TL;DR - I'm a semi-serious SC2 player and have been enjoying AOEO. I don't have a lot of time to play games (new parent) and am trying to focus on one. Thoughts?
EDIT - I'm adding a dimension to my question. Has anyone else switched to AOEO from SC2, and if so what are your reasons?
Hello AOEO community! I'm glad to be a member. To start, I'd like to say that this post has nothing to do with paying for the game. I've already bought the premium civ, and am OK with the pricing structure. Let's try to set that feud aside, shall we?
This is a personal question from me to the AOEO community. If you don't care about my situation (and I don't expect you to) please don't feel the need to respond.
Now, with that out of the way, here's my situation: I'm a semi-serious player of SC2. I'm in the Gold league, which means I'm roughly in the 50th percentile of SC2 players. So, not too great. Those that know SC2 would say that Gold is pretty pedestrian. You aren't really taken seriously at SC2 unless you're at least Diamond league (2 above Gold). So I'm committed, but not great.
Now, I always loved Age of Empires, and upon giving AOEO a try, I've been very impressed. I keep looking for a good MMORTS, and this certainly is one. It's very well thought out (imho, feel free to disagree, that's not the point of my post) and I'm interested in contributing to the competitive scene (at some level).
But I've found myself in a quandry. SC2 is probably the defining RTS of the genre and has a large community. Plus, there are tournaments, etc etc.
I guess ultimately what I"m getting at is this: I like both AOEO and SC2, but I only have about 8-12 hours a week to game. That's not a whole lot of time, especially if I want to do decent competitively. I know I'll never be great, but it's getting to be a struggle trying to learn and master 2 games.
I'm just trying to decide which to focus on in my limited gaming time.
Thanks in advance.
|||I would wait until skirmish hall to make your decision....|||Out of curiosity, why do you say that?|||
I have played most RTS games and played a lot of SC2
I prefer this purely because of their are no flying units.
The only problem with this is that all are not equal, even if you are all the same level, it doesn't mean equal.
So you may be a better player slightly than player A, but he has better advisors and gear which may swing the battle in his favour, which will be frustrating.
I think if they ever do a vanilla PVP pack where all are equal then this will be the game to stick with.
very limited, almost non existent because you need lvl 40 to be
competitive plus need top gear to be on same level with better players|||
Thanks tf Mastermind, that makes sense.
If I can, I'm going to change my question slightly: has anyone else here switched from SC2, and what are your reasons?
Thanks again.
|||I switched from Dota to this if that helps :D. This just seems to suite my lifestyle little more. Dota (defense of the ancients) = too intense, requires at least 45-60 minutes/game and a lot of practice to stay at competitive level, and not to mention crazy addicting lol. This seems to be easier to time manage, very casual and relaxing plus brings back nice memories from AoE and Aok back.|||
Yeah, I guess that's part of why I'm considering making the jump too. With SC2, you have to work pretty hard to keep up with the metagame, keep your APM up etc, and there's not much to do aside from PvP (I mean there's custom games and a lot of user-generated content, but most to all of it I wouldn't count as a part of the "core game experience")
In AoEO, I can hop on, and just have fun. And while I'm having fun, it's ultimately improving my PvP experience by giving me better units, items, "god powers" (consumables)etc. That's why I'm a fan of the MMORTS concept, I guess. It's an RTS with more... casual elements? Less stressful gameplay elements? And itworks to keep the player interested: gear crafting, home city upgrading, fiddling with your tech tree buildout... I"m sure there's more.
I am hoping that AoEO gets a true competitive scene though. Big tournaments for real money, clan wars, YouTube casting (there is I Love Age of Empires Online on YouTube at the moment) - that sort of thing really generates interest and loyalty in a game community.
|||SC2 may be more polished at the moment but i think AoEo may come out being my favorite.|||Councilor, I'm very interested in hearing your reasons.|||APM is my biggest issue :)
AoEO I can just sit down with the laptop on my knees and use touch pad to play!
Hey bud welcome to the community. I'm going to post purely based on my experience as a competitive (RTS) gamer and my reasons for sticking with AoE:O for at least another while. :) I haven't switched from SC2 directly, but I've played a lot of RTS games in my gaming history and I've also played a few on the highest competitive level.
Anyways, I'm personally loving AoE:O just now, it has all the features I want and more. From a RTS players' perspective, you can definitely expect some competition here, because AoE:O has all the original AoE gameplay and more. AoE has all the qualities of a competitive RTS to begin with (map awareness/control, build/tech order and the skill curve herein incl. villagers etc, macro and micro (probably equal to SC2 if not more), scouting, countering, etcetera. That alone is enough for me to try (and buy) the game.
In addition to this, which so far has been a regular competitive RTS, there's gearing/crafting/trading/questing/lvling. In so many MMO's people are crying because of repetitive quests, this game offers a better questing system with more variety than any other game. In big titles/releases I constantly see people on forums, crying about the lack of variety in quests, and all that stuff. This game has 12-hour repeatables, 6-day repeatables, challenge quests, micro quests (ones where you dont build a village but actually have to micro only a few units to completion). The repeatables are worth it as well, because the mats you get from them you can sell for a nice amount since people are always building their city. That + they give good EXP and rewards. I think this is a very very strong plus for AoE:O. Few games beat this from my experience. But it also depends on how you see this lvling stage yourself. You will have to repeat a few quests multiple times to reach the cap somewhere from 37+, but that shouldn't be a problem because they are the same each time, meaning you can only get better from doing the build each time. Plus rewards which you will get faster and faster as you do them.
I also like the crafting and gearing system alot, you can gear up and play whatever play style you see fit, and you can change this if you're playing against someone you know well, to try and surprise/adapt/counter etc whenever you want.
Lastly, city building, who doens't love that :P
So to summarize, I think AoE:O holds alot of unique qualities. Not only have they combined RTS with MMO brilliantly IMO, they have also kept the original AoE gameplay pretty solid. The game has been released early according to some, but I think the current issues in the game are easily fixable and I think other games have left a few of these important features un-finished or very flawed on launch. AoE:O doesn't have that IMO, and despite a few minor things (buggy and lacking chat system being the biggest for me), the game is amazing.
That said, it's up to you to decide. I have dropped some games that I've been playing on and off for AoE:O, because I have a very very competitive mindset and this can be very frustrating at times, but for AoE:O that's different because I'm actually genuinly enjoying the game, alot, and that's rare for me in games that offer competition end-game.
Just my 2 cents :D
EDIT: O_______O I just saw my post. Oh well!
Did DoTA require a lot of APM to play? I've done a little bit of League of Legends, it doesn't appear to need a lot.
Back before my son was born, I played around 2-3 hours a day and my APM was around 90. Now, I'm lucky to get 1 hr a day, and my APM is hovering around 65.
Plus, I feel kind of sneaky, bringing my SC2 skills and mindset into competitive AoEO. Is it just me, or does nobody harrass (granted: played 1 online match in AoEO, and have watched all of 2 on YouTube)?
|||Hello friend i am teezeee/greatMista from sc2 a semi pro protoss player from greece (semi pro because i actually made money from sc2 not much but arround 3000-3500 euro over the last 10 months.
I have switched here because i never was into sc2 its boring and a game ment to be played by machines a game wich u have to do smth 30 times per day to perfect it.Aoeo is smth different adapting/thinking is the a strong factor on how good you are gonne be in this game.catch me up online gamertag:Themistaa
|||Sanctum,
Thanks! This is really encouraging! This mirrors quite nicely how I feel about AoEO myself.
And don't feel bad about the post. I tend to be a little long-winded on forums myself, and never mind reading a well-written opinion, especially in answer to a question I asked.
Plus, I am *just* old enough to remember when 4 paragraphs or so was considered standard fare either online or offline.
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