First of all I want to know how it works, if it is in real time or not.
If there are minutes late, how many minutes is it?
Even so, they do not consider it to be a cheat if it is 5 minutes, it could be a friend giving information, such as a hidden urban center, or hidden villagers, or how the enemy base is distributed.
If the game lasts more than 1 hour, all information is good information
even if it was 5, 10 or 15 minutes late it would be good info
Is there a way to disable spectator mode?
it distracts me
There are also two times that casually or not they kill a well-hidden villager
3 Likes
I think specdelay is 3 minutes ingametime for ranked. As far as i know there it no way to disable it for ranked.
1 Like
If you’re really concerned you can watch the replay from THEIR point of view
You might be surprised. I’ve been called a cheater a fair number of times because either I was lucky and saw his Vils/army by chance, or the opponent was predictable.
Example: I had randomly left a damaged scout on the edge of the map, and saw his Vils walking around the side for a krepost drop, obviously his Vils couldnt see the scout due to their poor LOS
3 Likes
In those few cases where you’ve set up a proxy base, yeah - a friend could be relaying that information to you so you could spot it. But that is very uncommon, and generally so much happens in those few minutes that it’s already useless information most of the times.
More often than not, your enemy just happened on your sneak vill by accident.
If you host custom game lobbies, you can choose to not allow for spectators.
spectating with 3 minutes delay doesn’t help much. as long as you are scouting even a little you can find out most things.
the only games where i could see this being relevant is nomadic games where you don’t have a scout and need to find the enemy base
1 Like
nobody admits that it is something of an advantage.
3 minutes is very little, of course, perhaps the best in the world does not matter so much, but the worse someone is, the more advantage it is
2 Likes
it’s a small advantage but not game-breaking. I think in lower elo it’s actually less of an advantage because lower elo players don’t have the apm to pay attention to the second screen where they might watch the game in spectator mode.
I think that attention is better spent on making sure you have no idles checking you get your upgrades and your opponents army movements.
1 Like
If you can’t beat them, join them.
If you go nomad in team rank and you face a team of asian players, they will pause the game and spectate it with another account. I watch the replay and they can ping my whole team position without Vietnamese
2 Likes
There was one time in a 8way FFA game that I helped someone by spectating because I wanted to play with them.
The game still lasted over 2 ingame hours I think it was close to 3, but we ended up winning this one.
There’s certainly an advantage there, I won’t deny that, but it was only really relevant for late-game situations where relay times are much longer, and you’re building up more, in a fast paced environment like high elo ladder, this stuff becomes less and less important.
Because 3 minutes basically is all of Dark Age, and then once they are Feudal you already should’ve scouted the opponent and see what they are going for in Feudal for army, or if they are trying for an FC.
Info only becomes relevant once you’re played for an hour and are at a stalemate, only then is additional info like how much resources/gold in particular they have important.
This was also the most important info I relayed, as well as telling my rather low elo companion which takes they were missing, and how much res and where they have easy market access to, to deny that etc etc.
EDIT: Oh yeah I would also want maybe 5 minute delay timer, that should really make it impossible outside of really lategame stalemates to cheat, as 5 minutes generally is an entire age worth of playtime, so any info is long out-dated.
Yes. the ninja villagers in black forest in tg become totally useless when you see there is spectator watching. For those who want late game in black forest tg can use spectator cheat to counter any sort of early ninja invasion
2 Likes
Cleanly that those think that spectator is just a minior issue are solo player and those think spectator have massvie effect are team game player. I guess maybe just allow player to disable the spectator in team game would be fine.
1 Like
yes, there should be an option to disable.
but the creators do not care about anything or anyone, only the high-level competitive.
they should force the best in the world, and mortals deactivate it, because for mortals it is a disadvantage, for the best in the world it is not
pause + spectator mode, competitive for 600-1400 elo is a joke. (If enemy use spectator mode to spy, even without pause nothing stops him from getting to see )
perhaps in arabia it does not have a very big impact, but in the black forest, arena, nomad, mishi, etc
it is very unfair
No, you have a delay time
3 minutes, you can get a lot of information with that.
on maps like nomad you know at min 3 where everyone is, and on maps like arena or mishi or black forest, it’s a lot of advantage
I think programmers don’t play competitive.
they only seek how to make a show of it
Even with 5 mins delay, you will know with no explore, where all the minerals are.
Oh has exposed gold I will attack there quickly.
all golds are here, here, here and here
I’ve always thought that programmers know nothing, because they don’t play, they’re just looking for how to make a show for e-sports.
example when they didn’t punish for abandoning the seeker queue, or the spectator mode in a game like age, of course maybe in arabia and high level, it doesn’t help, but on many maps it is a disadvantage.
1 Like
In games like starcraft 2, maybe dont matter maps are always the same, if the trees and minerals in age weren’t random, maybe in arabia it wouldn’t matter
but it would still matter for nomad, arena, mishi, black forest, etc.
As I say, the programmers do not play, they only look for how to make a competitive show for e-sports.
1 Like
Assuming that games are played in good faith is pertinent to the health of any gaming community. I am not saying that there are not players who cheat or try to cheat, oft due to immaturity, but the loss of a greater sense of good faith within community play is far more damaging than a random player acting out of bad faith. Spectator mode is a beautiful thing for the community and altering its utility it is not to be taken lightly. Players learn much by watching other players, and sometimes relax doing the same. I know there is a major scandal in chess right now, one that made it into the Wall Street Journal, but that is not AOE2, and remains in question.
2 Likes
Not every time someone spectates means cheating. Sometimes it is just a friend watching and not helping. On black forest, after everyone is walled your scout has nothing to do, so you spend that time for searching for sneak villagers. If you suspect someone cheated, you can watch replay and then attach it here, otherwise your crying is baseless.
More often, it’s just you not being aware of the opponent rather than having a friend as spectator.
forcing everyone to use it, it doesn’t seem so beautiful to me, it would be beautiful if anyone wanted to use it or forcing very high level people who are very interesting games
I give you some reason.
but there should be an option to enable or disable like the pause, it is very nice that people live values ​​or are very gentleman even in a game, but you can not force everyone to be politically correct
Or do you know that maybe you are right in the end most players are people who have played age for decades and everything is thinking for them because they are 80 or 90% of players.
1 Like
Given that the game have family share function and everyone who own the game can open a new account when the old one is banned, I cannot see your suggestion helping a lot.