That’s true in both cases…
Lol, glad my post keeps coming up whenever people discuss UI of aoe3 DE. Sadly, no major improvement of UI/UX has been done even though it managed to get a reply from a dev.
Also, what I made is still a mess tbh. I made that in one evening just wishing aoe3 had more game modes and features. The UI is still lacking a proper aoe3 feel.
Maybe I will remake a better one someday. maybe…
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The problem besides the huge important basics of UI, QoL., Polishing … (There is also a bug that when u press click (double) the view post game it will quit from the match post game to the lobby)… is that this game has become quite fantasy.
I see stuff like people using crazy techniques to hide and it’s basically impossible to raid them, it is impossible to do anything but to play on their terms. For me It’s a bit too much also beacsue they keep changing the game… and civs have to be played differently… U can’t learn and then move on, no you need to be forced to go back to learn a civ.
Like it was a job, but worse than a job.
Gaming should be finished and experience achievable, not procedurally reset. This type of mindset is extremely sickening. It’s like people did not have other things to do but to “play”…
Because beneath the shadow of long-time negligence, we still have the “you’re not allowed to ask for new civs from a certain region” folks and the “I cannot competitive 1v1 anymore so the game should remove its new contents” folks butchering the already small playerbase which is barely surviving under the mistreatment from the higher-ups.
That’s why.
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Because it is the game that has the fewest players after AOE1 and they need games with large numbers for their Game Pass project.
Age of Empires I
Approximate number of players 400 - 800?
Age of Empires II
Approximate number of players 10,000 - 20,000?
Age of Empires III
Approximate number of players 3000 - 7000?
Age of Empires IV
Approximate number of players 5000 - 15,000?
This is just an opinion and I don’t claim to know the truth. 
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To be honest, even if aoe3 has fewer players, it’s quite a healthy number for a 18-year old game that has been always undermined by the fanbase of aoe2.
Besides, the number of players of aoe3 is still one order of magnitude larger than aoe1’s, it isn’t comparable, it’s much closer to the size of aoe4’s playerbase (which is still much smaller than aoe2’s despite being new and heavily promoted).
I think this attitude towards aoe3 is quite irrational from them, it’s almost like they are trying to cater to the aoe3 haters (which ironically also tend to despise aoe IV) or maybe even some higher-up just hate this game themselves.
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This is not a bottom-out system.
The whole series have been generally well-received. If you look at sheer numbers, not competing within the series, all of the games have done tremendously better than most other games.
Most other companies would dream of having just one game with ~5000 online players.
If you decide to ignore it just because “it is not the best in the series” then it will be a huge missed opportunity.
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I agree with what you are saying, but we cannot deny that Microsoft has plans for the future and may not want to invest in the game because it does not seem profitable in the long term.
I agree, but I’m responding because I think Microsoft doesn’t give a greater amount of resources to the game. (Money, Marketing, Personnel, Etc.)
I think it is because they want the greatest number of players possible, to sell their Game Pass project, remember that they bought Bethesda and Blizzard, video game companies that have a gigantic player base.
But again this is just an opinion.
Yes, but the other companies don’t have Microsoft and the Age of Empires brand, it wouldn’t be a fair comparison either.
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There’s some movements in steamdb. Maybe we will get at least a minor patch soon
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That‘s good！！！We are looking forward it.
That’s true…but they still want to play the game or at least try it…
this forum stinks, we need offical reddit forum
They’re all bad. (20 character limit)
It’s starting to get ridiculous. It was leaked that they are making yet another DLC pack for AoE2, so AoE2 might get 3 DLCs in the same timespan that AoE3 got 1, great… Also, how come there has been barely any information on AoM: Retold?
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Seeing how they have been handling the “less important games” of the series, I don’t have much trust in AOMR anymore.
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It is crazy. I’d so happily throw money at the equivelent of that new AoE2 dlc…
AoE2 will get:
2 x New civs
3 x Campaigns!
And speculative but almost certain updates (including much needed ones to Persians) and new maps.
Imagine getting that for AoE3!
Wouldn’t it be a fantastic opportunity to have that as an anniversary announcement? Completely new civs (cough, Persians) and some single player love in the form of campaigns. I’m suprised there’s really been no follow up on the trial version to further grab new players. I know that if I hadn’t touched AoE3 but I loved playing the Persians in AoE2, I’d totally want to check out the game and a dlc that involved Persia…
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This is not really something that makes sense would put as a reason why. This is the simple cold “story” that they tell to shut people down with “it’s business folks”.
They are themselves responsible for those numbers.
If a game does actually kill itself by making hard to find team mates, to see what they are doing, to invite them and so on, see rec games, match make rated forced instead to be able to open a room rated for supremacy…
all things that isolate ppl, force them into discord waste of time and TELL THEM WHAT TO DO and HOW TO PLAY a game, these are huge failures of game design and this stuff is objective.
They are themselves the people who made the game so unpopular, then you cannot use the reason “the numbers are low”… of course: you released an un-releasable game and then you put as a justification that numbers are low so you do not intervene?
This stuff is like pretentious penniless scrooge greedy stuff that Microsoft and whoever is at Xbox game studios should be extremely ASHAMED for implementing as a procedure to take care of videogames and TITLES such like these.
I will never play a microsoft title anymore and hopefully I will also change OS soon as I hate these low lever ethical people… it’s the worse stuff that computer and games could have.
Microsoft, you are also trying to censor people voice by hiding, banning, muting people that tell you what is wrong. It happened to me on several platform including Steam, Twitter, and also non official ones besides these official ones.
This stuff is getting really to unprecedented levels of use of force for capitalistic reasons.
since you are undoubtedly familiar with TAD UI, i personaly never played multiplayer then but i’d like a few menu screenshots to get an idea on what changed and ofc, whats absent, might help with potential MP menu overhaul mod, i was thinking about that for a while
You need to experience. There is no brain transfusion that can work. You need to play a game before releasing it, you need to “love what you did” no lies, no shortcut there is in anything good.
It’s like calling good food McDonald, it’s poison for you and environment not just for else I won’t mention here… it supports wars.
There is no short cut. Anyway there are plenty of topics. and good posts by real players, not “sunday players” who pretend to be such… that explain how this was and how it has to be.
What really bugs me is that people do not feel the necessity for something. It’s like they have been sterilized or something.
I really can’t understand how people are ok with a game being a prison.
I have even been banned\blocked by Age of empires official twitter for asking them and sharing a short list (2 tweet thread) of what should be done and with much respect, but that is what they do. Silence, censor … same on the discord. Same people there… same pseudo volunteers oriented just to marketing and money making.
Silencing people that do not support the game with both blind eyes.
it’s just escruciatingly a betrayal of the mission of videogame design.
FOr your question you can see very well here the work I myself realized yesterday someone had posted about:
Here: Why the (online) interface of DE should be improved (2-3 YEARS AGO TOPICS!!!) – BUT MOST OF ALL CHECK SOME OF THE POSTS I ALSO MENTIONED in my late posts in those topics, check also freely the posts of random people along the months posting below, they SAY ALL, WE ALL SAY THE SAME THING, why? because we are educated to gaming and high level quality UX… and this is not like “fuss” it’s THE BREAD AND BUTTER OF GAME EXPERIENCE it builds communities it breeds success, it pushes more people to join… This stuff cannot be “invented” it’s there.
The wheel is there and who ignores it and doesn’t care is criminally ignorant.
Here: Let's talk about the DE interface once again
you can see lists of stuff here too:
I am gonna write it again:
-Rec Games must be always accessible 99% no issues
-Search player in game by name
-No censorship (this is not a game for under age targeted, this stuff feels like narrow minded and damages meeting other people)
-Online status must be there not only linked to Steam friendship it must be for EVERYONE
-In match status must be there it’s crucial
-Messages (so called Wishpers) must be there also allowed to be sent and logged to OFFLINE PLAYERS! It’s a crucial element!!!
-Messages cannot lag. They need to go fast.
-Improve matchmaking (but matchmaking will improve by itself by having more players which comes from making a better UI and UX and stopping with New DLC BS!!)
-Fix bugs like pressing View postgame\view map and having an automatic exit to lobby which means that is an archelogical issue that remained in the banners\tabs design and still is activated if you click just below the banner, fix also stuff like 1Gb+ of files that are useless to the game and should be removed from the 50GB total of unchecked unpolished crap the game features.
-Remove capital lettering and use Italic, remove all that abuse of GOLDEN YELLOW that has become the main Theme of the game over Brown low quality wooden background and reach the level of Ensemble Studios made etched woodwork you had (u can see in one of the links to topics… the idea is the Discovery age, the settlers time so it’s 1500 … 1600 you want to convey a meaning of ships, antiquity anyway, gun powder spreading… the game is centered on that time not industrial age or else… that is why adding DLC or civs that are UNEXISTENT or irrelevant in 1500 and later until late times, it’s not ok. They should be just partially appearing but not a “FEATURE US ALL BECAUSE I AM OF THIS NATION I AM OF THAT NATION” … this stuff needs to stop.
-Allow checking WHO IS IN A CLAN, (unless clan chief does disable that… anyway should be visible so people can learn who is in a clan)
- Invest in servers
- Multi tab navigation (simply what we have in this world since 1993: Hypertext NAVIGATION of the lobby is a like MUST the Ought to do that. it’s incredible it’s not there!
- No drops in rated games
-Rated Rooms Supremacy allowed (it has always been so there is no reason to force ppl to matchmake: so much that also casuals join it ruining the team gaming for ALL! People as a consequence tend to use double trple account and this fosters sales in a malicious way by developers! Smurfers are a plague of matchmaking! There are clearly effects that are started, and incentivated by the bad design! One of them is people leaving since the game features\service\UI\ UX is broken… how can’t they see it!!! - Units pathfinding can be a bit improved just a bit.
- Stop DLC BS… the more civs u put the more units need to be learned: it’s imposssible for new players to learn everything and also for old ones that never really learned a lot of civs to actually learn old ones and new ones. It’s hard to balance the game mor civs are put in.
A GOOD GAME SELLS ITSELF by selling the base game (raise its price) STOP DLC BS.
It’s just madness how this stuff is managed by people without the smallest tiny bit of taste, understanding, competence, Blinding their ears to people with experience.
MICROSOFT WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?
With a mod this stuff risks to be worse.
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This post must have been made by competitors who exactly know how to undermine the game, and the funny thing is devs do listen to this crap and do it. like how to destroy yourself thinking that people who posts in the forums and make this irrational noise of “moaaar DLCs” are actually caring for the game and know how to make it better.
THis is beyond limits…
How can people even be so lacking of competence and rationality.
It’s like a kiddo screaming over and over I WANT THIS I WANT THAT… and they give it to him\her.
You destroy the game like this. and the community is unexistent.