Dang, was I really that predictable? 11 You wrote a longer post than me or Myth dude. It is very hard for me to keep quiet on certain matters.I swear when I wrote that I knew you would say something along those lines hahaahah <3 tbh im sure there is much fast thinking and mechanics of movement in 1min chess games but I was referring more along the lines of chess as the time window gets bigger. 1 hour game 3 hour game 2 day game ect.
The point though is that the more you give people access to in terms of AI performing skills or calculating you take away from the people who have learned through feel, the finesse of an expert.
if you give people access to vill counts you also hurt the strength of raiding.
the defender makes less mistakes with their build order generally but then also can replace vills on correct resources based on exact vill count needs, rather than having to assess the damage through their entire empire and rebalance based on what they see at a short glance (one of the biggest impacts to aggression)
if you give people range rings around all buildings you take away the ability of a mistake and the skill of your mind creating the circle.
if you take away the RNG of resources you give up the feeling of fog of war.
if you make to many MQ options you take away the skill of playing "fast" mechanically which is like learning an instrument, now we have guitar hero when we used to have a real guitar.
if you give players access to the score you take away their need to scout (drush + M@a + age up timings are to easy to spot) I mean, the game lags when people up to the next age all the time so you almost don't even need the score...
if you move the gold/stone/wood/berries toward the TC and the hills away from the tc you give people access to the easiest base to wall or defend which deincentivizes real aggression which makes cookie cutter builds easier and stronger which takes away the skill of full aggression + defending full agression and boils down to just sitting looking at vills behind your walls + sneaking small armies.
I think alot of these changes and many others not mentioned were to make the game easier for noobs who couldn't learn all of it at once and would quit. But if you never take the bumpers off we are still going to be left with a bowling lane with bumpers on the sides... its just not as satisfying for anyone who isn't barely able to hit the pins with bumpers on
AOE used to be more micro/macro intensive than sc2 and now its like playing farmville+castlesiege
Chess actually does require more than only strategy. There are things that seem universal in chess that I see/have learned. Even for very long games (classical 6 hour long games for instance that I don’t ever intend to play).
Like for instance there is an extremely high level of awareness that goes on. This is for the entire board, certain squares, and being alert to changes. Observation is also tied into that somewhere. Then there is calculation which without to a fine degree, one won’t ever be good imo. There is calculation depth and also calculation accuracy. Being able to accurately see every change in your head while calculating for moves is extremely important. Depending on the situation, missing a single detail (say you forget a bishop or rook in your head) while going say 7 or more moves deep may mean you lose when the opponent makes their move after that variation. Then there is accuracy of moves in terms of quality of the move. There is knowledge of certain systems and finally, strategy and tactics. More than only strategy. At least in terms of taking it as seriously as possible. Creativity may also be there somewhere, but I heard it has died out at the GM level. (There is also opening, middle game, and endgame which may or may not mean anything.
Thankfully people can’t ever get close to AIs (using them). Those players get banned.
Btw, I do largely agree with everything you have said regarding AoE2 despite not playing it anymore and probably not ever again. Also somewhere, I do kind of agree with Masmora when he said more time is better for strategy. I don’t like where the game is generally going just as much as you though.
The one thing all these changes seem to do to me, is lower the skill required to get to another or the next level, somewhat comparatively to voobly. I heard DE skill is supposed to be superior to voobly (i.e. a 1700 on DE would smoke a 1700 from voobly). I actually wonder how true this is at certain levels once certain things even out. There is some difference according to Ra chronicles (I trust Ra), but I don’t think it is a whole lot. Or it’ll even out when players get accustomed to a variety of maps (then no noticeable difference as voobly perhaps?). Like maybe a 2200 DE isn’t much different than a 2200 voobly speaking from a set things like awareness, observation, speed (mental and physical), stamina, foresight, game knowledge, and whatever else that level requires that I have forgotten.
If you take for instance, MQ and regard this for late castle or imperial. We both have played serious players (and against each other for 10 or more years? Seen our growths too) in the late stage of the game, and know that speed and stamina are ever so crucial. MQ removes this to a large extent imo.
I know playing you for many years pre-MQ, I always felt I had an edge in terms of stamina and speed in Imperial Age (would say my post imp was just as good or slightly better than my feudal). When we played when I came back very briefly 2 years ago, you were able to suddenly keep up with me in the late game after having gotten some practice in, and I believe my rating was higher. I was like, “What? It’s almost effortless that he’s matching my speed and I don’t see a hint of fatigue. This would never have happened in old days.” Then I learned of MQ (btw, was playing SQ even though you had MQ, didn’t know of it 11). There were infact some 2400s that I know had this issue before too, where they powered down in Imperial, but MQ surely dispelled that issue if it still remained.
On the whole though, long-term, I think MQ is a great thing speaking from someone who has at least one if not two fingers permanently damaged from gaming for over 20 years. You’re older than I am, maybe you have some issue like that too. Or if not, I am very happy for you and hope you stay healthy. Miss our clashes in chat and our games btw, I’ll always cherish those memories playing you.