Watching GUA go beast mode in the AOE 4 ladder makes me think how easily Kaiser + Hazza would be no.1 there

[Kaiserklein]

I already invested (too much) time to be top at this game, I'm not sure exactly why I'd bother with aoe4

[don_artie]

Kinda wish I had an actual comp so I could have started playing the closed betas back then. Now playing it just requires too much time if you wanna get good

I wouldn't say I'm that good but at least reasonable and I only started with the game a few days ago (except for maybe 5 ish hours in that one test weekend 2 months ago or smth). So basically close to starting from scratch, and I feel at least alright in the game. Bridge isn't that hard to cross

By getting good I meant like competing in tourneys. There's that 20k tourney out here and I wouldn't come close to the later rounds unless I invest time in the game that I don't wish to / can't invest
I'm a bit of a dickhead, I won't really enjoy playing the game unless I can start smashing people

if you don't wish to/ can't invest time then yea fuck it don't bother. but for players that do want to it should be quite simple to reach top 100. like if you play french make knights and are good at spreading them onto vills/decission making when to charge in and out, you should be top 100. i got bored of playing french and started playing english, but french are just too good probably. I think within hours you can be a 'good' player by simple making double stable knights age 2 and if you get a lucky bracket you can make it to top 16. I'll give myself a 5% chance of top 16 by getting lucky bracket

[Goodspeed]

Honestly grinding this game just seems really boring. Given most of the top 100 are french one tricks it will get repetitive real fast. I'd say stay away until they fix balance but who would I be kidding? There will always be a dominant civ that everyone is laming. AoE3 had the same problem, and it took us a like 5 years to finally reach a semblance of balance. I have no faith in the ability of a balance team who released a game with feudal age hulks, and french just being pretty obviously OP in general.

And of course you have no chance of catching up to any talented players with hundreds of games in the betas.

[Astaroth]

For tournaments, do keep in mind that they will presumably mostly have the AoE2 style of civ picking, i.e. something like free pick no repeat.

So not the classic AoE3 style of "agreeing on a first round, then counter-picking". This could also affect the popularity of civs etc.

(the reason for this is obvious: the money will mostly come from the AoE2 community, at least at first. This makes it highly likely they will use their tried and tested civ picking methods)

[don_artie]

Honestly grinding this game just seems really boring. Given most of the top 100 are french one tricks it will get repetitive real fast. I'd say stay away until they fix balance but who would I be kidding? There will always be a dominant civ that everyone is laming. AoE3 had the same problem, and it took us a like 5 years to finally reach a semblance of balance. I have no faith in the ability of a balance team who released a game with feudal age hulks, and french just being pretty obviously OP in general.

And of course you have no chance of catching up to any talented players with hundreds of games in the betas.

ignoring water and just focussing on land, just knights/mongol tc stuff is an issue right now. not sold on the mongol tc stuff but okay. the knights can be toned down a bit or whatever or just healing tech removed/moved up an age and would already be so much worse. I've been able to win some english vs french games, it's not like they're so broken it's just over. i'm feeling positive

[iNcog]

Honestly grinding this game just seems really boring. Given most of the top 100 are french one tricks it will get repetitive real fast. I'd say stay away until they fix balance but who would I be kidding? There will always be a dominant civ that everyone is laming. AoE3 had the same problem, and it took us a like 5 years to finally reach a semblance of balance. I have no faith in the ability of a balance team who released a game with feudal age hulks, and french just being pretty obviously OP in general.

And of course you have no chance of catching up to any talented players with hundreds of games in the betas.

I think the Rus also get feudal age Hulks but yeah France is the best civ.

As of now though I think a civ that is wp is better, balance is more because France is easy to play compared to other civs.

Knights are a bit busted but nothing too crazy.

[EAGLEMUT]

For tournaments, do keep in mind that they will presumably mostly have the AoE2 style of civ picking, i.e. something like free pick no repeat.

So not the classic AoE3 style of "agreeing on a first round, then counter-picking". This could also affect the popularity of civs etc.

(the reason for this is obvious: the money will mostly come from the AoE2 community, at least at first. This makes it highly likely they will use their tried and tested civ picking methods)

The first big AoE4 tournament is being hosted by EGCTV/Pesti from the AoE3 community, all 20000$ coming out of his pocket (to my knowledge) and not AoE2 community or even Microsoft.

On civ rules, I can't seem to find who picks first but the rule of "can only win with a civ once" is carrying over.

[callentournies]

Honestly grinding this game just seems really boring. Given most of the top 100 are french one tricks it will get repetitive real fast. I'd say stay away until they fix balance but who would I be kidding? There will always be a dominant civ that everyone is laming. AoE3 had the same problem, and it took us a like 5 years to finally reach a semblance of balance. I have no faith in the ability of a balance team who released a game with feudal age hulks, and french just being pretty obviously OP in general.

And of course you have no chance of catching up to any talented players with hundreds of games in the betas.

That’s true if the goal is to git gud. If the goal is to troll decently, that’s moving the goalposts in a way.

Still, why try to do that when the game barely has any hotkey customization and is flat out missing a dozen key action options?

[Goodspeed]

Yeah my point is I wouldn't try to git gud with the current state of the game, it doesn't seem like a satisfying RTS experience to me. The hotkey thing is all the more reason.
To each their own though

[callentournies]

Ye it kinda sucks ngl

I’m also super stubborn and recognize I’m reliant on my hotkeys more than others, and not able to relearn well.

[callentournies]

Even clicking things feels bad.

[Goodspeed]

Ye it kinda sucks ngl

I’m also super stubborn and recognize I’m reliant on my hotkeys more than others, and not able to relearn well.

I have that issue as well. I think I'm resigned to just using F1 and tabbing through buildings because I'm so used to the "select all barracks/stable/etc-type buildings" hotkeys which I used in both other AoE games. I'm trying to control group military buildings but every time I feel like I'm getting somewhere I run out of playtime and then another 24h+ break unlearns it, gg

Also yeah clicking things feels really fucking bad

[don_artie]

i'm the opposite, i'm enjoying the game and think it's good overall. I also switched hotkeys in like 3 minutes (my aoe3 one isnt customized) and also think i'm a quick learner. I just don't peak too high lol

[Goodspeed]

It's a shame we don't know the real game count of the top players. We'd be able to see the relationship between age and speed of improvement. In my experience it starts to fall off in late twenties. This effect is probably especially obvious in RTS which require a lot of quick thinking and trained muscle memory.

[blackwidow]

Honestly grinding this game just seems really boring. Given most of the top 100 are french one tricks it will get repetitive real fast. I'd say stay away until they fix balance but who would I be kidding? There will always be a dominant civ that everyone is laming. AoE3 had the same problem, and it took us a like 5 years to finally reach a semblance of balance. I have no faith in the ability of a balance team who released a game with feudal age hulks, and french just being pretty obviously OP in general.

And of course you have no chance of catching up to any talented players with hundreds of games in the betas.

I think the Rus also get feudal age Hulks but yeah France is the best civ.

As of now though I think a civ that is wp is better, balance is more because France is easy to play compared to other civs.

Knights are a bit busted but nothing too crazy.

Rus do not get hulks. In fact they're absolutely useless on water with ships that tickle everything and you can't get better ones ^^

[RefluxSemantic]

I feel like its mostly getting comfortable with the feel of the game. Also with macro, Im so bad at macro in this game. I start out well than by mid game im just floating so many res.

Aoe3 macro is just really, really easy in comparison to aoe2, sc2, aoeo and now aoe4.

[iNcog]

Honestly grinding this game just seems really boring. Given most of the top 100 are french one tricks it will get repetitive real fast. I'd say stay away until they fix balance but who would I be kidding? There will always be a dominant civ that everyone is laming. AoE3 had the same problem, and it took us a like 5 years to finally reach a semblance of balance. I have no faith in the ability of a balance team who released a game with feudal age hulks, and french just being pretty obviously OP in general.

And of course you have no chance of catching up to any talented players with hundreds of games in the betas.

I think the Rus also get feudal age Hulks but yeah France is the best civ.

As of now though I think a civ that is wp is better, balance is more because France is easy to play compared to other civs.

Knights are a bit busted but nothing too crazy.

Rus do not get hulks. In fact they're absolutely useless on water with ships that tickle everything and you can't get better ones ^^

Oh I stand corrected. French broken on water then. To be expected

@callentournies @Goodspeed that's because hitboxes are trash in aoe4

[don_artie]

I feel like its mostly getting comfortable with the feel of the game. Also with macro, Im so bad at macro in this game. I start out well than by mid game im just floating so many res.

Aoe3 macro is just really, really easy in comparison to aoe2, sc2, aoeo and now aoe4.

i disagree, i think in all the aoe games (havent played starcraft and stuff) basically first ~10 mins macro is easy as long as you're thinking about what you're doing. after that res income can become high and if you're not macroing well you can get a stack of a res (or even of all res if you lack production buildings). and I see this happen in any game, including aoe3

[RefluxSemantic]

I feel like its mostly getting comfortable with the feel of the game. Also with macro, Im so bad at macro in this game. I start out well than by mid game im just floating so many res.

Aoe3 macro is just really, really easy in comparison to aoe2, sc2, aoeo and now aoe4.

i disagree, i think in all the aoe games (havent played starcraft and stuff) basically first ~10 mins macro is easy as long as you're thinking about what you're doing. after that res income can become high and if you're not macroing well you can get a stack of a res (or even of all res if you lack production buildings). and I see this happen in any game, including aoe3

I don't really understand how one could genuinely believe that macro in aoe3 is on the same level as macro in for example aoe2 or sc2.

[gibson]

aoe4 macro is definitely harder than aoe3. Drop off points/no batch units.

[Goodspeed]

Also your eco grows much bigger. AoE3 games often end with both players bweteen 30-40 eco population, whereas AoE2/4 ecos almost always grow way beyond that

[iNcog]

SC2 macro is just about being fast. there's no herding or vill distribution, just saturate your bases at the right time and spam your units. it does need attention but not intellectual attention

[RefluxSemantic]

SC2 macro is just about being fast. there's no herding or vill distribution, just saturate your bases at the right time and spam your units. it does need attention but not intellectual attention

SC2 macro is mostly about being able to devote attention to it while doing tons of other things. Which in a way is 'intellectual', in the sense that mental capacity is generally the limiting factor.

[rsy]

Yeah I don't think any of our guys are going to compare to the boys that play this game for a living. I wonder how many games Hera has in a week since release. 50 might be a decent bet tbh

[LazarosVas]

Macro difficulty wise AOE 2 > AOE 4 > AOE 3
Micro difficulty wise AOE 3 > AOE 2 > AOE 4