Every game uses walling with buildings. I don’t play AoE2 at all anymore but I play Age of Empires every day, and it is one of the most natural strategies in the world to me.
By definition, every sequel must advance the gameplay in some new direction, so of course we cannot be averse to change. But the artistry is determining exactly what to change and how to change it. To properly answer these questions is to properly develop a terrific sequel.
I believe that any change should still be made only if it would provide an obvious improvement to gameplay. If a proposed change would not improve gameplay, then it would simply be a change for the sake of change and would absolutely not be a reason to change the game.
If a proposed change to some area of the game wouldn’t make Age4 more fun and interesting, then reject the proposal and simply adopt the existing system in previous successful Age titles.
Now, even if the Devs make a few mistakes and change some things here and there that they shouldn’t, that’s par for the course in any sequel. But if they make too many mistakes, the game starts feeling less and less as a successor to the franchise and more and more as a weird abberation.
In the example of building with walls, I do not recall a single instance in all my years with the franchise of any player complaining about walling with buildings. Rather, it feels like a universal feature in all games that, albeit a minor feature, is sort of beloved. Certainly, the strategy of basebuilding and laying walls is a strategy we all use and will be a natural set of skills that would be 100 percent useless in a sequel that doesn’t allow it.
Meanwhile, I am unable to grasp any gameplay benefit to this change. At least to little old me, nothing jumps out as how walling with buildings is some kind of inferior, stodgy old feature that needs to be changed. I think it is being sacrificed at the alter of updating the game/making it somehow more realistic, etc. But I don’t really get it at all. I will miss it when it is gone. I hope it returns again one day.
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Let’s hope it doesn’t me the gameplay worse.
It is not cheating, having smaller trees won’t change your skill level or micro.
ok so tell me, why do people in the competitive scene use them?
Because tall trees are annoying. At least, that is why I use them. You are just upset because they use them on your diplo maps which you made a whine post about a while ago
Good, now tell me, why exactly are the tall trees “annoying”
?
I prefer to actually see my units, not have them highlighted just because of trees
I understand some people use them in custom scenarios (i.e Jurrasic park) so it is easier to cut trees so you don’t make a hole. THAT can be called cheating
There you go, so the game is intented to make the units be harder to see behind treelines, but because a lot of people cannot adapt to the game, they resort to something that cheeses it, like the small tree mods, the simple terrain mod, let’s not even talk about the cube mode
Really? What dev said that? Highlighted units aren’t hard to see, if you think they are you should get glasses
So according to you, devs intended for the player at the north part of the map to be at a disadvantage, since most of his units will be behind woodlines. Are the devs biased for players who spawn on the south side?
“Highlighted units aren’t hard to see, if you think they are you should get glasses”
Ok…so then why do you use the small tree mod?
The tree mod not only allows to see easier behind treelines (which is cheating), but they also allow people to destroy how the map is suppose to look visually, a lot of people who create custom scenarios like real world maps DESPISE this crap
Jungles are suppose to look dense and foggy, not a bunch of Cannabis planted in the floor
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And here you go again, this is why you are upset, because people aren’t playing your map the way YoU wAnT tHeM tO pLaY iT
Because I don’t like the highlighted units, looks weird.
Explain how
On no! A horrible crime!
Walls are supposed to look big and menacing, not like toy blocks that you could stand on your friend’s shoulders and jump over. It’s a game, who cares. If you want to play that way, fine, go ahead. Don’t complain because I prefer to play a different way
4 Likes
it most certainly is, or to be more specific, some building placement is. There are other screen shots where during a building placement a grid actually appears. I don’t think/know if it applies to walls however.
Could you share those screenshots?
All good ideas/points,
I would add that a “predicted” benefit to removing buildings from being ‘viable’ walls, is to enhance the role of actual walls ingame.
This would logically flow from how big/important the later stone walls ingame appear to be, especially with the new feature of being able to put units on them. It seems the idea of more realistic sieging, and making walls and all the new features a big part of the meta, is strong on the agenda.
I would wager its less of a realism thing and more of a…“we would like people to use actual walls, to wall”.
I will also miss buildings being a viable ‘weak’ wall.
Well the hope is that it gives stone walls a much larger and important role than in previous AoEs, where they never really mattered…
1 Like
Here’s another issue:
Because we have not had any actual gameplay revealed, I don’t know how relevant this thread even is.
The screenshots posted: is this the view that the game is played at? I don’t know.
I guess I can say - if you can zoom further out than these screenshots indicate, then it shouldn’t be a big problem. If this is as far as you can zoom out, then visibility is going to be a problem.
If you zoom out more, then the units shrink, too. There’s no room for random open space at any altitude.
But I can see the point others are making about it increasing the importance of walls.
However, I think the space could (and probably should) be reduced. As it is, it makes it so that the player has less information available to them at any given time. I think this is disadvantageous both from a playability perspective and viewership (twitch/esport) perspective.
And if that’s the view that it is played at, then I think it needs significantly reduced.
If I host a game with a map made by me, I AM in charge.
I should be able to select in the settings, if i want people to use mods (Which, as you pointed out, can be used for cheating like in that jurassic scenario)
il make a thread about this instead of derailing this thread