This vs Retold

[Jiang Ziya]

I bought it full price because with the game page greyed out, it will be like AoE II HD wihich will never go on discount anymore..Is multiplayer active ? or all of player already migrated into retold ?

I hope Im not disappointed since full price is quite expensive for over 20 years old game, but looks like it will never be on discount anymore then there is no point waiting for discount..

[Bringmesomegasoline]

No Age of Mythology will ever be as good as the first AOM release.

[Bruce]

I thought AOM Retold would be like AoE II HD but unfortunately it has gone down the path of, for want of any other term, "movie mode." It's like watching a movie instead of playing a game. The gameplay is the thing, not the graphics, when all is said and done. That is why I am staying with AOM EE, including the Tale of the Dragon DLC. It's a great GAME, not a movie.

[The Sound of No One Listening]

I didn't enjoy the Retold version at all. I do hope that they can fix it in the future. Original AOM still is and always will be BADASS.

[SuperSpliced]

How dense are you guys, Retold is superior in nearly every way, and this is coming from someone who played AoM back in the early 2000's. What is actually wrong with you guys....

[Astachoth]

Originally posted by SuperSpliced:

How dense are you guys, Retold is superior in nearly every way, and this is coming from someone who played AoM back in the early 2000's. What is actually wrong with you guys....

I know what is wrong with me. I like the old graphics.

[Bruce]

Originally posted by Astachoth:

Originally posted by SuperSpliced:

How dense are you guys, Retold is superior in nearly every way, and this is coming from someone who played AoM back in the early 2000's. What is actually wrong with you guys....

I know what is wrong with me. I like the old graphics.

Yes, some of us prefer playing a game to watching a movie, as I mentioned before. I was kind of hoping AOM Retold would be like AOE II DE. If it was, I would have purchased it already.

[FloosWorld]

Originally posted by Bruce:

Originally posted by Astachoth:

I know what is wrong with me. I like the old graphics.

Yes, some of us prefer playing a game to watching a movie, as I mentioned before. I was kind of hoping AOM Retold would be like AOE II DE. If it was, I would have purchased it already.

I don't get that comparison? How is Retold like watching a movie?

[Astachoth]

Originally posted by Bruce:

Originally posted by Astachoth:

I know what is wrong with me. I like the old graphics.

Yes, some of us prefer playing a game to watching a movie, as I mentioned before. I was kind of hoping AOM Retold would be like AOE II DE. If it was, I would have purchased it already.

I do not think of the new game as a movie. I just do not like how everything looks as if it were made of plastic, especially the grass. That is the best way I can describe it. The old game is a little more 'natural' looking. The images are not quite as 'sharp'. It is like replacing wood with vinyl siding on a house. I will have to admit that the new music is interesting. I like how they extended the beginning of the song, which plays when you begin the game. I am referring to the song, which plays immediately after the 'chosen culture music'.

[Bruce]

Originally posted by FloosWorld:

Originally posted by Bruce:

Yes, some of us prefer playing a game to watching a movie, as I mentioned before. I was kind of hoping AOM Retold would be like AOE II DE. If it was, I would have purchased it already.

I don't get that comparison? How is Retold like watching a movie?

That's a good and reasonable question and I will try to answer it, even though I am unsure myself of what I mean! I guess it boils down to this: Too much motion, too much realism. When I make a move, or the AI does, I have to watch a video clip which I find exhausting and a distraction from gameplay. As in other games, the more emphasis on animation — the eye candy, so to speak — the less concentration on game quality by both developer and user.

I will tell you something more: I had the same reaction to AOE IV and, from the announcement videos, the upcoming Civilization VII. In both cases, I am sticking with their predecessors, AOE II DE and Civ VI. I am absolutely in love with those games because, for me, they balance attractive graphics with immersive and challenging gameplay.

Ask yourself this (it's what I said to myself when I finally got off the OOTPB bandwagon as well with version 25): Why do I need to constantly upgrade when I already enjoy what I have? So what does Retold have that I don't already love about AOM EE? Movies, is all.

[FloosWorld]

Originally posted by Bruce:

Originally posted by FloosWorld:

I don't get that comparison? How is Retold like watching a movie?

That's a good and reasonable question and I will try to answer it, even though I am unsure myself of what I mean! I guess it boils down to this: Too much motion, too much realism. When I make a move, or the AI does, I have to watch a video clip which I find exhausting and a distraction from gameplay. As in other games, the more emphasis on animation — the eye candy, so to speak — the less concentration on game quality by both developer and user.

I will tell you something more: I had the same reaction to AOE IV and, from the announcement videos, the upcoming Civilization VII. In both cases, I am sticking with their predecessors, AOE II DE and Civ VI. I am absolutely in love with those games because, for me, they balance attractive graphics with immersive and challenging gameplay.

Ask yourself this (it's what I said to myself when I finally got off the OOTPB bandwagon as well with version 25): Why do I need to constantly upgrade when I already enjoy what I have? So what does Retold have that I don't already love about AOM EE? Movies, is all.

Well, this comparison for me does not make much sense then, especially because you mentioned AoE 2 DE further below.
2 DE has an older version on Steam with HD Edition and with Retold, it is pretty much the same. Retold is essentially AoM DE.

As for your question on what Retold has over EE, I recommend the release notes if you have the time to read through them. Retold is much more than just a graphics update:
https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Update_17.18697

[Jiang Ziya]

What I don't like in Retold is that the use of god power multiple times, it's kinda breaking the balance, or whatever the old devs aim to be. Maybe the main reason is to be more casual friendly, being that it's also being released for console ?

[FloosWorld]

Originally posted by Jiang Ziya:

What I don't like in Retold is that the use of god power multiple times, it's kinda breaking the balance, or whatever the old devs aim to be. Maybe the main reason is to be more casual friendly, being that it's also being released for console ?

Multi use GPs is balanced out by adding favor costs to each repeated use.

[blowjobthegreat]

Original:
- no crashes
- framerate good
- can be made HD/widescreen mode
- takes a few options or third party apps (like voobly/gameranger) to find games

EE:
- crashes sometimes online (if you load a game/world once, and don't restart the game; but solidd, you can always play a game with friends, or organize a game)
- framerate reduced from original (and some post processing is forced on, that lags and does nothing)
- added steam server support (plug 'n play, no need to install or configure anything)
- steam workshop support (mod support requires game restart, so 'big mods' that add civs and things like that are not usable or very rare if someone loads it up)
- set to use p2p for connections (so 1 player that lags, is 'far away', or other issues can cause game to lag; this is not bad but lag checks, and lobbies, could be improved)
- had patched some things, like the Poseidon lure glitch (but it wasn't really effecting much)
- matchmaking works but has an issue where it 'fails' and then begins game anyway
- solid re-release
- AI still the same
- has 1 DLC which is cool, a tad overpowered but it's not game breaking
- abandoned for years with the dev added crash and fixable issues left in
- to "sell" retold copies more, they emphasized that "EE is so broken!" but is it?

RE:
- crashes sometimes online
- framerate reduced from original
- not required DX12 mode was never needed, and offered no improvements over DX9 (let's say 10-25% players unable to run it; there could even still be Windows7 users)
- just placed the original AoM dev's assets, onto AoE3's engine, and most 'graphical changes' are explained by this
- graphical changes appear nonexistant (and if they really were redone, the blurry post-processing and cartoon effects make it impossible to distinguish any features; it is literally a scam or they wasted their time if they redid it, because of this fact)
- sometimes desyncs online (worthless to even play online, until they 'fix it', if they do)
- steam workshop support (no changes, it was planned to make mods better but.. now it is in the same state, only 'no mods now' and 'no one making mods', and probably just no compatibility)
- allegedly no 'custom games' being played (not even mini scenarios; and so less than EE or the Original)
- matchmaking issues (but worse because it would just "end" the queue)
- worse/inferior voice acting, that calls you a "young warrior" or "little kid" basically
- usually still requires some 'visual settings' option changes, (because it looks so odd)
- AI still the same
- market hype, it's unclear whether people are 'playing' or if its the usual Microsoft marketing, bots, paid reviews and stuff like that
-also all Retold units kinda look like AoE3 musketeers now.. it just looks stupid
- "rebalances" (as I see was talked about a bit here), seem like really unthought out and uncaring; no one really likes them or are really confused

Big differences:
-Original, and EE does not desync (can complete online game)
-EE has a crash that can be surely avoided (if you restart game every time you play once).
-RE has crashes that are sometimes unknown, or just exits sometimes. (making it unstable)
-EE and RE both have the same mod support.
-EE has mods/compatibility with older mods too, and people made some mods.
-RE does not have backwards mod compatibility, and no one making mods.
-RE has an unstable multiplayer; maybe they can stabilize but..has many other flaws.
-EE and Original have a stable multiplayer, custom games, and technically both of them run faster. They also have same system requirements.

What 'should' have been done:
-Take EE as a base
-Clean up DX9 code, make it fast again (identify bottlenecks)
-Fix 'crash' that was added to the game in EE
-Make game 64bit because why not
-Make "mods" able to load dynamically, or re-work that (it still isn't done anyway on Retold)
-Fix the Chinese DLC a bit, or un-release it to re-release it later
-Make DLCs more easily on AoM that way (they are basically mods, you can just sell them packed within the game )
-Do things like AoE2DE did like: take the modded AI, and release with it, leaving Old/Standard AI as a 2nd option (it would be an improvement).
-Add a mode that is between Titan/Hard that is maybe 50% handicap, instead of 100% so it's more for balanced AI play instead of a big jump between 'easy' and 'too fast'. Or just have fun with it, difficulty of AI is really out of date.
-Redo some things graphically if needed or even 'all of it' (but without AoE3's blocky look where all buildings look like AoE3 now and units just look like AoE3 units) (heck even like 'properly done' graphical effects to make it look different, while really changing nothing, would have been better)
- clearly Microsoft can lie, pay for reviews, and market anyway so.. it'd be a fine final release that hopefully just doesnt crash at least (and since that seems to have carried the whole entire release anyway, it'd be like the same but better..)
- continue from there

Too bad.. now aom retold, it's only a myth that could've been something.. *laughs*

[FloosWorld]

Uh.. Retold has mods. Like AoE 2 and 3 DE, mods are accessible ingame.

[blowjobthegreat]

Ingame, with the desyncs and non working online?

and where no one is making them?

Oh I get it, you just don't care anymore. Bye loser.

Well I don't care too much either, it's just, being smarter than like Microsoft, paid teams, etc. and being higher quality of a person is like.. an ego boost at the least.