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But you can still choose to buy? I don’t get it
Not everything is unlocked. You have 3 weekly civ on rotation and you can't play ranked.
As just a random fun fact, I'd like to point out that a similar system was used in AoE2HD, where even with just the base game, you had rotating civs from expansions that you were free to use.
Maybe we can expect something like this to come to 2DE too?
I think we're still doing too well for that. I liked that system of free rotating civs tho
Why not allow ranked? At the end of the day, more people on ranked is better for the game. Just limit free users' options, like no civ pick, no map bans etc...
Smurfs
The signup should take about the same time as making a family share account.
You could also pose other limits at signup that would limit unlimited accounts.
You can already share your game on Steam for free. There wont be more smurfs
even if ranked is locked, can i play coop (pvp/pve) with my friends?
You get a limited version for free, 1 act of the campaign, 1 historical battle, 8 maps or so, 3 civs, no ranked, on a rotating schedule
back in my day we used to call that a "demo" lol.
Trial versions of Age of Empires were fun. Especially the campaigns that were unique to them.
I can get cracked game for that duh give me some multiplayer...
Main reason aoe3 is dead is because not many people play multiplayer and by giving more people multiplayer you attract them to the game and maybe even buy some dlcs
Edit: nvm im dumbass who can't read
so basically i cant start a quick campaign with the portuguese, for example, right? i need to pay to play?
Something interesting to note: players from the "free" (better call it trial version) can play together with players from the full version. If a player from the full version hosts a game on a map that isn't included in the free version, the trial version player still can join and play the game. So win-win for everyone and a good way to promote the game
That is kind of a big deal, its almost skirting the restrictions
So basically u just need one friend to buy the game who always keeps hosting any map they want and the others can just join freely
Here are the differences between free and full game, for anyone interested:
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe3/comments/15h1tcq/i_made_a_table_roughly_breaking_down_the_content/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1
Been on my wishlist forever, good news
Has it not been on a decent sale?
Yeah but I'm a cheap cunt and have other priorities lol
What’s up my fellow bogan
Your nationality detector is a tad off lol
Yeah it was but i personally decided to get aoe2 de because it had 100k active players atm while aoe3 de had only 14k and i bought aoe only because of muptiplayer (already played campaigns and skirmishes on cracked versions as a kid)
Title is kind of misleading, they basically now have a free trial version with limited functionality
Probably not Xbox?
Yes, this is Steam exclusive
that's pretty cool and a business model I can get behind. Right now (2pm europe) aoe3 DE has over 10k players on Steam, which is probably like 10 times the players it used to have.
i'd love something similar for aoe2 DE.
Aoe 2 de has almost 100k players on daily basis i don't think this will happen soon to it, could happen to original aoe de which would be cool.
My understanding is that they decided to give the game for free because people who bought game on sale now have novody to play with as the game is almost dead so now free players get to experience the game and people who bought get to play multiplayer more often.
https://steamcharts.com/app/813780
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you are telling me that there are 5 times more players on xbox and Microsoft store than on steam?
It would be cool to have same version for Aoe2
Meh, just buy it. It's pretty fun to play once in a while with friends as it evolves into epic battles.
It ain't free by a long shot, that's a trial/demo version, just with a different name.
Not even with a different name. It is called trial on the linked page.
Bruh imma go download this
Nice. I think all the aoe games bring something unique to the table, and I’d love to see a surge of players discovering aoe3. Hopefully this can bring some new or returning players into the game. Aoe3 is very unique, I love it.
That's certainly an interesting marketing scheme.
This is amazing, I found out for free that it runs like shit on my laptop lol
50 gb. Goddam, how did they manage to keep the ungodly amount of space usage. Had to get rid of a bunch of shit just to learn that i no longer have an up to date gaming pc.
4k assets are downloaded anyway because there is a setting that allows you to use them even in fullhd monitor (the image will look crispier, but gpu usages increases too much, because its a 3d game)
Kinda weird to have only 3 civs weekly, but tbh it's free so I won't complain, especially that it isn't my fav Aoe
Well, it's a trial version more or less
Yup it's still nice though
Is AOE3 any good these days? I remember getting the game 20 years ago for Christmas and being so disappointed after a few years playing AOE2!
It's a good game. It's just important to keep in mind that each Age game stands on its own :)
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It says Act 1: Blood which would be 8 levels, plus one historical battle so 9 total. I can’t try the free version though, is that wrong?
You must be young lol.
Tiberian Sun demo had whopping 2 levels XD
The Demo of Conquerors only had the first Montezuma mission :D
Tib sun demo levels were unique so you still had the reason to play it after buying.
Same with AOE1 levels
One campaign and one historical battle
No, it's not. That's a demo version.
Ahh I had purchased it just a month ago
So you're good to go as the free version is more or less a demo
If they deploy this shit with 2 it'll be the biggest slap in the face to everyone who bought dlcs.
It isn't because the game isn't "free" in the traditional sense - it's more like a trial version with a small selection of the game. In case of AoE 3, that's three civs that rotate weekly, 8 maps, the first act of the campaign, a historic battle and access to unranked multiplayer. To unlock the full game minus the DLC civs you still have to purchase it.
Good. Feels like they're dipping their toes in to then see how far they can take it
Ngl, I wish they'd do that with the other Age games as well. It's such a shame that the era of widespread demo versions seems to be gone
"I had to pay for it so everyone else should"
Same argument people use to deny other things like free healthcare and education
Not the same at all, those are different with majorly different ramifications. Melodrama made manifest right there
That would be interesting if this were the AoE3 subreddit.
Idk 97 % upvotes on OP's post pretty much shows that this is interesting
Interesting, you're not a moderator and you're not the OP, so what did you click to see that info?
Afaik that one currently only works on PC: hover over the number of votes and after a few secs it says the percentage of upvotes
Thanks for the hint. Weirdly it doesn't work for me: there's no hover info on the normal reddit site, and it just repeats the total score if I hover on on old.reddit.com.
On old.reddit.com I can see the 97% upvoted stat on the righthand side bar.
nice, but I still won't play it
Eh...
Still not worth it. I'll stick with AoE2.
It's a Good game
The game is simply worse than Aoe2, why would i play it even if it is free?
It's not worse. And I'm saying that as someone who initially hated it but then started appreciating it with its DE.
Bro as someone who grew up with both of them it most definitely is worse. There’s a reason aoe2 has always had a fanbase that stuck around, even look at steamcharts man there’s 5x more people on aoe2 at any given time and thats not even including Voobly.
Popularity isn't the same thing as quality, though.
I also grew up with both of them, and I just don't think it's a very worthwhile comparison. They're in the same series, but AoE2 and AoE3 are built very differently. I think most people will prefer one over the other depending on their tastes, but I find it hard to say much past that. AoE3 definitely isn't a poorly-made game, at the very least.
"Bro" as someone who gave the game a fair chance without looking with the AoE 2 fan goggles with it, it's neither better nor worse. It's a good game. AoE 3 also had a fanbase that stuck around, ESOC kept this game alive after Ensemble was shut down.
It had less players because of a variety of reasons including high system requirements for its release or the era the game depicted as middle ages is simply cooler for more people than the gunpowder era. The game received great reviews but somehow got its reputation over time.
The biggest thing that hurt AoE3 was early word of mouth that circled curious fans back to AoE2. The first release of AoE3 had most of the new mechanic, the card system, locked behind an xp wall. Thankfully it was 2007 so MTX wasn't considered, but a lvl 35 player would have a massive materials advantage over a lvl 8 player who hadn't quite unlocked essential cards like 700 Wood, 2 Falconets, 3 Settler Wagons 2 Uhlans, or even the essential Factory building. Players would log in, get stomped by a higher level player, and then go back to the game that was proven to be functional over AoE3's radical experiments.
"AOE3 is the future!"
<idontthinkiwill.gif>
isnt aoe3 dead?
Never was. It always had a small but very dedicated community.
I had the game before this update. Now apparently I have to buy it again along with the DLC I already owned... its like it literally just deleted it off my account, I had the Africa and USA DLC - with achievements to prove it and all of a sudden i decided to play (as I do on and off) and now I can only play 3 civs? Is this issue just with me? I can't even access mods anymore and some of my decks are messed up because I played exclusively skirmish with mods. Thanks AOE3DE devs.
just write to their support channel. Should be a link in game as well.
nah bro just download a pirated version at this point
yeah no ranked is so bad