Hey I’ve been playing a bunch of AOE2:DE since release and I’ve come to notice a big difference in the community feel since I’ve switched from the steam and voobly version of the game. I’m not sure how much of this is the lobby browser being dead/bugged, but with everyone loading into ranked immediately without much of a lobby experience or any real communication with other players. This is actually a huge part of being able to play the game for any length of time without getting bored. When I play other Strategy games like StarCraft there is at least a set of general chats and clubs that I can lurk around in while I wait to find a match. The Clans section of AOE:DE seems to have no chatroom to speak of either.
What was once achieved by players having to wait in a pre-game lobby has been removed for the sake of a streamlined experience. But I think removing that from the game has left a void where players can no longer interact with the community.
Am I the only one that feels this way? would a general chat for your local server help with this? or at least the ability to create community/clan chats like those [Adopt a noob] [Looking for team] in StarCraft? I’m not sure.
I think your comments are good feedback. We should be able to chat or something while waiting for the matchmaking to load… maybe have taunts enabled you’re right that was a big part of the old lobbies
They even launch an annoying fanfare when you are typing gg. This is a moment that you talk with other players and socialize. I think they didn’t want any player interaction to begin with, which is a bad sign. Hope they change their minds.
The game is currently suffering from a bug where it’s impossible to see all current available lobbies. See here a list of Known Issues. Player Count is insanely high this first week, we just can’t enjoy this. My suggestion is that you gather up some friends to play
I fully agree with your statement. But sadly it’s something you see across many multi player games. I don’t now which audience they are catering for, but it seems what the people building the games expect is that:
we launch the exe
we enter as quickly as possible into the match
we exit the exe
The day after we repeat.
While in reality: it’s fun to lurk around in lobbies, seeing familiar names over and over. Maybe start some small talk. Or hey, maybe even chase down some person you lost from the day before and asking for a rematch. I literally have no clue how in gods name in 2019 you’re supposed to meet people longer than the time your game lasts. How people are forming clans is beyond me.
I played AoE 2 for a few years on the MSN gaming zone, and haven’t seen voobly from close, but from some screenshots it feels very similar. But what we have now is exactly what I’m used in Battlefield:
Battlefield 3: battlelog: web-based community/server browser. You lurk around, when you’re doing doing other online stuff you get in a queue chat a bit, and off you go for gaming.
battlefield 4: similar, allthough I think in the end they reduced battlelog and started an ingame server browser
Battlefield 1/5: ingame only
Same with rented servers: BF3/BF4: rented servers, owned by gamers: what do you see: tons of people regularly visiting the same server => sense of community. You can compare this to certain types of lobbies on MSN/Voobly
Now in BF1/BF5: you launch the game, create the party with the 3 - 5people you know. Hit play, exit, rinse repeat. And you’re thrown into the massive countless amount of people playing the game.
Same with Pubg. How on earth people meet people while playing MP games is really unknown to me.
I guess this is a long rant, but I just want to point out some similarities I’ve seen in different games too. I guess community forming has been externalized into services like discord and the like. Which I use. But still I don’t understand why devs don’t spend more time making a rich lobby systems where people can get to know people. Because ultimately people stay for the community and the fun that brings rather then playing with joe random.
As someone who plays the ranked setting mainly I’m worried that even after they fix the issue (even with the probably irreparable damage they have done to the communities transfer from the older titles) I will find myself isolated from the playerbase unless I happen to find a particularly chatty teammate or go back to lobbied matches
As someone who years later , after moving out and not having played my xbox 360 since its still at home, bought Bf4 for $5 on Origin and joined the player owned servers with a couple friends and we played and had more fun playing Bf4 lobbies then I ever had with the newer battlefields. I’m worried the same will happen to AOE:DE
What do you mean?? Also, the new ingame Clans systems doesn’t solve exactly that community discconection? The same for this forums, Iguess. Only thing is that right now with a turbulent launch everyone is focused around reporting issues and etcetera
That was my point, for some reason when they integrated a clans system they didn’t even set a chatbox for the clan to use amongst themselves? I joined the Australian clan when I got the game yet I’ve not messaged a single person from it so far. I’m normally not a forum user either but the complete lack of any community aspect of the game just led me here passively.
I feel that even giving the player an option to immediately quit out on the middle of their screen was a mistake. I feel obligated to just go and jump into another game because I think the other players will just leave and not chat at all about the game.
Oh, I understand. Well, for AoE this has never been a statement, although I can agree that could’ve been more implementations on that sense, mainly given that they remade the most popular entry on the series. What I can recommend to you is to stay tuned to the forums, the Aoe 2 reddit, some yt channels like T90 and SOTL, and, if you play on steam, gather around the community tabs there as well
I think it has something to do with money. In HD you were the host and the actual game ran in peer-to-peer mode. Therefor it was not taxing any servers if you hang around in the lobby with your mates. The traffic was outsourced to the gamers while playing. By introducing servers they want to have people only use the server when they play and not block resources. Youtube does not care if you watch anything 1000 times and will gladly send you the files without caching again with all the ads that bring the money. Servers for a game where you only pay once do not generate money from having people play it.
Why would hanging around in the lobby be taxing on the servers? It’s just text-chat basically. A lot less taxing than the actual gameplay.
I don’t think this would have to block resources either, if one implements in a halfway sensible manner, which I think they could do.
So… don’t be sad.
you’re right that was a big part of the old lobbies