I see a lot of complain, or ideas about modernity.
While I understand that “realistic” stuff sounds cool to suggest, and that eveything that prevent us from doing effort, seems cool, there is many reason why we should worry about some of the Ideas proposed.
First, age of empire is an RTS. The difference with a 4x like civilization, its because the game is not only about strategy. There is also the “RealTime” part : TIME. This is really important.
Why ? because a big part of the strategy is what will you do of your time ?
_How will you organize
_How will you prioritize
_How can you increase the efficiency of the TIME
To get closer to victory.
How will you organize:
is pretty simple. It consist to anticipate the actions that you will need to do, so you never get overcharged by it, and you can Use your APMS in an efficient way.
Example : if you know that planting farm with require somes precious seconds to you, don’t launch an attack when there is only 10 food left in your farms. Or you will be not producing/not watching your army.
How will you prioritize:
Sometime, stuff you can’t anticipate happens. you get attacked, and at this moment, many point of the game require your attention… you won’t be able to handle everything so it means you will have to do something :
MAKE A CHOICE.
Will you decide to sacrifice your army ? (if not big), or will you sacrifice your economy having iddle farmers/fishing boats, resulting in no production , so no army, in the next minute ?
As part of a strategic game, I think that the most opportunity like this to “choose”, the more “deep” and interesting the game become.
How can you increase the efficiency of the TIME
Simple. Like all the pro player know, by doing more action each second.
so, By increasing your APM, that is a personal ability on which you can improve over time.
The fact you can improve something about yourself, a physical and psychological ability, is what bring a lot of fun to the game, to IMPROVE yourself and get better in order to win => its the core spirit of a game.
Thats all those mechanics that make the overall game enjoyable.
And that explain while, in some modern game with a lot of comfort/automatic option, the game becomes boring.
So the main problem here is to always have a lot of stuff to do, in order to organize your time, prioritize your action, trying to improve your APM.
if you remove stuff to do, you remove thoses 3 aspects of the game.
Why organize if in the end you have plenty of time to do everything.
Why prioritize, if you can do both actions ?
Why improving your APM, if you are idle half of the time ?
Congratulation your game , without you realizing it, has become linear, repetitive and boring.
=> thats the failure of many RTS game, and people doesnt understand why.
They have many great comfort option, the game is beautiful, but still… they are bored when playing it.
they dont feel the little frustration that you can do better, or that things can happens differently, the little thing that make you relaunch another game .
Some successful modern game have understood it, and if they indeed have simplified some mechanics, they have added others mechanics so you always have way more stuff to do than you actually can.
Starcraft2 for example has a very simplified economic, but has a very important army micromanagement, and scouting/exploration mechanics, a deep counter units mechanics and a very big technologic tree, that you need to anticipate because you may need each and every type of unit in a game, depending on the anwer of the ennemy, so the mind is always busy.
But in a Age of Empire1 remake its impossible.
The counter units mechanics is poor, most of the time the units you decide to create are the strongest of your civilisation and you don’t really adapt to the ennemy composition, the ennemy base scouting is useless because you can’t deduce anything or a counter strategy from ennemy’s base like in starcraft…
All you have to do is micromanage a tons of economicals units, and producing a ton of army.
If you decide to remove some mechanics, you have nothing to replace it with that doesn’t already exist in the game.
For someone who can manage to handle everything in age of empire1 removing something, even if it is a boring action, just means : the game itself will become boring, because you will be a little more idle than you were, no more dynamics “time”-related choices , because now you have more time.
While some may enjoy playing more casual and reducing the game with good player thanks to that, for me its the death of the game.
Farms
So while there is good suggestions for comfort :
_walkable farms (even if im very happy to have my farm to protect my villagers from direct contact in a toolrush, so i can escape)
_right click, to rebuild farm instead of B+F
I’m not aggree with some others option like Automated-rebuild Farm / infinite farm
Because it remove something concrete to use your APM, or dynamic-strategic mind.
If you push the idea so you can undestand me : Lets say the moderns games now are not only about queue but about full automate.
you want auto villager production,
Auto villager assignation
Auto farm rebuild
You basically have an “auto economy”, and you just lose 50% of the game interest.
I won’t get into the villager queing, but its the same idea.
Gates:
Same for gates. Its a nice realistic ideas, that bring a lot of comfort and seem pretty logic.
But the fact is that in age of empire1 a wall is a strategic choice. It means sometime its good, sometime it is not. you have to choose wisely.
A wall without gate is a jail. You can’t help your ally, you cant explore, you cant attack and defend at the same time.
No wall means you are in danger. everyone can come to your base but you are totally free
So you have a real choice there. Something to sacrifice, something to win.
Choice means strategy => we are in a RTS that what we want
The game get deeper because you don’t know if the ennemy will choose to wall or not.
so you take risk you have to take decision too.
Now lets say you have gate :
There is not more counterpart to making wall.
Everyone make a wall.
No more decision about it, so no more strategy on this particular detail.
And as everyone make a wall every game, its a lot of counter strategy choice that disappear, you know from the beggining that your opponent will be walled.
No more choice, no more strategy about it, the game gets poor, no more fun.
But… you got realism and comfort…
Thats basically two example but what I want to express is that when you ask to add or remove something to the game you have to think to the deepest of what it will means for the game, the strategies, the player, and don’t stay to just the basic idea “woa automated farm its modern, its cool !”.
"Real"! RANDOM MAP
Another aspect of the game is the RandomMap.
And thats what I like, because in Realtime strategy you can also think “strategy in real time, strategy at each moment”.
That exactly what real random map is.
=> you cannot plan your strategy before playing.
Thank to random map :
you have to first witness if you find your food right away or not. If you find your food maybe you won’t find your wood, or it will be very far
So you cannot decide your strategy before playing you will have to ADAPT
ADAPT = to rething the Strategy at every moment.
That kind of stuff doesn’t happens on starcraft, the map are already decided and you know that at 2mn27second you will be constructing the X building.
in age of empire, ■■■■ HAPPENS.
And yeah sometime its crap, you’re pissed. but the ennemy have the same % of chance to having badluck at some point too.
Its like Poker. Bad luck happens, not every player have the same cards, but you have to deal with it.
And the best always succeed anyway, because of ADAPTATION capabilities.
Moreover age of empire1 never was a 1v1 contest RTS. it was more a 3v3 or 4v4 big, fun and unpredictive games. Don’t try to copy X other RTS, let aoe1 be aoe1.
if you want to have a totally symetrical, predictiven, monotask strategy game, play chess.
Age of empire is the total oposite
And sometime you’ll have some good surprise, like your allies that didn’t find his gold but has found a LOT of stone, and has just totally destroyed the ennemy army with a unnplanned defensive strategy of 10 defensive towers in his base and accross the map.
Or an ally that started the game on an island and that comme to your rescue with a lot of boat armies from the coasts , that you never expected to see on a land battle.
So I won’t force you to agree on X or Y proposition, i just want you to go for the correct question.
but my final world would be :
Its strategic, unpredictive, Fun, what else do we care about ?
Age of empire 1 : Don’t try to copy others half assed RTS, be Yourself and be Proud , you’re the more fun to play of All !!! You could be ashamed of your graphicals but now your time has come, Assume your own style !
Thank you for reading until the end.
