why the game is so popular and it plays more than starcraft 2?

[Stay Humble Eh]

in my time I missed it, and so I do not know why it plays so much?

[Nequis]

I bought the game just yesterday after my other 20 years old box is sitting comfy on the shelf and damn if i didn't forget what a true RTS plays like.

To answer your quenstion i guess it's because of the following reasons:

AoE isn't a breakneck speed clickfest that leaves you feeling anxious after you're done

AoE allows you to win through different ways in different modes

AoE leaves you a very wide choice of factions with common units to tailor your playstyle around a specific civilization you may like

AoE allows you to actually win through Strategy not to confuse with Tactics,for example,you know when you were behind cause of focusing on getting a strong economy going while others skirmished all over the map? Now you may have the advantage

I'm still re-learning the game after so much time but i had a great 3v4 match (host ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up) where although outnumbered i could hold my own while map resources slowly exhausted,and since i was using Italians when no gold was left on the map thanks to Silk Way i could have the edge over my opponents thanks to stronger trading translated into replaceable losses while the enemy had many more soldiers but couldn't cope as well with losing units.

That's my idea about the game popularity at least,so many options to have fun the way you prefer while not necessarily mean you are doing bad.

[tzaeru]

Originally posted by Nequis:

AoE isn't a breakneck speed clickfest that leaves you feeling anxious after you're done

--lol?

AoE2 is one of the most micro-intensive RTS games there are. It's constant micro from start to finish and unless you are in top ~1%, it's more likely your game is decided by who had the better micro than by who had the better macro-level decisions.

Every modern RTS games has such nice things as rudimentary target priorization, hotkeys for selecting same units, repeat on factories, proper command queueing... But no, In AoE you even have to manually keep adding farms to be reseeded.

Originally posted by Nequis:

AoE allows you to win through different ways in different modes

Conquest & gg'ing is by far the majority standard.

Originally posted by Nequis:

AoE allows you to actually win through Strategy not to confuse with Tactics,for example,you know when you were behind cause of focusing on getting a strong economy going while others skirmished all over the map? Now you may have the advantage

If the game goes to mid-to-late game, 90% of the time the player who has the better ability to keep responding to events and keep managing their economy while fending off the other player is the victor.

Nothing strategical in that.

[tzaeru]

Originally posted by Spawk:

Originally posted by tzaeru:

If the game goes to mid-to-late game, 90% of the time the player who has the better ability to keep responding to events and keep managing their economy while fending off the other player is the victor.

Nothing strategical in that.

So having a better play strategy for managing resources and defense is not strategic? By that logic nothing can ever be strategic :)

The amount you can manage is often the key. If the other player can manage more than you, they are allowed a lot more macro-level mistakes. When average players play against each other, it's very likely that one is noticeably behind the other in reactions and that then becomes the decisive factor.

AoE2 is interesting and strategically deep when played by players who are close-to each other in micro level and can handle their full economy while also having time for the military units. That's the top ~1%.

For the 99% rest of the players, the way to improve is to keep improving hotkey usage, keep improving micro, keep trying to put more and more attention to as many units as possible. Which exact units and which exact wider strategies you decide to employ come second to that.

In the end, this might actually be a good thing; By making micro the constraint, there's always more strategic decisions available to you as you keep improving in the game. Expert-level AoE2 is really great in that way.

[Jagulars]

Good point. I've noticed that games thrive for long when they cater to the most expert-level. World of Warcraft numbers started falling after they made it more accessible to players with less skill. When there are heights to pursue, there are also pursuers.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

also AOE2HD lags like heck when AOE2 retail runs quite fine thanks to Userpatch

[Harry Pioter]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

also AOE2HD lags like heck when AOE2 retail runs quite fine thanks to Userpatch

Not true. For example for me HD runs better and without lags than aoe2 on voobly with 1.5 userpatch.

[Tempires]

Originally posted by Fenomeno:

Originally posted by aidenpons:

also AOE2HD lags like heck when AOE2 retail runs quite fine thanks to Userpatch

Not true. For example for me HD runs better and without lags than aoe2 on voobly with 1.5 userpatch.

if HD runs better why pro scene isn't on HD then?

[Harry Pioter]

Originally posted by Tempires:

Originally posted by Fenomeno:

Not true. For example for me HD runs better and without lags than aoe2 on voobly with 1.5 userpatch.

if HD runs better why pro scene isn't on HD then?

idk. I said HD runs better on pc, not on all. Maybe because some players have problem with desync. Also Voobly have better spectator mode.