Will Spring Update make AO4 finally great?

[Backville]

I am really exited about the planned changes for the AO4 spring Update.
Beside Custom Hotkeys and good balance changes, especially the new Modding Tool seems to be very powerfull and a lot of cool Stuff is already created in the PUP (public tryout of the Patch) by community members, such as aoe2 Maps like Cross or Arena or Forest Nothing and its seem with such a Tool a lot of different Modes and new and fun stuff could be possibly soon.

As someone who liked AOE4 okay until now, i really think this update could be my entering point to play this Game more often/regularly. Especially because it will intruduce al lot of fun/casual stuff, besides serious 1v1 Grind.

What do you think about the modding Tool an what it can bring to the Game?

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

Definitely, the game is going to become better than RDR2

 

[TopperHarley]

Had no idea Spring switched to Aoe4? But the answer is yes, he will make Aoe4 great for sure, will revolutionize it just like he did with 1v1 Arabia in aoe2

 

[Backville]

Definitely, the game is going to become better than RDR2

I dont think so, because RDR2 is a really Outstanding Game. But if its moves a bit Closer to it, woul already be cool!

 

[Kaschperili]

I am really exited about the planned changes for the AO4 spring Update.
Beside Custom Hotkeys and good balance changes, especially the new Modding Tool seems to be very powerfull and a lot of cool Stuff is already created in the PUP (public tryout of the Patch) by community members, such as aoe2 Maps like Cross or Arena or Forest Nothing and its seem with such a Tool a lot of different Modes and new and fun stuff could be possibly soon.

As someone who liked AOE4 okay until now, i really think this update could be my entering point to play this Game more often/regularly. Especially because it will intruduce al lot of fun/casual stuff, besides serious 1v1 Grind.

What do you think about the modding Tool an what it can bring to the Game?

Too little, too late. The target audience has already played Aoe4 and moved on.

 

[TohoBuWaha]

I think there will be quite some people who give it a 2nd try (myself included). But it really has to be good now - and I agree, it actually might be. I just hope there are no gamebreaking bugs again with the devs needing 3 months to fix them.

 

[Backville]

Too little, too late. The target audience has already played Aoe4 and moved on.

Maybe you are right, but i think real quality could still prevail in the end. But iwill it be enough? We will see

True TohoBuWaha, another big Bugfest would be horrible. The Thing i hope for most is a Mod wich improves the visibillity of the game, like Grid and smalltrees etc. for ao2.
Specially the ground surface is often distracting me in AO4, a fitting Mod there could be a big improvement

 

[gwfe]

For me getting into it is just not an option so long as they force you to use grid hotkeys. When they said at release that improving hotkeys was a priority I expected that by like christmas, and now it's not even in this spring update...

 

[MaSmOrRa]

For me getting into it is just not an option so long as they force you to use grid hotkeys. When they said at release that improving hotkeys was a priority I expected that by like christmas, and now it's not even in this spring update...

It's so weird to me that this hasn't been addressed yet...

I wonder if at first this was a conscious design decision on their part?
To make sure everybody uses the same hotkeys and thus somehow "level" the playing field?

I have absolutely no clue about coding, but would removing this grid system be something that requires an insane amount of dev hours?

But back to topic, I'm starting to question if there's anything that could still save this game from total failure...
Even after N4C which has received a lot of praise in the AoE4 community, they have lost another 20% (!!!) of their player base in March...

 

[Poxo]

 

[Halleju]

After half a year they plan to introduce customizable hotkeys? Damn, thats so great! I love it! I understand this feature was too difficult to implement in the start, like some games 20 years ago already did.
I'm so hyped, whats next? Quick save? I ll buy another aoe4 copy just because I'm so hyped about the changes!

 

[LowEloNobody]

It's so weird to me that this hasn't been addressed yet...

I wonder if at first this was a conscious design decision on their part?
To make sure everybody uses the same hotkeys and thus somehow "level" the playing field?

I have absolutely no clue about coding, but would removing this grid system be something that requires an insane amount of dev hours?

But back to topic, I'm starting to question if there's anything that could still save this game from total failure...
Even after N4C which has received a lot of praise in the AoE4 community, they have lost another 20% (!!!) of their player base in March...

View attachment 199060

Not really anything to do with N4C tbh. Players play a game because the game is fun, not because it has shiny tournaments. N4C as a fantastic tournament, but the game hasn't lived up to it's promises.
The player base attrition has been fairly consistent since the big drop-off ended around December. (Comparing to broader steam playerbase counts)

I still think the game has the opportunity to stabilize around ~7.5k average players (including GamePass) if the Spring Update goes well and they discount it on steam.

That would definitely make it small, but not the smallest RTS

 

[lecracheursagacite]

It's so weird to me that this hasn't been addressed yet...

I wonder if at first this was a conscious design decision on their part?
To make sure everybody uses the same hotkeys and thus somehow "level" the playing field?

I have absolutely no clue about coding, but would removing this grid system be something that requires an insane amount of dev hours?

But back to topic, I'm starting to question if there's anything that could still save this game from total failure...
Even after N4C which has received a lot of praise in the AoE4 community, they have lost another 20% (!!!) of their player base in March...

View attachment 199060

Someone mentioned this was a limitation of the Essence engine on which the game is based. Here is a CoH forum thread from 2015 airing similar concerns. AoE4 is on Essence 5.0 rather than Essence 3.0 but Relic has been a dumpster fire coasting off the original CoH for a while now it is not surprising this feature was never added. Implementing it is a matter of adding the setting to choose between grid and regular hotkeys, adding a screen for assigning keystrokes to in-game actions rather than a spot on the UI, then doing whatever plumbing is needed so that it displays (like a tooltip showing hotkey binding) and captures input correctly based on the setting that is selected. Not sure practically how long this would take and it is probably dependent on the specifics of the engine but it does not seem unreasonably onerous unless the engine itself is truly a mess.

 

[IYIyTh]

Once you botch the start it's usually a bit too late.

 

[Bowserlord]

im hyped for the new "hardmode" for the campaigns

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

It's so weird to me that this hasn't been addressed yet...

I wonder if at first this was a conscious design decision on their part?
To make sure everybody uses the same hotkeys and thus somehow "level" the playing field?

I have absolutely no clue about coding, but would removing this grid system be something that requires an insane amount of dev hours?

But back to topic, I'm starting to question if there's anything that could still save this game from total failure...
Even after N4C which has received a lot of praise in the AoE4 community, they have lost another 20% (!!!) of their player base in March...

View attachment 199060

ALEXA PLAY DESPACITO

 

[Influenza]

For me getting into it is just not an option so long as they force you to use grid hotkeys. When they said at release that improving hotkeys was a priority I expected that by like christmas, and now it's not even in this spring update...

I thought it was supposed to be in this update? At least they are advertising "hotkey improvements."

 

[gwfe]

I thought it was supposed to be in this update? At least they are advertising "hotkey improvements."

In this update they add some other lacking hotkey options (e.g. go-to hotkeys I think), but no option to get rid of grid hotkeys. This is currently planned for the next update, with the beginning of Season 2...

I have absolutely no clue about coding, but would removing this grid system be something that requires an insane amount of dev hours?

I also find this puzzling. The time they take to add things like being able to pick your color, picking random civ, adding hotkey support, and even just changing stats of units in the early months seems very long. People have been going on about these since the beta days after all.

 

[kw1k000000]

0 × 100 = 0

 

[DanMT]

It will be a good update, making a good game better, nothing not to like really

 

[Lokalo]

It will be a good update, making a good game better, nothing not to like really

That's for sure, although I think main question/topic is about if players will come back to aoe4, not if players who playing right now will keep playing, as why they should leave if the game will become better.
As there are people who were waiting to come back, but I think there are many people who kind of got angry with all that slow pathing and stuff and kind of buried game for good.

 

[Paint]

I think there is some hope for aoe4 left if the right things are done. If they actually finished the game and did not make it 80$ I would love to play some games.

 

[mogers87]

It's so weird to me that this hasn't been addressed yet...

I wonder if at first this was a conscious design decision on their part?
To make sure everybody uses the same hotkeys and thus somehow "level" the playing field?

I have absolutely no clue about coding, but would removing this grid system be something that requires an insane amount of dev hours?

It has to be a conscious decision. Customizable hotkeys should be something pretty trivial, that any inexperienced programmer does quickly.

It'd be bizarre if the game engine somehow makes this harder than it needs to be.

 

[contempt]

I'll be waiting until the Summer update to play AOE4. I watch some AOE4 but I won't be playing it until they get rid of that grid system of hotkeys. I'm far too old to change my ways.

 

[GorLeon]

Even after N4C which has received a lot of praise in the AoE4 community, they have lost another 20% (!!!) of their player base in March...

View attachment 199060