Reply With QuoteThe game could use a GW2 PVP model where in ranked PVP everyone starts at L40 with the same gear for the duration of the match.
It seems to me many of the complaints can be easily solved.
Grinds - Package the cosmetic DLCs with side effects like double EXP. Employ mechanics likes Rested Bonus to smoothen the edges in the leveling curve. Drop the daisy chain quest system, and make it level driven instead. Make sure all quests are equally skippable and accessible . For turtlers like Rachel, offer bonus EXP for surplus resources/buildings. In this regard, I think Relic's DoW2 performance driven reward system is a very good example.
Civs - Why not offer a subscription that gives player's access to all the civs for a limited period of time. On top of that, make special quests that let players play civilizations different from their capital city. This should give the players some variety while letting them to progress.
IMO, I think the game has a very solid foundation (thanks to AoE, nonetheless). All it needs is some refinement in the DLC side.
Last edited by thinkingork; 08-25-2011 at 11:03 AM.
The game could use a GW2 PVP model where in ranked PVP everyone starts at L40 with the same gear for the duration of the match.
This! A million times!Originally Posted by Harkonis
For around 2.5 hours I defended and built up. Red v Blue.
At 4 hours and 50 minutes Blue wins - decisively. I'm Blue.
That's right, a mission designed to be finished in twenty minutes took me just under
five hours to finish - the way I wanted to play. In this mission I had to hold out for 20
minutes. The goal of this mission was to hold out against an all mighty assault,
comprised of elites and catapults and lots of cavalry, that were trying to destroy a
capitol building. I showed them. Look at the minimap; before and after.
I love maps with single choke points between two sides. I'm in charge now.
I also love small islands I can use as choke points.
I'm continuing in a new post because:
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I love starting on an island. I quickly wall it off and do my own thing.
This one has two layers of protection. :P
Then, the stupid AI can't get to me. Ha Ha. Uhhh, looky, an elite transport ship.
I wonder what's inside? Guess I'll never know. It's final destination will be the
bottom of the sea.
Another favorite tactic of mine is when I deliberately back myself into a corner.
Island life.
Last edited by Rachel Brown; 08-25-2011 at 10:12 AM.
Oh you evil sonufagun. Did you really have to go and give them this idea?!
Jesus Christ, do you think you have enough defenses?
At least they look pretty. I wonder why the mapdevs didn't put a beach on that island where enemy troops have to land -- looks like a pretty obvious setup to me because it prevents you having to waste time setting up a decent army. Do beaches still prevent you placing stuff on them?
IDK why they don't have an upgrade system for buildings (to prevent map overload) where you can just upgrade the building to produce more stuff simultaneously.
I see peasants, and these days that's actually a huge turn off in an rts for me. But now I totally want to go play some Stronghold!
Tom reviewing this game is a bit like Bruce Geryk reviewing CandyLand Battle.net edition.
I would very much enjoy this.
I am not nearly has a hard core RTS person as Tom, but I think he is right on the money with his complaints about AoE Online. I was in the beta and eventually stopped because of the exact same reasons Tom has given for not liking the game.
I would think any person who considers himself an RTS player (its a favored genera of game) would come to the same conclusions especially if you played a fair amount of AoE 1, 2 or 3.
It may be possible to draw in the very-casual crowd - look at the production values of most of those games, and how flat out gorgeous the game and city builder of AOEO are - and then patch it into something that won't make AoE3 vets tear their hair out. Add some unlocked or mostly unlocked ranked PVP / 1P skirmish as a premium feature and give it hefty XP.
That is my point, AoE online is a free to play, casual game, not an RTS game. Comparisons to stuff like Farmville would be more appropriate, not AoE1, Starcraft, or even stuff like LoL.
Take a look at Rachel's screenshots above. Imagine if you were sitting over her shoulder while she played that map for 4.5 hours. You would probably look like this:
Within 5 minutes, you'd be trying to teach he stuff about rushing, booming, and turtling. She would just be like yeah, I just wanna build walls.
Rachel looks like she'd really like Netstorm, as its all about walls and static towers. Though the bridging portion was a bit too frenetic.
I've played almost all the big RTS franchises and some other ones too (including AoE 1 and 2 extensively), and while I do see where Tom and your conclusions are coming from, I don't agree with all of it.
I do play AoEO as a sort of casual futz around game, it definitely does not scratch the "hardcore RTS" itch, but its fun.
Age of Empires and Age of Kings are my two favorite PC games of all time; I've played thousands of multiplayer matches of each. I was anxiously awaiting Age of Empires Online, especially after Starcraft II showed even a classic could be improved.
My favorite franchise has been transformed into a tutorial. Who in the world thought Age of Empires would be better if players were forced to slog through a dozen hours of boredom before being having access to the game? This feels like cruel parents giving their kids a set of Lego and only allowing them to use certain pieces after cleaning the house, others after mowing the grass, etc.
This was about the worst approach possible for a F2P League of Legends type model. Age of Empires Online has now replaced MOO3 as my biggest gaming disappointment. This must be how Star Wars fans felt after Episode one... :(
Is this a LoL type model though? IIRC with LoL you can buy pretty much everything in the game with credits earned in game. It will just take a lot longer than if you paid cash. From what I can tell, if something is locked premium in AoEO, the only way you are getting it is if you fork over the cash, and that seems to be a lot of stuff.
Well, it had the word online in the name. I pretty much assumed it was gonna suck.
But the production values are great and that's a huge surprise. If only there was a game hidden inside, they'd have gotten me on board.
It would also be nice if it told you that a building contains only premium content, so you don't waste resources building a building that is useless to you.
Yep, not the LoL model at all; the LoL model offers you the ability to play and unlock everything (aside from skins) by simply playing; you can shell out money and get XP or IP (the ingame currency) boosts, you can directly buy or play and get IP and eventually buy runes or champions.
Thing is, in my opinion, the LoL model works because the gameplay is fun, matchmaking is fast and effective (not perfect but far from AoEO) and they let you play different champions every week, effectively making you want to shell out the money to get them faster and/or get skins for champions you already own AND they release a new champion every 3 weeks or so, keeping the game field fresh and allowing instant buyers to spend even more.
AoEO doesn't offer that, if offers a subpar free mode that puts the player off the experience instead of enticing it to spend money, that at least was my experience; when I got to level 11 I was so frustrated with seeing so many "overpowered" units locked behind a cash wall and repeating the same quests over and over again that I just uninstalled.
how does one join a chat channel in this game? Also, I moved my Greek civ to Marathon!
Right click on one of the chat tabs, select create new tab, then right click that tab and select options. On the right side of the options there should be a a place to join a channel.
Have any of you been able to get much out of the co-op play? I was pretty underwhelmed by how this worked, aside from my other problems with the game, but maybe I wasn't doing it right. Between being unable to find a random partner and the complications with grouping someone who wasn't at the same point on a quest chain, it felt like co-op was a missed opportunity.
-Tom
There isn't automatch making when you click find coop partner it sends a link to the LFG channel, not the best solution.
I've done a few of the co-op only quests that open up in Argos. It was alright, the AI is set to hit both players with wave after wave of tough units, we were basically covering each other for the first 10 minutes trying to survive to age 3 when we can get out fortresses to act as defense. I think there should be a greater incentive to co-op, such as chests once pick up act for both sides, not just the one that gets there first.
Co-op feels a little half-assed, in that your partner doesn't get to see the quest objectives, or how far you are to completing them, and he starts with only a town center and some villagers. Often you start with a fairly built-up settlement, meaning your co-op partner has to spend a while trying to catch up and get involved in the mission. There was at least one co-op mission where I finished it while my partner was still busy getting his base and army ready.
Also there's a bug where the partner can't travel back to his or her capital after the mission is done, they have to start a new quest and then cancel it by traveling to their capital from there.
All-in-all, it could be better. It'd also be nice if the co-op partner got more XP and gold as a reward to incentivize doing it. We ended up taking turns being the active player.
No, coop is implemented poorly, almost as an afterthought. The coop partner not only doesn't get quest rewards, but you can't even see the quest objectives! Every coop mission begins with "Okay, so wtf do we do? Have we accomplished the objective yet? What are we supposed to do now?"
I also like those timed coop missions, like "Defend the Town Hall for 15 minutes" when the main player starts out in Age 2 with multiple barracks, a stack of resources, walls, towers, etc and the coop guy is stuck out in a vulnerable position with nothing but a town hall and 5 villagers. By the time you get infrastructure set up, the mission is done.
I really hope GPG focuses on this area. Coop could be great, but it's implemented poorly. While we're at it... can we please get missions beyond 2 player coop? I have more than one friend, honest!!!
http://ageofempiresonline.wikia.com/...VP_Multiplayer
Claims that the 'unranked' pvp games are still match made with the trueskill system. If so, if you play enough pvp it won't matter if you have paid or not, you will still be matched against 'even' opponents.
Which is a good thing, IMHO.
Also irritating was that when I was the coop partner not only did I not get a msg that the quest was done, but it didn't tell me that my partner had already exited and gone back to town. I was still playing along trying to help out until he said something in chat that made it obvious he was in his capitol.
I also played the beta, but uninstalled it because after more than 15 missions or so, they were still "boring", and trivial to succeed.
Everyone seemed so happy about this game a few pages back... :(
I didn't get much past level 3 in Beta, I am still gonna see what's changed since then, hopefully over this weekend.
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