Some thoughts and observations

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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Hi, I wrote down some of my thoughts and observations about AoE4. There are few sections with upsides and downsides for things like campaign or UI/UX. And then I move to high-level topics like victory conditions or economy.

https://www.maguro.one/2021/12/aoe4.html

It’s not a review, instead, I wanted to highlight things that are great about the game, and others that could be improved. From the game-design point of view, for me, the most interesting things are the game’s economy, victory conditions, the gameplay effects of hard counters, and the use of landmarks for progression and providing choices. So it’s interesting to discuss these topics a bit as well. Perhaps some of you might find this interesting as well.

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Hey there!

A lot of amazing insights in this thread and almost everything I agree with… well done and well written! (side note, I wrote a whole list myself and was wondering what you thought of it too Closed Beta + Stress Test Comprehensive Constructive Feedback - #5 by gameboy0895)

I agree with all of them, but there are a few I don’t agree with that I’ll post below:

The in-game score is hidden by default unlike in AoE2.

This is a huge discussion in the player base, but my stance is - this is fine. There’s a bigger emphasis on scouting in this game and working strategically to always have information about the enemy. I think the score gives this away when it’s in a competitive match. In custom games, having that enabled gives you a way to improve how you play, which is fine.

That being said, I don’t think this victory condition makes for better games right now. Especially on defensive maps it’s too easy for one player to get one relatively early. And given it can be placed anywhere, it effectively places a limit on the game’s length. A too short time limit undermines the fantasy players expect from team games – big battles and slow territory pushes.

Don’t think I completely agree with this - firstly I think the problem can be solved by having the option in Quick Match to go by Victory Condition comp… i.e. you either search for standard victory condition set or search for a game with just a landmark victory for example… the Wonder victory is just an optional condition. Secondly, I think the Wonder victory serves two purposes - an effective economic victory and secondly, a time cap on the game. I think it serves that quite well, and you should be able to place it anywhere strategically.

I do get what you mean, but again if you want that slow pushing territorial control kind of gameplay, that victory condition can just be turned off in a custom game for example, or we add the option to search by victory condition in the quick match search.

And the following I just have comments on:

No modding

I believe mod support is coming in the future. There’s a place for it in the UI already since the beta, and they announced way back that they’re releasing it later once the game has stabilized.

That’s all, Cheers!

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Hey, thanks for checking out the article.

We actually agree on this point, I listed it in positives. I’m of the same opinion for the reasons you have mentioned.

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