Can we talk about Franks and Mayans not being nerfed. And now Franks are even stronger cause they have another counter to pikes now. Because militia are stronger and cheaper to upgrade
you don't need rank manipulation for thisHmmm, I wonder how this is going to affect matchmaking with Alt-F4 also now artificially raising and lowering ELO? If there's one upside to this, maybe all of the rank manipulation means that one day some fan of the top 10 players gets to face off against one of his favorites without having the skill to truly be placed at that high of a rank 11.
I didn't have the chance to try this but....Arabia is totally changed, too wide open, from 50 maps generated in most of them only one woodline and really far, i am not liking it.
Damn.. I got caught. Gimme a gun. I'll slow them down!ara-only players without a dock hotkey into a single queue
I don't understand your disdain for Black Forest.tried playing. only 1 out of 6 games had people who didn't resign immediately or go afk
and it was some laggy black forest game against some clowns who cheated on the performance test, so that was a waste of an hour. this map shouldn't even be in the queue
and if i ban black forest, i might get arena, another map that doesn't belong in RM
i've never seen such an incompetent developer and such a toxic player base
the game needed ranked lobbies for the 1-trick-noobs and a simple modern matchmaking queue for normal RM players. blind random or full random would be a decent starting point for that. a few maps had fairness issues, but those could easily be patched
instead they spent 2 years coming up with a system that shoves normal RM players and imperial-only players and ara-only players without a dock hotkey into a single queue
"BuT hOw WiLl tHe ElO bE aCcUrAtE?" some spectator who doesn't even play the game is about to say
behold the highly accurate elo ratings: https://aoe2.net/#aoe2de-leaderboard-rm-team
even without smurfing exploits, these rankings would still be useless because people can just ban/dodge until they get whatever shallow pick-civ pick-position pre-explored map they memorized a build order for
the only constant with aoe2 is that a significant chunk of its players aren't interested in fair play. all the smurfing and laming over the years was enough proof of that. if a system cannot function if 10-30% of the users are malicious, then the system is not appropriate for aoe2
the only way this works is if the malicious element gets banned (not a 3-minute timeout), and then contracts to 1-3% of the population instead of 10-30%. but these are the same toxic people who have an endless supply of smurf accounts, so i don't even think that is possible
you don't need rank manipulation for this
DE's mathcmaking algorithm is such **** that it does not hesitate to throw people into matches against people thousands of elo higher or lower
He hates gateau.I don't understand your disdain for Black Forest.
You don't understand the appeal of people who are collectively watching something talking about with each other while they do?I don't understand the appeal of spec chat and sure hope they don't waste there time with it.
You must be new hereLet's take a week to digest the chages and then we give our opinion.
Arena belongs on RM, always has. RM is not Arabia.and if i ban black forest, i might get arena, another map that doesn't belong in RM
this is funny. it's so wrong that i can't even imagine how you came up with itArena belongs on RM, always has. RM is not Arabia.
Maps like Arabia, Arena, Islands, Gold rush, Nomad, Regicide Fortress is what basically constitutes RM. Always has.
What doesn't belong in the RM map pool are maps like Marketplace. A 1v1 map where you start with 2 trade carts and gaia markets to trade!? We are getting into the community games space then.
this is funny. it's so wrong that i can't even imagine how you came up with it
arena / fortress were never part of the normal map pool. and ensemble released a patch that removed BF from it too (because how people play it kills the whole game design and invalidates the concept of having interesting options in every age). regicide fortress? this is a RM queue, not a regicide queue. if you want a castle in RM, you have to actually mine the stone, get to the castle age, and construct it.
that doesn't mean you couldn't play these in custom games, but you wouldn't get them unless you specifically go looking for those experiences.
the only part of your list that lines up with the reality of Kings/Conquerors are arabia + islands + gold rush, and that's only about 15% of the maps. there are a few different islands-like maps, so even if you group them all up, you're not even getting halfway to the complete picture
just install aoe2, patch it to 1.0c, open the editor, and generate full random 50 times. even to someone who has never played the game, it will become extremely obvious what RM is about and what it isn't about. if you hate water, you can generate RLM instead. in both cases, they intentionally excluded the arena / BF / fortress / nomad maps. and all the maps that are less predictable and involve more exploration have higher chances of being generated. these aren't flukes or coincidences. the intent of the mode is extremely clear
aoe1 / aoe3 / aoeo are also the same way. the whole game mode is basically about putting you in situations where you choose between aging up or investing in something more immediate. dark/feudal/castle isn't some warm up period. it's supposed to be 75% of the game. the game aoe and RM was copied from (civilization) follows the same pattern. none of these games are about artificial arenas or walling off chokepoints and skipping to the final era. playing through all the ages is the entire point of the game (assuming you can survive that long).
the maps are all earth-like with pseudo-realistic geography. if players are separated, they'll be separated by water, not by walls and trees. oceans and rivers are natural barriers. mountain ranges are natural barriers (aoe2 only has cliffs). forests might have slowed armies down, but they weren't that effective at stopping them completely (jungles kind of did though). and if you want to have the great wall of china, you actually have to invest in it, not just get it for free at the start of the game
the only kind of map there is any uncertainty about is nomad. we know it was left out. we just don't know whether it was left out because it doesn't belong or because the AI couldn't play it or for some other reason. either way, the map is almost identical to coastal. and since coastal is the basis of the entire game, nomad would be kind of redundant
i never played that one. that does sound weird.
maybe if the noobs stop dodging everything, i will have a chance to play it and form an opinion about it
this is funny. it's so wrong that i can't even imagine how you came up with it
arena / fortress were never part of the normal map pool. and ensemble released a patch that removed BF from it too (because how people play it kills the whole game design and invalidates the concept of having interesting options in every age). regicide fortress? this is a RM queue, not a regicide queue. if you want a castle in RM, you have to actually mine the stone, get to the castle age, and construct it.
that doesn't mean you couldn't play these in custom games, but you wouldn't get them unless you specifically go looking for those experiences.
the only part of your list that lines up with the reality of Kings/Conquerors are arabia + islands + gold rush, and that's only about 15% of the maps. there are a few different islands-like maps, so even if you group them all up, you're not even getting halfway to the complete picture
just install aoe2, patch it to 1.0c, open the editor, and generate full random 50 times. even to someone who has never played the game, it will become extremely obvious what RM is about and what it isn't about. if you hate water, you can generate RLM instead. in both cases, they intentionally excluded the arena / BF / fortress / nomad maps. and all the maps that are less predictable and involve more exploration have higher chances of being generated. these aren't flukes or coincidences. the intent of the mode is extremely clear
aoe1 / aoe3 / aoeo are also the same way. the whole game mode is basically about putting you in situations where you choose between aging up or investing in something more immediate. dark/feudal/castle isn't some warm up period. it's supposed to be 75% of the game. the game aoe and RM was copied from (civilization) follows the same pattern. none of these games are about artificial arenas or walling off chokepoints and skipping to the final era. playing through all the ages is the entire point of the game (assuming you can survive that long).
the maps are all earth-like with pseudo-realistic geography. if players are separated, they'll be separated by water, not by walls and trees. oceans and rivers are natural barriers. mountain ranges are natural barriers (aoe2 only has cliffs). forests might have slowed armies down, but they weren't that effective at stopping them completely (jungles kind of did though). and if you want to have the great wall of china, you actually have to invest in it, not just get it for free at the start of the game
the only kind of map there is any uncertainty about is nomad. we know it was left out. we just don't know whether it was left out because it doesn't belong or because the AI couldn't play it or for some other reason. either way, the map is almost identical to coastal. and since coastal is the basis of the entire game, nomad would be kind of redundant
i never played that one. that does sound weird.
maybe if the noobs stop dodging everything, i will have a chance to play it and form an opinion about it
Yes, the incentive we get is no queue delay.maybe they should've figured out how to incentivize/reward people who don't Alt+F4 or play a wider array of maps/settings.
Sigh. Same stupid suggestion again without taking into account map diversity, playerbase. And, if someone explains why this is not a good suggestion then the reply is if you want to play some "Weird" map then go to lobby.I've long thought that this problem was unsolvable, too many arguments on both sides. But today I've made up my mind. Do the opt-in system. People will hopefully acknowledge that if they only opt for an odd map they will have to wait longer and/or be heavily mismatched in terms of ELO.
Since the ladder enables civ picking, ELO is already virtually meaningless anyway.