Civs getting too different?
Hi everyone, I guess this will be an unpopular opinion, but I hope we can have some honest discussion without getting mad at each other. Also please consider that I am writing this as a gold ranked casual player who plays 2-3 hours every few days, so this might influence my take.
To make it short, I love AOE4 and loved initially at release that all 8 civs where mostly so different, but I feel like it is getting a bit out of hand with each new civ having so many unique units and a completely different take on the macro. Even the variants are not only variants, they have mostly completely different units & a different playstyle than the parent civs.
The number of "special" and hard to play civs is in my opinion way bigger than the number of more basic civs like English or French, which should never happen in a game in my opinion.
I am someone who doesn't main anything, I love playing every civ just to have some variety. But that means soo much theory and reading and knowledge. A civ like Macedonian is considered difficulty 1/3, having more unique than basic units, a fifth resource and unique technology plus the landmark with more unique units.
With each new civ bringing at least 3-5 unique units, different buildings and on top of that 6 unique landmarks, which get more and more text with each new civ, I am having a hard time developing any match up knowledge without investing hours day to day and remembering everything. Before you could hover over a landmark and see quickly "ah this is a more efficient keep with some unique technology". Now it is some active ability forest creating, grassland spawning, monks garrisoning converter building. I know I am exaggerating here, but I think this is a pattern you can observe.
Even the same unique unit (Palace Guard) can have different stats in different civs.
In this tempo we will have 40-50 civs in 5 years with over 250 unique units and buildings
I feel like it tries to mix the race differences like in SC or WC3 with the amount of civs in AOE2, which I am not sure can work perfectly for casual players.
For someone invested in this game, playing several hours a day, what I am writing here sounds probably ridiculous, but maybe there are some people who share some of the stuff I am writing? In theory I love each civ, every difference they have and I am looking forward to the 2 new ones later this year, but in practice I feel like everything could be more streamlined without lowering the fun I have with the game.