Stress Test open Beta Aoe4

[iNcog]

The game is good tbh, but clearly unfinished.

A simple thing that can't stop disturbing me, you blindly click on the minimap : there's no sound or flag, when you want to shift moves you never know if it worked :')

I'm not a fan about all those hills neither, but maybe we'll learn to use and like it.

the hills are absurd. they add nothing to the gameplay and just muck everything up

[knusch]

a decade of playing without hotkeys finally paying off? @Aizamk

[RefluxSemantic]

I mean, it's better but "fixed" seems to be a stretch. The units and pathing still kind of suck. It doesn't feel as good to play as AOE3 does. The UI is bad making it hard to macro properly. No hotkeys, etc.

I tried to like the game but I can't get a spark no matter how hard I try. Sad. I'll just stick to aoe3 then because the game doesn't feel like you're fighting it non stop to play.

Also I don't understand at all how siege works in this game but it doesn't seem to be fun at all.

If it's not fun, I'd stop bothering with it. Which hopefully means you won't be around to complain about it.

[iNcog]

[Squamiger]

the question is, are they marketing this game as a competitive e-sport? Or a single play city builder for casuals who like history? I think it's the latter. So for that demographic (which will always be way larger than the people interested in competitive rts), hotkeys just don't matter very much. Most people don't use them, they just click everything with a mouse.

[Aizamk]

a decade of playing without hotkeys finally paying off? @Aizamk

You'd think so, but the build/train options are locked behind the hotkey layering/tab system, which makes it too troublesome for me to use

Also, the lack of an equivalent to "alt to show hp bars" doesn't help, especially since you can't really click on every tiny unit to check hp while you micro, nilla style

[Dolan]

the question is, are they marketing this game as a competitive e-sport? Or a single play city builder for casuals who like history? I think it's the latter. So for that demographic (which will always be way larger than the people interested in competitive rts), hotkeys just don't matter very much. Most people don't use them, they just click everything with a mouse.

Yea, that's my impression too. Imo, they're focusing on launching an MVP for the casuals first, then they'll work on stitching up other features later.

[iNcog]

the game is like a 6 out of 10 to me at best. would love to hear what others are thinking atm

[princeofcarthage]

team games are probably unplayable at equal levels. Late game is broken af to the point where you don't invest 1 hr its practically a stalemate. I don't see any reasonable possibility of games ending before 20 mins, maybe 18. It lacks many of the qol improvements of aoe 3 (not talking about mechanics or gameplay.) hotkeys are a mess. Many problems to name tbh

[n0el]

I personally find it to be better than aoe3 and not as good as aoe2. 8/10 overall. Somewhere around where SC2 is.

[Dolan]

Played again. I didn't notice if units have any micro tbh. You click on a unit, it locks onto a target and that's it, there's not much swerving or dodging going on if you try to move it. Only cav can do some dodging, but it's mostly a question of whether they outrun. There's no snare either.
I stand by what I said, this is a macro game, just like AOE2. You gain an advantage by being better at setting up your eco, aging up, building base, massing units. I haven't noticed much in the way of gaining an advantage through individual unit micro, like in AOE3. Unless it's just a bit of swerving with cav.
Overall it's nice to play it, coz I also liked AOE2 too before AOE3 came out. Though no hotkeys and lots of missing stuff on screen (no score) sucks. My team mate didn't respond to chats, so I suppose the chat doesn't work either atm.
The interface feels a bit like Civ, for some reason, which is nice.
I doubt this will have much potential for competitive play for some time. It's gonna be popular with treaty players, imo, because it's a game of macro, unit spam and positioning.
Not bad, though nothing groundbreaking either. Would replay ngl.

[don_artie]

i'm mostly enjoying it, will buy on release probably. i have some issues like the map where you spawn on island, the hotkey stuff etc, but it's okay

[RefluxSemantic]

How many vills are you guys getting? I feel like more than 80 is overkill but maybe my macro is still too bad.

[princeofcarthage]

Honestly, if the game was a fusion of aoe 3 and aoe 2, it would have been much much better.

[AndiAOE]

Fuck, in the one closed beta I played in I assumed the hotkey thing was something that was going to be fixed on release. If they're not adding in fully customizable hotkeys then I can only assume it's for one of these reasons:
1. They lack the technical ability to add fully customizable hotkeys, for whatever reason.
2. They think that the grid key system is best and that they know better than players who have been playing rts games for years.
Not a good look either way

but grid system is best

[princeofcarthage]

I cant see why they would lack technical ability to do so when aoe 3 had it in 2005

[Snuden]

I cant see why they would lack technical ability to do so when aoe 3 had it in 2005

Just like most of us on ESOC cant see how you can keep spewing nonsense. However, that does not seem to stop you

[Mr_Bramboy]

its ok

[Snuden]

its ok

No! It's terrible how he can (with his low level of English) keep portraying himself as a "smart person"

[n0el]

Honestly, if the game was a fusion of aoe 3 and aoe 2, it would have been much much better.

It literally is

[RefluxSemantic]

I've read complaints that it's an aoe2 copy, an aoe3 copy, not enough like aoe2/aoe3, apperantly that it should've have been a fusion of aoe3/aoe2 but it isn't.

All these 'complaints' are really people looking for a reason to hate on the game. I've noticed a lot of people desperately want to find reasons to hate the game.

[harcha]

i agree. it looks like those people really want to play aoe2 or aoe3. and there is nothing wrong with that, stick with your game. microsoft already gave you all the fan service you deserve with the release of DE.

[Goodspeed]

Nah we deserved better than DE tbh

[fightinfrenchman]

I've read complaints that it's an aoe2 copy, an aoe3 copy, not enough like aoe2/aoe3, apperantly that it should've have been a fusion of aoe3/aoe2 but it isn't.

All these 'complaints' are really people looking for a reason to hate on the game. I've noticed a lot of people desperately want to find reasons to hate the game.

There are worse things for people to channel their hate into

[Cleters]

Lol I'm watching AOE2 streams and people are bitching on AOE3 saying devs took all the bad things from us and put it in AOE4, and that's why the game would fail.

It's literally half the comments in the redbull tourney stream (20K viewers), that's incredible how those dudes never played AOE3 and just think things all together.