Which of these features can, by itself, make you buy AOE4 on release?

[GabStrk]

My point exactly. The camera choice is absurd for a RTS.

[Heinrich1996100]

I think the problem is indeed the angel. From what I FELT, age 2 was nearly a top down camera, which offered SO MUCH MORE planning opportunities. Maybe they should add the ability to change camera angling, so I can play my game of macro and others can see their beauticul cinematic game?

[GabStrk]

Some clarifications:

• when I say
  “But someone, I have no idea who or why, has decided that the next big RTS game must look like AC Odyssey or The Witcher or whatever”
  I’m still referring to camera, perspective, and point of view, not the level of detail, beauty of the graphics etc. I should have been more careful, my bad, maybe I should correct that.

• In making the example of the keep, I’m not trying to defend the scale in the game, quite the opposite. I’d like a “grandiose” keep, and I think there are ways in which we could have it (well, maybe not “grandiose”, but bigger yes ): just a different camera, give up the RPG camera and bring back the RTS one. I think the scale in general is silly and unpleasant. I was simply proposing that the choice of perspective prevents a more accurate one. So, devs, change the camera and give us a bigger keep, a more coherent scale, not the other way around!

Some comments to your reply.

@Khansa5234

A huge portion of AOE is developing a city or a base, building an economy as well as fighting and over powering the enemy. Zoomed in only benefits the later aspect. How can you plan your city building without scoping the area? know where your resource points are, know where vantage points are, where to place walls, what is a good place to place military buildings, where should I place buildings in association to where the enemy has placed them. Even when pushing against enemies like tower rush and stuff, imagine having to drag all around the map constantly each time you need to do something.

Totally agree! I would add that even in fighting, when the number of units involved increases, too zoom in isn’t desirable .

@Khansa5234

Nobody stays in 1 zoom. You zoom out for broader planning and map evaluation and then zoom in for micro or even detail appreciation

Don’t agree with this though. Coming from AoE I & II, I think that having to constantly zoom in and out during gameplay is not advisable. This, of course, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to choose what zoom level is optimal for you, given a reasonable zoom interval from which to choose.

@Khansa5234

The zoom in is intentional not related to performance.

Adam Isgreen says in interviews that performance play a big role in zoom level. I have no reason to not believe that. But then again, you can’t have a RTS with a camera, point of view, of a RPG or FPS and expect the game to both look good and play well.
What you can have, and should aim for, in my humble opinion, is a RTS with a RTS camera (very strange, right?) so that the game looks beautiful and plays well, just from a bit farther away. If, for technical/performance reasons, I can’t zoom in too much, I wouldn’t mind that, I would consider it a good compromise (S, in RTS, stands for strategy …).

On a general note, I think we share the same criticism about graphics, art visual, level of details, look of units and all you talk about. I was indeed replying to a topic that asks what changes would make me buy the game. So, you can see that I’m pretty dissatisfied with the game as it is now, so much that, nothing changing, I will not buy the game. And, as per topic, I was trying to single out what the main issue is, what is the prerequisite on which to build all our other discussions about graphics, gameplay, civilizations, and all the rest. Camera and perspective are not a sufficient requirement to solve all the issues of the game, but a necessary one to start traying.

I’m all in in favor of gameplay, it’s a necessity, especially for a RTS game, but I do not see how this game could be considered “only focused on gameplay”, to me, the opposite is true. That fact then, that it also looks “bad” (except the environment, which I find beautiful and appropriate) it’s not funny, at all.
But it’s not a paradox, and I hope to have been able to show why perspective and camera settings have to do with it.

By the way, for reference, I’m an old AoE II (and AoE I) single player that loves campaigns and enjoys watching the competitive scene.

Regarding the RTS genere, unfortunately, I think it’s now clear (also given all the features that we now know will not be present at release) that AoE IV is a much smaller/different project than we had hoped for.

[GabStrk]

Yeah, if only could be possible to have both!