Difficulty in new campaigns is too hard

[meleander]

I was able to do all the AOE2 campaigns on hard. Then I tried AOE1 on normal and just went with the codes. And now I remember why. Because it is fcking too hard. On hard difficulty the AI just steamrolls all over you.

Like with the Pyrrus campaign. I had to micro few cav to kill all orange's vills and then had enough cav to kill orange's stables. And when I got "defend" 3 TCs I had about 15 cav and 2 of the TCs were already surrounded by around 50 Centurion destroying them. For the rest of the game I was trying (and thank you for possibility to pause and make commands, without that I would never micro this) to kite enemies and build 4 wall around the last TC (or rather built one, and then was adding more behind just before those were shredded by the AI). Oh yeah and by some luck I was able to snipe the catapults... Yeah add catapults.

This is not a way to create campaigns where each and every campaign is a struggle. This should be fun even on hard difficulty, but all I do is stretch my abilities to my limit. Small mistake means I need to reload the campaign to make it a perfect play.

And every game is the same insane grind. I need to rush each enemy, if I wait 5 minutes too long the enemies have so much units they just shred mine with mass and upgrades... This is so stupid and not enjoyable at all.


Also, some campaigns say that "your massive army made a camp" and that massive army is few scouts...

[Etho]

The sargon final mission is easier than the last 3 missions. Very uneven difficulty.

[Etho]

The sargon final mission is easier than the last 3 missions. Very uneven difficulty but I enjoyed it very much. We need more campaign like these. Now off I got to Pyrrhus campaign

[XtReMz98]

It is a mixed bag on hard difficulty. Some missions are quite the tough cookie while other are really easy. Like Epirus 1 and Sargon 4 were really hard mission to complete, while others like Sargon 5 felt I was playing standard difficulty. Overall, I think they might be a tad more difficult than their AoE2 counterparts, namely that while Hard feels similar to AoE2's hard, the standard difficulty (which is a snooze fest for me on AoE2) feels more difficult in AoE1.

Keep in mind that you also need to know the unit counters, hotkeys, different civilisations and the weird AoE1 tech tree (where unit sometimes don't progress to the next age) all the while mastering a scenario. So that could explain why you feel it is more difficult then just playing a new civ in AoE2. In other words, your muscle memory + knowledge bank is probably empty if you are coming back to AoE1 after many years.

[Crossil]

I tried AoE1 on normal, after playing all AoE2 campaigns with some of the hardest missions done on hard, and I haven't had issues playing AoE1 on normal.

Halfway through all three campaigns and it's aight. The only close call up until now is Sargon 2, for the 30 minutes achievement cause it was my second scenario played in this DLC, but even that one I rushed through without having to restart the scenario.

I do agree that these aren't for the faint of heart, but not that hard. Perhaps I have a better feel because I played AoE1 recently so I know the tech layout better? Don't know. One thing I can say for sure, they should've added a tutorial campaign or an Art of War section, because this is very much different from AoE2.

[meleander]

Originally posted by 2GenL:

AOE1 came out before the crybaby generation. So, AOE1 was made to be a challenge instead of holding your hand

there is no challenge in unbeatable missions that became unbeatable because of the AI patch :D

[2GenL]

Originally posted by meleander:

Originally posted by 2GenL:

AOE1 came out before the crybaby generation. So, AOE1 was made to be a challenge instead of holding your hand

there is no challenge in unbeatable missions that became unbeatable because of the AI patch :D

It is beatable

[meleander]

Originally posted by 2GenL:

Originally posted by meleander:

there is no challenge in unbeatable missions that became unbeatable because of the AI patch :D

It is beatable

sure. Post a link to a video where anyone beats Roman mission in AOE1 where you need to deliver ransom to Persia :) Ofc Hardest difficulty :)

[Krosis Priest]

Originally posted by Naga:

It is not new that AOE1:DE is harder than AOE2:DE. The devs could fix this issue when implementing AOE1 in AOE2 in this game but they didn't do so. That's a bit odd, for me at least.

It actually isn't. I did a lot of the AoE1:DE campaigns last year, and they are not at all harder than AoE2, just often simpler and with many missions having a very basic start. But if you know the basics of the game well, the AI difficulty is not at all harder than AoE2 and in fact all the most frustrating and spammy AoE missions I've played have been in AoE2:DE.

RoR just continues the obvious current trend of AoE2 devs caring only about multiplayer and trying to make single player a preparation for ranked sweaty tryharding - or they just don't care about single player at all and leave major known issues completely unfixed.

[Crossil]

Originally posted by Krosis:

I did a lot of the AoE1:DE campaigns last year, and they are not at all harder than AoE2, just often simpler and with many missions having a very basic start. But if you know the basics of the game well, the AI difficulty is not at all harder than AoE2 and in fact all the most frustrating and spammy AoE missions I've played have been in AoE2:DE.

RoR just continues the obvious current trend of AoE2 devs caring only about multiplayer and trying to make single player a preparation for ranked sweaty tryharding - or they just don't care about single player at all and leave major known issues completely unfixed.

I gotta agree, I think. I haven't played all of AoE1 DE campaigns, but what I've played wasn't that difficult. Funnily enough, the first Babylonian scenario might've been the most difficult, because of the very weak start and two ok-ish developed enemies. There is also less to motive players to play on higher difficulties in AoE1 DE as your successes aren't registered in any way, whereas in AoE2 DE you get a medal. So there's at least some incentive to play through harder difficulties.

The complete lack of a tutorial for Return of Rome was bound to leave casual players in the dust. but the devs weren't too bothered by it, it seems. I thought that either the Sargon or Trajan campaigns would potentially serve as lowkey tutorials for RoR, but that's not the case.

[Lurigjävel]

Almost done with all campaigns on hard and had a really good time. Was a bit tricky and i had to restart a few times especially since i never played AOE1 before. Its totally beatable.

[rdy]

Yeah I am pretty sure there is something wrong. No way in hell this should be hard difficulty. Not even going to mention the extreme AI in skirmish, which was just ridiculous when it comes to micro managment.

I love it when its challenging but even for me who is not a casual player the AI was only beatable by abusing maze tactics or other loopholes. Definitely needs adjustments.

[Terin]

Just got done with Sargon 4 on top of beating the Roman campaign on Hard, and it's been a pretty good challenge. Going hard into a navy at the beginning to snipe red's docks, while using fishing boats as your food eco since you can't build villagers, having the navy intercept enemies passing over water, before getting the stone tribute to wall of Akkad and priests to convert yellow's cavalry/cataphracts, that's worked pretty well.

Definitely a good change of pace to most AoE2 missions being "Get trebuchets, slowly blow up every castle on the map", or something actually nightmarish like Vlad Dracula 3 where you have to immediately assassinate a couple players or get flooded with infinite waves of enemies in 20 minutes. Saving Pyrrhus for last since it's the higher difficulty, but been happy with the challenge on Hard. Maybe Moderate is too overtuned compared to Standard, which I've kinda felt with the random skirmish AI jumping up a lot between like Moderate and Hard.

[meleander]

Originally posted by Terin:

Just got done with Sargon 4 on top of beating the Roman campaign on Hard, and it's been a pretty good challenge. Going hard into a navy at the beginning to snipe red's docks, while using fishing boats as your food eco since you can't build villagers, having the navy intercept enemies passing over water, before getting the stone tribute to wall of Akkad and priests to convert yellow's cavalry/cataphracts, that's worked pretty well.

Definitely a good change of pace to most AoE2 missions being "Get trebuchets, slowly blow up every castle on the map", or something actually nightmarish like Vlad Dracula 3 where you have to immediately assassinate a couple players or get flooded with infinite waves of enemies in 20 minutes. Saving Pyrrhus for last since it's the higher difficulty, but been happy with the challenge on Hard. Maybe Moderate is too overtuned compared to Standard, which I've kinda felt with the random skirmish AI jumping up a lot between like Moderate and Hard.

Pyrrhus first mission is actually the toughest and most challenging of all missions. And the third mission is bugged, if you destroy the Roman main camp before you destroy the Roman camp assaulting the enemies you can't win the game. And because someone who was doing this mission was lazy and a bad player they just made a mass phalanx there that just dies to your bowmen instead of double gate or a forest that disappear xD

Trajan missions are total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ - you just go mass Heliopolis (ballistas) and on hard you raze everything to the ground. And first mission where you can destroy 1 of the 2. Like blue is in the way, so to get to the other one you need to destroy the weaker one in the middle :D

Sargon overall is the Hardest, as with Pyrrhus when you can, you just go for Centurion and you shred enemy bases like there is no tomorrow. Sargon also makes you use different units, as Sargon 4 I went Centurion, but Sargon 5 I went archer cav.

Overall rating for this would be 5/10 or even 4/10. Especially that I didn't get any AOE2 campaigns.

[2GenL]

Originally posted by meleander:

Originally posted by 2GenL:

It is beatable

sure. Post a link to a video where anyone beats Roman mission in AOE1 where you need to deliver ransom to Persia :) Ofc Hardest difficulty :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPgOF2sCVDk&list=PLhgyZeLu04Yr1yIXd2Y6M8YDqF4NmJEHM
This guy is working through them on hard without too many issues...

and here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfjVW2Hdh_A

Feel free to watch as they progress

[L3wis]

Ive completed all the Roman Campaign and am on the Final Sargon Mission now, Only campaign ive had problems with is Pyrhuss 3, The Main roman camp just overwhelms you with centurion spam.