The Issues with playing Custom Senarios in Multiplayer and related problems

Age of Mythology: Retold Report a Bug
1

  • Game Version: Premium / Expansion Pass

  • Build Number: v.100.19.12998.0 (602822R)

  • Platform: Steam

  • Operating System: Windows 10

The Issues:

The main issues I am having technically aren’t bugs but game design problems. Namely as a person makes their own custom scenarios, I have ran into multiple issues related to using custom scenarios in multiplayer. Here are the following issues I ran into, including both bugs and design issues:

  1. [DESIGN FLAW and BUG] Scenario settings set in the Player Data menu such as player’s Civilization, Major God, Color, and Name as well as Diplomacy settings are ignored when playing custom scenarios in multiplayer. This will additionally cause player slots set to be hidden and as a computer, to have a random major god, civilization and use random names used for skirmish AI.
  2. [DESIGN FLAW] The way players are locked in the multiplayer lobby when playing a custom scenario can cause issues for custom maps actually intended for multiplayer. Namely the inability to swap player slots from a human to a CPU and vice versa can cause issues for maps intended to be played with differing amounts of players.
  3. [BUG] Custom Scenarios played in multiplayer when saved will result in a single player save that cannot be played again in multiplayer.
  4. [BUG] If a titan is spawned through normal means in a custom scenario in both random map and multiplayer it will take after initial civilization set for that player regardless if they choose a major god of another civilization.
  5. [BUG] A de-sync error will occur if one player tries to skip a cutscene.
  6. [DESIGN FLAW] Gaia’s lush mechanic doesn’t work by default unless manually enable through the use of triggers.

Own Suggestions

For issues 1. and 2. a good middle ground is to have new settings for both playing custom scenarios as they are intended and properly allow using them as essentially custom maps.
Firstly the current custom scenario mode restrictions in multiplayer can be revamped into a setting locking players out of setting their major god, team and/or color and instead having the settings for each player slot set in the editor be used instead, including diplomacy settings.
For custom scenario intended to be played more as a custom map than proper scenario there can be a toggle that disables the prior restrictions in favor of using lobby settings. Including having it be possible to switch a player slot between “human” and “computer” to enable fuller customization and changing a computer player to use lobby setting for their AI.

Repro Steps:

The issues that are bugs or glitches can be replicated by creating a simple custom scenario with 4 player slots and a simple cinematic. Two set to human, two set to computer and the last one set with their visibility to hidden. (For the issue with random computer settings). Then play the custom scenario in multiplayer and have one or both players set to a major god different from what is set in the custom scenario. (For the titan issue)

2

I’ve complained about these issues on the forum so many times. From the day the game released till now, nothing’s been fixed.

3

Some of the issues have been reported since game launch and still haven’t been addressed. Additional points I can think of at the moment since the last time I played:

  • Some of the subscribed scenarios do not automatically appear in the map list, and you have to manually move the file from “mods” folder to “scenarios” folder in order to see them
  • Custom scenarios which involve random map scripts are classified as “Standard” instead of “Custom Scenario” in the lobby browser

We really need someone to compile all of these issues (I wish I have the time to). But it seems this is of low priority to the devs.

4

  1. is very strange to me. I played ton of scenario, even multiplayer, with no issue nor with major god or enemy god / names. Issues can only happen if someone change those settings in the lobby. Could you please explain more ?

  2. known and reported more than once, I really hope they will fix that. For time being note that you can use nottud’s mod “allow dummy player” to unlock those slots

  3. also already reported

  4. already reported and it’s a more general issue that civilization data is retained, not only titan

  5. be careful, not all triggers are multiplayer friendly because some set a context. Might be worth showing what exactly you use as cutscene ?

  6. It works well if gaia is the indended god and for new buildings, maybe you are talking about existing buildings if you choose Gaia as major god in lobby (modifying the preselected god) ?

5

  1. The issue is not the game, the issue is the mod creator. Every mod having this issue was because the creator didn’t build the correct path.

  2. Because random maps scripts ARE map, they are not custom scenario. Those are two different classifications. pretty sure in the random map filter there is a custom one to show custom maps

6

1. The first part is mainly an issue with computer players set to hidden since you can’t enforce though the diplomacy issues extend to all players as it seems multiplayer settings in the lobby override scenario diplomacy. It worth noting you can take extra steps to rectify these issues with triggers so scenario makers that make custom scenario with multiplayer in mind rectify this themselves.

  1. This one is a related issue I noticed mentioned before and from my own old testing so it may be more of a case of poor trigger usage that actual bug.

6. I don’t play with Gaia on any of my own custom maps so I am not fully sure the extend of the issues, could be potentially a side effect the same issue with titans though ether way this is largely a potential minor issue

7

  1. It’s not about the map selection list, it’s the lobby browser. There’re some RPGs which involve random map generations, and they are not classified as custom scenario in the lobby browser. They will be filtered out if people choose the filter “custom scenario”.

    It’s not a big deal though, since there aren’t too many lobbies in Retold even without any filters.