Why we love ESO - Ensemble Studios Online

[bobabu]

The thing I like about having team games force ranked in quick search is that I can actually choose my teammates, instead of being forced into random teams every single time in a game lobby. Part of the reason I never played team games was because I could never team with my friends, and playing against them is just not the same.

I think going back to ranked team lobbies means that team quick search dies 100% like on ESO, but at the same time I'm not sure that keeping ranked team quick-search only is sustainable long-term for AoE3 (in terms of number of players), especially if the matchmaking doesn't discriminate based on rank. Does anyone actually know how the matchmaking works exactly?

Well, ofc the ranking system will first try to find a match up which is closest to your ranks. If that's not possible it will then simply start searching for lower-ranked teams. The longer the search goes, the system starts expanding the number of viable players. So it's not like you will not find a game if there's no one matching your rank.

[BigThunderMan]

I know that we are all harping on it, but it's shockingly terrible. A real disappointment.

[bobabu]

I know that we are all harping on it, but it's shockingly terrible. A real disappointment.

Let's see where we stand in 3 months.

[Jotunir]

I know that we are all harping on it, but it's shockingly terrible. A real disappointment.

Let's see where we stand in 3 months.

Probably dead

[BigThunderMan]

It's going to be dead because the UI is shockingly bad. So unless they intent to fix the actual game issues, AND redo the UI and get rid of the cartoony graphics as well, AND remake the matchmaking service from scratch... Yeah.

Ensemble was spared no indignity in shutting down, and neither is this community now.

[silky]

Back to TAD...

[gibson]

Why are people complaining about the UI? Its objectively an improvement from the legacy game outside from 1-2 things( being difficult to see when you have a shipment for some civs, garrisoning units). Also as others have said being able to play ranked only via qs is a good change overall, assuming the player base is decent.

[[Armag] diarouga]

Why are people complaining about the UI? Its objectively an improvement from the legacy game outside from 1-2 things( being difficult to see when you have a shipment for some civs, garrisoning units). Also as others have said being able to play ranked only via qs is a good change overall, assuming the player base is decent.

What's the improvement in the UI ?
It's the same UI with issues with iddle vills, shipments and units in TC, ie the the same UI with issues.

[Lukas_L99]

Why are people complaining about the UI? Its objectively an improvement from the legacy game outside from 1-2 things( being difficult to see when you have a shipment for some civs, garrisoning units). Also as others have said being able to play ranked only via qs is a good change overall, assuming the player base is decent.

What's the improvement in the UI ?
It's the same UI with issues with iddle vills, shipments and units in TC, ie the the same UI with issues.

To see rate of fire of units, gathering rate of vills, ...

[harcha]

Why are people complaining about the UI? Its objectively an improvement from the legacy game outside from 1-2 things( being difficult to see when you have a shipment for some civs, garrisoning units). Also as others have said being able to play ranked only via qs is a good change overall, assuming the player base is decent.

My main complains are the following:
1) The idle vils flag is less noticable (probably because it is smaller and less contrasting). I only started noticing it with the help of aizs UI.
2) The selected units "compartment" is utter trash. TAD did this well - all your selected stuffs is visible in an easy to oversee fashion and is bigger, thus making it a breeze to deselect or reselect with the help of shift and ctrl. What we get instead is a small window that is closed by default and lays out selection in a grid (2 dimensions) instead of a line (1 dimension), thus requiring more time to find what you're looking for and adding the issue of shifting unit types to the next line when you add stuff. This is only somewhat improved by aizamks mod to make it open by default.
3) The number of shipments unspent and number of units selected is hard to see because the number doesn't have a darkened background or outline. I'd imagine this is super simple to fix.
4) The shift+click functionality on the numbers indicating food/wood/coin gatherers/idles/idle flag now selects one villager instead of nearby groups.
5) While I like the additional visibility that the transparency and naked spots of the bottom half of UI provides, some of these transparent spaces are "dead space" and you cannot actually make selections in this space. This was also a problem with TAD minimized UI (you cannot select units in the space where maximized UI used to reside), but it is more apparent in DE.
6) Where do I find garrisoned units!?
7) Also the garrison flags seem to be less contrasting.
8) See the clip where tabben couldn't see the fight because it took place under the explorers death text.

Sorry for derailing the thread but since you asked...

[Zhanson10]

Y'all can hate on the DE all you like, I think the new game is amazing

[edeholland]

It's going to be dead

Would you say AoE3:RE is dead now? And has been for the last couple of years?

because the UI is shockingly bad.

Have you tried all three UI setups? Why does the legacy UI shock you?

and get rid of the cartoony graphics as well

Could you send me a screenshot of a cartoony graphic?

[helln00]

actually can someone help me with something?

the in game tooltip that pops up when you hover over units seems to be "blocking" clicks for lack of a better word but removing the tooltip means I can't check treasures. Is this a bug or is there a setting?

[BigThunderMan]

Before I get into it, please don't accuse me of being a hater. I've played this since 2005, online since '08, I was on AgeComm in '08, I've made MANY (bad) youtube videos about the game. This definitely my favorite game, so I would hope my critiques are constructive.

and get rid of the cartoony graphics as well

Could you send me a screenshot of a cartoony graphic?

Examples of cartoony graphics:
- The end screen victory or defeat (I fucking hate it more than anything else in the world). It looks trash.
- I think their side wood panels and buttons should have looked more realistic -- distressed is the term -- like the OG AOE 3 games did.
- I think the "browse games" portal under multiplayer (besides being dysfunctional -- can't scroll, etc) looks pop-y and perfect rather than the gritty / distressed look. All of their wood menus do, in fact.
- Same with the new charts / post game stance.

I know this is all extremely nit-picky, but I do corporate marketing and branding design for a living. The difference between distressed and gritty verse a clean clip-art wood frame is GLARING to me, and it should have been to their team as well.

because the UI is shockingly bad.

Have you tried all three UI setups? Why does the legacy UI shock you?

The legacy UI shocks me because the first rule of promoting a legacy UI is don't change things in the legacy version, and they did. I'm not a fan. I've been playing under the Definitive HUD.

- The score panel is a mess -- the paragraph alignment between the names and scores makes it really hard to see at a glance. Plus, making each score row identical makes it really hard to scan for a specific score in 4, 6, 8 player games.
- The tech tree is an abortion AND IT'S THE FIRST CHOICE IN THE IN-GAME MENU. The tech tree doesn't show you unit strength, percentages, card effects, etc. It scrolls horizontally instead of vertically (A rookie mistake give how eyes are trained to scroll vertically on a computer).
- Multiplayer navigation is a clusterf.
- Homescreen navigation is a clusterf. Should have been single player, multiplayer, homecities, etc. Instead its a maze of buttons.
- The home city cards is a mess.

It's going to be dead

Would you say AoE3:RE is dead now? And has been for the last couple of years?

It's more alive now that and has been -- and that's a great thing.

[harcha]

I do agree with some of your points, but not all.
- Personally I think that phasing out the wood texture menus is OK. Design ages. I'd imagine it's a similar story with the other DEs.
- Tech trees have always been horizontal.
- Clusterfuck of navigation is a STAPLE of microsoft. Amen.

[InsectPoison]

Having bought this game in 2009 I can safely say that I do not like the DE version at all. The game user interface just feels wrong. I miss the old classic ESO interface :(. Is this how boomers feel?

[fightinfrenchman]

Having bought this game in 2009 I can safely say that I do not like the DE version at all. The game user interface just feels wrong. I miss the old classic ESO interface :(. Is this how boomers feel?

This is the correct point of view.

[harcha]

ok boomer

[MCJim]

Harcha's complaints about the new UI are decent. I'm convinced they will fix (almost) all of the broken things in the near future. They are in fact easily fixable.

In a couple of months we won't talk about half the points anymore.

However, this thread is about ESO. I really hope they extend the current possibilities in multiplayer, so it comes closer to the feeling of ESO. That's something more important in my opinion.

[MCJim]

One year later... Did DE multiplayer improve in the mean time? Of course, they can't copy ESO, but it still misses some important features, named in the first post.

[pecelot]

ESO definitely does have that, well, legacy feel, but it wears off in comparison — matchmaking in games like “Company of Heroes 2” shows you what you didn't know was missing

the thing that has always put me off is the skewed ranking system; although the “in-universe” accessibility is great, you can see there's (or rather: there was) so much potential for basic improvements, like advanced stats (cards & decks usage?), the medals system, interaction with others (brief chat history, showing the time a message was sent at) etc.

[dicktator_]

This thread reminds me I am kinda disappointed that aoe4 is using Steam names instead of an in-game name system with one name per purchase. Preferably with one name change per season.

[Le Hussard sur le toit]

This thread reminds me I am kinda disappointed that aoe4 is using Steam names instead of an in-game name system with one name per purchase. Preferably with one name change per season.

You need one change per month for November.

[aligator92]

This thread reminds me I am kinda disappointed that aoe4 is using Steam names instead of an in-game name system with one name per purchase. Preferably with one name change per season.

You need one change per month for November.

He just needs to buy 3 accounts

[MCJim]

It should be safe to say that all the graphical and optimization flaws and different bugs in DE will be solved in the coming days, weeks or months. There are many people reporting bugs and some great initiatives going on, like the “DE list of issues” thread started by Kaiserklein which will be posted in the official forums.

I am aware many of these posts/initiatives cover things I will say here, but I wanted to focus specifically in the multiplayer “social side”, which is the main reason for me (and probably for many) for loving AOE3 multiplayer. I will leave civ balance, maps and this kind of things aside.

I will try not to mention how things are in DE, since we all know them and it would make the post 2x long.

Why is (or was ☹) AOE3 multiplayer so great:

Let’s start from the beginning: The player account, or in game name:
In ESO one copy or CD key of the game is linked to one unique player account. That is your account, people know you by it and you know people by theirs. You get to know players, what civs they are good with, how they like to lame or not and so on.



You cannot change your account name and no other player in the world can have the same account name.

[...]

Related threads: (1) viewtopic.php?f=982&t=23837

(2) https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/why-t ... ved/184122