While it’s annoying to read the same users with the same complaints and nothing to add, I must say the “holidays” argument is horrible.
I know people have different kinds of jobs, and I’m not at all a fan of glorifying being overworked, but even through the holidays we are expected to deliver what we were hired for.
The lack of communication from the team is provoking these empty doomsday topics.
Of course it’s a double-edged sword to engage with everyone, since a lot of points of discussion are subjective in this game. There will never be 100% satisfaction, especially in such a demanding community. But the silence, understandably, causes situations like this one here.
What kind of toxic work culture is that? Very few workplaces expect their workers to deliver during holidays, that would be a violation of most collective agreements. Sounds like a perfect recipe for union conflicts. At the place I work I’m one of the very few that actually started working this week, most start next week.
We don’t even know if that’s the case at Relic, I expect them to have started coming back to most of their normal capacity somewhere the current week (pure speculation).
Holidays? We aren’t school children. We had 3 public holidays, that’s all. Most of us still worked 3 days last week and 4 days this week. Annual leave can be taken whenever. There is no such thing as a defined “Holiday period” for any job I’ve ever worked. Did I slip into some parallel universe or something where this is normal?
Most companies need things to tick over, so they aren’t going to mandate that everyone take the same annual leave so they can close their doors for 3 weeks or whatever… They also aren’t going to grant leave to so many employees at the same time that they can’t keep things moving, and employees don’t want to all take the same dates off anyway…
I hate toxic work environments with a passion. I’d be happy to hear Relic has a healthy office, not preying on their employees, as we often see elsewhere. I hope that’s the case!
The difference here, however, is this is a product that was already paid for. I myself work on a project-by-project basis – what I mean is if that project of mine is already 100% paid for, I’ll have to deliver.
Some people have trouble putting their criticism to words, so I’d agree if you said these forums are tough to read sometimes, with some very weird/entitled takes. But it’s understandable to see some of it when game-breaking bugs are still here and there’s no word on a hotfix…
Exactly. I know the aoe2 comparison is painful to read by now, but FE who work on that game are a tiny studio. I remember when a patch dropped for aoe2 and there was a problem, a hotfix came within a few days. irrespective of the holiday break, it is very worrying that there hasn’t been any recent hotfixes, paired with lack of communication & Relic’s history of abandoning their games. It is starting to feel quite worrying. I get some people’s posts here are very melodramatic and over the top, but it really isn’t looking great. Many of the high level players are going back to their last RTS they played, and I don’t blame them.
I also think there’s a disconnect when everyone here is talking about ‘aoe4’ but should really be breaking it up into ‘casual play’, ‘Campaign play’, ‘Competitive play’, ‘High level spectator e-sport’ as people’s needs and opinion of the game vary so massively between these sub sections that they are basically arguing about different games, and that’s why no one can agree on anything.
We’ve different opinions on the definition of what unfinished is and it shows. Are you also saying the same thing when everything else is closed at this time of the year? How’s that logic working out for you in real life?
Christmas time & New Year is probably the only year were the majority of the whole world takes free time off, and Relic is no different here. Learn to deal with it.
I love how people act like it’s a travesty that the game isn’t as good as they hoped. I was/am disappointed in the game too, but going around saying “the players are suffering” is just melodramatic, give me a break it’s a game people
Games are serious business. Time is an irredeemable resource, so if you aren’t enjoying something that serves the spurious purpose of entertaining you as time passes, you ought to replace it with something else.
It was a strong hate / love point used in the comunity for sure . It deppends on what do you expect about the artsyle , they did prety good.
You just cannot say that fan preview graphics looks better that it looks now. that was my point.
quote=“jimmy19846071, post:18, topic:191771”]
No, the graphic Is not good and we talked about this argument a lot.
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And it had a big impact the first 3 months next to the fan preview but now NOBODY is complaining about the graphics tbh. I’d definitely think that is not a problem anymore and we should (the ones that don’t like it , I love them btw) live and don’t care about them , I think I haven’t seen anybody complaining about this topic since 3 months which proves my point that it’s not worth it talking about it and most of us are good about it . It’s not one of the top issues neither lmao
Obviously you won’t agree with me on this ever . But I’m determined to still think that graphics are the least of problems
Depending on the UGC tools, you could be very wrong about what they change.
Of course, none of us know specifics, so. I’d just kinda against absolutes at this point - though I do agree with waiting and seeing over the course of the year.
Nobody talks about graphic more because they are resigned: they simply left the game. Graphic Is not only Better textures and details (yes, these are very important too) but also animations, effects, physics and more.
Without immersion and too ripetitive gameplay the most of players are gone and i think they Will not come back anymore except After drastic changes to this game.
We probably have the wrong opinion that the main part of an RTS Is multiplayer but It’s not. The people Who are currently playing the game (9000/15000) are the Multiplayer gamers. The most of players (70000/75000) at Launch are gone After played the campaigns, tutorial and some skirmish. But without immersion, and a very good graphic Is fundamental for that, there are not so many incentives to play and Steam stats are Saying that in some way.
It’s hard to Say that for me but I think Relic and Adam Isgreen failed with this game because they wanted a game too similar to AOE2. And we should be honest with us: when Relic has been announced as developer of this game the most of us thought to the incredibile strategies and Great graphic that AOE4 would had have: the final result, and also Adam Isgreen Is part of this, It was a game with the same old formula, with a lack of features and a mediocre Graphic.
This Is a part of italian interview to Adam Isgreen
"For Age of Empires this is not the time to revolutionize the genre, rather to return to the limelight: who and how decided in which direction to move the project? In short, who has chosen Age of Empires II as a starting point, instead of focusing on a more innovative sequel?
AI: Our first concern was to make the game recognizable. Maybe if there hadn’t been this long time gap that separates the last game released … no, I don’t mean that we did things differently, but this being the case it was necessary for a certain type of audience to find Age of Empires IV as familiar as modern. The idea was to allow fans to feel at ease, recognizing the experience and having fun discovering the news. We also did it so as not to alienate a part of the public which is what you risk when you go too far.**
The funny fact Is that AOE4 Is going to alienate many people anyway. They also know that is game Is not so good and this Is the reason they often said" this Is another iteration of the AOE franchise but It’s not going to substitute AOE2 or AOE3de. So, don’t call It AOE4 because the fourth Means a new generation of game in terms of innovations, graphic effects and also gameplay. A Dynamic world, like COH3 or Battle for the middle Earth 2, would have been a good start.
I don’t know what the AOE4’s future Will be. I Hope that It Will be good but After the “Wow” factor and the good Sales at Launch, and the “Age name” helps a lot without other competitors in the same period, we are in a bad situation.
Someone on this community said After played the First closed beta: After the First three months this we’ll have less players than Aoe2de and many players Will left It".
I call it the No Man Sky syndrome.
It seems ok these days to hype and promise a game then deliver half or less and say your working on it. Yes mabe this game will be great in a year of development. I dont know why this is the norm these days. mabe players are just ok with this crap.
10 years ago this kinda crap would have been so shamed by the community and the game would be in the bargin basket at Walmart in a few months. People would not buy games from the company any more. Guess now its ok to be a free beta tester for a year these days while these finish up the other half of the game thats missing.
I’m sorry this games not worth $60 right now. not even 30. Ive seen better $20 games. This was the 1st AOE game I bought and the last. I’ll stick to Blizzard for my RTS needs. I know they will put out a almost finished product and monthly patches.
How the hell do you not even not post on forums letting people know what your working on or mabe what balance changes to expect.
Even Blizard dose that and there not the best example by a long shot. But they do put out a pretty complete game and they do patch alot for balance even if its bad.
I am not playing this crap any more. Every time I do even on wins I’m just shocked at the crap.
Online wait time going up massive. Guess most have left the game.
The Campain was ok, better then most, Sorry but RTS game are all about the online and ranked ladder. they really are. Campains are nice and all but the bread and butter is the online for a RTS. Most would rather not have a Campain and a finished online ranked experience. How do they not know this?
I feel cheated of my $60
Only thing I can think of is making a bad review on the steam review for the game warning new buyers that the games half done and no balance . Expect mass bugs and delays
I think you are delusional about the sales number of AOE4, do you mind telling me where those numbers are from? most RTS veterans I know are playing AOE4 on Xbox alive subscription for 1 or 10 bucks.
if AOE4 really sells well as you said, they should be boasting the sales number everywhere on the internet about how many copies they have sold like any other bestsellers, but if you google the sales number all you got are some articles about AOE4 was on the top 5 in steam sells for a few weeks right after the launch and some say it “Tops steam RTS game sells” while there are not really any other competitors.
the all time peak players were only like 75k on steam FFS, everything that happened to the AOE4 after launch doesn’t fit the industry standard of a bestselling game.
I don’t see that as the problem. If the game had simply been a better variant of AoE 2 DE, surely players would have moved to it en masse. What reason would there have been to carry on playing 2 DE if 4 had been unambiguously better? The problem is there are so many ways in which it’s worse than 2 DE.