And sry to say it that whay girod but your post compared to alucards post lacks a bit on knowledge. Please tell us what you like about the mod, how it improves the gameplay and to what dreege you could live with changes/adjustments.
1) I really enjoy the zoom, because it allows you to split and control multiple armies much quicker. It also gives a larger view of the map, so you can orientate yourself very quickly.
2) I really enjoy the HUD, because it gives you an idea of the strategy your enemy is using. I use the HUD to see if a rush was worth the effort and to estimate the enemy economy or army size. I use the HUD also to evaluate if I need a strategy switch.
Btw, you should notice that the HUD is built-in in similar and more recent RTS, like Rise of Nations and Age of Empire.
3) I really enjoy the ranking system. You should notice that it's not necessary to make the matchmaking that forces your position and your team. When I host ranked games, I just use /rt or /qt (it's like /mm but it doesn't kick anyone to make a swap slot), and then I allow players to swap slot or adjust teams if they want to. If the points are balanced it's nice, the match will be automatically classified as ranked. If the points are not balanced, no problem, the match will automatically be classified as unranked and we can play with the teams we chose. The most important thing is not to gain ranking points, but to have fun, in my opinion.
In the first two points I stated, you can see that for someone drexmod is an advantage, for someone else it's a disadvantage. But in the end this is drexmod, not the official NeoEE mod. yukon is free to develop any functionality he wants and players should know who uses drexmod and who doesn't. In yukon shoes, I would develop functionalities that make EE community growing, and imo he's doing the right thing, overall.
In the end, I also want to give my personal opinion on EE lack of functionalities, just to explain a bit more what I said in the previous message:
I understand that more experienced players may don't appreciate the fact that drexmod simplify EE mechanics, but they should take into account that they won't find enough old-school players to make a "no-drexmod" game whenever they want. This community is not big enough. And you can't force new players to play without drexmod or some of its features. I'm a 2020 newcomer and i would prefer to stop playing EE than leave out drexmod.
My opinion is that this game lacks in functionalities quite badly because it's from 2001.
Lack of functionalities for EE that hurts my soul while playing:
- I can't select more than 70 units (more or less) with a double click.
- Citizens and boats all selectable with tab, what a mess when I'm pre pocket or in island games.
- Walling is one of the most frustrating things in EE.
- Making army from multiple buildings: in grenwar, before producing grenadiers from 3 barracks I need to check if my food/iron is 96/96... guys, COME ON... just because EE can't make decent production queues.
- Minimap low resolution.
It's mesmerizing to see how old-school players have dealt whit this lack of functionalities. But as I said, don't expect that new players want to overcome these issues as well. We don't have 10 or 20 years to train like some of you, we just want to have fun and be competitive, if possible. If drexmod (or any other mod) will be able to fix any of these issues, I will use it asap. I hope I made my point even clearer.
P.S. My nickname is giord (like jordan), not girod