Ever wonder why people ruthlessly boot you from team games on ESO? Here are a few things to avoid to help you improve and avoid that leather.
New players can easily be identified by villager count and especially early in the game. New players often make the mistake of thinking that in order to advance faster your required to stop building villagers. While not withdrawing food from your surplus for villagers will certainly make it increase, the harsh reality is your overall production will be too weak to create any sort of army or be competitive with more veteran players. In addition your future advances will be especially slow as the requirements for advancing to heroic and mythic are much steeper. Of course doing this against veteran players will mean that you get jeers from your allies and cheers from your enemies as you will soon be eliminated.
New players will often use their initial resources for things that they can build but don't need. There is no real need to build 5 houses immediately just because you start with 250 wood. You don't need houses until you are 1 or 2 population from your maximum or will be with units that are qued up. That wood would be better saved for granaries or docks or a storehouse or something that helps you towards your current goal. Build house just before you need them so that when you do need wood for an important structure your more likely to have it available.
After playing the age series online for over 5 years, I can often spot new players just by their game room behavior. In game rooms new players often say "GO!" or "Start!" or "GoGoGo!". More experienced players realize that since games may last an hour or so that its important that the host check pings, player skill levels and stats, and even temperments to make sure that games are competitive and fun. Nothing in the game is worse than playing 15 minutes and finding out the game is a complete mismatch because 1 person is a completely different skill level on one of the teams. If you don't like the way the host manages the start of the game then just leave and find another game. There are plenty of games running on ESO, so just find one more suitable. Be courteous and don't waste everyones time by being a nusiance and getting into an argument with the others in your room. You'll only end up getting booted and have trouble getting into games with that host in the future.
New players often feel like they are doing well as they see their surplus number rise. Keep in mind the object of the game is not to see how much surplus you have but to buy units and use them strategically. The best players actually have the lowest surpluses because they use their resources as they get them to help them win the game. If you have resources your sure you can't use then ask an ally if he needs anything. Perhaps he/she can put it to better use. Don't let yourself get caught up in I'm saving all my resources for those cool Medusa units in Mythic. I can guarantee that doing this against experienced players will only ensure that you never get to build a Medusa.
I often see new players resign when they could still contribute or have a chance for
victory. Especially in a team game, each player has a valuable resource in AOM
called population. Even without a tc you still have the capability of building
10 houses. As long as you have villagers you can still gather resources and feed
your allies until a tc becomes available. Even if you can field a small army of
a few units and distract the enemy or disrupt his economy you CAN make a
difference in the game.
In addition, if you lose a battle early in the game its often not the end of the
world. Fall back, ask for help and continue to grow your economy and build
whatever units you can. Don't send them 1 by 1 to their deaths but save them and
combine them with forces that your ally may send so that your more likely to
repel your enemy and gain back the advantage. Nothing is more frustrating in
team play than when an ally resigns early and now the 3 enemy teammates can
focus all their military on you and your remaining ally and ignore a whole
portion of the map as a threat. At least if you remain in the game they will be
forced to continue to attack your structures and be more hesitant to expand on
your area. At the minimum, ask your allies if your still needed and if its ok
for you to resign then give them any extra resources you have to help them in
some small way.
New players often assume incorrectly that success against the AI in single player is
transferrable to multiplayer with human opponents. It is not. Human opponents
are far more challenging as their behavior is far more aggressive and
unpredictable.
When you make this transition start out looking for games marked "newbie". If
you can't find one then make one. If you feel like this is not challenging
enough for you then move on to games labelled "rookie" or "good rook". Do not
join games marked "Good Players" or "Experts" or that have a minimum rank
requirement that you don't meet. You will only get booted from the room and
often be greeted by jeers and insults.
Don't try to argue with the host. Get some games under your belt and compare
your statistics to a player that is the level you want to play at. When you have
similiar villager number and age advancement times and are not challenged at the
lower levels any longer then try to move on to the next level of play.
Many new players assume incorrectly that the more buildings they have the more powerfull they will be. From this they will tend to put far too many villagers on wood or perhaps gold. Your actual allocation will vary depending on the civ and the type of units you want to make but in general its best to use a 2:1:1 ratio of food to wood to gold. Food is essential for advancing, upgrading and maintaining constant villager production. Keep this in mind when sending your villagers to work.
Many new players believe that because they have not been attacked and are advancing that
they are doing well. Often, I see new players sitting idle in their town
gathering resources and building villagers and ignoring what is going on around
them.
Most likely the reason that you have not been attacked is because your ally is
getting double teamed and they have left you along because they can tell your a
new player and won't be a challenge. Your actual guage for performance should be
your contribution to your team and the game.
If your opponent is attacking your ally did you send him/her some units to help?
Have you built a few buildings near his town to assist him? Can you send him
some resources that might help him repel a threat? Have you sent an army to the
enemies town that is harrassing him/her? These are some of the things that a
good ally does to contribute to the game and his/her teammates.
You need to remember in a team game, if your ally dies you are next. Whatever
horribly mess he may be facing... your next in line. Would you rather face it
with his help or with him out of the game?
AOM is a game that requires knowledge of the components. Each unit counters at least one other unit and has counters against it. This means that what you want to build may not be what is best to build. New players often like to build a great deal of myth units. While on the surface this may seem like a good idea, it is not. Myth units are "cool" but they have high requirement in cost and population and are easily countered when not surrounded by other normal units. Try to build an army of normal units that will be most effective against the units your enemy is building, then throw a few myth units into your army when you have the resources and they will be far more effective.
Often new players abuse the communication tools in the game. Uncontrollable flaring and screaming for help will do you no good with experienced players. Eventually, they will ignore your pleas and accept that you are not an asset in the game due to your lack of experience. Try to recognize when a flare is necessary and when its extraneous. If your ally knows that your being attacked then flaring every time an enemy cavalry runs by your town is not necessary. Be calm and let him know you will probably need his help and flare where. Then do the best you can with the threat and hope that he helps you. Also, experienced players don't like a great deal of social banter or play by play of the game. AOM requires a good deal of concentration and thought to do well. Try to keep this in mind and communicate only when there is something pertinent to the game that must be recognized.
A common mistake by new players when threatened by a raiding army is to ring the town bell and stop all activities. This is the worst thing you can do. Halting your economy is the very reason your opponent is raiding you in the first place. Grab the villagers under immediate threat and run them to the nearest safe house and garrison them. Keep the rest of your villagers working so that you can produce units to counter the raid if you dont already have some. Also, do not stand there and let your enemy kill all your villagers. If you cannot get to a safe house to save them, then run them away from your town to buy you time to build an army to counter the threat.