First of all, I apologize if this is not the right place to post this, but I wanted to have a space to express the growing disappointment my gaming experience has turned into with each new DLC, and especially after the inclusion of the latest civilizations
Kitans: do I really need to explain why? Pretty obvious.
Still, it’s depressing to see how Age is falling into a “pay to win” dynamic, always releasing broken civilizations in the DLCs that encourage players to buy and use them, unbalancing the game and creating a monotonous meta. And yes, I know they also release civilizations that end up at the bottom of the rankings, just as bad but in the opposite direction.
42, 50 civilizations? I’ve lost count. What will the limit be?
When I was a kid, I enjoyed the idea of Persians fighting Celts, or that the English had the best archers, but now the game has lost any historical meaning. Call me ignorant, but I had never heard of the Jurchen, Kitans, etc.
Have you tried teaching a new player how to play? The learning curve was always tough, and now it’s downright impossible.
Even for “stable” players like me, it’s impossible to keep track when 17 new units appear since DE came out (or however many it is).
Heroes… no comment.
What is the future?
I completely understand that adding new content, which may be targeted to regions where AOE2 is most played, is an economically viable strategy and somehow a way to keep the game like a trending topic. But I’m sorry if this strategy comes at the expense of the game’s long-term sustainability.
When I came back to the game with DE, there were 23 or 27 civs, and since then 23 more have been released, always with the same dynamic (broken and unbalanced). How far do you intend to go?
I may not represent the average player, but I just can’t keep up with all the new units (whose names, by the way, they decided should all be Asian), new technologies, mechanics, and units with exceptions to the general rules.
Since it’s impossible to expect civilizations to be removed, the only thing I can think of that might counter this experience is to implement a civilization ban system in ranked. Other games (like Rainbow 6) have included operator bans from their pro leagues into multiplayer. Something similar could be considered for AOE, where each player bans 2 civilizations after being matched with an opponent, like what pros do in tournaments.
I played this game as a kid and have been playing the DE version for years; with every new DLC that comes out, I get closer to saying: “This is finally ruined.” Since I enjoy the game and care about it, I’ll probably keep playing, but I’d hate to see it ruined by the developers’ economic ambition.
Feel free to suggest your own solutions — that’s what the forum is for! But I really think the current dynamic of adding broken civs and then trying to balance them through weeks or months of patches isn’t a viable approach either.
I don’t really see the problem. The number of bans could stay the same or be adjusted depending on what works best. If it stays at 2, they could be chosen by vote (just like in R6 where 5 people vote to ban 2 operators).
The problem isn’t just learning one new unique unit or imperial tech. It’s unique units, troops, heroes, abilities — all on top of all the other special features that were added before with each DLC
I’m sorry, I didn’t really understand this point.
I’d like to reiterate that I understand all these new features and content can be exciting and fun for some players. But I can’t help feeling concerned about the future of the game, about the player base that struggles to keep up, and about new players being able to have an enjoyable experience when they first start playing.
Not even close to what I knew about Persians, Saracens, etc. But honestly, out of everything I’ve said, that’s probably the most irrelevant point — I just mentioned it as a way of expressing myself
One of the thing I find bad with new civs of the game is how too gimmicky uniqueness they are. It’s fun but at the same time too hard for new players to track.
Admittedly, some old civs like Khmer has villagers inside house too, but facing the new DLC civs nowadays requires you to know the exclusive gimmicks.
I proposed it should be slow down, maybe let some new civs later borrow the old ideas in different ways.
Yeah those civs are very important for the medieval era, you are just not as antiquated to them because they are not European… There are some civs I can think of which I agree do not fit the criteria tho.
Yes, probably, especially since, as I mentioned, I’m no expert or particularly well-versed in the subject 11 — and if we actually went civ by civ, we could probably have an entire thread dedicated just to that (historical relevance).
But in the end, that kind of shifts the focus away from my original point, which mainly refers to the sheer number of civilizations, the number of unique features each one has, and the unbalanced/patch-to-balance dynamic.
Not knowing a civ is a weird reason to not want to have it added to the game. What are you saying? The devs should just create content to appeal to the lowest common denominator so that the more ignorant people don’t feel uncomfortable because there is a civ in the game they hadn’t heard about before? Someone who actually finds AOE2 and its subject matter (Medieval history) interesting would be thrilled to learn something new about something they didn’t know about before.
I’m not sure if you’re serious or trying to be sarcastic, because that’s not only a rather far-fetched interpretation, but it wasn’t my point at all. What I’m saying is written literally written in the post:
An excess of civilizations in ranked can hurt players’ ability to manage all the information, especially for those who are new to the game.
No matter which civs they are — even if they decided to add one from my own country — I’d feel the same way. Five new civs at once, in a universe where we’ve already passed 45 civs, is just too much in my opinion.
It’s become the norm that every DLC releases clearly and foreseeably unbalanced civs that distort and make the game’s meta monotonous.
And just to be clear, I’m not here to complain for the sake of it — I’m actually trying to propose solutions. For example, implementing a civ ban system in ranked could help address these issues without taking anything away from players who want to explore all the new content.
I agree — in fact, as I mentioned in the original post, I’m also one of those who enjoyed learning about the medieval period thanks to the game.
However, I don’t think ranked is necessarily the best place for that; I think campaigns or even what was done with the Chronicles civs that weren’t included in competitive would make more sense.
I’m reiterating this and trying to respond to these comments to steer the conversation back to the heart of the matter.
As I mentioned in my previous reply, I can even understand the inclusion of more new civilizations (even though I clearly don’t think it’s ideal for ranked), but in that case, there should be some kind of counterbalance system (bans or whatever other idea someone can come up with) to help offset the problem of having so many civs with so many unique features and mechanics that don’t really reflect the core of the game (heroes, for example, and new units).
I don’t think it’s a far-fetched interpretation of this:
This was the first reason you gave for why you think there are too many civs, and the first point you made that wasn’t specifically about Khitans – so it seems from your first post like this is your number one point.
Depends on where you are from.
For an East Asian, Khitan and Jurchen would be familiar but terms like Teuton and Magyar may not have been heard of at all.
This could not be the most important thing you think, but this may be actually the first step that pushes you towards being unwilling to sincerely embrace the new civs.