The Age Of Empires franchise has had its fair share of oddities over the years and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Age Of Empires IV is an apple that's not fallen far from the RTS tree. There are some downright weird choices in the design, but there are also a lot of odd bugs the community has found as well.
From the completely debilitating to the mildly annoying and utterly confusing, there are a lot of head-scratching decisions that were made in the design of the game. Some of them are tolerable whilst others really need fixing, but until then, here are a few things in Age Of Empires IV that don't make sense.
10 ꦇ The Camera Controls
If you ever want to start a debate between RTS fans, ask them about camera controls. There tends to be two camps, the modern WASD crowd and the classic arrow key fans with both having their 🌠own merits and limitations.
Age Of Empires IV falls into the second category and it's something that, for an RTS in 2021, doesn't make sense. Arrow key camera controls were par for the course for the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Age Of Empires franchise and older strategy games in general back in the day, but they were shelved for the universally accepted WASD setup since it's easier and more familiar for most players. Not here though, those buttons are bound to Hotkeys. Whilst it's a whole mechanic unto itself and you can (with mixed success) rebind those, sticking with this archaic system makes the game feel clunky and unwieldy at times, especially if you're more familiar with the modern control scheme.
9 𝓀 ꦕ Formations Are Pointless
The ability to put your troops into neat formations has made a welcome return to ಌAge Of Eꦓmpires IV after it was missing in AOE and it would be a fantastic mechanic if it only made sense with how the game handles combat. Which is drastically different from what it first tells you.
In the first mission of the game, you're given control of a massive army performing a battle uphill. It's a tense affair as it's quite an overwhelming moment in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:early game as you are instructed to use formations strategically, form lines to stop charges, and space out troops to avoid archers. It seems at first like combat will involve intense micro-management and strategic planning, until everyone charges forwards in one big blob and the mosh pit commences. Units stand around, wander off, or chase random targets, some of which could be far behind enemy lines. With such a simplistic combat choice, Hotkey movement becomes dominant and formations go unused when zerg rushing is the only approach. It's a frustrating choice that makes formations feel tacked on.
8 ꦺ Warships Can Fit In Ponds 🐽
A holdover from the original games that doesn't make sense but is still fun to exploit, is the fact you can dump ships in small rivers and ponds. It's an overlooked feature that was present in previous games, is pretty devious and can feel like you're 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:using cheats.
It can be quite handy on maps with a lot of water and rivers as it turns every puddle or stream into a deadly chokepoint stuffed full of warships. Considering how hard the game tries to stick to historical🔜 accuracy, seeing a massive flotilla of boats hanging around in a tiny cramped watering hole creates an odd tonal dissonance that snaps you out of your immersion and feels very video-gamey.
7 The Lack Of Base Defens𝔍e For The Mongols
Each faction in Age Of Empires IV has its own uniq๊ueness to them. From their design to bonuses towarꩵds their economy or faction exclusive units and mechanics. One particularly neat one is the Mongols can pack up their entire base and move it around.
It's a nice historical touch as it fits with their nomadic life, but there is one thing about them that doesn't make a lot of sense: They can't build walls. Whilst fortifications would go against their nomadic style, in online multiplayer, it makes picking them a death sentence since you have no defense against a big rush to your base. It keeps you constantly on the defensive and it just makes a lot of matches much more stressful.
6 ꧙ The Daily Tasks Being Tied To Mu🐼ltiplayer
A new feature that was intro🎶duced in Age Of Empires IV was daily tasks. These simple quests refresh regularly and completing them nets you a tasty XP bump that can help you level up your profile, which in turn unlocks more videos to watch and emblems to use in your banner.
They're pretty simple and range from things like winning matches to researching certain things or training up a set number of soldiers. Why it made this list is that the majority of these missions involve multiplayer and it's a little baffling as to why. Online multiplayer isn't for everyone and it does help as an incentive to play with other people, but tying rewards to something that depends on a game's servers being full or even up and running isn't the best of decisions. If servers are empty or down it becomes a redundant feature, so its presence is certainly a head-scratcher. Perhaps the devs hard push on multiplayer is an attempt to join the esports scene, we'll just have to wait and see.
5 🐓 The New Sheep Meta ꦏ
Sheep in Age Of Empires are supposed to be a source of food for your town, but what everyone always ends up using them for is spying. Sheep cost nothing, don't trigger aggro, have a pretty long sight range, and are now oddly difficult to counter.
In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:previous Age Of Empires games, sending a friendly unit near them would instantly claim them for your faction, but now that doesn't happen. Instead, you need to either build a mill next to them in order to gather them to your side or send a scout chasing after them to shepherd them back to your base. It's an odd choice that makes enemy spy sheep more annoying to deal with as you need to chase them down and hope your Mill is built fast enough before they wander off too far.
4 The Friendly AI's Lack Of Personal Space
The friendly AI in Age Of Empires IV, especiallyꦰ on skirmishes, is quite the active neighbor. You will regularly s🦄ee a random villager, scout, or soldier just wandering around your base and it can get a little annoying at times.
It's a holdover from previous games and whilst it can be helpful having some extra hands hanging around if you come under attack, quite often they'll act as passive observers. Or worse, they'll accidentally open your gates to enemy soldiers or set up shop and start siphoning off your resources. It doesn't make a ton of sense as to why they do this, but you can just lock your gates to keep them out if they become too problematic.
3 Siege Equipment Can't Destroy Trees Anymore
A fun feature that was present in past Age Of Empires games was the ability to deforest larཧge areas with catapult and cannon bombardment. It was a subtle design c🐽hoice that added some weight to your siege weaponry and it could be used to carve paths through forests to launch ambushes on enemy forces.
Its removal is an odd choice, and whilst it does adhere more to the game's approach to historical accuracy it sucks the fun out of the series a tad and takes the weight out of your cannon blasts. Plus, there's a new ambush feature that lets units hide behind trees, and being able to blast apart their cover would have been a fun tactical advantage. it's a minor nitpick, but once you notice it's hard to ignore.
2 💜 Being Able To See Outlines Through The Fog ༺
One thing this games community is great at doing is finding oddities and exploits. One of the weirder ones to crop up is that you can spy on enemy outposts using the building mode. It's a sneaky exploit that can help you gauge the scale of an enemy encampment without running the risk of being spotted.
To use it, just find a villager and use their build command. This will bring up the game's new grid system and if you look near a hostile base you'll see dark squares. These spots denote structures and it's supposed to be a mechanic that stops you from building on these spots, but instead, it turns into a simple way to spot fortifications at a distance. Plus it can help you avoid any ranged defenses they may have.
1 ꧋ ও The Wall Griefing
To round things off, one particular bugbear that really doesn't fit in with AOE IV is the griefing that can be done with walls. It was present in past games, but once again it raises its ugly head here.
For those not familiar with this loathsome practice, it basically involves trolling allies in online matches by surrounding their Town Centre with walls. Friendly walls can't be destroyed and if they get all your villagers in there at the same time you're trapped. With no way to escape, it can ruin a lot of matches and leave people, especially 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:new players less eager to play online with other people. Minor improvements to this could involve limitations on building within friendly bases or putting in an option that lets you build gates into allied walls. It's a prominent problem that needs fixing badly, but whether that happens remains to be seen.