I have bought every single AOEII DLC so far to help support the game. I haven’t agreed with every new civ (e.g. Romans) or bonus (e.g. Flemish revolution), but I never really felt anything was fundamentally against the spirit of Age 2.
This new DLC is. It seems clear to me that originally two DLCs were planned: a three kingdoms chronicles and a chinese split with new campaigns. Somewhere along the line a corporate decision was made to combine these and bring up the release date, so the devs had to combine them into this Frankenstein’s monster.
What it comes down to is the Three Kingdoms are well outside the AOEII timeframe (Huns and Romans were already pushing it), and they are absolutely not ‘civilizations’, just shortlived states. The hero units mechanic is also totally out of line with Age multiplayer gameplay (would be fine in a campaign). So long as these aspects remain I will not be buying this DLC. Convert this to a chronicles expansion and I have no issues.
If you feel similarly to this about me, do not buy this DLC. That’s the only way to send a message that those in charge of this decision will listen to.
45 Likes
Too late, bought it. it’s value for money to me.
5 new civs (era issues aside for 3 of them).
3 new campaigns (I’ve basically enjoyed 90% of campaign content)
Hero units are whatever. Some people think have have too much HP. If you’ve played campaigns you’d know that there are many high HP heroes that get deleted in seconds. One wrong misstep and 1000 resources goes up in smoke.
You also have no basis for the how the DLC was produced.
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thank you for telling the dev “it’s ok to turn the game into a mess because I also don’t give a damn enough about the game”.
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I care about the game, so I buy the DLC. What happens when people don’t buy AoE2’s DLCs?
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They show the studio they care about the game by teaching the studio to not make bad DLC.
Caring about the game does not mean you must swear fealty to World’s Edge and consume every drop of slop they put before you because you feel guilted into it. Demand they do better and don’t encourage bad behavior.
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I also bought the game, the amount of content is really surprising.
But honestly, aside from nitpicking with the complains of the history, I don’t see anything really bad with the DLC
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Apart from V&V being mediocre. I honestly can’t say any of the DLC have been bad. I know people go on and on about RoR but people knew what it was, it was clearly labelled and still they insist the product is at fault.
You think they would of done all this new art for castles and UUs just because? No it’s because people support the game.
6 Likes
In fact, if we don’t dwell on historical issues, the production of this DLC is very sophisticated. I don’t mind having a ‘hero system’ at all, as long as it doesn’t disrupt the balance.
But it’s really hard for me to accept both ‘Wei Shu Wu’ and ‘China’ as civilizations at the same time.
As a Chinese, I can accept the Khitan, Jurchen, Tibetan, Uyghur and China together.
But if ‘Wei, Shu, Wu’ and ‘China’ are on par, I don’t know how to convince myself logically to accept this setting.
18 Likes
They company gets what it deserves.
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No you’ll probably complain the game’s support got dropped.
The way you are all reacting to this is if they’re giving us one or two civs and a single campaign.
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Better dropped than bad managed
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If the game support dropped as a consequence of their horrible decisions, I’ll complain about their horrible decisions.
It’s not our fault refusing to buy s**t.
It’s their fault having to sell s**t to sustain.
Edit: and we all know they won’t go bankrupt. It’s just that they’ve become extremely greedy and aggresive.
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People who decide not to buy the DLC and spend time complaining online also care the game.
Generally, the vast majority of people, when they see a product they don’t like, they just leave, not bothering to leave any comment.
You, me, everyone who’s willing to come to this forum and discuss is an enthusiast already, or at least, a customer that the company could win.
(I remember reading about a study on this, but I forgot, long time ago.)
12 Likes
There are two points people have that are valid.
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3 of the 5 civs are not era appropriate.
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3 Kingdoms campaigns means the other 2 new civs don’t get anything, Chinese don’t get their own either.
Everything after that is people making up stuff up. It’s this, it’s that or whatever. Pure fantasy.
I can’t really be bothered trying to argue with people being emotional because their imaginings of what this DLC could of been but it’s not. And judging it as bad before anyone has actually played the campaigns. Incredible!
We’re getting a lot of content, the price is fair compared to previous ones.
@Polo88kai
I’m aware of that theory. Forum goers are very much into what they enjoy, there is a negative to that, and it’s being so invested that you take things personally. It’s a game we love not your life. I’ve been on the internet over two decades. I’ve read many, many forums, seen how people react. Seen people not read a clear message and make stuff up in response. I’ll sometimes snap back. Far too many people are acting like the sky is falling. You have to sift through the deluge of information to find the actual proper criticism which I mentioned about.
Are there other valid points, probably, two I mentioned are the most obvious I’ve seen. Of course having bugs is next great, there are a few annoying ones. Most will get resolved. I’m patient.
Also the same is happening on the Steam forum. Just a flood of people, many I’ve never seen before complaining. Problem is so many overlapping complaints. Had 3 threads discussing the same topic on the front page. It’s chaos. I’m not sure I’ve seen it this volatile in the last 3+ years.
Unless anyone raises an interesting point, I’m done discussing it here too. I’ll just read here or there or jump into discussions on the balance changes instead.
4 Likes
already preorder done, this is the best DLC ever in AOE 2 history.
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I am actually very interested in knowing how the final sales of this DLC will be.
If they end up selling well despite being heavily criticized online, it proves that they made the right bet.
But if the final sales are dismal, it will prove how foolish they have been to ignore the voices of the community.
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I predict sales on par with Sultans Ascend.
That they stop doing stupid things
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Sales have nothing to do with it. This DLC is supposed to attract Chinese audience, and if it succeeds the sales will be gigantic, (since the pool of potential buyers in China is enormous) despite if it is a good DLC or bad.
It well sell a lot imo but that doesn’t reflect the quality of the DLC itself.
To me it’s just a marketing technic to attract more buyers, why else the devs would care about Chinese civs? But in order to not feel left out the rest players (europe, usa, etc), they gave us reskins and updates(which is more than fine by me).
In other words, sales will be big. Not because it is good DLC but it targets Chinese audience.
But I am literally a Chinese player.
Chinese players are cursing this DLC on various related forums.
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