Dogs

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
21

You need to be above a certain age to play this game i doubt having a dog that gets killed is a huge issue for people above that age limit.

22

I know, but that’s a really cheap implementation. A dog should of course be visible and share the attributes of a real dog. I literally don’t see any reason why this would be impossible to code somehow.

23

AoE3 had dogs from the get go. I don’t remember there being any controversy or people having problems with that.

24

How about starting with a dog instead a scout? That must be legit and fun. I wanna see a dog driving a deer.

25

could be a civ bonus that acts as a tradeoff. The dog would be better at hunting but worse at scouting, than the scout cav.

26

I consulted Google for key roles of dogs in the dark ages.

Key Roles of Dogs:

  • Guardians: Protecting settlements, property, and livestock from thieves and predators was a primary duty.

  • Hunters: Large breeds (like ancestors of Greyhounds, Mastiffs) hunted game, a popular pastime for the elite, while smaller dogs helped with vermin.

  • Herding: Essential for managing sheep and other farm animals.

  • Labor/Draft Animals: Used to pull carts for transport and even turn roasting meat on spits.

  • Companionship: Small lapdogs became popular pets, especially for aristocratic women and church members, offering affection and loyalty.

  • Warfare & Alarms: Alerting owners to threats and sometimes used in battle.

    It’s clear to me after reading the list that a dog must have more than one use. It’s essentially a type of villager, or something to fulfill the potential of a villager, rather than another type of unit. It’s not meant for scouting the map, such as the scout cavalry. Rather it scouts for nearby threats. Therefore it should have an autoscout function, but it should be limited to a certain area. Maybe in the proximity of a town center or near a selected villager. It should also not be possible to set it to aggressive or defensive stance. Certain kinds of dogs could however be more aggressive than others.

27

A “hidden line of sight” could do it. Very low visible LOS, but will still detect nearby units and animals beyond that, making them visible, without revealing the terrain.

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28

That could be a characteristic. However it should not be seen as a replacement for any type of cavalry. It’s a completely different animal.

29

Maybe they don’t want dogs in the game because of the same reason why they removed corpses from the game.

30

It could be like Civ 6, where the dogs don’t die but just run away.

31

Dogs maybe included in Nomad game mode where the first Town Center gives you a dog, just like Huns get Hunnic Horse. Everyone would get a mini scout and Huns would get the extra horse.

32

Scouting is not what a dog does. It guards.

33

It does both. Scouting and guarding.

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34

Never said it couldn’t guard.

35

I also don’t see the issue in a game where it’s not unusual to slaughter dozens of civilians. Fortunately, both human and animal victims, while inspired by history, are purely virtual.

36

I like the idea of them being able to smell the enemy and huntable animals before seeing them.

This would line up relatively nicely with their use in real life. So give them a very low LoS similar to sheep but a relatively large “smelling” range where they reveal enemy and neutral units and animals but not buildings, trees or mines. It could play a bark sound when an enemy unit is spotted by a dog.

This way they can assist in early game scouting but can’t really scout themselves. When given the same speed a the main scout unit they could just use the follow command on them.

I don’t think they should get more abilities because that would be very much against what AoE2 is like in general. No other unit has that many different abilities besides villagers.

Thinking about that. They should not benefit from blacksmith armour upgrades, only attack upgrades, since they are neither Infantry nor Cavalry.

The Wardog should have some base armour though, maybe 2/1, making them vulnerable to arrows and even Skirmishers.

Maybe 30 Food cost and 12/6 seconds train time would be more balanced.

37

I agree with The duke of Lorraine and you about a dog’s limited line of sight and that it should bark when close to enemies. However it should only be a miltary unit in secondary use. It should be able to kill villagers and fair ok against militia, but man at arms, archers, skermishers and even scouts should be able to defeat it if it engages in full combat. After all it’s just a dog.

38

It’s impossible to make a unit that is neither OP in Dark Age nor utterly useless in Imperial Age unless there is some improvement over time.

Thats why I suggested they should take bonus damage from Milita. That gives you a counter to them from the beginning. And then add a small upgrade in Castle Age that just keeps them very situationally useful in the late game.

The only military unit they could realistically take on cost effectively would be the (Elite) Skirmisher. So it’s more a self defence capability then something you would actually use to fight enemy troops.

39

Make it very weak but with a bonus vs huntables & villagers. Done, a threat to villagers but hopeless against anyone with better gear than a pitchfork and winter clothing.

Against skirmishers it would mostly be a combination of decent speed + exploiting its minimal range.

40

How will it perform before Spanish and Magyar Villagers?