Reasons why Age 4 is inferior to Age II or even III

[SomeoneSomewhere]

- Lack of editor
- 200 pop cap (what are we, 2001?)
- 8 factions? Seriously, what's next, an expansion pack on CDROM?
- Lack of customisation: Can't change your own team colour for instance.
- AGE OF CAVALRY
- Horrible UI & no zoom

Not even including graphics, might aswel call it Age of cartoons 4

[Kamamura]

Three simple steps to improve the OPs posting quality:

1) Realize that you are speaking nonsense, since AOE 4 has much better pathfinding and graphics, plus features true 3D models of both the landcape and units, wihle AOE2 are just pre-rendered sprites on a flat canvas
2) Learn something about pathfinding algorithms to realize that while average computer performance has risen somewhat (mostly due to switch to multi-core architectures), pathfinding algorithms are extremely complex, do not have an uniform, one glove fits all hands solution, and most importantly, scale exponentially with number of units. Even Dwarf Fortress has problems with pathfinding
3) Make a knightly vow to think more about your future topic, before you decide to flood the forums with them.

[Detris]

-Map editor is coming next year, apparently
-popcap, there could be option at least to change it
-8 factions, they will add more(you will have to pay more money for that) but at least all civs feels unique
-i agree not much customization, miss these colors, all previous games had that option
-age of cavalry, don't know what you mean, you have cav in game
-They could put more effort in UI, dont mind the zoom

Also graphics are good, besides its not the graphics that make the game good, is the gameplay, and gameplay is great

[Burjis]

I don't understand why some people complain about the 200 unit cap when all other AoE games also had the exact same unit cap on standard settings. Hell, vanilla AoE2 had a 75 unit cap on campaign! I personally hate a unit cap of more than 200. The battles are chaotic enough as it is during late game. I'm positive though that there will be more customization coming to AoE4 in the future (and I'm sure it's not going to be as part of a paid DLC).

[SomeoneSomewhere]

Originally posted by Burjis:

I don't understand why some people complain about the 200 unit cap when all other AoE games also had the exact same unit cap on standard settings. Hell, vanilla AoE2 had a 75 unit cap on campaign! I personally hate a unit cap of more than 200, but I'm positive there will be more customization coming to AoE4 in the future (and I'm sure it's not going to be as part of a paid DLC).

The problem lays in the fact that the pop cap was there because back then, computers were run by hamsters. Nowadays, a pop cap limit of 200 makes no flipping sense when almost everyone is running computers that can run 2 to 5 instances of the original age of empires on the same computer.

[Raven]

Originally posted by StormBreaker:

Originally posted by Burjis:

I don't understand why some people complain about the 200 unit cap when all other AoE games also had the exact same unit cap on standard settings. Hell, vanilla AoE2 had a 75 unit cap on campaign! I personally hate a unit cap of more than 200, but I'm positive there will be more customization coming to AoE4 in the future (and I'm sure it's not going to be as part of a paid DLC).

The problem lays in the fact that the pop cap was there because back then, computers were run by hamsters. Nowadays, a pop cap limit of 200 makes no flipping sense when almost everyone is running computers that can run 2 to 5 instances of the original age of empires on the same computer.

It's there to limit the duration of games, as it makes no sense to spend more time farming resources once you can field an army at the population cap. This also affects how the game is balanced, as certain civs like the Rus have bonus income that provide a substantial benefit when the game drags on for too long. Similarly if the pop cap was 100, it would force the games to be shorter and the balance would shift once more.
Army sizes also affect how much micro and macro affect the outcome of the game, as once you reach a certain army size there will be no human capable of microing the deathball effectively (even if this game is less micro intensive than Starcraft, for example), and with smaller army sizes good macro becomes less useful as you don't have the time to rake in the benefits as much.

Having the option to have larger pop caps would be nice though, just to shut up the folks who want to re-enact their favorite Epic Battle Simulator moments. The standard should be kept at 200 though.

Also, if your PC can handle only 2-5 AoE instances at the same time (well, whether or not it makes sense to run extra instances on a single PC is a separate matter), you really don't have a PC good enough to handle a larger pop cap in this. You could run AoE on a modern calculator with a KB+M attached to it.

[Mr Moopsy]

Originally posted by StormBreaker:

- Lack of editor
- 200 pop cap (what are we, 2001?)
- 8 factions? Seriously, what's next, an expansion pack on CDROM?
- Lack of customisation: Can't change your own team colour for instance.
- AGE OF CAVALRY
- Horrible UI & no zoom

Not even including graphics, might aswel call it Age of cartoons 4

-meh once we get mods and more custom games going its not an issue. I have fun with 200pop cap anyways. thats the strategy part of this so it isnt just entirely whoever rushed all the resources wins every time type of situation.

-factions are over-rated. 8 is plenty to have a blast with. They could put 100 factions in and it doesnt make a game fun. More are coming out in future dlc releases so im fine with this, especially if they come with more campaign missions and videos.

-such a petty complaint I keep seeing. there is the option for unique colors instead of team based if you fancy it. But this holds zero value for me in deciding if I like a game.

-allow me to introduce your cavalry to a few spears and crossbows.

-Whats wrong with the UI? Im with you in wishing I could zoom out and in more than we can at present though. UI is functional and stays out of my way, im happy with it. Keyboard shortcuts are a PITA though, still customizing things.

[Gimli]

no taunts either

[Zansibar]

- Editor is on the way.
- Literally all age games have 200 pop i regular MP, just play custom games you dingus.
- Aoe 3 had 8 factions on release as well.
- Yeah i suppose.
- Just build spears and crossbows lol
- I dont mind it, but i guess its not everyones thing.

All AOE games are fairly cartoony and 4 is the least colorfull of all AOE games. Just look at the oversaturation in 2 lol

[Yuriqa]

Modding for game are coming early 2022 so eee...

[Eric]

i actually like the graphic is simple and clean, i can tell easily everything, it's not really cartony it just washed out i think?

[Rootbeer Safety Team]

Editor, Popcap (and other skirmish options in general), player color, and zoom level are all easily fixable problems, its dumb that they didnt come with launch, but they'll be here eventually.

[Spartacus]

Response

- Lack of editor
It's coming soon, relax.

- 200 pop cap (what are we, 2001?)
AOEII ranked is 200 pop cap...

- 8 factions? Seriously, what's next, an expansion pack on CDROM?
JUST RELEASED

- Lack of customisation: Can't change your own team colour for instance.
MODs and other stuff is coming in Jan.

- AGE OF CAVALRY
Learn to Play around it, I win and never build cavalry

- Horrible UI & no zoom
UI is better and more modern than all of them. And yes, there is zoom too...

Not even including graphics, might aswel call it Age of cartoons 4
Yes, it's low poly so this is the one thing you ALMOST got right. However, this opens the game up to better animations and skins and longevity. Most games are doing this to extend their lifespan and I'm fine with it. Makes them highly competitive and helps colorblind.

[Nightmare799]

It ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ smells of fanboys in here, defending this piece of ♥♥♥♥ that looks like something from a decade ago. Literally the only positive improvement is inclusion of wall building, which by the way due to building scale look ridiculous.

This thing is barely fit for a mobile release, let alone an actual gaming platform. You've been duped people.

[Nightmare799]

Originally posted by Yuriqa:

Modding for game are coming early 2022 so eee...

Oh god forbid microsoft didn't release a POS that modders will be fixing fór the next decade. I hope nobody bothers to mod this game because of people like you.

[Raven]

Originally posted by Mr Moopsy:

Originally posted by StormBreaker:

- Lack of editor
- 200 pop cap (what are we, 2001?)
- 8 factions? Seriously, what's next, an expansion pack on CDROM?
- Lack of customisation: Can't change your own team colour for instance.
- AGE OF CAVALRY
- Horrible UI & no zoom

Not even including graphics, might aswel call it Age of cartoons 4

-factions are over-rated. 8 is plenty to have a blast with. They could put 100 factions in and it doesnt make a game fun. More are coming out in future dlc releases so im fine with this, especially if they come with more campaign missions and videos.

Best example of this: the Starcraft series. It has only 3 unique factions (and it's the same factions across SC1, BW, and SC2: Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss), but they are all so distinct and carefully balanced that the series has been loved by the fans of this genre for over 2 decades. AoE4's factions are not quite as distinct, but they are still far more distinct than the couple dozen in AoE2. Time will tell whether this is a good thing or not, but I'm leaning towards this being an improvement for the time being.