Hi everyone,
After all my optimism regarding the game in the forums, I think it is time to make a criticism of the issues that should be fixed from my point of view (if the users of this forum like it, support this thread). Sry if my english isn’t perfect.
First I will say some points very in favor of this game:
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The campaigns (I would say that a large part of the budget was spent there haha). An outstanding this section.
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The stability and optimization of the game outperforms AoE2 and AoE3.
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The game looks good graphically to have low minimum requirements.
Thanks to these sections (and some more that I can forget) the game is in good health at the beginning, but so that the game does not die over time, I think these issues should be fixed:
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Increase the hitbox by 20-25%. Sometimes, it seems that you have to be a surgeon to click to perform the action you want.
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Zoom in to clearly see how the Trebuchet is tearing down a castle.
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Customizable and more readable game interface options, something already highly requested by the community.
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Deep customization of the hotkeys, as the previous AoE DE already have.
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Fix the TC rally point problems so that you can micromanage that building towards the enemy target you want.
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Enable a pause request (it is not intended to pause abruptly, but unless you have the option to pause the game with the acceptance of the opponent).
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See the map at the end of the game.
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To be able to customize the minimap like the previous AoE.
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The history of games in “Quick Play” (and in the future ranked) of ALL players must be public to guarantee transparency.
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Global Queue.
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Be able to rewind a recorded game.
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Enable data in observer mode or in a recorded game to cast games with higher quality.
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If there’s one thing AoE3 beats a lot of RTS’s is the end-of-game stat system, you can take a look at it.
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Little by little improving the pathing and animation in general.
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Enable colours to choose.
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In observer mode you should see all games.
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Scenario editor as soon as possible, please.
I may be missing something, but by fixing this, they already have a competitive game in the future (I am not talking about balance because I understand that both civilizations and maps etc are being analyzed).
Regards and have a good day!
3 Likes
I agree with most of your positives- the way the game looks, sounds and some of the “logic” based decisions are good.
Basically what I think the options are moving forward are pretty simple. First, change nothing and let it die a slow natural death due to players losing interest extremely quickly.
OR
Accept the fact that boomers who are afraid of video games but insist they be catered to werent actually right and go back to having micro in the game. Just to appease those players have a toggle in the options for reduced micro mode for the campaign.
It doesnt have to be high levels of twitch based micro, but just a little bit would increase the depth of gameplay tremendously. Right now you dont have to be present at the battle your troops are in, and it will only make a ~10% difference in the outcome of casualties taken, reducing drastically by how much more powerful you are than the enemy. And turning a losing battle? Aint gonna happen, chief.
Bring back accuracy, some (of course there were no spellcasters) active abilities already being in the game is a good step, try to broaden that.
I would recommend both increasing the hitbox proportion to the unit and the size of the units themselves by 25%. Everything feels so small and inconsequential atm.
Give units distinct “uniforms” I.e. Armored units could always wear a checkered or striped sleeveless tunic over their armor with the faction color as one of the stripes, giving both distinction at a glance and team recognition. That way you know who to shoot with your crossbows. Also use of specific, distinct headwear could make it easier to tell apart.
Embrace some more “Cartoony” aspects for depiction of units to make them clearly distinct.
Give a social distancing feature to make your units stand further apart
Develop non-grid based keybinds or make a quickbind system or options layout like Starcraft 2 has.
Find trusted, vetted community members and turn to them for feedback and use it. The community as a whole has given rather bad feedback and that’s part of what lead to their current design decisions. Many people gave good feedback but the squeaky wheels were exceptionally loud and it really hurt the game so far.
I like what they have right now but it feels like a game in alpha, not a finished product. I dont recommend purchasing at this time, but hope that they will hammer it out with their first update and then go to make something great. My suggestions were just a brief list but covers the situation overall and many do mirror yours/are a further explanation of what you said. Overall my biggest suggestion is just to disregard those who dont like micro. Its necessary and you can tone it down absolutely, but getting rid of it like they have is just a dagger to the heart of the game.
I like your post btw, thank you for it.
1 Like
I bought the game because I am a fan of AoE and I knew it would be fun, but that does not mean that certain aspects should be improved.
I didn’t talk about the game score, or the archaic micro that some people want me to return to. Micromanagement continues to exist, but knowing that there is ballistics in the arrows, you must change the micromanagement strategies, nothing else.
There are aspects with division between the community and that is where the developers will do what they think is appropriate.