AOE-II A typical TG on DE

[Deathcounter]

It's a lovely morning, you get up, go to work, work, come home, and play DE.

You are choosing 4v4 with favouriting Arabia and ban Arena like probably the majority of the community. You get in Queue, wait for a few minutes and get a game, with you, there are people on the same elo, two with 45-48% winrate, another one with 55% winrate. The <50% WR people have already selected Britons flank (48%) and your pocket Frank (45%) because he doesn't know better, while the other pocket (55%) hesitates, then goes indians.
You, with 54% winrate and as a Voobly veteran, go random on all 3 options (random civ options, random civ and color) and ask others to go random civ option too. They agree, but it doesnt matter because propably one enemy tryhards and dont enable it.

The map for whatever reason is Ravines, you are confused wondering why anyone would choose that map but you are ok with it, as long as it doesn't contain water fights or has stonewalls surrounding everyone's TC.

The game starts, your window freezes, you click once to check if its still there. Windows let you know that DE is not responding and wants to kill it, you wait for DE's response, as you click the screen unfreezes and you are instantly thrown into the game, sometimes the screen turn from black to the game with 5 FPS, sometimes with smooth 50 or so. Either way you are facilitated, nobody dropped...yet.
You are given Korean Flank, not good, not terrible, You decided to open drush (ignore the outposts) archers. You are against Britons, with Khmer Pocket, Enemy Pkt Franks and Ethiopians on the other side.

Your drush does some damage until getting wiped out by Khmer scouts, but you are ok, because Frank Scouts are also neat. You already switched into archers, the numbers are even, so are the uptimes. The other sides does really well, with indians going walls FC and Britons doing defensive archer and walls.
Everyone is Castle Age, Upgrades are done. XBow numbers are even, other side is slowly winning. You are constantly enraged about this f****** +1 Range that keeps penetrating you, You tower your Fwd Gold for protection, but you have 2 stone miners which also allowed 2 TC's. You are fine.
All of a sudden you scout 2 Khmer Stable at your enemy flank and see Battle Elephants comming out of it. Your Franks, despite having 45% is somewhat decent with providing knights.

30 Xbows and more on the way on each side 30 Frankish Knights with +2/+2, vs about 12 +2/+2 Khmer BE. Like the Pro you are add 3 monks, now everything goes fast. Khmer BE are attacking your Ranges, you try to snipe them but Briton Xbows are slowly thinning out your troops, you have to Retreat. First one House breaks, Khmer now has 15 BE, Franks added 8 more knights. Elephants storm in, you are converting, franks charge at the meanwhile 45 Xbows, You get 2 Conversions, 1 monk got sniped by a few xbows.
6 Elephants stay, the other (fast) 9 go and help against the frankish knights. Your 40 XBows and 2 BE are fighting 6 BE. Everyone commits. You have no choice but fight the 6 BE, Frankish Knights are focusing the Xbow, BE help taking them out, you lose all your army in the carnage, 8 British XBows and 4 BE are left over, they destroy your tower at the gold.
Indians (carrying the team as usually) sees this and sends 12 Camels to clear their army, in return our Britons lose a lot of numbers, the other side is a bit in trouble.

Everyone is in Imp now, as Korean vs Britons you go Elite War Weagon, Briton of course, switch to Longbows, Khmer stay BE. Franks, well Franks go Paladin (or tries to).
The help of Indians led to a snowballing on the other side, Ethiopians are doing better at killing indian camels than britons killing frankish knights.
Indian try to light cav raid, some damage is done, Khmer saves most vills as they jump into houses. They wall up with stone. No more raids.

Everyone is Post Imp now
You cant compete against the Khmer BE, frank Paladins loses to them, they destroy buidlings hell fast and the britons 12 Range is too much, even tanky War Weagons are taken out one by one per group shot. The other side stablizes because Imp camels, Ethiopians adds shotels, halb to slow those damn camels. On your side you slowly lose against the BE Longbow Push, a Treb War erupts but you lose because of Warwolf. Your Gold Wood resources went to War Wagons and Elite Upgrades.
The Game is over, again everyone except you picked civs and position. Indians as usually carried in Castle, Khmer ended in post imp, Indian help changed tides on the other side.
You are angered, the games always feel the same, almost same civs, nothing messy or crazy, walls, and the civs who seem Op to you carry the games.
You lose 7 elo

You ponder.

Is this really fun?

You join another game, almost same scenario, 2 of the 3 already have a civ selected, the other one quickly goes mayan flank, grey color.
Game starts, yellow drops, everyone resigns, you win.
+12 Elo, yay.

Then you get Matchmaking Error -4 and decide that this is the sign for you to just go to bed.

TL:DR
TG feel very simular with the same civs, same metas, laming ruins your mood and everyone walls, barely anyone goes random civ, and atleast one doesnt enable random civ option.

 

[luisfeli181]

All the time i saw the same scenario, in all TG'S i saw the same civs, khmer, mayans, indians, flanks, ethiopians and britons. Back in voobly all players go random, now is ruined.

 

[dogao]

Some people play to have fun, some people play to improve and be the best, you can't complain when you are facing players trying to win their games.

 

[OLADUSHEK]

You are the man, others are just loosers. They will never achieve anything.
You are actually the tryharder because you have balls to go random.
My respect to those heroes who play random! Others - you are not interesting players, just boring players.

 

[i_no_english]

Always hyped when I see a new Deathcounter topic, at least I know it's going to be something positive :D

 

[SiegeEngine]

 

[pete26196]

The reality when you get matched vs Deathcounter:

Everyone selects random civ for ara 4v4, he gets malians flank vs teutons. Goes drush 18 min fc with walls into nowhere then knights (??) vs opposing flanks pike siege.

Blames matchmaking for bad decision making.

Then:

Collect puntos.

 

[Memeluke]

exposed

 

[HelloWorld]

I used to be an adventurer like you, then I started playing unranked Black Forest Team Games with random civs.

 

[AlgernonR]

Pete wins.

 

[RogganWololo]

A typical deathcounter post on AoEZone:

You wake up in the morning. It's 8 am and you have a 9 am meeting with your boss but since you're working from home, you're in chill mode and decide to browse your phone a bit before getting out of bed. Obviously like a true age of empires 2 fan, you open aoezone first thing. There's no new tourney announcement on the main page so you go to the "what's new" section in hope of a drama thread or two to start your day with some spice. There doesn't appear to be any drama thread, but lo and behold, you find a post with an Austrian flag and the name "Deathcounter" amidst all the scheduling threads for various tourneys. Your eyes light up and you immediately click on the thread in hope of some quality DE-bashing.

This time deathcounter chose to write a post complaining about people picking their favourite civs and positions in team games. You are very happy, since you know that the stupider the post is, the more entertainment the thread will provide. However, you don't see Influenza's like on the post so you're a bit skeptical about how entertaining the post will be. You look at the time at which the thread was posted, do some time zone calculations in your head and hypothesize that he probably hasn't come online on AoEZone yet.

You start reading the post. Deathcounter starts with a nice little introduction, which is not typical for him so you're a bit intrigued. He bashes and complains about the "new walling meta" a bit since he's still stuck on the old one and hasn't been able to adapt to the change yet. He complains about Britons flank, about Franks pocket, and about Indians pocket, about fixed positions, about walling, about in game lag, about people dropping. Basically anything not realms. You're happy reading this, and your mouth is watering. You want to finish reading the post fast and start reading the responses. You realize that the rest of the post is probably going to be some irrational bashing anyway, so you extrapolate based on what you've read already and assume what the rest of the post is all about. You scroll down, passing by some phrase which looks like "<insert expletive> Cysion", and are happy that you skipped because it's very long.

The replies are just as good as you expected - there's flaming, there's name calling and there's bashing both in favour of and against deathcounter's post. You come across a particular screenshot of deathcounter abusing in game, and you chuckle and give the post a well-deserved like. There don't seem to be too many responses yet, since it's probably early in the day. You make a mental note to yourself to check the thread later in the evening.

You are satisfied and the start to your day has brightened. You thank deathcounter in your mind and continue your day, freshened up by the crap you just read.

 

[Bourne2Die]

Some people play to have fun, some people play to improve and be the best, you can't complain when you are facing players trying to win their games.

but how would playing random change the attempt to improve and try to become the best? Wouldn’t weird civ matchups and not ideal positioning improve the skill to adapt to situations wich is pretty important in age?

imo playingthe same civ over and over again only leads to very one dimensional abilities.

 

[Michaerbse]

Wouldn’t weird civ matchups and not ideal positioning improve the skill to adapt to situations wich is pretty important in age?

Yes and no. In tournaments you mostly get to play the civ you pick so adjusting to a random civ does not really belong to the situations you have to adapt to. If you want to learn specific things like build orders or more generally how to play with a specific civ, it is better to target this exact situation.

Edit: You usually don't learn adapting by just practicing "adaptating". You learn it by learning a lot about different situations. This knowledge enables you later to adjust.

And just in general: picking civ is not the same as playing the same civ over and pver again. You may very well alternate between 5-10 civs that you deem OK to play on that map and on flank/pocket.

 

[Deathcounter]

The reality when you get matched vs Deathcounter:

Everyone selects random civ for ara 4v4, he gets malians flank vs teutons. Goes drush 18 min fc with walls into nowhere then knights (??) vs opposing flanks pike siege.

Blames matchmaking for bad decision making.

Then:

Collect puntos.

Yeah cause a team of 4 randoms has a chance against a party of 4 with you, robo? and 2 other pros. Keep dreaming that this is fair matchmaking.
God you are so delusional, how anyone who farms free elo with parties of 4 thinks is fair is just beyond me.

About TeamGames situation.....

Almost all team games happen the same If a map other than arabia comes up 50% of the time someone closes the game and the queue is restarted. So it makes no sense to put a map pack with different maps if this type of behavior is not sanctioned. It's been a year of this and you can't see any...

www.aoezone.net

The real problem with Khmer in teamgames

You nerfed their splash damage from 50% to 25%. Great. That clearly only made them only 200% overpowered instead of 250% You nerfed farming by 3%. They still got awesome farmers. It's not enough. Even if an elephant had zero splash damage, they would be completely unstoppable. Why? Let's break...

www.aoezone.net

AOE2:DE Performance

Hey all, I'll be getting a new PC (mid-top end) soon and will have some extra free time, and am thinking of playing some AOE2 again. Can anyone tell me what the performance on DE is like now in comparison to what userpatch v1.5 voobly was like? How smooth is the game in 1v1s/4v4s, how common...

www.aoezone.net

Bad performance on aoe2:de

So, I have a machine that is on the lower-end, it's a notebook with i7-6500U, 8gb ram ddr4, integrated graphics, so I know it's not a gaming computer and I can't afford one. I have everything on low/off, I know how to setup things so my machine is clean and properly configured. If I have...

www.aoezone.net

Is AoE2:DE in a good state now?

Title says it all. I feel like the current iteration is the best we've had so far, and Id be okay with no more bug introducing patches 11. Furthermore: What is currently still missing for you to make the game next to optimal? What could still be improved? Discuss :)

www.aoezone.net

And the official forum is full too

imgur.com

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

imgur.com

What do they do to combat this? No balance updates, so here go play with this Teuton Event and be happy

So how about you get out of your bubble while pretending DE is totally fine, or are we playing 2 diffrent games huh?

U must never have any disconnects at the start of the game, screen freezes or Matchmaking Error, Couldnt join Party, or arent absolutely pissed needing to create your typical MS-T90-kissing party after every game. Because I am Pete, who bought this game 3 times already and always have to pretend that the game is playable on launch so we get more new players into this money trap...

Stockholm Syndrom aint a joke 11.
Yeah seeing the same 10 civs in every TG is soooo balanced, really, why I even complain, this is totally fine.
But why am I even bother to talk to anyone who is willing to buy this game 3 times... or the 3 HD expansions where all MP services crashed on the day of African Kingdoms, at least it crashed and didn't desync this time 11.
There are just people who want to be abused.
And there are people who think these neat events without balance changes is an "update"
Or that the elo system captures everyone from 44% winrate up to 87% winrate at 2400-2500 elo is totally normal for you. (If you didn't notice, I even mentioned it -7 on lose. +12 on Disconnect).
+1/+2 melee armour for Teuton Paladin / Infantry. Oh boy, who needs balance anyway, of course, buff them in Imp: SO, BBC, BBT Paladin and TTK aren't enough imp power.
But if you think that Cysion knows what he is doing. You must be right

I guess I will just become an NPC and brumble "I must never complain about DE, DE is fine" every day and every night to be accepted here.
Just look at the mods on here and on Reddit, all part of T90 and therefore Microsoft. Any critic (must likely this too) is instantly silenced. Freedom of speech is not appropiate, unless

 

[HongeyKong]

Yeah cause a team of 4 randoms has a chance against a party of 4 with you, robo? and 2 other pros. Keep dreaming that this is fair matchmaking.
God you are so delusional, how anyone who farms free elo with parties of 4 thinks is fair is just beyond me.

 

[kaaaai_]

I used to be an adventurer like you, then I started playing unranked Black Forest Team Games with random civs.

unranked BIFI is the best type of teamgame

 

[Memeluke]

Your definition of "pros" is very inclusive.

Any critic (must likely this too) is instantly silenced.

If it was like this I wouldn't have to read your rants every time but here we are.

 

[Deathcounter]

View attachment 184228

You don't get it, everyone gets thrown into this elo, even tho there is hundreds of elo skill diffrence
WR of players now

Robo 63% winrate
Daehiise 58% winrate
Pete 62% winrate
Panda 60% winrate

vs

Schopeng 50% winrate
Ofiz 59% winrate
Bobby Big Player 55% winrate
Deathcounter 54% winrate

But it doesnt matter, all are in the same elo. Even tho Robo i think once even played for the Australians in the last World Cup a couple of years ago.

And what's hilarious you cant even see who you play against 11, you have no choice, this broken matchmaking is deciding who you play against. A Team of four with Voice Chat or 4 randoms. It's going so far that some players dont even play without friends

Comparing Elo isnt the whole story and just proves that the elo system is broken, and it is.
But they made it like this because if you get more elo than you lose you feel better and get more addicted (there's a lot of psychology behind this)

 

[Nheltarion]

I guess I will just become an NPC and brumble "I must never complain about DE, DE is fine" every day and every night to be accepted here.
Just look at the mods on here and on Reddit, all part of T90 and therefore Microsoft. Any critic (must likely this too) is instantly silenced. Freedom of speech is not appropiate, unless

Why don't you just uninstall the game if it's so ****?
Nobody cares about your anti-microsoft crusade and you just spread negativity every single time you post.
DE ain't perfect, but it's not even close to the **** you portrait in your posts.

View attachment 184228

Nice, I just discovered that being 13++ in 1v1 is enough to be considered a pro

 

[Tarsiz]

I wonder if you understand how winrate works.

Taking your example, Viper (#1 on the ladder) stands on top a 69% winrate.
Slightly lower, classicpro is at 76% winrate at #94 on the ladder.

Clearly classicpro is better than Viper then, I guess.

 

[majklinho]

How is DC after all these years of using elo system still so clueless about how it works, or is he one of those that reached 1600 1v1 elo and hosted lobbies named 12+ 13+ 1v1?

 

[Deathcounter]

I wonder if you understand how winrate works.

Taking your example, Viper (#1 on the ladder) stands on top a 69% winrate.
Slightly lower, classicpro is at 76% winrate at #94 on the ladder.

Clearly classicpro is better than Viper then, I guess.

Yeah compare 600 games played with 100 games played

 

[Tarsiz]

Yeah compare 600 games played with 100 games played

Right.
Other example, dogao (550 games) at 77% winrate, significantly higher than Viper's for a comparable amount of games. Winrate does not mean much (aside from the fact it is a clear indicator for a smurf if someone has 80%+ winrate and few games played).

If you play at times where there are less people of your level, you will play against people potentially a lot weaker and it will dramatically increase your winrate while you climb the ladder slower since you don't earn a lot of points per game. It's really not a good indicator.

 

[Deathcounter]

Lol no need to talk to anyone who disagrees. I have statistics on my side that those 10 civs we see in TG are all clearly stronger than the average 50% wr civs. The vast majority thinks that disconnects, tryhards (lamer), civ pickers and position pickers ruined TG. I wouldn't bother about civ pickers if the game would be balanced lol. But if you enjoy disconnects, Imp Camels, Frankish Paladin or Briton Xbows in every game, then congrats, you are a minority in this community.
But talking with any of the MS NPC's is like talking against a wall. You would even play DE if 75% of your games would disconnect and praise the new graphics. Admitting defeat would be admitting that Microsoft fooled you the millionths time - but if it makes you happy, it's your money. But then don't cry out when nowadays even more game developer release barely playable games on launch where half of the things aren't even implemented. You are supporting what we see on many other games from some Game developer studios.

And since you didn't notice it yet, This is a post about TG, when I said elo system is broken I meant TG elo, I assumed that everyone knows I meant TG elo and yet you post here 1v1 elo's...

 

[RichNixon]

Admitting defeat would be admitting that Microsoft fooled you the millionths time - but if it makes you happy, it's your money. But then don't cry out when nowadays even more game developer release barely playable games on launch where half of the things aren't even implemented. You are supporting what we see on many other games from some Game developer studios.