We need to improve communication between the devs and the community please

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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Hello There, Hao90 (Sherman_king) here. I have been an AOEIV player since the beta, I have played over 500h, I really enjoy the community, I watch the tournaments, listen to the podcast, active on the subreddit, watch some YT videos etc etc, I am a member of this community, but here is something that needs to be said, and it is…

We need more communication between us (the AoeIV community) and the devs.

First of all, I do appreciate all your hard work, and I know that you listen to us, there are so many obvious bug fixes, additions and quality-of-life improvements that seem to come from the devs listening to us the community. Thank you for listening to us, I think out of many game studios, you are one of the studios that attend the most to its community. and I really appreciate it

However the communication is very far in between, we listen from you very rarely and sometimes we need a bit more feedback.

It is obvious that a lot of the AOEIV is a bit nervous lately, this is a game we are not certain about it’s future, and although we want it to thrive and be one of the top games, sometimes we feel Microsoft has forgotten this game. We know about the recent layoffs at Relic, and I am very sorry about that and hope that all those affected are able to find a job soon and be happy. but this event has made some of us uncertain of the future of the game… then we had no major AOE4 announcement in the biggest Microsoft/PC event a few days ago, many games are getting DLCs and expansions, but we do not know what is happening to AOEIV, and lastly the tweet from Relic that development is going to continue “as planned” it gives us the impression that Relic will deliver what Relic has been working for, and that is it, just finishing the plan, and then no more news about the future of this game.

I do not want to make this long, but please, so many people are putting a lot into this game, Pro-players, tournament organizers, podcasters, youtube content creators, twitch streamers, website developers, and brilliant casters. etc etc, we are putting so much to make this game a great game, but then we hear nothing from Relic, or World’s edge for months and months, not knowing if the development of our favourite game will continue, or if the resources will be allocated somewhere else. I have seen tons of people with the same feeling as me, some huge YT content creators have expressed these same feelings, some people on Reddit too, some people on twitch too, its a general feeling of uncertainty that the community has been experiencing.

Therefore, I do believe that we need better communication with the development team please, I am not asking for the immediate announcement of a DLC or civs, but we just need to know, you are there, you are reading our ideas, opinions etc etc, that is really it, we need to know if you are there and the development of the game will continue, and not just end once all that has been planed has been delivered and no more further plans will take place.

Just my opinion, I really love this game, I hope it continues succeeding, please devs lets make this game the best RTS of our generation, I believe it is absolutely possible!

Thank you for reading.

-Chris Sherman,

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Great post.

This game, despite its rocky launch, has incredible potential. That potential isn’t being realized right now due to a slow development cycle and lack of communication from devs.

To the devs, we want to hear what you’re working on, what future plans are, and what you’re taking from the community and attempting to realize within the game. This is so, so vital in creating a healthy and exciting atmosphere around your game, but that currently feels absent from Age of Empires IV, which is honestly a shame.

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Sadly, the dev team mostly consider pro players’ opinion.
This is why they ignore most of our ideas etc etc

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Until and unless there is a roadmap or (unlikely but possible) some kind of unannounced giant content drop, it sure seems reasonable to read their announcement literally — development of Age of Empires IV will continue as planned, delivering everything they’ve announced but nothing more.

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Well we know that there was more planned than has been announced.

The FE guys explicitly said so in their recent interview.

So this seems an overly pessimistic view. As much as some people here would love for it to be the case.

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A road map and twitch stream every couple months would help these problems. Even if it was a stream with all age of empires games.

In game shop and improved moding tools helps a lot too. Its always going to take 1-2 years for new civs or dlc. Having a in game shop will have regular updates and moding there’s something new everyday.

Content creators get sick of posting videos of 1vs1 games after awhile.

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More planned could be just +1 more content…
Or 2 maybe 3 etc

But, when they reach that number, the development etc will stop.

That is exactly what Relic stated in their announcement.

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They are already sick of it.
Many have already started switching and/or switched already.

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It could certainly prove to be overly pessimistic. Perhaps they are working on loads of new content and have a reason to stop releasing roadmaps or otherwise confirm future civs. It seems odd that they would allow this kind of uncertainty to hang in the air and leave it to the players to cannibilize each other over our own interpretations.

Could someone provide a link to a FE interview in which they explicitly said there was more content planned than has been announced? Perhaps that is a reference to Bert discussing Forgotten Empires helping with a number of areas of AoE4 (balancing, maps, etc.) and then saying “Then there’s some other areas, but I can’t talk about those yet.”

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Yeah, other areas they are working on but he can’t talk about YET. There’s nothing that has been announced so far that would be what he is referring to. Something that is not maps, not balance, etc…

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That’s a fair read. Here’s hoping.

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I’m not really supposed to comment (it’s complicated), but there are a lot of lurkers here (devs). We are here, listening, and I know I am excited about the future of Age IV. :zipper_mouth_face:

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Any influence you may have to get them to release some kind of road map (even as vague as the last ones, trust me I know all about being careful with future development promises) would be much appreciated by a lot of people.

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If there were ever a time to announce future content, it would be when:

  1. for the first time since before launch, there is no longer a current roadmap or other announcements of future civs;

  2. the only recent news has been that Relic laid off a substantial portion of its employees;

  3. in response, World’s Edge confirmed that development of Age of Empires IV will continue as planned, delivering everything they’ve announced but without any explanation about what, exactly has even been announced or planned. Perhaps the only things planned are new seasons and some relatively small updates but nothing like new civs. That is exactly what we would expect of a flagship title being put to pasture.

If major development of the game (like new civs) actually was over, this kind of vagueness and silence is exactly what we would expect it to look like. I was here in 2012 and 2016 when AoEO and AoE: Castle Siege closed. I don’t believe that many, if any, of the present developers were here then, so they may not realize how similar things are looking right now from our perspective.

But maybe whoever it is who gets to greenlight a proper roadmap could be kindly nudged to do so.

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On the contrary, I think if there were ever a time to not announce future content, it would be when:

  1. The economy is in recession. Borrowing money to invest in projects is more difficult now than 1 or 2 years ago. Companies are laying employees off to reduce costs and financial risks.

  2. Artificial intelligence is changing the way games are being developed. This is still being figured out and integrated into game development practices. The what, the how, and the when of future content development may all be impacted.

  3. Tough competition is approaching. Primarily Stormgate, but also other RTS games including Microsoft’s own Age of Mythology Retold and a game Eliot Hong now represents, Manor Lords.

This is a time of uncertainty for the video game industry, and particularly for AOE4 given its exposure to the above turbulence. It would be risky for executives in charge of AOE4 to make substantial commitments to future content plans in an environment where economic conditions are difficult, technology is dramatically changing game development, and market competition is about to severely intensify.

Executives at Microsoft, Relic, and Redbull need to think about the long-term futures of their respective companies. If that means taking a wait-and-see approach, or even temporarily reducing support to preserve resources, the future of the companies must be protected above other concerns so they can continue to develop games 10, 20, and 30 years from now.

AOE4 is ultimately a commercial product that must answer to the financial and economic realities faced by the companies that make the product. It is not AOE4’s responsibility to meet activist demands for content that progamers and content creators can profit from(from which AOE4 receives no royalties).

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I agree that if World’s Edge is not sure whether it is going to make new civs, then they should not announce that they are.

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Interesting. I wanted to say something akin to this.

It isn’t exactly science however, and they’ve turned out to be incredibly predictable. It wouldn’t surprise me if the reason for holding back so much is due to schedules set up by completely different departments (like marketing).

If we are to use last year as an example, the next big bit of content should be in three months. If nothing of value happens by then, then I think your assessment would be correct. No company in todays age has the balls to actually declare death–they’d rather let it simmer endlessly until the last employee walks out.

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Unfortunately, this should not matter.

You can justify any type of anti consumer strategy by saying it is good for the company. This mentality is a problem that is highly “american”. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t just americans. But, instead I mean to point out towards their highly capitalistic approach to business. Companies should not have such a narrowed down business strategy that aims to strip every ounce of meat so that only the head is operational. What has been happening in the business world is quite frankly an abomination. There are also countless of companies trying their best to emulate this and successfully doing so in many parts of the world.

The examples you gave are all anti consumeristic in nature, and I really have to wonder if companies that can only operate like this, have to exist? In my humble opinion–No.

If that is what it takes for the ship to sail, then let it sink.

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Thank you very much for your answer! I am also looking forward to the brilliant future of AOEIV, thanks to all of its brilliant content creators, game developers, tournament organizers, streamers and more thank you all!

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If you are indeed lurking in the forums. Can you please tell me why you haven’t been giving HRE a single new unique unit since the game was released? 2 patches with nothing new to the most bland civ in the game. Is there a reason for this are is the team just actively ignoring this civ?

Edit: Sorry if I came out strong, I just watched the patch trailer and got a little triggered when the announcer said “New unique options for all civilizations.” and then saw the patch notes. What I mean to say is, do you have anything planned for HRE in particular?

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