I actually really hope they keep standard victory for ranked. I’ve never really been a fan of conquest-only victory games. Not enough variety.
If the wonder is too hard to attack, they can make balance adjustments or wait for the meta to catch up. Leave that in for ranked.
And… so building placement (in terms of their ability to wall off enemies) provides very little tactical importance in AoE4. It, literally, addresses your sarcastic comment above and answers itself. Many people tactfully place buildings in this way in AoE2. It’s a strategy, and it’s impossible in AoE4. Thus, little importance in this context. He’s not saying that putting all your military buildings as far away from the enemy as possible results in no tactical consequences in AoE4.
Look, I know you’ve already made up your mind that the video sucks even without watching it and having only read a long list of concisely worded bookmarks, and are likely engaging in confirmation bias at this point, but I was just trying to help.
Considering it’s the first true successor to AoE1, 2, and 3 since AoE3… with it being 4… you bet I’m a bit more forgiving and a little tempted to buy. I play AoE for my RTS kicks; not DoW3, WC2, or any other. AoE3 came out in, what, 2004 about, and it didn’t do much for me. So, yeah, a bit of an AoE dry spell (with sequels) and some anticipation built up means I may forgive the mobile phone UI, overly chatty units, and unflattering zoom level. We’ll see, but his thought there probably rings through for some people like me… and maybe a lot. (EDIT: I don’t want to downplay the fun I’ve had with AoE2 over the years, with the Forgotten Empires work, HD (2013), and DE… as that helped fill what would be a tremendously arid dry spell if they didn’t exist.)
Either way, it doesn’t matter much. Nothing I say will make your mind think more positively about the video you didn’t watch, or provide any food for genuine thought; because it’s pretty clear your feet are pretty firmly planted in the ground on this 
It’s all good
Oh god, sorry for triggering you to answer to all of his points x]
Yeah, its convoluted and a lot of stuff should be condensed. Also no real order in how he weights the issues (towards the price i mean, since the whole point of the video is the price question).
You should still watch the video, since a lot of the things you have issues with he actually lays out much better in speech than the chapter title suggests.
Yeah, i was providing them so people can see that he has some kind of structure as is not just rambling… you surely must watch the video and not just rely on the chapter titles, lol.
Oh I watched it a while a go haha. I was basing it off my memory 
whatever my ADHD brain could remember 
Apologies for the snark, I appreciate you were just trying to explain. My ‘and?’ about the buildings was simply that using buildings as walls and quickwalling in AOE2 is kind of archaic. It’s not the primary purpose of a building and other age games don’t have it so to list that as a reason to not buy is bizarre to me unless you’re fixated on AOEIV just being AOE2 with a new coat of paint. It’s more of an engine limitation of AOE2 that players discovered and used as a tactic. I prefer being able to path between buildings and using walls for walls.
Thanks, no problem. I don’t personally do the building thing too much either and prefer walls, but early on when your resources are limited in AoE2, placement of houses and other early buildings can help create at least some barriers/obstructions so enemies don’t just stream through wherever they want like a river through your town
Of course, it was probably a conscious decision in AoE4 to not have ‘building-walls,’ so to speak, but it does make for an extremely porous town once the enemy breaks through your easily destructible wall or if you don’t have walls.
I encountered this in Tech Stress. Enemy punctured one little hole in my expansive wall and then it was off to the races for them, scampering wherever their heart desired in my town, pestering all my villagers right and left. They even were able to do this pre-wall with just a few scouts. Was very difficult to stop them, slow them down, or cut them off. Every attempt at chasing them was just a waste of time; like an unwinnable game of cat-and-mouse. I had a very porous city wrought from all the air gaps between buildings. Was kind of annoying, tbh. If there weren’t gaps, there would be ways to filter enemies to go where you want them and block them off so they don’t have insta-access to all your villagers
I think part of the antidote to that is using outposts/towers more. They’re really good in AOEIV and several civs have various bonuses or buffs with them. For age games, I was mainly an AoM player so correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think towers play much of a role in AOEII, or at least I don’t see them used much by the few streamers I’ve been watching lately. AoM had more emphasis on base defenses that way as well and AOEIV has taken that even further.
I like towers and using towers. In that Tech Stress game I mentioned, I actually had at least 3 or 4 towers, too, but the only good they did was allow my villagers to have a nearby safe haven. (You can’t build a ton early on, otherwise you can’t do anything else. It’s a balancing act.) They didn’t do much (okay, the did nothing) to stop the numerous hit and run attacks from 3-5 horses. The more times I had to send villagers to TC and towers, and the more time I, fruitlessly, wasted chasing after them with my military, the further and further I got behind with my econ and the game. Multiple times, I wished my buildings could help stop this pure freedom of movement they had, and help filter them toward my units. Without that, it was completely impossible to catch up to them or, what I was really hoping for, cut them off. The highly porous town truly did make it impossible to do anything
Meanwhile, the more time and $$ I wasted on walls and largely ineffective towers (and chasing them around), the less money I had to spend on military and econ and the less time I had to focus on other things. And, so, soon the enemy waves just became more frequent, intense, and larger.
As for AoE2, I love using towers, personally. Wish I could use them more, but as far as I know, they’re pretty nerfed at this point in DE to do any good for online matches. In SP games, I like to use them against AI
The way towers shoot, continuous arrows like machine-gun, I thought they did quite a damage. I loved using them in all the previous games, but here I think its better to spend on fast military units than walls and towers.
Devs confirmed there is going to be hidden MMR based quickmatches.
No more, no less.
Anything else related to ranked is getting released at some point in the future (hopefully that is…).
They said specifically that there is a ranked ladder but you can see the ranking on the website rather than in game and that ranked seasons would be coming spring 2022.
Funny parody of AOE 4 devs interview. 
Too few civilisations and units.
Cheers to @DormantHarpy7 for finding my video and sharing it. Appreciate it. 
I just want to underline that it is tongue in cheek and more for a laugh than for making many serious points.
I read the OP of this thread specifically and find it to be lacking in conclusiveness.
In think the video posted in the OP tries to make a bullet point out of every single small detail with AOE4. It doesn’t seem a very neutral way to present the game, it just appears to be trying to say a lot when there isn’t much content.
“Chat message delay”
“TC bell”
“Poor marketing”
“Reinventing the wheel”
? These points range from nitpicking the smallest, most inconsequential features of AOE4 to straight up complaining that they made an RTS to begin with. Marketing? What?
“Trying to satisfy all kinds of audience” ? ??? that’s exactly what they SHOULD be aiming for. You can make a highly competitive game that is also fun for casuals.
Video in the OP makes some good points as well for sure, but I think they’re artificially making things seem worse than they actually are.
I watched your other videos on AOE 4 too. You made pretty good points and I agree with them. Subbed 
. what baffles me us how couldn’t they find these problems. The fix is already there. The same things were done better in previous games. Its like they don’t even play it to notice them. and they had time. These are small things but they make a big difference. I didn’t like AOE3’s fictional campaign, I wanted historical ones. however, they did many things so right, that I am in love with it. AOE 4 doesn’t need to be perfect, no game ever is, but it has to improve few basic things.
All their interviews felt like scripted. the same questions and same answers. The issues people discusse on this forum were never brought up. I wish they do one more interview to answer all our questions and share their future plan.
Thanks dude, huge appreciation for the sub, it means a lot to me. If you ever want to see anything in the videos or have feedback, I’m all ears.
I’m definitely on the boat that AOE4 has a few teething issues it needs to fix. Some things about the game are genuinely not very good and need a good overhaul. On that, I agree. UI, terrain elevation, responsiveness, and so on. I think the Devs are trying to be careful with their PR at the moment, which is a cautious move. I do think that they take feedback very seriously, they’re probably just very busy with the upcoming release. There’s probably other things that are taking up their time at the moment.
Btw, I fully agree that the lack of historical campaigns was a very sad affair. I didn’t like the fictional ones at all and the time period that AOE3 covers is very rich in history. Missed opportunity. 100%
Yes this game is bad, 60 euros I will not pay for the downgrade
Thanks for the constructive criticism buddy , much appreciated
Interesting to see how little the game had changed between the Stress Test and Release.