My Critique on the Age of Mythology Retold Beta

[@geneparmesan8748]

As a middle aged player who has played the franchise since 1999 or so, I don’t think the art style is TOO cartoonish. Sure, the game took a little bit of a step in a more exaggerated direction, but I think the common “mobile game art” criticism for the graphics falls flat when you compare it to something that was ACTUALLY mobile game-tier, like AoM: Online. I have to wonder what a truly “realistic” Retold would even look like. The original game looked realistic for the time because graphics were so limited, so the minimalist textures translated really well into realistic images in our heads. A modern game will be way more detailed and have way more onscreen “clutter” in its depictions, so I think if they didn’t slightly exaggerate silhouettes and movements, and enhance colours, it would severely impact readability. As it stands now, despite having played through some busy screens of multiple units, abilities and god powers all on display at one time, I am very impressed with how easy it is to recognize what is happening onscreen moment to moment.

[@Oathbreaker91]

he doesnt talk about the graphics sir he talks about the god art (and maybe the UI) as "mobile-like" NOT the graphics.

[@30Salmao]

@@Oathbreaker91 I also understood he talked about the graphics.

[@dnaseb9214]

I think I realized why berzerkers are male and female. Because you can turn a female laborer into a berzerker, it would be odd if that berzerker was male. So they had a good reason for it.

[@crisisOstrich]

@@dnaseb9214 there should be a dwarf version too

[@dnaseb9214]

@@crisisOstrich agreed

[@Oathbreaker91]

congrats! yep always bothered me. hope they did this for heroes of ragnarok aswell. also some even suggest pharaohs to be sometimes female too cause of the ingame random female names some had/have. i think good suggestions.

[@dnaseb9214]

@@Oathbreaker91 No, not the pharoes. Aside from 2 examples in their entire history, there shouldnt be 50/50 male and female pharoes. Big no from me.

[@melonswag420]

As someone who used to make custom scenarios, i would LOVE for them to implement an easy way to randomly generate terrain in custom scenarios such as settlers

[@NakamuraRTS]

Hope you get what you need mate. Including another sequel to The Room.

[@Hitjuich]

I just hope they manage to fix the worst bugs like villagers being stuck, but such bugs are usually deeply intregrated in the code

[@Bloody0range]

@@Hitjuich there are some workarounds, like making the villager hotboxes smaller. This does have some side effects of course (like making villagers harder to block while raiding), but that seems better than them getting stuck all the time.

[@NakamuraRTS]

No doubt won't be easy, but there's no way they didn't know this in advance. Leaving stuff like that for last is always a bad idea.

[@sarahd2623]

Shouldn't be an issue :) Colliders can be disabled at will and sometimes in very sneaky ways.

[@legend374]

this is important feedback if All of it get addressed , I am sure Aom will be one of the best released games and future of competitive and casual Rts

[@UnderKingDuck]

I'm 100% going to play this game on release. I don't care about the use of AI art, the graphics, or the voice acting . It's a step up from AoMEE in so many ways and I don't play strategy games for pretty graphics if it's mechanically good and I am not a campaign guy so it's a win win for me.

[@P4nem___Et___C1rcenses]

Same here. It was kind of awkward to check Reddit for good feedback and all they do is crying about AI art and voice acting in the campaign. The gameplay changes are extremely well done, it's going to be so much more fun then vanilla AoM / AoT and I've played this for a decade. Let's hope the devs will work on the critizism regarding the issues Naka and others mentioned.

[@georgestain2803]

@@P4nem___Et___C1rcenses maybe they are crying about AI and voice acting, becouse there is not much else to cry about?

[@HelalAndre]

@@UnderKingDuck Agreed! But I genuinely think the graphics are gorgeous! I love it

[@NakamuraRTS]

This video is not here to stop you from playing day 1. It's here so that the devs consider addressing some important issues. Obviously Retold is far superior to EE in almost every way, but it's far from perfect.

[@UnderKingDuck]

@@P4nem___Et___C1rcenses Only thing that was really noticeable was the pathing issues, but I'm sure that will be fixed.

[@ikosaeder20]

Again another great video! You are not advocating for big changes. Most of the stuff you mention could be fixed by a dev within a day, for example the first-time user experience (narrator voice in settings popup, attack move in tutorial, ...). *Summary of Nakamura's feedback:* - this beta was a marketing strategy, not enough time until release to actually make big changes 1:22 a lot of things are great about the game, it boils down to: - feels fresh - soft reset of game knowledge (great for newcomers) - combat is more lethal, micro-intense, snowbally - no military autoqueue in ranked (more competitive pvp) 5:32 *to be improved:* 5:50 visuals - generally beautiful but some small things are bad - the art style has the wrong target audience in mind - some maps have bad readability of unit types and player colors 8:38 controls, ui, hotkeys: - really bad first-time user experience on game launch - in-game ui is terrible - 4 rows of hotkeys but only 3 rows on the keyboard - camera drag should be mouse wheel click, not right click - spectator mode is bad - game recordings are not archived for others than the players themselves 15:42 pathfinding - surrounding units is hard pull off (IMO fine because vils are weaker) - units stuck around building edges, villagers randomly go idle 16:28 ranked - unfavorable ranked lobby can be canceled without penalty - IMO: if you can see the map before god picks, we will always see the same gods on the same maps

[@brunopereiracabral2392]

is this all already in devs bug report forum ? I reported there about The vills being stuck myself, but all the rest of this list MUST be there too

[@ikosaeder20]

@@brunopereiracabral2392 Some yes, some not. I'm working on it. Although everything related to the graphics style or game design won't change anymore. And changing one hotkey is low priority stuff, I guess they have other things to work on.

[@Swisshost]

Hope the opper UI gets smaller or re-designt. My opinion the circle should be smaller on go full on top (hit the screen end), left side resources and right side god powers.

[@PFVictor]

Great Vid. The new UI will need some serious changes. I prefer smaller UI when possible, 4 rows for the unit commands is too much, 3 max, otherwise it just takes too much space. Also I don't like the buttons under the minimap, why don't they just stack them at the top right or integrate them into the minimap somehow. UI scale and transparency sliders are needed at the very least. I feel like this needs more work and I would prefer not to have to resort to mods for something that every good modern game addresses. The default UI look should be done right and there should be options to customize it properly.

[@R4ZORLIGHT]

Faster kill time is not a good thing, this will accelerate the game and APM needed. God portraits are 100% AI made.

[@Gahanun]

I absolutely don't get the crazy narrator setting. Age of Empires 2 DE has the same default when you launch it for the first time. If it's such a big deal for disabled people, just make the very first thing that opens on a new install an enrmous prompt that asks you whether you need this.

[@NakamuraRTS]

I'll say it probably has its uses, but yes, you need to be able to click through to the next screen no matter what. What you propose is perfectly valid.

[@Oathbreaker91]

i had this isse aswell with the narrator after installing. pretty damn annoying and frustrating to finally find a way after about 10 minutes of research how to disable it... its a beta i know but why make such a thing default? (also even i would need it i couldn't understand a thing personally)

[@guybrush20X6]

I would disagree about kids not being an audience for RTS games, I remember how big Age of Empries 2 was when I was 10. But I will agree the mobile game design was a mistake even with that potential audience in mind. I enjoyed Age of Empires because it made me feel like I was playing history and Age fo Mythology because ti felt like playing an old Hollywood Swords and Sandals movie, something the new style lacks.

[@NakamuraRTS]

Mate, I am perfectly aware that our childhood was filled with this stuff. Mine was too. I'm referring to bringing a remake of a game from the early 2000s to gen alpha. It's not gonna work.

[@Oathbreaker91]

@@NakamuraRTS i understood you. i am similar age back then we had not youtube and twitch and smartphones (all a good and partly bad thing x) ) to influences/manipulate our mind and opinions. the kids nowadays get flooded with nearly everthing and have way bigger freedom of choice (at least in our western countries). also a generation who grew up with of 30 second reels and tiktoks and games like mainstream fortnite --- do you really think those kids will want to play a slower more complex game which, even looking beautiful, doesnt look next-gen (even it has pretty damn cool units in it?) i also don't hink so @guybrush20X6

[@nottud]

About a month away now and nothing to get feedback on custom maps or mod managing. Can custom maps be played online? Not got a clue!

[@NakamuraRTS]

Yep, that's an entire segment of multiplayer we got nothing on, short of some people having cracked open the files for some exploration.

[@hellpunch9414]

The game is equal to aoe3 in the files, so it will probably behave like it: if you have data mod (as a mod that modifies the data of some units, adds units), you won't be able to participate in the regular lobby. When you join the lobby page, you will only see other people that have that exact mod enabled. If the modification is done via triggers in a map, you can host the map regularly and it will show as custom maps in the lobby. When people join the game, they will be asked if they want to download it and then you can play. There is an in game mod page where you can search for all the mods made by community members and download it directly from there.

[@josedelrio2296]

As I come from blizzard RTS , it really feels weird to not have a sub menu to build your buildings, giving you the chance to properly execute commands on workers.

[@tirex3673]

AoE is pretty on and off, when it comes to sub menus for construction: AoEI has them with the exception of AoEIDE. AoEII has them. AoM doesn't have them, and before Retold used to put the tactical options into a sub menu AoEIII doesn't have them. AoEIV has them.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

Sub menue for building ID horrible, it's just not needed for any reason

[@FloosWorld_AoE]

Side note: In AoE 3 DE, attack move is also on Space by default. I guess they didn't bother to change it

[@KingOskar4]

Thank youuuu ❤ ❤ I play a lot of AoE 3 recently and I always CLICK the attack+move. 😢 I didn't know

[@Oathbreaker91]

really strange. no wonder i couldn't get it done when i played it for one game by pressing the A key xD

[@JimCullen]

I think the devs were fairly clear in their communication that this beta was a true beta. Betas aren't about the direction of the software, but about finding and squashing _bugs._ And while I hope they address many of the issues you brought up here, and that others have brought up in the official forums (as a side note, i hope you can go on to the forums and lend your support on there to people who have mentioned similar things, to highlight in one single place how much that is an issue), I was never under any impression that the goal of the beta was anything more than bugs. Like the villagers going idle, or how the temple "eject garrisoned units" button also ejects relics.

[@andreicristian9575]

No, the devs already know about those obvious bugs. This is an exact reenactment of what happened with AoE4. People thought it was a beta and gave lots of feedback on bugs and essential features missing, then the game launched in the exact state as te beta, and the bugs weren't fixed for a long time. The only things that differed were the ones fixed in the launch build of the game, since the beta is an older build that's stable by then.

[@JimCullen]

@@andreicristian9575 they already knew about some of the bugs. Others they learnt about thanks to beta feedback. Just go on the forums and look around. There are some where they replied saying "yup, we're already tracking this." And there are others where they say "thanks, we're tracking this now." For example, they said they were already tracking the issue where rally points were not visible (see: "Gather Point Flag Disappears"). Whereas they first started tracking the issue with ungarisoning temples (' “Eject All Garrisoned Units” button on temples also ejects relics') and a much more obscure bug with eggy statues being deleted when restoring a desynced game ("Loss of Statue’s for Egyptians"). They're probably not going to fix the many, many UX bits of feedback we've provided. I certainly hope they do fix at least some of them, and maybe address more in post-release patches. But they were quite clear in their communication, that this beta wasn't about UX feedback, it was about bugs.

[@30Salmao]

Very important feedback Nakamura. If they take seriously your criticism AoM may get a better chance to shine. RTS have many new titles being released 2024 and 2025. The competition will be high.

[@rizqiadhieramadhan8007]

@@30Salmao What others title ? Other than SoSE 2

[@NakamuraRTS]

Appreciate the kind words.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@rizqiadhieramadhan8007 Stormgate. Tempest Rising. Sanctuary Shattered Sun. Would've also been Homeworld 3, if that one hadn't taken itself out of contention.

[@Oathbreaker91]

@@ArawnOfAnnwn true but all this are sci-fi. also storm gate struggles, zero space might get delayed. tempest rising would be the only real competitor and even this game is a different setting. tempest rising and aomretold can co-exist and being top tier without any serious competition.

[@30Salmao]

@@ArawnOfAnnwn thank you. You got my point right.

[@filipvadas7602]

Many of the changes to the gameplay, QoL and graphics have overall been a net positive. But the campaign, the voice acting in particular, leaves a LOT to be desired I genuinely can't tell if the new voices are placeholders, AI generated or if they are close to the final version because they sound.so.FLAT!!! The accents are totally fine, even appreciated, but the actors take these unnaturally long pauses between certain lines, lines that used to be read as intentionally sarcastic, joking, angry etc. are now being played completely straight and it just makes it all sound much more boring. Sure, the cheesiness is gone, but not only did that add to the charm, it was *memorable* From what I've heard thus far, Ajax and Agamemnon are the best. Because you can tell, like the original VAs, they are having a TON of fun playing these braggadocious/overconfident characters. Arkantos is "fine" The voice actor does a good enough job with what direction he's being given, but I feel like he might have been misscast alltogether. As he sounds almost too young to play an admiral on the cusp of retirement and he doesn't really give off the same confidence the original does. As tongue-and-cheek as it was sometimes. Athena almost sounds bored. She doesn't give off the same quiet wisdom as the original. She does do a soft, whispery voice similar to the original briefly which shows that she CAN emulate it but isn't being directed to. Said soft voice just gave the original that mysterious aura, as if Arkantos really was talking to a godly being and one who knows much more than what she is allowed to say. And Kamos, oh man, they did him dirty cause he sounds AWFUL! He genuinely sounds goofy, like a saturday morning cartoon villain; whereas the original sounded kind of intimidating and more akin to what you'd expect from a freaking Minotaur. This SERIOUSLY makes me worried about what they did to Amanra, Kemsyt, Gargarensis, Adult Kastor and ,of course, the hillarious General Malegious. Really hope they didn't change much of the campaign so that we can freely switch back to the old voices. And if there aren't any changes, that does make me wonder, why change the voices *at all?* The sad part is that any and all criticism we give won't be taken into consideration or implemented, like you said, simply because there isn't time

[@tirex3673]

I do want to note, that Gaia's redesign fixes the problem, that she basically had two completely different designs in AoT, Shepherd lady as a god and giant lady in leaf bikini as a unit. And even though I would love to see a giant Shepherd lady fight, her Retold design is a massive improvement over giant lady in leaf bikini.

[@KingOskar4]

@@tirex3673 underated/based comment 🙌... Did you Tirex also wonder why Gaia was a human-like in original AoM-Titans? I never understood this design choice back in the release/original days.

[@Oathbreaker91]

big thanks for pointing this out! one of the things which bothered me and i am surprsed so little ppl talk about it. it also gives now more the primordial vibe which i think fits amazingly well.

[@BoitTV]

Lagless Cross Continental AoM 😁😁😁

[@NakamuraRTS]

You only had to wait what, 20 years?! :D

[@BoitTV]

@@NakamuraRTS At 350 ms, imagine the time I'd get back. 😨

[@NakamuraRTS]

@@BoitTV You probably played 50k hours in 150k hours LOL

[@Vincent.Morreale]

Been playing since 2003 and the Retold is more then welcomed for me and my long time friend ! I loved the Beta and can't wait to learn all the different NEW strats. In the devs I trust.

[@Oathbreaker91]

happy too but now jealous that you have a long time friend... xD

[@Vincent.Morreale]

@@Oathbreaker91 I might be poorly translating from French, oopsi : my best friend since I was 7 years old

[@gcsehistorylessons8465]

I wanted the good powers to feel more impactful with their audio.

[@finiavanamandresy5460]

@@gcsehistorylessons8465 same, actually I am not a big fan of the esthetic rework of the god powers. The meteor god power WAS the thing that got me hooked as a kid (Trojan War). It's that thing that just makes you say "holy sh*t". Here it looks less impactful. Same for restoration. On the flip side, the Titans look really nice imo.

[@EmyajNosdrahcirEniacSovereign]

This is precisely what I have also been thinking about as well concerning AOM Retolds potential. Albeit when the hot keys and command options for especially villagers is well address for particularly that of skirmish games. Otherwise you certainly tend to be fighting with the game itself instead of strategizing to win. Therefore fighting with the game thru the lack of full hot key options and a UI that supports it, and a lack of management features such as villagers for being without auto repair and auto gather features to whichever resources specified when needed, etc. It is these particular things to why I often avoid any skirmishes without treaty options for this game that I still own for the original CD releases since day 1 of its release in 2002-3. Whereas The currant layout of ui and options of management are satisfactory in their aim for the campaign even on titan difficulty for the good difficulty for whichever route of playing you take that works for you. Whereas if all of these things were considered as you said in your own words too for skirmish games especially against other players. Then It truly would be the strategy game of all the 2020s era even at the least as well.

[@rioplats]

Thanks for putting this out there. Second all your critique and praise, especially on the UI dragging your eyes around and the nature of the beta being too close to release, though I have to say it will take some time to get used to the lower TTK. I've made my thoughts known on the forum and in the discord server, but honestly having content creators codify the feedback in video form is probably more likely to catch developer attention nowadays :)

[@NakamuraRTS]

Glad you enjoyed it! I'm certain that forum feedback also gets seen, so it's great that you're doing that. I'd refrain from using discord for that, as those chats are far too spammy for the devs to follow.

[@rioplats]

@@NakamuraRTS I've been mostly using the discord to chat with other players about the feedback, hah, but noted, thanks.

[@NakamuraRTS]

@@rioplats Nothing wrong with it if you have a good time doing it haha

[@philip2111]

Great review with a load of very fair criticism. Hopefully they put in some work before release

[@NakamuraRTS]

Thanks mate, hope they look at the tough stuff towards the end of the vid especially.

[@tavish1658]

I really enjoy the design choice behind having subsequent casts of God powers costing favor. I would even say they are a bit too harsh with some of the second use costs and I think a lot of them could overall use a 33% reduction in cost. 125 favor for a second use of Forest fire for example. That's almost 5 Fire giants worth of favor.

[@NakamuraRTS]

You really got to be careful with Forest Fire, as you can eventually starve a player of wood. The Wonder Age will be particularly threatening on that front imo. But yes I seriously doubt that they wouldn't reconsider some costs!

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

Meanwhile some of them barely increase at all, likely needing a cost increase. Son of Osiris for example.

[@HousedHorse]

That Memb clip had me rolling XD

[@NakamuraRTS]

He seemed a little stressed out by the narrator, can't have been fun. He'll have to forgive us lol.

[@AoLIronmaiden]

Same here lol. When I watched his video, I wanted to go back in time and help him out. Then, I was annoyed at the narrator in his video, then I quickly found it hilarious 😂

[@-2weeks901]

Agree with everything norse units having to swap ui rows from buildings to fighting commands was especially annyoing and doesnt feel natural having to click so much just for move attack. they all should be in one ui maybe leave the formations and other less important things in second ui but thing like attack move should definitely be in first row as its one of the most important commands for military units Theres also visual clarity problem with some units due to them having too little player color ( mostly units with too little clothing too much gold armor or some myth units with too little player color) like you cant tell which color heracles is from behind or when hes swinging cuz its just lion skin and some units with too much gold shining armor also looking similiar and hard to tell which color they are this will be problem in mirror matches . warcraft 3 reforged had same problem at beggining needs more player color on units

[@NakamuraRTS]

So you can actually have A-move available for Norse, so long as you find a key that isn't interfering with the rest. Such as the default space (lol). I seriously doubt they will change the UI, so thought I'd clarify just in case it helps. Other than Heracles, what other units do you struggle differentiating? For me it was mostly about the terrain, but perhaps you can pinpoint the cause better than me.

[@zhanfang7039]

The menu narrator being on by default is a design so mind-numbingling incomprehensible, so much so that throughout my two and half decades of playing RTS, nay, video games AOMR is verifiably the first and only game I ever know to do that (I think). My first impression upon hearing those AI gibberish was that the game was bugged. Can't imagine the scale of mental damages this did to the first time gamers of AOM🤣.

[@Oathbreaker91]

me too... also the struggle to disable it. head to research cause it was so confusing and frustrating. also thought my game is bugged and i would have to reinstall x)

[@ScootTubeTV]

Going back to AOMEE made me realize how badly I was just suffering through the peer connection. But definitely hope they can add something to help the contrast of enemies to the ground… it’s so easy to lose track of units when they blend in with the map

[@10101437]

I can't wait for all the awesome mods for this game I will play this game when it first releases. One of the first game I played when I was younger !

[@Chungy96]

Thank for your feedback, Nakamura. Regarding hot keys - I am having trouble adjusting from the standard hot keys on EE. We will see if they change the preset on release, but if not, I’d be interested in seeing a video on how you’ve set up your hot keys to see if it would be appropriate for me to mirror your set up. The main thing I struggle with is I am used to “space bar” being a button to “go to” a selected unit. But that now defaults to attack move (I guess that might be important because of myth unit specials?). The new default of O seems like a very strange decision. Is this not a hotkey that people use frequently? Similarly - town centres requiring ctrl + z for a very frequently visited building is important. I guess other civs can afk villager AQ but as a Norse main, I am constantly needing to adjust Norse vills / dwarves.

[@NakamuraRTS]

I actually have been playing many other RTS with a grid setup, so not missing much of the old AoM setup. That said, I have still customized a lot, such as using the F1-F8 keys for all sorts of "find idle units" and such. Will definitely make a video on this when the full game is out. I also do use space for "go to selection", and A for attack move. Ctrl-z is awkward yes, but I control group my TCs so I only need to use that when I want my cam to go to the TCs. Remember you don't necessarily need to look at it at all times when you produce stuff.

[@Chungy96]

@@NakamuraRTSI look forward to it!

[@ikosaeder20]

Use Alt-rightclick for attack move (like on EE), so you can use Space again for "go to selection". Unbind all tech-research-hotkeys using H, so you can use "go to TC" again.

[@Chungy96]

@@ikosaeder20 I actually couldn’t bind anything to space. Figured it was a beta bug. I checked everything else was unbound and it refused to register it as a binding. :’)

[@ikosaeder20]

@@Chungy96 That has been reported by a lot of people. I restarted the game, then it worked fine.

[@DM-zi2up]

BIG CRINGE ON "MATURE THINKERS" LMAO

[@SolitaryLark]

16:48 well I’ll note atleast with the time to match it was a limited pool of people in the Beta. The rest makes sense as a critic

[@NakamuraRTS]

You're technically correct, but when people with identical rating search at the same time as I do in close geographic proximity, what are we waiting 2 minutes for? There is something wrong here.

[@SolitaryLark]

@@NakamuraRTS I’m mostly just being optimistic that it’s a beta issue. If it persists in final release that is a big issue.

[@NakamuraRTS]

@@SolitaryLark yeah, hopefully a quick fix of relaxing some parameters.

[@AwkwardTurtle311]

I’m a huge fan of aom campaign and i hope they allow you to use the old voice acting in it

[@emrahagca99]

The ear part of Anubis in the video is not a flaw by the way. Jackal ears look that way from that angle, they enlarge after the connection part to the head :)

[@NakamuraRTS]

Do Jackal ears have a Khopesh casually shoved through them? I realize it's meant to be behind it, but the composition is terrible. :D

[@emrahagca99]

@@NakamuraRTS was it through? I thought it was underneath the ear going backwards.

[@emrahagca99]

It is at 06:34, composition is really confusing I admit. But it is not a flaw like osiris' finger or apollo's hand imho. I found Athena's shield holding hand has the handle going right through her palm though :D

[@Oathbreaker91]

@@NakamuraRTS but we have to agree that the jackal anubis ear is one of the more minor issues of the art flaws in the god portraits

[@insertnamehere4550]

@@Oathbreaker91 Compared to Osiris having at least 6 fingers on his right hand, indeed!

[@mausolus8466]

To toss my issues with Retold into the ring, I have to first say I'm a die-hard turtler, so this is from such perspective. When I first purchased AoM as kid, I didn't treated it as super-competitive metachasing, but as an empire builder in world of ancient myths, and this attitude stayed with me to this day with every RTS - turtling "archetype" fits that best. I do not play ranked with randoms (I'm a filthy casual), I just enjoy skirmishes or co-op MP with friends. With that being said, I saw a major red flag when I saw nerfs to towers, mainly cutting their damage in half and increasing their build time to more than twice as long. As said turtler, I do relly on towers very much, and after seeing this, I do worry that this ends up like AoE 3 DE, where damage of defensive structures is basically just symbolic (I'm almost wondering why devs even bothered with towers and forts having an attack if it is so abysmally negligible) and triangle turtle-boom-rush is reduced to just duo (boom and rush) in terms of viability.

[@KingOskar4]

Also a good/based comment 🙌 I agree 🥰 y'know... I treat all 3 AoE games I own (Aoe2, Aoe3 DE and AoM:Titans) as Empire Builders... The ONLY disadvantage of this turtling is that Aoe3 AI opponents speak... A lot😅ilike a LOT! "I found your town center!" "You age up too quickly/slow." Or my favorite "Why aren't you picking up treasures?" (Aoe3 has a Treasure system). But 😂 I love it all three !! And I don't mind being attacked either since building defences is easy (in Aoe3 at least😅)... I am also a Fiiilthy Casual.

[@Lexgamer]

I mean, no, a game in beta is near done, and the purpose of a beta is to test features functioning in the wild on various people's machines, stress test too for servers. Most games actually only come together in a playable fashion maybe 4 months before release. Speaking from development experience with CoD, Skylanders, and many other titles. An alpha test, focus test, or an early access release, is where player feedback is the point.

[@NakamuraRTS]

There is a difference between what a beta is treated as by some studios, and what it should be. When a studio has the will and dedication to maximize the quality of their launch product within their means, betas can, do, and in my opinion also should result in design revisions, and sometimes even entire systems being added. I was fortunate enough to work through such a process several times in my career, and I wish that you can as well.

[@noha7ers]

Honestly i will spend all the time on the Editor mode of this game, that shit was so fun

[@ICHBinCOOLERalsJeman]

I hope they bring back auto que its a thing at least 90% of the players want and if thats a problem for competitive players they can go and ruin literally any other rts. Balancing around the top players has lead to the player decline and death of so many potentially great rts, I wont even care to list them all. remember to press a button every 7 seconds is not a skill I or most other casual players particularly care for, what should matter in an rtS is strategy, maybe unit micro but the insistence on tedious macro play like ruining your wrist trying to micro 15 hatcheries as Zerg is what drove players from sc2 and it will drive players from this game aswell

[@georgestain2803]

so much true, no autoqueue will make this game ghost town very soon. There is too big pop limit and a lot of spammy fights. I want to play strategy game, not some autoclicker.

[@SolitaryLark]

The autoque is there just not in ranked. Which most people find completely fine from what I’ve seen.

[@NakamuraRTS]

You misunderstand. Autoqueue is present outside of ranked matchmaking. If competitive players are the enemy, surely you're not interested in ranked.

[@UnderKingDuck]

Auto queue for military should be included in rank play. I just sum up what I said on the Discord real fast. I do not think having auto queue for military units is going to hurt the competitive scene nor is it going to make it that a player that's a much higher ELO is going to lose to a player with a lower ELO. I agree 100% that timing went to train your settlers and your military units and all that is important and it is fundamentally a skill, I personally don't think it's enjoyable. Now when I brought this up people said that it would make the game less skill-based but I mean given what we know about RTSs, there's a lot more in terms of skill then just pressing whatever your hotkey is for your military buildings and Q for example.

[@SolitaryLark]

@@UnderKingDuck I find making vills boring I don’t I feel the same keeping up with military production.

[@DuBLD33]

So how do you get this info to the devs?

[@Stonehengoo]

Boit was actually in Europe during the Beta!

[@NakamuraRTS]

I'm aware, but we gotta think about the long term!

[@hellpunch9414]

I think you are overestimating how many are going to search for replay files in others' profiles. Villager getting stuck should be priority n1 that they need to fix along with some UI retouch That you can just modify things when you join the lobby, after being automatched, in AoM is most likely a bug. In aoe3, same happens but you can't modify anything. When you are paired against an opponent, you get into a lobby for some brief seconds and then the game loads. You can't quit or change civs from that screen, it is just a loading phase.

[@Donar_AoM]

Best review i could find so far. I will play the game but i also hope for these changes. It is a good game but at least the beta has not the same feeling of detail and balancing Ensemble Studios had.

[@NakamuraRTS]

Thanks for the kind words! I do get a sense of "ah, we'll fix X later". Typical modern gaming stuff. They should make it an early access title then.

[@gongal]

Grubby gets a brainfart with every new game he tries out. Nothing to worry about there.

[@Leotophe]

Still very sad for the game to miss the opportunity to get free exposition to a big RTS community. This is the actual concern.

[@lothar3073]

I was really excited to see Grubby play this game, it was an astounding disappointment, he didn't even try. He just started not liking everything, even complained about the VA, being that he barely played the original (so he had no nostalgia), it was like "He's already playing this with a negative mindset for reasons", then he tried Norse and ragequit cause he couldn't handle the controls. I agree with Leotophe, Grubby has a huge audience and all he did was effectively tell thousands of people that the game wasn't worth even trying, just because the world champion pro gamer can't handle a few different keybinds. I don't think he should be forced to play what he doesn't like, but the whole thing was ridiculous and overly dramatic. A shame! With all of that being said, Norse controls suck and I'm tired of the AoE franchise ignoring Blizzard RTSes, AoM does not have a better solution and they have to accept that.

[@gongal]

@@lothar3073 For him everything that isn't WC3 is just kind of an exotic funny thing that exists.

[@Oathbreaker91]

what was grubbys issue? that it doesnt play like WC3?

[@Oathbreaker91]

@@lothar3073 sad to hear. maybe he is salty cause his WC3 REFORGED baby was a total disaster? i think grubby is a really nice guy but thats just poor character.

[@deviousendeavours275]

this looks really nice! but one thing really throwing me off is the map borders, I hope they make it fade to black like AoE3 or add fog or something, rather than have it looking like a void lmao

[@JohnyFirst]

I've noticed mostly competitive content creators covering this game. Altough I like my competitive Sc2, I play Aom purely for the campaign and the vibe. In that regard, I felt majorly dissappointed with the Vo and (god) art. But I get why for ranked players this seems solid

[@ALMM10]

@Nakamura RTS could you make a video comparison between Retold and EE?

[@sumerian88]

I think there is hope to fix all if not most of those issues.

[@emanuelelamattina4264]

I would add the missing health bar. I should notice immediately the hp status of my building or unit, not going to read some small number placed in a stupid position.

[@NakamuraRTS]

There's a setting that turns on health bars for units that got hit recently, and another for when you are holding alt. Though I personally prefer a setting that shows all damaged unit health bars always. This sadly doesn't exist. Is that what you wanted also?

[@emanuelelamattina4264]

@@NakamuraRTS i mean the health bar under the character picture, not the ones above the units

[@NakamuraRTS]

@@emanuelelamattina4264 Oh those colors are terrible, you're right!

[@Oathbreaker91]

great video. very constructive and useful feedback! something not technical which i hope they will add at least later on are upgrades for every myth unit. (which i think they announced in february) i cause at the moment most have one, but some like e.g. scorpian man not, also not visual, and other cool ones like that for fire giant are only for hel and not balder which i think needs to get adressed especially since some - for whatever reason - STILL have more upgrades than others like e.g. Balder who has only what two or three and these are also not that often needed. but if the devs can't adress this maybe a modder can. - which still would not be helpful for online matches i guess...

[@princepsionic]

Couldnt agree more, resources should be on the bottom of UI, it should be adjustable

[@RancorSnp]

Well, I will say your critique section is not starting strong. While I can give it to you that things like overpronounced animations - while irrelevant - can be agreed as objectively bad, and I would also agree that before the game release there should be no question if the god portraits are man made - absolutely true. BUT - then you go and try to paint redesigns of Kronos and Gaia as objectively bad? Is your point to make the game better, or make it more suited to you? You yourself admited that some people will like it - then it doesn't belong in the list of complaints to fix. That's a subjective prefference. I for example think that Gaia redesign is awesome and she finally looks like an actual titan instead of "we didn't figure out a design for Gaia but need to launch the game so let's just scale up a lady". Neither of our opinions is more valid than the other. If the point of the critique is to improve the product, the critiques should be about things that will benefit everyone. Not someone That being said - one thing that I couldn't agree with you more on is the hotkeys. Every single game in Age of franchise does everything it can to not follow the industry standard hotkeys. And it's the dumbest thing anyone ever could do. They are literally on purpose driving RTS veterans away from the game and devs NEED to fix it. There's no discussion there.

[@NakamuraRTS]

This is my personal channel where I talk about my thoughts. This video is not a commissioned report. So yes, there will be subjective stuff in there, especially in the section that deals with "not so great" stuff (meaning that the art stuff I brought up doesn't quite drive me up the wall, even if I'm not a super fan). I believe you're likely looking for the last quarter of the video where I raise game-breaking issues with ranked matchmaking, and discuss how much of a regression the spectator mode is, as well as the hotkeys/UI stuff that you already mentioned.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

Why do you want a button specifically desighned to do nothing but waste your time?

[@thorveim1174]

think in one month and a half still quite a bit can be done polishing-wise and as far as number tweaks go: the assets themselves are likely final, barring maybe how fast some animations play (which is again just a value tweak in the end). Also for the UI thing, it may be possible to change keybinds: its not rare at all for games to not have full keybing remapping if any at all until full release. Now its unlikely all of this will get adressed before launch, but any of these COULD. and to be fair on the age of the audience, I was a kid when I first got into RTS games, so its definitely a game that can appeal to them. Some kids naturally will like games where they lead an entire army. Its just that the genre has had no massive hits in way too long (the latest major release in the genre really being starcraft 2, a 14 year old game!), meaning it flew under the radar of younger gamers As for the art, its pretty clearly AI work for me, which I wouldnt really care about if only they werent lying about it :p But overall its not that important and the pictures still are serviceable

[@lain963]

I find it a bit hypocritical that removing auto queue is welcomed for "more mechanical skill" but also rant about hot keys that require 2 keys instead of 1. Should be 3 hot keys minimum for ranked games. All military units should only be on defensive stance to get rid of "auto attack" too /s AOM doesn't need to be a highly mechanically demanding competitive RTS. Is the goal to convert the hardcore RTS players to AOM and lose many of the existing player base? The only arguments I hear for getting rid of auto queue is gatekeeping. If your goal is to gatekeep then unfortunately you will succeed

[@NakamuraRTS]

There's nothing hypocritical about it. It's standard convention that player decision making should be maximized, i.e. you should actively decide what unit you make when, rather than turning on the auto-printer. As for UI, the effort required to translate active decisions into gameplay should be minimized. Not matching the layout to that of keyboards is dumb and impractical. AoM was the black sheep among macro RTS games, not the standard.

[@lain963]

The auto-printer is a perfect analogy. I don't enjoy printing out one document at a time for work. Why would I want to do it for my games? Why not get rid of queueing altogether? Even manual queue is still an "auto-printer" My opinion is that the game should be automated as much as possible. Use AI to automate resource gathering. Even flash suggested tech research. It makes the game easier to introduce new players. Manual control and micro decision making will always be superior for competitive play. Automation isn't a threat to competitive play

[@TonyPapalia]

@@NakamuraRTS Player decision making is not impacted by auto-queue. You still need to decide what and when you build a unit and for how long. It just makes that process easier. "As for UI, the effort required to translate active decisions into gameplay should be minimized". Exactly! This is an argument FOR auto-queue. If you want to continuously produce a unit (active decision) auto-queue lets you do that easier (effort minimized) until you need to make a different decision. It's just an easier way to get the game to do what you want it to do, just like being able to build something in 2 hotkey presses is better than 4.

[@jaybuff3008]

The game kept crashing to desktop with a popup 'Process Explorer' is forbidden. I immediately got a refund from steam. Developers so stupid as to design a game that see Sysinternals Process Explorer as some kind of cheat or exploit I avoid.

[@MrGreaterGargadon]

If the accessibility narrator isn't on by default, then it's not going to do a very good job of serving the community that needs the feature very well, given that it's designed to help people with vision issues navigate through the game. There can absolutely be improvements to make the opt-out more intuitive, but the accessibility narrator should absolutely default to on.

[@Oathbreaker91]

but it was way too complicated to turn off! also i personally coudldn't even understand a thing beside 000000000 xD

[@MrGreaterGargadon]

@@Oathbreaker91 I think the saddest part about the example shown in the video, is that MembTV actually did successfully turn off the audio-assist, but because there was a delay with the assist turning off, he turned ended up turning it back on, and then only partially turned it off again.

[@agustinmiranda7313]

6:59 OH NO WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU KRONOS😭

[@frank6013]

Good video. The animations in general look bad though. Anubite, minotaur, that you mentioned. Battle boar looks awful, and all units very often slide around like they're on ice. Really glad you mentioned the water color. Black murky water for the Mediterranean is so stupid I cant believe it.

[@Oathbreaker91]

i think minotaur looks a 1000 times better than anubite. their animation looks like you want to let an action figure walk. really should adjust this a bit

[@kenjijohnsonsanzenin3388]

Are the titan gates repeatable?

[@le4-677]

Yes

[@BewegteBilderrahmen]

The help-narrator should be there by default and have a very obvious and immediate option that forces you to decide if you want one or not immediately at launch or even in the launcher, not mixed into other options or something you can skip, you need to have people make a decision. The AI voice is pretty bad in quality and very obnoxious but honestly I probably suffer far less from hearing it read a bit of unskippable text at the beginning once than someone who has visual issues will have with enabling it in a menu that they would need the text-to-speech aide to navigate.

[@mjers23]

beta good i just hate when as norse i have hotkeys for barrack units and i put control on my barrack and great hall hotkey change

[@calebbarnhouse496]

Idk dude it's beyond crazy that your defending someone who made a mistake with the disability selection, he immediately turned the narrator off, and then turned it back on, and apparently understood enough of what it was that decided he didn't want the other parts, his failure is 100% his fault

[@emrahagca99]

I think they will give 4 new greek heroes if they are going to add a new major god like Freyr. I hope we will see Hector and Orpheus :)

[@NakamuraRTS]

DEWIT

[@Oathbreaker91]

i hope we see circe playable and i want Penthesilea (which is a badass amazon) hector could be cool but orpheus? as a bard heroe class?

[@emrahagca99]

@@Oathbreaker91 yeah he could be a buffer :)

[@bebapfamily3008]

Graphics and physical very cool ❤❤❤

[@lorenzovrolijk]

On the medit map as portrayed in the video, you would expect somewhat murky water, as the clearness of the mediterranean is mostly caused by rocky porous shores (where sediment deposits). However, it should not be as murky as the north sea no matter what, which is notoriously murky.

[@eXcommunicate1979]

Yeah, the water on Greek maps should be gorgeously teal or turquoise. This gray murky water looks kinda bad. Missed opportunity for beauty in an otherwise beautiful game.

[@frank6013]

Your comment makes no sense and contradicts itself. The Mediterranean is beautiful and turquise. It should be like that in game

[@Vekkgods]

I first got AOM on my tenth birthday, my favourite game of all time. I'm now 31 😂

[@Oathbreaker91]

nice! :) i got it when i was 11 or 12 and it helped me through shitty puberty/school years and a loss in my family. i am 33 now ^^

[@GlencoeApartments]

Can you save long multiplayer games like in AoE 2 in AoM retold?

[@NakamuraRTS]

Yes, it's definitely possible, but less common. Team games typically last longer because a good ally stabilizes any disadvantage you might have.

[@Tharrilicious]

Chronos and Gaia look far worse than before in my opinion. Look kinda like marvel

[@sumerian88]

Perhaps we’ll get Titan skins and portraits?

[@mariuszgaaj2814]

In you opinion how strong the titans should be to be commonly used in multiplayer games?

[@NakamuraRTS]

I don't think they should be commonly used. Though they could be a bit more available than they are now. The main thing that stops them from being a thing is the build time on the titan gate itself. The opportunity cost is too high - your vills could be gathering a ton of resources, or your norse army could be fighting and killing enemies.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

They're never going to be common, except in large team games. Most multiplayer 1v1's end in Heroic Age, often even decided in Classical Age. The changes should push more games deeper into Heroic, and perhaps even Mythic. But titans still won't be seen much, and that's fine. Their purpose is to break stalemates. That's also what the Wonder does now as well btw.

[@AkantorJojo]

fair critisism :D I hope you're heared :+1:

[@Schmitty7546]

Crucial feedback! For me, I think readability will be one of the most important things to try and fix fast. Other 'AoM-curious' RTS players will drop the game fast, if they can't tell the human units apart in a busy melee.

[@NakamuraRTS]

It's especially hard to tell them apart before you get armory upgrades - should have mentioned that in the vid.

[@ForourLord95]

I agree with a lot of the criticism. However the villager being stuck thing happened in ee if not voobly. I think it is unacceptable in a new game. They should limit the amount you can have on a gold mine by making certain positions they stand in to mine or something. The unit collision looks bad. Smaller things should be able to push through bigger things like they do it just looks silly. I get why they did it but it created too many issues. I agree they shouldn't be able to counter pick knowing what you're gonna play. I always hated that in fighting games people would just keep picking your counter. If you leave room for degeneracy people will exploit it.

[@georgestain2803]

if they ignore some big balance issues like Valley of the Kings etc. they will be facing much bigger population drop than necessary. People are not villing to stick with inba games.

[@NakamuraRTS]

That's definitely very strong as a follow-up to Meteor. We'll have to see if people can handle it.

[@Kronder]

I miss the times where you get to play completed games where it does not feel like it is some cs student's weekend mobile game homework. I'm actually impressed with the game, it is way above my expectations but still it is the remake of THE AoM. It should have been better(as in more completed and without obvious A.I art). Feels really bad to see every gem of our era is milked to the bone for money without any actual effort.

[@HighiQGaming101]

What’s the unit cap at? And what is it online 3v3?

[@ikosaeder20]

16 houses each 10 pop = 160 pop. 3 tc per player each 15 pop, on top with fortify tc tech each +10 pop = 75 pop. ... so total 235 pop per player. More if you take your opponent's tc.

[@danpower7416]

I'm a bit pessimistic bc of the Wololo shortly after the release. If the game stays in this state with bad pathfinding and the bad and buggy spectatormode, the game will have a tough time to find it's way into real esport and without that it will meet the same fate as ee.

[@AoLIronmaiden]

I agree! I'm STOKED to have it part of Wololo, but if the game is an unfinished mess... That will do 100x more damage to its potential rather than doing good 😬

[@KeeNGaming]

i agree with everything you said, but having to press Q or W before making a building is simply stupid, I really hope they keep it this way where its just one click. Pressinh H on norse militairy is the same as having to press QW before building a building, so im not sure why u have an issue with 1 click building menu but not 2 click formation menu. They can easily just make the building menus smaller and move it a bit more towards the middle left, other than that great video. I also dont know why they still call ranked "AUTOMATCH" it just makes it more confusing for new players, even for me it was kinda confusing to see if these were ranked matches or something else. And I think they should display top ranked games on the menu to spectate, kinda like a featured games window.

[@ikosaeder20]

I suggest to rebind either building or military commands to Alt+key, that's how I did it in the past and how I did during beta. No need to toggle the UI at all. (edit: they disabled this function on retold! *so while on building view, you cannot use military hotkeys at all!* that's sooo bad)

[@lothar3073]

It isn't stupid and almost every RTS ever worth playing works that way.

[@KeeNGaming]

@@lothar3073 aom, aoe3, and aoeo all didnt and theres a bunch of rts games who also dont have it, its an outdated concept from an outdated time.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

​@@lothar3073give a single reason why you would ever want a villager to have anything that will slow down the building production process

[@MasterRohen]

we need a remake of the original osiris portrait , gave me chill, wtf is this new ****

[@dnaseb9214]

Optimistic to see china and aztecs, like the new god cards for atlanteans(the Xena estetic of the past wasnt my thing). My problems with the game would be : voice acting direction, fault of the director instructing the actors to sound lifeless and use heavy accents, the character portrets during cutscenes look very sterile and lack artistic flare, god portrets look ai made with strange hands and 6 fingers on Osiris they didnt have an intern to go over them with photoshop and correct them ?, possible ESG infiltration due to berzerk being male/female (should have been the housecarl if they wanted to do it to a unit, the berzerker looks dumb). I refunded, and will wait to see the campaign in its full version before I decide. If they changed the story to add esg in it, its a pirate from me. If they kept it the same, I will think about it.

[@dnaseb9214]

I have definitive edition anyways, so its not a must buy from me

[@the_mad_hat5909]

I was convinced 20 of those 18 minutes would be about pathfinding ;)

[@NakamuraRTS]

Nah that's what the live streams are for!

[@homemateTV]

cant play for my own vs KI that sucks.

[@Lexgamer]

Also disagree that it's a game for adults. AoM was one of my favorite games as a kid. The style here looks wonderful.

[@NakamuraRTS]

It was viable for kids back in the early 2000s. This is not a game for gen alpha, but a remake of an old game. Don't expect miracles.

[@Lexgamer]

@@NakamuraRTS To each his own.

[@juanfisi]

The UI sucks hard, like they couldn't have mande it any worse. Don't get me wrong I like most of what they did, the AI drawings is something I ignored, now that I know it I can't unsee it and it honestly angers me a lot. Hope there is a way to patch or mod that in the future, in fact I hope this has a big moding comunity, that would make it get a much longer life and a better comunity.

[@tatane7999]

the idea that rts is for mature gamers is one of the big problems with the rts comunity . i understand that rts are harder than most games and fortnite and call of duty attract more attention from younger gamers but i think rts developers should try to get new audience for this game genre. This way of thinking is the reason other communities believe that rts players are elitist. Regarding the rest of the points made in the video, I have nothing to add, everything was presented clearly and fairly and I agree with the majority of the opinions given.

[@NakamuraRTS]

Look mate, I have respect for those who try, but you cannot make a classic RTS and expect it to work with gen alpha. This is a game from the early 2000s with fresh paint and some tweaks. Let's be realistic.

[@tatane7999]

​@@NakamuraRTS I agree 100% and maybe it's naive of me to think that retold is the right game to try but it was the type of game I played at that age. If generation alpha plays another type of game, it does not mean that there are no gamers from that generation who do not want to play a more complex type of game. The main reason why I commented the above is because I still remember the first time my brother showed me Warcraft 3 when he came back from school and I instantly fell in love with the game and if there is a single child who may not feel attracted to Fortnite and discovers the rts community I would like any game that is introduced to them to have qualities that make people want to play it even if only the art, as you said before, I also respect a lot of those who try it but if they can try something in this game without affecting the playability I think that it is worth trying.

[@fulguratingbean9489]

I don't care in the slightest about build orders and all of this ranked nonsense. I noticed major buffs to most units that add flavor and just an unmistakable cool factor, and I don't care if it's not balanced. It's fun, and that's all that matters. Honestly I think the gameplay changes are mostly fantastic so far. But the god portraits are AI-made and that's unacceptable so... I got a refund.

[@ninver6887]

My hope is pretty minor. 2 things, fix some of the god portraits, and the campain dialogue.

[@lordoffortuneladies2755]

Cool :)

[@JeHathor]

I strongly disagree regarding the nemean lion stun attack. This is not a good change for balance.

[@NakamuraRTS]

Spread formation, split your guys away, focus with heroes :D Of course if you facetank it, it's busted.

[@JeHathor]

@@NakamuraRTS Why remove insta kill abilities and then introduce something broken like that?

[@ttkb9620]

agree with u the icones an images are trash. They could have asked to an drawer, painter artist to create them instead of using AI.

[@firstname4865]

The user interface is all over the place for sure. Compact is better

[@CorruptorPeste]

Agree. The game will not be ready in 6 weeks or 8... For every notorious bug there are 5 behind.

[@NakamuraRTS]

100% true.

[@marjimanrts]

WHY YOU PLAYING ON LOW GRAPHICS?

[@NakamuraRTS]

Everything is maxed other than foliage, which I turned off so that I can see farms and animals in the grass.

[@Oathbreaker91]

why not? whats the issue their are settings for a reason you know

[@elcarpincho987]

15:53 It's the same problem as spellforce 3

[@NakamuraRTS]

Not at all. SpellForce has 3 rows of UI buttons, and attack move is on A by default as is standard across the genre.

[@elcarpincho987]

@@NakamuraRTS Sorry, I was referring to minute 15:53. I just edited the comment

[@NakamuraRTS]

@@elcarpincho987 ah yes that is true, units are quite slippery in both

[@marekkos3513]

The units animations looks so bad, and robotic.I dont get it in 2024 they are making games , that look like 2010 ?.They should hire Relic for remastering this game

[@itswakkowarner]

Agree with everything except the Anubis run animation. It's too funny looking to change.

[@NakamuraRTS]

It's the thing I mind the least tbh.

[@frank6013]

it makes the game look like mobile trash

[@Oathbreaker91]

i think anubite walk animation is more annoying to the eye than nearly everthing else graphically - some god potrait issues aside.

[@Ixidor13]

The ui is horrendous, it really repels me

[@legendgod1385]

EXPLAINED LIKE A PRO. I HAD SENT A COMPLAINT TO THE TEAM BUT THEY DID IN A VERY BRIEF WAY.

[@Pac0110]

Nice critique. I just disagree a bit in the narrator part, it should be on by default, but deactivating it should be super easy and simple, maybe just put a lot of options and one big NARRATOR ON/OFF option, which disables all other options, making the settings so granular everytime it's not good, that's why we usually have a "master volume" option and a mute for all, not mute for music, voices, etc. but that's an easy fix. Turning narrator off by default is like putting a wheelchair for someone that needs it above some stairs

[@ikosaeder20]

Using your metaphor to explain the two perpectives/solutions: By turning on narrator by default, you place a wheelchair (hidden under a blanked with a note "sit") right in front of the main entrance where everyone has to enter the building at first. (1) The majority that can walk are blocked by an unknown obstacle. The note won't help them identify the cause, so they won't realize they have to turn "sitting" off. They are clueless because there is a solution presented that does not address their needs, they might have never heard about that note. *How about we give them a more useful explanation?* (2) The minority that need a wheelchair already KNOW their issue beforehand - they lived their whole life that way. They actively look out for things to make their life easier and know what "sit" means, so why can't we move the wheelchair right next to the entrance (present on entrance but turned off) *and put a HUGE note right beside it?* And why is the wheelchair not already part of the transportation to the building (how were they able to install the game in the first place)?

[@matthewbritt7485]

The main issue I have is the campaign VAs. They have got to give us the option to have the classic VAs. The new VAs suck ass