Please don't add attack range indicators like how AoE3:DE just did :(

I see AoE3:DE got an update:

NEW! View the range of your units with a new Attack Range Indicator option!”

Please, devs, don’t do this for AoE2:DE :confused: Seems gamey and gimmicky, and is, essentially, a cheat without calling it a cheat. If you add it do AoE2:DE, make it a cheat so you have to enter a cheat code to see it – thereby making stats not accumulate just like any other cheat makes happen. This and mods that do it don’t have any place in ranked play, imo. (I know there’s already an AoE2:DE mod that effectively does what this AoE3:DE update does.)

Click here to expand section and see screenshot of attack range indicators:

Another quote from the AoE3:DE patch:

“The team’s focus is very much on improving the quality of life of the game while ensuring that it is more and more accessible to a larger audience”

That might work for AoE3 for reasons I won’t go into detail on… but please be careful of making AoE2:DE ‘more and more accessible to a larger audience.’ The philosophy is good and noble, in theory, but can easily get out of hand if not careful. Sometimes (often) this translates into making the gameplay experience more and more watered-down and gamey, as you try to attract everyone in the world to it. In doing so, you can end up with a game nobody wants to play; neither long-time fans, nor the “larger audience” you were seeking. (I’ve seen this happen with other franchises before (‘Thief’ franchise comes to mind), and don’t want AoE2 to suffer the same fate.)

Click here to expand section and see more of my thoughts

Adding sci-fi “attack range indicator options” in a medieval game makes no sense to me; and slick modern-day menu UIs in a medieval game don’t make sense to me either. Just as resource teleportation in AoE3 doesn’t make sense to me, GoPro webcams on trains in AoE3, and playing cards that teleport 10 units and a wagon to you from nowhere in AoE3.

I’m okay with making the game more accessible with things like colorblindness options, zoom levels, text-to-speech, and such. That’s great stuff. But I think you’re instead meaning your statement more along the lines of, “Let’s make AoE3:DE appeal to everyone like Star Wars, GTA, Mario, or Fortnite do!” Again, nice in theory – every business loves to make money – but I really think you should be careful trying to do that for AoE2:DE. Some games are meant to be a little more niche, and that’s okay! Keep it more of an indie (non-AAA) budget/game so you don’t need to try to appeal to 7.8 billion people to turn a profit :slight_smile:

That’s just my two cents :stuck_out_tongue:

Dear Community - Please feel free to chime in and share your thoughts, no matter if you agree or disagree with what I’ve said. I would love reading what you have to say. Just please be kind :yellow_heart:

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What do you mean attack range indicator? Like a circle that pops up around a unit or building letting you know where the attack will end?

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Oh, yes… you got it. Sorry – I should have included a screenshot. I’ve updated my post to show a screenshot in the expandable section

I’ll put here, too, for convenience…

Click here to expand section and see screenshot of attack range indicators:

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I could see this being slightly annoying if you have a group of archers. Overall though I think just a black circle would be fine. It does take away from the finesse a bit. I feel like you shouldn’t get the known range until a building is put up. It would make it easier to drop towers and the like.

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Mods are generally allowed on ranked game play, range mods already exists and are in use, and the game has a history of exploiting bugs like palisade scanning as a game mechanic. All of this will make it very hard to justify banning specific mods like the different range mod. They are not game breaking, but do represent a minor advantage to the user, so your arguments aren’t that convincing.

On the other hand, there are two ways the devs could implement policing mods for ranked and tourment gameplay. 1st, ban all mods and allow built-in mechanics. 2nd, use a verification system to allow certain verified mods. Both of these solution could be very difficult to implement (1st might be easier than 2nd, or both might be next to impossible to enforce). And both would be likely cause a lot of discontent. Players like to use many different mods, for personal convenience or simply esthetic choice. And most of these would end up on the ban list: cube mod, tiny trees, better UI mods, idle villager markers, modified foundation icons, better colors, alternative building graphics, …

You also mentioned the UI. The problem with what you call “modern-day UI” isn’t that it’s modern. The problem is that the UI is difficult to navigate, slow (the animation take longer) and has poor performance (I have plenty of lock ups and freezes). Well if that is the mark of a modern UI (which some webdevs seem to think it is) than the current Aoe2DE UI is visionary. But what makes a design modern is not the engineered mathematical bells and whistles like animations, but the look and feel. IMHO if they would make a responsive (as in quick) and easy to navigate UI, most of us would not complain about any esthetic choice the UI designers make (if they make it modern or look like the 90s internet).

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Huh? You are aware of the existence of mangonel range mod, tower/castle/tc/krepost range mod, even foundation range mod exists already.
I strongly hope that they add attack range indicators, because it would be a way cleaner solution than the current situation, where some ppl have it, some dont and most don’t know about it’s existence. I hope that they also add attack range indicators, when trying to place a building foundation (eg. a tower or a tc).
If you dont like it, simply disable it and don’t use it. Banning every range mod, which are just graphical mods, won’t happen.

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Agree, and i am even against the range TC/Towers/Mangonels mods, and the devs should remove all of them and disable them, it is not necessary to https://youtu.be/q879j3ydfw8

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It is cheating. I agree.

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So what do you advocate? Ban all mods? Or have verified allowed mods?

There is not easy solution to this problem. Depending on the specifics of how modding is implemented, it might be almost impossible to ban them from ranked play - just remove them from the in-game store. But pushing mods from a “gray” area to some “black” mod market is a very bad idea. It disincentivizes honest conversation and makes a large portion of the player base “cheaters” for using simple mods.

The developers could place some limitations on graphic mods, so that these large graphics aren’t possible. This would make the range mod, and some other mods functionally dead. This is a more proper solution - patch the bug, don’t vilify the players.

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These mods have nothing to do with auto everything. Only thing that really changes are some visials. All actions performed by players are still needs the same actions.

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I do think a decision should be made about this type of mod. I’d say if it is considered cheating by the devs, the mods should be banned. Even if enforcement would be difficult at all levels, it wouldn’t be hard at the pro level since most of them are regularly streaming there games.

On the other hand if the devs are cool with it I think they should make it an official option that you can toggle in settings, much like grid.

Honestly though, I bet range indicators effect your ELO by like 20 points at most lol.

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Yes, it’s slow and has poor performance, but the visual design style is also ugly. Huge buttons and golden frames with geometric shapes in every dialog box doesn’t fit this game. Right now the UI is a messy mix of medieval immersion (kind of well achieved) and modern e-sport styles.

No please. I don’t want to have circles and lines polluting my screen. Don’t push for implementing that “solution” for everyone.

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If you can turn it on and off I think it would be a fine addition to the game. I don’t think this decreases the skill of the game much at all. Personally I probably wouldn’t use it but, I think it is more useful for newer players to visualize the range of units that experienced players already should have a good feel for. I think it would be interesting to see what pro players think about it. I don’t really see how it is much more cheaty than a grid.

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I use the range mods (except the mango one because it’s pretty bad the last time i saw it)

And while they do make it easier to do things, i dont think ive specifically won because of the mods. And ive seen tons of other players use them as well.

So i agree with TT, they should just make it official because of the above…

What about the tourney players using cubes mods or even the grid? And can you read? Disable it if you don’t like it.

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—from someone who is very likely to be perfectly fine with resources teleporting from a storage building immediately to anywhere on the map, and floating in the air even when all the storage buildings are destroyed.

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Pfff keep these as far away from aoe2 as possible. Nice way of introducing an uneven playingfield unless wanting to deal with clutter on screen.

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In units don’t have sense, because de LOS depends on the range. In buildings is different because LOS it is always more than range, so I think it is ok to have the possibility of see the actual range of attack in buildings. I would improve it make it only one line that update with the range upgrades, instead of the 3 lines of Mandala Mod. And the option of change the opacity or line width. Of course, I would do it only visible for own buildings and allies one’s

There are exactly 2 ways how the devs can solve the issue:
Either disable all mods except few “official” like smaller trees from ranked (riot like)
Or add options to show things like units range in the common game UI. (minecraft like)

Everything else will for short or long just ruin the community, because some see mods like this as cheating, other as just essential to play the game on an equal level.

I personally prefer the second one, but it’s just my personal preferance.

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Complaining about a mod that helps new players how to avoid some locations, nice.
If is the Definitive Edition, why it should be less accesible, because is a 1999 game??
Cmon, we live in 2021, the future is now!!!

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I fail to see the problem if devs add for everyone a feature that already exist and had no complains before.

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