Surely we’ve all had to leave a game because someone went AFK early in the match. Then it’s been 10-15 minutes until another game starts.
I know that AOE2 is an old game and has its limitations, but I believe it is easy to solve this, suggestions:
1 - Some sound during the loading screen, which sound cannot be changed in the game options.
2 - Some kind of server script that pauses the game right at the beginning, and sends taunts/alarms or some kind of countdown to the start of the game.
Reinforcing, these sounds cannot be muted in the game options, and should work even if the “Mute on focus lost” option is activated. I suggest running it at 50% volume.
1000% agree with this, the loading time is very inconsistent in some matches (5 secs vs 60 secs), this doesnt fix that of course but still would be nice.
I want a feature to know when random civs have been given (like a sound warning at the beginning of the game). When playing teamgames, its annoying to not realize that you’ve been forced into a random civ( which I absolutely hate btw), but often I don’t realize it until I’m looking at my UU and going wtf.
I’m 1300 rating (TG only), I’ve had this problem several times too, it’s really bad to leave 5 on food when it’s not Britons. I’ve already made a castle for a civ that I wouldn’t use castle units. Lol, noobs also deserve their improvements.
Do you play with sounds off? Wouldn’t the Villager voice lines signal that hey, you’re not playing the civ you were expecting?
Or if you only notice it when making your UU, do Architecture theme / potentially Castle design not tip you off that you’re not the civ you expected to play?
First I created the topic to suggest an improvement that would serve everyone, regardless of whether they wanted it or not. Going AFK for not having heard the start of the game in a 4x4 will cause 7 people to waste your time. In many multiplayers the beep can’t be turned off, it’s annoying, it’s loud, and it should be.
The improvement suggested by _Dustyacer is also welcome, I don’t understand why not want a simple “times random” sound to be played when starting the game. A simple sound would disturb what? If you are a pro player, you know the sounds of the 43 civs, you don’t listen to bands, you don’t listen to podcasts, ok, congratulations.
idk how many players instantly recognize a different civ jingle, and that’s assuming I know my original civ jingle. Also assuming I pay attention to it, which I don’t. There was/is this gameshow thingy on ytube that puts people against each to see who can guess the civ jingle and even when specifically listening for it, pretty much all pro players failed like all of them ( I think hera was pretty good though).
nope.
Also I have a castle mod that makes it flat (different img, anne-hk mod I think) so all castles look the same.
I’ve only gotten the situation once and it was me being originally burmese (who I’ve only played twice) and then getting byzantines (on land nomad). Yes I didn’t even notice I got the wood upgrades or that I had free town watch.
was worried that you’d dislike it that I hijacked your thread
I could probably recognize every single one. Granted, I used to repeatedly go to the history section in HD and go through all the civilizations just to hear their jingles, so I’ve got most of them memorized. I even hear them in the order that they were in HD, even when only one plays. For example, when hearing the Chinese jingle, my brain will automatically play the Franks jingle, because prior to African Kingdoms, that was the next civ in the lineup.
To be extra fair to everyone else, I have an absurdly good memory when it comes to audio, even being able to perfectly recall a piece of music like I’m actually listening to it if I hear it enough times, so I’m already predisposed to be able to do it. Most people don’t have that gift, so not being able to recognize civ jingles is normal.
This is when buildings get constructed, not when finished. All buildings of the same type look the same while in construction, once finished the architecture theme will show the civ’s identity. You really shouldn’t be mistaking African theme for East Asian, for example.
Do you think people will pay attention to some random bleep, in this case? If you can hear the civ jingle, it’ll already be the alert sound for you.
Honestly I just feel like this is a you problem here. Especially when the ‘forced into a random civ’ is also something you can opt out of, I think?
In my case, if I alt-tab the game will flash the AoE2 icon on taskbar if a match is found. The game even plays a sound when the match is found and the 1 minute countdown ticker stats ticking. I’m not sure what extra things you need to realise that the game has been found. You’re not going to hear a beep if you didn’t hear the match found sound.
Going AFK wastes 7 people’s time, so perhaps you should just not go AFK. Perhaps you should just play with sounds ON if you think you might miss the cues. I don’t think a new beep will help in any way.
If you can’t tell the civ jingles apart, you won’t be able to tell the random civ sound either. In lobbies, random civ even has its own jingle btw. Pretty sure you’ll hear the civ jingle as well.
Why are we coddling players who are unable to read their civs on loading screen anyway?
But the alarm is for warning that the game will start. Yes, I already ruined the game of other players by getting afk. But multiply that value by 7, that’s how many times others screwed up my game.
And it’s even funny that you give this tip not to forget that the game has started, as if it were possible to ask not to forget, haha.
It’s to put a single sound to show that the game is in random civs.
Yes? What’s your point? Do you think some extra bell when game has started will change anything? If you go AFK during the 1 minute countdown no extra sound will change that.
What do you mean?
But the game already shows it is in random civs when you see your own civ on the loading screen being some random one.
I think I used a wrong term, I used the acronym AFK to exemplify, but I think it is not very correct. I also think that an alarm will not make a person who is 15 meters away from the computer play, that was never my intention.
The subtle sound of when a match is found is often not enough to stand out over some other sound that is playing, I’m not even talking about music, a simple interview is enough to not hear that little sound of the game. The sound is to call who is distracted with something else on the PC.
Not everyone who, when they find the civ, stays on the game screen waiting for 1 minute for the game to start, people will ALT Tab and do something on the PC, they will forget, and come back a few seconds late, they will ruin the game… That’s it, an alarm when starting the game, not just a little sound when finding a match.
It’s just that you told me not to forget, that can’t be planned, it happens.
If you understand this problem of people not seeing the game start, also understand that many will start the game without seeing the loading screen, and without seeing that they have a random civ. You will understand the need for a sound that the game is random.
I’m sorry, but are we hearing the same sound? The sound is very distinct and if you’re alt-tabbed, the game even flashes the icon. Not noticing it is not really the fault of the game and some obnoxious loud beep won’t make people who already don’t notice it suddenly pay attention.
Those are two separate problems. Your current civ is made clear through literally everything you do, if you only find out that you have a different civ once you’ve made a Castle and try to make the unique units, you’re lying or just incredibly… blind, somehow. This doesn’t sound like a realistic scenario.
IDK - I feel like this topic is redundant. There already is a sound warning at the start of the game, and the game already tells you what civ you have in case you seemed to miss several other cues.
I think your opinion is based on: “The game has a small sound when finding a match, people must stay on the chat screen for 60 seconds, and wait a few more seconds on the loading screen”
Mine in “Many will not hear the start sound, will be inattentive watching some other video or something on the computer”
As I mentioned, once I am the problem, another seven times it will be someone who spoiled my game. The solution is to mitigate the problem, it happens all the time and will continue to happen, but you want to treat it with binary logic.
I also think that you are very good at the game, to the point of not understanding the difficulties of those who are lower down.
The reality is that you don’t know why the other player is AFK. I don’t think some unavoidable, unmutable loud alarm bell is the solution when the game already plays a loud-enough, distinctive sound to begin with. What is your proposed sound then?
The thing is, people go AFK for a myriad of reasons. When you’re alttabbed, the game flashes the icon even if you’re without sound to show that a game will start soon. These measures already exist and still you’ll have people AFKing. So, what is the real reason? Maybe they’re literally AFK, for whatever reason - door, cat on fire, important phone call. Your new alarm bell sound won’t help.
no, it majority of people say they want random civ u get forced into random civ.
I don’t get what u mean by this, when a building is being built it is the same (i also have a mod that makes it easier to tell what building it is). As for diff architecture types, i don’t pay any attention to it. Like “Shouldn’t” doesn’t mean anything.
yes it will, if the sound has meaning. Its like when i find a match when doing other things, i know there is a match found bc the sound is significant to me, while civ jingles are always there.
I seriously don’t get how people would actually notice these things, stop saying I “should” or whatever, idc if I’m deaf or stupid or whatever and that you are too good and can instantly tell, but i can’t. And i believe a large portion of the community cant either.
