Another user had this to say on a different topic:
Basically, tower play is not used in the Castle Age because towers are too expensive to use effectively past the Feudal Age. What if, instead of Svan Towers giving extra damage and a piercing arrow to towers, it instead halved their cost, making them easier to spam? That’s the effect that my version of the technology had, and it not only makes perfect sense, given the Svaneti region possessed hundreds of towers before the Soviets tore most of them down for building material, but from a gameplay perspective, it makes a tower rush past the Feudal Age actually viable for the Georgians. Possessing strong towers throughout the late stages of the game is a perfectly logical effect, because the prime usage of the towers for defense was during the Georgian Golden Age (think Tamar).
I would much prefer that effect over what the tech currently has, because it’s not only my idea, but it makes a lot more sense and is very flavorful. If only the towers were visually Svanetian too…
I think the current effect is fine. Better to solve the issue of mid-lategame tower weakness globally rather than situationally solving it for one civ after they get their UT anyway.
There’s probably room for a UT that makes towers cheaper (besides the never-used secondary effect of Detinets), but I think it would make more sense on a new civ. The Georgian UT should definitely change tower appearance to actual Svan towers, but I find this appearance at odds with cheapness. It’s a taller, more imposing tower that one would expect to be more powerful than a generic tower. Perhaps the prolific building of these towers could be represented with a faster build time after researching the tech, rather than a lower cost.
Also wow, another Dravidians buff/rework thread. I kind of got burnt out on that whole discussion after the literal thousandth post in just a single one of the dozen or so threads on the subject.
That’s a good point, actually. I definitely agree that the devs should finish the current Svan Tower model (player color and destruction animation) and make that a unique skin for Georgian towers after the tech is researched. It would be a fun flavor addition that I hope the devs implement. I could accept not having a new architecture set if this were done, as having the Georgians build Roman-looking towers is very weird. Anyway, tall, imposing towers definitely scream strength rather than cheapness, so you’re right.
Maybe towers could be made cheaper generally, though that might have to be coupled with making them weaker as well.
Or their stone cost could be lowered while the wood cost is increased.
A few little tweaks would make them a lot nicer. For example, letting guard towers garrison 1 more villager would increase arrow efficiency over much of the game. Same goes for Keeps.
Towers in general should be able to garrison more units, of course staggered with the upgrades. Watch tower remains the same, +5 for guar tower and others +5 for keep.
By the way, calling “keep” to a building that just can garrisone 5 units is ridiculous.
However, more garrison space doesn’t mean more arrows. Just a good option for protection against raids in a post imperial age and a good insentive to research those upgrades.
Svan towers could rise the garrison space in +5, plus another little buff
I think 15 is perhaps too much, but the big annoying thing about Keeps atm is they have 15 damage, so 3 villagers gives you one extra arrow, but you’re one villager short of getting two extra arrows. Guard Towers have 7 base damage, which goes up to 9 in castle age, so you can get 2 extra arrows, but you’re 2 damage shy of getting three extra arrows.
So by giving guard towers and keeps 6 garrison space instead of 5, you could increase their damage efficiency quite a lot. For example, in castle age, having 6 villagers garrisoned in a town center would give you 4 extra arrows for a total of 12 damage against knights. Having those same 6 villagers garrisoned in a guard tower would give you the same damage but in 3 arrows, so you’d get 15 damage against the same knights.
Compared to right now, where you get 12 either way, because much of the guard tower damage potential is wasted.