With the abandonment of developer support, it’s time for the fans to take a crack at fixing some of the more obvious errors.
Below is my start at this by reining in the overtuned units of the infamous bottomans, along with a few other miscellaneous tweaks to other civs.
But to really do this justice I need some input from the community. Does this go far enough, or are the nerfs too harsh? Are there other shipments/timings that are very problematic? And don’t just limit it to Ottomans.
Units
Abus Gunner
Removed light cavalry ranged multiplier
Changed melee multiplier to all cavalry
Azap
Reduced range by 2
Humbaraci
Reduced range to 12
Reduced ranged attack to 17, melee attack to 26, siege attack to 44
Reduced artillery multiplier to x1.5
Deli
+5 food cost
Bashibozuk
Reduced levy quantity to 5 (from 6)
Increased ranged attack to 30, siege attack to 6
Reduced siege RoF to 3
Reduced villager multiplier to x0.25
Reduced heavy infantry and mercenary multiplier to x1.25
Increased siege unit multiplier to x1.75
Increased health to 215
Now affected by the Akinci card (increase villager multiplier to x1)
Chinaco
Removed heavy cavalry multiplier
Sacred Cow
Now uses Zebu model
Cards & Techs
Acemi Oglan School - cost reduction reduced to -15% (from -20%)
Topcu Corps - increase Great Bombard train time by 5%
bourbon musk 40>20% MR. whos bright idea was to give ashigarui more armor???
-Great Bombard train time increased by 10% base (its literally just a better cannon, can reduce once age5 for treaty)
-Incan Bolas given ranged shock infantry tag instead of heavy, speed to 4.5 base. can reduce ranged infantry damage more if needed. so artillery doesnt delete all incan units
-Malta’s wignacourt changed to be 15% base, 10% bonus on natural res. this should really help late game eco. Auberges increases huss/goon stats by 5% (can make it only work in age4 if too strong early. Sentinels on the list of fixing but need a total rework.
-German BR shipment reduced by 1 BR, cost by 150. Too good after melee changes
-Sweden hakka carolean needs some changes, like remove the -20% vs light infantry on the caro charge but hakka get a 20% nerf to infantry. I dunno sweden is pretty anemic atm but i think caro also reduce cost by 5c and these changes helps(?)
-Russia starting crate 500f (thx to whos idea this was i forget) to speed up start a bit. Porochuck shadowtech to 3 vet
-Haude FP given 10% hp back base, Musket rider cost decreased by 10c. Its a very basic start
India team flail removed given a 3x flail for like 450f or something
-Mexico. ho boy hard to to nerf a civ by design to be annoying af without killing it. My changes are simple - baja units remove the seige aspect of their special attacks, quatero .75x vs infantry in age2.
If I had my way I would claw back all the power creep and massive shipment spikes. Every time a shipment was too OP so the devs added a resource cost, I would invert it. Instead of 3 organ guns for 200 gold you would get 2 organ guns and 200 gold.
My bad I didn’t realize this was a mod link. Good work!
I would add the Mosque Construction card effect reduced to 33% for the Intrigue Palace technologies, while other mosque techs still at 50% discount.
So New Order Infantry would be at 1474 wood, Topcu Corps at 1340 coin, and Kapikulu Corps at 1675 food. and finally make those degenerate FI strats harder to execute.
And maybe move the 5 Sipahis card from age 3 to age 4 (to stop these early FF into 5 Sipahis strats).
Fixing some of these things would be starting to get into the realm of civ reworks which I’m a little hesitant to jump into for this mod. At least at first I want to focus on the low hanging fruit of the no-brainer fixes that are mostly tweaks to stats and shipment quantities. AKs being the exception since they’re so demented how they are now.
I’ll probably start with +5% since I already altered the Mosque tech to increase it by +5%.
Good idea, 50% discount on those techs does seem a bit too good.
Trust me bolA$$ are demeted too they need either speed or different tag. You only see them now in team games when bored of chimu or sometimes the 8 shipment of them in 1v1. Huaraca kill infantry so theres some rationale to make weak to skirm but giving your “goon” low range low speed and CIR bonus makes these even with their aoe damage in mass utter shit. Makes inca super weak to quite a few things when 5/6 your army hvy infantry and nothing has superior range.
But i get the spirit of your goal its just inca clearly hasnt had much thought their way either imho.
Sorry up front for some of the lacking of card names, but this is kinda what I was thinking. Some ideas were informed from ideas suggested on these forums. I believe I got some ideas from @platypus_slayer1, @coffeeco01, and others (apologizes for any missing credit, I hadn’t intended to publish this so early. As a result some of this might also be half baked. I really slowed down after the announcement of AoE3 going on ice and therefore didn’t fully finish).
General:
XP yield from Trading Posts reduced by 20% until researching Stagecoach or equivalent.
Trading Post Build Time for Heroes increased by 5 seconds.
Elite and Champion Minor Civ upgrades now longer increase player score (a fix for Blood Brothers which is too often mistaken for a hack).
Smokeless Powder (Jesuits) now increases Gunpowder Infantry and Cavalry attack by +5% (down from +10%). Artillery damage increase remains at +5%. Cost reduced to 66% of its current cost.
Malta:
Starting Crates:
+50f.
Sentinels:
Add the tag that allows Sentinels to benefit from Incendiary Grenades.
Guard Sentinels now adds +2 Musket range and +1 Rocket range (reaching 15).
Imperial Sentinels now adds +3 Rocket and Musket range (totaling 18).
Wall Guns (III)
Changed to deliver 1 Culverin and an Outpost Wagon (given that the goal of greater Sentinel range is now covered by their regular upgrades).
Sicilian Supply (IV):
Sicilian Supply now provides a trickle of 2.5w (instead of 2.5 food), and improves Mill and Estate rates by 10% (instead of food by 25%).
Wignecourt Construction (II):
Changed +10% gather rate on Natural resources changed to +10% gather rate on natural resources, mills and estates.
Aura remains the same, only effecting natural resources.
[New] Order Artillery (IV):
New age 4 card (using the image from Cronstedt Reforms)
Falconets cost 1 less population.
+20% Falconet attack.
Ottomans:
Mosque:
XP trickle reduced to 0.7 (from 0.8).
Hummbaraci:
Speed reduced to 4.0 (from 4.5).
Range reduced to 13 (from 14).
Abus Gunner:
No longer gains +2 Range with the imperial upgrade.
Spahi:
Ranged Armor reverted to 10% from 20%.
Kill XP partially reverted (it was inflated a while back, the difference could be split).
Cards:
Cost reduction School card (IV):
-10% Heavy Infantry cost. -5% Janissary cost. (Down from -20% Ottoman heavy infantry cost).
British:
Virginia Company (I):
Xp reduction decreased slightly (buff).
Dutch:
Buffed by virtue of the global trading post nerf.
Italy:
Redshirts (IV):
Now also improves the Hitpoints of Musketeers and Bergs.
Berg
Imperial now adds an additional 5% armor (30% total).
Usury (IV):
All future shipments deposit 120 of each resource into your Lombards.
Advanced Lombards (III):
All future shipments deposit 60 of each resource into your Lombards.
[New] 8 Bergs (III):
Shipments 8 Veteran Bergs (does not allow them to be trained any earlier).
Russia:
Dueling School:
Moved to age 3.
Infantry trains 65% faster (up from 25%).
Fencing School:
Removed.
Strelet:
Cost increased to 355f 120w.
Range increased to 15.
HP increased to 95 (from 90).
-20% from the shadow tech brings it to 76 (critically, this is a buff for the Russia vs Otto MU where Delis kill Strelets significantly faster than Hussars)
Veteran tech now adds +1 Range.
Strelet Combat:
+15% Strelet attack and hp (down from +20%).
Strelet Horde:
No longer increases Strelet Range.
Now changes Strelet cost from wood to Coin.
Inca:
Bolas Warrior:
Ranged Shock Infantry tag added.
Heavy Infantry and Infantry tags removed.
Speed increased to 4.25 (from 4).
Tambo:
Cost reduced to 220w (from 250w).
Aztecs:
Mayan Allies (2) can only be sent once. Cost reverted to 500c.
Arrow Knight:
Now tagged as Ranged Shock Infantry. Heavy Infantry and Infantry tags removed.
Shadow penalties against Arrow knights possessed by numerous other units are removed.
Base Range lowered to 28.
Big Buttons:
Slinger Big Button now adds +1x vs heavy infantry but delivers half as many Slingers.
ERK Big Button now adds +15% Siege Armor to ERKs, but delivers half as many ERKs.
Puma Spear Big Button now adds +15% Hitpoints to Puma Spearman, but delivers half as many.
Arrow Knight Big Button now adds +2 Range to Arrow Knights, but delivers half as many.
Lakota:
Bow Rider:
Ranged Negative multiplier vs villagers improved from 0.5x to 0.75x upon researching Elite.
Legendary Bow Riders now adds +8 Siege Range (totaling 14).
Wakinia Rifle
Legendary now adds +1 Range (19 total without the Teepee card).
Spanish:
Livestock generate 10% less food and coin when working on Haciendas. Haciendas produce 10% less food and coin from livestock working on them.
Spanish Gold reverted to 350c (up from 330. A ~6% increase seems fair given the nerf to Trading Posts).
India:
Improved Healing (Monastery):
Improves Monk Healing rate by 150% (up from about 60% I think). Healing rate becomes 10/per second.
Sepoy:
Melee Multiplier improved to 2x vs cavalry (from 1.75x to better mirror the Janissary).
Rajput:
probably nerfed slightly.
Elephant Armor (IV):
Removed from the home city and added as a tech at the Tower of Victory (costing 500w, 500c).
Indian Gunpowder (IV):
Removed from the home city and added as a tech at the Tower of Victory (costing 500f, 500c).
Japanese:
Buffed by virtue of the global Trading Post nerfs.
Mexico:
Falconets and Culverins obtained during the Central America or Baja California revolt receive a -10% attack and hp shadow tech until returning to Mexico (reflecting their position in age 2.5).
Livestock generate 10% less food and coin. Haciendas produce 10% less food and coin from livestock working on them.
All Age ups to Age 2 now provide a cow (in addition to current benefits).
Land of… (Federal Age 5)
Flag Aura Buff % is reduced by 50%.
Plan… (Age 4)
Rifle Infantry Range increased by 2. Salt Range reduced by 1.
card cost reduced by 20%.
Portuguese:
Feitorias (I):
Rates improved to 0.25f, 0.25w, 0.25c, 0.10xp (up from 0.36f, 0.24w, 0.24c).
Artillery Hitpoints (III):
No longer improves Organ Gun Hitpoints (meaning culvs can one-shot organ guns in age 5).
//edit: the Artillery hp nerf assumes the continuation of the speed improvement. I just find the improved mobility super fun, and would choose to lose the extra AoE and/or the improved RoF instead. Hp nerf seemed like a good start.
My issue is the entire Inca civ is demented. So while I do agree Bolas Warriors aren’t well designed and switching the tags could help, that alone won’t fix the jankiness of the civ. Fixing that would take a more comprehensive rework which can be a separate mod. That lets me limit the scope of this mod to just patching up the most glaringly obvious balance issues and easy to fix aesthetic/QoL stuff.
Creating a series of rework mods for the major civs that need it might be an interesting thing to pair this with. The Native American civs all need some love from the ground up - Split the Aztecs/Incans from the Lakota/Hauds.
Only suggestion I have is what I put on the other one - Increase the amount of times the Ottomans have to buy extra settler slots, force them to invest more into their villagers.
I have a soft spot for Hummbaraci because I love grenadiers and the devs kept trying things to make them viable the entire DE run, bless 'em. It’s super fun to mass them (but hard) but it also sucks to fight against them, personally my opinion is all they need is an HP or armour reduction. They feel frustratingly hard to kill even when caught dead to rights by skirmishers or hand cav.
Allows Manors to be deleted or “sold”. Apparently the British should still be not able to get more villagers by repeatedly deleting/selling and rebuilding.
Change the Aztec livestock from sheep to turkeys.
Aztec and Inca buildings no longer fire with guns.
Reskin the Village from yurts to Chinese brick houses. (There is already a mod for this but it deserves more widespread).
Split the War Academy, like moving the Old Han, Standard, Ming, Mongolian Armies and the upgrades of their units to new building that could be named “Banner Camp” and used the current Village skin, and moving the Black Flag Army to the War Academy that could be renamed “Banner Garrison” or “Banner Barrack” and available from the Fortress Age obviously.
Rework the military improvement cards for the Chinese.
Can refer to this topic: China Rework 🐲
Move the improvements to elephant hand attack and cavalry training speed for the Indians from the Monastery to existing or new cards, or to new techs at Stables.
Rename the Ashigaru Musketeer to Ashigaru, as long as its roles of musketeer and pikeman would not be separated.
Rename the Morutaru. Odzutsu (“big pipe” literally), a generic term for large-caliber matchlock cannons of Japanese origin, still works for the new name of Morutaru, but should probably be “Odzutsu Mortar” for distinction, while the card needs to be renamed from “Odzutsu Mortars” to “Odzutsu Cannoneers”.
The “Odzutsu Cannoneers” card should enable the unit “Odzutsu Cannoneer” in Castles, instead of giving Samurais grenades. The Odzutsu Cannoneer can be simply a Japanese variant of the Grenadier or the Middle Guard with a grenade launcher.
Similar to the Mysore Rockets, add some new cards to ship “Red Coat Cannons” (Falconets or Culverins), “Weiyuan General Cannons” (Mortars), and “Great General Cannons” (Heavy Cannons) for the Chinese, “Mughal Bombards” (Great Bombards) and “Shirazi’s Volley Guns” (Organ Guns) for the Indians, “Bronze Two-pounders” (Light Cannons) and “Kunikuzushi” (Falconets or Culverins) for the Japanese.
Replace the Shrine Goat with the Shrine Deer. Sacred animals of the local religion should be trained at Shrines themselves rather than in a European building. Remove the Livestock Pen Wagon from the Dutch ally and replace the Meiji Restoration with a new technology that enables Shrine Deer at Shrines.
I used to hope the Meiji Restoration can provide a revolution-like effect to replace units with modernized or Western ones, but I now think it might be better to focus the civ on the time period before the modernization that would be accompanied by lots of changes.
Add an infinite shipment for every consulate European ally, allowing Asians to pay export to purchase single artillery unit (type varies by ally) instead of an entire army.
The Portuguese ally provides a Battleship instead of an Ironclad that the Portuguese themselves could not access.
For the Japanese, it would be more accurate to have the Portuguese provide Cannoneers, Church Wagon, and Arsenal Wagon, the Dutch provide Bank Wagon, Merchant Marine, “Komo” Trade (name swap with that card), and the Spanish provide Bullionism, Caravel, and Battleship, but such a change would affect the Indians as well.
The “Rangers” card now also ships 1 Ranger for each shipment sent thus far in this game including this one, in order to make it useful even when the Queen’s Rangers has been researched first.
Rename the “Ranger Combat” card to “Royal Green Jackets” or “Royal Rifle Corps”, and move the +5% resistance from the Imperial upgrade to this card. Meanwhile, rename the “Royal Green Jackets” card of Indians to “Gurkha Regiments”, “Gorkha War” or “Gorkhali Army”.
The “Viceroyalty of New Spain” card no longer allows Haciendas to spawn Soldados but instead allows Forts to train consulate Soldados with probably a train limit and Livestock Pens to train Cows.
The “Nassau Regiment” card and the “Blue Guards” church tech provide consulate Blue Guards as same as the Dutch ally at the consulate, instead of regular Musketeers. However, the Nassau Regiment would also make the unit have only +30% HP and attack in the Imperial upgrade in addition to enable them at Forts. This way, we can simply have just one version of the Blue Guard in the game without affecting the balance.
Give the amazing unique Halberdier skins of Spanish and Swedish a chance to be accessed more. For example:
The Royal Alabardero becomes a variant of Papal Guard, and the “Royal Alabarderos” church tech also allows every future shipments to ship 2 additional Royal Alabarderos from the Home City (as the card is called Royal Decree to Claim the New World); The Gustavian Guard becomes a consulate variant of Halberdier, and the “Gustavian Guards” church tech also enables the units at Forts.
The Carabinieri and Redshirts of Italians also deserve the chance to be accessed more.
For the Portuguese, The Logistician in the Commerce Age instead provides 1 Military Wagon and 1 Cannoneer and enables the Cannoneer at the Tavern, since no one will use TCs to train military units instead of villagers. Meanwhile, The King’s Musketeer in the Industrial Age instead ships 9 Musketeer and gives Musketeer the additional range, and The Papal Guard in the Industrial Age also gives Crossbows and Pikes the additional range.
Make the Envoy no longer able to build Native Embassies but directly able to train native units as if it was a humanoid Native Embassy, increase the cost and make their train limit reduced to 3 and shared with Native Embassies (due to the “Belanda Hitam” card); the “Dutch East India Company” also allows them to build TCs; the “Orangists” card changes its effect to a new one.
Having to train Envoys before building Native Embassies is a disadvantage compared to other civs, so I try to make the Envoy itself an equivalent to the Native Embassy directly. Maybe games no longer start with 1 free Envoy.
I’ve come up with a similar idea that doesn’t require a card.
Basically, it simply allows you to buy only artillery from Europeans at the consulate.
As for those cards like Mysore Rockets, they are meant to help the Asian civs while also reflecting their own artillery manufacturing. Those units, while technically based on European civ artillery units, should have local crews, just like Mysore Rockets.
Military upgrades in houses for lategame. Ex: higher bonus for otontins; speed and armour for ERKs; AoE for AKs…
Otontins are useless.
Faster animation for sieging. Just a bit.
Villagers temple as economic theory, not just for farms
Wisewomen travois can turn into states too
Swashbuckler attack for WC unlocked in age III.
1300 crates reverted to 40s but not boosted in imperial age.
New card: infinite, age IV. You get a SK per nobles hut you own, up to 8. I think it is fair to compensate the spending on buildings to not be oppresive in supremacy while is counterable by destroying huts. Maybe a similar one for Lakota but with teepees.
Haudenossaunee
Artillery pop reduction card doesnt affect light canons.
Crates BBs are reusable. Instead of time, they become stronger in later ages. This can give them more eco in supremacy without being too remarkable for treaty.
USA
Cap for New York Zouaves card.
Indians
Karni Mata: since rats dont attack cultives, it has a greater effect on agriculture. Right now India cant sustain their expensive army while the other civs do it easily.
Llamas have a splitted limit to cows or give more XP since are not trainable.
Buff to grazing (nobody use this card). Maybe depending on pop cost of unit.
Move 10% bonus from Indian gunpowdry to imperial sepoy upgrade.
Add Drummers in the Victory Tower. Nerf Rajput speed to keep it the same after the tech or a similar one. (Like Rodelero).
Desert terror moved to Victory Tower.
Mango Groves affected by Civ bonus on trees yields. Can be resent in imperial age. Or make it infinite and the first time it sends 1, then 2 each time.
Mexico
No more HP for factories. Maybe the upgrades are free and autoresearched slowly, from left to right. Their economy is too safe already due to haciendas.
Nerf Lazo attack
Salteadores become more expensive after cards.
Many many many other nerfs.
Malta
Firethrowers do less damage to shock infantry.
General
Nerf to imperial mercs in some way.
TWC Civs in age IV get 10 special free pop villagers to compensate the lack of factories and the lose of eco for plaza.
Walls nerfs reverted. Only AKs, Hand Mortars, Captured Mortars and Siege elephants get anti wall bonus. European mortars and Morutarus were already good enough.
Town dance affects walls again but have a lesser effect compared to buildings, like fertility dance which have a split effect for eco units.
Water ceremony unlocked after Dock BBs.
Every granted trainable native cost pop. Having them on every map is enough advantage.
Asian monasteries grant coins as Saloons do. Maybe not as much.
Atonement and Holy Refugee cards give +1 monastery limit.
Sumptuary laws dont grant XP and Export but give 0.5 of each resource. Half for indian one, but extra wood for indian players.
thats effectively just 2 units, all consulate units gets a blanket shadow tech no matter what. To achieve this you either need another seperate tech for them to offset the imp shadow tech or its 2 units.
Its not like you will ever have dutch blue guards and consulate blue guards on the same select.
It should be 1 unit — the consulate version Blue Guard.
The Japanese can get this unit by allying with Dutch at the Consulate. For the Dutch, the card and the church tech provide this unit, and the card will make them have -20% HP and attack in the Imperial Age, so yeah there will be a minus shadow effect from the card to keep it +30% totally. That’s it.