Age 4 they’re fine. securing a few gold mines and lv5 cistern boom u can pump. but man, getting to age 3 is very hard
ECONOMY
the cistern cost system - LV1 50 stone (50 total)
LV2 100 (150)
LV3 150 (300)
LV4 200 (500)
LV5 250 (750)
extra 300 (1050)
so just to get the 25% gather buff you have to invest 1000 stone, and thats NOT including the connector aqueducts. let’s agree that the players have to choose between more buff and army. so like vs abbasid who u know theyre going 2-3 tcs, ok then u can go get 1000 stone and get the +25% buff. maybe vs france u only go lv2-lv3 cistern.
but even still, it;s horrific. it takes soooo long to get it going. perhaps reduce the time it takes to build the connectors, or make connectors build byn themselves at a slower rate. having to take 1-2 villagers and lets say u wanna connect aqueducts all the way to mf Africa, like. walking time = idle time. perhaps give a speed buff to villagers when they’re building the aqueducts, but ONLY get that buff while building the aqueducts.
In a sense, you start with 3 villagers. because from the start of the game, you have to put 3 out of the 6 starting villagers to dance on stone forever. and the wood situation at the start is horrible. u are FORCED to build TWO mining camps, likely prior to the wood camp. so you go–>
STARING WOOD = 150
house 50
mine camp 1 50
mine camp 2 50
so u gonna get housed, unless u take vills to wood earlier than needed be. and u can NOT build a mill and research wheelbarrow. atop of this.
WINE ECO & MERCENARIES
the mercenaries take too long to come out man! it’s over a minute for longbows to come out (reduced if within cistern influence and cistern being on the military production buff). it’s too much. on the game description you put, byzantines → city planning, MERCENARIES, defense. how u want us to go mercenaries when we just cant ??? like i think Jesus is going to come back before the mercenaries come out. that’s how long it takes to gather the WINE at the start, AND to train the mercenaries.
AGE 3 TRANSITION
and say u hit age 3. great. now u get recked. it’s not like ayyubid where u can spam as soon as u hit age 3. like it has already taken u such a long time to get to the age, and u still need more production buildings, probably a farm transition if u want mercenaries, like man it’s horrible.
AGE 3 MID/LATE AND AGE 4
this civ is fine once u get middle age 3 and 4.
So, i agree the civ requires a RIDICULOUS amount of city planning. like u have to be absolutely cracked or on adderal and acid to play this civ.
THOUGHTS/WHAT SHOULD BE CHANGED/ADDED/REMOVED
-cisterns → i do NOT think their cost nor build time should be reduced
—> building speed can be added as a cistern option - military production/reasearch/defense/building
-aqueducts → if the idea of building speed added as an options is no go, then aqueducts (the cistern
conductors) should be built faster
→ villagers should get a slight movement speed buf after building an aqueduct
-starting wood should be changed to 200
-oil/wine should be gathered from sheep. (get someone to do the math for what would be fair) if one of the devs is #### and says “but sheep don’t product oil”, goodness just rebran the oil/wine resource to treasury coins or something who cares
-if oil gather from sheep is no go, then make farms even cheaper
-if cheaper farm is no go, then give the byzantines the same berry food addition buff and gather rate that ayyubids and abbasids have.
^^ this will make it viable to at least have one batch of mercenaries out in feudal early.
-make the grand winery age 2 landmark a mill instead of a monastery so we can research wheelbarrow etc. perhaps, the civ also grows farms around like the japanese age 2 farm landmark, and once it finishes buildfing farms around, then it gathers oil.
-if the idea is a no go, then make the landmark a ticket system for mecenaries similar to ayyubid age 2 gamble. instead of batches of 5 longbows for example, then each ticket gives u 2. but at least u have SOMETHING u can pop out (mercenary wise). this should encourage/make a better mercenary build. AND should be able to recruit mercenaries from this landmark if that’s the case.
-if the above is no go, then horn tower age 3 landmark should work as a mercenary barracks building or ticket system be implemented to this landmark. so u get to choose what mercenaries u get, as well as being able to produce em from there.
-varangian guards SHOULD BE AGE 2. historically speaking, feudal age is what? early medieval (post tribal era) (680-through 900)? varangians had already been around this time period. they should be an age 2 men at arms.
so in age of empries 3 the JAPANESE (as well as the Indian and Chinese civ) have an export resource system. it works similar to the byzantines extra resource that other civs dont have, and i wouldnt be surprised if u got the idea from aoe3.
the japanese with export, can build an embassy, and hire mercenaries with this resource, jsut like the byzantines in aoe4. and they have to choose a nation to hire mercenaries from. british, spanish, dutch, AND JAPAN ITSELF. so, i think, there should be a mercenary contract for byzantines in aoe4 that’s neither
eastern, western, nor silk road. a new 4th contract. lets call it, Imperial contract. and u should be able to hire Varangians in age 2, catapracts in age 3 with oil, and whatever u want in age 4. bombards, whatever. or perhaps age 4 mercenary is a BUY stone with the wine option tax free (different from market).
point is, the byzantines have very good units and they should be able to hire varangains and/or catapracts with oil via an in-house contract. the japanese in aoe3 are able to do this. u go japan for ur mercenaries (while being the japan civ itsself) and u get japan based mercenaries.
these are some suggestions but i really hope it brings light to the issue that this civ has. it’s great in imperial, it recks. but getting there, and even castle, is a problem. both 1v1, and team games.
it also feels very weird that the civ is based around mercenaries, yet the best units this civ has, are in-house units (varangian and catapracts). perhaps varangians should NOT be trainable from barracks, but rather from the mercenary house (historically accurate), and if so, the oil system needs to be entirely reworked.
as a last mention, and i just came up with this as im wrapping this up.
perhaps in fact, the varangian guard should be moved to age 2 from mercenary hosue, and the oil made much more accessible so that u can go 2 mercenary houses and full varangian, similar to say, HRE/OOTD/England MMA feudal push.
Credentials - im top 100 in aoe3. and byzantine the civ i’ve played the most in aoe4
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