Certainly not advocating “giant zoom” - there’s likely performance issues associated with that anyway, just settings that more reasonably reflect how people want to play the game, I would imagine a 10-50% increase in the maximum zoom would suffice, however unsure of the exact number. (hence data!)
Also the argument that zooming out in ranked is OP is not the most convincing, most pros play zoomed in for precision. We already have a minimap - which I find most people dont use.
haha I’d watch that 
In aoe3DE pretty much 95% (to not said 100%) of use play with the same zoom level and nobody complain about it (or at least, i have never heard about it)
In the left graph you CAN’T conclude that the zoom level is not good, it’s just ONE interpretation and i can give you a lot of exemple where 95%+ can be concentrate in one point just because that point is close to perfect.
Specificly here where devs have aleardy said their zoom level is perfect, so if they think the zoom level is perfect, they can expect the left graph.
Obviously you don’t have big monitor… because there is the real problem… I have played in both and I know the difference. In a medium monitor it is not the best but it is acceptable, in a big, it is unplayable. You will see the reviews when the game goes out. I have a laptop so, I can handle the situation… but it is my first time I am afraid that AoE4 will fail. If you haven’t a big monitor than the “is ok the zoom” you said does not matter… you are not one of these that have the problem. Even starcraft where some people says it is a lot zoom in, is 13 times more zoom out if you compare the buildings you can see in a 4K resolution monitor. Because yes, starcraft 2 as every other RTS till now, uses resolution.
PS: This is my second time in a RTS game that I have problem with the zoom level. The first was when I played before a year the Rising Kingdoms in this monitor (a 2005 game). And in this it wasn’t the resolution. It was the low quality textures it had for a 4K monitor. Generally even in older games than 2005, I am ok (or I understand that it is a game 20 years old). I don’t feel this is something promising.
More resolution for monithor whit more pixel…
Here what developper said…
" But, you can’t play like that"
It would be cheating for other players, because you would be more zoomed out then other players.
It is a developper decision that the resolution stay the same, what ever screen you have.
It is something to do whit playability and readability.
They are trying to transform you into a pro gamer, that will stay in game for a other 20 years, like those pro gamers in age of empire 2.
Pro gamers are the target people and they want to create more.
Think about all the publicity they do over time over streaming, attracting new players.
Each pro player and new players get all the aoe game and all dlc of all aoe game.
You completly miss understood my comment ^^, i was talking about graphs from OP, iam 100% okey for others zoom level, and i think they need to implement it based on the number of request.
Aoe3 has near - medium - far and - very far zoom levels. Which do you play on?
This is the point. In the left graph, all peoples zoom preference is properly catered for.
This is also the point, the dev would expect the left graph, based on community feedback I’d expect the right graph. Wouldn’t it be great if the devs could just make the graph for themselves and then they would have a better idea if they are correct in thinking the zoom level is perfect?
It doesn’t matter what anyone expects the graph to be, the point is I would like the devs to at least be aware they can do such an analysis from the data gathered from beta. They dont have to be stuck in subjectivity land.
Zoom isn’t affected by resolution. Therefore not affected by screen size. The only affect on screen space you may see is extra edges with an ultrawide.
He keeps bringing up screen sizes for some reason, I can’t figure it out.
The game has not resolution. It is deactivated. Every monitor, regardless the resolution it has will have the same view. The only difference is for example in a small screen a town center will be lets say 500px, in a 4K screen will be 1200 pixels. So, now if we say that every 10px is 1meter, than town center in the first screen will be 50x50 = 2500m2, in the second will be 120x120 = 14400m2. Practically it needs 6 times more pixels for display. (in reality it is even bigger because height hides also a part of the terrain)
As I said there is not resolution in the game. So simple for bigger monitors the image will be bigger. Is it the same to see the same view in a small screen and in a bigger one? I don’t say something difficult to understand… because the game has not resolution, how good-bad the view is has to do with the size of the monitor…
Example: Lets say that there is a monitor 40inches with 1920x1080 resolution (obvious there is not but lets say there is). Will the game looks good because the monitor has 1920x1080 resolution? No, because everything will be huge there… From the other hand we have an expesive monitor 16 inches with resolution 3840x2160. Will the game looks good in such a resolution? Yes, because the screen is only 16 inches…
Yes, I think we’re saying the same thing, the word you are looking for is zoom, the game has the same zoom settings ( this dictates the perspective of what you can see with the ingame camera)
Obviously all games have resolution, but I think the point your trying to make is the same, that resolution is independent of zoom. Such that no matter what size or resolution your screen is, you will ‘see’ the same amount of the game as anyone else (because zoom dictates what you see, not resolution)
This is why this thread is discussing zoom, and not resolution. As resolution is irrelevant.
I should add this is not the case for 2D isometric games, where resolution and zoom are linked, such as it is in original AgeII, however they have been “somewhat” decoupled in the recent DE patches, with the dynamic zoom capability, this is a postprocessing scaling effect, and is different again.
The monitor has resolution. AoE4 adjustment the view to the resolution of your monitor so that it displays the same view always. Yes exactly. It changes the camera position so that each time camera displays the same size of view. This means that in big mountains the camera comes so close to the terrain (closer than in smaller monitors) and you have a lot more stretched objects in bigger monitors so that the view has the same terrain size always (someone would say more perspective view, but practically it is like stretched). Buildings in hills becomes huge. The town center was bigger than my head, literally.
This is the reason I think it is a joke devs to say that this is the best resolution to play the game.
And as I said, I have my laptop, I am also planning to play competitive so the smaller screen with closer zoom in the best, so I will survive…
But I don’t think it is logical not to be able to play the game in my desktop because of this. My laptop is my working machine, so I don’t like the idea, whenever I play AoE4 to use this laptop.
Far if i remember well
Sorry i said left, but it was the right graph XD
Same, i said left but it was the right one (me bad), if devs think their zoom level is perfect, they expect the graph from RIGHT because 95% of peaple will play with the biggest zoom level XD
It is the player actualy ruin all the work done on readability.
At game lunch, player just buy the best gear whit the bigest screen…
I will exagerate a litle…
They just ruin their game because of the new 12k screen, that is wide like a tv.
Side note:
People will play age of empire 4 on their apple wach, on their phone, on their google glass, on a outdoor cinema screen and on the 3d rotating hologram machine ( 2 square screen, back to back, rotating in the midle of it self, and each pixel litgh on/of at higth speed. You get a holographic video)
They will stream from their home computer, to their chosen machine and use tuchscreen to use has mouse or keyboard.
Age of the computer, whit windows 98, is way outdated, even if some people still use window 98 on the aple watch…
Even any beta data is not rigth, because people gear is not up to date…
Ah I see your corrections, fair points
Your 100% right, the exact interpretation of what different skews in the shape of the histogram actually reflect is exactly that - an interpretation, but like all good statistics, understanding the data that forms the histogram, from what games and player skill levels it comes from etc etc, you can start to understand why a pattern is present.
That being said both our interpretations of the right graph could be valid - that that zoom is the best, or that that zoom is mainly chosen because its the most zoomed out, and infact people would like to go further. And to differentiate between these would require more data in aoe4 with a further zoom. This is why I also suggest grabbing comparable data from aoe2 and aoe3, and standardising x axis to TC width%. It is a reasonable assumption that aoe players know what kind of zoom theyre comfortable with. And you may be able to determine where the bell curve “should” sit on aoe4, by comparing to the other games. This would also help in aiding the most likely interpretation of a ‘right’ graph that we have each posited.
I think they should increase zoom level just because peaple asked for it ^^. Idk if you were in the beta but it was by far the most important topic (in term of like/response and number of topic arround the subject). What’s the point with beta if you don’t care about what beta tester say ^^.
I also believe this, but a small increase will make the zoom correct for a medium monitor, but not for a big. Every game till now has the resolution setting to solve this problem. If they don’t change the no resolution setting and each will see the same view, in big monitors the game still will be unplayable.
PS: And don’t say anyone about balance, I haven’t see a single top player in any RTS like AoE4 plays in big monitors with big resolution. The disadvantages of big monitors for competitive play are way more than this. Practically if the game has the correct zoom settings, this is not even an advantage. For example how many people uses the zoom out of AoE2DE? I guess none even from the casual players.
the devs said “it’s unplayable with higher zoom”.
“unplayable” → “no competitive advantage” → “only masochists like us would play zoomed out”
Solved.
but if it’s playable → devs either way should give higher option cause they wrong.
No competitive advantage cause every one can select “the best” option from developers.
If the zoom out is applyed, a chunk of players apm will fall under uniform pace, that keep players in play. (The developper worked hard on that)
Its a big risk when the online players, who keep playing afther the first year, is low.
Majority of players just leave game after solo play and a few online play, mostly slow pace players.