The new independence mode has had a lot love put into it and its quite sad seeing it as a custom lobby mode instead of ranked. Its really worth a shot.
The new mode allows each age to breathe while still retaining many of the core dynamics we are accustomed to. For example, we don’t have the 2 falc shipment, but we can still save resources in transition and queue 2 falcs when arriving to fortress age. The pacing is more akin to Age of Empires IV. I had some matches with friends and we really enjoyed it. Its one of the first time I can see an RTS develop a proper alternative game mode to the core gameplay.
The game also has a lot of room for expansion, as civs became so deep with time that you can create new ones with the stuff you left out. But that would require it to develop a playerbase.
As far as I’m concerned, they can go ahead and add it to the base game—I actually hope they do, since this new mode didn’t really add anything new to the game in my opinion; it’s the same thing, just cheaper and more bland. I thought we’d get variant civilizations or something like that, but no—they’re the same civilizations, just without the Home City cards to boost resource generation and without the ability to ship unique military units (which are available to certain civilizations). While they did add some unique units at the forts, most of the units from the classic Home City mode are missing. I don’t recommend it, though people are free to play it if they want; maybe there are those who enjoy this new mode—which feels more like Age of Empires II—but it didn’t win me over. If they update it later with “Revolution” variant civilizations, I might give it another shot, but until then, I’ll stick to the classic mode. I wish you all the best with the petition to add the “Independence” mode to the base game—believe me, it makes no difference to me since you aren’t missing out on anything; if anything, this mode is just like playing with the same civilizations, but stripped down.
I don’t understand why you thought we’d be getting revs as variant civs. It has always been clear that this game mode was made to attract new players. Now, whether it is going to work or not remains to be seen.
This is the entire point. It’s supposed to be an AoE2 like mode. It likely won’t appeal much to anyone who mains AoE3, but it wasn’t meant to. Imo it should be added to ranked in a mode like Empire Wars. I probably won’t play it (much), but getting more players into the game would be a good thing.
Tout à fait, le mode indépendance est pas quelque chose qui m’attire, je préfère le système de deck et xp civs que je connais depuis 20 ans
Mais car il y a mais, ça peut s’adresser à ceux qui sont fan d’une approche plus classique d’aoe 2 et 4, mais perso, je pense que c’est une bonne alternative pour les joueurs qui veulent une approche plus classique, il en faut pour tout les goûts
I agree with adding Independence Mode into Ranked. I know it’s a bit too soon to tell how popular Independence Mode will be for multiplayer, but I would bet money that it’ll be more popular than Tycoon mode. There’s a reason Steam achievements related to tycoon mode had among the lowest completion rates. If I wanted to play an eco sim in multiplayer… I’d rather play a long treaty match.
