Scout report

Hello again everyone, I previously posted two new civilizations along with their unique units and gameplay mechanics, which might arrive next year since these are civilizations that players have been requesting (myself included). Unfortunately, I couldn’t add the other missing civilization due to lack of time and space. This time, I bring you the Italian civilization with its unique mechanics and units specific to each kingdom. I hope you like it, and as always, any constructive feedback is welcome. Italian Merchant Republics: Naval_jack_of_Italy.svg 960×960 145 KB The Italian merchant republics are divided into several kingdoms, each with its own cultural aspects and attributes that grant your civilization a certain prestige, both economic and military. The era advancement system is based on alliances with the Italian republics, and instead of unique or distinctive buildings, each Italian kingdom sends you a construction cart, which automatically builds a pawnshop. You can use this pawnshop to strengthen your finances by investing and receiving double the resources over time, thus generating a rich and robust economy. Unique Building: Monte di Pietà (A unique Italian building that allows you to invest one resource to generate more of another. It also features exclusive technologies to generate higher income and further reduce interest rates. You can own a maximum of three pawn shops; if one is destroyed, you can bring another one from your city center for an additional fee). Monte di Pietà 830×884 410 KB Unique Units: Mounted Spy (unique Italian explorer who uses a long dagger with a bonus against other explorers, has the ability of stealth to avoid being seen by the enemy). Spy 1024×1024 57.5 KB Cardinal (italian unique priest that heals units faster than a basic monk, radiates an aura that slows down the attack of enemy units). Cardinal 1200×1192 311 KB Venetian Merchant (The Venetian Merchant is a significantly improved version of the Merchant. Not only is he mu

The issue is not that cavalry is meta and should be built every single team game. The issue here is balance - civs with stronger cavalry simply stomp on those without it. If English, Chinese and HRE have stronger cavalry to match French, Mongol, and Japanese/Sengoku, there would be no complaint. So here is an easy fix: + Stone Walls are cheaper but weaker. + Quarries contain less stones. This would allow players to set up Stone Walls more quickly to counter cavalry raid, especially in team games, but the walls would be easier to take down in a siege and you can't turtle behind it when the enemy is determined.

So, I'm finding myself unable to get out of low team ranked, after going all the way up to Platinium. Went to platinum one, then started getting bad teams one after another, until I got knocked all the way down to silver 3 and still losing. All of a sudden, a pattern has emerged where I continually get matched up with teammates way below me, and I find myself continually in 2v1 or 3v1 battles because my teammates don't have armies together, don't have a eco going to sustain after the first battle, or just spam one cavalry even while getting rolled by spears and crossbows. Like, its been two straight days of this, and I'm heading into silver 2 fast, after just having been in plat I two days ago. WTF is going on?

I am a new (and bad) player that started playing AoE4 as my first RTS a couple months ago, and I joined my first ranked match about a month ago (I have not played QM yet). I tried several civs at the start, but settled on China as my "main" since I like a lot of the mechanics. Yesterday I started trying Zhu Xi feudal rushing, and I have been very successful in climbing with it, but I don't feel like I am learning as much as when I played some of the other civs. With China my plan would change a ton from game to game, and I would make mistakes and lose because of them, and learn. With Zhu Xi though, it feels like the only thing I really change is what units I produce, but the plan has almost always been the same, and it just seems to work, which is good, but I feel like it is covering up many of my mistakes and preventing me from being punished for them, if that makes sense? I also don't feel like I have to think as much with it. I scout, see what enemy is making, produce counters, and send a death ball in with siege engineering, and most of the time the game has ended in 15 minutes or less. I am only Gold III (like I said, new and bad!), so I'm sure if I continue to climb I will start getting punished more, but would it be better for me to just switch back to China and continue learning with it? I am happy to climb in rank of course, but my priority is learning and improving quickly, and I am uncertain if what I am doing now will stagnate my progress a bit. Sorry for length of this, and thanks in advance for any input! Here are my stats if that helps: https://aoe4world.com/players/25303957-sudosleep/

Build Number: latest on Steam Platform: Steam Operating System: Windows 11 Issue: When I select in a multiplayer game random nation selection, first it works fine, but if I start a new game, even though the random nation was selected - I always get the same nation again, even if I do it multiple times. The only workaround I found is to manually select any other nation, then again random nation, and only then it works. (please provide a detailed description of the issue) (use the upload button to include a picture or video of the issue in action if possible) Trigger Event: see above (what was happening at the time of the issue. this could be an action you or another player took right before the issue started) Repro Steps: see above (List the steps needed to reproduce the issue) (Indicate if you were able to reproduce this, to help us identify frequency of the issue) (etc)**

My Elo in 4v4 team play fluctuates between 1000 and 1400, but… recently I started experimenting with other civilizations, actually I started playing with Mongols… And playing with Mongols in Elos above 1200 is very easy. The option of building Dark Age cavalry is very attractive and works well in higher Elos. So I started perfecting my attack technique from the Dark Ages. However, I wasn’t in a high Elo, and in low Elos this technique of attacking early simply doesn’t work. When you’re at a high level and aggressive, your team reacts positively. They take advantage of the few extra minutes of peace they have to start with a good economy and produce armies as quickly as possible, already expecting a reaction from the other side and paying attention to the game. But why doesn’t this work in low Elos? To understand this, we have to view Elo ratings as if they were company positions, and the players’ intelligence as the skill level of the professionals in that company. So the tournament winner can be referred to as the CEO. Conquer III players as the main shareholders on the board of directors… and they are the highest Elo players. But below Elo 1000, with Gold I, Silver, and Bronze players, we have what we can call the factory floor, or pawns. And when you apply advanced and aggressive tactics in a low Elo, there’s a high chance they will fail. The reason is quite simple… noob players can’t keep up with the game and have no predictability of what might happen. So if you’re aggressive with Mongol and have a noob team, the enemy team will militarize and launch a counter-attack that your team didn’t notice, didn’t prepare for, and has no idea how to defend against. Another thing that stands out in low Elo is that they can’t do the basics! If you play as a Mongol, the other team prepares with walls, castles, more walls, etc… but your team doesn’t build a single wooden wall! Low Elo is for long games, where people can build their economy. Attacking quickly in low Elo genera

Platform: Steam Operating System: Windows 10 Issue: It’s actually two bugs: 10000 bolts upgrade for crossbows doesn’t apply the supposed bonus damage to the second bolt. The other bug is that crossbows when at max range, the second bolt deals maximum (full) base damage - like the first bolt (- but still still without any bonus damage). I’ve tested and reproduced it multiple times across multiple versions of the game and the bug is still there…