. More flowers and butterflies please.
  8. Communal Hearth should boost the damage of nearby human soldiers. After all, a feast would boost their strength. I’m not sure if allowing it to convert MUs is stepping on Traitors toes too much (a power that is already pretty weak because the units lose all their upgrades).
  9. Underworld Invasion should trigger a personal cooldown on the player’s ability to build any TCs. I have heard of exploits that allow this power that allow people to circumvent its intentions.

As I play more I’ll add more, but curious to see what you all think :thinking: :saluting_face:

9 Likes
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I can see potential in Lycaon or Hamadryad, but I don’t see how they could make this awful Harpy useful.

Aside from the horrible amateurish animations, she has a lot of downsides as pointed out by lots of players: Harpy is not spammable because costs freaking favor and spawns from fortress, she is only available in mythic age despite being extremely fragile, she is easily sniped down by heroes and archers ball.

Most importantly, she DOESN’T SCALE as the game goes on.

All three Greek gods received human units who can scale pretty well with both armory and military-line upgrades. Myrmidon are situational at the moment, but Gastrapethoros and especially Hetairoi have a good niche.

This thing is just useless btw, essentially we paid for less content.

1 Like
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I already wrote what i like and don’t like and even gave new ideas. but i like the inputs/feedback. (maybe more reasonable than mines?)

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Tbh I think you summarised pretty well. If I may add, I think Demeter’s personal bonuses feel a bit lacklustre. She fills a good niche in the Greek pantheon as an eco civ, but her bonuses don’t feel particularly unique, strong or impactful. Two villagers per farm is perhaps her most useful and impactful, reducing cost to set up farming, allowing mass farming earlier, etc. Her herdable mechanic is interesting BUT it seems to be an eco trade-off rather than a boost; sacrifice 4000 food for better favour generation. I’d be interested to see the stats but it feels that that favour generation could easily be made up by villagers for a fraction of the food sacrificed from those herdables. Village centres are redundant, situational and rarely built, so that boost is useless. Building speed near gold-mines is very average, useful maybe in the Archaic-Classical with the first temple for a few second headstart.

I feel to give Demeter more edge, uniqueness and impactful place among the Greeks, her personal bonuses (alongside the points you mentioned, specifically Lykaon, Hamadryad and Harpy), need amending.

For example, a minor (-5/-10%) food discount on all her human soldiers (Goddess of Agriculture, food abundance etc) would be really impactful, and I don’t think to OP as food is by far the easiest resource to mass. This, along with the 2 vills per farm AND the farm population, would help cement her at the agricultural goddess. I don’t mind keeping the herdable mechanic, that’s fine but a bit meh, and I can’t see it getting that much use or being that impactful so it’s harmless.

I also think the heroes need revising. Orpheus as age 1, giving a “morale” boost, is a good shout, keep him. Iolaus is a bust; Hercules charioteer? Very meh. I get that he’s fast but there are so many more popular and fabled options. Pentesilea on horseback? Hector in a chariot? Icarus is fine, good idea having a winged hero but needs a minor nerf for a Heroic Age god. And as for Midas - ok, I get the mythology, and his mechanic as principle seems cool, but it’s rare, and most units he turns to gold will be in the middle of the battlefield or the enemy’s base. You could even inadvertenly be giving your enemy free gold. He also seems weak stat-wise, and is not as famous or outright “heroic/mythical” compared to the other Mythic Age heroes. Someone like Diomedes would’ve been a more appropriate choice, or Castor and Pollux, where they have a mechanic that individually they are mediocre but when in each other’s radius they boost one another’s stats greatly?

2 Likes
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yeah this is an odd one I had noticed as well. It also plays really finicky having to sort them, have vills not eat them, having them on the temple or the TC etc.

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The most important… And not paying for the ability of your mythic units, please.

2 Likes
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I will add to what was said above. Right now, Demeter is the god of Rush. She loses the late game to any Greek god. Which is very funny for a god who cosplays Gaia. In my opinion, this is already a problem. Her only options right now are devastating, bloody fights in Heroic, and finishing with GP immediately upon transitioning to Mythic. There’s no other way to use her. She’s a flawed god.

I’d suggest placing more emphasis on buildings. For example, +15% HP for all buildings. Pan’s ability works on all defensive structures, not just walls. Rework the archers’ OP ability to something more suited to the Economic God, not Kronos. The upgrade should provide +10% HP, damage, and all armor for the same price for archers. So it doesn’t become a replacement for Hades from AliExpress. And it will work for the late game.

Make the herd generate favor instead of boosting its generation. 10 goats = 5 villagers.

The divine Gluttony only works in one place. If you don’t want to lose, you must place it near farms, and only near farms. (Yes, as you showed in your previews.) Not very bad, but not very good.

The Harpy, contrary to popular belief, is an excellent choice. But she shouldn’t be so expensive and so weak. She should be a regular mythical unit like the Symphalic Bird. Just cheaper and weaker, so you can mass-produce them. I also believe that the ability to transport units and instantly kill them makes the Harpy unusable. It doesn’t work in the Mythic Age, where there’s no time for such micro, especially when it’s hidden behind such a paywall. Let them simply dive at enemies like the Belerophon and drop them immediately after the dive animation ends with, maybe, less damage.

If Lycaon costs 3 population and resources like a Minotaur, he should work like a Mitoraur. He should be fast and tanky. He should also gather all natural resources three times faster than a regular worker and transform back manually.

Sirens should attack buildings and titans. We should probably make their ability a temporary debuff rather than an attack. And make the attack normal. They also need bonus damage against ships, lol, how could you forget that?

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The harvest goddess that builds half the farms the other gods build is poor design, no matter what.

Rework Demeter/Hestia’s bonuses in such a way that you are incentivized to build much more farms and remove the useless village center bonus.

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Im so sorry I shouldn’t be brining this up here but…

Am I the only one who finds orpheus bonkers?! he gives a unit that should be bad against myth units a 5x multiplier he essentially tuens an army of hoplites into mini hersirs. Am I missing something here?

Fun fact: He also boosts kataskopos funnily enough.

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I don’t need anything. This game is dead to me.

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Demeter’s DLC feels rushed; Freyr’s was executed much better. I think it could be improved a lot. I definitely agree that Harpies should be replaced and that her late game should be improved. The special unit could remain mythical, but it should be spammable and have a low Favor cost. Pan should also be improved; his bonuses aren’t as useful compared to Ares’, who solves human armies’ lack of bonus.

3 Likes
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Either give Harpies a pick up animation or get rid of them completely. They feel so incomplete and does not look good for this quality of a game. Also Lykaon and Hamadryad abiities shouldn’t be locked behind an upgrade. I think these minor changes will improve ithe pack a lot.

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Honestly the Harpy could replace the Pegasus early game without the ability to attack och abduct, it can regain it’s attack in Heroic Age and you get one free from your first temple for scouting, later in Mythic age you can upgrade Iron Grip to give it the special attack back.
Now what Unique unit you would give her I propose the Scythis, Scythian Amazon Cavalry Archer specialized agaist infantry, can benifit from Enyos bow of Horror, Fated arrows and Olympian weapons for maximum damage.

I would also prefer if she had a counter unit bonus. You can get early Hypaspist with Ares, and +1divine damage Prodromi later. Add a tech to Pan that gives early Peltast. A myth unit bonus, -10% cost would be fitting, but it kinda conflicts with Aphrodites Golden Apple upgrade, would have really preferred if she got Dionysus instead of Aphrodite, especially if she got a Cav Archer unique unit for full cavalry build.

She really was some missed potential :cry: .

4 Likes
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I really want to like Demeter, and that’s honestly why this feels so disappointing.

On paper, she should have been one of the most interesting additions to the Greek pantheon. A more eco-focused, growth-oriented major god with a different pacing compared to Zeus, Hades, or Poseidon is a great concept. The Greeks getting something that isn’t just another aggressive tempo god sounded refreshing.

But in practice, she feels unfocused, and, if I’m being honest, a bit rushed.

Her design doesn’t feel fully thought through in terms of how her economic strengths are supposed to translate into actual match-winning pressure. Right now, she leans heavily into scaling and passive bonuses, but that doesn’t consistently convert into map control or military power. If you try to lean into her identity, you often fall behind in tempo. And if you compensate by picking more standard, combat-oriented minor gods, then it starts to feel like you’re not really playing Demeter anymore, just a less cohesive version of the other Greeks.

Some of her unique elements also feel too niche or not impactful enough relative to their cost. When you invest into her myth options or tech paths, the payoff doesn’t always justify the risk compared to what other major gods bring more reliably. There’s no clearly defined moment where she spikes. She doesn’t dominate early, she doesn’t clearly control midgame, and she doesn’t feel like a true late-game powerhouse either. It creates this in-between identity that lacks direction.

That’s what makes it feel rushed, like the concept was strong, but the iteration and internal testing didn’t fully explore how all the pieces would function together in competitive play.

And what makes this especially frustrating is that Demeter is likely the final major Greek addition. If this is the last new major god slot for the Greeks, it feels like a missed opportunity to deliver something truly distinct and polished.

I’m not asking for her to be overpowered. I just want her to have a clearer strategic identity and a kit that feels cohesive and deliberate. The foundation is there, it just needs refinement and stronger execution.

I really hope the devs revisit her, because the idea itself is genuinely good.

4 Likes
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Regarding minor gods this above would have been a 10/10 for me (with amazon as special fort and hero unit and a better King Midas).

What we currently have is a 4/10 for me.

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This sounds, lets say interesting from a design stand point. Kinda putting everything you can into the god.

More like packing full of things that dont see eye to eye. Ragnarok in Heroic would be quite something tbh.

I can see the pov of people that Want hera to go medusa spam with a god that boost favor

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The changes I think should just objectively be there:

  • Persephone’S Pious Sacrifice needs to get fixed obviously
  • Building TCs should completely be forbidden for the player casting Underworld Invasion for the time being, otherwise you can just delete all but one TC and then cast it and immediately rebuild the others
  • Harpy needs a swoop animation, or at least a swoop down positioning “path”

The changes I’d personally like to see:

  • Lykaons in villager form shouldn’t have the myth unit tag
  • Hamadryads should start with how they are with the upgrade currently, the upgrade should halve the time it takes for them to hide (and maybe range radius of the ambush attack, idk if that could be OP or not though)
  • Sirens should be either cheaper, or actually do a big Slash once they lured someone in, maybe doing a big splash of damage all at once in form of divine damage
  • My last change(s) would be either
    → Change Icarus and Midas in their spots from Heroic to Mythic and vice versa OR
    → Nerf Icarus and buff Midas with a gold touch instant kill touch move instead of his werid x damage then next kill is gold that he can do every 2 minutes or so

The rest I pretty much like a lot, Communal Hearth is very fun to use, Underworld Invasion is fun to use (just the annoying workaround of deleting TCs is a bit questionable)
Toxotes with the fated arrows technology feel very fun, too!

Overall good Expansion just with a few hiccups I’d say, but they’ll easily be fixed/balanced in the next patch(es)

2 Likes
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I wrote in another post some suggestions.

About Lykaon: Instead of being villagers. They could be soldiers. Like, a disguised hoplite, toxote or hippeus. Could be spawn in their respective military building in addition of the temple (a tech could enable that)

About the siren: They could also attack buildings by stiking in them (Except TC and temple). Dissabling/hindering their defensive/spawning capacities and reducing their hit points

About human units: Give to the new minor gods a tech that give a special bonus/improvements to them. Also give a unique military unit like the amazons

2 Likes
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In my head (and my dreams) I imagined Hades getting access to Persephone as well. And to counter act the ‘people getting stuff for free’ argument, they introduced a fourth minor Greek minor god opposite to her that gave us a long requested MU like the gryphon.

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Demeter’s new minor gods need complete overhauls. I do not believe there is a single thing worth saving, except maybe for persephone’s GP.

The fortress MU should be removed and replaced with something else, maybe a mix of archer + infantry which switches stances or something aoe3 style.

The arcadean meadow should be reworked into something that’s not 100% clunky and 110% cheese. Not quite sure what yet.

the unit convertor thing should probably be reworked to something else.

The warewolf villagers should be 1 pop when vil, and 2 pop when unit.

All myth units should have their abilities out of the box. upgrades enabling the upgrades should be removed and military / eco upgrades added.

5 Likes