Stress Test open Beta Aoe4

[Goodspeed]

If anyone finds an online space were people aren't constantly complaining, please let me know. I get so annoyed by all this complaining.

Taking off your rose-tinted glasses might help

When someone actually has the ability to enjoy something, that must mean he's wearing rose-tinted glasses!

I enjoyed the couple of games that I played in the closed beta. You on the other hand aren't just enjoying it, you're acting like it's JHC reincarnate based on a first impression, and even complain about people expressing their perfectly valid concerns. That's how people act when they think the world revolves around them and their newfound love for something.

[GlouK]

I heard about a homemade ranking system? any links? Soldier say he is top 25

[Cleters]

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.

[RefluxSemantic]

Show hidden quotes

If anyone finds an online space were people aren't constantly complaining, please let me know. I get so annoyed by all this complaining.

Taking off your rose-tinted glasses might help

When someone actually has the ability to enjoy something, that must mean he's wearing rose-tinted glasses!

I enjoyed the couple of games that I played in the closed beta. You on the other hand aren't just enjoying it, you're acting like it's JHC reincarnate based on a first impression, and even complain about people expressing their perfectly valid concerns. That's how people act when they think the world revolves around them and their newfound love for something.

I haven't even said a single positive thing in this thread. I just hate all the whining, that's all I have said. There's a product and it is what it is, so I look for things I like about it and so far I find that there's a lot to like. That's more productive to me than to look for things to hate in the game.

[gibson]

I understand being frustrated by the complaining, it’s not great to be be surrounded by negativity. But I’m also frustrated that I don’t even know if I’d like the game or not because it lacks a very basic feature.

[helln00]

this is one major gripe i have about the civ design thus far, china seems to again have a weird lock-in mechanic for age up. they allowed previous age up wonders to be built again, which I feel is a bone thrown for aoe 3 players, but then the dynasty bonus goes away if when you change dynaties, which apparently includes 2 buildings with major buffs to your eco.

[blackwidow]

I heard about a homemade ranking system? any links? Soldier say he is top 25

yea there is, there was a rumor that the best players of previous beta included players like themista, soO, iaguz, zerton, and apparently even serral. Because they kept playing each other on ladder.

[helln00]

can anyone else play? I can't to get in after the last game. Maybe this is the stress point for the servers

[DamagedBananaBread]

AOE2-ers are probly complaining it doesn't feel 100% like their old game.
But it has cav scouts, you rely on sheep in age1 to get food right away, cheap farms in age1, wood plays a big role in everything because you need to have a building for everything, dropoff gathering points, you can build barracks in age1, there are no hunts next to TC and hunts are very sparse and far just like in AOE2, so you have to send the scout to get sheep, etc. All these are AOE2 mechanics.
You have to build a dark age building to qualify for aging up, another AOE2 feature. The TC also shoots arrows even if there are no garrisoned vills.

"Cheap farms"? Dude, 75 wood is not cheap. The game is way faster paced than aoe3; you don't build any farms age 1. Sorry it's not a copy of aoe3, but it's definitely not a copy of aoe2.

[Dolan]

I mean compared to AOE3 that only has expensive mills. In AOE4 you have both those cheap age1 farms and later-age more expensive mills. Plus sheep and hunts, but the hunts are worse than in AOE3, farther from the base, smaller and not so herdable.

[n0el]

It’s much more comparable to age 3 than age 2 imo, the game plays like age 3 in the medieval time period.

[aaryngend]

Holy Roman Empire's unit voice lines are so cringey.

"Wer rastet der rostet!!"

[princeofcarthage]

I mean compared to AOE3 that only has expensive mills. In AOE4 you have both those cheap age1 farms and later-age more expensive mills. Plus sheep and hunts, but the hunts are worse than in AOE3, farther from the base, smaller and not so herdable.

You have expensive mills in aoe 4?

[Dolan]

Well they cost more than those lil farms you can build in age1

[InsectPoison]

Is there a way to get that annoying text "Technical stress test" off of the screen?

[iNcog]

Is there a way to get that annoying text "Technical stress test" off of the screen?

nope

[iNcog]

Yeah so I've only played a little bit vs the AI and not against human opponents. I'm actually much more interested in the game now than I was before.

The hotkey issues are terrible because it's such a basic feature, but I don't care for it too much because that is something that WILL be fixed. I predict that there will be a somewhat botched release with lots of basic features missing. This is going to be game company 101, where they release unfinished games and then fix it after release. Sucks, but whatever.

I'm much more interested in, atm, two core aspects of the game that will genuinely determine its success. Firstly, unit control. I can't tell if I'm imagining it, but units are more responsive than before. Units back in the closed beta were very sluggish and I basically didn't play last beta because of how unfun it felt to move units around. It's an RTS after all. Stuff like hitboxes and unit responsiveness seem to be improved and that was my biggest qualm with the game before. I'm now cautiously optimistic in this regard.

The second aspect is one of balance and civ design. I think the core design of AOEIV is fine, it's just going to be tough to balance the game properly given how crazy different the designs of each civ are. They're going to release with 8 civs and they're going to be quite different from one another. As long as resources are put into maintaining balance properly and it isn't done like the nightmare that is AOE3DE, then this game should do well.

Overall, I think I take back my previous reservations about the game and I'm looking forward to being able to buy it in October.

[dicktator_]

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

Isgreen said, that they are working on fully customizable hotkeys, the game will get it.

If that's true then that's my bad for misinterpreting what gibson said and taking it to mean that the devs are taking a hardline stance against customizable hotkeys (he probably just meant that they won't be there on release, still sucks though). The game actually seemed fun when I played it and had some cool ideas. My main gripes are 1. hotkeys (obviously), 2. lack of micro depth, 3. unit responsiveness and hitboxes but apparently that has improved in this build, and 4. uninspired age 1 where nothing really happens in the first 5 mins. I probably won't play during this stress test but I'll definitely play it a lot when it releases.

[gibson]

It could be they're going to add it, I always interpreted that they weren't since it seems like such an easy thing to add and again this is something that people have been bringing attention to and saying was a big deal for literal years.

[iNcog]

Low graphics in this game are really, really low. But they make the game a lot easier to play. Glad that they have this compared to before

[Dolan]

Is there a way to get that annoying text "Technical stress test" off of the screen?

It shouldn't coz then you'd get a functional game for free

[Seamonk]

I'm going to preface this with this game isn't AoE2, and there are a lot of differences.

However, if you don't like playing the ranked AoE2 ladder, you probably won't like this game. Yes, there are some QoL improvements (and QoL detriments) and the game doesn't have to devolve to 'trash' wars at the end of the game, but the backbone of the game is still the same. You have a boring and standard Age 1 and the rest of the game is paced very similarly to AoE2.

I would kind of liken it to the Force Awakens. Which ISN'T Star Wars (1977), but the plot is pretty much the exact same. TFA looks much flashier and better than SW, has better choreographed fights, and introduces fun new characters. But, it would be fair to say that TFA is basically SW remade for the 2010s. If you aren't on board for space magic, laser sword fights, space ship fighter skirmishers, and having a chosen one main protagonist, you probably won't like TFA for similar reasons as to why you don't like SW.

I think this will be a game I play a bit when it becomes fully stable with basic features. But I don't see myself coming back to it year after year like I have with AoE3. I currently don't go back to AoE2 mainly because I don't like it that much, and AoE4 doesn't change the things I dislike.

[Seamonk]

A few more complaints, people keep saying this is game is a mix of AoE2 and AoE3. What in this game is in AoE3 and not AoM? The age up mechanic is constantly referred to, but that is basically AoM. One could argue that the age up mechanic is just a streamlined AoE2 age up (You have to build a building and pay resources. You just do it all at once instead of sequentially). This game plays almost exactly how the AoE community wanted AoE3 to play back in 2005, not like a game that is coming out in 2021.

I would go farther and say some of the game design is stuck in the 90s. Why can't I see how quickly my units are gathering resources? Why can't I see what weapon types a unit has and why it changes between them? (e.g. why does the scout sometimes use its bow and sometimes sword?) How do charges even work? Patch notes mention basically every melee unit getting charge attacks, but it's no where in the UI. Why do I have to hover for a tooltip to get basic information on a unit? Why can't I see the building UI to see its health if there are units garrisoned?

All of this hiding of information from the player works in single player games. But you shouldn't have to have an atlas and memorize all of the gathering rates etc. in a multiplayer game. How can I make strategic or tactical decisions if the game keeps all the info from me? Does it expect me to spend hours in custom games trying different scenarios to get all this information?

[RefluxSemantic]

Yeah so I've only played a little bit vs the AI and not against human opponents. I'm actually much more interested in the game now than I was before.

The hotkey issues are terrible because it's such a basic feature, but I don't care for it too much because that is something that WILL be fixed. I predict that there will be a somewhat botched release with lots of basic features missing. This is going to be game company 101, where they release unfinished games and then fix it after release. Sucks, but whatever.

I'm much more interested in, atm, two core aspects of the game that will genuinely determine its success. Firstly, unit control. I can't tell if I'm imagining it, but units are more responsive than before. Units back in the closed beta were very sluggish and I basically didn't play last beta because of how unfun it felt to move units around. It's an RTS after all. Stuff like hitboxes and unit responsiveness seem to be improved and that was my biggest qualm with the game before. I'm now cautiously optimistic in this regard.

The second aspect is one of balance and civ design. I think the core design of AOEIV is fine, it's just going to be tough to balance the game properly given how crazy different the designs of each civ are. They're going to release with 8 civs and they're going to be quite different from one another. As long as resources are put into maintaining balance properly and it isn't done like the nightmare that is AOE3DE, then this game should do well.

Overall, I think I take back my previous reservations about the game and I'm looking forward to being able to buy it in October.

The unit response time was always going to be fixed (at least, same observation from my end that things are smoother now). They also fixed the zoom, it's perfect now imo.

Balance is going to be difficult in the sense that there are going to be bad match ups and there will be some things that just aren't quite balanced. But I'm confident the game will be supported for quite some time, so many of the balance problems will be fixed. Bad match ups are something I'm willing to accept, and it seems like the mechanical skill ceiling in this game is higher, which will hopefully make the balance problems less frustrating.

As for lack of polish at release, I fear it too. But I have my strategy ready: the single player stuff they have promised and shown is will be interesting to me, so I'll just play that stuff first.

[iNcog]

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.