Age of Strategy Forums

Ive been spreading AoS and its variants all over the internet by means of telling online friends about this and teaching.

One big problem about AoS and other variants is that it looks plain at first then over time it gets confussing to the point that about more than 50% of the people I made to test AoS have decided to give up. And now I only got 1 person left commited enough to play and understand the game. I think I had like 40+ people in this test.

The player that got left said he took the game for granted and decided to study it. As of now im teaching him stuff and he said hes starting to get addicted so thats cool.


I know we all know that Ao games are very confussing specially for new players. It took me about 4-6+ installs of this game cause I always didnt understood and gave up
-_-|| yeah sooooo

I just want us to talk about the fact and maybe find a way like make even more tutorials and stuff or some kind of more descriptions so they can understand each aspect of the game and maybe finally arrange the shop.

This isnt a post for a change I want this is more of a Hey we really have to talk about this and stuff and I did some tests so look at this info. Ty thats all.

thanks for telling me!

please try to list the key points that are confusing for new ones, what needs changing, or more easyx to learn.
would be awesome if you could query some of the 39 who left the game - what was the reason - thanks!

thanks!

Sure, Ill try to post it sometime this week, just have to pile up my info

I did the testing for about 5months or longer so alotta people in my tests, I dont have contacts with them anymore(personal reasons) but all of their feedback are all the same and the one player that sticked with the game, I got to interview him and this is what he said:

"my first opinion on the game was that the instructions were unclear and it seemed lame, now that im really playing it, its very interesting and stratigical hehe but understanding the mechanics like the buttons on the screen and stuff is very confusing imo especially when you're a warfare noob like me.other than that the game itself is actually enjoyable."


To conclude: we really need a more better
"learning experience for new players"


Maybe have a strategy book filled with pictures of tactics and maybe one that u can test the strategy in the strat book kinda similar like a campaign I know I posted smt about this somewhere but idk ill try to right down stuff that new players need to learn oh and maybe add some more tips on the loading screen

Honestly speaking, my first time ao experience was basically i tried different campaign maps or skirmish games with ai for the first 3 months, and after finally unlocking a bunch of units i started the mutliplayer experience

But back then there were no gun powder techs or units, upgrading spearman took 6 turns, catapults were op so just spamming catapults and wagons i could win most of the games, so it was much simpler than it is now, not that i m complaining rather i m very happy with the development, but still if i was a new player who started aos now instead of 3 years ago, then i would also b very confused by the massive contents and playstyles,

Yeah we have so much game mechanics and diff auras and spells and effects that its super confusing

But then again the interface is much better than b4, such as clicking on aura gives detailed description on exactly wat it does

I think for now the first thing is to teach players how to read how an aura works by clicking on them, then there can b a tutorial mission where player has to utilise different terrains, also showing them how to read the speed of a unit in different terrains by clicking the yellow arrow next to speed on stat sheet, all these small helps and tips, also may b telling players they can seek help from forums if a campaign is too difficult to win

I should say that i, pretty old aos llayer, am very confused from current aos specifically. Even 6 months later i still can't find my own play style in aos since there are now way tooooooo many variables for me.

Also i do not like cavalry wagons there.

Cavalry wagon is balancing issue, currently cavalry only use is to find and destroy long ranged siege but cavalry can only reach first if aided by wagon/ transport ship or roads

also because siege towers/ defensive towers, cavalry cant deal with the archers, healers inside, they only good for tanking arrows or first striking weaker targets,

Anyways back to topic, this topic is how to keep new players hooked to aos instead of confusing them on how to play and making them quit

Btw i got a new idea but its kind of long term, completely removing upgrades section, wait there is more making a new upgrades section where all the national buildings and units, each unit and its upgrade techs, similar units and their ability related techs r all grouped together instead of being scattered, i wonder if its possible to refund gems so we can buy them again but properly this time

someone should make yt tutorial about this game
this way people will understand better, btw, the experiences of a veteran could be usefull for some recomendations about how to use each unit or group of units (categories)

Hmm ok...

Yeah I a lil uodate I cant get the rest of their feedback but the ones who did all have the same problem. They couldnt understand the game and some thinks its lame kinda generic. Tbh it was very generic once you started the game but super diverse and complex once u got so much upgrades. So ig a proper upgrade store is needed to let them see what theyre really diving into and all of the diversity theyll find. Thats all for now ty

Me, been 2.5+ years, with AoS, ~ 1 yr at AoF and a retirement after a few months from AoWW(my mind is still not fully compatible with it yet).
Considering AoS ,The .5 entirely over campaigns. Imho, the game was so bugged and crashing along with confusions then. The later effect description was a fortune chest in my case, else, my passion won't be there. So, the possibility of liking this game is far better now. And

godOfKings wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 5:50 pm But then again the interface is much better than b4, such as clicking on aura gives detailed description on exactly wat it does

I think for now the first thing is to teach players how to read how an aura works by clicking on them, then there can b a tutorial mission where player has to utilise different terrains, also showing them how to read the speed of a unit in different terrains by clicking the yellow arrow next to speed on stat sheet, all these small helps and tips, also may b telling players they can seek help from forums if a campaign is too difficult to win

i totally agree with this.


And my suggestion- how about making a training arena offline, to learn about all units through different procedures, like a 1 to 1 combat style or even a n to 1 with the main focus on the weekness and advantage of each units. (Could take time, a lot of it)

Also, the rework of the upgrade tree, i have been suggesting it since the beginning days of my forums.

Some detailed @spoiler for each stat type like miss*speed, dodge, mental resistance that would be confusing for players at beginning.

A detailed concept of factions and races ( the modification of tree here also).

Revalue the difficulty of campaigns, that should value over individual maps than the campaign itself.

The MP chats is already friendly, but getting a bigger deal is good( like the basic blacklist, the several unicode char , punctuation to get expressions etc). I had convinced 19 of my colleagues to join AoS, like from age 20-38 , and only three staying now over this reason).

New players tent to skip and kick others in a try to gain easy bet, while hurting the opposing player' passion. Anything to do with that(except the automatic skip daniel suggested before, i don't even want that in the perimeter).

Speeding up the new ee units development, getting back the tournaments (have very little idea about that, but sounds interesting imo), detailed guide [link@forums/guides/$].

Thats all i can come up with. TY if you showed patience to read all this long script .

How about we have some kind of map for whats new in Version smt smt

So they can test out the new units/techs/changes

Itll be known as the update maps

Itll help so the players can understand the use of the new units and understand the balance changes and stuff and so we could explain how to use some of the complex stuff in the upcoming updates like ability use and stuff

It will be problematic for devs specifically to make such maps.
We already have lots of work with development and in real life. Personally i for example do not have many time to make maps with "what's new in aof". Especially because i need to work on other maps i have.

Alas it is fine for players who can test dev version to make such maps.

we should probably make a fandom wiki since this game has alot of mechanics . units and stuff. this is the best way to learn them cuz the in-game help is not even completed (IDK what the [REDACTED] does lightning weapon do)

APOKALIPTRIX wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 10:06 pm we should probably make a fandom wiki since this game has alot of mechanics . units and stuff. this is the best way to learn them cuz the in-game help is not even completed (IDK what the [REDACTED] does lightning weapon do)

We already have one, but it hasn't been updated in years. I wouldn't be surprised if there was vines growing on it by now.

And cobwebs, when i last visited.🕸🕸

the damn thing hasnt benn updated since 2017!
maybe we can expand it, lets start with the units list.

I guess you can try.

i can start right away
if someone could please send me all the units textures (i am not in the mood for apk editing)

or maybe we should make a wiki apk?
IDK wich sounds better

Revamping the wiki, and modifying it after certain updates, along with update notes and patches might be the best . I can also lend a hand in it. Btw, i noticed it has the carrot cup 2017 ongoing . And i think i noticed the absence of an admin.

why dont we beter delete the old one and start a new one?
its VERY outdated.

APOKALIPTRIX wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 8:17 am why dont we beter delete the old one and start a new one?
its VERY outdated.

Yeah lol. Very Very Outdated. I did some modifying earlier to some outdated stats and descriptions but eventually gave up. You can ask Stratego if you want to make a new one. I think that site is going to be confusing for new players, would probably be wise to change it.

what do you think @Stratego (dev) ?

i think a Wiki will be always outdated as we change things almost daily.
the good way to make all things available in the in-game help page of the unit.

but wait what infomation u talking about? unit level? or something general description?
(the first should go to unit help/statsheet, the other to the general help)

so please tell me examples what information we should putin that is not in currently.

I m also confused, if players r too dumb to check units from the help section, how can they b smart enough to find wiki and search for units there?

there are many units and techs without description.
and some of the effects and spells too
like thunder weapon (what the hell does it even do?)

You can ask Dev for you to make descriptions and texts for AoF @APOKALIPTRIX.