There have been numerous posts about how this Technical Stress Test was missing key features the community expects, game replays, viewable map after game, full customization of the hot keys but I havent seen anyone bring up an actual GAME BREAKING missing feature.
The Taunts! How am I supposed to let my teammates and enemies know I am going to destroy them while ROTFL LMAOing?
Please Relic. Please.
What are the must have AoE taunts?
Also… a fully fleshed out ping system would be awesome, I am talking like a press and hold middle mouse and you get a full selection wheel of options like “need gold/wood”, “aging up”, “attacking here” “enemy here” PLUS smart pings like Apex, if I ping a gold mine I want a “Gold here” ping to go on the map for my allies, if I ping a enemies stable I want a “Enemy Stable” ping and voice. I think it would be a lot better than the pings and taunt system we have had in the past. Taunts are fun, but there could be a better system for communication.
Thanks for adding another issue on the mountain of the existing ones This game sucks!
And different kinds of pings of course, I think they should look into mobas for this one. League of Legends does it perfectly with just a right click on the screen, moving your cursor on the part of the pie that pops up and then releasing it. Couldn’t be easier.
I find this an exremly useful invention they did for League of Legends and I feel that this would be a perfect addition to AoE too. I don’t see any reason why we would need 3 different hotkeys for pings compared to a smart ping option like this one.
If they add taunts, like in AOE2 you can do that.
You just ping on the map and than type a number. Problem is that you would need to know the numbers and different than in AOE2 in AOE4 the senders language option determines the language the recipient will see something like “defend this position” and not their own language option.
Maybe an optional popup were you could see the corresponding number would be my preferred option.
Edit: And of course that you will get the taunt in the language of your game.
I suggested this before in the forums as well - this is huge for an RTS in the current age… I think we definitely need a smarter ping system.
The pings we have now are quite useless for team games - they’re too generic to be able to communicate a variety of things.
At the moment we have three pings:
Generic alert ping
Attack ping
Defending ping
But there are some cases unaccounted for:
You’re rallying units at a certain location or on the way to a location
You want your ally to rally units at a certain location (not attack or defend, just gather units for a move later on)
Your allies are attacking/defending an area, but you want to indicate that it’s dangerous because it’s futile or because you know that the opponent is on the way to that location with something that could foil your allies.
Sure, you can use the generic ping and type a message along with, but in most cases, in the heat of 100 different things going on, especially in Castle & Imperial ages, it’s just too much to type, and people are always confused as to what you just pinged about because they have 100 things going on too.
In my opinion there is no way around pinging and typing, if you want to coordinate your team.
I see no way how you can just add a ping for every situation, without making it more confusing. I think it would be great, if they implemented taunts as well and you could access them pretty fast, without learning 100+ commands.
It although would be great, if you can address specific players. For example: You want just one of your allies to defend a position not all of them.
Maybe I’m lacking the imagination, but I don’t see how the implementation would look like. I’m coming from AoE2 with one ping and taunts you could access by quick typing a number, so I was glad to see 3 pings for basic stuff and I’m missing taunts, but I recognize that it is hard to remember every number.
After thinking about the problem a bit I came up with a possible solution and would like to know your opinion about it:
Using your ping hotkey/button will open a menu like in LoL.
You have the 3 existing pings plus a “wait” ping
By holding “Strg (or what hotkey you’d prefer)” you can make the negations for existing commands, like “Not attack”, “not wait”, “not defend”, “Not attention(with a mean like “I saw that”)”
Being able to command queue pings together so you can shift click them and they will appear connected by a line. So you could even communicate simple plans like: “Don’t attack here, defend there”, “Wait here, than attack there” or you can show the path you want to take for your attack.
For my earlier idea you could add the possibility to select or deselect players via combining your ping with something like a number
The pings we have now are quite restricting for team games - they’re too generic to be able to communicate a wider variety of intents. Sure, you can use the generic ping and type a message along with, but in most cases, in the heat of 100 different things going on, especially in Castle & Imperial ages, it’s just too much to type, and people are always confused as to what you just pinged about because they have 100 things going on too. I find a lot of the team-based gameplay with strangers is an individual game most of the time - we’re all doing our own thing, and “feeling” out how to coordinate based on what’s happening. I want more communication tools at my disposal that are faster and more efficient to access and convey.
To clarify, I’m not saying that we need to account for every case with a ping, but rather the most common and frequent intents that most players want to communicate with their team. For everything else, yes - proper chat communication is a must! (unless you’re on VoIP elsewhere which is even better)
At the moment we have three pings:
Generic alert ping
Attack ping
Defending ping
But there are some cases unaccounted for:
You’re rallying units at a certain location or on the way to a location
You want your ally to rally units at a certain location (not attack or defend, just gather units for a move later on)
Your allies are attacking/defending an area, but you want to indicate that it’s dangerous because it’s futile or because you know that the opponent is on the way to that location with something that could foil your allies.
Ping a specific ally to do one of the above actions. (the ping system would indicate to the ally to do X action, and there’s a written transcription in the right-hand side activity log (under chat) that A player pinged B player to do X action)
Here are some examples of pings in other strategy games:
a map ping system. It’s a system because it has multiple aspects… visual indicator on the map, on the minimap, activity text in the chat, and a sound. (ping wheel + attack and defend pings)
a quick word communication wheel
The ping system should:
be hotkey configurable
easy to perform any of the pings
have a generic ping button (hotkey accessible), on top of a ping wheel (also hotkey accessible) and the two attack / defend pings.
attack pinging an enemy building or unit should highlight that target briefly
defend pinging a friendly building or unit should highlight that target briefly
The ping wheel should have:
Danger (or) Retreat ping (this ping should have a good alerting sound, but should also last the briefest amount of time)
On the way ping (special ping, that shows which player is on the way on the ping marker itself) (activity text would read “Player A is on the way to the location”)
Support / Rally ping (not to attack but rather gather units in specific points on the map… e.g. to set up a stealth forest ambush. This ping should also last the longest of all the other pings) (activity text would read, “Player A wants to rally or needs support at location”)
Secure ping (to secure a resource - gold, stone, forest, relic, carcass, hunt, board, berries, fish) (this ping should last the second longest of all the other pings) (activity text would read “Player A wants to secure X resource”)
The existing two pings should stay:
Attack ping (special ping where you can specify an area, but also click on a specific target which will highlight that target briefly.) (activity text would read “Player A wants to attack X building/unit” or if none selected, activity text would read as before “Player A wants to attack this position”)
Defend ping (special ping, behavior similar to attack ping except with friendly units) (activity text similar to before)
This game sucks!
