I have enjoyed this series since the first Age of Empires game. I wish I could say AOE IV multiplayer is as mature as I found previous versions; but I can’t. While it takes time for games to mature, and work out the kinks, the elapsed time by which we see these problems with poor matchmaking of player skills, disconnects/sync-out, and penalty for leaving before launch (yet not right after which is worse), tells me the game designers don’t see the problem. This is a huge disappointment. Too many things vie for our time - the playing field is crowded. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for even AAA games to lose their faithful.
PLEASE fix your matchmaking. Enable players to choose RANDOM teams only - fixed teams vs random is killing the multiplayer experience.
PLEASE fix your ELO matching algorithm. People are gaming this system terribly.
PLEASE fix the sync-out issue and lack of penalties to those who show a pattern in this abuse.
FIX the penalty system for those leaving before launch yet not those who “disconnect” right after launch.