They are playing with medium setting. Also some italian preview confirmed this. And i’m not Saying this game Will be a success (but previews are very different each others) because from what i read there were some problems between developers. I’m speaking ablut graphic and on the medium setting It aleady looked Better than AOE4. on High setting It should look in this way:
This Is the same problem of AOE4, or not? UI too semplicistic, no fauna and very different bioma like AOE3de, no Advance physics, Always the same Strategy, no realistic formations… all semplifications or streamlining as you well said. There are not the beautiful differentiations already included in AOEO and AOE3de.
Reading the communities, yes. And Graphic It has been also on the most critized aspect according to many specialized reviews.
Balance patches and bugged civilizations are important too but these are improvements which have a Major impact on the competitive scene. But After seen the recent numbers of people Who are currently playing we could admit that the competitive players are a Little percent of the whole scene. Casual players are more interested into campaigns and skirmish vs IA (or co-op) and also Relic said that the most of people play campaigns and SP and the Graphic Is really important
“…and gamers today expect more when they play high-level strategy, they expect to be immersed in a three-dimensional world, and that’s what led us to the most beautiful version of Italy ever in a strategy game. As for the gameplay… as you well know, Ardenne’s Assault has been highly appreciated, both by journalists and by players, precisely because single-player experiences in strategy are much more important than you might think”…(Videogiochi PC, PS4, Xbox, Switch, Mobile | THE GAMES MACHINE, PvP is where you can find the action, if you go to YouTube you will find hundreds of PvP matches, but the majority of players love singleplayer content and love to tackle campaigns. Company of Heroes 3: intervista agli sviluppatori | The Games Machine.
Yes, the missing content are another big problems. Campaigns are Nothing special and i missed the beautiful cinematic sequences or the narrative ones. Too many documentaris and too many Money invested on them, imho.
AOE streamlined mostly micromanagement while keeping the core gameplay like the originals, The Settlers is removing and simplifying production chains like pig farms needing water and wheat, further processed by a butcher… Now they just without any requirements produce food.
While both are getting streamlined for competitive multiplayer, relic at least had the decency to not butcher the franchise identity for that.
The Settles probably will be Dead on Arrival: For a City Builder there is too little to do; for a RTS it is way too slow. It has an identity problem.
Now I know that you make it no secret that you expected way more graphically from this game, and while I agree with that sentiment, I think the main problem stems from missing and bugged content:
List goes on. I don’t care about graphics, it is the gameplay that drags me back time and time again.
Currently I am playing Rome Remastered; it does not have the prettiest battles out of the Total War games, but the mechanics to this day are superior to the newer titles. It gives me real immersion.
Not RTS relevant but Crowbcat illustrated perfectly that this “looks good, plays stupid” approach makes games less engaging as you can’t interact with the environment (and yes, AOE4 not using ragdolls and physics for artillery is a downgrade!):
This Is the reason i said that a co-develop would have been a Better developement way. what you would have wanted to see, for example more unique civilizations like AOEO, were not the same prerogative of another member of Council (for example Viper or Spirit of the Law). On the other side, with a co-develop and thousands on People on the pre-alpha of your game, your prerogative would have been probably the same of the most of partecipants or not. And it would have been probably more rapresentative of the most of people
The missing features are another problems, of course with the lack of Diplomacy, more skirmish options (Regicide and Treaty, where are you).
For example, i can’t play the old games anymore because for me they are too datated but i re-played Rome2 and There Kingdoms also for the graphics because with mods and Bloody and gore DLC (and death animations) It give me real immersion.
To elaborate on the mechanical superiority:
I was somewhat hoping for the settlers, but I don’t think I gonna like it, now I have seen gameplay. But I agree, graphics wise, it does a better job in what it tries to be. It might not be a style one likes, but at least it seems to deliver a more coherent scene with more detail.
I like rome2 more, but It is just an opinion. I agree with the video in it’s context, it is from 2014 and back then the game was even red reviewed on steam , i don’t actually played too much the vanilla to tell how different it is but based on the review history of steam and the fact that the game got crazed patched i would say that rome 2 from 2022 is much better than it was in 2014, about being better than rome 1 i honestly prefer but it is just my personal preference. But the mods are the reason why i would say so, i haven’t touched the vanilla in a while.
On my side, i hope to test the new settlers game, look fun.
But, the game mecanic look like out of the first game, that try to forget the recently released one.
Not sure how it will be, since the last beta.
For rome, well , rome 1 batle mecanic is bether then rome 2, periode.
Age of empire 4 could sure learn from rome 1, batle mecanic,
Also, in the settlers, production chain, peason jobs and way of life, could also be add to age of empire 4.
There is even winter season that affect game play.
Would be fun to burn enemy food farm and make them lose from starvation, at winter time.
First of all im pretty sure we can dodge some siege projectiles like mangonels for example. (this was clearly displayed in their showcase match:
42:30 - 43:50
Unless you are talking about dodging things like Springald bolts and cannon shots which I would totally disagree with you on.
Part of “improving” a game can include omitting features btw, so I don’t quite get your reasoning that every feature should be “upgraded” somehow in your eyes.
Sometimes in game design you just have to axe a feature if it doesn’t fit your vision.
Personally I always found the idea of dodging arrows to be a dumb idea anyway.
Using micro in other was I find more strategically satisfying (such as making concaves on your target or retreating low hp units)
Give the devs a chance to sort out any issues with the game. They have done such a good job with age of empires IV yes there are balance issues and bugs but the game is still easily playable and still an enjoyable experience. All the hate towards the devs in these forums is unfounded. Be patient and stay positive I am sure patches will be on the way.
They surely are quiet because they need to clean the mess, even if that means not responding here often.
You realize that Rome 2 released 2013? So all the patches are already applied in the video?
The only thing that would come after that was the family tree and graphical tweaks. Mods enhance the experience, but the battle engine limitations remain to this day and are not improved upon in every TW game that came after it.
Everyone knows that Abbasids are the lowest winrate Civ for a lot of reasons and they’re also not playable in team matches games since the game built on landmark victory and they got 2 landmarks? i think this is a BUG!
For example firelancers deletes 2 landmarks in a few seconds while Chinese got 8 landmarks?
Now lets discuss why Abbasids are lowest winrate civ:
1- Their unique units camels are one of the weakest unique units ingame even mongol scout khan is better than them.
2- Unique golden age which buff villagers require -60- buildings close to eachother which is very hard to achieve compared to other civs that gets villager buff without doing anything big as building 60 structurers.
3- Aging up depends on 1 building and all enemies target it so you cant age up when your ONLY landmark is down.
4- aging up with abbasids are slowest compared to all other civs for unknowns reasons?
5- You cannot use or upgrade any of abbasid technologies while aging up cause it’s all in one building?
6- weakest civ in age 2 cause they got no lancers or men at arms compared to other civs?
7- troops can build siege in age 3 like mongols but they cant even repair it?
8- absolutely nothing special in water maps for abbasids while historically they’re one of the strongest civs as most modern science are built on their contributions.
9- if you tried to wall house of wisdom in team matches so enemies don’t snipe you since you’re the weakest civ you lose any chance to get golden age to buff villagers.
10- it’s depressing trying to compare abbasids to any other civs like imaging comparing camels to firelancers or even khan and elephants or chinese 9 landmarks to abbasid 1 landmark.
11- did you just make camels for memes? when someone see them in army or camels raiding he laughs that’s how useless you made this civs.
12- there are so many things you could do to make abbasids decent starting by fixing above ^^.
Rome 2 received updates until 2018 my friend. Rome II: Total War/Changelog - Sega Retro14.2812540.560829.29
Now if you mean that the changes the game had after 2014( that were not only the family tree and graphical tweaks by the notes shared) didn’t actually have a relevant impact at the quality of the game mechanics i can’t tell you otherwise because as i said i didn’t played too much the vanilla back then, i am supposing it improved because of the raise of the positive reviews and the fact that the game has been consistently the third most played total war after warhammer 2 and three kingdoms (which is not hard for the low players numbers but is something).
many game breaking bugs are still not fixed now, 3 months after release. unfounded? what you smoking my man?
If you cannot provide valid constructive feedback to the developers without calling them names or insulting someone then you don’t know how constructive feedback works.
People seem to forget that we are in a pandemic, as well as just had big holiday season where they just took a break, surprise surprise no one works during this time. They just announced upcoming updates & soon give us full details on the next patch, addressing some crucial issues with this game that most of us want to see addressed, proving yet again that they are listening to us.
They have released three patches one being a major patch since release, and a 4th one is coming probably this month. I’d say that’s pretty good considering the time we live in wouldn’t you say? Oh I forgot all you can do is complain and complain. Not surprising at all.