ROR is quite fun. I’ve been playing it a lot the past couple days. However, I think it needs a little polish for a balanced experience, and the way to do that is to make it a little more like AoE2.
I’m not gonna suggest unique units or anything like that, as I think the civs as they are now are plenty unique. Instead, I want to suggest some new technologies, units, and features that will help make the experience more familiar for AoE2 players, as well as more balanced and strategic instead of spammy.
First, in order to make the game more defense-capable, I want to add some features. First, a new technology available at the Town Center in the Stone Age called Clothing. It basically functions like Loom, and makes villagers tougher to kill. As it is now, they’re easy targets for raids.
Second, another thing that can be done is make buildings have more HP and armor, which scales with age like AoE2. This will make defensive positions more viable, and makes house walls actually effective, especially against ranged units.
Third, give Town Centers the ability to fire arrows. This will be unlocked after Watch Tower is researched. In tandem with this is the ability for towers and TCs to garrison all foot units, not just villagers, and they’ll also heal inside. Archers inside TCs will cause them to fire arrows, like villagers, and towers will also fire extra arrows if villagers or ranged units are inside. They will, of course, have to receive a stone cost after this.
Connected to this is a balance change. Give the Choson free tower upgrades, like the Koreans of AoE2. Thematically, they’re connected, and they’re literally the same people, so it makes sense. The Koreans are my second favorite civ in AoE2, and the Choson are really growing on me, so it would be cool to see.
Finally, I want to suggest some new counter units, expanding the Tool Age units to be less useless later on. The first new unit is the Heavy Axeman, essentially acting as the Halberdier, but with less bonus damage. The Heavy Axeman would have 60 HP, 6 attack, and 10 bonus attack vs cavalry. It would give players a trash option against cavalry, and a hard counter rather than a soft counter.
The second new unit would be the Peltast, an upgrade of the Slinger. It would throw javelins rather than stones, so maybe the upgrade tech would be called “Javelin.” It would have 35 HP, 4 pierce armor, and +6 bonus damage against archers, making it a hard counter. Considering how absolutely busted Chariots and Chariot Archers are, it’s important to have hard counters against them, and these two units would help immensely.
The third new unit is the Armored Camel Rider. It would have 145 HP, 7 attack, 1 of each armor, and 9 bonus damage against cavalry. It’s not quite as effective against cavalry as the Heavy Axeman, but is more population and cost efficient.
Well, that’s all! Tell me what you think.