We saw Chronicles and we already saw rough idea of how new Docks can be balanced in much better way. It still has hiccups here and there(I will suggest changes for Chronicles Docks later on after discussing base game Docks) but in much better spot and actually makes the game lot interesting than it is right now.
Before we start I think one important thing should be addressed:
- We need a way to keep old water balance and new balance still. Antiquity mode is the way to address that. Thought is shared below.
So here are my possible thoughts regarding converting Docks to base game:
- Antiquity Mode is the only mode where you’ll have access to new Dock system. I still want old Dock system for this reason.
- Because so many campaigns already made based on old water balance. Official Campaigns slow and steady can convert it to new Dock system with objectives but will take time. But same cant just be said same with custom campaigns. For that reason alone old balance will stay but antiquity dock system will be the future. Ranked mode by default will have Antiquity Mode on.
Process of converting Chronicles design to base game:
- War Galley and Demo line stays unchanged.
- A new ramming ship is added and will work same as Chronicles. But will require new sprite skin for new boat. How its upto devs.
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- Fire Galley becomes a UU for Byzantines, Armenians, Georgians. Becomes alternative unit lines in exchange for new Melee Ramming Ship. These civs dont have melee ships to say.
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- Vikings get Longboats in exchange for ramming ships which handles the role of melee and ranged unit. Lose access to War Galley and Ramming ship
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- Dromons works exactly the same as Chronicles but has more access to almost all civs in the game.
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- Portuguese/Spanish get new unique upgrade line for War Galley by Caravel in exchange for Galleons.
- Now we only have trash ship problem to solve. But how is a critical question, Game can simply copy paste Lembos from Chronicles or have a small melee ship with different stats to make it a bit more distinguishable. Again a new sprite for boat.
- So we have 2 new boat sprites to make. A ramming ship and a trash ship. Many of the units can be repurposed or renamed under new banner.
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- War Galley being War Galley
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- Dromons being Catapult Ship
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- Some civs can simply have Leviathan instead of Cannon Galleon
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- New Ramming Ship Sprite
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- New Trash Ship Sprite primarily to counter Dromons and Cannon Galleon
I still think Chronicles has a room for improvements to ship but that could require serious game changes but actually can make the game much better:
- Fishing Ships building economy Docks
- Transport Ship acting as mule cart to drop off resources. During campaign playthrough I felt the lack of dropsites due to how far Oysters were. Transport ships in this way will have more utility other than to transport units but rendered useless afterwards.
- Coding related but transport ships should’ve a ferry system similar to patrol but more unique.
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- Basically you can set point A to point B to ferry units when in need.
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- You can set some form of timer so that transport ships will stay at shore for specific amount of time. Increase or Decreasing wait time can be handled by player. If ship is filled with troops then will leave the shore to the point it desired instead of the small waiting time.
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- Transport ships will be immune from load order by units and instead units will just wait at shore where Transport ships will land. Military Buildings can set gather points to another Island where they’ll travel through Transport ship automatically and reach the point they intended.
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- This way some maps like rivers whom has no shallow to crossover will become interesting to play due to QoL improvements of transport ships alone.
- A new separate population system for water. Economy shipyards will act as house pop space like +10 per shipyards. Whether to make it 50 pop or 100 pop is a room for debate.
- Catapult Ships need more spread. Feels pretty meh to use them to counter mass War Galley mass.