Why is aom retold losing players so fast?

[GorbMort]

@_MarakuJa1

They are making money with a game from 20 years ago, am I correct?

Are they? Who’s buying base AoM anymore?

[Jonasnee8581]

@Skadidesu

Both AoM and AoE3 suffer from the design decision of not having Stone.

And this is a mistake because?

I honestly dont see what stone adds to AOE.

[Velk413]

@GorbMort

Millenials were around 20 years ago. Some are even in their 40s now.

Yeah, i’m like the last year of Millenial and i’m going to be turning 30 this year, Millenials are older than you think.

[Velk413]

@Jonasnee8581

I honestly dont see what stone adds to AOE.

I think the main thing is the presence of the stone resource makes it easier to balance defensive buildings, because you can make them stronger and balance by raising the stone price or making it less prevalent to avoid mass defensive buildings, when the res for those defensive buildings is the same as that for units its harder to balance it in a way that doesn’t also affect unit production.

[OmaDesala]

Adding the stone would be a big mistake, it would make the game more complex than it already is, knowing that there is already a Fourth resource which is the favor, so that would make the addition of a 5th resource!

[Fyrapan90]

I don’t think Age of Mythology needs stone as a resource; it also differentiates it from Age of Empires. I’d like to see them make the walls and towers stronger in Age of Mythology: Retold; right now, they feel really weak and not worth the cost of building in most cases.

[Skadidesu]

I already said it. A building limit allows you to immediately rebuild a destroyed tower. Destroying fortifications is always just a temporary success. So the only way to make fortifications balanced is by making them weak.

Stone is a resource that runs out and has to be bought for an increasing price. So if you destroy a Castle the enemy has to pay a valuable resource to replace it.

This mechanic allows fortifications to be very strong without making games last forever.

[_MarakuJa]

@GorbMort

Are they? Who’s buying base AoM anymore?

I really didnt know they created a game called aom from scrap. Am I missing something? The gen Z geniuses (better now?) createad a game called Age of mythology in 2024 and I didnt know? was it a Dejavú when I saw Age of mythology remake announced? So I need to apologize. Was a great from zero created game so. Congrats for them.

I cant beliave people sometimes.

[GorbMort]

@_MarakuJa1

I really didnt know they created a game called aom from scrap. Am I missing something? The gen Z geniuses (better now?) createad a game called Age of mythology in 2024 and I didnt know? was it a Dejavú when I saw Age of mythology remake announced? So I need to apologize. Was a great from zero created game so. Congrats for them.

I cant beliave people sometimes.

Retold is an expansive remastering of the underlying game. They’re making money from that effort; from that project.

They’re not making money from the game released 20 years ago. Which is what you asked, and which you are incorrect about.

Beyond that, I don’t really know what you’re getting at, sorry.

[_MarakuJa]

@GorbMort

Retold is an expansive remastering of the underlying game.

They’re making money from that effort; from that project.

They’re not making money from the game released 20 years ago.

I’m trying to figure out what you mean by that, but this comparison video keeps replaying in my mind as I try to understand you:

TIME DELAY IN WHILE THE TOWN CENTER REALIZES A VILLAGER IS BEING ATTACKED BY A WILD ANIMAL:

[Lesrot8259]

I think the texture graphics of grass and environment is absolutrely terrible, its a mess, models look really good but that cartoony graphics is terrible, aoe2 has worse graphics but they look bettter because theres more readibilty and looks way better

[MatM1996]

@BornWinter52864

The main reason the game is losing players is because of the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans are really broken, they are vastly superior to all pantheons and most Atlantean players only spam archer heroes. I’m sorry to say but the Atlanteans are ruining the game with their troll play style. The Atlanteans are like if you mixed all the pantheons and only chose the advantages of each pantheon and created a pantheon called Atlanteans.
Facing a team of Atlantean players is practically a guaranteed defeat because the Atlanteans almost always advance first to the next age and collect resources twice as fast so they can make any kind of strategy it is totally unfair I wish the Atlanteans did not exist in the game because many players are already tired of seeing the same cowardly strategy of only archers heroes and siege weapons.

Well, that’s how it is… you can’t remove them because it’s original content from Ensemble Studios, but simply balance them out over time…

@TheLiberator236

Better would be to have easier shortcuts like Stormgate and add a toggle option to disable/enable autoqueue!

That has AoM…just press right click and out, you no longer have AoQ…I use it to keep getting military units and villagers all the time while I’m building the economy…

@TheLiberator236

Competitve wise is pretty bad because it make the players rely only on Military skillset

Like in AoE 3…

@OmaDesala

I find it quite pleasant and comfortable, and as the continuous creation of villagers is essential to the game, I don’t see it as too much of a problem. It’s true that I’d be very annoyed if I had to go back to spamming the keys to create villagers all the time.

The game is complex enough as it is, with spells, god choices, army composition and so on. Why make it more tedious?

I think the same…when the game is already complex, why make it even more complex?

@Fyrapan90

Age of Mythology: Retold has tremendous potential if done right, and the reason players are leaving is the lack of content.

The gods in Arena mode were quite frankly disappointing, so the new DLC needs to deliver not only a good Chinese pantheon but also additional content for casual and multiplayer players.

Let’s hope for the best, as I want Age of Mythology: Retold to receive new content for many years.

Yes, at least a good campaign and 10 multiplayer maps, even including more mythical battles…

@Velk413

I think part of the reason game studios cater the pro player scene is that they give a lot of (largely) free exposure (in effect advertising) for the game, and helps keep the game in more of a public spotlight than it might otherwise, which can help drive sales. But the downside is what you mention; it can end up alienating casual players. Honestly I think this is more of a concern in AOE2 where there is more of a pro scene, but it can come up here in AOM as well. MS had shown with some of their AOE2 projects last year that they are at least trying to keep the single player side of the fence in mind (as scuffed as Victors & Vanquished over there, and Arena of the Gods over here was, at least they show that we’re on their mind) and I hope that the message they got from poor reception was “people wanted this but were disappointed how we did it, lets improve” as opposed to “welp people didn’t want that, lets just focus on PVP” but time will tell how they respond.

Yes, there is no need to insist so much on PVP… there are more traditional players who simply want a good campaign with a good story and not to be constantly competing with strangers… for some reason I always return to the AoE 2 campaigns and do not stay in the multiplayer of 3/Retold…

@Armilus

In the final game, most of the lore from the previous games was either completely rewritten from scratch, scrapped entirely, or poorly summarized in short text blurbs that could be unlocked as part of an ingame database. And that game became the sole reference for C&C lore for many players that joined the C&C community with that game.
The gameplay was essentially a copy of RA2 with a few elements of Generals added to it.
When it comes to story and plot, it was framed as a sequel to Tiberian Sun, but when it comes to faction design and actual plot, it was Tiberian Dawn all over again, with a sci-fi coat of paint, and with a more or less generic Alien Invasion added on top.
The way Tiberium worked was also completely rewritten. While it remained a green crystal that comes out of the ground that can ebe harvested for money, the lore behind it is completely different, with no trace of the original lore left, safe for one or two lines in the ingame database, saying it “evolved”. That way, and how it was implemented in the game, made it a generic resource, completely void of the threat it represented in the past as well. Yes, the story still tells us it’s dangerous, but you don’t feel that in the gameplay. Not once. Not even in the most extreme situations.
And the tiberium ecosystem with the mutated landscapes from Firestorm? Veinhole monsters, and other Tiberium life that could threaten the players troops and even the base? Gone, without as much as a mention in the database. (Maybe half a sentence about how Tiberium had almost organic seeming appearence, before it evolved.)
Like, even if you agree that it was the best entry in the series, gameplay wise, and there are valid points to that claim, you can’t deny that the lore was changed and re-written in a massive way. Something EA would not be able to get away with today. Despite none of the lore changes having anything to do with politics, other than making the political situation easier to understand for someone who has no idea about the lore and just has one look at an ongoing match.
There are people who even prefer the new lore. I STRONGLY prefer the old lore. Even tho some aspects of the new lore are cool and make sense, I disagree with the majority of the retcons.
And the balance patches always favored fast paced, spammy multiplayer tactics, with base building features being weaker than in previous games from the very beginning, and getting weaker as patches came in, which hurt the singleplayer campaign, to the point of certain missions becoming almost unwinnable that were previously well managable. Like cranes not being able to make turrets made a big impact.

@Armilus

From that perspective, sure, that was new. It was also a good explanation why the aliens don’t just wipe the floor with everything, despite being so advanced they are expanding an interstellar empire to include Earth without even checking if there’s intelligent life on it.
But when it comes to what you experience fighting them in the game, you get the three legged invasion machine, and a bunch of ofther units and buildings clearly meant for fighting. There’s not a lot in the design of the buildings and units that screams mining team.

Yes, that’s what many complained about… all the Tiberian fauna disappeared in CNC3, the mutants became simple camps like “minor AoE 3 civs”… although they later tried to fix it with Kane’s Wrath, it wasn’t enough… although finally seeing the Scrins in all their potential and all the lore of the Tacitus was very interesting (although it was of no use since they later removed it) (cough cough the crap of CNC4 cough cough)…

@OmaDesala

@Armilus Yes, the old lore is much better. Despite its age, I only played the first C&C, I didn’t like playing the later ones. You could feel the passion of the devs and studios for video games. They were trying to make good games instead of focusing on the esport scene or competition at all costs. The 1st one is still a masterpiece like no one makes any more these days. Long live Kane! Peace through power.

Yes, during the pandemic I downloaded CNC remastered and both Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert 1 are still very good games… then I tried Tib Sun and RA2 and they are still classics… I had already finished Generals in 2014 and I had seen the story of CNC3 and RA3 on Youtube when they came out back in 2007-2008… about CNC4 I pretend it doesn’t exist and I tell myself that the saga ended with RA3…

@TheLiberator236

And despite the recent DLC announcement and Marketing Campaign AOM Retold keeps on losing players

Say goodbye to the game, they are going to give it the last rites…

@TheLiberator236

What else the community and the company need to stop the continuous player drop and gain a bunch?

Releasing the aforementioned DLC…there’s not much left…2 more weeks (or 1 if you already have the premium)…

@MetalKing1417

While alot of the more “weird” stuff of tiberium was definitely lost and was sorely missed, I don’t think the alien invasion plot was all that generic in CNC 3- them being unprepared miners who were tricked into prematurely invading is quite new.

Yes, in fact the alien invasion was always planned to happen in CNC3, what they ruled out was that in 2047 the GDI was going to find in a secret base technology of the Allies of RA2 that would make one of Kane’s henchmen travel to the past with a Chronosphere to 1972 and become the madman scientist Yuri and help the Soviets in WW3 of RA2… then obviously with what happens in RA3, RA2 simply disappears from the timeline:

Red Alert subsaga:

RA1: Great Second World War (1946-1952)

RA2: Third World War (1972-1973) (no longer occurs after what happened in the prologue of RA3)

RA3: War of the Three Powers (1986-1989) (what would be WW3 in RA3)

Tiberian subsaga:

Nod appears and the Tiberium meteorite falls (1994-1995)

Tiberian Dawn/Renegade: First Tiberian War (1997-2000)

Tiberian Sun: Second Tiberian War (2030-2032)

CNC3: Kane’s Wrath: Kane’s second rebirth (2034-2052)

CNC3: Tiberium Wars: Third Tiberian War and arrival of the Scrins (2047)

CNC4: Tiberian Twilight: Fourth Tiberian War (2077) (let’s pretend it doesn’t exist and it’s not canon)…

I’m not counting Tiberium Alliance, Rivals or Legion because they have no chronology…

@A554551N8

This might also be as to why Playstation is being ported to AoM first.

Yes, the release of the game on PS5 will help the game to lift up a little or hopefully a lot… there is someone who plays on PS5 and he was wondering if after Retold and 2, they could release 3 and 1 on PS5 as well and I told him “I hope so, at least for the 20th anniversary of 3”…

@Tapiseiro

Friends, don’t overthink it. AoM Retold is a game meant to relive the classic for a while, play the campaign, or even some matches with friends. If you want a game with a vibrant community, go for another RTS.

What should have been done to turn AoM into a modern and popular game should have been done long ago—it’s too late now.

Well, it can still be popular if you throw new mythologies at it… there’s no other RTS, except Godsworn, that deals with classic mythologies fighting each other…

@Fyrapan90

Age of Mythology is a game that means a lot to so many people, so expectations for Retold were naturally high. But I don’t think it’s fair to say it will always be a shadow of what it could have been.

From what we’ve seen so far, Retold stays true to the original while modernizing it in meaningful ways—better visuals, improved AI, smoother gameplay, and quality-of-life changes that make it more accessible. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather polish what was already great. Could it have been even bigger? Maybe. But that doesn’t mean what we got isn’t worth celebrating.

Plus, the beauty of a game like this is that it doesn’t have to be static. With community feedback, patches, and potential expansions, Retold can keep improving. I’d rather judge it on what it actually delivers rather than an ideal version that may never have existed in the first place.

At the end of the day, if someone doesn’t enjoy it, that’s totally fair. But for those of us who do, I think it’s okay to appreciate what we have while still hoping for even more down the road.

Yes, I couldn’t have said it better… you have to be optimistic about the game, but also realistic… if they manage to get AoM to 5k players, it will already have a healthy community… and with each DLC the number of players will increase little by little… 7.5k with the second pantheon and 10k with the third pantheon next year and so on…

@Velk413

If its something like AOE2 where there are already 40-someodd other civs, then i’ll still play. But with AOM with not too much content currently, yeah i’m more likely to wait until the new content comes out.

I’m still playing Retold for the challenges, I’ll finish them this weekend and I’ll just wait until the 27th to play Immortal Pillars…

@Tapiseiro

@OmaDesala @Velk413 I truly wish you all the best. Hopefully, Microsoft commits to continuing the development of Retold beyond the two DLCs they have promised for those of you who love the game and doesn’t abandon it like they did with AoE3.

Personally, they lost me with the decision to keep the population limit low. I don’t think a game with self-imposed limitations of that kind can progress, but I hope I’m wrong.

Best regards, and I wish you the best of luck.

@OmaDesala

@Tapiseiro The game doesn’t really need any luck, sc2 and aoe3 haven’t had any DLC for ages and are still played a lot. AOM, on the other hand, is still in its infancy, so even without new DLC it’s still quite playable.

In short, it’s easy to have a negative point of view on a game as soon as you stop playing it, but please don’t pour out your rage gratuitously, comments like “AOM is a shadow of what it could have been” or “AOM is a game reserved for fans”, seriously, that’s laughable.

@TheLiberator236

Yes, but the reality is the continuous player drop
Hopefully with DLC launch the game would gain a pick!

Yes, let’s hope so…

@Huge5000RTSFan

Let’s be honest, we all missed the game, but we did know it won’t have many people.
I think its important to recap what is missing, to make a proper sequel.

-It needs more symmetry and overlapping among the factions, god favours should be generated same and similar across all factions, like Greek to worship at temple + by kill enemy units like Norse.

-we need stone as resource back

-buff up the defenses and trade

@Armilus

I’m not against stone being added and the favor system reworked. For a potential AoM2. For AoM, it’s too big of a deviation from the original game. The cultures playing differently from one another is one of those things we like about the game. And with Stone being added back, all the prices for buildings, upgrades, and units would have to be redone from scratch, and then relearned.

Buffing defense and trade is something I can get behind. Towers did get a small buff with the last patch, which is very welcome.

@_MarakuJa1

“There is only evolution within a tradition.”

I completely agree with you, these things made us fall in love with the game. These brutal differences between civilizations make the game unique. It doesn’t make sense to want to change that now. They need to keep as much as possible the same as the classic version, it’s a remake, not an Age of Mythology 2.

Yes, in AoMR it wouldn’t happen because it would change its philosophy… but for AoM 2 it could be (you take what you learned in AoE 4 and put it in AoM 2 in an engine like UE5)…

@_MarakuJa1

I don’t even know if the idea of stones as resources was ever considered, but whoever had that idea needs to learn to respect Age of Mythology and its community, this change would alter something essential about the game: The game has been this way for over 20 years, and now a millennial developer comes and tries to change something they don’t understand.

Stone was also going to be a resource in Age of Mythology, but was cut before release. Instead, favor takes the role of the fourth resource in that game (buildings that traditionally cost stone cost gold instead).

The reason why stone was removed from Age of Mythology was given on an AoMH forums thread, answering to why stone was removed:

|“|It isn’t just having to manage your villagers collecting 5 resources, it’s also having to remember that some units, buildings or techs cost Food and Wood, others cost Food and Gold, others cost Food and Favor, others cost Gold and Stone…it just got to be too much to remember, like having a telephone number that was 26 digits long. We didn’t remove Stone because it was realistic to do so. We wanted to remove a resource, and Stone made the most sense because there is almost always plenty to go around. Believe me, you’re going to have enough to do in AOM without worrying about “stone mines”.|”|

Greg Street

@GorbMort

You need to understand, I think, that 20 years ago is 20 years ago. Modernising anything within specific constraints is difficult. Making some inaccurate “generational” complaint because you subjectively dislike what has been attempted is barely criticism at all.

Of course, the best thing they can do is not touch it so much…

@Skadidesu

What I want from AoM2 and AoE5 (if it is like AoE3) is kinda similar.
Both AoM and AoE3 suffer from the design decision of not having Stone.

@Skadidesu

Favour and XP are kinda similar concepts but in AoM there are only 1-2 methods to generating favour per civilisations while almost everything you do generates XP in AoE3.
I think the best would be a middle ground. Have generic things that give Favour but then have some unique ones for Civilisations, Major Gods or even Minor Gods (kinda already exists).

@Skadidesu

Having Stone as resource allows to balance fortifications a lot better. Build limits are stupid because you can immediately rebuild the tower you have lost while making Stone the most limited resource makes the loss of a Castle a lot more significant in AoE2.

@Jonasnee8581

And this is a mistake because?

I honestly dont see what stone adds to AOE.

@Velk413

I think the main thing is the presence of the stone resource makes it easier to balance defensive buildings, because you can make them stronger and balance by raising the stone price or making it less prevalent to avoid mass defensive buildings, when the res for those defensive buildings is the same as that for units its harder to balance it in a way that doesn’t also affect unit production.

@OmaDesala

Adding the stone would be a big mistake, it would make the game more complex than it already is, knowing that there is already a Fourth resource which is the favor, so that would make the addition of a 5th resource!

@Skadidesu

I already said it. A building limit allows you to immediately rebuild a destroyed tower. Destroying fortifications is always just a temporary success. So the only way to make fortifications balanced is by making them weak.

Stone is a resource that runs out and has to be bought for an increasing price. So if you destroy a Castle the enemy has to pay a valuable resource to replace it.

Sure, that’s true… anyway, I don’t feel the lack of stone in AoM and AoE 3 because you have other resources besides and besides the stone wasn’t useful for that much, only walls and castles…In fact, in AoE 3 you have a limit on the number of defensive buildings you can build, only serving to defend your base and do map control and out…

@Skadidesu

• Chronicles: You can trade for wood on water make the resource infinite for the first time in the series.

Is that true?..I didn’t try it…

@Skadidesu

Trade should be more interesting and not just more distance = more money.
I think trade should be something that depends on the map. Like only be possible between specific locations (like Settlements in AoM) and with a limit for each location and not each player.
Also you should get resources if someone trades with you.

Sure, that’s true and yes, it can work…

@Fyrapan90

I don’t think Age of Mythology needs stone as a resource; it also differentiates it from Age of Empires. I’d like to see them make the walls and towers stronger in Age of Mythology: Retold; right now, they feel really weak and not worth the cost of building in most cases.

Sure, in fact AoE 3 doesn’t have stone either, but its defensive buildings are super strong and powerful…

@GorbMort

Retold is an expansive remastering of the underlying game. They’re making money from that effort; from that project.

They’re not making money from the game released 20 years ago. Which is what you asked, and which you are incorrect about.

Beyond that, I don’t really know what you’re getting at, sorry.

Sure, Retold is just a remaster of the classic AoM, but like the rest of the DE games (except 1 DE), the remaster also serves to expand and balance the classic game in a modern gaming context (DLCs, micropayments and new expansions)…

@_MarakuJa1

TIME DELAY IN WHILE THE TOWN CENTER REALIZES A VILLAGER IS BEING ATTACKED BY A WILD ANIMAL:

In Retold the TC does not attack…

@Lesrot8259

I think the texture graphics of grass and environment is absolutrely terrible, its a mess, models look really good but that cartoony graphics is terrible, aoe2 has worse graphics but they look bettter because theres more readibilty and looks way better

Maybe it’s because it uses the same version of the Bang engine as 3DE? Many people in the 3DE forums also complained about that, but it’s not a “cartoon cartoon” RTS like WC3, EE3 or AoE Online, but rather relatively realistic buildings and units, but with somewhat cartoonish faces…

[_MarakuJa]

@MatM1996

In Retold the TC does not attack…

We both know that this is not the truth, because it’s not always that the TC doesn’t attack; sometimes it attacks to defend the villager!

[MatM1996]

I mean in the video, in the game it does, although as I generally put the villagers inside I never really notice if it continues attacking without villagers…

[Armilus]

The town center does attack without villagers inside. It’s the village center that doesn’t.

[MatM1996]

Yes, that could be it… in the video it should be a village center…

[TheLiberator236]

We just have reached a new low

PS5 support is the new hopium!

[Skadidesu]

It won’t change those numbers though since they don’t count console players.
Immortal Pillars will definitely raise player numbers.

[MatM1996]

@TheLiberator236

We just have reached a new low

There’s not much left… wait a week until the Chinese DLC comes out (the Chinese ones arrive on the 27th for premium users)… that’s when the game will really pick up…

@Skadidesu

t won’t change those numbers though since they don’t count console players.
Immortal Pillars will definitely raise player numbers.

Of course, in two weeks we will find out…

[EverybodysFoo1]

Do ppl who play offline count too?

The following might be a bit harsh but:

I personally don’t care for such numbers when I see ppl play and vote games positively like Starfield or DA Veilguard…
Also we live in a different time when we were 10-16 many of us started with RTS games like AoM etc. nowadays most kids and teenagers play games like… Fortnite and watch horrendously stupid tiktok… so I wouldn’t take these player numbers too seriously. I rather have a small player number of grown ups and teens who are invested in mythology and RTS than many players and most act like the ppl in league of legends with an IQ of the ordinary tiktok consumer.

But I think (and hope) the player numbers get at least slightly up with the new (absolutely amazing looking) DLC and the one after that.