I’m not familiar with AoE3:DE’s zoom option, but I think devs should just make a horizontal bar in settings where you can pin a marker at your preferred ‘max’ zoom level; so your mousewheel zooms never exceed that threshold.
Someone could peg their max zoom to, like, 60% if they don’t like the cam going out farther and don’t want it accidentally going out farther… and others, like me, can peg max zoom to 100% (which would be AoM:R’s current max zoom)
Didn’t AoE2:DE fix that issue, where someone’s slow machine no longer lags others in MP matches? I remember that was one of the updates touted for AoE2:DE, anyways. I’m not sure if it works in reality since I only play SP matches or with friends vs. AI. Hopefully AoM:R would have the same fix.
Speaking of SP and vs. AI games, I don’t believe in making SP or unranked game quality suffer due to worries about MP ranked suffering. Take the training wheels off and let players figure it out themselves, especially for SP or unranked games – and even for ranked games, to an extent.
If you prevent the game from shining now due to worries about performance hits, just remember it is the year 2024 only once. Imagine 3 or 5 years from now when many have upgraded their PCs and Internet speeds (since tech is always improving), and their game experience is still capped at 2024 levels. Then imagine 10 years later, and so on.
That has already happened with AoE4. Let’s be honest, AoE4 looked a little behind-the-times when it launched a few years ago, and nothing noteworthy has been done to enhance it since. Still has the tunnel-vision zoom, low population cap, muddy textures, repeating textures, small maps, stationary chickens in the TC, and other “issues” more reminiscent of 2015 or earlier. Since the game wasn’t designed with any options to let us enhance the experience beyond 2015-2020 levels, we’re stuck in that era until who knows when. Will a new coat of paint finally be put on in the 10th Anniversary? 25th Anniversary “DE” version, or?
Let everyone pick their own experience. That’s why games have Video/Graphics options. Do I play other games with graphics maxed out? Nope, because it makes my game chunky. So, what do I do? I go into the options and move graphics settings lower until I get the performance I like… just like everyone else. (And now there are even AI-enhanced options for some vid cards to increase graphical fidelity while being less computationally taxing.) And then if it’s a game I really like, I look forward to the day when I am able to upgrade my PC to max out the graphics and re-live the game in a whole new light.
Every graphics option can, arguably, “affect the quality of games.” Want to play at 1080p instead of 800x600? That could slow your game down. 4K instead of 1080p? Could slow your game down. High dynamic FX instead of low? Could impact. Bigger map instead of smaller? Could impact. Shadows on instead of no shadows? Could impact. Texture resolution higher than low? Could impact.
Why should zoom be some weird outlier that doesn’t let players choose what they want, especially for SP and unranked games, but also for even ranked games, imo