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[Ysiadmihi]

I was, until it broke itself somehow.

I like the game, but the MMO elements are too intrusive when you just want to play against other players. At this point I don't even feel like reinstalling it because I don't want to grind to level 40 just to ensure I don't run across any unwinnable matches.

The UI needs a lot of work too. It's too "clean" at the sake of hiding useful information that should be readily visible in tooltips.

 

[Rodney McKay]

Is anyone still playing this? It's weird, I thought this game would explode ("the perfect casual formula") when I first played it, but I'm not seeing many people on and hardly anyone is talking about it =/

My feelings about it is that it isn't satisfying enough for non-paying people (like me).

I've only put a couple hours in it (5 or a bit more), but it has taken forever to move up the tech tree and unlock some interesting units/buildings/abilities. I like it as an introductory RTS, my previous experience was Halo Wars so I've enjoyed learning how to group units together and managing resources. The problem is that the game itself does a poor job of teaching this stuff to n00bs like me. I had to come hear to learn some of the useful hot-keys.

I have so many PC games I've payed for (thanks Steam) that I don't really feel like spending a lot of time on a game as slow paced as this.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

I do but just long enough to log in every 2 days and sell production stuff. I plan to start back in again eventually. I did get to 20 after all.

It's just to be honest ok but after awhile the quests get very old. It was the same way in the beta. It doesn't help that now there are gold sellers invading trade chat.

 

[FieryBalrog]

September Patch Update

Ranked PvP and Gear

Hi everyone.

We have been focused on the patch, I think there's like 200 fixes or so, and I will have an update on that soon. But as for PvP?

We are going to make significant changes to Ranked PvP.

· Ranked will be available to eligible players at Level 1

· All Ranked players will be on 100% equal ground out of the gate


We’ll go into greater detail about what this means in the coming weeks. We're investigating this to see what we need to do and when we can get that to you.

Unranked will remain as-is.

Happy Friday!
-Ian

Hallelujah.

 

[Winnie the Pimp]

what does this mean exactly? That someone who does not spend a cent on content can play with other people in ranked and have NO disadvantage whatsoever?

that would be great if true hmm

 

[FieryBalrog]

At the same time, it might just be shooting their own business model in the foot? Haha

 

[Ysiadmihi]

I like the sound of the ranked PVP change. Maybe I'll get back into this after all.

 

[Teknopathetic]

Yeah, same here.

Saw this quote as well:

"If anything, decoupling PvP Ranked let's us make even better improvements for PvE (consumables, advisors, gear, etc). Gear, Advisors, etc. are still huge in our game.

This lets us play with the fun aspects even more, and we don't have to worry about breaking PvP with new items. I think this is a big win for both PvEers and PvPers."


Does AOEO still not let you queue with a partner in 2v2 Sparta?

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

For those who were in the beta, did the beta client update to the retail client automatically? The beta client is the only thing in my live account and it's not possible to access the Marketplace within the GFWL client to see if I can add the retail there.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

For those who were in the beta, did the beta client update to the retail client automatically? The beta client is the only thing in my live account and it's not possible to access the Marketplace within the GFWL client to see if I can add the retail there.

Nope. In fact you need to delete it before you download retail. It causes problems. Well it did initially. Don't know if it still does.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

Nope. In fact you need to delete it before you download retail. It causes problems. Well it did initially. Don't know if it still does.

That sucks, since I already downloaded a GB of the patch. It seems like it still is a problem, so I'll just reinstall. Thanks.

 

[Winnie the Pimp]

alright is ANYONE still playing this one?

i JUST got into it a little and as an old time AOEer i am trying to get to level 6 as quickly as possible to unlock MP >:O(

but man does it take time ugh, it's still true that you can play ranked PVP just like that without having to spend money on any content and everyone has access to the same races, techs etc right?

 

[Rocket Scientist]

So after a few days I finally have the game running... First of all I was completely unaware that this wasn't a browser game. I thought I read it was a long time ago, but apparently it's not. Too bad because browser games are great and I thought it'd be a nice turn for the series. However, I suppose being a full fledged installed game makes it run better and I don't mind much about it not being inside the browser. Would have been cool though.

The patching process sucked and after I was forced to shut down and restart, it didn't even start from where it left off, just began from the beginning. Patched slow as fuck while in other games or just browsing the web doing nothing too =/

So after starting the game up it asks me for a product key.... I thought this was a free game? At this point it's just too early in the day and I'm too annoyed by this game to even find out why I need a fucking product key for a free game... Wish it was a browser game.

Edit: So did everyone agree that games for windows live is the biggest piece of shit turd in exisence? I still don't have it working because I can't acces marketplace even though it saved my login and password. My god this thing.

Edit: Some people said you should look in the download section of the marketplace and check for product keys, but it says no items download and the store just brings me to a browser version. The browser store brings me to the AoEO site and that just brings me back to the download client...

Edit: http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/forums/thread/76765.aspx This just does not work for me. There is no game in the download list and the marketplace brings me to xbox.com...

 

[Fire Walk With Me]

Everything is permanently half off now by the by. Good game.

 

[inky]

Everything is permanently half off now by the by. Good game.

Microsoft's handling of this game has been terrible. I can't believe they had a $100 Season Pass at launch! That was 6 months ago and in all this time they've just added 1 civilization, making the running total 3, when previous games launched with like 10 each. (I get there's missions and City building and what not, but it doesn't seem like enough variety).

The community is very small, they don't seem to be adding value to the game at a constant rate, plus this and Flight tell me that they think Free to play is offer a shell of a game with little content, launch with almost nothing and hope they can sell you stuff for the next 10 years. They don't seem to get that people expect strong launches and to be showered with content. They need to feel like they don't have enough money to spend on lots of stuff.

I had completely forgotten about this. I take it the Celts finally launched as a civilization? I may have to check it out again if so.

The grind they put you through in the beginning was horrible, though.

They are launching Celts soon, but not yet.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I had completely forgotten about this. I take it the Celts finally launched as a civilization? I may have to check it out again if so.

The grind they put you through in the beginning was horrible, though.

 

[Fire Walk With Me]

I cant argue with most of your point inky but they are trying their best and at its core its a very good game with many loyal followers. they have about 400-500 people at peaks times on their Marathon server (highest pop server). Not much but consistent.

the season pass was a disaster but they extended it to 2013. A reasonable olive branch in my opinion.

Flight seems to be taking the same road. MS doesnt really get F2P model unfortunately.

I really like AOEO regardless. For $10 its one of the cheapest good, full game experiences out there.

 

[inky]

I almost hate myself for saying what I said, because those games are indeed somewhat consumer friendly propositions: $10 for a civ now nets you a couple dozen hours of great content, $20 for the Hawaiian pack (disregarding personal feelings about the game) nets you anything from 30 to 50 hours in Flight. There is not a million pieces of DLC and cosmetics to nickel & dime you to death either.

It's just that there is a lot lacking in terms of hooks and variety. Both launches were very subdued and if you look at other F2P games it is clear that they take the "being a service" part seriously. At this point both games just feel like what could've been perfectly good packaged products sliced and offered as an incomplete experience, so no wonder the majority of people look at them and go "well, I'll wait till the game is complete to try it again" and then move on. It is much more a problem of poor awareness plus not having the right business model than not having talented people behind them or not being good games.

 

[FieryBalrog]

This game faceplanted way harder than I thought it would.

Unfortunately the underlying RTS is a fairly uninteresting reskin of AoE2. Which feels really dated at this point, especially the garbage pathfinding.

 

[Fire Walk With Me]

This game faceplanted way harder than I thought it would.

Unfortunately the underlying RTS is a fairly uninteresting reskin of AoE2. Which feels really dated at this point, especially the garbage pathfinding.

Fortunately for this game Microsoft is relentless with the deepest pockets in software.

 

[PatchRowcester]

I might give this a shot one of these days, probably after I finish playing AOE 3. Thanks for the info!

 

[squid]

So, this game is coming to Steam apparently: http://www.ageofempiresonline.com/en/articles/blog-20120326-1
Sounds like it will coincide with the release of the big patch (including the Celts civ), which they're hoping to release tomorrow. Kindof turning out to be a 'relaunch' of the game. Patch notes are here: http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/forums/thread/183529.aspx

There's some really good improvements there, plus Celts are looking really awesome. It's nice they're not giving up on this game yet. It's had problems, but I still find it to be a fun game.

 

[Fire Walk With Me]

Huge downtime is today until 4PM PDT but they still havent given us a release date. Goofy. Apparently the patch is full of bug fixes and improvements. Eagerlay anticipated is an understatement.

 

[MurkyZebra2417]

After trying it out a bit, I bought the All in Wonder Bundle from Steam (currently -66%, so all content unlocked for 14€). I am really amazed by the game, this is everything Age of Empires 2 did right (and AoE2 did pretty much everything right) with fun Online components build around. For anyone still thinking about buying it, try it out for free and grab the bundle if you like it. The deal for the bundle is available until 10th April.
Currently I am only playing the campaigns (Greek), and they are done pretty well.


Oh, and anyone still playing it, add me as Friend please: Gorgosh

 

[Crescendo170]

I'm concidering the bundle, but was just wonder how much the leveling-stuff gets in the way. If you buy the bundle, is everything unlocked and ready to go? I just want to play some AoE.

 

[Zod the Bear]

Bought the bundle the other day. You still start as level one with your first civ (level 3 w/ future ones) but you start at level 20 if you go persian.

 

[Crescendo170]

Thanks for the heads-up, will give this a pass for now. There's not enough time in a day to fit another time-sink in my life.

 

[AndyD]

I downloaded the free part from Steam to check it out. Plays OK, but GFWL sucks. I will pass on paying for the bundle until I get some free time and my backlog reduces a bit.

 

[Gvaz]

Anyone play this?

You should add me, gamertag is my gaf name

 

[inky]

Well, I don't know if anyone still cares but they made some fixes to their F2P model, pretty much like I was expecting.

They changed how currency works, i.e. Empire Points, which you can now buy with cash (in addition to getting them from playing) and it's used to buy all the content. They also finally added a cosmetics shop and a consumables shop.

They have Alliance Wars as end game content (pretty much what it sounds like, you form an Alliance with other players and fight other Alliances) and they tweaked and fix some stuff like the Tech Tree.

Too little too late? I don't know of anyone who still plays this tbh.

 

[AndyD]

That's good to hear. I am hoping for another bundle in the steam sale but f2p has been so so thus far.

 

[Melhisedek]

Any advice for a guy starting out? What race to choose and such

 

[AndyD]

Any advice for a guy starting out? What race to choose and such

I just played for about 3 hours before I made any decision. The natural initial progression lets you try units from other civilizations as well, so I would not agonize too much over the initial decision.