Gamer Cred: I’ve played AoE since 1997 and own and played every single game except AOM. I suck at all of them to this day.
That said, I played some AoE:RoR with Upatch over the past few days both in single player and in multiplayer with my wife. Below are the biggest changes I’d like to see, in roughly order of importance.
Thank you in advance for reading the ramblings of another know-it-all.
Cues
These already existed in AOE:RoR for single unit types, so I don’t know why people are against them in AOE:DE. Keep as is from RoR.
Improved Path-finding / Intelligent Villagers
There is no end of frustration dealing with villagers that do absurd things based on faulty path finding rules. They try to find closest drop off point without factoring in obstacles. They constantly get stuck in odd places and walk off in the wrong direction. This is one huge frustration.
Idle Villager Button
Pretty please.
Building Placement Restrictions and Frame Visibility
When you place a building, you should be able to place it even if your units currently occupy the space the building will be placed. Furthermore, it would be nice if the enemy couldn’t commit arson before construction workers have even begun laying the foundation (keep frames invisible until the villager arrives at the build site).
Better farming
I like the emphasis crappy farming places on hunting, foraging, and fishing. But please, please making farming more pleasant than a visit to the dentist! Units should be able to pass over farms (at least partially). Removing building placement restrictions would help hugely (see above). Smarter villagers who don’t retask to another farm might also help. Easier reseeding would be nice. Farming cues aren’t necessary, but I wouldn’t complain (as long as the feature doesn’t undermine the importance of alternate food sources - maybe make cued farms more expensive?).
List of Selected Units
How many units do I have selected? I’d like to select only one unit type out of that list? What is the health status of my units?
Smarter Siege
Siege units move away from an object that’s too close to attack so that it can attack the target. Obviously there are balance issues with siege, but I assume that will be addressed.
Smart Military Units
I don’t need fancy “box”, “tight”, “loose” formations. I just want units to move the same speed when selected together so catapults don’t get left behind, and units stay within proximity to one another while moving across the map so they arrive together, more or less. Better path finding will help with this too.
Smarter Towers
I’ve had towers attacking buildings when enemy units walk into range. I think towers should prioritize military units and villagers over buildings (unless they’re towers).
In-Game Tech Tree & Wiki
Make game manuals great modern again.
Recorded Games
I like watching games of my opponents and steal learn all their tricks.
Reign of the Hittites
Include this campaign, with narration like the rest. The nostalgic loyal among us would love you for it.
Modern Multiplayer Experience
VOIP integration (with option to disable when playing with idiots strangers), Signal players on the minimap “flare”, allow players to join late (to replace a dropped player esp. in team games), include spectators, more random map types.
Thanks again for reading