To give some context, after not playing the game for about 15 years. I decided to redownload age of mythology and play a Conqueror "Sudden Death" map(My favorite map in the game).
Odin vs Poseidon 1vs1 AI hard difficulty game to relive a childhood nostalgia of the game only to be disappointed that the game still has same problems it always had. The match took 4 hours to beat. (I was testing Odin changes)
In my opinion, the generic problem in this game is that there is no way to push a "Real Military Lead" and convert it into a win naturally. The game relies too much on Titans to be game enders and Wonders which ruins satisfaction of winning in the game.
Even when having 10 towers, 5 forts in front of AI base, 10 barracks constantly spamming units (Often hard counter units), it was very hard to beat the AI who just spams random units from barracks, archery ranges defending the base.
Here are 5 outline problems to why this is the case
1) Unit deployment is not sharp enough. Units that say they hard counter X type of unit are not good enough to counter X unit.
In the late game, It is too easy just spam generic armies of like 10 range unit, 10 soldiers, 2 myth units, 2 siege and come out even. There lack of consequence for making the right decisions.
You test this out, Put 10 norse axeman, 10 axeman calvery(Huskarl), 2 Einherjar vs 10 toxotes, 10 Hippikon, 2 centaurs vs AI. The fight will be very close even despite fact that 10 axeman should kill 10 Hippikons infantry units quickly and 10 huskarl should beat 10 toxotes in the end game.
2) Minor gods are not balanced correctly. Take Odin's gods for example. Why would anyone take Freyja over Heimdal when Odin's passive heals units out of combat. The same can be said for Skadi vs Njord, Skati has 3 useful techs+good myth unit where as Njord only has kraken for water maps. Baldr has arguably only useful myth unit for Norse in the Fire giant where Tyr is only good for his godpower. Over-time benefits of always having Fire giant is usually better than burst power if you can survive.
In my opinion, All minor gods should be worth getting and they should have inherent trade offs. I.E 1 minor god is good for godpower impact vs 1 is good for outstanding myth unit+Military tech etc.
3) Myth units & Siege are not impactful enough. Some myth units are good, others are worthless. They get too hardcountered by heroes even though they're only unit that is unique. What's the point of using myth units if they are not rewarding to use compare to normal army units in most cases. Siege units are not strong enough to siege while an army is distracted. Just compare siege in Age of myth vs Age of empire 3 impact.
Myth units should feel good to use & Siege should siege buildings quickly. It would help push leads in destroying barracks that spam units when your the attacker.
4) God powers are too limited in usage. The fact that many of them are trash is another matter altogether, but even when god a power is strong, you do not get enough times impact the game with it. For example, Baldr's final god power is Ragnarok, It turns all villagers into warrior hero units. For a final god power, its impact is very niche and even if this power could be used indefinite amount of times. it would not be a great godpower.
Godpowers would be more interesting if each god power had static cooldown(Short ones for weak ones, long ones for strong) rather than their 1 time use. e.g 5 minutes for Raknerok, 15 minutes for Great Flood etc. It would add a layer of "Wow cool moments". It would add a layer of decision making to Minor gods.
An Idea: What if all faction had unique way to restore a godpower.
Greek - Pay 100 favor for 1 god power
Egypt - Monuments restore God powers over-time very slowly
Norse - Heroes killing myth units restore god powers slowly.
China - Shrine can restore god powers slowly
Atlantian - Relics in temples restore god powers slowly(?)
5) Population cap is too tight. Considering that you want 10 villagers on food, 10 on wood, 5 on coin, 10 cattle's or more on market place, you can clearly see how half of population is used up on economy before even considering military. Let people modify population cap like in age of empire 2 or raise natural pop cap to accommodate economy.
I found it very amusing that having an AI attack me the entire game that eventually bugs out and stop attacking me ends up being able to just mindless spam units in city where it became nearly impossible to siege was a very amusing experience, but what it shows is that the game can only be won economically(Ai cheats economy) and not military through smart-play which takes a lot of skill out of the game. Just my opinion for why AOE2 and AOE3 are better games than Age of Myth. This game holds great potential to be very good RTS game but it just falls short from potentially being the best RTS game even surpassing AOE2.
I know next update patch is June and this post will be buried by that time, but I would like developers to read this post and remember it.
Thank you.
Odin vs Poseidon 1vs1 AI hard difficulty game to relive a childhood nostalgia of the game only to be disappointed that the game still has same problems it always had. The match took 4 hours to beat. (I was testing Odin changes)
In my opinion, the generic problem in this game is that there is no way to push a "Real Military Lead" and convert it into a win naturally. The game relies too much on Titans to be game enders and Wonders which ruins satisfaction of winning in the game.
Even when having 10 towers, 5 forts in front of AI base, 10 barracks constantly spamming units (Often hard counter units), it was very hard to beat the AI who just spams random units from barracks, archery ranges defending the base.
Here are 5 outline problems to why this is the case
1) Unit deployment is not sharp enough. Units that say they hard counter X type of unit are not good enough to counter X unit.
In the late game, It is too easy just spam generic armies of like 10 range unit, 10 soldiers, 2 myth units, 2 siege and come out even. There lack of consequence for making the right decisions.
You test this out, Put 10 norse axeman, 10 axeman calvery(Huskarl), 2 Einherjar vs 10 toxotes, 10 Hippikon, 2 centaurs vs AI. The fight will be very close even despite fact that 10 axeman should kill 10 Hippikons infantry units quickly and 10 huskarl should beat 10 toxotes in the end game.
2) Minor gods are not balanced correctly. Take Odin's gods for example. Why would anyone take Freyja over Heimdal when Odin's passive heals units out of combat. The same can be said for Skadi vs Njord, Skati has 3 useful techs+good myth unit where as Njord only has kraken for water maps. Baldr has arguably only useful myth unit for Norse in the Fire giant where Tyr is only good for his godpower. Over-time benefits of always having Fire giant is usually better than burst power if you can survive.
In my opinion, All minor gods should be worth getting and they should have inherent trade offs. I.E 1 minor god is good for godpower impact vs 1 is good for outstanding myth unit+Military tech etc.
3) Myth units & Siege are not impactful enough. Some myth units are good, others are worthless. They get too hardcountered by heroes even though they're only unit that is unique. What's the point of using myth units if they are not rewarding to use compare to normal army units in most cases. Siege units are not strong enough to siege while an army is distracted. Just compare siege in Age of myth vs Age of empire 3 impact.
Myth units should feel good to use & Siege should siege buildings quickly. It would help push leads in destroying barracks that spam units when your the attacker.
4) God powers are too limited in usage. The fact that many of them are trash is another matter altogether, but even when god a power is strong, you do not get enough times impact the game with it. For example, Baldr's final god power is Ragnarok, It turns all villagers into warrior hero units. For a final god power, its impact is very niche and even if this power could be used indefinite amount of times. it would not be a great godpower.
Godpowers would be more interesting if each god power had static cooldown(Short ones for weak ones, long ones for strong) rather than their 1 time use. e.g 5 minutes for Raknerok, 15 minutes for Great Flood etc. It would add a layer of "Wow cool moments". It would add a layer of decision making to Minor gods.
An Idea: What if all faction had unique way to restore a godpower.
Greek - Pay 100 favor for 1 god power
Egypt - Monuments restore God powers over-time very slowly
Norse - Heroes killing myth units restore god powers slowly.
China - Shrine can restore god powers slowly
Atlantian - Relics in temples restore god powers slowly(?)
5) Population cap is too tight. Considering that you want 10 villagers on food, 10 on wood, 5 on coin, 10 cattle's or more on market place, you can clearly see how half of population is used up on economy before even considering military. Let people modify population cap like in age of empire 2 or raise natural pop cap to accommodate economy.
I found it very amusing that having an AI attack me the entire game that eventually bugs out and stop attacking me ends up being able to just mindless spam units in city where it became nearly impossible to siege was a very amusing experience, but what it shows is that the game can only be won economically(Ai cheats economy) and not military through smart-play which takes a lot of skill out of the game. Just my opinion for why AOE2 and AOE3 are better games than Age of Myth. This game holds great potential to be very good RTS game but it just falls short from potentially being the best RTS game even surpassing AOE2.
I know next update patch is June and this post will be buried by that time, but I would like developers to read this post and remember it.
Thank you.