Official AoE4 First Impressions Thread

[Miyawaki Sakura]

AOE4 seems like a unique traditional food.
When I first did the tutorial, I was disappointed with the graphics.
When I practiced against Ai for the first time, I was confused about the game change from 3.
After finishing the first quick match, I fell in love with the strange taste of aoe4.

[Goodspeed]

The core gameplay is good. They learned from preceding games in the right ways, made the right kind of QoL changes, and included the right amount of fresh designs. Even the core balance between the ages, between eco play and aggression, between unit comps etc seems pretty good. Of course individual unit balance and civ balance are a mess but the game was just released so of course they are.

Some smaller design decisions miss the mark completely but that's expected and we'll just have to live with them.

As for the in-game UX (including missing (customizable) hotkeys), which really is a big problem, hopefully they will spend significant time fixing it but that remains to be seen; It's not an easy task, especially considering their UX team must not be very competent. It seems somewhat likely that they will undercommit resources to this problem, which means we probably have to learn to accept a lot of it.

Asymmetric civs are a problem from a competitive PoV, but the civs are less asymmetric than I thought initially (much less than AoE3 civs). It might be sustainable, as long as they keep actively patching the game to prevent the meta from settling. When it comes to competitive viability of AoE4, a lot will depend on the competence, budget and approach of their balance team.

[Mr_Bramboy]

What’s wrong with the UI? I’ve seen this complaint thrown around a lot but I don’t see the problem.

[flontier]

What’s wrong with the UI? I’ve seen this complaint thrown around a lot but I don’t see the problem.

Personally i hate the fact that you cant see all the production queue for units and tech without clicking on building.

[duckzilla]

So you say, that I should actually buy the game that I waited 16 years for and might enjoy it? Sounds good.

[Jerimuno]

does it make a difference what stance pikes r in?

Yea, idk what it's called, but there is a stance which blocks Knight's charge damage and kinda makes knights not attack for a while if they charge into those pikes

[Goodspeed]

What’s wrong with the UI? I’ve seen this complaint thrown around a lot but I don’t see the problem.

The UI has its problems. For example as China I have an unremoveable big button almost in the middle of my screen that tells me what dynasty I'm in, which I'm of course perfectly aware of without it. If I click this button, which happens by accident given its position, an even larger thing pops up that tells me everything about the other possible dynasties which is not information I ever care about. To get rid of that popup you can't simply click anywhere else on the screen, no, the only way is to click the same button again. Another weird UI decision is to always have the objectives in the top left. Another is the large mini-map icons (which is not as much of an issue in 1v1 to be fair). Then the lack of a global queue, which could be a game design decision but in that case I disagree with it. Etc.

UI is only one part of UX though. Hitboxes (which would be my #1 UX complaint), missing hotkeys, similar-looking units, melee units clumping up in fights to the point where micro is pointless etc are all UX issues.

[callentournies]

I just can't get over how bad it feels to play. can't unbind alt from rotating the screen. can't ungarrison vills one at a time. can't rally units to pop out from another side of the building -- they always pop out of the door (OK, it's a design choice, but a bad one which takes microscopic decision making away from the player and fun skill ceiling w/vill popping). it's impossible to click on deer carcasses. have you tried clicking on an unbuilt wall segment to build it? gl. clicking things in general. can't select all of a type, or building type. can't change shift and ctrl functionality. can't take units out of a control group without deleting the control group. no hotkey to just select the TC and not jump to it.

oh yea, can't target with TC fire. there's no delete key.

if you press f to garrison a vill it has an animation and takes a quarter second longer than just pressing g. attack move doesn't seem to work with right click.

maybe im spoiled from aoe3 but I miss visual indicators from units dying, and visual indicators clicking into the fog of war. as of now, there's no visual indicator that youre right clicking at all when clicking into fog of war on minimap or on screen.

[Cleters]

I'm playing it a lot finally, and I like it, but I know it's mostly because it's new and it's always fun to play a game when it's just out and everyone discover it. The game has a feeling I do like.

But if I think about it, there's nothing AOE4 does better than AOE3 exept being a new game, at least in my opinion. But I still want to play it


But meh, there's so much unit/counter that feels wrong, yesterday I did a 2v2 and we were outmassing a lot, I had like 40 lb and my mate did cav, then a dude playing german came with like 10 armored dopp, and it was impossible to even kill one with the 40 lb, needed like 200 hit to die. I know there's armors and counter and all, but it's just too much. It's like if 40lb can't kill a dopp in aoe3, suddendly all ur mass become useless.

[princeofkabul]

does it make a difference what stance pikes r in?

Yea, idk what it's called, but there is a stance which blocks Knight's charge damage and kinda makes knights not attack for a while if they charge into those pikes

isnt that normal "knight behavior" already?

[Peachrocks]

Honestly? Not a fan, I’m still playing aoe2 and 3. It could just be that none of the starting civs appeal to me but there’s a lot that just doesn’t sit right with me. How the game is played, the UI, hotkeys, this one sounds odd but the map design feels off and things like how hunts work with scouts being able to take them, it’s… off in my subjective opinion.

[rsy]

There aint no hunt creeping in this game and I hate it

[lemmings121]

I just can't get over how bad it feels to play. can't unbind alt from rotating the screen. can't ungarrison vills one at a time. can't rally units to pop out from another side of the building -- they always pop out of the door (OK, it's a design choice, but a bad one which takes microscopic decision making away from the player and fun skill ceiling w/vill popping). it's impossible to click on deer carcasses. have you tried clicking on an unbuilt wall segment to build it? gl. clicking things in general. can't select all of a type, or building type. can't change shift and ctrl functionality. can't take units out of a control group without deleting the control group. no hotkey to just select the TC and not jump to it.

oh yea, can't target with TC fire. there's no delete key.

if you press f to garrison a vill it has an animation and takes a quarter second longer than just pressing g. attack move doesn't seem to work with right click.

maybe im spoiled from aoe3 but I miss visual indicators from units dying, and visual indicators clicking into the fog of war. as of now, there's no visual indicator that youre right clicking at all when clicking into fog of war on minimap or on screen.

crazy part, I agree with 100% this and still liked the game a lot

feels like a solid new rts, civs are fun, maps bring a lot of variety in gameplay style, win conditions are nice but it comes with many small QOL problems. considering the last AAA rts was in 2010 I'm willing to just deal with the qol problems to play the new game. hopefully they bring some fixes next months tho




also...protip: there is a txt file to edit, similar to agra hotkey trick that we used for 15 years.
go to mygames, aoe4, there is a hotkeys file there. edit, something like cameraorbit, erase ATL, just leave nothing in there and be a happier person. now alt does nothing in game.

[Squamiger]

I just can't get over how bad it feels to play. can't unbind alt from rotating the screen. can't ungarrison vills one at a time. can't rally units to pop out from another side of the building -- they always pop out of the door (OK, it's a design choice, but a bad one which takes microscopic decision making away from the player and fun skill ceiling w/vill popping). it's impossible to click on deer carcasses. have you tried clicking on an unbuilt wall segment to build it? gl. clicking things in general. can't select all of a type, or building type. can't change shift and ctrl functionality. can't take units out of a control group without deleting the control group. no hotkey to just select the TC and not jump to it.

oh yea, can't target with TC fire. there's no delete key.

if you press f to garrison a vill it has an animation and takes a quarter second longer than just pressing g. attack move doesn't seem to work with right click.

maybe im spoiled from aoe3 but I miss visual indicators from units dying, and visual indicators clicking into the fog of war. as of now, there's no visual indicator that youre right clicking at all when clicking into fog of war on minimap or on screen.

conspiracy theory time - all this stuff will be implemented for a $1-5 a month "pro package" subscription fee

[Dolan]

AOE3 > AOE4

[Cleters]

Is there any way to beat France with england ? I struggle so much, spamming tower and making MAA, but they just come with cav/lb age 2 and idk how to beat that...

[aoe1234+]

Is there any way to beat France with england ? I struggle so much, spamming tower and making MAA, but they just come with cav/lb age 2 and idk how to beat that...

Here is a game by TheViper as England beating Lucifron7 as France:
He denies gold early on to delay Lucifron, walls up to go to Castle Age without eco losses, and then drops a castle forward to support his push.

I'm really enjoying seeing players from different games learning from each other - i.e. at the end Viper recognizes that Lucifron's build with French is better that what he had been using.

[Victor_swe]

Btw why are there no taunts?????

[WickedCossack]

Caved in and purchased it before the hotkey fix, though only for the singleplayer action. Anyone else done the campaign and what do you think of it or only ultra competitive multiplayer action on ESOC?

I'm up to mission 6/7 on Normandy and the unlockable videos are very well done, excellent addition. The actual mission design itself though ... they keep giving me large armies and re-inforcements every map where I just a-move for 90% of the mission. Where's the "here's 3 villagers, go create your village and make what you want to make"' design? I suppose since they are tryig to recreate history the only significant things to focus on are large battles ... but still, anyone who's done the other 3 campaigns know if this changes?

[Mr_Bramboy]

Caved in and purchased it before the hotkey fix, though only for the singleplayer action. Anyone else done the campaign and what do you think of it or only ultra competitive multiplayer action on ESOC?

I'm up to mission 6/7 on Normandy and the unlockable videos are very well done, excellent addition. The actual mission design itself though ... they keep giving me large armies and re-inforcements every map where I just a-move for 90% of the mission. Where's the "here's 3 villagers, go create your village and make what you want to make"' design? I suppose since they are tryig to recreate history the only significant things to focus on are large battles ... but still, anyone who's done the other 3 campaigns know if this changes?

Normandy is the introduction to the campaign. The later missions are much harder. I'm stuck on a French mission for now.

[Goodspeed]

But does it get less battle-y? That bored me too and might be what ultimately made me quit playing the campaign.
Also moments like the one in the Norman campaign where you have to defend until your king arrives. I went crazy with multiple layers of stone walls, keeps, artillery to defend and then they show up with 2 tiny waves of units that I needed literally zero static defense to kill. Anti-climactic and unsatisfying af. Was that bugged for me or just bad?

[Guigs]

Is there any way to beat France with england ? I struggle so much, spamming tower and making MAA, but they just come with cav/lb age 2 and idk how to beat that...

Don artie is good in this mu, maybe he's got some advices @don_artie

[Goodspeed]

Going by g1 of his series against Daut it just doesn't seem winnable tbh

[gibson]

I've seen brit win this mu several times, everytime French has had a forward or side gold mine that brit has pressured early to prevent knight spam from getting out of control. Even so I'm not sure that that "should" win.

[InsectPoison]

I've seen brit win this mu several times, everytime French has had a forward or side gold mine that brit has pressured early to prevent knight spam from getting out of control. Even so I'm not sure that that "should" win.

Didn't know you could play as Brits in AoE 4