I mean, the style of graphics hasn’t changed. It’s just as realistic as it was before. The quality of the terrain rendering (especially on cliffs, etc) is a lot better though.
It is a great art style! I’m glad more people can now appreciate it 
2 Likes
I don’t know. But back in the days when I asked for more metallic metal, less saturated color or sharper /more detailed terrain, people accused me of asking for a different, hyper realistic art style.
And I myself would not think texture quality or rendering is the same as art style, but some people did. The point here is some people like finding excuses for the unfinished (or that might trigger you, so “yet-to-be-figured-out”) aspects of the game as if they are an integral part of some brilliant design principle. It turns out they just haven’t done it or figured how to do it.
3 Likes
Looking at Dawn of War III, metal there was pretty obviously metal, so they’d obviously both done it and figured out how to do it.
Getting that to look Age-appropriate? Now that’s the trick. I’m glad they’re actively working on this stuff, I really am. Investing this much in the technical side of things, this long after release, speaks to the commitment they have to the game. I love it!
I’m sounding a bit over the top about it, but I genuinely love this kind of stuff.
I already wrote so many texts to avoid dragging this into a pick on words but okay.
They haven’t figured out how to do it appropriately in AOE4, while not interfering with the current state of optimization (or after some generic optimization improvement), unit identifiability specific to the perspective from which the game is viewed, agreements with other elements of the graphics, and many other things I cannot list out here exhaustively because I’m not a professional developer, which does not mean the developers (Relic specifically here) do not know how to or do not have the ability to do it in any game in general but it takes time to figure out because it is a different game, or because they have other pRiOriTiEs.
Satisfied?
1 Like
What?
They made an improvement. I’m happy they made the improvement (even though for weapons and armour it’d be nice to zoom in more to see it better). I’m glad other people can enjoy the improvement.
There’s nothing more to it than that. I’m sorry I took your words literally?
2 Likes
compared to aoe 3 de not so much but an improvement can be done
The devs have to make the game reach more people than there are now. What do you propose?
You are right, there is another one, we don’t need crew on siege because if affects redability 
2 Likes
I think the new changes are great.
Now I want to hear from those people who taught me it was already perfect under some brilliant design principle and does not need changes. For example, “we don’t need more unique units. The game is designed to be simple and easily accessible (whether it is really the case, or the designs actually serve that purpose, is a different topic). If you add more unique units it will make the game hard to learn/balance and it will fail like AOE3.” or “designing different units with similar roles is gimmicky and I cannot remember all of them. It is an elegant design to make similar units literally the same unit.”, etc.
Well it seems the developers do not think so.
6 Likes
It might be worth replying in topics, to the people you want to hear from.
Otherwise everybody is just going to be left guessing
1 Like
I was just expressing my thanks to the developers who did not listen to those defenders as if all designs are carved in stone and there is no room for improvements (or any improvement would violate it).
We all know that exists. It’s a general feeling. I don’t need to list out every example. If you feel the same leave a like. If you don’t then it has nothing to do with you. Simple as it is.
You guys are asking for clarification for a very simple statement.
8 Likes
Yeah, where are all the people who said “best graphics evaaahhh”? Thankfully Relic was working behind the scenes in fixing some of this stuff, fanboys be damned. If you didn’t recognize the mediocrity in graphics before I hope you can see how bad it was now.
The only thing that I criticize here is what I’ve always said about absolutely no communication from Relic. Imagine how many folks are gone because they installed the game, saw the potato textures and ditched the game? If devs had told us “hey, we are working on graphics improvements, please stick with us and we promise you’ll like it” we would have a bit larger active player base at this point.
11 Likes
So you don’t want to hear from the people who taught you the game was already perfect?
I dunno, seems pretty sarcastic to me.
Honestly wondered where they ever were. Plenty of people enjoy the game for what it is, some even like the art direction (like myself), but this mythological fanboy that pretended every single thing about the game was perfect is a bit of a dead horse to be beating, really.
Kinda like if I spent every thread where folks are enjoying the new PUP stuff asking where all the people that said “Relic was dead” and “incompetent” where they were at. Seems like a pretty petty use of time, all told.
Dunno. Maybe I should start doing that
I do but it’s not something I want to explicitly state here.
Don’t pretend you never see this sort of reasoning. It’s not one person doing all of these, but different people using the same logic to defend different things:
More uniqueness - the game is designed to be simple and straightforward so no.
Better textures - the game is designed with this specific art style so no.
More zoom - the game is designed to be viewed with this specific zoom so no.
Etc.
The main flaw of such argument is (1) there is no proof such design principle really exists, is a really good one, or is strictly followed. Most likely someone just invented it. (2) Even if such is the case, there are still huge rooms of flexibility and creativity without violating it (if not then it’s a bad design, hopefully it is not).
Tbh I for once feared the developers would really think that way ——that’s why I often overreact to such arguments (or those that sound like one). So the current update is more of a relief to me.
7 Likes
Oh they exist. I’m too lazy to go find them, but there’s a thread in the first page of this forum that says something like “AoE4 is the best and should replace AoE2”, that’s a good place to start looking.
Now hold on, hold on. This is a massive improvement, yes, but it doesn’t mean the game just magically got saved. I despise those who have attacked the devs, but if I may play with your wording, I say that the people who have said AoE4 bombed might still be right. If AoM turns out to be amazing, the small player base we have now could vanish.
I’m very hopeful from what I’m seeing. Adding more uniqueness to the civs, improving on the graphics, adding little details here and there. If that continues to the be focus, Relic and MSFT will turn this from a mediocre game to a great one, but let’s keep expectations in check.
Communication from the devs about what’s on the horizon would help a lot in retaining the current player base.
3 Likes
That’s great! Glad they made graphical improvements for those who were wanting them.
Even more importantly, in my opinion, is it seems to even be a performance improvement for some people.
2 Likes
Big performance improvement for many apparently.
2 Likes
I see all sorts of people make posts I personally consider dumb. I dunno, I mostly kinda skip over them. A lot of the time it’s posts critical of the game, but also it can definitely be from folks who like the game.
So sure, I see plenty of reasoning like that.
Skipping art for a second (because literally everybody is thankfully happy with how the PUP is looking, looks like), mechanics are complicated in my opinion, because some folks do prefer simpler, rock-paper-scissors stuff. And some folks don’t care about balance and just want big, bombastic, fun things.
I like rock-paper-scissors as a base, but I want that base used as a bedrock for more experimental design (which is why I liked the naval redesign, and hope that comes up again next season, maybe with water improvements).
And that makes me happy to hear. Genuinely!
Same as I said to ArrivedLeader, above, you get all sorts of folks seeing things. I’m not denying individuals exist. All I’m saying is that at this stage in the game, at this stage on the forums, I don’t think stereotypes really help much. Are you seriously expecting an answer from these individuals, or is it just snark?
Any of us can always find a poster that encapsulates our bugbears with the “community”. I’m very confident of that 
I didn’t say anything about “saved”. But I’m pretty on-record as believing that the game itself is doing well (which is what enables these updates in the first place - otherwise the common industry trend is just to cut losses).
All I was doing is what you are - playing with the wording. I’m not saying you or Arrived would mind, but I’m pretty sure I know people who would get ticked off if I went around in the third person referencing the folks that thought Relic was a terrible company who lost all of its good employees and only interns remained. Because those posters definitely exist too!
For me, on the whole, it’s been super-encouraging to see the general response to the changes in this PUP. And I hope that going forwards there is less silence from the devs between PUPs, too. These previews are great, but more interaction would be fantastic.
The new ones still do not violate that though. They don’t violate existing counters just more specialized and look and sound more interesting than generic.
Like I said there is always room of flexibility even within some strict rock-paper-scissor framework (I never liked that analogy btw).
That’s exactly how most unique units are done in AOE3. But some people think it makes hard for them to remember.
1 Like
Yeah, well, something is something, I guess…now we need more gaia and campaigns and of course historical battles…
well, they are working on some of that… let’s remember that the devs of the aoe 4 dlcs are the same ones that make the dlcs in aoe 3 DE…
Yes, I never had complications in differentiating the unique units in aoe 3 and that I am myopic and I have glasses that have the magnification of the Hubble telescope xd…
2 Likes