Age of Empires 3 gameplay discussion

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rondocap

Limp Gawd
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Jun 7, 2005
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I see there is another thread on the release of the demo, but that one seems to be mostly about hardware issues and downloading the game, etc.

What are your initial impressions of it? Here are mine, and we must all remember this is still only a demo:

To start with the superficial part- the graphics. They are nice, but nothing too revolutionary. I think Wc3 looks nicer as far as the eye candy factor is concerened. Everything is fairly small scale though, which is usual for this series.

Now, the game does not move very fast, so those used to Starcraft or Wc3 may not like it is much. The game play is fine..but that is the problem! It is too adequate, just like every other mediocre RTS, so far I have not seen anything to separate it from other RTS games out there.

If you look at what some important games did to the RTS genre, you will see what I am talking about. Rise of Nations added so many new layers of complexity that set many standards (Many of which AOE3 abides by) and of course, WC3 was also quite interesting in the sense of what a new feeling of playstyle it brought. (Different than WC2, and even Starcraft.)

I hope to try the demo more and see how the full game is, but so far, it has been fairly mediocre. No big revolution as many might of thought.
 
Welll, after an hour of play, I unistalled the demo.
Why?
It didn't seemed like much at all had changed from the games previous iterations or even other rts'es like empire earth. It was boring.
 
I have to agree with hungryduck. The game doesn't deviate enough from the older RTS games. I think I'm going to pass on this one when it comes out. I played a long game, went through the age advancement, did not like the whole card deck scheme, and uninstalled the game after I was done. Graphics were cool, but if I cared about that I would play HL2 or BF2.
 
Yeah, I am not too happy with it right now. Maybe 1v1 online it may be better.
 
Agreed majorly disapointed. Felt like AOE2 with lots of bloom. I want another C&C game made by the guys that did red alert and yuris revenge. Best RTS ever.
 
Red alert with aftermath, that game is so great.

I agree as well, it is tweaked gameplay wise, they took alot of the stuff they had already used, and instead of changing it, they simply branched off of it. I'll still buy it because i love playing huge map RTS games. All in all its really what i personally expected.
 
Chickenleader said:
Agreed majorly disapointed. Felt like AOE2 with lots of bloom. I want another C&C game made by the guys that did red alert and yuris revenge. Best RTS ever.
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that's a bad thing? hell i'm tryin to find copies of the original age of empires. no such luck :(
 
This is excatly why I wish they'd upgrade the combat to be a lot more strategic.

If the combat was anywhere near games like Myth or Total war it'd be kick ass.
 
I was definitely disappointed and that giant interface is lame. I will give it a few more tries and then uninstall more than likely. I guess Earth 2160 will have to get the job done now.
 
I don't like how my dudes always attacked enemy buildings even if i didn't tell them to...i never played AOE2 so i don't know if thats a new thing.

Overall i liked it though
 
Well, soon as I click the shortcut, the quick splash comes up infront of windows then my machine reboots, so thus far gameplay sucks.. lol
 
Yes on a first look it looks very much like Age of Empires 2 with better visuals and audio. However I wasn´t to impressed by the visuals but it´s an rts it doesn´t matter that much. Nice water as always nowadays. Music was good and sound effects. Seemed to play pretty much the same but I can´t judge yet. There may be bigger changes than you first see. May just be the interface that is similar.
 
It may not have been that innovative but I like it. What was wierd though was on the first mission the indians were my friends and I was burning down American building, WTF?
 
After having just played Rise of Nations for several nights, the AoE3 demo user interface and individual unit AI left a lot to be desired. Doubt I'll be buying it.
 
I'm not huge on RTS to begin with, but I did play AoEII for a bit... and sadly, I liked it a bit more.

First off, I like the idea of a "home city".. but, as far as the demo was concerned, wasn't it just a big shiny package around some convoluted card game? You couldn't explore your home city, or choose what was built.. it was just some predestined locale to visit after a mission to buy... cards.... to click on later. Meh.

The cards themselves are sorta quirky to me. I guess it's just another thing to multitask about.. but personally, I'd think you'd at least have some form of "Uh, instead of wasting supply trips from home, how about you automatically send me SOMETHING, even if I don't ask? Like, food, water... " functionality, at least. If you missed the opportunity to begin with, I doubt you'd mind not completely losing the chance.

The trade posts is just another renaming of Dawn of War style Critical Locations, or something. At least they give you some meager amount of resources..

Buildings were just like AoEII, which isn't really a negative or positive. They were just.. buildings.

Units... phew... where to begin. Worker functionality seemed all right... well, until they ran out of whatever they were doing and just stand around in a little group, wishing for orders. I can't recall if they auto-switched jobs in AoEII, probably not.. so I can't really complain too much there. But, god.. military units are just sad. SAD. I enabled the "extra formations" buttons or whatever, and I'm given these options:

1)Stand in a line and shoot. Yay. It's like AoEII, only with slowly reloading guns and little to no fun-to-watch meelee! yay..
2)Stand spread apart a little and shoot. See above.
3)Defend something, oh wait we mean stand in a square where half your units can't even fire at a given time. yay.

It also seemed like units had perfect accuracy with their guns, although I could be mistaken.. which is a shame, considering how pacifistic units are. Don't expect them to raze a village on their own.. hell, don't expect them to efficiently defend themselves a lone. You practically have to give every single attack order just to achieve even a minor amount of cohesion, and even then you get entirely too much "Bob, Tim, and Dave are at the rear of the group, but instead of moving forward into firing range they'll just stand there and wave". Speaking of quirks, how about "hero units", eh? Nothing like watching one take a rocket to the face, fall down, make some weird quip about "Every moment I leave is pain", and then stand back up to keep fighting. Yay for immortals!

And my final, only minor and probably solved by the retail game complaint: small maps.
 
All of what TD just posted at length was what I meant by AoE3 lacking individual unit AI :p

When you contrast the demo with a game (Rise of Nations) that made workers and military units downright smart (for an RTS), it really came up lacking in a big way. Why on earth couldn't they learn from a game which has been out for more than 2 years now??
 
Well I have not played the others (AOE 1 or 2) so I don't have them to compare to. This must be a good thing as I realy liked the game. I will be buy'n it for sure.

Mongoose
 
The card or experience thing is pretty cool, i enjoy it more than any other RTS other than SC, WC and RoN. However if you put that next to RoN its a little klunky and not as streamlined, i dont know I just enjoyed RoN better, in my opinion RoN is the best RTS out there.

Not sure if i would buy, seems a bit too slow paced and the camera gets to be a bitch.
 
I am pretty disappointed. The graphics are nothing special, and the gameplay feels old. I will still stick by AOE 2 over this game. :(
 
What I find funny is everyone who was taughting this game as the next big SM3 and HDR game aren't anywhere.

Also this game doesn't seem to have HDR....yet at least.
 
I'll stick to WC3 TFT.... I like AOE3 graphics better.. but WC3 gameplay imo is funner..
 
I for one highly enjoy it. Sure, it's old school RTS gameplay, but thats what I like about it. The "card" system is a neat idea and plays out well.
 
I LOVED Age of Mythology... and was hoping this would have been more like that game. But sadly it isn't. Just a rehash of AoEII. : (
 
I haven't got a chance to try it yet. Judging by this thread I am going to be a sad panda this weekend. :(
 
Is there a way to stick your soldiers in formation? As it is now, my guys are just a big mob. I don't see the stance options either.
 
Nope.

They DID plan to have formations (and had them in the game) but they decided to take out formations because they didn't want to "scare" anyone (IE - idiots/dumb people) from playing the game because somehow it was too complicated.
 
That's too bad. It takes a huge strategic element out of the game. In some ways, it's a step back from AOK.
 
It's supposed to be a rehash of AOE II! It's not supposed to be RTW! What did you expect? the demo, though, I must say was way too limited. It should have allowed bigger maps.
 
Stiler said:
Nope.

They DID plan to have formations (and had them in the game) but they decided to take out formations because they didn't want to "scare" anyone (IE - idiots/dumb people) from playing the game because somehow it was too complicated.
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Actually, formations are activated by enabling that part of the user interface through the game settings menu. Alot of user interface extensions are turned off by default. Turn them all on for the best experience.

And please, your statement about scaring people is absurd. Don't invent your own facts and misinform others.
 
I for one do not understand why people feel that this game is a rehash. It covers a completely different time period then AOEII and introduces new elements such as trade routes and home cities. The gameplay is also dramatically different.

Better? Not sure. Different? Yes.
 
This demo was a huge disappointment. Looks nothing like the screenshots we were fed at E3, at least not for the actual RTS moments.

Gameplay was nothing special. Same ol, same ol.

One thing I will give the game credit for is the sound. It is very well done and all the weapons, so far, sound great up close and far away.

I'll pass on this one.
 
siegecraft4 said:
Actually, formations are activated by enabling that part of the user interface through the game settings menu. Alot of user interface extensions are turned off by default. Turn them all on for the best experience.

And please, your statement about scaring people is absurd. Don't invent your own facts and misinform others.
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No they aren't.

They have basic ones, but things like Volley and such do NOT move them into formations.

Misinformation?

Why don't you mosey on over to http://aoe3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/Ultimate.cgi

And read up on formations. They WERE in but took them out becuase they didn't think people would find them fun and they felt it "hurt" the gameplay..


Overall, many many things were cut/tuned dumbed down in the game because they want to attract "Casual" gamers. Which is absurd, seeing as how games like Rome:TW can sell extremely well and be a lot more strategic.

I mean isn't AOE an RTS? Where's the fucking strategy?

The main strategy is in seeing who can get the most shit, and that's it.

More troops + rush = win. There's "some" strategy but it's hardly anything to write home about.
 
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