Age of Empires 2: A Guided Tour

[@JimmyMcG33]

The Age of Empires 2 extreme AI is smarter than ChatGPT. I missed a couple video credits: StarCraft tournament game: "StarCraft 1: GAME 3! - Artosis vs StRyKeR | StarCon 2023", 2023 by ArtosisCasts Monk-siege push on hideout: "The Saracens Smush is back!", 2023 by TheViper on YT (twitch.tv/theviper) Persian douche: "I got Douched by Yo", 2023 by TheViper

[@Mydtys]

Chatgpt is based on it

[@willworkforfood7028]

In recent patches they even trash talk you.

[@DroCaMk3]

I'm gonna trust you here and try to get the AoE2 extreme AI to write my PhD thesis.

[@helpgirlimhavingalifecrisis]

@@willworkforfood7028chatgpt seriously trash talked this guy?

[@willworkforfood7028]

@@helpgirlimhavingalifecrisis I mean the AoE 2 AI will trash talk you.

[@LeonMassey]

Glad to know I'm not the only psychopath who got into AoE2 in recent years without much attachment to the franchise or genre prior. I'm also on team pikmin is the only good one

[@Werevixen]

Hearing "AoE2's pathfinder is fantastic" is a little funny, since it used to be a lot better than it currently is. I guess its competition was just way, way behind in that regard. EDIT: Oop, this was addressed later in the video.

[@lazzlepops]

The library description is spot on. The feel of those DK cross-section books showing changing, developing history. The unit pathing and formations still feels leagues ahead even today.

[@Slaanash]

There's some really interesting stuff going on with why StarCraft Brood War's pathfinding is so bad. In brief, the two biggest points are that it was originally made for a different camera perspective, the same one WarCraft 2 had. They wanted to stylize it after the "WarCraft in space" flack they got, so everything in Brood War is slightly off because the actual collision of a lot of terrain (most notable on staircases, ramps and bridges) doesn't match up to what the player sees. The other one is related to walk cycles. The animations for units like the Zergling, Goliath and Dragoon have the unit changing size as they move through the frames of animation, which confuses the game because sometimes they can fit through spaces, and sometimes not. This is less of an issue for the Zergling after it gets it's speed upgrade since the cycle happens so fast at that point, but no such luck for the the Goliath and Dragoon. These days, they could have fixed it when doing the remastered HD version of Brood War, but that would have created a lot of knock-on effects that aren't so easily solved. The Dragoon is absolutely awful at pathing, but it has so much HP, range and damage that it's usable even for unskilled players through brute force; In the hands of a skilled player, they're monsters. If they were easy to control on top of that, then they'd be completely overpowered.

[@skitidet4302]

I wouldn't call the BW pathing bad. Yes, if you gauge the pathing based on how good the pathing is at moving all your army from point A to point B, it's bad, but it's much more helpful to quantify how good the pathing is based on what type of gameplay it produces. Personally I think the larger collision sizes and the awkward pathing of BW is ideal because body-blocking is a real exiting feature in the early game and in the late game it disincentives death blobs enough to make the late game real exiting with lots of smaller skirmishes around the map. I find SC2 pathing horrible because watching two blobs smash in to each other is terribly anti-climactic, especially when it takes just a few seconds compared to the much more drawn out BW fights. AoE is just weird and I don't know enough about how it plays out on higher levels to judge it, I just think the units moving in formations makes micro real awkward and non intuitive.

[@tomekk.1889]

​@@skitidet4302I don't understand this comment. Do you think the gameplay is better with broken pathing?

[@skitidet4302]

@@tomekk.1889 It's not broken, just a bit simple, but yes, the "bad" pathing is actually one of the main things that makes BW superior to SC2.

[@tomekk.1889]

@@skitidet4302 That's a wild take

[@skitidet4302]

@@tomekk.1889 Not really. History has proven me correct as tons of both players and spectators ditched sc2 and went back to BW.

[@memesrdreams4854]

This game along with Age of Empires 1 and its expansion were some of the formative games of my childhood. I'd either watch my dad play them or try them myself under his watchful eye. Even now he still plays AoE2, and is a significant way towards 100%ing it. I still reference a few of the classic jokes and memes with my friends, too. Of course, I'm still bad at the game itself, but that's ok.

[@יוגבמיצנגנדלר]

This is one of the only channels worth listening to on YT. Even though Jimmy's videos are almost always more than 1 hour long, they stay consistently informative and engaging.

[@sockfactory]

34:22 quick text on screen "In feudal you're transitioning from natural food to farms, so any wood you spend on things other than farms is going to slow down that transition. Archers do enough damage to justify their cost, and scouts have a high food cost but are cheap-ish since you can seed more farms behind a scout play."

[@ar1sm70]

There's something special about this game that keeps people coming back and even those who don't view it with nostalgia. Whether it's the simple but crisp aesthetics, the intuitive medieval units, the history grounded civilizations, the amount of campaigns, the random map element that keeps games always fresh, the scenario editor, fact remains that AoE2 feels like a comfortable pair of slippers. You can play other things, but it's always there to jump into and have some fun!

[@MathewWithOne_T]

I like hearing you talk about pathfinding AI and seeing that example of the ship try to find a new way to get to it's destination. I'm playing BG2 right now and sometimes I just can't fathom what my party members are thinking as they're moving. At times I'll just watch them walk into each-other for 30 seconds straight while trying to get into position

[@NoMoreCrumbs]

AoE2 is excellent in teaching players that mistakes don't have to be game-ending. Many RTS are immensely punishing for even small misclicks, but AoE2 runs slowly enough that you can often correct such mistakes before getting hammered for them

[@be_that_as_it_may]

Oh WOW. A few months ago, I subscribed to you because of your excellent series that showed the growth of the games industry through the lens of the growth of the gambling industry. And the next video you've released is focused on the segment of the video games community that I am a part of. Looking forward to watching this when I get a break from the family this Christmas! I'm way more involved in the AOE4 community, but AOE2 and its community holds a very special place in my heart.

[@tigergaj]

Honestly, I'm just happy to see that someone is playing more of the new game, seems as though they broke the curse lol

[@Honeycreepin]

This channel is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I can listen to this guy talk about anything.

[@AdWipe]

Best video essayist + best RTS known to man :D Made my day babe

[@gilbertcarter2375]

This is the only RTS I’ve ever played and the game crushed me so hard I haven’t touched another one since

[@tigergaj]

I recommend this video if you'd like to learn more about RTS games, they're alien at first, but extremely satisfying :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJ2XnqyEbdaSga8

[@venkat8928]

Give it another go. Starting with campaigns. It’s ton of fun in a small yet detailed package

[@plamclam3853]

GOAT game. I have seen so many youtubers use the soundtracks from aoe2 but never actually one that acknowledges the game. Great see a perspective on aoe2 from a channel not actively invovled with the community.

[@AgeofPathing]

10:28 Say that again, but slowly. Edit: Finished watching, thanks for addressing that - and the feature at 43:10

[@Felix_EN]

A whole channel dedicated to pathfinding, hmmmmm

[@Spunney]

59:27 Final Destination in Smash (especially Melee, where I have experience) is actually a very polarizing stage and is currently the only counter-pick stage in most Melee tournaments (only available to pick after game 1 and cannot be started on). This is all due to it's complete lack of platforms, an arguably integral game mechanic. A better comparison would've been something like Battlefield which is very neutral to most playstyles and characters, but tends to push most matches towards aggression. Something similar in AOE2 to Smash's Final Destination would probably be something like islands.

[@kynlem]

i’m not very far into the video yet, but the learning process you describe, and especially the concept of “unfolding”, reminds me of learning fighting games. at first you might not understand which buttons to push, but once you understand what a move is used for you can start theorizing about all the different ways you can apply it in a match, or even how your opponent might respond. the same goes for finding which of your moves combo or link into one another. i think it spirals outward in a similar way to what you described with RTS. one discovery flows into the next. (thanks for the video! hope you’re doing well.)

[@onlyinsomniac]

The AoE2 soundtrack and effects trigger some deep, primal response in the back of my brain 😂 Mmm, feels like getting wrecked by the Mongols as an 8-year-old kid.

[@CptManboobs]

I actually really hate how hard CIV forces the UN World congress stuff. There should be a North Korea Option where you just don't see the institution as legitimate and ignore all the resolutions they pass.

[@tomekk.1889]

How is UN bad?

[@CptManboobs]

@@tomekk.1889 are you asking about the Irl United Nations or the version that exists in CIV VI?

[@dojelnotmyrealname4018]

@@tomekk.1889 Did he say it was?

[@tomekk.1889]

@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 I misread

[@fenceil]

I personally cant find any enjoyment in pvp 1v1s, but its interesting to hear why someone would. Id picked AoE back up after watching this, though, and have been enjoying more of the singleplayer.

[@xdelbarrio]

New jimmy mcgee video lets fucking go

[@vfanon]

It’s honestly weird to hear a video about AoE2 that doesn’t start with that same song Spirit of the Law always uses, but that’s just bc he’s my main exposure to the game

[@vfanon]

I have to say it’s very interesting to hear this perspective from someone who’s not a fan of strategy games; personally strategy games have been a huge part of my experience with video games (To the point of getting into games like Dominion 5, or soon to be 6) while specifically I’ve always bounced off RTS games, including AoE2. So it’ll be interesting to get such a different perspective once I watch this tomorrow bc I’m about to pass out

[@willworkforfood7028]

The funny thing is I had the opposite impression of Age of Empires 2. I would think there is simply too many interactions and mechanics to learn for newbies to get into. Perhaps its a matter of the game being easy to pick up but insanely deep if you actually want to properly understand it. I recommend the channels Spirit of the Law and T-west if you want to see how deep that rabbit hole goes. 1:01:00 On the water game. The reason why war galley upgrades other ships is due to the African Kingdoms update. Before that the only military ship you got in feudal age was the galley, the other feudal age ships (demo raft and fire galley) didn't exist, and you automatically got their "upgraded" versions in castle age. Despite what your initial impressions are there is a rock paper scissors in the naval game, fire ships have extra armour and do bonus damage against war galley line, fireships are helpless against demo ships, war galleys have the range to destroy demo ships before they reach their target. Even then this is not a solid rule, a critical mass of ranged war galleys can still beat melee ranged fire ships, demo ships due to their kamikaze nature sort of ignores critical mass effects of war galleys. Before African kingdoms, there was a criticism that since you only got the galleys in feudal age, naval games got too samey with it being decided on galley fights in feudal age, hence the addition of feudal age versions of fire ships and demo ships. Then you get the land and navy interactions.... Fun fact pike men do bonus damage against ships and the scariest unit in land warfare is in the rare cases when demo ships get involved (or if you are playing in mangrove swamps).

[@vfanon]

I was introduced to AoE2 by Spirit of the Law and I have to say it did kind of contribute to keeping me from playing it, because of being overwhelmed by the intricacies and optimizations… But I also come from the turn based or real time with pause genres (a lot of PBEM) where you get a lot more time to think, optimize and plan out moves, so I think that has something to do with being put off by it- too much of an obsession on optimization from being “spoiled” by having ages to think through and calculate a turn or whatever. Very different styles, as much as I’ve always wanted to get into AOE2 it’s always seemed like a big time investment to get past the skill floor, especially since I’m fundamentally interested in multiplayer (I understand the AOE AI is so good it’s more viable to enjoy singleplayer than most strategy games where it’s garbage, but I still prefer playing humans when possible)

[@weirdo3116]

I was not expecting a video on an RTS let alone age of empires on a channel like this. This is the second time this has happened to me lul. The first time was with cloudcuckoocountry. I'm glad. I always wanted more RTS video essays like these.

[@drakep.5857]

Holy shit, it happened to us both!! Cool as hell! I too put my gay furry book reviews in my KZbin salad with creulty squad AI based man

[@freyhebert5947]

The way you describe Age of Empires reminds me of Polytopia, the strategy game I obsess over. It has a lot of differences, (it’s turn based for one) but the soul is similar. If games can have souls. Amazing video!

[@vfanon]

I remember playing this game in school, had no idea it’s stuck around. Neat

[@vfanon]

I remember playing this game in school, had no idea it’s stuck around. Neat

[@NoraNoita]

Great video, in context yeah, Age Of Empires 2's pathfinding is probably one of the best. Long time AoE2 player (vs AI mostly) always love to get more people involved in the game and community, recently bought the game for a friend and been Guiding her via screenshare (to give tips and pointers where to look and what to click mainly) through the William Wallace Campaign, great fun.

[@Enterim]

I'm too stupid for strategy games but I agree that comp TF2 was 100x more compelling to me than comp CS. There's some rigidity in 6v6 TF2 but it still leaves room for gimmick spy plays, sniper plays, suicide plays to get a medic pick, etc.

[@ImpendingRiot83]

There are so many ways to play TF2 not just in weapon choices, but in entire mindsets. I used to main engie as an offensive support. I’d always be looking for opportunities to make teleporters behind enemy lines and occasionally throw up a dispenser for myself and the offense classes and take pot-shots with the shotty in attempts to break stalemates while leaving my sentry to defend our own turf and moving back and forth to keep an eye on it. I started off kind of a proto-scunt because of how much I loved fast characters and kinda kept that mindset with every class I played onward, staying very mobile and being a pain in the ass. The way that game’s designed gives you so much freedom to play with how you use the tools of each class in order to help your team accomplish whatever goal is on the map.

[@T.Sw0gM4nn]

Ive been checking your channel daily for a new video for several months now, been a fan for more than a year your videos are great and i cant wait to watch this on my saturn Merry Christmas!

[@licorice3333]

Excellent as always. I really hope this channel blows up so you can make more of these!

[@SadeN_0]

_What, is a dinosaur?_ _Dinosaurs are big, they're nasty, and they're dead, thank goodness._

[@xaphon89]

I suck at RTS games but always liked AoE2 on a casual level, just playing against easy or moderate AI. I never really thought about why, but this video explains it very well. It's definitely far more intuitive than it's contemporaries. I liked Command & Conquer: Red Alert for its campaign and the fun of steamrolling the AI with a heavy tank rush, but it was a pretty unbalanced RTS overall. Tiberian Sun seemed to try to correct this, but nothing ever felt right (plus the music was nowhere near as good). I definitely had a moment playing it sometime after I played AoE2 where I had completely lost a squad of units, only to find that they had gotten stuck navigating around a cliff and given up. I thought "I can't believe this is still a problem" when I never had to worry about that in AoE2. In AoE2, everything just happens the way you expect it to, and if a raiding party gets ambushed and slaughtered while you were messing with farms, it's entirely your fault for not paying attention and you know it, because they went exactly where you told them.

[@websiteuser7926]

happy to see another video from you, merry christmas jimmy. ive personally never tried to understand RTS games so this one is exciting, seems like a very rich genre

[@tigergaj]

I highly recommend this video if you want to learn, I know over an hour is a big ask, but this video makes a good point; which is that RTS games are very alien to modern gamers and are therefore difficult to pick up. No one game is for everyone and I don't think they should be but age of empires has always been there for me. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJ2XnqyEbdaSga8

[@websiteuser7926]

@@tigergaj i will watch this! in the past week ive been naively trying out AOE4 and its been a nice time, still have yet to give 2 a try but i will eventually

[@TheAsymmetrical]

yes daddy thank you for this christmas miracle

[@The_Brozilla]

I too wish to become a cav archer. I think the biggest thing AoE has going for it is the replayability. The slightly random maps and variations between the civs makes it always feel fresh and rewarding, and even if you don't care about the meta or playing ranked, you can always start up a game as Persians vs the AI and crush them under the weight of war elephants.

[@toninhosoldierhelmet4033]

another master piece, your AI video genuinely is one of the best videos on YT, ngl you are on par with the cohesion and quality of Ahoy but in a budget with fantastic subtle comedy, this is my absolute cup of tea when it comes to youtube videos and makes me laugh internally with umparalled comedic quality

[@jimmyrustles358]

AoE2 is definitely one of the most coziest games you can play. Just feel like making a nice hot chocolate and jumping into it for a few hours. AoE3 meanwhile feels like an acid trip. I can't really believe what I am playing with that game.

[@mikaelsanchez6426]

My dad introduced me to age of empires 2 at 4 years old and I've been constantly playing the game ever since. Like, it genuinely feels like this game is a fundamental part of me, in so many little ways.

[@Nathen58]

merry christmas jimothy

[@humanthursday199]

With your dialogue on difficulty in videogames investing the player, I'd love to see you play or talk about Pathologic (or rather, Pathologic 2) which arguably takes this philosophy farther than any other title, whilst still delivering a rewarding experience.

[@One777oto72ide]

aoe2 is seriously one of the best games of all time and still holds up today.

[@sniddlegrass4101]

A perfect Christmas gift!!

[@casIIsac]

I haven’t felt this way about a channel since MrBtongue. Thanks for your time.

[@DerGraueFuchsss]

5:50 apt description. really nailed the vibe of AOE2

[@ariloulei814]

I'm currently going through the Command & Conquer series and it's funny cause I've only gotten as far as Red Alert but the older games were somehow very readable and they kept fog of war which you criticized. The funny thing is I fiddled with OpenRA (a open source project to improve Red Alert with modern Quality of Life features like AoEII:DE did), and I have to say it impressed me how readable C&C: Red Alert was despite the units being so few pixels and zooming out much farther than any normal RTS would let you. That said I never got good at AoE II despite growing up with it so I'm encouraged now to give it a shot. That and I want to play an RTS with someone but I don't like Starcraft II and am not good enough to fight a small yet highly experienced community on a more niche title. Either that or I finally learn Company of Heroes 2. CoH2 is just non-stop micro and map control which is a very different experience.

[@Hemostat]

If I had a nickel for youtubers randomly making an hour long "You should play AOE2" videos I'd have exactly 2 nickels

[@yannisconstantinides7767]

I haven't played AOE since middle school. I remember playing as the Huns since you don't have to bother with housing. It was a good time casually, I'll come back to this to learn once I get bored of Civ V!

[@scrumpy8192]

A minor gripe I have with one of the best games of all time is the new remastered music. They drop notes from some of the main Melodie’s I remember from my childhood in a way that is total agony to me😂

[@pacer2310]

It's a Christmastide miracle!

[@chinbag]

I never considered caring for RTS games, especially AOE2. I can never immerse myself in a game's story and I always stayed away from less minimalistic ones, so seeing how much of this video described what I was looking for in a game was very surprising. I'm still definitely not playing it for a long time because it would drain too much of my life, but this was quite eye-opening for me

[@StarsAndSticks]

I hate RTS games and I just sat down to an hour+ long inspection of AOE2. That's the mark of a talented creator. Came for Pay to win, staying for everything.

[@5000Seabass]

You truly are a treasure among the long form video game essay bois❤️ If you celebrate it, Merry Christmas my guy

[@hiphyro]

Gonna be honest I don’t care at all about games like this but I still watch because you make them interesting, really good stuff

[@locojake11]

Great video Jimmy! Made me want to play some AoE2 with my Dad again. Quick question: What was the game featured at 1:08:19 ? It was the low poly fixed camera clip with the kid walking around outside a house.

[@fenceil]

the game is boku no natsuyasumi

[@apotheosis140]

I love RTS games to no end and I thought what you said about Starcraft to be rather striking as someone who adores both Starcraft and Starcraft 2. Especially in Starcraft, a core element of the game even at the highest of levels is that you are constantly making mistakes and it's more of a game to see who can make the least, especially when as you said, your units are as dumb as they are in Starcraft.

[@1brocktune]

your AI video is one of my favorite video essays. full stop. THEN your literal next upload is about my favorite game... i am priaising the gods right now

[@antimatter3084]

Merry Christmas, actually going to buying this game as my introduction to rts games since my gaming goal is to get good at all game genres with rts being one of them I don't have much experience with beside Pikmin, and this one looks like a fun introduction.

[@tomturtl]

The best Christmas gift i could ask for

[@NIL0S]

Wololoo

[@azure5584]

As someone who just stumbled upon your channel a few days ago, first off, great work, will be watching again! Also wanted to ask, why did you decide to go for written text, such as 'am losing fights but chipping away at his economy while mine is intact' instead of saying it out loud? Was a little weird, going from comfortably listening to suddenly having to squint my eyes and ultra focus on that text. So curious!

[@DukePegasus]

ty for making content around this amazing game :)

[@Gamingpandacat]

for me, Starcraft 2 is the game that finally made me understand RTS games and truly learn to appreciate them, after playing many of them over the years I guess I have to get another version of AOE2 to see if I can finally click with it, that hotkey layout kind of sold it for me, learning all those buttons takes a while and its a must. I always say that we live in a post starcraft 2 world, so that might be a reason for some of those radical changes for AOE2, other AOE games have other things going for them, I do hope it stays simple, as much as I like 3's feeling of discovery with your hero unit, the rest of the game is a blundering mess at times.

[@Gamingpandacat]

so my friend bought the group aoe 2 definitive during the sale, we've been playing every day nonstop, i personally feel the change in the controls, the HD edition was horrible when it came to the fluent controls i've come to expect from the post starcraft 2 era, now that i've actually played some of the training tutorials and challenges and understand the early game, things are starting to click, if I can make it to feudal at around 21-26 workers and never getting supply blocked, then I did a good job despite whatever comes next, i'm very exited to keep practicing, there are so many moving parts, even if tower rushing the ai is a sure way to win every time, there is so much more going on and greater challenges to face, all without facing another player, if I end up queing up for ranked I know its going to be another fun house filled with all sorts of rancid cheese i'll need to know the smell of, and that's just wonderful.

[@GBlockbreaker]

with this i am reminded of one of my first online matches on definitive edition, i hadn't played since like 2016 so i was pretty rusty (not like i was all that good in the first place) and i got lucky with the civs, my opponent had Goths, i had Teutons, on Black Forest no less, i had the foresight to make Teutonic Knights and it felt like Moses parting the sea lol

[@Juice0109]

A real Christmas miracle, thank you man

[@drkreuzer670]

I really like the YTP like intro xD

[@armorelarmadura7807]

Fellow Disgaea appreciator pog

[@threeprongedfork7061]

that blood mod is crazy

[@ArtificalHistoryI]

i wanna get back into this game, i got really addicted to it in 2021 i spent about 8 months 2k hours playing it online. this time i wanna play some single player missions

[@KuroOnehalf]

Great essay. And merry christmas!

[@bcbc-xt3gw]

54:06 Allow me to introduce you to the Planetary Fortress rush- While I find some of your generalizations and oversimplifications jarring, in the wider context of somebody without a huge amount of experience in the genre its understandable, even among people who play the occasional game of starcraft 2 or Zero-K. I'm regularly dumbfounded by the amount that just.. Have no conception of RTS as a genre other then some fringe they never really payed attention too. I die a little inside every time somebody tells me they've not played, or even caring about Supcom:Fa despite owning (and often, not being particularly fond of) supcom 2. It seems like there's something about rts where a large demographic of people just filter it out as something they wont enjoy just off of the base assumption and promptly everything cool and/or fun in that general area is just filtered out as background noise, which is a massive shame. And seeing other people in the comments here looking back on that, or just being pleasantly surprised at what you suggest the genre has to offer gives me quite a bit of hope. While I'm personally not a huge fan of AoE2 (I always found the macro to be extremely unsatisfying) I definitely understand the appeal, and it seems that nobody who loves it can save themselves from stoking the random maps vs fixed maps discussion when given the chance. Although it seems entirely one-sided, given essentially nobody on the fixed maps end cares to argue against, or really for random maps (Although games like FAF, and Zero-K have made moves into the random map space recently, interestingly enough.), despite it being a constant point of contention around AoE2 analysis. Overlooking the few hitches and my own personal pet-peeves (Absolute statements are my arch nemesis, they bug me in your other work too, but I get that their mostly for impact.) This is a lovely Christmas gift nonetheless, Happy holidays to everyone passing by!

[@mihailnikolov5535]

I will try AoE2 again, thank you for the video!

[@mcrsit]

Omg finally! Happy Christmas everybody yeeeaaaaaah

[@somagd64]

I saw that KF1J skeleton I hope you do a video on that game also :)

[@whikihowable]

Small critique here it looks like you compared the definitive edition aoe against the original sc and c&c. If you compared the original release of aoe you would find many similar irks of that gaming era. Aoe de is actively developed to this day so really off base with that pov

[@Sice64]

Jimmy upload, I shall make it another day.

[@ker0356]

1:07:20 have you seen recent HL1 interview? I liked the part where Gabe said that it was important for them that the game responds to player's actions

[@sinkground3259]

My dad taught me how to play this game when I was little I feel like a part of it is ingrained in my blood

[@whereismy5]

main thing I'm getting is that this dude really doesn't like starcraft lol I mean each to their own but I think Starcraft is way easier to read and is more engaging and interesting, as someone who does still like AoE2. I'm not really sure what you mean by SC having ambiguous and less certain controls, unless you're for some reason exclusively playing on extra high latency. fun video to watch overall though also you can easily reach high ranks in SC with pretty minimal APM. Back in the iCCup days I had friends who sat pretty comfortably in the B/B+ range with 75-100apm, they were just very efficient and smart with how they used their actions and had great strategy. Movie was a top protoss player back in the day who was basically 150-175 apm, he never won a championship but he did beat a lot of notable players. I just think reducing SC's APM requirements to "fighting janking pathfinding" is simply wrong for the most part, you just have to be smart with how you issue commands. It is overall a faster game with a quicker set of interactions, so microing units well just gives you a much higher rate of return. There are also other things you say about Starcraft that are just simply wrong like matches revolving around just one push/battle, which is ???? Depending on the matchup some are on average 10min, others are more like 30-50min, depends on the map too. Vision control is a weird point to make too because comsat is only limited to Terran and is not an unlimited resource, fog of war, scouting, tech switches ambushes etc are extremely important in SC. Random map generation is not an inherent virtue, but there are literally hundreds of very well made maps that are decently balanced and fun to play if you want that sense of fresh discovery.

[@MrSaywutnow]

It's bothered me that for decades now people have actively defended Starcraft's obvious shortcomings in its interface and pathfinding. The success or viability of a particular strategy in a RTS game should not be determined by the cocktail of caffeine and Adderall required to successfully execute it through millions of clicks. Being good at Starcraft doesn't require you to be good at strategic thinking (outside of following the prevailing meta) - it just requires you to be good at clicking.

[@John.._]

Ok nvm this video is very positive nice!

[@Spudcore]

You have a very pleasant speaking voice sir.

[@CG-eh6oe]

Very nice video, nice to hear a new voice on this game! But please stop sending so many vills to berries, it hurts my eyes 11

[@CptManboobs]

10:36 "AoE2's Pathfinding is Fantastic" I mean compared to its contemporaries yeah, but it is getting notably worse in recent patches with units doing some REALLY dumb regrouping when in intense micro situations

[@kos-mos98]

completely missed this video cause of christmas

[@drifter402]

Totally agree about meta. I swear every game that changes itself for the super hardcore Mera becomes sterile. Modern CS springs to mind

[@vreeze33]

Great video!

[@LookItsCollin]

ANOTHER GOOD VIDEO SIR

[@realNaniByte]

Surely you also try SC2 now right?

[@bionetik]

One name and one name only: Spirit of the Law

[@lukepurse9042]

I feel seen by this 😊

[@Gonzalo_105]

great video, and as a stacraft 1 and aoe2 player and watcher of tournaments, your starcraft slander is bad, it came out as ignorant and i don't think you know stacraft 1 or 2 that much.

[@Bushmannerino]

For future reference, you pronounce the GY in Magyar the same as one would in gyatt (this is the only fucking word in the english language you reserve the proper gy pronounciation for)

[@eLykidas]

You havent mention the 11 :(

[@humanperson8363]

You gotta play stronghold 1 and 2 PLEASE

[@ElHuevoFromCBC]

Age of empires 2

[@MunkBunk]

My name is MunkBunk!

[@leftovernoise]

Oh shit lets go

[@stephenmaher4690]

54:02 "but no other RTS is open-ended enough to allow stuff like this, let alone make it viable." Love this video but this point feels like you're willfully ignoring SC2. Proxy hatch works at the pro level some what frequently, proxy canons or any production from protoss, and although the Planetary fortress rush is definitely not as viable as the others - the game is indeed open-ended enough to allow these strats.

[@stephenmaher4690]

I feel like there's a broader point... You don't have to "prove" that aoe2 is a great game by comparing it to SC or other games. Certainly I know that's not what you're trying to do, you just want to show that aoe2 is a great game. And this video does that well. I would say at points you are drawing the comparison without a need to. Just talk about what makes it great to you, not what makes it better than StarCraft to you. There's a lot of reasons those things you don't like about StarCraft are the way they are for that game specifically. SC is a very different game from AOE. Saying something like "something great about aoe is the longer game length from the more complex resource system and more intuitive defensive play compared to StarCraft simple resources and fast time to kill." It can be an interesting comparison... But saying one is better than the other misses the forest for the trees in my opinion. You're not recognizing each game's appeals and how they are desirable in different ways. Constantly doing comparison feels like a jealous way to prove something is interesting, just talk about the cool thing.

[@TheBeardbeard]

Give me a Civ4 and/or HoMM3 renaissance.