Hey @fe_dev_team, this is a list of quality of life suggesstions to the game. Gameplay balances not included.
Feel free to share your ideas and opinions.
I will keep adding new ideas to this post.
User Interface, Lobby:
Add report a bug button ingame.
Display current game time in spectate games lobby and when displaying a player info.
Add a new color (yellow for example) to represents the state of busy players that are currently playing a game instead of just green for online players when sending invitations.
Adding friends.
Sending messages (doesn’t have to be instant).
Clan chat (doesn’t have to be instant).
Ranked lobby chat before starting queue.
Add loading screen team chat.
Ability to check opponents ranks in loading screen.
Tech tree and team bonuses Preview in loading screen.
Ability to spectate friends live games from friends/clan members menu.
Ability to create a party and explore different menus. Maintain the party after a game.
Changing Hide civ in lobby options without the need to recreate a new lobby.
Change tech/unit descriptions in tech trees to show more accurate information and stats (for exemple: Supremacy:Villagers have exceptional combat abilities->villagers +40hp, +2/2 armor, +6 attack). There’s already a mod (Improved Extended Tooltips) that fix that.
Events:
Promote a scenario (CBA, Desert Blood, TTF Racing, Tower Defense, anything really) each month and make them playable with quick play instead of Battle Royal and add rewards and improvements to the existing scenarios (maybe add a voting system to choose from like map rotations).
Custom game options:
Hide scores (can be useful in diplomacy and ffa games to prevent attacking the highest score player).
Incognito Mode: Possibility to hide player names or display them as a custom ingame pseudoname (allow to play a game without knowing the identities of your foes which makes it more fun and less predictable).
Gameplay:
Add the option to have checkboxes next to players score during game to select quickly which players to message using ingame chat (very useful in diplomacy games) instead of opening chat window each time.
Adjust autoscout behavior in team games in maps like arena to make them scout opponents instead of stealing allies sheeps.
Better flare system: flare system ensure a better communication in team games instead of the rigular X flare create 4 types of flare: one for signal for help, one for attention/retreat, one for spotting enemies and one for coming to help/attacking (League of Legends flare system is a great example) and make it visible both on game ground and on the mini map.
Select only unbuilt/unfinished foundations instead of selecting all similar buildings to cancel them quickly. (currently double clicking on unfinished houses or barracks selects all buildings of the same category finished and unfinished which is not useful in any situation. Instead selecting all unfinished buildings used for quickwalling or after a misclick to remove them is very useful.).
Set a rally point for buildings under construction.
Add hotkey/Button for garison spawned units in their spawning building.
Automatically bring relic back to the nearest monastary.
Set a seperate rally point for trade in docks cog (since market only used for trade and docks used for spawning many types of units).
Fishing ships automatically starts fishing after spawning (since fishing ships can only fish) without the need to select fish tiles as a waypoint.
Adjust/Fix the follow function for scouts when pushing deer to stay always behind the deer (deer pushing is very stressful sometimes).
Make allies markets visible on minimap.
Hotkeys:
Change go to lumbercamp/mill/miningcamp hotkey to select lumbercamp/mill/miningcamp without changing screen.
Matchmaking:
Possiblity to rejoin a game after a crash or lost connection.
Taking into account winrate, number of consecutive games won, players with high rank playing with low ranks players when putting teams against each other and make them play against harder opponents to reduce smurfing issue.
Spectated Games:
Possiblity to go back in time to rewatch a moment.
Possibility to skip to the current moment when watching a live game.
Microsoft Store players:
Microsoft store players don’t have the luxury to change their gametag for free like steam players and the game doesn’t support the new xbox gametag system. So microsoft store players have 4 random numbers (gamertag ID) in their ingame name.
Add support to the new gamertag system that hides id from gamertag ingame name.
Game updates size is riduculously huge compared to steam (4Go vs 300mb in steam).
These are all great, but we’re years into the game now, it’s very optimistic by you.
This (lovely) post has a place in 2019, by the time developers implement all these ideas it’ll be 2029.
But hey they gift ($$$) us with new civs every once in awhile, so who needs balance, pathing, proper interface, stability, community life, sportsmanship positive ladder system, and other quality of life features.
AoE2DE is probably the most balanced RTS out there. At the very least, top 3. Have you played other RTSs? The balance isn’t bad generally speaking, but AoE2 balance is near magical.
Pathing is glitchy at times. UI is amazing, not sure what you’re talking about. Stability is also very good. Sportsmanship? Now you’re just making crap up.
The UI is a complete mess. Not sure how you can call that amazing. It is a mix between the old skool medieval style fitting to the game and the look of a modern mobile game. Each ingame page looks like one of these extremes. There is no unity at all. It looks like two people are working on the UI with a total different vision on how it should look like. Also finding stuff can be terrible. Looking for your replies of your multiplayer games? It is hidden somewhere under load game in the single player menu. Stuff like that isnt logical at all. All together i have no idea how you are able to call this UI amazing. It is amazingly bad and in need of an update.
Playing in the lobby is terrible. You get kicked for no reason at all. I wont really call that sportmanship. Some players in ranked are also very toxic. Luckily it is not that bad as the lobby. Also things like smurfing isnt really good sportmanship in my eyes.
Some good ideas. I do miss some features which were part of Voobly, which arent here. Things like adding friends (even it is also possible for steam, but you cant add xbox users). Also things like just a chat with your friends. On the other side: Voobly is just a platform like steam. So the game itself hadnt a friend systeem, a system to send messages, … With all modern options, like Steam, Discord, … I am not really sure if these things needs to get a high priority. I dont really think so.
For rewind time: It is already possible with Capture Age (paid version). So i dont really know if the devs want to add this to the base game, since the functionality already exists.
For skip to live: I am not really sure if this is possible. Could be nice, but also not really a high priority to me.
Ranked should be the main focus of the game in my opinion. Both suggestion arent really needed for me.
I like this.
The first doesnt really work in my opinion. I havent played LoL, so i dont now how it works there. But i have played team games in which one player doesnt want to give up and even hide vills in the corners. Not sure how a system will work with such player. Other options will be getting defeated or just Alt + F4. Not sure how your suggested system will deal with such setting.
The option to rejoin should be fine, but is have some technical questions: What should happen in the mean time for example?
This seems to me more like a microsoft store issue, not something for the devs. Microsoft store was a worse platform and will ever be the worse platform if nothing really changes. Not sure if it is up to the devs to do something…
Let’s say it’s 4vs4 or 3vs3 if 2 or more players vote resign the game ends and they lose. It’s unlikely most of your teamates will attempt to hide their villagers. For those who just use Alt+F4, they get punished in ranked games. Because some people just resigns when they don’t like the map.
All good except the changes to Microsoft Store players. Buying anything on the Microsoft Store is completely stupid, so people doing it should be punished one way or another so maybe they learn.
There really is no reason at all to buy gamepass…
An argument people keep bringing up is its low price. Well how about you just buy the games and get to actually own them forever? There can’t possibly be so many games you want to play at once that not buying the games and instead subscribing to gamepass could be worth it. Also, just buying a game is a one-time payment, while you obviously have to renew gamepass, and it’s a lot nicer to just be able to go back to an old game you have the urge to play. The fact that people still bring up this argument of gamepass being cheaper proves that they’re completely short-sighted. It doesn’t matter if it brings short-term value. It’s more expensive than buying games in the long-run. The same can be applied to online games on consoles, where you have to pay for the multiplayer service.
Then there’s playability and overall fun you can have… you can’t even access games’ files when they were bought on the Microsoft Store without changing some folders’ permissions, and even then the files themselves are sometimes encrypted, as I had to experience myself when I tried to port some AoE1DE graphics over (I bought 2DE on Steam, but 1DE on MS Store for some reason). Modding is crucial for games, and especially for RTS games, and Microsoft Store players just can’t do that very easily.
There’s the argument of giving the devs a larger portion of the money when buying the game on the MS Store, but why would I care about that when I’m getting a ■■■■■■service out of it?
I know your initial comment was is jest but you really seem quite upset by the idea that someone might actually want to have gamepass and that it actually fits their lifestyle better.
Not everyone has to feel the same way as you or have the same priorities. I have a friend who has game pass and it works really well with their lifestyle and how they want to play. Your arguments do not invalidate their experience.
I dislike this one though as I think it will just lead to more Alt F4 shenanigans and everyone getting upset. I’ve only experienced voting to end a game in Coh2 and it doesn’t sit right, though I also don’t have enough games/clue in that game to know what to do.
Most of this is almost exactly what I’ve also suggested before (or complained about), so I hope this does get traction by the devs. IMO the friend system is completely egregious in AoE2. One suggestion as well: Invite system revamped so you can filter results by most recently played etc. Currently it’s somewhat puzzling to use, with a mix of Steam Friends and alphabetical sorting. Searching by name has been weird too, I think it looks for exact match, but even with exact match it has been wonky.
I believe this is only a CaptureAge functionality because the game engine doesn’t allow to rewatch a moment (and CaptureAge simply reloads the entire replay or something), so unfortunately I don’t think this can happen.
I haven’t played aoe3 DE. But here’s what i think about the flare system should be:
Better flare system: flare system ensure a better communication in team games instead of the rigular X flare create 4 types of flare (one for signal for help, one for attention/retreat, one for spotting enemies and one for coming to help/attacking: league of legends flare system is a great example.) and make it visible both on game ground and on the mini map