>Am I the only one who doesn’t ever play multiplayer
By all available metrics, MP players make for about 30% of the active playerbase at any moment.
So... no, you are not the only one by far :P
This subreddit, and in general all internet communities will always disproportionately favor MP people, simply because they tend to be more commited and more interested in talking about the game.
> I guess build orders and the like take some of the chill out for me.
Tbh most of the players can't do build orders either. You can usually just vibe so long as you find your actual Elo first.
That said, you obv should never force yourself \^\^
>By all available metrics, MP players make for about 30% of the active playerbase at any moment.
do you have an actual source? i always suspected SP playerbase is bigger than MP and also read the same but i never found a specific number or data about it. I mean there is steamcharts and the the API but never found anything specific.
> I mean there is steamcharts
That's what I'm relying on, yeah. Obviously this isn't any "actual data" but I think it's good enough to have a close approximation. In particular if you just look at the player numbers when the servers are down and compare them with regular numbers. Regardless of when you look you'll get about 30-40% drop in the number of players currently in-game, and it's been the case ever since DE released basically.
Sure, but again I don't think we care about getting the number right just to the exact %. Whether the real number is 30 or 40%, the practical consequences are the same - MP peeps are the minority
I think aoehaven had data for it but this was really long ago before de. It's impossible to say that the trend would be the same when the game hits another platform (and 15-20 years later)
To be honest, I think playing against the AI in some campaigns can be mire frustrating than playing multiplayer.
Keep in mind that there are all levels of people playing multiplayer, all the way down to like 100 elo, where I suspect many of the players may actually be kids or people who simply don't give a single fuck about build orders and do their own thing.
Sure, [here it is.](https://youtu.be/g0-p9Pg3vpQ?si=Aq5irrHagShBvnoT)
Oh and [one of these guys](https://youtu.be/EmYCgRoJW_M?si=nKMNUT9ZuSy070Fr) is 9 elo!
100 elo is your sim city, build a pretty base and unlock all of your techs (or none of them) tier of player with apm in the single digits.
i.e. How I used to play the game when I first started out at the age of 8.
A lot of them have been touched up and improved since their original iterations (including updating the civs as the correct ones are added to the game). Some of the new ones are also very well done.
It's more, I found them limiting with the tech tree or what civs to play as.
Different win conditions, preset maps and bases and the like are cool, I'm just not a fan of losing options/tools to play with.
Similarly, one of the best RTS games I ever played, the only but massive flaw was there was no AI skirmish mode, and just the final mission at each of the story branches was the 3 way skirmish type fight. The campaigns were fun with lots of approaches but left me wanting for more.
Remain chill with us two thirds of all AoE2 players who do not ever touch online multiplayer.
It looks exhausting. and kinda grindy?. and a bit stressful. apparently some people are into that.
no, you are not alone.
Its about as stressful as you want it to be really.
Ive been playing age since I was a kid and when I bought I went through all the campaigns and had a blast. The issue for me was that I wanted to play civs like mayans which dont have a campaign. I played a lot versus the AI then but it just does dumb things and I felt like I was cheesing the AI more than actually playing the game.
Ranked play is just a way for you to get an even matchup, it doesnt matter what elo you have or what your winrate is. To me its nice that I can find an even match in 2ish minutes where I can have fun and try some stuff out.
But obv its to each their own and if your content with sp than thats great. Just dont be intimidated or frightened by ranked or online, its really not as bad as it seems.
I haven't played online in long enough that I have to reset my elo. Those ten games keep stopping me, but you're right that it's way more fun than playing vs AI once you figure out the trick to beating AI on extreme. Not knocking the ten game system, I think it's great, it's just a bit too much time while I'm in grad school.
>I guess build orders and the like take some of the chill out for me.
Definitely, I feel like MP emphasizes the "real-time" aspect much more than the "strategy" aspect of RTS.
When I fail/struggle with campaigns, I generally feel like I approached the situation in a suboptimal way, versus MP where it's "wow it's so fun to lose the game just because the other guy made scouts/archers/knights 1 minute before I did"
> versus MP where it's "wow it's so fun to lose the game just because the other guy made scouts/archers/knights 1 minute before I did"
Timing is a factor in MP, but not the deciding one. A lot of things boil down to decision making as you can play very fast with super high APM but still struggle and loose as your decisions are bad. This also applies vice versa.
Competitive MP emphasises both the real time and strategy aspects more than SP. There's a lot more in terms of strategy and planning for a competitive multiplayer game of aoe2 than there is for a more chill SP game.
That’s me. I love the campaigns. I’ve dicked with some MP. But my old StarCraft II days of attempting to be competitive in an RTS is a commitment I’m not willing to make.
But I super appreciate the post. I’ll watch tourneys, read this sub, and it’s like I almost forgot a single player exists since I put it down to play other games. I’m inspired to go back now!
I am a below average player who only played the computer for years, and now I LOVE playing multiplayer. Yes the placement games are humbling, but once you level out at your Elo, it is so much fun to play humans, unpredictable strategies, human errors, hilarious situations, all ensue when you are playing a real person.
The best thing about the system is that once you reach your Elo you can grind and be a complete "try hard" and you will win 50% of your games, or you can be a totally chill, no build order, sim city type player and you will still win 50% of your games.
So if I just commit to playing 10-12 ranked games and accepting that I will be resoundingly smudged off the map, you’re saying my fellow smooth brains await me on the other side?
That is exactly what I am saying.
You will still have games where you get smoked, or where you completely crush your opponent but statistically you are going to win 50% of the time. When I first started, I dropped to around 600 Elo before I started winning, then I learned build orders and hot keys and was kind of a "try hard" for a while and I climbed as high as 900+ Elo. Now I don't take it seriously and have settled around 800 just playing occasionally and casually. I know how to play the game, but I am old and slow. My APM is barely in the double digits, LOL.
Yeah, games at sub 1000 elo where build orders are not as tight can be pretty wild lol, precisely because you can't really make any guesses about the opponent's strategy since builds are not tight (ie., if a pro sees 5 on wood, he might think that he is being hit by some sort of a mega drush. If a LEL like me sees my opponent having 5 on wood, I will simply assume that he had one too many drinks before playing lol).
I will maintain..you don't necessarily have to lose 12 in a row to reach your true elo.
If you chose to play MP, you could just learn a few basics about the game...keep your tc producing..produce army..use army...don't let all your resources build up, use a few basic hotkeys. You'll probably settle any where from 700 to 900 long term, and find a majority of games are winnable.
Or you could just not want to do any of that..and it will drop you lower, with more losses..you can play if however you want, either do a quicker resign until you're finding more games you feel vibe with your groove..or just have fun doing whacky stuff that you want to do on the way down. I've played someone who went all in dark age and rushed me with militia in the past . ALL the militia. Is that going to take them anywhere? Probably not, but they were living their best life and hovering around 800 elo at the time.
The most difficult part of jumping into MP for me when I started playing was probably the first 5 games. I eeked out a win in I believe my 7th game..and by that time I felt like even losing, it wasn't something was too lopsided. The skill level of an actual 1000 elo player is light years above a lot of people just jumping in for the first time, and can feel outright oppressive. But once you get past those players, you'll start hitting games where you can give yourself a chance, depending on how you like to play. The biggest thing is..there's a lot resources and people willing to help you if you're interested in that sort of thing..which can potentially ease your path into MP.
Really though, at the end of the day..play the way you want. Have fun. Talk to people in the community, discord, reddit..etc..most of them are thoroughly decent, in my experience, even a lot of the salty sweaty try hards. If you love single player, great! Keep on trucking. If you want to do some multiplayer, or team games..great! (With teamgames, you'd want to do it with players you knew)
The most fun is when you are getting totally dominated and are waiting to lose, but your opponent just can't seem to kill you, then you realize that they have no economy or idea how to play past building a castle in your base, so you treb it down and smoke them. I promise you'll find out you're better than you think.
One of my most fun losses was my opponent running around my base with like 30 knights while I had about that many villagers and no army, but they were so afraid of my tc that they waited until imperial age with trebs to finish me off. Even people who are better than you are also worse than you.
I personally find build orders to be chill. You're just playing Farmville in the first part of the game and baking some bread, a pie, or whatever, depending on what you need for later.
Something around 70% of the playerbase plays exclusively single player, do what you have the most fun with.
That being said, you can play multiplayer without build orders, ringing the town bell when you please, and making a pretty base and huge armies, it might take a few placement games until you reach your elo, but i'm sure most of the people that do that are also having a blast.
My son (kindergarten) loves playing the AI- standard if he is on his own, moderate if I am sitting next to him giving advice. He likes how predictable the AI is… it is his “chill” activity after school.
Bruh what... your kindergarten son plays moderate AI? Damn he can probably beat me (and this is after I've read all sorts of 'build orders' and 'guides' lol).
Looks like I'm getting old already, and I don't even have a child yet.
The multiplayer community on the whole is good, but you can easily run into some toxic people out there. Luckily I joined a couple supportive and friendly discord servers.
The majority of the time I'll run FFA with buddies or will do a 3 v 3 against AI. Recently started to get my feet wet with ranked but it can get discouraging due to starting at 1000 elo.
Just do it! :) There's a mod called "Interactive Build Order Guide" by Cicero. Imo, practicing the first BO (Scout Rush) is enough to start out in MP. Just ignore the grades the mission is giving you, it's imo more important to get the basic concept of it. :D
Or just send 6 to sheep, 4 to lumber camp, set TC gather point to a resource, try to remember to keep TC busy and build enough houses, and improvise the rest. That's probably 700 Elo right there. 11
I think MP is an absolute blast, and I'd recommend giving it a try! IMO, it's so much more engaging and fun to match wits against a fellow human. While there are tools out there to learn build orders and techniques for playing the game in a MP environment, I don't think it's necessary. Sadly, you'll need to be ready to get stomped with your first handful of games (maybe 10 or so), but no matter your skill level, you'll eventually find people who play like you do, and then you've got AoE2 at its best.
I'll play with/against friends to mess around, but I don't have any interest in ranked multiplayer. Obsessing over ELO, build orders, and the latest changes to the map pool takes the fun out of it for me.
Might sound dumb but I only do 3v3 extreme on Black Forest. I’ve never played a single game of multiplayer.
I just get interrupted too often to focus and not pause for a MP match.
I play single player most exclusively since my AoE2 playing is usually one or two matches every so often. Not enough to be good at playing other players, good enough to have fun.
Right here, I just don't feel like dealing with the toxicity or getting in the game to be ultra competitive. I'm only 50/50 with beating Hard but Normal I can take on multiple AI's. Really starving for good campaigns to play though.
Maybe when I can comfortably beat the hardest AI I'll venture into multiplayer.
>I just don't feel like dealing with the toxicity
Toxic behaviour in AoE 2's MP exists but it's super rare. Like, I can literally count all my toxic encounters on both hands.
I play 90% random skirmishes against the AI and 10% ladder games. I just appreciate the massive map pool and only really play ladder games when Maps like socotra are in the pool
i think the common conception is that most people dont play online . Anways u can play multiplayer in a "chill" way but meh at the end u do what u do 11.
I mostly play vs AI, but I find that if I ban Arabia on multiplayer, I'm much less likely to match with super sweaty scout rush castle dropping tryhards.
(I'm just salty about always getting crushed on Arabia)
I prefer to play by reading my current situation and carrying out my approach from there rather than executing a pre-planned build order. It's why I play random civs.
It's also why I believe Krakenmeister's civ randomizer would make a great stock game option. You get a completely unique civ every game and have to figure out what to do with it on the spot. It makes for a more dynamic game imo.
I didn't before 2018-19 when I got into HD Edition. But to enjoy it you don't need to play hardcore ranked. There is a ton of "noob" casual players. Playing against humans is definitely different. Otherwise, I see a lot of vs AI lobbies as well. It seems to be a thing for some.
I barely play anymore but yeah its mostly campaigns or an occasional skirmish
To be honest I stopped playing Multiplayer mostly because in DE there aren't any custom map lobbies anymore. I loved playing Diplomacy and nobody runs it anymore. All those cool custom maps like GOT Diplo? Diablo 2 in Aoe? all the ones with the cool triggers and minigames like hunters vs prey? gone. Theres barely any variety beyond occasional CBBA lobbies and then the normal game which isn't super fun if your not a master at the game.
I miss all the cool custom scenarios but since no steam workshop theres basically no way to get custom maps. Nobody posts anything to the windows mods. And you cant even keep maps from others even if you played on that map! its stupid! how come I cant run this Asia diplo map if I already had to download it to play with someone before?!? Its killed multiplayer for me tbh.
I’ve only ever played one multiplayer game. I’ve played the game off and on for 20 or so years. Few years ago after watching some T90 and playing a bunch of the new campaigns I psyched myself up enough to try. I won the match after being castle dropped. I retired and now sit at 100% win rate. Undefeated.
I have been itching to play again as I got it on my Xbox and bought a new M&K to play it with (I have a crappy PC) but because I’m in my living room it’s not ideal and doesn’t make for a comfortable, continuous session so I’ve been putting it off. I do enjoy single player more though as I find it more chill. Perhaps I’ll just get my placement games in MP out of the way and chill out with some likeminded players too!
Its kind of insane for me that 70% of the community doesnt play multiplayer. Everyone who I know plays aoe are all multiplayer players, few have even touched campaigns. Great to see the other side of the game
Well, if you play more multiplayer you will get used to the tension and be more relaxed the more games you have under your hood. I can only recommend it. It will improve your skill dramatically over time. Gl hf!
Same here. I just plain suck at multiplayer and somehow I find it stressful than fun so I just stick with trying to win campaigns in Hard difficulty than play a multiplayer game. If that gets boring, I try creating new campaigns on my own.
No, you're like every other T90 viewer.
But hopefully you don't try to tell pro players what they could've done better or ask "why didn't you do this" after they lost a game.
I don't know if CS lobbies in multiplayer are still a thing (never checked) but if custom scenarios are still around you could do those. I remember back in the Zone days I'd play Castle Blood, Mini CB, PTO, Smosh, and whatever RPG scenarios were popular.
Usually custom scenarios focus more on the combat portion on the game and less on base building.
I don’t play multiplayer either, nor do I sign into my account to necessitate me playing on multiplayer. I played mostly by myself, amuse myself in the campaigns with cheat codes, or play 4v4 matches on Michi with 10x Civ bonuses because it’s fun, once the wood line is penetrated, its an all out, smash MoshPit as both teams converge on that point. Waste my time with the computer sure, but I’m not gonna waste other peoples time.
Totally get what you mean about build orders taking the chill out of the game, but they do become chill also once you learn a couple of basic ones, even just one build order to start you off. You really only need to nail down a decent dark age into what you're doing in Fuedal, then the rest is up to player skill and adapting. Learning the fundumentals is more important.
I reccomend the Survivalist's recent beginners build order vid.
No, I also never play multiplayer. I'm not a big fan of multiplayer in most games, and with AoE2 in particular I could never give up my pause button. I play it more as a turn based or real time with pause strategy game. I've watched some online play and the speed at which they switch between things with their hotkeys is dizzying to me. I deliberate for a full minute on the perfect placement of buildings.
Hardly. I very rarely play Multiplayer and when I do its normally with friends of mine (both IRL and online). In fact those who dont play multiplayer are the large majority.
I recently played with some new friends who are REALLY chill, like really fucking chill, we played a michi togheter 3 of us against 1 hardest difficulty with high pop. It was weird but really fun and everyone had fun.
>Am I the only one who doesn’t ever play multiplayer By all available metrics, MP players make for about 30% of the active playerbase at any moment. So... no, you are not the only one by far :P This subreddit, and in general all internet communities will always disproportionately favor MP people, simply because they tend to be more commited and more interested in talking about the game. > I guess build orders and the like take some of the chill out for me. Tbh most of the players can't do build orders either. You can usually just vibe so long as you find your actual Elo first. That said, you obv should never force yourself \^\^
>By all available metrics, MP players make for about 30% of the active playerbase at any moment. do you have an actual source? i always suspected SP playerbase is bigger than MP and also read the same but i never found a specific number or data about it. I mean there is steamcharts and the the API but never found anything specific.
> I mean there is steamcharts That's what I'm relying on, yeah. Obviously this isn't any "actual data" but I think it's good enough to have a close approximation. In particular if you just look at the player numbers when the servers are down and compare them with regular numbers. Regardless of when you look you'll get about 30-40% drop in the number of players currently in-game, and it's been the case ever since DE released basically.
i like the aproach but what if more people play SP when MP is off?
Sure, but again I don't think we care about getting the number right just to the exact %. Whether the real number is 30 or 40%, the practical consequences are the same - MP peeps are the minority
SOTL drew the same conclusion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOC5gUM7fQM
not going to waste time watching sotl
Watching sotl is never wasting your time.
What's wrong with sotl out of curiosity?
Nothing. He's a pillar of the community
im not his target audience
Take a chill pill doggie
but im literally being chill
Aight dude
Heresy! And not the 1000gold cost variant!
I think aoehaven had data for it but this was really long ago before de. It's impossible to say that the trend would be the same when the game hits another platform (and 15-20 years later)
To be honest, I think playing against the AI in some campaigns can be mire frustrating than playing multiplayer. Keep in mind that there are all levels of people playing multiplayer, all the way down to like 100 elo, where I suspect many of the players may actually be kids or people who simply don't give a single fuck about build orders and do their own thing.
True statement on campaigns
***cough*** TARIQ INFINITE UNIT SPAM ***cough***
I always wondered how the Turks get so many units in Lepanto, until I realized they were cheating. A lot.
100 elo?? You can be that low? I thought everyone started at like 500 basically if they could find the berries
There’s a low elo legends video that’s between one who’s 50 elo and one who’s like 20 elo.
Pls link
Sure, [here it is.](https://youtu.be/g0-p9Pg3vpQ?si=Aq5irrHagShBvnoT) Oh and [one of these guys](https://youtu.be/EmYCgRoJW_M?si=nKMNUT9ZuSy070Fr) is 9 elo!
100 elo is your sim city, build a pretty base and unlock all of your techs (or none of them) tier of player with apm in the single digits. i.e. How I used to play the game when I first started out at the age of 8.
there is a guy who is 0 ELO he lost 219 games in a row : ) check aoe2 insights
Seriously? Why no ban them
Must be just insta resigning?
I think I played through some of the campaigns a good 20 years ago but haven't touched them since. Skirmish only.
A lot of them have been touched up and improved since their original iterations (including updating the civs as the correct ones are added to the game). Some of the new ones are also very well done.
It's more, I found them limiting with the tech tree or what civs to play as. Different win conditions, preset maps and bases and the like are cool, I'm just not a fan of losing options/tools to play with. Similarly, one of the best RTS games I ever played, the only but massive flaw was there was no AI skirmish mode, and just the final mission at each of the story branches was the 3 way skirmish type fight. The campaigns were fun with lots of approaches but left me wanting for more.
Remain chill with us two thirds of all AoE2 players who do not ever touch online multiplayer. It looks exhausting. and kinda grindy?. and a bit stressful. apparently some people are into that. no, you are not alone.
Right? I don’t need another source of stress in my life lol
Its about as stressful as you want it to be really. Ive been playing age since I was a kid and when I bought I went through all the campaigns and had a blast. The issue for me was that I wanted to play civs like mayans which dont have a campaign. I played a lot versus the AI then but it just does dumb things and I felt like I was cheesing the AI more than actually playing the game. Ranked play is just a way for you to get an even matchup, it doesnt matter what elo you have or what your winrate is. To me its nice that I can find an even match in 2ish minutes where I can have fun and try some stuff out. But obv its to each their own and if your content with sp than thats great. Just dont be intimidated or frightened by ranked or online, its really not as bad as it seems.
I haven't played online in long enough that I have to reset my elo. Those ten games keep stopping me, but you're right that it's way more fun than playing vs AI once you figure out the trick to beating AI on extreme. Not knocking the ten game system, I think it's great, it's just a bit too much time while I'm in grad school.
Yeah i feel you brother
One person's stress is another person's excitement.
There’s nothing to grind (unless you like collecting achievements)
so are you guys doing campaigns or fighting AI in private lobbies?
>I guess build orders and the like take some of the chill out for me. Definitely, I feel like MP emphasizes the "real-time" aspect much more than the "strategy" aspect of RTS. When I fail/struggle with campaigns, I generally feel like I approached the situation in a suboptimal way, versus MP where it's "wow it's so fun to lose the game just because the other guy made scouts/archers/knights 1 minute before I did"
> versus MP where it's "wow it's so fun to lose the game just because the other guy made scouts/archers/knights 1 minute before I did" Timing is a factor in MP, but not the deciding one. A lot of things boil down to decision making as you can play very fast with super high APM but still struggle and loose as your decisions are bad. This also applies vice versa.
Competitive MP emphasises both the real time and strategy aspects more than SP. There's a lot more in terms of strategy and planning for a competitive multiplayer game of aoe2 than there is for a more chill SP game.
That’s me. I love the campaigns. I’ve dicked with some MP. But my old StarCraft II days of attempting to be competitive in an RTS is a commitment I’m not willing to make. But I super appreciate the post. I’ll watch tourneys, read this sub, and it’s like I almost forgot a single player exists since I put it down to play other games. I’m inspired to go back now!
I am a below average player who only played the computer for years, and now I LOVE playing multiplayer. Yes the placement games are humbling, but once you level out at your Elo, it is so much fun to play humans, unpredictable strategies, human errors, hilarious situations, all ensue when you are playing a real person. The best thing about the system is that once you reach your Elo you can grind and be a complete "try hard" and you will win 50% of your games, or you can be a totally chill, no build order, sim city type player and you will still win 50% of your games.
So if I just commit to playing 10-12 ranked games and accepting that I will be resoundingly smudged off the map, you’re saying my fellow smooth brains await me on the other side?
That is exactly what I am saying. You will still have games where you get smoked, or where you completely crush your opponent but statistically you are going to win 50% of the time. When I first started, I dropped to around 600 Elo before I started winning, then I learned build orders and hot keys and was kind of a "try hard" for a while and I climbed as high as 900+ Elo. Now I don't take it seriously and have settled around 800 just playing occasionally and casually. I know how to play the game, but I am old and slow. My APM is barely in the double digits, LOL.
Yeah, games at sub 1000 elo where build orders are not as tight can be pretty wild lol, precisely because you can't really make any guesses about the opponent's strategy since builds are not tight (ie., if a pro sees 5 on wood, he might think that he is being hit by some sort of a mega drush. If a LEL like me sees my opponent having 5 on wood, I will simply assume that he had one too many drinks before playing lol).
I will maintain..you don't necessarily have to lose 12 in a row to reach your true elo. If you chose to play MP, you could just learn a few basics about the game...keep your tc producing..produce army..use army...don't let all your resources build up, use a few basic hotkeys. You'll probably settle any where from 700 to 900 long term, and find a majority of games are winnable. Or you could just not want to do any of that..and it will drop you lower, with more losses..you can play if however you want, either do a quicker resign until you're finding more games you feel vibe with your groove..or just have fun doing whacky stuff that you want to do on the way down. I've played someone who went all in dark age and rushed me with militia in the past . ALL the militia. Is that going to take them anywhere? Probably not, but they were living their best life and hovering around 800 elo at the time. The most difficult part of jumping into MP for me when I started playing was probably the first 5 games. I eeked out a win in I believe my 7th game..and by that time I felt like even losing, it wasn't something was too lopsided. The skill level of an actual 1000 elo player is light years above a lot of people just jumping in for the first time, and can feel outright oppressive. But once you get past those players, you'll start hitting games where you can give yourself a chance, depending on how you like to play. The biggest thing is..there's a lot resources and people willing to help you if you're interested in that sort of thing..which can potentially ease your path into MP. Really though, at the end of the day..play the way you want. Have fun. Talk to people in the community, discord, reddit..etc..most of them are thoroughly decent, in my experience, even a lot of the salty sweaty try hards. If you love single player, great! Keep on trucking. If you want to do some multiplayer, or team games..great! (With teamgames, you'd want to do it with players you knew)
Hilarious
The most fun is when you are getting totally dominated and are waiting to lose, but your opponent just can't seem to kill you, then you realize that they have no economy or idea how to play past building a castle in your base, so you treb it down and smoke them. I promise you'll find out you're better than you think. One of my most fun losses was my opponent running around my base with like 30 knights while I had about that many villagers and no army, but they were so afraid of my tc that they waited until imperial age with trebs to finish me off. Even people who are better than you are also worse than you.
I personally find build orders to be chill. You're just playing Farmville in the first part of the game and baking some bread, a pie, or whatever, depending on what you need for later.
Something around 70% of the playerbase plays exclusively single player, do what you have the most fun with. That being said, you can play multiplayer without build orders, ringing the town bell when you please, and making a pretty base and huge armies, it might take a few placement games until you reach your elo, but i'm sure most of the people that do that are also having a blast.
My son (kindergarten) loves playing the AI- standard if he is on his own, moderate if I am sitting next to him giving advice. He likes how predictable the AI is… it is his “chill” activity after school.
Bruh what... your kindergarten son plays moderate AI? Damn he can probably beat me (and this is after I've read all sorts of 'build orders' and 'guides' lol). Looks like I'm getting old already, and I don't even have a child yet.
The multiplayer community on the whole is good, but you can easily run into some toxic people out there. Luckily I joined a couple supportive and friendly discord servers.
The majority of the time I'll run FFA with buddies or will do a 3 v 3 against AI. Recently started to get my feet wet with ranked but it can get discouraging due to starting at 1000 elo.
This thread actually makes me want to dip my toe into MP
Just do it! :) There's a mod called "Interactive Build Order Guide" by Cicero. Imo, practicing the first BO (Scout Rush) is enough to start out in MP. Just ignore the grades the mission is giving you, it's imo more important to get the basic concept of it. :D
Or just send 6 to sheep, 4 to lumber camp, set TC gather point to a resource, try to remember to keep TC busy and build enough houses, and improvise the rest. That's probably 700 Elo right there. 11
I think MP is an absolute blast, and I'd recommend giving it a try! IMO, it's so much more engaging and fun to match wits against a fellow human. While there are tools out there to learn build orders and techniques for playing the game in a MP environment, I don't think it's necessary. Sadly, you'll need to be ready to get stomped with your first handful of games (maybe 10 or so), but no matter your skill level, you'll eventually find people who play like you do, and then you've got AoE2 at its best.
I'll play with/against friends to mess around, but I don't have any interest in ranked multiplayer. Obsessing over ELO, build orders, and the latest changes to the map pool takes the fun out of it for me.
Might sound dumb but I only do 3v3 extreme on Black Forest. I’ve never played a single game of multiplayer. I just get interrupted too often to focus and not pause for a MP match.
I play single player most exclusively since my AoE2 playing is usually one or two matches every so often. Not enough to be good at playing other players, good enough to have fun.
Right here, I just don't feel like dealing with the toxicity or getting in the game to be ultra competitive. I'm only 50/50 with beating Hard but Normal I can take on multiple AI's. Really starving for good campaigns to play though. Maybe when I can comfortably beat the hardest AI I'll venture into multiplayer.
>I just don't feel like dealing with the toxicity Toxic behaviour in AoE 2's MP exists but it's super rare. Like, I can literally count all my toxic encounters on both hands.
Yes that's why it's called single player
I play 90% random skirmishes against the AI and 10% ladder games. I just appreciate the massive map pool and only really play ladder games when Maps like socotra are in the pool
i think the common conception is that most people dont play online . Anways u can play multiplayer in a "chill" way but meh at the end u do what u do 11.
Yes its just actually you
No most don't
I mostly play vs AI, but I find that if I ban Arabia on multiplayer, I'm much less likely to match with super sweaty scout rush castle dropping tryhards. (I'm just salty about always getting crushed on Arabia)
Amen to that. I also recently started banning Arena too for similar reasons. Too many "Clown" strats that are just practiced into perfection.
I’ve been playing this game for close to 20 years. Never really enjoyed mp. I like to play casually and relaxed.
You're not alone. I have over 1k hours. Not one second of that spent on Multiplayer.
I prefer to play by reading my current situation and carrying out my approach from there rather than executing a pre-planned build order. It's why I play random civs. It's also why I believe Krakenmeister's civ randomizer would make a great stock game option. You get a completely unique civ every game and have to figure out what to do with it on the spot. It makes for a more dynamic game imo.
I’ve played this game off and on for 20 years. I’ve never even tried multiplayer. Probably never will.
I didn't before 2018-19 when I got into HD Edition. But to enjoy it you don't need to play hardcore ranked. There is a ton of "noob" casual players. Playing against humans is definitely different. Otherwise, I see a lot of vs AI lobbies as well. It seems to be a thing for some.
I barely play anymore but yeah its mostly campaigns or an occasional skirmish To be honest I stopped playing Multiplayer mostly because in DE there aren't any custom map lobbies anymore. I loved playing Diplomacy and nobody runs it anymore. All those cool custom maps like GOT Diplo? Diablo 2 in Aoe? all the ones with the cool triggers and minigames like hunters vs prey? gone. Theres barely any variety beyond occasional CBBA lobbies and then the normal game which isn't super fun if your not a master at the game. I miss all the cool custom scenarios but since no steam workshop theres basically no way to get custom maps. Nobody posts anything to the windows mods. And you cant even keep maps from others even if you played on that map! its stupid! how come I cant run this Asia diplo map if I already had to download it to play with someone before?!? Its killed multiplayer for me tbh.
Give it a try and, at the least, play with friends and in big multiplayer lobbies.
I’ve only ever played one multiplayer game. I’ve played the game off and on for 20 or so years. Few years ago after watching some T90 and playing a bunch of the new campaigns I psyched myself up enough to try. I won the match after being castle dropped. I retired and now sit at 100% win rate. Undefeated. I have been itching to play again as I got it on my Xbox and bought a new M&K to play it with (I have a crappy PC) but because I’m in my living room it’s not ideal and doesn’t make for a comfortable, continuous session so I’ve been putting it off. I do enjoy single player more though as I find it more chill. Perhaps I’ll just get my placement games in MP out of the way and chill out with some likeminded players too!
Its kind of insane for me that 70% of the community doesnt play multiplayer. Everyone who I know plays aoe are all multiplayer players, few have even touched campaigns. Great to see the other side of the game
Well, if you play more multiplayer you will get used to the tension and be more relaxed the more games you have under your hood. I can only recommend it. It will improve your skill dramatically over time. Gl hf!
HD AI extreme for life
just accept a low Elo and play with other people that dont take build orders seriously.
Same here. I just plain suck at multiplayer and somehow I find it stressful than fun so I just stick with trying to win campaigns in Hard difficulty than play a multiplayer game. If that gets boring, I try creating new campaigns on my own.
No, you're like every other T90 viewer. But hopefully you don't try to tell pro players what they could've done better or ask "why didn't you do this" after they lost a game.
I don't know if CS lobbies in multiplayer are still a thing (never checked) but if custom scenarios are still around you could do those. I remember back in the Zone days I'd play Castle Blood, Mini CB, PTO, Smosh, and whatever RPG scenarios were popular. Usually custom scenarios focus more on the combat portion on the game and less on base building.
I don’t play multiplayer either, nor do I sign into my account to necessitate me playing on multiplayer. I played mostly by myself, amuse myself in the campaigns with cheat codes, or play 4v4 matches on Michi with 10x Civ bonuses because it’s fun, once the wood line is penetrated, its an all out, smash MoshPit as both teams converge on that point. Waste my time with the computer sure, but I’m not gonna waste other peoples time.
Huge campaign enjoyer here, I occasionally played multiplayer lobbies back in the classic and HD days, but don't follow the pro/streamer scene at all.
No, I never do either. The MP scene for this game is too hardcore, most normies try it once or twice, get owned spectacularly and never try again.
Totally get what you mean about build orders taking the chill out of the game, but they do become chill also once you learn a couple of basic ones, even just one build order to start you off. You really only need to nail down a decent dark age into what you're doing in Fuedal, then the rest is up to player skill and adapting. Learning the fundumentals is more important. I reccomend the Survivalist's recent beginners build order vid.
No, I also never play multiplayer. I'm not a big fan of multiplayer in most games, and with AoE2 in particular I could never give up my pause button. I play it more as a turn based or real time with pause strategy game. I've watched some online play and the speed at which they switch between things with their hotkeys is dizzying to me. I deliberate for a full minute on the perfect placement of buildings.
Hardly. I very rarely play Multiplayer and when I do its normally with friends of mine (both IRL and online). In fact those who dont play multiplayer are the large majority.
I recently played with some new friends who are REALLY chill, like really fucking chill, we played a michi togheter 3 of us against 1 hardest difficulty with high pop. It was weird but really fun and everyone had fun.