What AOE2 is perfectly balanced---AoE2 dev speaks out

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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Many people here in the forums complain and complain about “AoE2 not being balanced enough” or “OMG, my favorite civ is too weak, please buff” and stuff like that.

Well…why don’t you watch this video, an interview of one of the original AoE2 developers, Sandy Peterson, and why he thinks that AoE2 is well balanced, and what he did to accomplish balancing back in the days of AoE2: Age of Kings and Age of Conquerors.

Why AOE2 Is Perfectly Balanced - YouTube

One of the key moments of the interview, is when he states that there is has to be a fine line of having a civ “have a certain distinction” versus “making all the civs balanced”.

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I feel like whoever does the balance at FE at least is aware of this. Else Indian would have imperial battle elephants and Turks would have imperial halberdier and imperial genitours lmao.

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I actually think DE is much better balanced than vanilla.
Sorry to say that, but it’s my feeling.

And I don’t know why this former developer makes these videos. Does he feel he lost his “baby”?

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Probs because everyone want him to.

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I’m not sure. Though what I appreciate from the video is the insight that it offers into the thinking and mindset of the AoK and AoC devs.

Obviously, AoE2 as a whole has gone a long way…much has happened since AoK first came out.

The point that I want to make: the devs, 20 years ago, did keep balance in mind, as well as civ flavor. Sometimes, you need to have some civs be “overpowered” so that they can stand out. You cannot have everything too generic and common…but also, you need to have all civs be balanced enough to make them all adequate in most matchups.

As for DE, I think that DE has done a fine job so far when it comes to balance and civ flavor. Though…I do worry about the future of DE.

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Did you even watch the video? At no point did he claim AoC is better balanced than DE.

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yeah he didn’t make those claims

Don’t be preemptively salty.

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The only problem is the title being click bait but that’s pretty much it.

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yeah i defo think its way better balanced now than it used to be. and im guessing it was so much harder to balance back then since you didnt have the immediate internet abuse of imba mechanics on the scale we have today

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The balance in 1999 was already pretty good for a new released game and one of the reasons why it is still popular.

Ofc we have had balance changes. No game with the complexity of AoE II will have perfect balance. Also the meta will change over time, resulting and balance changes to keep the game fresh.

So no wonder the current balance (after 21 year experience)) is better then the balance in 1999. The devs really did a great job at release.

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