Return of Rome is Great.

[Plokmijnuh]

Return of Rome is a really awesome expansion. It makes AoE1 actually playable because there's no terrible pathing when moving units around the map. You can actually move your armies and villagers and micro chariot and horse archers now. It's essentially AoE DE 1.5. It has numerous quality of life changes to make the game playable and possibly add new content in the future as the devs said the original code was tedious and outdated so they were limited in making the DE for AoE1. My only complaint is that for random matches, the AI seems to be much more difficult and smarter than the AI in AoE 2 DE but that could also be the case that I'm not used to Return of Rome mechanics and strategies relative to AoE2. That and some of the campaigns are either really, really hard on higher difficulties or not much of a challenge with a good strategy. Trajan campaign is not that difficult on hard if you go for the ballistas and hoplite meatshield strategy with some archers. Basically ballistas are amazing and destroy heavy infantry and calvary and if you make phalangites or centurions of your own, you can just defend the ballistas. Remember ballistas don't destroy buildings well, only units, so upgraded catapults are a good thing to make as well. Also if the enemy uses catapults like the Dacian Army in Trajan 3, hoplites are too slow to kill them, so you have to have a small calvary army to take out siege.

[ontimehelix]

Yes agree, it is great
So happy to have AOE on a proper engine, and all the extra stuff they added too

[BirbNotBird]

Agree, but still I feel like ROR is unbalanced and only amplified by civ bonuses.

Not much of my problem since I'm a self proclaimed map art maker and single player only.

Love the new details, and new mechanics too.

And I really wish they weren't released in such a half baked state.

[Vonklyce]

I honestly did enjoy this DLC way more than Lords of the West and Dawn of the Dukes.
If we think about it, these two only added 2 civs and 3 campaigns each, pretty much felt like it was ONE expansion split into half to be sold twice, making more money out of it and filling a huge gap of no content for like a whole year or so.

RoR not only added the 3 standard campaigns and a complete whole new civ, but also 17 classic civs from AoE 1... yes i know they're pretty much the same thing since there's no unique units and techs, so they're more like just one civ with 17 different flavors, but still... feels better than just one more boring european civ for AoE 2.

TL;DR: RoR felt more like of an actual expansion and less of a "scam" than LotW and DotD, it's just too bad that it was tainted by so many bugs that ruined the experience for many.

[Mia Wallace]

next dlc is you can play Minecraft X in AoE II DE

[Flakstruk]

I got my moneys worth

[kenntak7]

it's the best DLC so far. I have played Return of Rome almost exclusively lately.

[Ksawery]

I enjoy Return of Rome a lot. I wish there were more people playing it online.

[big Hat arxm]

It’s nice and better with the pathing for sure. I just wish they used the old school forage bushes!

[James3157]

Am I the only one who thinks that AoE: DE only has minor issues that are only mildly annoying, but not bad enough to make it unplayable? It has a few annoyances, but RoR is not necessarily better than AoE: DE. I also play AoE: DE, but contrary to some people I am still loyal to the original. Most people on Steam as well recommend AoE: DE instead of not recommending it even with its minor issues that I think are only mildly annoying at worst. For example, units (mainly military and villagers, but not fishing boats) sometimes getting stuck contrary to later Age of Empires games, but there are various ways to avoid this (such as for example not getting too close to the trees with too many units whenever possible if next to water) or work around it (such as for example removing a stone or gold mine to make a villager get unstuck and not having buildings close enough to blocks units). Also, path finding is an issue for the entire series and not limited to only just AoE: DE.

[Lotor13]

I also think , that is good expansion, very specifc (AoE1 port into AoE2), but someting new and special

[Lotor13]

Originally posted by James3157:

Am I the only one who thinks that AoE: DE only has minor issues that are only mildly annoying, but not bad enough to make it unplayable? It has a few annoyances, but RoR is not necessarily better than AoE: DE. I also play AoE: DE, but contrary to some people I am still loyal to the original.

I am not sure, if You want to idealize the AoE: DE, so just check few AoE: DE steam discussions, it is not about loyalty, or rivalty between AoE1 vs AoE2


https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/5696507684086496823/

When moving a group of units instead of assembling to the spot you selected they just move relative to each other, you have to manually move each unit to make them come into a single bunch...

This is so annoying i uninstalled the game few times... how can i bring the old behavior?
I want all units to always to to selected spot at any time, not keep relative distance between other units.

Makes me wonder if the devs remaking this actually played the game a single time

AI/Pathfinding is Unplayable

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/5696507684088258317/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/6790907123967919773/

[Primhose]

Originally posted by Vonklyce:

...Lords of the West and Dawn of the Dukes.
If we think about it, these two only added 2 civs and 3 campaigns each, pretty much felt like it was ONE expansion split into half to be sold twice....

So I hadn't paid attention to Age 2 Def. until earlier this year, and I actually thought those were one expansion called "Dukes of the West."

[Krosis Priest]

Originally posted by karoten2:

Originally posted by James3157:

Am I the only one who thinks that AoE: DE only has minor issues that are only mildly annoying, but not bad enough to make it unplayable? It has a few annoyances, but RoR is not necessarily better than AoE: DE. I also play AoE: DE, but contrary to some people I am still loyal to the original.

I am not sure, if You want to idealize the AoE: DE, so just check few AoE: DE steam discussions, it is not about loyalty, or rivalty between AoE1 vs AoE2


https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/5696507684086496823/

When moving a group of units instead of assembling to the spot you selected they just move relative to each other, you have to manually move each unit to make them come into a single bunch...

This is so annoying i uninstalled the game few times... how can i bring the old behavior?
I want all units to always to to selected spot at any time, not keep relative distance between other units.

Makes me wonder if the devs remaking this actually played the game a single time

AI/Pathfinding is Unplayable

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/5696507684088258317/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/6790907123967919773/

I played RoR on release and it fixes almost nothing except for adding formations, and has a bunch of new issues that AoE:DE does not have. I played AoE1:DE quite a bit afterwards, and it really is not nearly as "broken" as some people like to claim, and its AI is genuinely better in some ways than AoE2:DE - it's not very clever, but it can actually play all aspects of the game competently.

I sometimes feel like this is Windows 8.1 vs 10 all over again and M$ had to pay some people to badmouth the previous version to make their new piece of sh!t look good.

[BirbNotBird]

Originally posted by Krosis:

I played RoR on release and it fixes almost nothing except for adding formations, and has a bunch of new issues that AoE:DE does not have. I played AoE1:DE quite a bit afterwards, and it really is not nearly as "broken" as some people like to claim, and its AI is genuinely better in some ways than AoE2:DE - it's not very clever, but it can actually play all aspects of the game competently.

I sometimes feel like this is Windows 8.1 vs 10 all over again and M$ had to pay some people to badmouth the previous version to make their new piece of sh!t look good.

Then again, at the end, it's about the perspectives of users who wish to use it.

Each people have different idea and different opinions. For some, Win10 simply better than Win8 in some parts and vice versa. You can complain how much you hate Win10 and how Win8 is superior, but humans in nature have always simply yearn for comfort. That is why there is still a huge number of Windows users instead of Linux. That's how some people would stick to the later series than the former.

We as customers just simply enjoy the product, as long there is a demand for it.
You can complaint it's suck or it's bad, then again AOE1DE has its own niche that I do not find it enjoyable. AOE1DE and ROR is different, and with their own twists.

[Primhose]

Originally posted by Krosis:

I sometimes feel like this is Windows 8.1 vs 10 all over again and M$ had to pay some people to badmouth the previous version to make their new...look good.

bro don't remind me that in six months Steam stops working on my Windows 7 and 8.1
end of an era