As everyone knows English and French are the most popular civs at lower level even mid level. The game quickly becomes boring when every game opponent goes French knight rush or English longbow ram rush. I am thinking about the reasons
I realised the difficulty rating might be a factor. As aoe4 gains popularity, new players are attracted to this game and start to try out civs. In very distinct and obvious place there is difficulty star rating. And English and French are the only two with ‘easy’ rating (1 star). That’s why new players are attracted to play English or French and stick with that familiar civ most of the time
This seriously ruins the fun. I am gold 3 or platinum 1 rating. Out of the last 10 games 7 games opponent was either english or french! These 2 civs make up for only 20% of all civs! 2 out of 10! There are 8 other fun and unique civs to play and explore! Why the heck is everyone English or French! When opponent is English it is 100% longbow pike ram rush. When opponent was French it was 100% Royal Knight and archer rush! The repetitiveness make me bored so quickly!
Plz, remove the difficulty rating. Every civ feels different in different players’ hand. Why rate their difficulty in the first place? It also creates a false impression of easy = more likely to win. But the star rating of civ doesn’t equal the chance of winning!
P.S.
I just uninstalled the game. I hoped with the two new civs in the game more people are going to play them and I will face fewer English or French. The reality is no, everyone is still picking english and french. I am bored of this game.
The above is my suggestion for the dev so that they will make the game more enjoyable for the remaining players.
It gives new players a starting point, by encouraging them to learn civs that have relatively simple bonuses and mechanics, making it easier to understand and use them in a straightforward manner, without worrying too much about the intricacies of more advanced gameplay design. If it’s so predictable, you should be able to develop strategies that are highly effective against them (you literally listed the strats they all use), and you should be able to climb quickly off the backs of people picking predictable civs.
I dont know if its the difficulty rating telling people to choose those civs as much as its players choose those civs because they are in fact easier to play. Chinese have weird dynasty stuff and tax collectors, the mongols have strange oovoo buildings and no farms, delhi abbasid have odd base setups, and players who just want simple aoe2 style build your city without learning those mechanics, will just choose the easy civs…
Even without the ratings of difficulty, players will still just figure out that its less complicated to choose eng or french
it’s also likely the civs they played in previous versions. In AoE 2 I was usually Brits, Turks, Celts, chinese… In AoE3 I play Brits, Otto, French… so French, brits, ottos make sense as starting points in aoe4.
I am conq 1 and do not experience this. Honestly, I think this dude just wanted to complain about something. Stated difficulty is great. I think they should add more 1 star civs though.