AoE4 Gameplay - 4v4 playing Chinese

Quick match 4v4 online playing as Chinese. Note, this is early Age of Empires IV footage from the September "technical stress test".
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Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsou...
Game: Age of Empires IV (Technical stress test open beta build)

[@TheRealGigachad1848]

"Enemy attacking landmark." SotL: "This sign won't stop me, because I can't read."

[@SCDJMU]

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[@duydome]

lmao

[@Murf181]

it's beta testers like this, that when the game comes out the game has a bunch of a annoying popups.

[@thoshee]

i mean even is teammates were trying to help him on the mountain fight not in his base xd

[@ibrahimalfatih6059]

Hey that's rudee

[@LeftJoystick]

I love that walls are actually imposing. They should be a deterrent to an attack. Love that.

[@MikhalisBramouell]

Walls are imposing but take a long time to build: the Wall of Hadrian took over 6 years to build; the Wall of Theodosius took 9 years to build; the Great Wall of China took about 20 years...

[@Muenni]

@@MikhalisBramouell How is that a long time compared to other great constructions?

[@SendarSlayer]

@@MikhalisBramouell I mean a Wonder victory in AoE2 is something like 500 years, which passes in 10 minutes.. soooo....

[@derwal1543]

I love that using siege is mandatory to destroy walls too

[@Drakkross]

@@MikhalisBramouell Thats like saying houses take long to build and then list the most complex ones like the burj khalifa as examples.

[@BTobiasJ]

Seeing you ignore your base getting destroyed put the stress in "technical stress test"

[@danielsamper5176]

My man spirit was so hyped mid battle he completely ignored the fact that his base was getting leveled 🤣

[@PolarMuttaqin]

can't blame him tho, especially after how satisfying the mountain fight was

[@danielsamper5176]

@@PolarMuttaqin Word. That was some field of pelennor tier clash all of the sudden, specially with purple bro joining the action

[@nathantomaneng7259]

To be fair in all aspects he bested most if not all on the enemy team that blue had to rely on bitch tactics to win lmao

[@flPieman]

@@nathantomaneng7259 lmao bitch tactics it's a counterattack that's the best move when you can't take the upfront battle. Surprised he never saw all the minimap pings. I guess the notifications could be better though

[@chesh05]

@@flPiemanThe notifications were fine. I mean it's on SotL when the minimap is constantly flashing red showing him he's being counter attacked.

[@ChaosPyr]

Blue from the video here! It was a pleasure playing against you. i dont think we would have won if I hadn't taken you out with the sneak attack haha :D. Also the top right icon gives you an overview of players, if you want to see who is who :)

[@Joker-yw9hl]

Ah damn I need to not scroll through the comments before watching the video

[@KCzz15]

@@Joker-yw9hl tf were you expecting?

[@Joker-yw9hl]

@@KCzz15 your mum

[@AlexSwePR]

so you won?

[@ChaosPyr]

@@AlexSwePR Yeah we did :)

[@SoulDevil92]

41:13 He even went back to his base, showed the ruins of his Town Center and he probably was like "just map scenery".

[@native2704]

💀💀

[@Powerofriend]

Definetly too many vils on wood there.

[@joshuawood4630]

Legit, I was getting so frustrated especially at that part hahaha... then I saw how little time was left on the video and realised it wasn't going to end well

[@THOTHGames]

Anyone else love the unit's shouting and directing your attention? Especially with the whistling.

[@scevda]

The audio work is the standout aspect of the game thus far.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

That's the scout calling out objects of interest it finds.

[@TonyRedgrave]

Yeah, I actually like that bit a lot. I usually set my scout lose and then forget about em, so that's a helpful feature.

[@mrgraft4279]

SIEGE ENGIONS AT THE READY

[@Wllptr]

It's the best!

[@Drakkross]

That battle in the Hills was pretty epic, but you not realizing that your base was being destroyed for like 5 minutes was equally infuriating xD

[@007999999999999999]

To be fair I didn't notice it either, the fucking screen is just littered with garbage ui elements. It's pretty easy to oversee something.

[@SilverMe2004]

@@007999999999999999 & like a third of those elements where saying that his base was being destroyed

[@Binarokaro]

Watching this helps alleviate a lot of fears about AoE4 tbh, the 1v1 vid mostly showed early game stuff, which felt very similar to AoE2, but actually seeing gameplay in Castle and Imperial Age, and seeing how drastically the gameplay changes, like with the significance of walls as defensive structure that you actually need siege to break down, the way the terrain influences strategic decisions (like the mountains), and the variety of units both sides use, it actually makes it feel really different from AoE2.

[@scevda]

The terrain is a much appreciated addition.

[@johannesmajamaki2626]

And it ran well, even when the going for tough! I was a bit unimpressed with the graphics at first, but seeing this made me realise they've done the right thing. Don't go too ambitious and have the top settings only work properly in 4 years time: design for the hardware we have now.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@johannesmajamaki2626 The graphics are likely this way in order to keep the system requirements down. And that's likely a Microsoft decision, since the one system requirement they haven't let up on is Windows 10. They're basically using the game to get more people to upgrade to Win10, and so have kept all the other requirements low so as many people as possible choose to do it.

[@sohamdas7314]

Aoe 3 was drastically different. This is a little different.

[@JWonn]

It seems like even with the ability to put units on walls, players still don't do it.

[@AkshayPrasadrocks]

I really love how the battles look in this game. It actually kinda feels more like a war with people flanking, charges, protecting siege units etc. I had a game where my teammate was being pushed in, and the 3 of us charged in to the enemy from different directions and wiped them, and it was more satisfying than pretty much anything I did in AoE 2.

[@youknow_nothing]

I played 2 games so far, one coop and one 3v3 and I liked the overall feel so far and how smooth it was. There were some nice details like infantry been able to build rams and things like that on their own that changes how war plays out when you compare it to aoe2. I still need a lot of cstch up to do because a lot of techs are researched on other buildings but it also seemed lime a more faster game that aoe2

[@drangleic6948]

Spirit of the Law, pleeeeeease give us more 4v4 content. AOE2DE, AOE4, doesn't matter. Just more. This video was so much fun to watch, especially the epic mountain battle. Thanks for sharing!

[@easternhills1329]

40:40 "Enemy attacking landmark!" flashing in the middle of the screen. SOTL: "I'll ignore that"

[@bishop253]

The tunnel vision was real.

[@Sephyroth97]

Let it to Spirit Of The Law to focus on details; he got the new Town Bell Simulator and spends hours on the RTS minigame. What a legend.

[@NeonLine]

am I the only one who finds the sound absolutely annoying?

[@misanthropicservitorofmars2116]

@@NeonLine you saying the age 2 and 3 town center noises weren’t annoying as well? If anything this is just a feature of the series.

[@kallmannkallmann]

@@misanthropicservitorofmars2116 Guess we got used to them and this one has abit of a diffrent sounds...but main thing is its so mutch louder then any other sound, even louder then big armies fighting.

[@JustOneQuestion]

@@misanthropicservitorofmars2116 in AOE2 I thought the TC only made the bell sound when you garrisoned all your villagers? In this game it seems to go off every time you click on it.

[@misanthropicservitorofmars2116]

@@JustOneQuestion yep, but there are other sounds that play whenever you click anything or when things happen that we just zone out over the years. The farm running out sound was fun in the late game.

[@informitas0117]

Wish the bodies stayed longer so you can properly see how large a battle really was.

[@_tejasjadhav]

This map was gorgeous! Especially those hills and impassable areas of the hills. And I like that walling has a strategic importance now.\ A subtle details: Walls seem to automatically connect and blend in with the cliffs. That looks so neat! Wanted to see units climbing on the walls, military units charging, archers using spikes as shown in the previews.

[@pokefuranku]

I noticed the wall detail. I love it c:

[@MadMalMan]

All can be done, Archers spikes are a unique ability to the English Longbow, probably a nod to their experience in fighting French knights

[@McSniffle]

You can mount walls like in the trailers but there just wasn't an opportunity for it. One of the longbow groups in the big fight did have palings active for anti-cav.

[@1DeerBra]

i think the (pink?)archers did put down spikes in the hill battle

[@harrobeens6446]

@@pokefuranku luk8kk

[@javier6877]

Man, now I understand Danerys when she heard the bells. That stuff makes you crazy.

[@mailboro]

Dragons to insta gg

[@Lightning_Lance]

11

[@mihirpatel3010]

That mountain fight between all the teams was EPIC! Edit: At 33:52

[@zelikris]

Could you post the timestamp?

[@ivanesquivel7740]

@@zelikris I think he is referring to 33:52

[@mihirpatel3010]

@@ivanesquivel7740 thanks

[@xeov12jr10x]

It reminds of the scene from Princess Mononoke when she ambushed the settlers in the hillside at night

[@HWEspana]

The game really needs more than 200 units

[@FluffySashaUwU]

Was unsure after the 1v1, but this seems really fun honestly. I liked the vibe after you first broke into greens walls, seemed spooky

[@kazum9746]

Furry sighted. Boys, you know what to do...

[@ultimategamer876]

@@kazum9746 Give him love and affection?

[@kazum9746]

@@ultimategamer876 Yes. Oh, wait...

[@SuperNino111]

This gameay look so shit, to diffetent then aoe3,

[@hadihash1195]

@@SuperNino111 Are you having a stroke?

[@easternhills1329]

The building shadows and the trees gently swaying looks so good! Edit: the buildings are casting accurate shadows on other buildings!! :O can we just take a minute to look at that. Edit2: Buildings stacked together allows units to move between them!! this is amazing as chokepoints.

[@nondorian]

The game has so many little details that you start to appreciate as you gradually discover them. It really seems that they want to make a good game and polish it as much as they can.

[@nathangamble125]

Putting buildings together creates chokepoints... just like in Starcraft from 1998.

[@McSniffle]

@@nathangamble125 I think he means as a departure from AoE2 where putting two buildings next to each other prevented movement entirely whereas this game the building foundation leaves a small gap for movement. So you can literally stack buildings/houses right on each other to create tons of narrow alleys which can be beneficial/detrimental depending on your composition.

[@easternhills1329]

@@nathangamble125 oh! I didn't know that. But it feels amazing watching a fight between units in a tight alleyway. Like a small part of the war going on in the streets of the city. :D

[@HeySiriwhydidmyparentsleave]

Its so cool how you can place buildings anywhere and right up against each other and paths, fountains and gardens pop up

[@freedomofspeech2867]

Sucks they don't do anything. The game mechanics incentivize you to not care about it. Just makes it annoying if you want to win.

[@HeySiriwhydidmyparentsleave]

@@freedomofspeech2867 you can build over them and the paths make it so you can have more buildings in tighter clusters

[@freedomofspeech2867]

@@HeySiriwhydidmyparentsleave Why wouldn't you be able to do that without the paths?

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

@@freedomofspeech2867 They do something... they look cool.

[@freedomofspeech2867]

@@HighLanderPonyYT Subjectively. It will wear off fast. AoE2 will never.

[@ThinkerYT]

A game where walls actually are usefull? unbelievable.

[@zuiop9993]

There is a reason why there is no game with that feature... if they are usefull it's too easy to turtle and early investment in army is not incentiviced. If they are too good, they need to be nerfed. Walls used to be better in aoe2, and nerfing it made the game better.

[@krayos13]

@@zuiop9993 You can't build stone walls right away though. If you harass the enemy before they are able to turtle up you will be able to strongly punish them for not building an army early on. You can actually see that stone walls took a significant ammount of time to come in for green in this game. There was plenty of opportunity to attack early on. Also, I, and I think a lot of people feel the same, preffer longer matches with epic huge army fights like what we saw here. I personally don't find it that exciting to see 3 archers vs 2 scouts fighting it out in the early game in AOE2.

[@dagnisnierlins188]

Stronghold crusader is a game with good wall mechanics

[@erickauffmann_official]

Damn that bell is so annoying! 🔔 Great video as always!

[@JasonX2]

I really hope it can be turned off, good grief!

[@Yeldibus]

@@JasonX2 Add a house to your TC control group and you don't get a sound. Easy fix :)

[@redgaarden8101]

2 minutes in and im complaing about that bell.

[@redgaarden8101]

@ReBuDO monster

[@jjforcebreaker]

Sound level of that bell should be reduced by at least 30% imho.

[@s-man5647]

man, the building mechanics with the dynamic landscaping is so good. I would love a remake of Rise of Nations using the same tech

[@kreut5299]

Im suddenly actually getting hyped for this game

[@ninjaxd9050]

If they just fix the zoom levels & town bell, I'm sold

[@bugfeatures]

yeah, i wasnt reall interested before.. but the fights look like i always hoped for

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@ninjaxd9050 Dunno about zoom, but the bell is almost definitely gonna change. It wasn't even there in the closed beta.

[@Galactis1]

Don't get hyped.

[@ughitstravis9243]

It's just today that I'm watching a bunch of the game play for it and I really am enjoying what I'm seeing like it looks like age of empires 2 but just more vertical design changes less horizontal, graphical based changes. And that's exactly what AOE needed. Verticality, depth. Not horizon

[@Admiral_Mortain]

"Build both landmarks from an age to begin a new Dynasty" SOTL: Must not be important *Is skipping getting his most powerful archers pretty much immediately*

[@Lex-dw7ng]

How does the Zhuge Nu stack up to regular archers/crossbowmen? I haven't had a proper chance to look at and compare them because y'know - no editor.

[@Admiral_Mortain]

@@Lex-dw7ng so from what I can tell they're better against Cavalry than regular archers because of the extra shots, combine that with a decent number of them and they're quite scary, I think regular archers (or maybe just Longbowmen) have a little more range though

[@Lex-dw7ng]

@@Admiral_Mortain So I got some time to have a look, and obviously these aren't final balance numbers but the Zhuge Nu does appear to just be flat out better than the archer - slightly shorter range and gets no bonus damage against light inf, but does 33 damage per burst as opposed to the archers 19 per shot against light inf. Slightly less range and a tad more expensive, but you got more HP and don't get "penalized" for shooting at non-light inf. Funnily enough I think it makes a fantastic archer counter.

[@Admiral_Mortain]

@@Lex-dw7ng yeah, it's a very versatile unit that doesn't do as bad against cav as regular archers, and you can get them in Feudal instead of AoE II Castle Age like the Cho Ku No

[@ANSELAbitsxb]

@@Lex-dw7ng WIth chinese its best to fast castle and make a mix of cav and infantry with nest of bees. Once you get to imp make hand cannon as well.

[@Ennocb]

At the end I was actually literally screaming at my screen lol good game. Liking it so far

[@HistoricalWeapons]

Ding ding

[@FelipeGabe]

That big battle was pretty cool. It is also nice the tension the soundtrack adds to the whole thing.

[@jessegauthier6985]

one problem I notice is that its very hard to tell units apart - they are all too uniform in colour, without many distinguishing non team-coloured bits.

[@SentientPalm]

Yeah same i just rely on my control groups

[@eandone]

The battles actually look really epic; the sound effects, music and the complex environment create this really awesome war-like atmosphere, really hypes you up. Still not the biggest fan of how large buildings are, they look so cumbersome... The battles though... now that is on point. Epic.

[@scevda]

Ive actually found them to be okay now that theres gameplay. Its my issue with the difference in size of buildings that remains. Why are towers so weak, both visually AND mechanically?

[@hujiachen6409]

I don't know what ancient Chinese sounds like, but the pronunciation really sounds more like modern Mandarin as you age up.

[@PewPewPlasmagun]

Ancient Chinese sounded much different since it had less tones, if I am not alltogether mistaken.

[@pechorin5842]

Yes, as you age up the unit pronunciation evolves from ancient language to early modern language.

[@IPromiseTomorrow]

@@PewPewPlasmagun I've heard some ancient Chinese and it does sound a looot different

[@llSuperSnivyll]

@@pechorin5842 That's actually a neat detail.

[@RedarmySV98]

This detail is pretty amazing. As someone understanding mandarin, I can hardly understand any speech in first age. But in fourth age I can almost understand all unit speeches.

[@kwangle2622]

34:24 epic battle And it ran smoothly too, this is the biggest selling point to me.

[@slyfer3k]

well the recommended specs are not hardcore, it runs off a GTX970 soooo yeah

[@sayfhi]

After this video, I’m convinced that this channel is my go to for AoE content! It’s hard to find a good content creator and harder to find one that makes you laugh from gameplay. Keep it going Spirit!!!!!!!!

[@legomacinnisinc]

That epic fight on the mountain side has me pretty hyped for this. I'll definitely be picking this up when it comes out.

[@MX009m]

Try the free stress test its really fun! I was worried by the early talks and videos from youtubers, but now im hyped!!

[@Fooshj]

Man that town hall bell sound will drive me insane

[@chrisschmidt2245]

Looking at that Imperial Tax mechanic, makes me feel like going for that 100% increased tax revenue would be insane if you are pocket. You had TONS of gold, and all from regular economic activity. Chinese seem like they could be brutal in long grindy games cause they'd always have some gold.

[@freedomofspeech2867]

The tax is heavily unrealistic too. AoE is full communism. 100% tax already. Where is the gold coming from? The state (you) already get everything. It should at least decrease production.

[@dtarchon]

The tax mechanic is trash. Buildings have a cool down for each collection of gold. The value of imperial officials is in supervising mills/mines/wood.

[@clem624]

@@freedomofspeech2867 if AoE was communist your money would get redistributed to the people equally

[@freedomofspeech2867]

@@clem624 lol no

[@dasmaverick1063]

@@clem624 That's textbook communism. Not how it plays out in real life.

[@igrazm2437]

Really like that in battles the armies form the front lines; like, there's no or nearly no trickling of units in between, as the frontal soldiers get intertwined. And the way the masses of units move so fluidly, this pathfinding might actually beat the SC2 pathing for me. All together makes it feel like an actual medieval battle.

[@chrisnewtownnsw]

I love watching your vids so much man. You have such a solid grasp on the fundamentals

[@dwvogan]

I know, his base defense and mini map awareness is top notch.

[@nathangamble125]

"I'll try more nest of bees" >builds springalds

[@gediminasmorkys3589]

Yeah, at one point it was even like "I feel like nest of bees is doing really well, I can fight against 2 at once" :))) Hilarious.

[@Shikheralgorythmic]

The most impressive part of this game is the walls. They look really good!

[@HealGea]

I dont understand why people are obsessed with the bell sound. Most of the time you are focused on gameplay so you wont notice it.

[@lucadesanctis563]

Because ppl like to cry for everything nowadays

[@nathangamble125]

SOTL didn't notice the bell sound so hard that he didn't even notice when it was telling him his base was being destroyed

[@slander8643]

its also apparently a bug, the tc plays the dock sound but is supposed to play an AOE2 like town center sound

[@adammitxhell2932]

Its absolutely obnoxious. It too loud and too frequent.

[@jorcktheoutcast8007]

Uughhh I wish I had a good enough PC to play this. Hopefully by Christmas ill have all of my parts ordered. By the time I have built my first gaming rig you guys will all be pros already lol. Can't wait though. I'll happily watch more skirmishes on your channel! Very unfortunate ending here, but GG

[@SonnyBCreative]

this can run on almost any pc

[@jorcktheoutcast8007]

@@SonnyBCreative not on windows 7. And im not putting windows 10 on my 10 year old laptop lmao

[@native2704]

The mountain scene was epic af. First time watching this kinds of fights without frame drops.

[@monolithgooner]

That battle on the mountainside should have been in the fucking trailer for the game, beautiful!!!!

[@Aingeheuddf]

i literally clicking on the minimap when i saw "Enemy attacking landmark."

[@Starhartdeer]

I like the sound design and the auto-scenery generation. It's shaping up to be a nice-looking game.

[@Velastine]

The thing in the courtyard of the Chinese town center is not a bell, but a gong. It shouldn't go "dong dong", but BANG BANG!

[@ANSELAbitsxb]

You sure its not supposed to go WA BOOM?

[@nofeah89]

That TC bell is crazy what were they thinking lol.

[@hawkticus_history_corner]

I saw in another comment that it's apparently bugged right now. It's apparently supposed to sound the AoE 2

[@legatus_newt]

Definitely bugged it was not nearly that loud in the first closed beta.

[@pepinillorick5741]

Its unbareable

[@wayne9287]

BING! BING!

[@adammitxhell2932]

Ding dong, are you going crazy yet?

[@ChillNPlayGames]

You hear the bell ringing and then someone saying "Shhhhhh!” - the game itself knows that bell needs to go! YEET IT!

[@jasonsudana5320]

When this 40 minutes of Song Dynasty actually fought much better than the actual Song Dynasty

[@paleposter]

the shade lol

[@AliZaGames7]

Hey I love this, I was screaming at my screen around 40:00 Your base! Your base! Your base! The battles were epic and the strat to attack from behind while you were focused on attacking yourself was good, Nice vid, loving the look of AoE4 too.

[@minibjaris3675]

SOTL I WAS IN YOUR GAME! I AM A BIG FAN! You was a good teammate!

[@jasonsudana5320]

Did you guys win in the end?

[@kelvinsomnia]

@@jasonsudana5320 The blue player who killed Spirit commented, he said that Spirit’s team lost.

[@minibjaris3675]

@@jasonsudana5320 No, we lost after sotl went🥲

[@Melissamms]

So glad I had the opportunity to play the stress test. I enjoyed it but I will say I felt SUPER claustrophobic the whole time.

[@lunabork5909]

I really like how this looks it basically took the best parts of 2 and 3 but also added Cool new changes like the fire on buildings!

[@yourfellowhumanbeing2323]

Yeah, I have high hopes for this game, if everything is implemented correctly :D

[@jits2q127]

@@yourfellowhumanbeing2323 me too :DD!

[@Tiogar60]

Yeah i really dont get all the hate. The game is much less cartoony than the trailers let us believe. The gameplay is good, sure, its similar to AOE2, but after AOE3 which was too different, they went back to what they knew was good. And now people are complaining that it's too similar to AOE2, lmfaoo.

[@MrKlobinator]

@@Tiogar60 BUildings look fine, but the units look like shit. Even a game from 2005 looks better than this

[@Tiogar60]

@@braynaguilar8567 Yeah exactly, i never really got into AoE2, but i am really digging this beta. People are comparing it so much, and if it can be just as good as AoE2, it's gonna be great. And i can say, it's really good so far

[@alexmckinley79]

I also missed the warning about the enemy attacking landmark, because I was distracted by Spirit being unable to use his vils to build the keep. Great vid as always mate!

[@aeislyleusinia]

T e c h n i c a l S t r e s s T e s t

[@Max-ej4oh]

Okay, so... look at this on a pro's perspective. They spam the town center button so they can see their base and multi-task efficiently, instead of moving the camera manually. What a noob hears: *Ding Ding....* What a pro hears: *DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-NG DING* ... *DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-....*

[@TheMainCore]

So I've been playing it now... I'm more positive than before, it's actually pretty entertaining. But the unit design, zoom and UI is still off-putting to me. Hmm. I hope they succeed!

[@scevda]

Those exact things are the stand outs for me as well.

[@kingstarscream320]

Seems they fixed the zoom from the beta. It looks fine here.

[@P3truts]

Looks much better than the first gameplay trailer - especially in terms of graphics. Looking forward to it now. Thanks for these, quite entertaining. As always! :)

[@w00154807]

you should have padded it out for another 15 seconds so it was AOE4 4v4 44:44

[@hansolsen3101]

God this looks incredible. That battle where four different teams were there fighting...that was so epic. Can't wait to get my hands on this one in a couple weeks.

[@krankarvolund7771]

"I think I'm putting pressure on him" 10 seconds later, all his army is dead XD

[@silverwoodlawn4913]

The atmosphere during war was absolutely EPIC - the cries, the rush, the soundtrack all were flowing seamless! If Microsoft works harder on the physics, I bet this will be the AoE2-sequel we were waiting for.

[@Patteh01]

I never played AoE before, but i managed to sink in 20 hours during this stress test, i really like the game, even tho i got smacked around every game.

[@theetiologist9539]

I'm a long time Starcraft player, and watching him ignore the base under attack notifications on the minimap was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in gaming. That being said, great on you Spirit for giving us such good content, better luck next time!

[@Ganonmustdie2]

Man this is making me wanna age up my PC out of the Dark Age so I can play this. Visual and sounds design seems superb, especially the various yells echoing in the distance that take you right into the moment. The walls costing more but being much beefier plus giving damage reduction and +2 range to any unit standing on it makes assaulting fully-formed walls much more intense. Walls used to just delay the enemy's advance, but now they serve a whole new purpose. Makes me wonder how aggro vs stalling will play out in the game as the pros get a hang of things. Hope the town bell sound gets fixed and they let us customize attack move so you can choose to ignore buildings if you desire. I could personally use a little more camera zoom out for the player's view because it is a bit claustrophobic at the moment. Other than that I'm really liking what I see! EDIT: also I love beating people by taking out their landmarks. It encourages players to think about the layout of their base even more (because clumping landmarks together means the enemy can destroy them more easily). It also prevents people from hiding somewhere with 1 villager to prevent the game from ending lol

[@DocSmouse]

For what it's worth, I've got a i5-4670k mildly overclock, an AMD RX 460, and 32GB of DDR3 RAM (but had a ton of background processing running), and was keeping a solid 60 FPS in a 2v2. I think they've made an effort to keep the game well optimized given that the minimum requirements for processor is two generations newer than mine, and at least 8GB of RAM.

[@jamesandrewschmidt5308]

7:02 "ARE YOU THE REAL SPIRIT OF THE LAW" Poor guy didn't get a reply from his hero! lol Great video! Really fun to watch!

[@minibjaris3675]

Still love him tho (I was the one in the game)

[@holoqofholoqqia9503]

ARE YOU THE REAL SPIRIT OF THE LAW

[@minibjaris3675]

Hehe…

[@holoqofholoqqia9503]

@@minibjaris3675 holy shit isn't that you

[@EricJohnWagner]

SOTL has God tier mindset and attitude. Keep up the good vibes. I look forward to more AOE4 content!

[@ethribin4188]

I like this so far. In terms of asymetry between civs, it feels like a middle ground between aoe3 and aoe2. Which i hoped it would be

[@bonaparte401]

I really like how roads and paths form around buildings, gives your base an actual city vibe.

[@lavrenzo84]

34:01 is the most epic battle in any rts game I have ever seen.So QL.Because of this awesome gameplay , and battles , I will buy this game for sure.Relic always knows how to make a great rts game , with epic ,awesome battles ;]/ Ps.I also love 3D maps with mountains and clifs.Thats why I didnt like AGE2 that much , because all maps look flat ;]

[@m3talf1sh26]

Hey sotl! the imperial officials can also be put on lumber camps and mills to increase production. It would be interesting to see how much they provide to see if they are worth the extra food. As well as the first song dynasty building that increases tax(gold) on buildings built within its area and building that "replaces" the mill will stack passives on top of each other. I feel like if you built your city correctly as the Chinese you could produce units incredibly quickly. Edit: love the vids!

[@Rumunsko8]

I am a bit worried about the minimap the colours and all the stuff on it makes it harder to understand what is actually happening on the map

[@MrDibara]

You are right, Spirit. I was absolutely *livid* at you not noticing the most CRUCIAL thing that is *YOUR BASE UNDER ATTACK!* _And then instead of finally noticing, you end the game thinking it was some kinda glitch? _*_NIGGA, WHAAAAAT?!_* 😠🤣 In all seriousness though, that battle at the top of the mountains might be damn well the most epic thing I've seen in Age of Empires games for the last months. I watch SamuraiRevolution as well and he does some fun plays in AoE3 and occasionally AoM, *but DEAR GOD ALMIGHTY, **_I might be thinking that "Pelennor Mountains" battle easily tops anything else so far._** It was just THAT epic.*

[@thanhhai1312]

They def need to work on the color. You can barely distinguish blue from teal. Great game anyway!

[@clem624]

Yes I hope they'll add the possibility to choose the exact colors you want like in some games

[@schmid1.079]

The mini map is pretty chaotic in general. Colors and Symbols need to be more destinct.

[@SpAzzt1qeil]

Minimap is terrible. It's like age 3.

[@therealiTeM]

Also the overexposure does not help the reading. I have the constant urge to put on sunglasses.

[@renaldoawesomesauce1654]

This looks really good. :) It looks like it has the simplicity of what makes AE2 so great but with updated graphics and small little features that make it feel modern. I think AOE3 tried to do wayyyy too much, which is ironically usually a great thing from developers, but in a classic PVP game it's often better to keep things more or less similar with little micro changes here and there to freshen the experience and add more to the game without making people want to stick with an older game due to massive differences (which will divide preferences more.)

[@NeonofMoravia]

How do you feel about rotating map? I played few games and used it that my base would be in bottom corner, so i was always attacking forward, really helped with this riddiculously close zoom.

[@xSuspect-7]

It was a good game really wanted to see more of it, but seriously I was screaming about that map notification on your base you even glanced it and didn't realize

[@Tyranzor64]

This stress test is great, I hear that bell and am incredibly stressed

[@igrschmidt]

This looks much better than the trailers and previous "gameplay" videos that they showed us. I’m actually excited again :D

[@henriquesam8615]

34:24 That mountain battle was pretty cool!

[@Adrian-mw7us]

Hahahah I could not stop laughing towards the end of the game. You even looked back at your base and saw a bunch of ruined farms and didn't notice. Also you referring to springalds as nests of bees cracked me up

[@ChewingGumFlavor]

I'm not a big fan of the minimalist ui design. Feels like they want to make something streamlined, but in the end I'm not getting as much information as I would like.

[@abiyujabbar4304]

yeah, it looked weird for me. I liked more of a traditional UI like aoe 2 with traditional sculpture and carving which differ with every civ. It make me feel like i actually dive into the past and actually feel like i belong to the civ which i play. Instead, here what i'm seeing is feel like a medieval town building simulator.

[@aminenaselfakih68]

It just doesn't have the type of memorable impression and imagery that the Aoe2 UI gives

[@xiuhcoatl4830]

Same

[@TheMainCore]

The UI, and the little yellow line-guys when building and manning the siege units makes it feel like I'm playing a game in the Assassin's Creed universe. Like, it's a simulation.

[@exyl_sounds]

Mods could solve that issue

[@FlawlessRuby]

Fun to see some gameplay from you :) Technical video are nice, but random video too!

[@Enternalsin]

22:18 oh, yeah, that's the good shit

[@charlesgrahamsci-fiauthor1876]

Omg that bell…precisely who sat in meetings, day after day, month after month, and said, “We really need to push that bell to the forefront of things. Bell. More bell.

[@barsni4779]

Giant ENEMY IS ATTACKING THE LANDMARK across the screen? Probably nothing important.

[@23Kaugummi]

well this tc bell is a hell of anoying... I would freak out all the time meaning I get attacked

[@JW-qd3ol]

"hey, you guys wanna play DING DING?" "nah, I'm kinda sick of DING DING already." "what are you talking about? DING DING just came out!" "dude..."

[@ResonanceHub]

Hey, if you click on the up-right corner button you can see all of the players and their current age!

[@BarryTGash]

Technically I feel stressed. I wonder what tested me?

[@yourfellowhumanbeing2323]

Is it the bell? If so, I have seen a comment in another video that it was bugged and will be changed soon

[@TheVictor2138]

Very nice seeing you play AOE4, makes me pretty stoked for the game, keep up the good work

[@UnDeaDCyBorg]

The mechanics are closer to AoE2, but it feels closer to AoE3. However, the visual clarity is just worse than both. It's confusing and needlessly complicated to see what is going on.

[@erickauffmann_official]

Exactly

[@Amusedcontempt763]

I'm getting far more of a Battle for Middle Earth 2 + Empire Earth vibe from AoE4

[@UnDeaDCyBorg]

@@braynaguilar8567 Probably because it is. Armour is more common, and units move slower relative to the map size. Which I like, it encourages people to crease armies instead of just spamming in one direction. But the monotone 2-colour icons don't really lend themselves to quick learning.

[@kevinh429]

I played AoE I -III so many times as a kid, I could pick this game up tomorrow and it would only take a day or so to pick up where I left off, skill wise. This game seems so similar.fantastic.

[@shrimperator6190]

I like the game so far, but the minimap is utterly useless IMO. Your base was raided to ruins by blue, but on the minimap, the blue color was barely visible even when looking for it specifically, same on lots of other occasions :/ Not saying the raid wasn't otherwise noticeable, there were the alerts obviously, which miiiiight have been an indication there was something going on :D The minimap definitely needs a bunch of work though: there is lots of information on it, but you can't really see any of it through the tons of resource-icons and the way too big unit blobs. I think AOE2 had it right with the more pixel-based, simplistic approach. In a way, the raid was even less noticeable because of the notifications, ironically enough. The overly intrusive alert effect blocks out the minimap's function by just covering most of the actual information with red. Fancy, but you can't really use it to gather info. I'm pretty sure with a decent minimap, this kind of confusion wouldn't happen.

[@cybersteel8]

It was pretty clear what was going on. There is a big glowing red circle in his base, which is the "you're getting attacked" indicator. Imposing messages with their signature audio chime screaming at him. It was very obvious what was going on, but Spirit just ignored everything during the whole match. AOE2 minimap doesn't look much better when it's a 4v4 - the minimap is a clusterfuck of colours and mess, and the only attack indication is the alarm and the flashing pixel on the minimap. The only difference is that Spirit knows what to listen and look for and actually respect's the game's communication, unlike the AOE4 gameplay shown here

[@candyman851]

I do agree the minimap could use less clutter so the important stuff stands out better. That being said, I think the alert effect is one of the few things about it that is done properly. Having a big red circle will notify you of the urgency and location of danger far better than most any other visual aid, and is pretty typical among strategy games. I certainly think most people who are not tunnel-visioning will notice those alerts immediately, and that's far more important information in the moment than anything else going on at that location, so the alert covering up stuff is actually a good thing in most cases. The minimap also shouldn't be the only place where important information is displayed, either. Relying on a tiny map in the corner of the screen for everything is liable to make the player miss important stuff, regardless of how big the alerts are on the map. One thing that would help is if this game used the player colors for alerts and notifications much more often. AoE2 communicates everything about enemy/ally behaviors with color. Why the same can't be done here is beyond me. A player goes up in age - instead of showing their username in white, show it in their player color so you know who it is immediately. Your town is getting attacked - display the player name who is doing the raiding, or even the entire message, in their color. Your landmark is getting attacked and destroyed - tell you who destroyed it and their color. This stuff is simple, and would help make the spam of alerts much more informative.

[@McSniffle]

Whats funny is that the minimap is totally fine up to 2v2s I think but there's so much stuff on it when it has to look at a large 4v4 map that you lose the detail. You just gotta pay attention to warnings which is also why your units yell at you even off screen when they spot enemies to alert you to it. I mostly use the minimap to look for resource expansion past my base honestly and it does a good job with the big red circles warning you any time something is happening. Like I said though, the off-screen yelling of your units is also a very good way to signal you to look at a new threat.

[@ariton2990]

True that you couldnt see the blue color, but there was literally a big glowing red circle that told him he is being under attack.

[@SolidNate99]

Love your content man. Please don't ever stop!

[@misteral9045]

Aoe2 Fans: Wow, selecting between two age up choices that will give minor buffs to a certain unit or playstyle? How radical! AOM Fans: Landmarks would be a lot cooler if they gave you god powers

[@brycenurding8133]

Idk how you had the humility to upload this after not noticing your entire villager population collecting food getting wiped out, the read flashing on the mini map, or the giant ass sign blocking your screen.

[@jaybonn5973]

I wish the home cities carried over into 4 despite having little reason to be there. They were far in a way the best gimmick of IIIDE. Each composite of painting and models looked potentially stunning.

[@Apocalypsam]

I love how you can use the terrain so well in this game