It has just been announced that the partially microsoft sponsored $20.000+ BoA2 tournament will be played on the old patch with the old balance. What an absolute embarrassment for microsoft and the dev team. To quote the organizers (also thank you for their hard work):
Hello guys, since there have been a lot of reports about the current patch, we are going back to the previous patch to get a smooth and safe tournament.
The main difference is that on Notsocotra the players will start with 200 stone, since the old patch can´t remove the stone like we did in this one. There will still be no stone on the map but each player will start with 200. And also remember that the new balance for the civilizations won´t be there anymore.
Sorry for the inconvenience but we want the tournament to run smooth, safe and successful, we were hoping for a hotfix but sadly there is not gonna be one in time. All the series for the main event will be played in previous patch, except one match that has already being played and will be casted on the weekend.
Everyone that need to go back to the old patch will be informed how to do it on discord.
Maybe bugs just were too complicated to fix fast enough for the tournament. Especially the notorious free technology bug is reported being currently worked on, but not fixed yet.
One part of me was secretly kinda hoping for some real drama from free technology bug at the tournament, but alas we get fair games instead
Also IMO it is not that important, what version is used at the tournament. Majority of players wonât play at the tournament and so it only affects spectating for them. Hopefully we get proper major patch soon with bug fixes and new features.
Totally agree. I donât get why there was no hotfix after a few days.
If it is too complicated, just get rid of that cheat code until youâre able to implement it flawlessly. That would still seem a lot better than possibly breaking the game for everyone else. I donât get those priorities.
And if weâre on it - why is there no beta server where an upcoming patch can be tested. Itâs not like the flaws every new update brings with it are hard to find. You basically just need 50-100 people who play a few games.
Itâs nice to have monthly updates, but Iâd prefer to only have half of them if they were not introducing some serious bugs every single time.
Hackers aside (not a problem in tournaments), there are many bugs that ruin competitive play. This mess is a perfect example of why DE, in a competitive esport context, isnât even ready and it is a step back compared to UserPatch, Voobly etc.
Microsoft can sponsor as much as they want, but if the game is broken then whatâs the point.
By âcheat codeâ I was not refering to hackers, but to the âGoing above and beyondâ-cheat code, which currently leads to a bug which multiplies upgrades (even in games without cheats enabled). So you suddenly have Paladins with +6 Armor, Arbalest with +5 DMG and stuff like that.
I think that problem is much worse than something like Malayâs age up time. Malay you can at least avoid by not picking them.
Itâs a shame indeed. Devs should rethink priorities and see why they have to stop making cosmetic and focus in the game core. We only need a functional game. Thatâs it.
Some people offered to make a data mod with current balance changes and with the last patch core, but guest what? DE canât restore games played with data modsâŚ
Seriously, the game is broken after 7 months. Enough is enough
Youâre right but cosmetic events was a bad example. A better one is the current game-breaking bug where you can get techs free and multiple times, which was caused by the 256x tech cheat code. The devs are prioritising fun cheat codes over a functional game in the run up to one of the biggest TG tournaments in years.
Thatâs not how development works. A small change may introduce new bugs elsewhere. All I am asking is some transparency from the devs and a better prioritization: If an newly introduced cheat code (which has existed for years as a mod anyway) interferes with a $20.000+ tournament which also has the function of promoting the game, then something is wrong.
256 tech mod/challenge was a cosmetic implementation and broke the game. Devs/management priorities area mess. They should only do Whatever changes are really necessary, since itâs already proven that patches are not being tested
I was about to make a new post about this. Thank you for this, OP. Its an absolute embarrassment for the devs. There were way too many game breaking issues with this patch to be ignored (free techs, age ups, etc). They knew thereâs a major tournament going on, they knew the issues and yet they chose not to deal with it as a priority. All hints point to there being a major issue with the 256 tech code, so they can just roll that back with a hotfix even ignoring the malay age up bug. If its not, at least some clarity about what is going on their side regarding these bugs.
Other than to the general community, its also a major slap in the face to BOA2 tournament sponsors, competitive players, viewers and the organiser MembTV. I have to mention the latter because he has waited for 2 years to host this event and invested a lot of money, time and effort into it. Heâs been one of the figures why the game survived its dark days and literally dedicated his life into the game. It disgusts me how callous the devs have been.
Even if we disregard the tournament, AOE2 rebirth owes a lot to its casters and the attitude towards fixing spectator issues from the beginning of DE is disheartening. The spectator overlay is not only massively sub par, crashes and freezes have also increased manifold with this update. Watching the game crash 30 mins into a live tournament game for a caster yesterday was absolutely embarrassing. Sorry if i have gone down an angry rant, but imo thereâs no excuse for the attitude of the devs in recent months. Having said all that, Iâll always hope Iâm made to look like a fool in upcoming patches.
Depends on the severity of the bug but I agree that upon knowing this game breaking bug they should have released an update that made everyone go to the previous patch and update it again after fixing.
Iâd just like to point out the global pandemic that we all currently live in. Work is slow, morale is low, priorities are shifted. Bugs are annoying and should be fixed as soon as possible, but demanding fixes after âa few daysâ may be unreasonable.
Maybe forgotten Empires and Wolrds Edge should take some proggers and similar from the development of Age 3 and shift them over to the patch development, bugfixing and similar of age2. Afterall AoE2 DE is currently in the top 5 of Microsofts most important games.
The current state of the game is not only really embarrassing, but also just stupidly forced. Itâs like they didnât even bother to take a look at other games like LoL, Dota2, CSGO,⌠how those handle patches, why they are not constantly a broken mess (partly) etc. Why just donât they hire a few more Devs for the game and let them develope beta servers (which is fairly easy on Steam), an easy in house QA system, a big report function that automatically sends everything necessary to the Devs, a function that letâs them disable civs for rankeds of they are bugged and what else is important. Also a patch every 2 weeks, even smaller ones, would be way more useful and efficient and would keep the game fresh, rather than one big one every 1,5 months.
Well we knew how the last patch worked from the very first day. We saw Malay uping 156% to castle since day 1, weird â â â â in score ladderboard, commands bugged and so on and it last for almost a month. They should have prepared something for a big tournament but they seem to have the decision to wait until next patch. Judge yourself how devs take this kind of things.
Honestly, I would agree with this because AoE2 DE did crashed a few times on my PC such as for example playing CBA and that was one of those frustrating moments to go through.
I think we diserve some transparancy and a look into how many devs are still working on AOE2DE. Iâm not the only one that is curious if that reflects the massive amount of sales and popularity this game has seen.
And why not gather a large group of community playtesters so the most obvious bugs can be spotted before putting out a patch to the public?
You are comparing aoe2 to F2P games which have microtransactions to keep heavy development going years to come while aoe2 makes no money after first purchase. I can promise you that you wonât be getting monthly patches for couple years later regardless of state of the game.
