Age of Empires Online takes a very long time while search for players for PvP

At the moment there are over 500 people online and when we search for players for PvP it takes a very long time. Someone suggested that there should be more PvP players when the game is released. But I think this will not essentially be the case. The vast majority of people are playing some kind of e-commerce game. Then there are many people leveling their civilization. Those that would normally play some PvP choose to do quests instead. Some guys farm almost all day.

At the moment massed archers beat everything and siege is overpowered. In one game I made an army of Sarrisophoroi and Pelstats vs. Massed Archers of almost equal number and the massed archers won. Then the opponent brought in siege and the game was over. I personally hate Archer wars and hated that aspect of Age of Empire, that the archers were overpowered. If Pelstats and Sarrisophoroi can't beat Massed Archers (which are their counter) what else can a player do? Many people would like the opportunity to make Spearmen, Hypaspistae and Hoplites vs.

They have announced that they improve the pvp system, and make it based in a new region called "Sparta." This should come in the next build of the beta. The only problem I can see with this is that people would just quit even though they just get 1x the reward, so they can level up fast. That wouldn't make for good pvp to the people who actually want to play? Would it? Hopefully they will fix the balance. Are you using gear? Perhaps that was your problem?

This is the problem with trying to monetize an already complete game. You end up adding useless features to entice people who would be less likely to play to try out the game. That being said, these new players basically assume the role of the people who, had it been a retail game, would have not played the multiplayer to begin with. So we end up back at square one; there aren't enough people actively playing matchmaking.

As someone who plays (or tries to play, I guess) almost entirely multiplayer, I'd say that doing so actually incentivizes the single player. Single player offers more gear opportunities, where multiplayer only offers more experience. Having worse gear than my opponent is what usually leads me losing a match. Single player, however, does not incentivize multiplayer. I've only lost 4 or 5 multiplayer games from tier 1 to tier 4.

As far as balancing goes, there's no way that an equal amount of archers could ever beat an equal amount of counter-archers. It's just not going to happen. The only possible way that it ever could happen is if gear came into play. If he had level 40 gear and you only had level 20 gear, then maybe it could happen. More likely is that he was just out playing you in some way.

As for the Toxotes issue, yes it has something to do with certain gear, techs, advisors etc. But it is impossible to know what is causing it. At the moment you can mass archers and hit and run. They have best range out of all units so most Sarrisophoroi die trying to reach them. Pelstats have some resistance but if the Toxotes get their upgrades the Pelstats lose. I have Level 40 epic gear, not the best just the ones you buy from player shops. An Age 3 Pelstats only gets upgrades from Armory but Toxotes get Unit upgrades and Armory upgrades that over power them.

I get the feeling that you're new to RTS games, or maybe new to AOE. I get the feeling that you're simply playing in an extremely greedy way. Meaning that you sit back and allow your opponent to mass a large force of archers or whatever he chooses. If you find that around the ten minute mark you have a large amount of archers knocking at your door, you should make an effort to get a few units together and attack before that time.