It is no joke that AoE3, and particularly AoE3DE is the most complex game in the franchise. It somehow makes sense that new players can be scared off by the sheer number of things to learn in the beginning when they start playing. Somehow it appears to me (and I could be wrong here) that new players who buy the game want to jump straight into having fun without doing sufficient homework (art of war, learning unit classes etc) and then they get overwhelmed by everything and leave. This is exactly why making the game F2P cannot have much impact in the long run, because the game is hard and there are no resources IN THE GAME to learn from. So what should be done?
The obvious answer is to learn from the newer games of the franchise and help us out (who am I kidding, Worldâs Edge doesnât care, but anyway!):
Add short civ overview videos for all civs - on YouTube there are already such videos by the Official AoE channel on some of the new civs (I remember seeing USA, Mexico, Inca, Sweden). Such videos should be there for all civs. Granted, with 22 civs, this takes time but I think itâs worth the effort. Not many new players will look for a 50 minute long civ overview video on YT after buying the game.
Add Mastery challenges for every civ. Please not 15 per civ like in some new games, but maybe 5 each focusing on the most important aspects of the civ, for example, âStart constructing a bank while in the process of aging up from Exploration to Commerce Ageâ.
Upgrade the Home screen UI: Have clear, separate tabs for âPlayâ, âLearn to Playâ etc. and things like âArt of Warâ, the tutorial in one place. Basically, make the Art of War challenges easier to spot, and kind of the first thing people would WANT to do if theyâre new to the game. (Also Multiplayer UI needs a revamp but this is not the thread for that)
A new art of war: Also I believe we need a new Art of War challenge for unit identification - the current Land Combat challenge is focused on the basics - musket, bow, pike, hussar, eventually skirmisher and dragoon. But we need one where Caroleans are going up against Prinz Chevauxlegers and stuff like that. This is for my newcomers who donât understand how to distinguish between a musketeer and a skirmisher (and also to teach them that a strelet is a skirmisher even though it stands like a musketeer.)
Many such suggestions have been made before and I wanted to collect them all together in light of the DLC that may(?) drop âlate 2024â. Please feel free to add more suggestions.
I will add that, personally, I prefer these changes over any number of new civs and maps. It is with utter skepticism that I write these things, because even though many of us care deeply about this game, whether the emotion resonates with the higher ups is perenially unknown.
For a moment I was worried that you would want to make the game into another AoE II, however, I find your suggestions very insightful and reasonable to apeal to a broader playerbase.
Not a fair comparison because all the art of war missions in DE games teach you good player habits. Just that in 3DE it doesnât teach you how to identify units.
William Wallace teaches you nothing but which button does what.
a melee unit that is cavalry pretty simple
but I know what you mean, unit Tags are not the most intuitive nad can be all over the place for units like Harquebusiers, Hakkas or Mounted Granaderos
AOE2 has a very convoluted counter system just not in the form of tags.
Most tags are for tech/card effects because a tech/card can affect a lot of unit types and more when it comes to team cards, and you cannot enumerate all of the units (unlike in AOE2 where a civ can access only ~3 types of âcavalryâ). There are only a few pivotal tags that are used in the counter system. There are very few exceptions in AOE3 where unit looks donât agree with their roles and counters, but actually a LOT in AOE2
Another way is more campaigns and historic battles being made that has you playing as each civilization would also be a way to help get people to learn each civilization. This I know is very unlikely to ever happen but one can wish.
An idea: minicapaings/historical maps where you find that âgimmick unitsâ, IE: a battle of Narva scenario where you use the carolean charge to win the challenge agains the russians, a Mexican Alamo mission where you upgrade your soldados to get the battle buster and demolish the texan forts, etc
Yes, more campaigns and historical battles could also be useful⊠we are missing historical battles for the Dutch, Swedes, Incas, Italians and possibly an official mod to change the Knights of St. John into Maltese in Blood⊠also we do not know if the Baltic DLC in addition to historical and skirmish maps, also includes historical battles in Europe for all European civs⊠15 historical battles would be amazing (since it is equivalent to the 3 TAD campaigns)⊠it would be good about the Alamo⊠American Conquest included it as a mission and here we could play the US Texan Settlers vs Santa Annaâs Mexican Army and Fort Sumter, Antientam, Gettysburg, Atlanta and Richmond to finish with a campaign in the American Civil War would be good tooâŠ