Why the (online) interface of DE should be improved

[Kaiserklein]

Yeah tbh ESO is the best interface I've seen for a 2005 game. Now it's outdated ofc

[Mr_Bramboy]

ITT: Boomers who don't understand Steam and modern means of communication, such as Discord, fulfill all their needs and make an interface like ESO redundant. Why would a developer waste time on such a complicated project?

[InsectPoison]

ESO interface is part of the reason why online legacy was so great. Being able to see whos online, add people as friends easily, and chat to them without having to add them on steam or download some 3rd party app was great. AoE 3 DE interface just didn't feel as welcoming as legacy.

[Cometk]

ITT: Boomers who don't understand Steam and modern means of communication, such as Discord, fulfill all their needs and make an interface like ESO redundant. Why would a developer waste time on such a complicated project?

if modernity leads to an explicitly more alienating gaming experience, then it's bad.

are you saying that integrating an ESO-like interface could not be better than what we currently have? i imagine we could have an ESO-like interface that still integrates the modern aspects of steam integration, like steam invites, steam-specific friends lists, etc...

a developer would spend time on it because it makes the game explicitly better. however, the time spent would probably be inordinate, and i imagine they figure it would not improve their short-term bottom-line enough to justify dedicating resources to, so unfortunately we will never get this integral part of what made this game actually good.

[Kaiserklein]

ITT: Boomers who don't understand Steam and modern means of communication, such as Discord, fulfill all their needs and make an interface like ESO redundant. Why would a developer waste time on such a complicated project?

Rather you just don't seem to understand it's cool to be able to add people or PM them in 2 clicks, instantly see if they're online, and so on. I don't want to have to add every PR 30+ dude on discord or steam for such basic stuff.
How do you even know if someone is in game atm?

[ǝɯɐuɹǝsn]

ITT: Boomers who don't understand Steam and modern means of communication, such as Discord, fulfill all their needs and make an interface like ESO redundant. Why would a developer waste time on such a complicated project?

they did it in 2005 but you call this a complicated project in 2021 ? they work with paint to make it complicated to copy?

[Dolan]

ITT: Boomers who don't understand Steam and modern means of communication, such as Discord, fulfill all their needs and make an interface like ESO redundant. Why would a developer waste time on such a complicated project?

It sucks to depend on another company, Discord, to have a functioning gaming experience, tho. What happens if one day Dicsord goes under.
Serious big titles usually add their own buddy list/chat integration.
_____________

But anyway, no point in bawwing about this. DE is a work in progress, the UI will improve as time goes on and they flesh out the player inter-communication stuff more. It's gonna improve slowly because they're understaffed.
If you want to do something about this, go on the official forum and give feedback. Then in a number of months you might see something from your feedback reflected in a patch.

[JKProwler]

ITT: Boomers who don't understand Steam and modern means of communication, such as Discord, fulfill all their needs and make an interface like ESO redundant. Why would a developer waste time on such a complicated project?

Most of the complicated stuff for the friend list is already done. The status of friends is already there, just needs to be displayed properly. Also needs to be sorted by status. Can't imagine that being too difficult and time consuming to do.

BTW they added that friends status as a footnote in one of the previous patches, so I don't think it was too difficult to implement. They just really didn't put any thought into it....like why implement it but require users to individually click on a friend to see there status? Doesn't make sense

[gibson]

They should have just done full steam implementation Ah La csgo and said fuck microsoft store gamers, although I’m sure half the community would have still bitched and whined about having to press control tab to direct message people.

[draztik]

It remind me that in 2005 everybody was complaining that AOE 3 ESO was trash in comparaison to AOM multiplayer interface. the story repeats itself ^^

But yes, it is a pity to not be able to see or add friends.

[Cleters]

I just will never understand why they just didn't remaster AOE3 exactly the way it was. The game had all we have on DE and more but on one screen. It would have been way less work and way better results. We had QS, Rank, Ladder, Friendlist, lobbies etc on the same screen....

They choosed to work 10x more for a result 10x worst...

Same for the PR in lobbies, instead of just copying captain etc, they choosed to work more and add those stars that, first don't even work, and second none understand. Because of that literally no old player play lobbies exept when friends are available.


What I expected : The same game with better graphics, and nothing else <<

[MCJim]

Just a handful of interesting opinions in this thread about the DE interface. Thanks for your replies! I'll post this on the official forums very soon.

I feel very isolated in DE.

I want to have a friend / chat functionality that feels integrated in the game and not tabbing out.

ESO = best interface ever I see in my life.

I know the friend list especially, as well as a few other issues, are what mostly killed the social aspect on DE.

Being forced to qs if you wanna play rated means no chatting in lobbies.

Now I'm just stuck for 7:30 watching QS, unable to click another tab as it resets the queue lol.

AoE 3 DE interface just didn't feel as welcoming as legacy.

It sucks to depend on another company, Discord, to have a functioning gaming experience, tho. What happens if one day Dicsord goes under.

Most of the complicated stuff for the friend list is already done. The status of friends is already there, just needs to be displayed properly.

ESO interface is part of the reason why online legacy was so great.

[JKProwler]

I just will never understand why they just didn't remaster AOE3 exactly the way it was. The game had all we have on DE and more but on one screen. It would have been way less work and way better results. We had QS, Rank, Ladder, Friendlist, lobbies etc on the same screen....

They choosed to work 10x more for a result 10x worst...

Same for the PR in lobbies, instead of just copying captain etc, they choosed to work more and add those stars that, first don't even work, and second none understand. Because of that literally no old player play lobbies exept when friends are available.


What I expected : The same game with better graphics, and nothing else <<

I think agree with most of what u said. But I would have also expected at least 2 new civs, better maps, less lag (this is big, legacy is just a lag fest).

To there credit they did meet some of those, but imo they prob wasted too much time in redesigning the UI ( when they could have just kept the same look but modernised it) and changed some of the legacy civs when thy didn't need to which led to a very unpolished release.

In terms of UI, outside of the outdated look, eso was just better in most other areas.

Lobby, profile, friends list, quick search, search functionality etc..

Maybe copying some of the UI functionalities from eso into the new code was difficult but yeah definatley felt like a downgrade

[Dolan]

Not sure you guys read what I wrote earlier on. The reason why they couldn't keep the old ESO UI was because the code that does the networking between players was rewritten from scratch.
That's why there's less lag now, because the game host is on their servers, the host is no longer the player who opens the lobby.
So there was nothing in the new networking code that could be hooked to the old interface, no matching functionality.

They build this starting from the backend, by first making it possible for streams of data to circulate between players (chats, invites, synched choices), then add buttons and knobs to visually render what happens in the backend to the players too.
They didn't have much of a choice but to ditch the old UI and start from scratch. Ofc we can question how they executed the last part, but I don't think there's any doubt that they couldn't keep the old interface.

[gibson]

Also they ofc had to change it all. They wouldn't make it look the same even if they could easily. The more stuff thats the same from the old game visually, the less people would buy it.

[iron_turtle]

So, I did those UI mockups, and a dev did reply on the forum.



Let's see what comes out of it.

[Squamiger]

aoe3 de interface is miles better than aoe4 imo

literally any interface is better than aoe 3 de

im referring specifically to the ingame UI, which I think is pretty dang good. the rest of it is so so

[MCJim]

The reason they didn't pay much attention to the online experience in DE could also be our shortcoming. Has any AoE3:DE Insider provide feedback about the online experience in its pre-release state?

[helln00]

tbh part of it could just be familiarity since its very similar to the old interface. I atleast would still want the full city view with the colours intact rather then behind a semi visible panel

[Mr_Bramboy]

Just a handful of interesting opinions in this thread about the DE interface. Thanks for your replies! I'll post this on the official forums very soon.

I feel very isolated in DE.

I want to have a friend / chat functionality that feels integrated in the game and not tabbing out.

ESO = best interface ever I see in my life.

I know the friend list especially, as well as a few other issues, are what mostly killed the social aspect on DE.

Being forced to qs if you wanna play rated means no chatting in lobbies.

Now I'm just stuck for 7:30 watching QS, unable to click another tab as it resets the queue lol.

AoE 3 DE interface just didn't feel as welcoming as legacy.

It sucks to depend on another company, Discord, to have a functioning gaming experience, tho. What happens if one day Dicsord goes under.

Most of the complicated stuff for the friend list is already done. The status of friends is already there, just needs to be displayed properly.

ESO interface is part of the reason why online legacy was so great.

You can't just cherry-pick opinions that fit your point of view. Where's my reply?

[Challenger_Marco]

The New Concept of the UI looks very good and has so many features ,makes our online life much more easier

[MCJim]

Just a handful of interesting opinions in this thread about the DE interface. Thanks for your replies! I'll post this on the official forums very soon.

I feel very isolated in DE.

I want to have a friend / chat functionality that feels integrated in the game and not tabbing out.

ESO = best interface ever I see in my life.

I know the friend list especially, as well as a few other issues, are what mostly killed the social aspect on DE.

Being forced to qs if you wanna play rated means no chatting in lobbies.

Now I'm just stuck for 7:30 watching QS, unable to click another tab as it resets the queue lol.

AoE 3 DE interface just didn't feel as welcoming as legacy.

It sucks to depend on another company, Discord, to have a functioning gaming experience, tho. What happens if one day Dicsord goes under.

Most of the complicated stuff for the friend list is already done. The status of friends is already there, just needs to be displayed properly.

ESO interface is part of the reason why online legacy was so great.

You can't just cherry-pick opinions that fit your point of view. Where's my reply?

I'll also link this thread, so that will be covered.

[MCJim]

Posted on the official forums: https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/why-t ... ved/184122

[MCJim]

A couple of months/updates later. Does anybody think we still have a chance of seeing this in the near future?

[aaryngend]

A couple of months/updates later. Does anybody think we still have a chance of seeing this in the near future?

I don't think they've ever mentioned looking into it. You can't sell UX/UI improvements as DLC so I guess it will always be low priority