Hello devs, I hope you can add an even easier mode than Standard for campaigns. I find some missions very hard even in standard, I just want to know the story of the campaigns. Basically a “story mode” for uber casual players like me. Thank you!
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i would counter for a much much harder dificulty since even on hard most campaigns are stupidly easy. i have to put personal nerfs to make it interesting like playing without any kills.
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Yes add both an easier and harder mode to cater for both. I’m suggesting this for uber casuals not for hardcore players.
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OP is suggesting something for uber casuals and a story mode, no need to flex on personal achievements. I believe this will make some campaigns more accessible for new players. I think the classic AOE 2 has 5 levels of difficulty. The devs can add a Story mode difficulty and an Expert Difficulty.
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I WOULD TOTALY BE onboard for that. i think aoe4’s difficutly settings are realy good and should be emulated in aoe2. something like barbarian ai in the base game i feel would be realy fun
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The only problem I see is that the easiest AI is extremely passive. It won’t grow its economy past 10 villagers or so, has only a token army that lacks most upgrades (assuming it had the resources to do better in the first place) and will never attack you. I agree that some missions are very spicy but playing them in easiest would be ridiculous, at no point would there be any threat. A new level of AI between easiest and standard would be needed.
Plus it would need alterating current campaigns for that new level, such as making timers forcing you to attack (say, the enemy building a wonder) longer, decreasing the fixed enemy forces (say, Wenceslaus’ army in Genghis Khan 5)… I know it’s possible, but it would be more than just using another AI.
If you’re finding it hard just use cheats bro. Easy peasy
Resource cheats if you still want to maintain some realism and not have a machine gun car recking your medieval enemies 11
No, I still want to play the game at a more casual pace without resorting to cheats. It removes the immersion that’s why I’m suggesting for a Story mode difficulty.
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Joke’s on you, on some missions you cannot rely on cheats to help you, unless outright typing a cheat that makes you win. Joan of Arc 5 or Barbarossa 5 are prime examples.
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There are some tricks to make campaigns easier. In singleplayer, you can use the active pause as much as you want. Want to take a few minutes to decide on the strategy ? Facing an enemy force and want to limit your losses ? Need to slow down the game pace ? One button to press.
How do you decide the order of the campaigns that you play ? Some are indeed brutal (typically the 3-swords campaigns) and are best saved for last.
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The campaigns don’t use the normal AIs, each AI is specifically implemented for each campaign. I imagine there is some code re-use, but creating additional difficulties of AI for every campaign would be an extensive piece of work.
For most of the campaigns I feel like there isn’t much of an issue with them being too hard. I’m not a good player by any means, but I completed the Jan Zizka campaign recently, which is rated at 3 swords, and won them all first time. Often it’s just a case of working out what units work best for that campaign. In Jan Zizka, I was trying to use hussite wagons a lot, and it wasn’t going all that well, but it was very easy once I switched to a combination of houfnices and archers (the AIs didn’t respond with mass skirms).
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Campaign AI still uses the regular AI as a basis, it’s mostly putting limits on it such as restricting what units it can produce or when it will surrender. There would be absolutely no challenge by using the easiest AI.
The difficulty of DotD campaigns doesn’t strictly follow what’s indicated, they felt quite even when it comes to that. It looks more like if they put the difficulty swords to make players play them in the right order, for players who didn’t plan to play in chronological order in the first place. I’d say the most difficult ones were from The Forgotten and Rise of the Rajas.
Another great tip for campaigns is doing contraband. No allies, no problem, you can trade with enemy markets if the trade route is secure enough, so make sure you do not destroy an enemy market when you see one. Docks also work but since they can also produce military ships, it’s tricker to secure.
Yes please add a story mode. My father is now 70 and he enjoyed playing this game even 20 years ago, and he’s becoming very slow and can no longer play the campaigns. I myself have become slower lol as my reflexes and view have deteriorated since I was a youngling playing this game back in 1999 (I’m now 40).
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I know its not the same ######## #### playing them as a play-and-pause game could not be a solution to this reflex issue?
Plrase port the story mode from console port to the PC version
And here I was frustrated there isn’t anything harder… btw, you can generally break the AI at any* difficulty with walls/towers.
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Campaign AIs are the dumbest AIs, man. No offense at all, just give it time, you’ll find it interesting rather than adding a ‘relax’ mode.
I noticed campaigns became a little bit… more complex compared to the 5 or 8 original ones.
Yesterday I started Ismail campaign and lost the first scenario right at the bat. The initial goal demands the player to be careful and vigilant, giving tight windows for a safe journey. Initially I tried to be the fastest to reach the destination but ended up with so many enemies on my tail I lost all of my units. Really caught me off guard.
I am not a good player by MP standards since I only play SP but every mission can be won if you understand some of them have specific dynamics and sort of “hack” them. So it’s more a question of getting used to scenarios.
Ismail is supposed to be harder than the original ones. The campaigns are ranked from 1-3 swords showing their difficulty(1 sword is the easiest, 3 swords the hardest) Ismail has 2 while the “OG” campaigns all have 1 sword
Maybe not the optimal way but it could be an option to use cheats then to boost yourself…not “hardcore” cheats which will win automatically but cheats giving you extra ressources for example?
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Cheats won’t help because you still have to react fast when being attacked and still be able to micromanage the economy at the same time. Pausing helps but again it won’t work every time for the same reason, and pausing every 1 second becomes not fun.
I don’t understand so many players resistance to adding an easy mode. It won’t affect anybody else, people can still play it on hard mode or whatever. Why not make the game fun for everyone?
I guess people won’t understand this struggle until they or their loved ones grow older as well.
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