Deicide4u

The game is complicated enough as is. Let's just keep it simple, people. Improve what we can, but let's not add feature bloat. EDIT: For context, if we implement both of these, then that will break a lot of existing stuff, mainly involving the AI. And now you need to fix things that were working fine for decades.

Few players do it. I don't bother with anything more than a couple of fields and some towers. Maybe a Temple and a Fortress if it's a forward CC. You can remind yourself by watching a couple of Rise of Nations gameplay videos on Youtube.

Carthaginians bring wealth and prosperity to Kush. Played against a Hard Petra on Marmara map. Cart_VS_Kush_H.zip

Because even players aren't building "cities" around their new CCs. And because this is not a City-building game, but a conquest one. Rise of Nations had an interesting mechanic of forcing players to build up their other bases (literal Cities) in order to progress their economy.

Roman legions drive back German tribes from their lands? Or, are they occupying their lands? Nevermind, doesn't matter. Rome_VS_Germ.zip

Click on the "Barter" icon on the top right. Play "Best for MP" Random map types with Anatolian/Fall/Temperate biomes. Those biomes usually have enough wood. I do agree that the early game is heavily dependent on wood.

Yeah, not to mention the batch training, which also increases the total training time to equal or more than "3x the speed of training" in SC II per batch. Or, you can change the setting in the Options and never be bothered about it again. Oh, and you can also disable the match-setting tips, so you aren't annoyed by that "Medium AI is too hard for beginners" message. Again, the "Normal" AI in AoE2 will destroy any new AoE 2 player, regardless of his/her experience with RTS.

One of my favorite old games. It's a diamond in a rough and one of the reasons why I'm so interested in ancient Rome. My retro mod Imperia Vetera is heavily inspired by that game. Ah, I agree. My reasoning is that Petra had sufficient units to destroy you in that 1v3, but terrible grouping logic (formations!) and major lack of unit upgrades is what caused it to throw that game.

@Thalatta One of the posts from the topic you've shared summs it up perfectly. "Progression systems and other stuff that don’t belong in RTS games is what kills them. After the golden age of RTS games they started to over-complicate the formula by adding all kinds of stuff in an effort to further bring innovation just for the sake of it. When they realized RTS games became too complicated for people to bother, they started simplifying them by removing things that were good, instead of the things that were superfluous. For example, removing base building, many of the units, maps and game modes, but keeping the progression systems. So now not only you can’t just jump into an RTS to build a nice base and use all the stuff in the game, but you have to grind over time in some progression system to be able to use everything which is already scarce as a whole." Most of the RTS players are veterans of older titles. As people get older, they have little time to adapt to new complex features, and prefer playing something they already know. New RTS games are no longer simple build->expand->conquer games of old.

Release April 19th, 2026: - All melee units now deal only hack damage. - Fixed a major balance issue with ranged infantry CS units having too many hit points, often inconsistent with their rank. Now, all ranged infantry CS have 55/65/75 HP, depending on rank. - Elite spear cavalry and cavalry spear champions now have very high pierce armor, being heavily armored ranged unit counter. Likewise, infantry spear champions, infantry champion pikemen and elite spearmen also have greater pierce armor, due to them having heavy armor and large shields. Spear champions now also deal less damage. - Defense towers, ranged units and Fortresses now deal less pierce damage. - Siege Rams now have more hack armor, to compensate for the fact that spear-wielding units now deal more hack damage. - Traders now generate less profit and are more expensive. The above changes are meant to finish the balancing portion of the mod. New features are increasingly harder to implement, due to many of them needing the underlying engine rebuilds. For the time being, this will be a final release of this mod. Have fun playing!

Extremely aggressive, attacks in force and frequently, ages up as fast as an experienced player would. I know that I found it much, much more difficult that Easy at the time. I heard that The Conquerors expansion made it even stronger.

@Thalatta, while I somewhat agree with you, the truth is that the AI has some serious flaws, and games against it start to feel samey after a while. Case in point is the 1v3 game that @ittihat_ve_terakki has shared. The AI is just plain stupid, doesn't upgrade its units and wastes them frequently on useless attacks. Only after reaching the City phase, the attacks start to become huge. Any experienced RTS player that sticks with the game for a couple of weeks will be able to crush Medium Petra.

@Asher Carthage has embassies because it's historically relied on foreign troops and technology to wage war (much like Saudi Arabia and UAE are doing today).

There isn't anything wrong with the AI difficulty names, and most other RTS games are using this nomenclature. Professional? So, you can become a professional in 0 A.D.? Professional is a person who has a profession. And Easy is way too easy for an intermediate player.

I remember the "Medium" Age of Kings AI. Let's just say that it wasn't medium at all, more of a "git gud" test of your skills. I see our "Medium" AI in the same light.