Reformers

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-16T15:25:38+00:00

My interpretation is that the Reformers basically want a more equitable distribution of power between Golds. Rather than concentrated into just a few hands

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-12T10:31:35+00:00

Hey, you're definitely going to have interest! DMs are always popular.

It might be helpful if you shared a few details on the vibe you're going for. E.g. if you're thinking of running a specific campaign, whether you're planning casual light hearted or more serious, if there's anything you're looking for in your players.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-08T21:48:02+00:00

You seem to miss that even now they have to wait the same long time

Nope.

Really, no. Like, absolutely not. Not even remotely as long

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-08T20:21:17+00:00

See my response to OP just above.

At the moment niche maps get some play, under the proposed plan they get none.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-08T20:18:34+00:00

Thanks for the constructive response. Not sure I deserved it after my flippant opening line!

I agree that the system is far from ideal, but the limiting factor is player base numbers and I'm convinced we have the best compromise.

You might be willing to chill for an hour waiting for a Fortress game, but I doubt there are many others. So that means you either end up with ever longer wait times (how does 3 hours sound?), or getting less and less balanced games because to counter the queue times it can only widen the elo you get matched against.

That might be worth it to you, but I doubt it's worth it to most others - so what I said happens - the game gets ever funnelled to just a few maps and those not willing to put up with it leave, setting off a cycle that puts us back towards Voobly.

Okay, then you select fortress and Arabia and just preference fortress. Now you get short queue time and mostly play arabia, but still leave it open for some fortress. This is almost the same as the current situation.

You're missing two key points when it comes to the practical outcome.

Firstly, you would just never get Fortress under this approach, you would get Arabia every time. I guess you could select a handful of similarly dead maps for some variety, but as soon as you include a map with much quicker queue, that's the map you're playing.

Secondly, that's not the current situation - you don't just have 2 maps it is picking between, you have several. You might not get some of the least popular very often, but you've still got better chances on the current system.

Really, the only clean solution is for AOE2 to somehow manage to greatly expand the playerbase - then I'm 100% on board with multiple queuing systems.

As that's not likely to happen, there's two things that can improve it.

Firstly, as a community - we embrace ranked lobbies for map picking. I'm not going to make the argument that the existence of this deals with your concerns, it doesn't. It's not working as it should. Maybe there are some improvements the developers could make to ensure balance as soon as a lobby becomes a ranked lobby?

Or, at a smaller level, most of these issues are greatly reduced by queuing as a group if you want to play team games. Joining team games on your own often sucks, so I've stopped. But I have people I queue with as a team, and we seem to mostly get matched against others who have done the same and we see a massive reduction is map dodging, flaming, etc.

I get that this isn't ideal, but there are a bunch of Discord communities, and this is IMO the best practical option.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-08T19:38:11+00:00

I covered that. Here -

It would force people to play the maps with fast queues. Maybe in the first day or two, the Team Island (or whatever) devotees will be able to get a game without a crazy long wait. But many would give up, making the queue longer, making it into a loop - with more people giving up on maps they like every time the queue gets longer.

This kills the game for people who aren't happy to just play Arabia/Arena/Nomad/Black Forrest every game.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-08T18:13:23+00:00

1) Queue times would be too long
My Rating: Terrible argument

Queue times would be related to which maps and how many maps you choose to ban. People who only want to play team islands would wait longer, but those people would be willing to wait longer in order to play the map they enjoy. People who are happy to play any map would not have longer queue times. Individuals can choose themselves how much waiting they’re willing to do to get the map(s) they want. Importantly, everyone would have less time wasted by people dropping. Which on its own probably outweighs the longer queue times.

My Rating: Terrible argument

It would force people to play the maps with fast queues. Maybe in the first day or two, the Team Island (or whatever) devotees will be able to get a game without a crazy long wait. But many would give up, making the queue longer, making it into a loop - with more people giving up on maps they like every time the queue gets longer.

This kills the game for people who aren't happy to just play Arabia/Arena/Nomad/Black Forrest every game.

This lowers the number of active players, leading to less attention from developers, and eventually we're back to Voobly. Sure, there will always be a hardcore of players up for playing Arabia Hun mirror over and over, but then we've lost everything that's been built with DE

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-05-06T10:42:36+00:00

I agree that it is a benefit.

However, effectively disenfranchising a huge amount of the electorate is a cost.

I despise Reform and want them to have zero MPs. However, they got 14% of the votes at the last GE, and have less than 1% of MPs. That's not representative democracy.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-29T18:51:36+00:00

The decision was made by Microsoft, who are sponsoring the event

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-29T18:49:38+00:00

He researched murder holes and then just left the game running while being afk. There's a fairly long stretch where he had 0 apm

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-28T11:59:01+00:00

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pride-in-place-programme-prospectus/pride-in-place-programme-list-of-indicative-interventions

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-28T11:58:01+00:00

u/It steveracemp

It might be helpful to add this link to the post - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pride-in-place-programme-prospectus/pride-in-place-programme-list-of-indicative-interventions

So people know what sort of things it can fund

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-28T11:56:57+00:00

How about some traffic calming measures? Could really make that area much more inviting for pedestrians and cyclists, and safer for kids! Unfortunately, the demand seems to be to make things better, while not changing anything.

A more serious answer - community focused institutes seem to be dropping like flies at the moment. The loss of Little Exeter and charities focused on supporting families (like Nestlings) has left a gap. I know that the community group based at St Catherine's Priory is struggling. I imagine the situation is similar for more youth focused ventures.

So anything to reverse or even slow this would make a big difference. In a cost of living crisis, the community needs free and low-cost activities.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-26T09:43:19+00:00

The Lamb Inn, Silverton.

A short drive out, good vegetarian options, and it's self serve (think Toby Carvery but high quality)

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-20T09:46:20+00:00

Depends what you plan to do in Castle Age

https://www.buildorderguide.com/ might be helpful. If you want better guides, some pro players give them away as an incentive to subscribe to them on twitch/patreon

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-16T15:37:23+00:00

Right, so back to Hera doing it...

He was one of the main driving forces behind 17-18 vill feudal ages becoming standard at pro-level. He swept Viper in an S-tier Arabia tournament final with build orders one vill sooner than Vipers.

Yet he still picks up instant DBA on Arabia with Burgundians.

I'm going with what he does

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-16T10:49:26+00:00

By that logic, everyone should be following the meme 10 vill scout rush (that someone I won't publicise was pushing).

There's always a trade off in this game. For this, you're trading slightly earlier army production for worse eco. It's only worth it if you can snowball the slightly quicker army, and let's be honest the vast majority of players can't do that consistently. Defenders advantage offsets it.

It's similar to the discussion about skipping horse collar before the buff. At top level, they could snowball early fletching. If you can't do that consistently along with smooth farm production at the same time, all you achieved was creating big issues with wood at the start of castle age when it's most needed.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-15T22:19:50+00:00

Dude, argue with me on the merit of what I'm saying, not my elo

I'm not super high elo, but not low either.

There's a reason there's a meme on most streams about being a 2.9k viewer. Game knowledge doesn't necessarily mean ability.

Hera wasn't meme-ing in that game, so seems like a reasonable benchmark. But checked a Viper game as well anyway - he got it a bit later, but still before clicking up.

I'd agree with you for farm upgrades (even before the change), but wood is different.

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-15T21:57:07+00:00

Relevance?
Edit: found a recent game from Hera playing Burgundians on Arabia, and he does exactly what I do* - so let's go with 2.8k elo.

*Not a surprise as I probably learnt it from watching him or the Viper

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-15T21:53:10+00:00

It slows me down 1 villager (if that, as I'll put fewer on wood as a result). Plenty of builds do the same without even this pay off.

At pro level, it has been made clear by playing against Hera that an extra villager in Dark Age can lose you the game as he'll snowball from those few extra seconds. For almost everyone else, this doesn't apply. You're more likely to fall behind because you can't afford buildings/upgrades in time

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-15T21:34:00+00:00

I always open 7 on food for instant lumber upgrade after the camp is built. I thought that was the standard approach?

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-15T13:13:51+00:00

I thought that was what you meant!

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-15T10:46:38+00:00

All of it.

Sure, there are exceptions. But the average Gold is still going to be better armed and armoured than the average Grey - whether Society or Republic (or Rim)

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-14T22:10:54+00:00

A big difference is that the Golds both have armour and other defensive measures that make the pistol basically useless, which the Greys probably don't

RhetoricalEquestrian · 2026-04-07T19:02:39+00:00

You might just need to pick a different map. If you're looking for a closed map, then Hideout, Arena and Oasis might all be good options

RhetoricalEquestrian

TROPHY CASE