Had a fun idea for a game mode/new mechanic

Obviously the game is finalized and in the stages of coming out in Fall so the devs aren’t adding anything more at this point and would never add a mechanic based off forum posts anyway if they have any sense but I had a neat idea for a mechanic that I thought I’d share with you all that came to me in light of the response of it seeming to samey to AOE2. I wanted to think of a mechanic that was new and fresh and changed the meta while following in the more traditional framework of AOE1+2 over the Warcraft influenced 3 approach.

A gaia controlled building that allows you to research 1 tech per age, and the techs give you stuff very akin to Age 2 civ bonuses.
Faster villagers movement
Faster Elephants
Faster stone mining
Infantry +1 pierce armor
Walls have extra HP
Siege produce faster
etc.

It wouldn’t be able to be destroyed obviously as it would snowball the fight so hard with a new civ bonus each age essentially for only 1 player but holding the area around the building and denying your enemy from accessing it (needs unit/building nearby) would be viable/not blocked ala the Age 3 town center.

One approach I considered was having it in the center of the map, another approach I considered is that it’s somewhere in the scouting ring around the base of each player at the start. I think I like the idea of the latter better because it can still be denied but won’t just be first to area denial and snowballing from there.

You could have the selection of techs be based on the map (not water bonuses on land maps), and have the building change based on flavor (a bazaar in arabia, a merchants guild in black forest, etc).
It would have the benefit of making more water/land oriented civilizations struggle less on their disadvantaged terrain as well as making a variety of maps desirable in a competitive scene and casual maps can get neat stuff that would never work in a competitive setting.

I imagine the usual meta would turn into something like first 1-2 ages you pick techs that synergize with your default bonuses and then pick techs to be advantageous in the game as it’s playing out. Means your civ would have good build variety and adaptability even if they run cavalry 100% of the time.