Drop-off mechanic under the TC

[HestiaAoE]

I put every single vil to food in dark age. And you still need to force drop a lot.

[NastyHigh]

@PilgrimHYR

I put every single vil to food in dark age. And you still need to force drop a lot

Also take boar before berries. And lure deer. To be fair you have to force drop with all civs except Khmer and Lithuanians. Just have to drop a bit more often with Georgians and Aztecs. I feel like it’s not that bad with Georgians once you have both hunt + berries. It’s just rough having to focus on luring deer and force dropping simultaneously.

[JongleurMage203]

Perhaps AOE2 doesn’t want to help casual. Casual must feel ashame to play…

[FloosWorld]

What makes you think that?

[thieftdp8498]

thats nonsense. most of the QoL introduced from AOC/HD days are all to help casual

i’d say this feature would not help casual as much as you’d think because they’d have to be directly under TC which requries even more precise control, infact it’d help the better players more

so no, this feature should never be implemented and i’d love them to keep the goth boar bonus as is in the game however useless that is for high levle

[NastyHigh]

@JongleurMage203

Perhaps AOE2 doesn’t want to help casual. Casual must feel ashame to play

Shift queuing tasks. Auto scout. Auto re-seed farms. Auto fishing. No need to research cartography anymore in team games to see team mates map exploration. I would say the game has never been as noob friendly as it is right now in 2024.

[emarz4697]

Goth bonus isn’t useless high-level? Not the most powerful bonus but the extra food 100% helps

[thieftdp8498]

exactly it is useless at high level, and so it should be kept in to help the casuals

where as this drop off mechanic actually benefits higher level players more because casuals and lower elo player would almost always not be right under TC when killing deer/boar and sometimes even herdables.

[HestiaAoE]

@thieftdp8498

actually benefits higher level players more because casuals and lower elo player would almost always not be right under TC when killing deer/boar

For 2k+ it’s already little to no boost because their muscle memory handles force drop flawlessly. For 200 elo players, yes they kill animals everywhere.

For the vast majority in the middle (maybe 90% of all players) it’s a great feature to have. Huge impact.

[thieftdp8498]

i’d have to disagree on the huge impact. there will certainly be difference but even the 90% player would not always have food under TC all the time, not even the pro players and thats just how it is.

[SaladEsc]

Update: Looks like the new PUP will feature something in between this suggestion and how it is now by adding a new Drop Off Resources command for villagers and fishing ships. It makes the units take the resources they are carrying to the nearest drop-off building and return to work right away.

This is a great change imo, but time will tell

[FloosWorld]

I really like the way it’s implemented, especially when you’re working on your starting sheep + boars

[benithisrael]

@Green4uu

@JohnnyBQuik

Selecting your villagers to force drop food takes basically no skill, it’s just cumbersome.

it is 1 extra click that low elo players can’t do (so they get idle TC), mid elo players can sometimes mess up, and high elo players always get right. It creates small advantages such as giving one player 3s idle TC, and the other player 0, which can matter in a Scout vs Scout fight, for example.

It is this perfection which a barrier to entry. The game becomes more snowballing due to silly mistakes by nubes will put them off. The era of high entry barrier games are long gone. This will also speed up Dark age which is generally boring compared to other competitive games out there.
The game is also going in that direction:

• Shift-queing vills
• Auto-scout
• Auto-farm
• Auto-dropoff (Recent patch)

Lots of pros unable to make a living just streaming and going back to work seems to indicate lack of fans. The sales data from the newest DLC is definitely going to be disappointing. Its best to implement these user friendly features. Seeing the Georgions buff in last patch of removing the food penalty suggests that devs are down to making the start easier without worrying about balance.

[TheConqueror753]

@benithisrael

Seeing the Georgions buff in last patch of removing the food penalty suggests that devs are down to making the start easier without worrying about balance.

Georgians were one of the worst civs in the game in terms of winrate. The change to their start will very much impact their balance. Yes, it makes it easier, but saying it’s ignoring balance isn’t a justified assumption in my opinion.

[benithisrael]

@TheConqueror753

Yes, it makes it easier, but saying it’s ignoring balance isn’t a justified assumption in my opinion.

Mule cart itself ignores balance. Its cost was reduced from 100 wood to 80 wood, despite 100 wood being the cost of its counter parts lumber camp and mining camps. These 2 civs of mountain royals were supposed to be pay to win for the patrons. But they suck since mule cart was not tested for meta balance.
I see 2 scenarios in the future:

1. Once pros figure out how to abuse mule carts, the cost will go back to original 100 wood and there will be a 100 wood penalty for Georgians.
2. Devs could introduce a pack and unpack mechanism like trebs for mule cart and fix the lack of walling mechanism similar to lumber and mining camps. Georgians will become OP then. There will be a 100 wood penalty.

[TheConqueror753]

Or… the Mule Cart will be balanced and fine as it is and won’t need to be changed much, if at all.

[DGretzschel]

I tried it. Feels really smooth and enjoyable. Definitely tightens up my build a bit at 1100 to 1200, unless I’m playing my absolute sharpest. (which I usually don’t)
Going to be very easy for me to reach 0 seconds TC idle time till Feudal consistently with that.