Factors that all civs have in common - “Help guide to create new concepts of new Civs”
Good morning, it occurred to me to make a help guide to make Concepts of new civilizations. Since creativity is free, the only thing that limits us is the balance between existing civilizations and historical factors. For this reason, seeking to create a balanced concept, I was surprised that many civilizations share many aspects on a technical level.
Therefore, I leave some tips that would be ideal for a balanced civilization: if you are lost and do not know what your concept is missing, or you think it is too broken, do not hesitate and read this guide. Also consider using this guide if you feel that some of the civilizations present might not be as balanced as one would expect.
Factors that all Aoe4 Civs have in common for stability
1.- Minimum of 5 military units in Feudal
- All civs must have at least 5 military units in Feudal, not counting economic ones, usually 4 to counter other units and one extra or advanced one. The basic ones are “Archer, Lancer, Horsemen and explorer”. In the extra it can be a unique unit or an early units. In the Rus, the extra is the early knight, in the English it is the vanguard man-at-arms, in the Ottomans it is the Mehter. The Mali are the only exception to this rule with six miilitary units in Feudal Age, wich would count as a bonus for their rush nature. The HRE has the prelate, but it count as economic booster unit. Instead, the Delhi Sultanate Schooler can make you win the game in Feudal using their ability to make a early sacred victory, so it count as the fifth unit.
2.- Civilization Bonuses
-2.1.- Bonuses aren´t unique technologies.- It should be preferred to put as bonus aspects that a Civ must have from the 1st age, and that are too complex to be unique technology.
-2.2.- Advanced units.- such as early knight and vanguard man-at-arms, or even early religious units, count as a bonus and must be included in the bonus section as one, if the concept has one of course. (Chinese don’t have early nothing, but have Zhu-ge-nu in Feudal, so it’s fine)
-2.3.- Pasive Bonus that increase by age.- as the Island of Agriculture English influence bonus that increases by age, or the French towncenter production speed bonus that increase by age, both count as “Bonuses”, if your civ. have one you need to put it in the Bonus section.
-2.4.- Marine Bonus.- At least one, and whatever. Necessary for balances in water maps. It can be complex (Rus, Mali), or not (English, 10% discount),
-2.5.- Influence Bonus.- By unique buildings, whatever building, even optional landmarks, but every civ need one. They are necessary to establish a pattern of urban design, forcing the player to care how they place their buildings. Think about the architecture of the civilization you design that could be used for this type of bonus, while work with buildings, it’s fine.
-2.6.- Bonuses must have 2 writed versions
One condensed, which must fit on the main screen, and the other extended for the tech tree, which has a unique name to explain the “historical” background of the bonus. Here some examples (Ex):
-Ex: The Mali bonus for veteran units discount is summarised: “Veteran unit technologies are half cost”. But it is extended in the tree of technologies as “Farari’s Knowledge: Veteran unit technologies unlocked in the Castle Age (III) are half cost” .
3.- Landmarks
It must be considered that if the civilization has unique mechanics, they must have at least one Landmark that improves these mechanics or takes better advantage of them.
- Ex: The White Tower takes advantage of the unit construction bonus in English Keep with double the production speed.
- Ex: Mehmed’s Armory uses the concept of Ottoman military school but in siege units.
4.- Unique technologies.
4.1- Technologies and not bonuses.- It should be preferred for unique technologies, technologies that a Civilization should not have from the 1st age (that is what the bonuses are for), which are optional, with an immediate effect and with a cost according to the benefit of develop them.
- Ex: English Bonus “Island of Agriculture” improves work on farms under the influence of a mill 10/15/20/30% depending on age. Since it’s not an immediate effect and you get it early on, it doesn’t sit well as a stand-alone technology.
- Ex: Mali’s “Local Knowledge” technology, works with Musofadi units, a unit that you can only build from the 2nd and already comes with the stealth ability. It works well as a tech because it increases the effectiveness of the unit, at a cost.
4.2- Ideal cost.- If possible, they must be “circumstantial” so that the player decides if it is worth investing in them or not yet.
4.3- Historical veracity: They must follow a historical logic for the age and the building where it takes place (So, no "improved cannons tech" in the Feudal age, at least wait until the Castles age)
4.4- Technology-mechanical synergy: It should be considered that if the civilization has unique mechanics in Bonuses or Landmarks, at least one unique technology or more could improve these bonuses or take better advantage of them, creating a synergy.
- Ex: Network of Citadels improves the English Network of Castles,
- Ex: Monastic Shrines takes advantage of the Ovoo aura mechanic but now for the temples
- Ex: Local Knowledge gives musofadi units regeneration when they hide, and hiding counts as a Civ Bonus.
- Ex: Unique French technologies are included cheaper in the Landmark Royal Institute.
4.5.- Quantity: Apparently there is no limit, because a civ can have 2 (the Ottomans), 18 (Abbasids) or up to 43 (Mongols). Of course, if you are over 16 at least mention it as a Bonus in the description of bonuses (Technological civilization, lovers of knowledge, pursuers of knowledge, there are many names)
- Ex: The Abassids have their 17 unique technologies (not counting the navy) as “Pursuit of Knowledge”.
- Ex: The Mongols have their 43 unique technologies, many of them are part of the “Influence Bonus” of the Ovoo mechanic, and are lesser versions of the original ones, so that compensate this amount.
5.- Unique units and buildings
5.1- Quantity: when the Mali came out they showed that “it doesn’t matter”, and one can invent any number of unique units. With the Season 4 patch, and the fact that Mongols can summon unique units from other civs, the devs has made it clear that as long as it’s balanced, there’s no problem.
5.2- Balance: Of course, each unique unit must consider that this is a balanced game, they must have at least 2 weaknesses in the base units of the other civs, especially if they do not replace a base unit that already had respective weaknesses.
- Ex: Mali Javelin thrower is weak to heavy cavalry and light melee cavalry, mangonel and cannons
- Ex: Chinese Fire Lancer is weak to spearman and knights, as well as men-at-arms.
6.- Marine combat settings:
-6.1- Marine Bonus: Every Civ must have at least one marine bond. They can be two if one is considered that one is not enough to match other civs in balance (the mali have 2, and the rus 2)
-6.2- Unique marine technology.- Every Civ requires at least 1 unique technology in the dock, that helps either economy (if its military bonus is very strong) or improves military qualities of the ships.
-6.3.- Unique marine units.- Another way to balance the marine bonus, or dedicate it to economics, is with unique units, which either replace an existing one (the French “War Cog” is the 1st example) or include an extra one.
7.- Influence Buildings
All civilizations released to date have at least one building of influence, which causes buildings in the round to acquire some bonus. This adds certain special characteristics:
- Can be more than 1 type of influence per Civ: HRE has City Center Emergency Repairs, and Elzbach Palace Aura, produced by the Landmark “Elzbach Palace”.
- Can be caused by optional Landmarks: Chinese have Imperial Academy Aura, Optional Landmark.
- The influence effect can be amplified or enhanced by unique technologies or Landmarks: Ottomans own the Istanbul Observatory, which enhances the effect of their smithies by 20% (40%->60%). Mongols own Monastic Shrines, which extend the religious aura of the Ovoo to the Prayer Tents.
8.- Final Checks
-8.1 Knowing the limits of gathering rates.- No Civ in the game so far can boost villagers more than 234% gathering speed in any resource (Chinese example), and only in certain circunstances.
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The post-imperial Chinese achieve 234% gathering rate in farms using 3 aligned barns that intercept and 3 officers permanently boosting them (100% + 15x3 Basic Techs, +30% barns, +20% ancient techs, x1.2 officers), but that’s it, is circumstantial and only focused on food.
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The HRE boosts up to 195% villager gathering rate in post-imperial with prelates (100%+15x3 basic Tech, +50% prelate with Devoutness).
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The Mali have 195% gather rate on farms using the temporary Griot Bara festival, in addition they have either their passive food boost when using cattle.
-8.2 Choosing between economic bounty or discount bonus.- You must choose if your Civ will have an economic bonus in collecting resources with villagers or compensate it with discounts and free economic and military units. You can have both, but balanced.
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Ex: The Delhi Sultanate lacks a lot of unique economic upgrades, but it makes up for it because all of their technologies are free, which saves them a lot of resources. The fact that the Sultan’s Elephants are free and schoolar of the Dome of the Faith are cheaper, also compensates the resources you gather. Either, the Hissar Academy gives you free food for each technology developed.
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Ex: In the Ottomans, the military colleges give you units for free, which offsets their cost, however, and with the exception of the card “Anatolian Plains” which increases mineral extraction by 10%, they lack base economic boost, except if you count the trade bonus by landmarks and cards.
9.- It is preferable not to rule out concepts
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If you have an interesting concept but it doesn’t work for the whole scheme, don’t discard it, consider it as an alternative or optional concept. If you think that some technology or bonus is too broken, try to reduce its intensity, or merge it with some existing technology or bonus. The creators themselves in previous patches have preferred to merge unique technologies with others rather than discard them, improve their effects by changing them, or even reduce their cost.
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An exclusive case in which a certain concept in AoE could be ruled out, is its historical veracity or if a mechanic is too general to be specific to a Civ. In Season 1, the Chinese for example, had the Double Hammock technology, which gave them he gave more arrows to the archer ships. With the update of sea battles in season 3, this technology became general and the Chinese acquired another unique new technology.
Final words
Since this is not a definitive guide, but just a help guide, which might be changing according to game balance, please let me know if you would like to add or change anything, or if you found any aspect of the game that all civs in the games have in common to add it to it. Take care and regards.