One thing which has evidently been lacking for Age of Mythology: Retold since launch is a proper Ranked System with seasons and brackets. Currently there is no real incentive to grind ladder, all you get a slightly higher number, with very little indication of how you compare to everyone else, and no real reason to play match after match. We’ve seen how this has affected the game, with dozens of pros and hundreds of players dropping the game within a few months of launch to go back to other AOE games with more fleshed out and competitive ranked systems. Many more have trickled away in the months since as the ladder has gotten more and more deserted (most recently IAmMagic going to AOE4).
While Age of Mythology has always had a strong single player/casual scene, the lifeblood of what keeps players coming back to any RTS and playing for hours every day is the ranked system. If there’s no incentive to keep playing the ranked ladder, then competitively minded players will continue to drop the game in favor of a more rewarding, more populated game like AOE4 or AOE2. Especially as the ladder population shrinks and queue times become too long to bare in an age when time is more valuable than ever. Without reform, Retold feels doomed to become a forgotten single player game or one to play with friends once a month, with a scant handful of players playing the ladder.
I, and many others, believe that there are several things which can be implemented into the Retold Ranked System without affecting balance, and which would result in a far better experience for everyone on ladder (Special thanks to NickCamp, ZagorathAus, J4Jc3, Defiance, and eays for adding to the suggested improvements):
Implement Rank Divisions - Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc, or more Mythological themed such as Initiate, Disciple, Demigod, Ascendant
Allow Voting for Rematch of ranked game - only allow like once or twice to avoid abuse for elo gain
Persistent Ranked Team Game lobbies - Don’t make players have to reinvite each other after every match
Have elo decay be more aggressive at higher elos - Currently the top 50 accounts are mostly just smurfs, which seriously discourages anyone from trying to reach those top tiers. Having an elo decay every week would be ideal, suggested amount: 20-25 for the top ranks
Save Button for ranked Match - Return the save button from before Retold so if a glitch happens which makes a player unable to play the game, there is an option for a restart without losing elo or the state of the match.
Ranked Seasons with Rewards - We’ve seen how successful this can be in AOE4, and it can be just as successful here, with cosmetic ranked rewards either as just icons/nametag effects, or even unique in-game skins/accents/models (toggleable for both players) if it’s feasible from a development standpoint. (If seasonal rewards aren’t feasible at the start, then quarterly ladder resets until rewards become possible). Half of each seasons rewards could be directly purchasable as well as earnable for additional revenue while keeping the other half locked behind ranked advancement.
These changes could revive interest in Age of Mythology Retold, bringing back old competitive players who left during the first year of Retold being released, and encouraging new competitively minded players to come try out the Retold Ranked System. Age of Mythology is an amazing game full of unique playstyles and interactions that just aren’t present in any other RTS game, and it deserves a ranked system that’s just as good! The more players are invested in Retold, the more likely they will be to purchase DLC in the future.
Additional Suggestions from comments here, discord, and on Reddit
Map Vetoes/Bans - similar to AOE2 (suggested by _Nakamura, FFinland, and dabo)
Elo range broadening consistency - If a high rank player 1 is waiting for ages to find a match, then a low rank player 2 can match them near-instantly from player 2’s pov (suggested by _Nakamura)
So much yes. AoM deserves ranked seasons and some sort of ranked leagues/tiers.
Regarding the issue of top 50 accounts being smurfs - instead of trying to make decay super-aggressive, what you could instead do is some sort of activity metric (requirement of playing X games a week, for example), after which the account just isn’t shown on ranked ladder anymore until it fits the activity criteria again. But if the person later plays this account again, it still has the same ELO for matchmaking purposes
I do agree with the idea of making multiple smurfs harder to manage, but I don’t think it should be done in a way which affects matchmaking.
Apparently there’s already an activity system like that in place, it just takes too long (4 months of inactivity). Should be a matter of weeks especially for accounts at the top.
100% agree with the post. As someone who started playing multiplayer, revamping the multiplayer with rank divisions and other QOL improvements like map voting, etc., makes so much sense. Hope the devs implement it!
One of the rewards that i would love to see are titan skins for the highest rank. Titan is too big so it wouldnt feel like you can’t distinguish it from the other units.
I’ve been wanting all of the above introduced since the game released. The ranked experience needs to be improved to bring back players that stopped and bring in new ones
Sounds good.
But this game doesn’t have the active population needed to maintain an active ranked ladder. And I think the window of opportunity has closed already.
This game will always be about AI stomping, team games and chilling with friends. It’s ironic cause they wanted this game to be the next big RTS esport. Lol.
The ranked ladder is quite small ATM, but if these changes aren’t made, it will for sure be unable to recover. There is a window of opportunity that’s still open, specifically with Japan’s release. People are likely to give Retold another chance if only to experience the new faction.
Unfortunately that’s not how it works. If they want to bring players back, it’s not enough to implement what’s suggested here, but they have to massively invest into marketing.
And if there’s one thing the aoe/aom team is bad at that’s marketing. Aside from the probable low funding, they just don’t know how to market the product properly.
There’s hardly any marketing done on the Japan DLC. They just rely on “aom with samurai” to do the marketing for them. They should be flooding google/bing ads with it. Post about it several times a day on Facebook. Do aom specific tournaments. Be about 1000x more aggressive in promoting it.
Also a lot of people are seeing the Japan DLC as a lazy effort that’s coming back to back with the China DLC (which had absolutely 0 effect on the ranked ladder).
Heck, even the aoe2 clones get more marketing than the actual aoe2.
If the idea “sounds good,” leave it as that so maybe it can get implemented. Why crap on it and push down a change that would be welcomed by even “the few” who are left?
You take issues with marketing and x, y, z, okay, but this idea sounds “good” right? So let’s foster that support and maybe get it rolling.
My perspective is that things have to improve somewhere, and improving the ranked scene will help to keep any new people who are willing to give AOM ranked a second chance or try it out for the first time. Whether they come because of a DLC or through word of mouth.
Well and imagine a new player trying ranked. All they see is a number and maybe “I keep losing.” What’s the “point” of that for them with no goal? They may not have a clue what Elo means to begin with let alone what each milestone is (since pros can’t even divide them up consistently).
As someone who leads the largest clan on AOM and one of the largest discords, this post is very true and represents the general sentiment of the AOM players.
I’ve been wanting all of the above introduced since the game released. The ranked experience needs to be improved to bring back players that stopped and bring in new ones