From experience with AoE 3 and its community, it most likely won’t be accepted as they like the predictability that comes with no FF as well as always-hitting projectiles.
You need to explain that one. And no, instant-resource collection does not count.
Too many to name and I don’t feel like firing up AoE3 to find out. I’m taking a long, multi-year or multi-decade break from it at the moment. And instant resource teleportation should definitely count for something
On the surface, without launching the game or looking up videos, going from memory:
I’m pretty sure my list could go on and on for me, but it’s okay… it is what it is. It’s not that important. If you like these mechanics and gameplay limitations/decisions, by all means, keep playing AoE3, I’m glad you like it. I’ve been told some of the AoE3 limitations are good for balance and all that. Sounds good. I uninstalled AoE3 long ago as the game is not for me; I feel these are bad mechanics. Plus, if the AoE3 community feels it’s impossible to re-balance the game after fixing what I feel are “bad mechanics”, or they like those mechanics, then so be it. As I’ve said a number of times before, AoE3 can be its own thing. Clearly a lot of people love it as is and I wouldn’t want devs to change that. FF from archers would just be a feather in the cap of bad gameplay mechanics in AoE3, imo
There’s really no problem in agreeing to disagree. Everyone has their own opinions and observations based on personal likes, dislikes, and experiences. If you don’t see the above as poor gameplay mechanics, then that’s your prerogative
Once upon a time, all gunpowder units had friendly fire.
Conquistador at that time completly destroyed your own champions during El Cid campaign, I still remember it during The Conqueror.
You can turn on friendly fire in genie editor to see how it plays.
Ehm.. at the end of the day, these are games and not simulators. If you go that route, all units that rely on ammunition across the series are unrealistic as their amount of projectiles are infinite. Total War has finite ammo for its units btw.
The explorer was added as a learning from the starting scouts in the previous games.
The things you listed are there for gameplay purposes to keep things in balance. Do you have to like them? No. Are these mechanics bad because you don’t like them? Likewise no.
AoE 2 also has maps with unwallable terrain (Land Madness, Acropolis to name two).
Large maps exist since DE and iirc you can force all maps into Large size.
FF would not fit into AoE 3 at all.
Btw, I equally like AoE 2 and 3 for different reasons.
I know and like that AoE is a game and not a sim. I’ve used that same rationale many of times before (e.g., when people were wanting AoE4 to have crews moving siege units around, AoE3-style) The game of AoE3 puts several restrictions on you that I don’t like in my AoE games. Not being able to build more than 7 towers or 1-4 forts, or getting an invincible Explorer periscope, is not my idea of fun. The scouts in AoE2 are fine for me in my games, never an issue, never wanted or even thought to make them invincible.
I acknowledged that my list was probably for balance reasons. Yet I strongly feel any gameplay mechanic can be balanced in a ton of ways. AoE2 has like 50 civs, probably more, and yet they’ve never needed to tie player hands with a silly 7-tower or 1-castle limit.
Unwallable terrain in AoE2 is far more palatable for me than AoE3’s. AoE3 has weird arbitrary rules and way too many unwallable parts on its already tiny (pre-DE) maps.
I got tired of seeing red walls, red buildings, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, you can’t play the game how you want notifications last time I played AoE3 after a multi-year hiatus that I threw in the towel. It’s how it always was and it was never all that fun for me. I just can’t, sorry. It’s not for me.
I’m glad you like that stuff or found your way around it, or DE resolved some of it. You’ll never convince me these are fun mechanics. They are bad mechanics for me. It’s fine they are good mechanics for you and other AoE3 players. Like I said, we all have our own opinions and preferences. Keep enjoying AoE3. I’m not trying to sway you otherwise. I just hope any AoE5 steers very clear of such limitations imposed upon us by devs, no matter the rationale
And FF from archers in any AoE game let alone AoE5 would be saddening to me
The difference is that AoE 2’s civs are for the most part symmetric which makes it easier to balance them and their boni aren’t as crazy as the ones from AoE 3 where e.g. Merchants (the villager replacement for the Dutch) cost Gold instead of Food so they get some Gold-related boni to make up for that, e.g. a unique building in shape of the Bank that likewise has a build limit to keep them in balance.
You won’t find these type of boni in AoE 2, at least not to the same degree.
Haha, I used to think like that as well. Playing more AoE 3 actually made me realize that it isn’t as restrictive as often assumed and parts of these limits do make sense when you think more about them. I guess I just came to the realization that not every game must be a carbon copy of AoE 2 to be fun. Which is why in the same way I never found enjoyment with AoE 4 as it imo copies too much from AoE 3 and AoM with only having a few original ideas.
AoE 2 is my first love in this franchise and it’ll always be this way. However, as said, 3 is meanwhile tied for me. 
Technically AoE 2 style. The first unit in the series to have an operator was the Bombard Cannon all the way since Age of Kings. 
I’m confused – what problem is this supposed to be solving? I don’t understand why you would need building limits on towers and forts either.
It’s ages since I played AoE3 (before the first expansion), and I don’t remember this at all. I never got into it, I didn’t like non-Europeans being NPCs without civilisation status, so perhaps didn’t get a chance to enjoy these weird-sounding design decisions.
The complaint is that the Explorer can die in the enemy base and get free vision there.
The fort and tower limit is probably there because they didn’t think it looked right having too many.
True. I guess I meant siege units with people around them that actually impact the time it takes to move and swivel them around, drop/pick up, etc. As soon as little siege guys or horses make moving siege around a nightmare, that’s when I lose patience. Countless times in AoE3 I’d have to wait for siege to turn around, or me to pick up and drop mortars that it got too discombobulated for my tastes. Seems like misclicks would happen, too, so you’d have to wait 5 seconds after one in order to correct the mistake. I found myself micro-ing cannons and mortars in AoE3 far more than I prefer, both to attack things, and avoid being attacked… as they become sitting ducks for 5 seconds as they do their thing
Waiting for trebs in AoE2 is one thing. I kind of like that, for that one unit. But when several siege weapons have to go through that with much delay between my command and final execution, which AoE3 had, it’s not my thing
I assume some ppl at ES thought it isn’t fun that your starting scout is basically only relevant for the first few minutes before it either dies or becomes obsolete by other means, hence me calling it a “learning”. Whether it’s a good or bad one, it’s up to your own preference.
Well, as stone has been removed from the game (already since AoM), Forts are in almost all cases only available as a shipment. Another thing they did is to minimize building spam by making wood a slowly collected resource (0.5/sec) but in return introduce batch training.
I assume you mean natives? They’re basically repurposed Minor Gods from AoM with the difference that anyone has access to them if you build a post nearby their settlement. They also have been expanded over time and can now appear as religious movements (Jesuits, Tengri, Sufi on Asian maps) or Royal Houses (Habsburg, Hannover, Vasa etc on European maps).
I just use Attack Move. As for the rest of what you said: that’s tbh just a fully-animated version of Trebs (un-)packing, obviously with Artillery instead of a Treb.
Quick mod made if anyone’s interested: Archer friendly fire - Mods - Age of Empires
I think there should be a Napoleonic era Chronicles-type dataset in AoE2, emphasizing that that game will always be superior to the others and the most popular one, with the best gameplay. I suppose it would anger the AoE3 fans who are upset about its discontinuation, but, to be honest, I really don’t care if all the other games in the series die, just as long as AoE2 stays strong.
Dont give them more ideas to recycle stuff already ingame.
Partly those, yes. AoE1 and AoE2 had 12 or 13 civs each (16 or 18 with the expansions), many of which were not European, and my favourites to play as were usually non-European ones. AoE3 launched with only 8 civs, 7 of which were European (arguably 7 and a half). This felt like a real downgrade relative to the earlier games in the series – but because of the way the natives (or “minor civilisations”) were implemented, Europeans were being given some kind of special status over the others.
Yeah that’s a big downside of the original setting.
Like it or not, but it is accurate for the time period it is representing.
I have no idea what you mean by that. You’re saying that in real life during that time period, native Americans were actually NPCs? That makes no sense – real life doesn’t have NPCs.
European civilizations were immeasurably more powerful, impactful, and technologically advanced than the others in AoE3’s timeline. They did choose the most suitable eight civilizations.