Yep, I bet AoE2 was ‘balanced for 200’, too (or whatever its original pop count max was at launch)… yet 300, 400, 500 play just fine. Or even if they don’t ‘play just fine’ for everyone, there are enough players who think it does
1 Like
All I’m gonna say is Empire Earth 2
All this also goes with saying the things in other age games thatve been removed, the treaty/neutral system, advanced formations, etc.
In like 2005 mind you. It’s got nothing to do with how computers will handle it or even “balancing” they’re just lazy. Allowing more units would mean people would want more unit types to fill their armies. This game is so unpolished, consider even other age games, where’s the advanced commands, where’s the guard, follow, formation commands that aren’t ■■■■, why can’t I put a springald on a wall. These are all symptoms of a rushed development and take two trying to go more toward their style of rts rather than the original vision ensemble started.
Still a decent game but at the end of the day I feel like I’m playing a watered down version of age 2, or even age 3, sure 3 had the pop count issue but also EVERY civ got 2 unique units and they all felt unique, I don’t get that from 4 unless I am mongols but I also personally hate how the mongols play.
The game is not balanced for 200,
I easily play with +1000 armies in age 3 and it works just the same so long as I allow the AI the same increased population cap.
It’s a hard limit out of performance sake in 2 and 3, they realized 2 was old enough that most systems wouldn’t be affected so they upped it, they would’ve probably done the same to 3 if it didn’t die off/have mods better than the base game like wars of liberty.
My point is that these games with the systems we have can easily run more than 1600 units on a map. More like 3000-3200 effectively doubling everyone’s pop cap to 400, which I would b very happy with.
How? Being unable to handle 3 fronts because you’re used to micro managing 2? Sounds like a personal problem imo
1 Like
It works just fine for custom games where the average player skill isn’t so high, but it would absolutely break ranked if the pop cap was changed.
Siege and elephants take up extra pop space for a reason, certain units are basically unstoppable once they reach some critical mass, this is true in both AoE2 and AoE4, the population cap is a way keep these units in line.
Not that I’m saying that there shouldn’t be a custom population limit available in custom games, I’m in favor of being able to play however you want, but if you think that changing this number doesn’t affect game balance, you are dead wrong.
No yeah, game is pretty much balanced for 200. Im fine for custom pop caps in custom games. But good luck playing a game with 400 pop cap and chokepoints. Everyone is going to have insane eco and non stop spam while maxing out their military in siege. If thats the kind of game you want, then its good. But people who play matchmaking or ranked will probably not even reach 200 pop before the game ends.
It would be fun it you could make 120 Villagers + 120 Military. I guess a pop cap of 250 would work fine.
But this would change the balance indirectly in Imperial Age though. Civs with expensive units (like French) would be indirectly nerfed, since other civs especializing in spamming cheap units would have more pop space to overhwelm them. Feudal Age all-ins would become even more hilarous with 250 Pikes+Archers 
Let’s open the floodgates and see what happens! Players will self-regulate, playing only the population amount they want. Similar to how everyone only wants to play Arabia map, maybe over time the dust will settle on 200, but players would still be able to dive into whatever match setup they want. A win is a win, a loss is a loss, no matter what the pop amount is.
Well, both players would have access to the same… so then it becomes a clash of the titans. Who would win? Let’s find out! PS: AoE2 didnt need siege or elephants to take up multiple pop slots, but that game does fine.
I never said it wouldn’t affect balance. I’ve actually always said ranked can do its own thing, but to get more pop room for custom/SP matches would be wonderful! However, the more I think about it, you’ve convinced me that the game should take off the training wheels for ranked play, so to speak, and let whatever happens happen! Who cares if there is a major battle consisting of 350 elephants vs. 200 elephants + 150 cavalry. How is that much different than a battle of 25 elephants vs. 15 elephants + 10 cavalry? Let’s make it happen! All in favor, say, “Aye!”
Well, I typically prefer my games to stay under an hour, the interesting part of the game is the early-mid game, not the ultra late game where everyone can just spam their favorite unit and see what happens, there’s very little strategy happening there, but to each their own I guess.
I mean, this is kinda the main reason black forest (or closed map games in general) are terrible, no one likes getting run down by an army of 60 siege onagers with no available counterplay.
1 Like
That sounds like a map-specific concern, though. There are, like, around 80 maps to choose from in AoE2:DE. Don’t play 400 pop games on Black Forest or similar maps if it’s not fun for you. Problem solved Or have 120 cavalry to meet the 60 onagers? Either way, in AoE2 you’re able to steer clear of games that have more than 200 pop and that use closed maps, and keep games under an hour; while I can also configure my matches to what I like.
I can even easily keep my games well under an hour with 400 pop by playing in Fast/Turbo mode, and/or enabling the 4x and 8x debugspeeds.
1 Like
this is simply just not the way I like to play lol, have fun with it though just don’t force it into my ranked games
Would be nice in ranked games as an option for players to specify. You and many others will continue with 200; myself and some others will be hanging out over in 400+ land.
“Don’t force 400 on me” is a bit like me saying, “Don’t force 200 on me.” That’s why having options is always cool
1 Like
I don’t want to have longer queues caused by something as silly as this, just keep it in custom games.
You’re forcing 200 on me?? 
I most certainly am not 
just asking you to keep your wacky settings in custom games where balance doesn’t matter
4 Likes
I just hope we can mod it in the future. I always play at 200 pop in multiplayer.
But I know there will be campaigns and custom scenarios later, and there are those that need more than 200 for certain.
The number of units does not affect balance.
You’re simply lacking adaptability.
More units would bring more strategy, formations, real sieges, starving out your opponent of gold.
I’m not saying all games have to have the same pop but have options for ranked and unranked games to have 200,400 and 600 pop. All modern systems can run those numbers easily and if you have an army of 600, you can have a city vanguard, a main fighting front, flanks, it opens up so much opportunities as where now you just make 15 cannons and 50 grenadiers and call it a day.
Number of units does affect balance. However, that’s the fun of it, open up the floodgates. This has been a thing in AoE II for ages, it worked fine there. People play the game that’s the most fun for them.
Realistically, with a high pop cap, they should really nerf siege. Make walls more powerful and make siege weapons take longer to fire.
It absolutely does. Population efficiency is one of the many balancing dials for units.
This should never be a thing in ranked. In custom games sure by all means.
1 Like
I think it would be better if the population limit was categorized somehow as Land, Naval and maybe a Utility category (utility as in Villagers, Trade, Transport). It would improve the pace of the game on those sea maps (especially that small island map) since your naval army take so much population space and if a transport ship got destroyed while your population is maxed you will still be able to get a transport ship from that population loss even with queued military/naval units everywhere else. To remove the queued units only to afford a transport ship and queue everything again is very annoying.