Units are Difficult to Distinguish

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
22

I’m kinda with you to the extent that it would be nice to have that as a feature… but have you played Age 1 DE? I really don’t want to bash the developers but the classic graphics option in Age 1 DE is pretty much terrible:

  • you lose the zoom function so everything’s too small even in 1080p
  • it’s very, VERY buggy to the point that simply playing it properly can become an issue
  • the pathfinding is worse and not because it restores the original game’s pathfindig: it’s simply buggy
  • even graphical glitches happen

Compared to that whipping out your copy of AoE Gold and installing UPatch HD on top of it is a much better experience, like if you want to play Age 1 with the classic graphics there is no contest there, Age 1 DE is barely even functional in that regard. What that tells me is that the engine was altered too much for the old stuff to work properly out of the box = restoring the original look would simply take a lot of dev resources.

Now Age 2 DE is a huge game in terms of content: you have 35 civs, easily 250-300 hours of campaign content etc. so making all of that work (and making assets for the new stuff that doesn’t exist in the old game) for the sake of having a classic mode is just not worth anyone’s time. Nothing was removed, HD Edition still works, the Userpatch is just as good as it was one month ago etc. so you know, play the original if you want those graphics.

Also I’d say that when it comes to extra quality of life features DE offers so much more than the original game ever did (■■■■, even the DE UI itself is so full of eco information that it instantly makes you better at macro) that even if you DO have readability issues with DE chances are you’d beat the crap out of a version of you that’s still on HD / Userpatch. :slight_smile:

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23

I’d say speak for yourself: personally I’m very happy with the new version because I always preferred Age 3 to the second game because Age 3 added a lot of quality of life stuff and once you get used to those going back to Age 2 is well… it’s not happening. DE addressed that and much more and this is why it could bring me back to the game I used to like. There are issues of course, quite a lot of them in fact but fixing those is just a matter of polish and MS / FE is committed to doing just that.

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24

You can just turn off the new graphical overlays like bloom and fog… it’s literally that simple.

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25

I do think that top players kept this game alive for so long, can you please, next time you talk to them, tell them to come here to official forums and rise their voices? is very important.

We are talking only about difficulty distinguishing units?
my opinion (playing competitively since 1999), stay away from the game (all versions), take a brake for some time and come back and play only DE. Some habits and practices are hard to change.

OMG, conspiracy theories. The long and dark shadow of microsoft. If you keep on not liking DE you will end up getting briefed too (11). You are VERY clueless about mbl’s stream by the way; he has been criticizing DE (quite a lot, and regarding quite so many issues). The game will indeed feel better with upcoming releases (thats what the devs have said, thats what I have seen in the past, havent you said you were in the beta too?)

And @csaArmistead, the pro scene will end in the game version (platform) which is better, so no worries here; if they dont fix game issues, and again I dont see units hard to distinguish, we will all be back to voobly, and some will miss the new graphics.

That just make equal or easier to spot the graphics you are used to.

This is not true. Game was not released with this feature. I believe this is a currents build bug.

26

have you played Age 1 DE?

I have not played 1DE.

you lose the zoom function so everything’s too small even in 1080p

Why would things be too small in 1080p?

  • it’s very, VERY buggy to the point that simply playing it properly can become an issue
  • the pathfinding is worse and not because it restores the original game’s pathfindig: it’s simply buggy
  • even graphical glitches happen

Seems like they f’ed up then.

making assets for the new stuff that doesn’t exist in the old game

If it were up to me there would be no new civs… It would be acceptable to have the new civ graphics in the classic mods.

HD Edition still works, the Userpatch is just as good as it was one month ago etc. so you know, play the original if you want those graphics.

If DE succeeds how can I play on a dead platform? Can people like you please stop making such ridiculous and inconsiderate comments?

Also I’d say that when it comes to extra quality of life features DE offers so much more than the original game ever did

No kiddin!

so making all of that work for the sake of having a classic mode is just not worth anyone’s time.

So they can spend all their time on unnessecary stuff like fancy graphics, new gamesounds, soundtracks, new civs bla bla bla, but keeping what many players love and what has made the game great is too much? That’s how I feel, forced to like their pretty graphics and sounds. How can you say that it’s “not worth anyone’s time” when it’s a DEFINITIVE EDITION? The last AOE2 game! This should have been one of the main priorities. They only have to do it right once, and the game will last for at least another 20 years.

no worries here; if they dont fix game issues, and again I dont see units hard to distinguish, we will all be back to voobly, and some will miss the new graphics.

The community is already split, the meta is split, and lets just forget these QOL features then? … Woah yeah nothing to worry about, and totally not a bad name for the franchise…

I don’t understand what drives you people to come here and talk down our points to defend DE. What we are asking for won’t hurt you, It will only make the game better. You also should get your priorities right and use this forum to talk about what YOU want to have improved instead of telling us to stfu.

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28

This dude is actually complaining because the game has new features and he calls new civs and updated graphics of this decade ‘‘useless additions’’. What a time to be alive. Why dont you simply go back to the older versions?

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29

Bad manners, I think you are taking this too far. We all can come here and express our opinion on the matter in a polite way.
You have to get used to somebody else can think different and say that demanding old sound and graphics is absurd and dont want devs losing time on this (reasoning already exposed above)

30

It’s a bit tonedeaf to say that our preferences for wanting to be able to easily feel comfortable with our game, that we have played (at least occasionally) for twenty years as “absurd” or as “nostalgia”.

Who bought the most copies of this game after all? It’s not eleven year olds playing with their first computer, I bet. [though, welcome aboard!]
Of course the newcomers should get their updated fancy looks, but a lot of this stuff should be opt-out.
There was a Classic-mode in Age1:DE. It was perhaps expected that we’d get something like that, too.

I have played this game, before I could even type and the idea “if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind in very many places.
[and the occasional thing is just broken like the TechTree with it’s tiny buggy buttons, not to mention that without the Maximum Extendded Help-mod from @Jineapple that very reliably hid all the Techtree-crap, I have to alt+tab the game and google stuff every five to ten minutes]

Sure we’ll eventually come around to this new look (though if it’s a contrast- or shading-thing, then it might actually be a QOL-issue and that needs to be addressed), but until then it can be very disorienting in places and if someone comes along saying that we’re on a nostalgia-trip, I get a mite defensive and feel like sniping back a… so what if we were, punk?!

Though that’s not helpful, either I suppose.

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31

WHAT HE SAID>>>
"if something is not broken, do not fix it "
This is very true. And yeah, the graphics menu should offer a choice to use the old-school graphics or to use the new D.E. options. Now it is really hard to see stuff if not zooming

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32

@Takfloyd The bloom and fog are not what we’re talking about. Rest assured, the majority of people complaining about the graphics have spent a good deal of time in the game settings attempting to make things as palatable as possible.

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33

Play the older versions then, I do not see what the problem is. I personally could never go back to older versions. AOE2 DE looks soooo good. Minus the fog setting which can be turned off. All the rest is 10/10

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34

I tried reallly hard noticing what the fog effects are supposed to do. I came to the conclusion that it involves almost invisible clouds, somehow? Could not care one way or another.
Sometimes I believe, that most of the maxed graphical effects in games are completely lost on me.

35

Bad manners, I think you are taking this too far. We all can come here and express our opinion on the matter in a polite way.
You have to get used to somebody else can think different and say that demanding old sound and graphics is absurd and dont want devs losing time on this (reasoning already exposed above)

Bad manners are people who keep on insisting that we’re wearing “nostalgia glasses”, or we need to “give it some time”. Vague statements like “I’m sure the devs are working hard on it” or " I don’t have any problems with it". The worst of them are “Why don’t you just play the old game?” or like you say “It’s absurd, A waste of time”.

You have to get used to somebody else can think different and say that demanding old sound and graphics is absurd and dont want devs losing time on this

If you respect the game, how can you say that preserving the old look is a waste of time? I call it absurd that they would permanently throw it out. It’s not that you don’t want classic mode, you just don’t want it to negatively effect other parts of development. In response to that I could give you a list of things that I would not consider necessary for DE (Or any RTS). I call it having wrong priorities. They have explained their intention to keep working on the game, so why not delay all the bells and whistles and secure what is already a working and well appreciated formula?

There are enough suggestions made on these kinds of forums that are indeed absurd, gamebreaking or irrelevant to the game, please don’t put our request into the same boat.

36

Maybe this whole issue could be best solved by making color contrast customisable? This way developers would not need to spend time on integrating old graphics into game (+ creating appropriate “old” graphics for new units/buildings/etc).

37

@SvenSvensonn can we calm down please? I dislike the tone of your arguments

My english not good enough @ImpliedNine8738, need help understanding this

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@csaArmistead, @SvenSvensonn, @ImpliedNine8738, @Vengeance01987
Does this look better? I increased contrast a little in Gimp.

edited
edited2048×1199 1.38 MB

You know, that you can just google the word? Don’t be annoying on purpose towards other forum members.

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39

And you asking that to me? okay up to you. Theres no more blind that who doesnt wanna see. And by the way, if I could just translate it I wouldnt be asking for help.

40

In sentence you quoted @ImpliedNine8738 used simple words you clearly know based on your previous posts. Only non-simple word is tonedeaf, which you can google, open first result and read

I have not seen other people ask others to translate simple sentences like this without putting any effort in themselves. Or are you just trolling?

41

The old look exists. Its in AOE2 and AOE2 HD.

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Are you asking me to stfu? Go google that, and its so bad manner, but since in this threat you seem you can use it for free and go away with it and people giving opinion politely accused of trolling