The mod feature is great and the balance is getting better! There is hope for a resurgence once a dlc comes out and the original civs are well balanced.
1 Like
Just check player numbers in “Steamdb” for AOE4.
You will notice a significant player number drop in Steam.
1 Like
Lol, you are comparing friday night in the hour of lowest count against sunday day at peak hours
6 Likes
remains at its peak of more than 9 thousand, the game does not have cooperative rankeds, it is not yet complete
You just illustrating a peak number from Friday to Sunday, May 20-22.
If you compare it with other Friday to Sunday weeks, you will notice a huge drop in player numbers.
Just look at the AOE2 player base. It makes AOE4 look like a dwarf.
1 Like
Yes it is and it will continue to be so until some very basic quality of life features are implemented to make the game at least ON PAR with age of empires 2DE a game which came out many years ago.
Usable ZOOM level being the biggest one.
4 Likes
AoE 3 is like the Star Wars prequels: misunderstood at first, but with the recent crap people are starting to appreciate them for what they are.
I remember when AoE 3 came out, reading all the reviews and playing it. Context back in 2005 helps too: the mid 2000s were ripe with great RTS either already released or just around the corner (C&C, BfME, SupCom, AoM, Homeworld 2). It certainly wasn’t easy to stand out. I didn’t like its mechanics, not to mention it ran like a dog on my potato PC so I quickly went back to AoE 2 and other RTS. I was dumb for rejecting it so fast.
Like Bruce Shelley said, they tried to cram everything into one game: the groundbreaking graphics, the cards and home cities mechanic, the physics but most importantly they chose a period in history that wasn’t as appealing as the Classical or Middle Ages (but it made sense as it was the expected progression from AoE 1 and 2. I recall interviews with the devs in which they had to assure us not to worry and explain that the Colonial Ages had in fact more military unit diversity.
That’s like having to explain your Halloween costume or a joke. It tells you there’s something wrong.
One thing you could say about AoE 3 is that faults and all, it felt like a game made by people who love RTS first and the money it made them was a nice side effect. You can’t say the same about the clearly commercially oriented AoE 4.
In many ways, AoE 3 was ahead of its time and that hurt it. If Microsoft could erase our minds and re-release AoE 3 in its DE form, I’m certain it’d be significantly more popular than AoE 4. But that’s the danger of a poorly received game at launch, it can never climb out of that pit. Unless you are Hello Games, that is.
2 Likes
This game isn’t even close to the masterpiece rts of 10 years ago. Its like not even close. Only thing I can see now is sell the franchise to another company and mabe they can fix some of it
4 Likes
Bruce Shelley was a bit exaggerated with those statements, aoe 3 at most was an aom with cards nothing more, you also have to understand the context in which aoe 3 came out in its day, the rts were already beginning to be of fallen layer and the shotters and the consoles of 7th generation were in their boom, even the podium that had playstation staggered by the arrival of the wii, at that time was when the gaming became massive in a bestial way and the casualization ramped at ease…I also appreciate that they took a risk and that they left their comfort zone instead of doing an aoe 2 2.0 as happened with aoe 4…
Claro lo mismo digo…agradezco haber empezado en el 3 directamente,porque eso me hizo valorarlo como lo que es…además tampoco queremos que aoe se vuelva un fifa no?..
1 Like
Of course, in fact all the aoe are different to a greater or lesser extent, saving that some share the same historical period: aoe 1, aom, aoe online (ancient age), aoe 2 and aoe 4 (middle age), aoe 3 (colonial / industrial age) …
Si un juego funcionaba bien en su momento, es un altísimo riesgo hacer otro que cambiara mucho sus mecánicas. Desgraciadamente eso pasó con el 3.
Pretty sure its not dying
80k players in the last month
2 Likes
Lol , if by any chance aoe2 is the face of the franchise then we have a really bad face .
If we compare aoe3 to aoe2 , aoe3 BY miles wins . Creativity , detail , graphics . Remind that the original Aoe3 was released on 2005 and it looked the same was as Aoe3 CC 2007 (current OG version of the game on steam) .
Aoe2 is just popular because the streamers and the E-sports .
5 Likes
3500 player in aoe3 agree with you… while 50k aoe2 players smoking in the corner.
1 Like
you really need to look up the numbers again, underselling aoe3 by quite a margain, not including spike rn and legacy numbers, while including both HD and DE for aoe2, ofc number in 2 is still bigger, but treat the games equally in how player count is done
you still dont understand . Aoe2 is just popular because streamers and E-sports .
WHO THE F is going to enjoy a 20 year old game that to master it you NEED to do advanced math to calculate projectiles and unit damage .
YOU LITERALLY have to memorize UNITS stats to be able to master AND WIN the game!
Its not even FUN!
Aoe3 has no streamers as the game is not meant to be competitive for e-sports , is just a game for casuals , a more chill game and fun one!
6 Likes
aoe2 does have a casual side to it, thing is its not the side posted on youtube, ranked tryhards are only part of the picture