It’s unreal to hear that such people exists who really want to restrict others choices so they can have more easy time to find opponents themselves. Because that’s the root argument 1) I want to play other maps and not just Arabia, Nomad, BF, Arena etc. every time 2) I want to find game like that quickly so other must play like I want.
24 Let us all enjoy our age of empires like we personally want and have been doing for many years. If there is so many people wanting to play those mappool games, then fricking host game room for that, collaborate people who have same interests, advertise. If you really have the mandate of majority, then it should be no problem getting those games going? And if you don’t have that mandate and still want to force your beliefs about what is the right way to play aoe2 then what it tells about yourself? It has been completely same playing field for you and us, with total freedom of choice
If we want match making, instead of a lobby, there can’t be a lot of options.
That said, I think there should be a few options for map pools. Having a few options could draw people from the unranked lobbies and the HD game. If more people play, that can make up for splitting up the options.
I would like to see 4 regular map pools and a changing novelty one. Fortified (arena, fortress, hideout, etc.), standard (something like the current map pool without highlands), nomad (nomad, land nomad, pilgrams, etc.), and turtle (black forrest, highlands, snake, etc.).
No forced pool would work, i don’t get why fixed pools exists, if you want a quick game just pick every map and queue if you want 4v4 nomad or 1v1 arena pick these two and wait. This simple.
Elo is all in your head. Just because someone has a high or low score doesn’t middle Diddley considering the amount of smurfs about and people who were only good at one game type. I’ve lost plenty to 1550s and won plenty against 1700s
The ranking system gets balanced teams correctly when done right with its algorithms. It will match teams based on their win / loss etc and strengths on certain game types I’m sure. As the game and players are still relatively new it will be more uneven but as time goes on and data is collected I’m sure it will become much more accurate.
It’s a much better indication of ability doing it automated than just looking at players general elos which could have been earned on a different map or be smurfs. Plus people could easily have just kicked out players they didn’t want to play against to maximise their win chances etc.
I’ve played age for years and played a number of games online both competitively and non competitively and the current way is smarter moving forward. Ranked is a much better indication of skill when it’s more random for both parties.
Now you could follow what halo 2 used to do and have a ranked community playlist of only Arabia / certain map pools and track that as its own thing
Maybe its gonna be a good thing to have a fixed map pool. But honestly the standard maps are all ■■■■ without any exception. i dont get why it was nessessary create new maps anyways when there are like 50 arabia versions that are better than what we have in DE.
Also in teamgames especially the water maps are almost always bugged. sometimes Rivers has water all around the map sometimes it doesnt. Mostly continental just doesnt even have a big land connection on the side. Highland in teamgames may be 1 side for either team with a river in the middle but it might also be water between every single player. On Rivers your island might not even have access to the centre fish in teamgames. Also i have seen Oasis where there is an opening to the centre water. The fact that cliffs now spawn along forests means that you have huge natural walls and i wouldnt even be surprised to see map generations where some guy is completely caged in soon.
So please learn the lessons from map scripters that have worked on these maps for years.
I think the main issue I hear from streamers and other players is that the pool includes maps that are rarely used because they generate unfairly or lead to one sided games: Highland, Rivers, Coastal and Continental. I don’t hear too many complaints about the others, aside from Oasis, but you can’t argue it’s an unbalanced map—it just leads to slow games.
Either a veto system or a better rotation would probably suffice. I don’t think anyone has an issue playing on Cenotes or Valley in particular. A veto system with a map pool that changes weekly or bi-weekly would be best, especially if it keeps standard maps in rotation (Arabia, Arena and Black Forest for team games).
Part of the reason why everyone plays Arabia, Arena and Black Forest that is often forgotten is that it is harder than ■■■■ to find a game on any other map and, if you host one, no one joins it. So while yes, the balance is a huge part of the reason, the community has also driven itself onto three maps. But most games without a forced pool are like this anyway.
This map pool choice is a disaster and its supremely arrogant for the developers to think they know better than we do about what we enjoy playing. A majority of this community has put in hundreds if not thousands of hours into this game, we know what we like and we know what we don’t. Don’t try to force us to play maps we don’t like this is how you drive away the community, you may have forgotten that you are not the only game in town we can all go back to voobly and HD they’ve kept us happy for years and years. Im assuming all the devs are gamers and they need to think back to their own gaming experience remembering the times their favourite games have tried this forced variety, they all try it, its always hated and it never works.
Very well said. That’s how it is. A game is a game and it’s highly unethical to limit or force players away from how they love to enjoy the game.
And the argument of “improved elo” is also way out of proportion. Elo is only a tool to assist us to get more fair matches, it’s not something we should change our way of playing for just to make it more accurate. Voobly has a ranked lobby and it’s just fine. I will only accept a (revised) map pool if there is a ranked lobby. But I believe there should be seperate queues for Arabia, Bf, Nomad, Arena & Dm.
Agreed, and I would even go further allowing players to choose between 1.5 and 1.7 game speeds because I played mostly on Steam which is 1.5 and that’s what I like.
That is a good point. Devs not recognizing the majority who wants 1.7 speed leads to pros ignoring the Steam which end up more players ignoring Steam lobby. Although i personally prefer 1.7, players who want to play 1.5 or 2.0 should have the ability to queue for a ranked game with the speed of their choice.
Ignoring people majority or minority end up shrinking the player base more and more.
If you are so sure that 1.7 and highland is the way the to go arrange a special week with special skins and achievements only can be obtained via playing 3 highland games. After playing 3 highland games if the player still hates highland than maybe it is not the best idea to impose the player to play highland. The player tried for skins or achievements or other stuff and still hated it, leave the guy/gal alone.
Skins: pink wands with star on top instead of swords for paladins or chicken costumes for eagle warriors.
I think forced map pool is not bad and not good idea either. This game shouldn’t let people to play ranked game under forced settings. Instead they can create more map pool. Map pool should be designed in such a way where players picking selecting certain map pool shouldn’t mess up your build order at all. But there should be surprise here and there. Dev should follow ZeroEmpires’ suggestion.
Open Map Pool. (Arabia, Valley, Sahara, etc. Players can go all open map strategies like Archer, Scout rush, etc.)
Closed Map Pool (Black Forest, Hideout, Arena, etc. Core theme of these map pool is players to have their defenses up for early aggression)
Odd Map Pool (Nomad, Steppe, etc. Theme is players won’t have general start at all. Those who played those map will have the idea.)
Mixed Map Pool (Scandinavia, Coastal, etc. Theme is water and land maps must be mixed. Players has the chance to win the game either by going land or water. Both option available)
Water Map Pool(Baltic, Islands, etc. Player must focus water to win the game. But still have the chance to win the game by land but low.)
Competitive Map Pool(Arabia, Arena, Islands, Black Forest, Nomad. These map pool is for well known competitive maps that is commonly played all these years)
