What does "ranked seasons" mean?

The roadmap says we’ll get ranked seasons, during which we’ll have to climb some sort of ladder to get rewards.

I’m just curious about what this means for casual players? Does it mean that those who are pros can unlock, say, a cool skin for their man at arms, while at lower leagues you’ll get maybe a profile pic or so…

My primary concern is that this won’t be that fun for casuals like me, since I don’t play nearly as well as you need to to climb a ladder. Meanwhile pro players probably don’t care about the man at arms skin which I might really care about.

I know we don’t know exactly how ranked seasons work, but what speculations do people in the community have?

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I do hope they connect rewards to activity and not success. If you would only get stuff for reaching say top 100… I do not think they would do that as most players will not reach this and it would lead to frustration.

As for possible rewards, I hope they provide:

  • new cosmetics for your profile / banner / sigels / profile icons / colours / town center monuments
  • skins for units and buildings and maybe neutral map points like holy sites / neutral markets / resources etc.
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i hope its based on ratiing. ladder… etc… not just participation reward… u play 100 games lose all and still get the new banner etc? neah… should be based on rating… so we have something to achiev and feel as a reward

Only few people will ever achieve these rewards then. The rest will soon stop playing in these seasons… Which is something the devs hopefully don’t want.

You do realize the majority of the playerbase just play for fun. Only a tiiiny population actually play to compete.

I think it’s kinda progression reward for all players to achieve, while faster if you’re better and slower if you are not that good. Then there will be some additional show off stuff for being good like a border and portrait background matching your highest achieved rank. That’s at least what most games do and it seems we’ll received.

ehm not rly… its an rts… like warctaft 3 and starcraft aoe 2 etc… is made to be competitive… and like in warctaft 3 and starcraft the rewards should be bsaed on rating… at the end of a season if u achiev X ammount of rating u get X reward and so on. also tournament based banners and skins shoudl be nice.

AoE is never “made” to be competitive. Most people I know will play a relaxing game against the AI with friends after a day of work.

I’ve been playing this game since release (and the franchise since 2001) and I’ve never felt the need to up my APM or improve my gameplay to optimal levels.

Don’t know about Warhammer or whatever, but AoE is as much about the chill single-player experience as it is about competitive play. The best thing about this franchise is that there’s something for everyone. Why else would they spend so much money making the campaigns?

Actually that’s the point … The moment this franchise becomes just about esport, it will have lost its charm. So I’m hoping whatever these seasons are… it will be something most people can get some good value out of … and have fun, and pick up nuggets, regardless of whether they are the Viper or the average Joe.

It would be good if there are some cosmetics for participation but I have no problem with some exclusive cosmetic/profile icons etc for those in top 100/ the number 1 player of the season etc. It’s exciting for there to be things out of reach by most players. I say this as someone around 1000 elo who would not get any of those top rewards unless a miracle happens.

Why not have both???

Some awards for the top of the top (they do deserve it).

Then maybe top 15% get this…
Then top 30% get this…
Top 50% get this…

Participate in Ladder by playing one Ranked Game… get this…
Participate in Ladder by playing 10 Ranked Games… get this…
Participate in Ladder by playing 25 Ranked Games… get this…

There are endless options to reward both Awesome Players… and Players who At Least Try!!!

But to just give something for nothing… NAWHhhhh

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Most games implement a tiered system where some things are participatory, and others are based on achievement. It’s a good system, and rewards/encourages more competitive play.

Most people will have finished the campaigns and may be getting bored with AI skirmishes. Incentivizing ranked play is a good idea.

Of course, if you want a nice relaxing game against the AI have at it hoss.

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I wish there were some achievements related to completing some things in the game, much like the steam ones. Things like:

  1. Win a match without training siege
  2. Produce 5 war elephants before 15 minutes have elapsed starting in the dark age.
  3. Finish a game in Feudal age

etc etc.

These are things that may be challenging, but also are not very competitive. So you may achieve these even if you have lower skill, but you’ll have to put in effort.