there a reason (well part of it) why aoe 2 still relevant
Could be neat as an optional setting
Other improvement requests:
- Why do destroyed buildings leave foundation rubble/scars all over that āneverā go away? Late-game maps/terrains get extremely cluttered (unattractive visually) and hard to read. Lingering remnants are confusing to see, as you sometimes wonder āIs that building still there, or is it gone?ā It also makes it harder to find out where the last few enemy units or buildings are in Conquest matches.
- Siege units shouldnāt self-destruct explode after suffering like two swings of a sword
- There shouldnāt be some weird build limit when making farms with shift-clicks on mill or TC
- Itās jarring and hard to understand why when you have several villagers selected and youāre placing farms, all the sudden farm placements hit a hard-stop and the placement tiles turn red. This never happens in AoE2:DE, so please use AoE2:DE as inspiration
- Add a market tech where you can make trade carts go faster
- Still think the animations need another pass where they are sped up. So many animations are weightless and floaty (slow motion), which is often the result of inexperienced animators. Thatās fine for a while, but we are now a couple years post-launch and the game should be entering a phase of polish, imo
- Zoom out more. The perpetual annoyance
2 Likes
No, just a better AoE IV
1 Like
A complete competitive game like Starcraft 2 or Age 2, please. By the way, thereĀ“ll never be a new game, RTS are not profitable for shareholders scum.
1 Like
Its year 2025 out there, if we learned anything from gaming, itās that age of multiplayer is over.
I doubt 4 or 8 more same side-factions would do anything.
Actually shareholders are getting smarter, in terms to back up single player games
and thatās what next AoE game should focus on.
3 Likes
The request is for more solo content that can be played with others???
1 Like
Ottoman needs a few more buffs, here are my suggestions.
Suggestions
- Allow villager production out of the military schools. This will help alleviate the constant complaint (even at pro levels) that Ottoman is too slow. Of course they would produce a lot slower than from the TC, but will still provide an economic boost on villager production. This is also consistent with Age of Empires 3, where they produced villagers for free out of the TC but at slower speeds
- Allow traders produced from Sultanhani Trade Network to be auto-placed into the landmark, and let them either build faster or more cheaply than from a market. This is consistent with other Civs like China (Imperial Officials, etc)
- Add a Vizier option to produce 3-4 villagers in the first level. Right now people are selecting 10 sheep nearly every time, so there needs to be a better option there. Again, this is designed to speed them up a little
Thoughts?
What needs to improve is the AI.
Itās far from saying the problem has been solved.
The AI āāin this game wonāt improve, and what the management is giving us is despair and resignation.
Option to block chat of opponents in team gamesā¦ I wonāt be buying any DLC until this is added.
Yes, but we have to write it in shareholder language.
āyear 2025 solo content = maximal profit, with minimal investmentā
Look at games like space marine 2 or kingdom come deliverance 2, thats how you make money. It does not matter what it is, it simply has to give people the feeling they have something good in their hands. A thing where you spend on story 20-40 hours is a experience you pay for.
Thatās simply no longer possible and feasible with a multiplayer product, if the game loop is 30 min -1 hour, you have like replayed the game 4 times in a day, and its a loop you kind of play anywhere just with different background. That has no real value very fast.
Iām playing since the release in coop vs AI with friends, and in all this time Iāve never seen an improvement on the following topics. I was looking for a solution but I realized I can only leave feedback for now.
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Game management is really poor: save, reconnect, restore crashed games. AOE4 have basically nothing right now, and for games that are not competitive or very short (like less than 40m-1h) it makes it unplayable.
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The netcode must be reworked a lot. Right now the game has SERIOUS issues with FWA connections and in general it has very bad management of network lag. If the connections are not perfectly stable and with very low latency the game tends to freeze, lose connection, lose sync, have aleatory change in speed. As said above, when one of the player plays with FWA or any mobile connection (5G, WiMax, WISP, Starlink, whatever, even specific bandwidth limits or using QoS doesnāt make a difference) an hard crash is guaranteed before 2 hours.
Another issue with the netcode it has no ability to manage backup connections: Windows can be setup, as well as many routers, to rely on a backup connection when the main one isnāt available. It is made by redirecting the traffic to a different network interface. It is common on laptop that integrates 5G module.
This small disconnect/reconnect, while it is managed by Windows and have no influence on basically every game I ever played, makes AoE4 disconnect and drop the game istantly, even disconnecting the whole game from the network and it needs to be reconnected by the notification panel.
Iāve read some time ago that the save/load and reconnect was impossible to implement because of the way the replay works. If itās true, i mean, just remove the replay, as it is a completely irrelevant feature.
Or, if somebody want to use it, make it available on demand as a game setting, as it was in AoE2 and as it should be, even because it has serious impact on game performance.
Those are SERIOUS issue: itās not a matter of reducing 15something% armor of war elephants, which is shit and can be hotfixed, as a game developer myself I donāt understand why those day-1-patch issues are still not done.
The game has to be manageable a recoverable from distruptions, the netcode needs to be robust.
Those are the basics.
After 4 years we are looking for an alternative in order to drop AoE4.
I think AoE4 is still the best version of AoE we have. But, it is riddled with issues, make no mistake. What is dreadful is seemingly that the studio does not want to invest the necessary amount to iron this crap out. The game came out half-baked and theyāre still only polishing that initial creation, rather than add the critical infrastructure that would make this a complete game.
Ultimately what I think is sad is that this venture is entirely artificial. The workload is split into multiple studios that does not communicate with eachother and whose only real tangable link is that they ought to āmake moneyā for Microsoft.
As a result, the developers are faceless, nameless, and entirely void of personality or interest. No proper community can be built on such foundations, and the only ones we have, are strictly and directly tied to prize-pool funds, which without, weād have NOTHING to show for all of these years of work.
In that way, it is exactly the opposite of AoE2. AoE2 I think can stand on its own two feet, and has been able to foster a community because of that fact. AoE4 will crumble unimaginably quickly the second support drops.
So to conclude this rant with something productive; before more DLC, before more meaningless patches buffing or nerfing micropercentages of stats, ADD A FUNCTIONING IN-GAME EDITOR AND PROPER AI TO BOOT. And then MAYBE, just MAYBE the community can survive these two-year gaps between real DLCs.
2 Likes
If iām playing English and have a White Tower (or any other keep), it would be a nice QoL feature if i use the āselect all barracksā hotkey and my keeps are included, as i can produce those units from them. As of right now, i have to manually hot key them to a number and then add the Keep to that number. One other possibility would be if i have my select all Stables hotkey set to 7, and I add a keep to 7, iām then able to select all stables plus that keep.
Similarly, if i have the Abbey of Kings and i use the select all stables, It would be great if we can reproduce the King from that hotkey instead of having to find the landmark or give it itās own hotkey.
Maybe the different Wynguard units groups could be shown and able to be queād up by using the āselect allā of the corresponding building type?
I imagine there are other Civs with unique units that can be produced from specific buildings that fall outside of the standard 4 production buildings that could benefit from being able to be queād up alongside their corresponding building type.
Yes, at least leveling up in the game will help, as it did in AoE 3 and AoEOā¦
Yes, in that sense the game has improved a lotā¦ from now on I would focus on giving more UU to the HRE, Abbasids, French, English and little elseā¦ 5-6 UU would be enough, it is not necessary for them to have more than 10 or 15 like the Japanese and the Templarsā¦
Thatās trueā¦although I feel like there were more UUs missing, and youāre wrong, since it was like this:
British: Longbowman, Ranger, Rocket (only the Ranger was added in 3DE)
Dutch: Merchant, Envoy, Ruyter, Fluyt (only the Merchant was added in 3DE)
French: Coureur des Bois, Cuirassier
Germans: Settler Wagon, Landwehr, Doppelsoldner, Uhlan, War Wagon (only the Landwehr was added in 3 DE)
Italians: Architect, Pavisier, Bersagliere, Schiavone, Papal Guard, Papal Lancer, Papal Zouave, Papal Bombard, Galleass, Leonardoās Tank
Maltese: Grand Master, Hospitaller, Sentinel, Fire Thrower, Order Galley, Fire Ship
Ottomans: YƶrĆ¼k, Imam, Bashibozuk, Janissary, Azap, Nizam Fusilier, Muhbir, Deli, Abus Gunner, Humbaraci, Great Bombard, Galley, Sipahi (Many were added in 3DE with Ottoman rework, in the legacy they were janissaries, abus gunner, spahi, galleys, great bombards, Iman and little else)
Portuguese: Ordinance Rifleman, Cassador, Organ Gun (In 3DE they only added the Ordinance Riflemen, they could have included Bandeirantes with the Brazilian Revolution and some other units that Iām forgetting)ā¦
Russians: Strelet, Rekrut, Poruchik, Cossack, Oprichnik (and thatās not even counting the cavalry archer they share with the Ottomans)
Spanish: War Dog, Missionary, Rodelero, Lancer (There was no change hereā¦the Spanish were not only Rodeleros and Lancers, but also Missionaries and War Dogs)
Swedes: Carolean, Hakkapelit, Leather Cannon
Yes, there are several gaps that can be filled for AoE 4ā¦ I heard that Aragon and the Chagatai Khanate could be coming in the nexts dlcā¦
Yes, the variants can turn out very well or very badlyā¦time will tellā¦
Yes, I thought the Angevins were going to go in first, but I think the Lancasters are okayā¦
Yes, I hope soā¦ letās hope soā¦ I like the latest maps they added more because of the points of interest, because I like creeping and map controlā¦
In their defense, they make it look more like AoE 3 and its treasures, as long as it maintains the medieval aesthetic I donāt see the problemā¦ at some point we could see neutral mercenary camps with chests in the middle for players to fight overā¦
Thatās trueā¦we even see it in Baburās campaign in AoE 2ā¦
Yes, it can happenā¦
Yeah, thatās a good ideaā¦in Drakeās scenario in AoE 2 you have a boarding galley that converts ships like a monkā¦
Yes, a mix between AoE 2 and 4ā¦
Hopefully they make all historical battles co-op like AoE 3ā¦
Empire Eternal is a good alternative (I rule out SC and CNC clones like Stormgate and Tempest Rising because they have their respective fans)ā¦
Yes, I agreeā¦ an in-game editor would help a lotā¦ many of us could even remake the AoE 2 and AoE 3 campaigns for AoE 4ā¦
Yes, I think that AoE 4 has the potential to reach a climax of the game by 2028, but those of FE have to focus more on it and leave AoE 2 aside a bit (or at least have CaptureAge take care of it with the Cronicas DLCs) ā¦ in theory by the end of the year, we would have an American DLC like The Conquerors / Forgotten 2.0 (Spanish, Aztecs, Incas, Vikings or just Spanish and Incas to fight on the Atacama map) (maybe some Tatars as Mongol variants like the Huns were in AoE 2 and Novgorod for the Rus for this DLC or next yearās DLC) ā¦ and with the DLC would come the QoL patch incorporating the scenario editor into the game and hopefully a campaign book like in AoE 2ā¦
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The Normans
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The Hundred Yearsā War
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The Sultans Ascend
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The Mongol Empire
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The Rise of Moscow
1 Like
not exclusive to farms, what happens, and has been happening for long enough for me to quit the game alltogether, is when you shift queue the construction requests, it auto exits the build menu when you run out of material and cancels the entire queue up to that point
weāve been loud about this since closed betas, but to this day, the camera has top side locked in place and simply swings to change the angle, it never moves back and forth, even in panoramic, its without a doubt intentional and its smt thatāll probably never change because a) target demographic (beasty, demuslim, other pros) donāt give a damn, and b) its only a part of the issue, thereās also messed up proportions to take care of across the entire game
- Why do destroyed buildings leave foundation rubble/scars all over that āneverā go away? Late-game maps/terrains get extremely cluttered (unattractive visually) and hard to read. Lingering remnants are confusing to see, as you sometimes wonder āIs that building still there, or is it gone?ā It also makes it harder to find out where the last few enemy units or buildings are in Conquest matches.
- Siege units shouldnāt self-destruct explode after suffering like two swings of a sword
- Still think the animations need another pass where they are sped up. So many animations are weightless and floaty (slow motion), which is often the result of inexperienced animators. Thatās fine for a while, but we are now a couple years post-launch and the game should be entering a phase of polish, imo
not much to add here, just truth, i think if foundations faded after 3 or so minutes itād be a net benefit, siege units is a balance thing (aoe4 devs canāt get siege right if life depended on it) and in terms of animations, just speeding them up would fix like 95% of the floating and slow motion, its not even poor animations once you set past games examples to the same speed as aoe4 ones, but that speed bump/ not locking it to 30 fps should also be done to destruction, and ofc aoe4 having 0 physics is not a downgrade i expected in this day and age
1 Like
Maybe, maybe not
An addition of Civs that are highly requested will be good
I think what AoE IV truly deserves is Well done SP/CO OP Content
The majority of RTS players are casuals.
If you do not believe it, please check why SC2 became so popular with well done Campaigns, Single Player content along with CO OP. Same with AoE II campaigns. In II there is a very large amount of Campaigns truly well written, with newer and revamped missions and bunch of difficulty levels (even sole missions vary on difficulty one to the other)
In IV campaigns, in addition to beign short, are boring, repetitive, very bad executed in terms of gameplay and learning key concepts. Sultans Ascend DLC campaign missions were better, thats for sure. Pretty fun, engaging, challenging.
We just need more content like this!!
2 Likes
SC2 was popular due to its MP-centric design and being a successor to Brood War. The (decent) campaign content didnāt arrive until quite a bit after release (with the second expansion I think?).
There are things that SC2 should inspire other developers about. But these are mostly the consequence of Blizzard having an infinite budget at the time (WoW was going strong, and they hadnāt blown budget on Overwatch or HotS yet).
So should AoE IV devs aspire to have a better replay system? Yes. Should they do it because SC2 had it? No, imo.
The same goes for SP content. We should get it because itās the right move for AoE IV. We get enough things from ābe like SC2ā. Itās not a measure of success by itself.
Yeah, itās weird that itās not like AoM or AoE 3 where the buildings disappear after a short timeā¦in the end it leaves the foundations of the buildings but nothing moreā¦
Yes, they would have to disarm like in AoE 2 and 3ā¦
Yes, itās like AoE 3, which featured historical campaigns and battles (in the expansions), which, while good, were very short, and you were left wanting moreā¦
Yes, thatās true, SC2 focused a lot at the beginning on the competitive scene and only with Legacy of the Void 5 years later did it focus on good campaigns and obviously cooperativeā¦ AoE 4 is slower in that, it releases civs, balances them for competitive and at the same time releases historical battles (which will eventually be made cooperative like in AoE 3)ā¦
1 Like
Talking about SP content
SC2 Multiplayer is a whole another special
Also is good enough to have a draft on what is a failure and what is a success. A good starting point for decision-making on the development of the game. A well driven roadmap template on what to do and not to do.
I feel like the game is incredibly balanced on land maps, but water needs a rework. Some civs are way stronger than others on hybrid and water maps.