Lately I have been spending some time playing team games here and there and I gotta say this game never fails to disappoint me and piss me off. There is so much wrong with this "Definitive Edition" that I genuinely ask myself why do I even try enjoy it. I told myself to refrain from ever talking about this game in forums because I have had enough with negativity and people defending dev's behaviour but ruined this game.
Unbalanced teams
Does not matter whetever queue takes 5 or 15 minutes. There is always few hundreeds ELO difference between players in either (or both) of two teams. Obviously, any kind of teamplay with person who is 800 1v1 ELO points bellow (or above) you goes out of window. There is bunch of 1k people who got 1500+ TG ELO yet they can't execute simple build orders or speak to their teammates or anything really.
Map pool
Braindead maps such as Socotra, Team Moats or Pacific Islands just waste everyones time. I don't care that 0.1% "community" voted for these maps. Spending 15 minutes in dark age fighting villagers on Socotra is as braindead activity as it can get. Obviously, no bans, no opt-in system, no rated lobbies leaves no other options but play this **** or play non-rated BF all the time which is just as stupid. And no, playing maps such as Socotra or the other shitty maps will not improve your average skill. It is especially obvious on lower rated players who can execute only one strategy per map and they just hope for best. If it works, great, if it does not work, they just resign despite entire team begging them not to. Every time I hear someone is gonna trush on Arena I am about to throw up...
Queue
Combine unbalanced teams with inability to pick a map and everytime I queue for a teamgame, there is at least one, but more often two, three or even four people who simply refuse to play (I completely understand them) and so they just ALT+F4. Not only this waste time but it also prolong queue (often up to 15-20 minutes) which leads to even more unbalanced teams. Long queue times often lead to people being AFK or just not noticing that game has already started. Then they just resign few minutes into the game due to being too far behind.
Absolute lack of communication
Perhaps this is more about players inability to communicate but cosidering lack of any in-game voice chat combined with unbalanced teams is great recipe for a disaster. Also, why is in-game chat delayed for like a second? What is reason behind this?
Bugs
I guess this is self-explanatory. From pathfinding, to non-functioning hotkeys to missing sounds, AoE DE got it all.
Balance
Obviously, game is "balanced" around 1v1 competittive scene with little to no regard to team games. There are some ridiculous civilization combinations, especially on specific maps which once again lead to people picking same civilization (and strategy) on certain maps. Balancing is simply never ending story of buffing some civs so they can get popular for a certain time, then nerfing them and bringing another few civilizations to their 15 minutes of fame. And all over again. They could not properly balance 18 civilizations and they will never balance 45 civilizations. But hey, let's welcome new DLC's and become super hyped for new balance patch because dev's obviously care and they are doing great job.
There is plenty more wrong about DE but I will refrain from writing walls of text. Noone's gonna read it anyway, except very few. But I had to get it off my chest.
Unbalanced teams
Does not matter whetever queue takes 5 or 15 minutes. There is always few hundreeds ELO difference between players in either (or both) of two teams. Obviously, any kind of teamplay with person who is 800 1v1 ELO points bellow (or above) you goes out of window. There is bunch of 1k people who got 1500+ TG ELO yet they can't execute simple build orders or speak to their teammates or anything really.
Map pool
Braindead maps such as Socotra, Team Moats or Pacific Islands just waste everyones time. I don't care that 0.1% "community" voted for these maps. Spending 15 minutes in dark age fighting villagers on Socotra is as braindead activity as it can get. Obviously, no bans, no opt-in system, no rated lobbies leaves no other options but play this **** or play non-rated BF all the time which is just as stupid. And no, playing maps such as Socotra or the other shitty maps will not improve your average skill. It is especially obvious on lower rated players who can execute only one strategy per map and they just hope for best. If it works, great, if it does not work, they just resign despite entire team begging them not to. Every time I hear someone is gonna trush on Arena I am about to throw up...
Queue
Combine unbalanced teams with inability to pick a map and everytime I queue for a teamgame, there is at least one, but more often two, three or even four people who simply refuse to play (I completely understand them) and so they just ALT+F4. Not only this waste time but it also prolong queue (often up to 15-20 minutes) which leads to even more unbalanced teams. Long queue times often lead to people being AFK or just not noticing that game has already started. Then they just resign few minutes into the game due to being too far behind.
Absolute lack of communication
Perhaps this is more about players inability to communicate but cosidering lack of any in-game voice chat combined with unbalanced teams is great recipe for a disaster. Also, why is in-game chat delayed for like a second? What is reason behind this?
Bugs
I guess this is self-explanatory. From pathfinding, to non-functioning hotkeys to missing sounds, AoE DE got it all.
Balance
Obviously, game is "balanced" around 1v1 competittive scene with little to no regard to team games. There are some ridiculous civilization combinations, especially on specific maps which once again lead to people picking same civilization (and strategy) on certain maps. Balancing is simply never ending story of buffing some civs so they can get popular for a certain time, then nerfing them and bringing another few civilizations to their 15 minutes of fame. And all over again. They could not properly balance 18 civilizations and they will never balance 45 civilizations. But hey, let's welcome new DLC's and become super hyped for new balance patch because dev's obviously care and they are doing great job.
There is plenty more wrong about DE but I will refrain from writing walls of text. Noone's gonna read it anyway, except very few. But I had to get it off my chest.