For me there are so many changes with the lobby system, the gameplay and even the sounds that its hard to tell if its overall better or worse. All this and we haven't even started talking about the new civs and balance, which is usually the topic that drags discussions to ends we as humans thought impossible to reach.
After playing a few games on DE i can say that its definitely exciting to explore all the new things and slowly try to figure out powerful ideas and combos. The game has some heavy fps drops at times but when its running smooth it feels clean. The graphics are detailed and aesthetically pleasing but sometimes it can be hard to tell which unit is what. That could be just a matter of getting used to it, but it definitely makes u wonder whether simpler is better for the graphics department.
As far as gameplay and mechanics goes, its kind of awkward to micro certain units. The pathing has also been significantly changed, and overall unit interaction is completely different (blocking and such). There are also several new features like hotkeying and queuing techs which ive found useful and a nice addition to the game. Ive noticed some minor changes made to the layout of the game that really bug me, for example they show the number of units queued in a buding instead of displaying each pictur individually. This can make you accidentally queue a dozen units and think you only have 1-2 queued when you quickly glance at it. These changes probably dont impact 95% of players, but for competitive and fast play it can be annoying.
All in all, the game feels alright with a lot of promise down the line. Is it ready for competitive play imo? Not quite, but could be in the near future. Is it better than HD? Yes by miles. Is it better than WK and userpatch. No, lag aside voobly's gameplay is superior.
As you guys can see I really do feel like this game has potential. The big issue for me is that when a new game comes out i expect it to be better in almost every way to its predecessor. For aoe2 DE, this is simply not the case. Its ofc still worth buying, and im sure the player base will grow. However as of now, i cant help but feel like the balance patch transfered to WK would make for a much smoother experience, at least or the competitive scene.
Just my thoughts, still gonna grind DE when it comes out, and would love to see it flourish and become the dominant platform in the coming months/years.
After playing a few games on DE i can say that its definitely exciting to explore all the new things and slowly try to figure out powerful ideas and combos. The game has some heavy fps drops at times but when its running smooth it feels clean. The graphics are detailed and aesthetically pleasing but sometimes it can be hard to tell which unit is what. That could be just a matter of getting used to it, but it definitely makes u wonder whether simpler is better for the graphics department.
As far as gameplay and mechanics goes, its kind of awkward to micro certain units. The pathing has also been significantly changed, and overall unit interaction is completely different (blocking and such). There are also several new features like hotkeying and queuing techs which ive found useful and a nice addition to the game. Ive noticed some minor changes made to the layout of the game that really bug me, for example they show the number of units queued in a buding instead of displaying each pictur individually. This can make you accidentally queue a dozen units and think you only have 1-2 queued when you quickly glance at it. These changes probably dont impact 95% of players, but for competitive and fast play it can be annoying.
All in all, the game feels alright with a lot of promise down the line. Is it ready for competitive play imo? Not quite, but could be in the near future. Is it better than HD? Yes by miles. Is it better than WK and userpatch. No, lag aside voobly's gameplay is superior.
As you guys can see I really do feel like this game has potential. The big issue for me is that when a new game comes out i expect it to be better in almost every way to its predecessor. For aoe2 DE, this is simply not the case. Its ofc still worth buying, and im sure the player base will grow. However as of now, i cant help but feel like the balance patch transfered to WK would make for a much smoother experience, at least or the competitive scene.
Just my thoughts, still gonna grind DE when it comes out, and would love to see it flourish and become the dominant platform in the coming months/years.