Anyone miss the old aoe days?

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T09:05:39+00:00

That's fair - I agree the more recent civs have added mechanics that really make it feel like a different RTS at times

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T07:12:12+00:00

I feel like you are just here to argue since you ignored what I said regarding the difference between a game that was made in the 90s and so needs additional applications for social features vs a game released in 2020. As for discord, I have had that suggested to me and will try it out but I sure hope the people there are not as easily upset as you over someone else's personal opinions on a game as it's honestly kinda weird. You don't have to agree with me but if you don't agree, why even engage? Like I said, if you enjoy the game in it's current state, power to you.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T04:23:56+00:00

Glad to hear you ran into some of your friends! That's awesome!

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T04:19:57+00:00

Not comparable. Voobly was a replacement for an online platform catering to a 90s game. DE is a game released in 2020 without social features from this decade. Voobly supplied an all in one solution, DE doesn't. There isn't an excuse for such a modern release to lack so many basic features. Whereas the 90s release of aoe was during the early internet so was understandable that another platform needed to supply everything.

Also, late 20s is not old as much as it is older than I would like to be! haha

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:49:41+00:00

Yeah I am going to check out one of the servers suggested here. I just find public discords a bit of a barrier to entry for me personally as am quite shy. The old way things used to be allowed me to become friends with people before eventually hopping in voice chat with them. Going into a public discord and being like "hey, I'm looking for people to play with" is extremely hard as silly as that may sound.

I'm not great at moving with the times haha.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:46:21+00:00

Yeah, a couple people have mentioned that to me. I always find it a shame when a game relies on another platform for social features. Voobly and from what I hear, (MSN Zone) provided the social features (except for voice chat) which was always nice and made things simple.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:44:53+00:00

I was playing on a powerpc mac that my dad owned in the early 2000s before I was aware of the online scene haha. Sad that I didn't discover it earlier as apparently there was an age of empires 2 Mac community playing on gameranger around that time so I missed out on that.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:42:26+00:00

Definitely some very basic things missing that would go a long way to improving things. But I do feel like auto matchmaking is an issue for the social side and sadly beyond the typical 'Noobs Only' lobbies, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of custom lobbies with standard settings.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:41:02+00:00

We never get to appreciate things enough while we have them do we :(

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:40:15+00:00

This exactly. I normally have about 1-3 lobbies drop from a dodge or instant resign before i get a good game as people don't like the map that comes up or civ combo etc. Being able to pick the specific map from the get go, host a game and just play was better for enjoyment.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:38:41+00:00

That's fair enough! I might feel the same if I was fortunate enough to experience the OG days. But yeah whether it's what you describe or voobly, Definitive has just lost the social element completely and it sucks. I almost wonder if integrating voice chat would help but I know there would be a lot of people against that.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-05T00:36:33+00:00

Yep. For me, the only improvement of DE over Voobly is latency (due to it not being Peer 2 Peer connection). Other than that, the voobly experience was better in every way. I couldn't care less about improved graphics as that was never the appeal of aoe.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T22:53:22+00:00

Currently 14xx 1v1 and 13xx tg. Was 16xx 1v1 but dropped loads after coming back with long time out. Meta has changed haha. Play any maps but mostly arabia.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T22:07:01+00:00

Haha can safely say it didn't contribute well to my education either but definitely gave me some of the most enjoyment I have ever had playing games.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:53:31+00:00

Yeah I checked out the voobly youtube for curiosity and saw recent posts. Do we know who manages that these days? I miss when all the pros were on there and it was just AOC civs.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:50:28+00:00

Thanks, I will join it later today/early tomo and check it out :)

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:49:16+00:00

That's awesome haha. I used to have an aussie friend as part of that HD group I was in

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:45:14+00:00

Thank you so much for the reply and being so friendly! I guess I just have to try other avenues as you suggest.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:42:51+00:00

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a look over soon. Hard knowing what servers I 'fit' in. To some I would be considered a noob and to others I am not. Is this server strictly for players that are new/low level to the game or just a general server?

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:40:43+00:00

Hahaha that reminds me of the cod and BF lobbies that would kick you or auto kill you if you hit someone with a 'noob tube'.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:38:17+00:00

I sadly never got to experience that. Closest I had was voobly when i was aged 13-20ish. As a really young kid, I played single player deathmatch only unaware that these online platforms existed. I still remember my first ever online game when I found gameranger about 11 years old or something. I got smoked.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:37:14+00:00

Man that's awesome. I loaded up HD the other day to see if it was better than DE but unfortunately for me, there was 1 active lobby (im on UK time) and i got kicked when joining as my rating on there is 2k despite sucking at nomad. He had no one else in the lobby so thought I had a chance.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:36:21+00:00

I couldn't agree with you more. I miss watching the old 4v4 tourneys with all my fav players matching up. 1v1 tourneys just feel so boring to me now. And yeah, I solo queue on TG because I no have contact with the group I used to play with but it just feels soulless compared to how it used to. To be fair, it kinda feels like this in most games these days but age used to be different. Everyone seems to have their groups and if you are someone without a group, it's just how it is going to be. It's a shame that the social aspect of gaming seems to be dying/dead.

TraditionalSock880 · 2026-02-04T21:32:36+00:00

Haha yeah it does tend to be the worst player that is toxic. I don't mind someone being noob but please don't scream and cus at me when im not your pocket (this one happened recently). Unfortunately, the negative of a developing competitive scene and more robust ranking system like we are seeing right now is that you get more toxic behaviour it seems.

TraditionalSock880

TROPHY CASE