part 2 of Improving AOE3 - Age of Empires III: DE / III - Discussion - Age of Empires Forum
Auto Spawn and Plaza Revamp
auto spawn systems, such as Plaza, summer palace, factories, strelet horde and dojos now send spawned units as shipments rather than spawning them from the building. consulates and churches now also send units as shipments as well. units spawned this way don’t wait in the shipment que and are concurrently sent to your home city drop point.
auto spawning buildings go on cooldown once units are shipped whose length depends on the choice made. this choice can be set to spawn once by left clicking the icon, or automatically spawn the selected unit types by right clicking the units you want to auto spawn, which will show a loop symbol on the upper right of the icon to show it will be automatically shipped once the cooldown is over. auto spawn can be deselected by right clicking again or selecting a different option to change the default spawn, and this mechanic is now explained in the tooltips when hovering over auto spawn unit icons. unused spawns due to pop limit or no option selected are now stored as charges, with up to 2 charges stored at a time, and there is now an idle spawn building flag similar to the idle villager flag once pop space is available and no auto spawn is set.
you can now choose what units to begin spawning as you are building the summer palace rather than waiting for it to complete. cooldown reduces with each age, and ships 2 of the selected banner units in the imperial age. the academy now allows you to spawn flame throwers and hand mortars instead of flying crow and increases the amount shipped with each age.
for ease of use, Indian gate and the shogunate now also ship mansabdars and Daimyo instead of training them.
dojos now ship unique and stronger “dojo forged” lookalike versions of their normal counterparts, with a 20% increase to their base stats and new visuals. like mansabdar units they are automatically selected with their base counterparts and benefit from the same cards and upgrades. dojos are now also a default building for the Japanese, with an initial build limit of 1 in the fortress age. the commerce age card ships and increases this limit by a further 1, while the fortress age card ships and increases this limit by 2. cooldowns, bounty and build cost increased to compensate.
factories now allow you to choose which artillery to spawn, such as culverins, horse artillery and flying crows. these alternatives spawn in either larger amounts or give a smaller cooldown per shipment.
if you have revolted with certain nation, factories can now also spawn either 2 fort wagons or an extra factory wagon for a significant cooldown, while also increasing their build limit.
the manor estates card is now available in the fortress age, and instead spawns 1 villager per manor after 3 minutes. American counterpart adjusted.
Strelet horde type cards spawns more units.
plaza now automatically reduce unit spawn cooldowns with Effective Ceremony Seconds, or ECS. you can no longer use ECS directly on actual unit spawns, such as skull knights or Tokala. instead, it will reduce unit spawn cooldowns automatically in the background as you use ECS on other ceremonies, such as fertility or tribute ceremony. the number of units spawned with each cooldown automatically increases with each age, and the haud gain rams in commerce and mantlets/light cannons in fortress+ as a unit spawn option.
warrior ceremony is now removed. instead, 6 warriors are spawned quickly at the tc for a cost, just like other civs. lack of access to reliable and on demand minutemen pop is too detrimental in 1v1.
all native civs now also have access to a ceremonial elder spawn in the plaza, who start out giving less ECS than a villager, though their ECS as well as their spawn amount increases with each age. the ceremonial elder takes no pop space, has no attack and very low hp, but frees up native villagers to gather while they give some benefit from the plaza. Plaza maximum workers is now 20 and ceremony benefits are now linear and smaller when maxed out.
Lakota no longer have access to a siege ceremony, though now all natives have access to mortars in age 4 as well as one guaranteed artillery mercenary in the mercenary hut, including a new native light cannon mercenary option. town ceremony is now a default ceremony that favors damage over hp and only affects buildings that shoot. War chief ceremony now respawns faster, and heavily favors damage over hp as well as improving auras, abilities and reducing cooldowns. water ceremony is removed from the game and native naval units now have their base stats reworked and improved to compete fairly without it. all civilizations without default access to monitors now have access to the captured monitor unit, which acts the same.
Resources
native civs have access to the normal market line of resource gathering upgrades, no longer requiring a farm or estate to boost natural resource gathering rate(why???).
trickle cards now auto upgrade by 25% each age. trickle cards rebalanced.
Trade posts now increase from 4 speed to 8 upon 1st upgrade, and 16 speed on iron horse upgrade. Trade posts now give +20%,30%,100% more upon reaching fortress, industrial and imperial.
hovering over the resource icons now shows a list of individual resource sources, such as estates, mines and trickles, and the rate at which each one is gathering. you can now change intake prediction to resources per second rather than minutes.
non starting area natural resources now contain more resources. Starter herds now bound tightly to starting tc and will not move away from it. herds in general move far less and stay put into a small area by default but can be herded more frequently and farther away without triggering back herding. Individual animals will always maintain a minimum distance towards buildings, water, mines, impassable terrain, and edge of map, and will never move closer than 6 distance towards them. food contained in herds and berries increased by 50%, starting berries and herds are reduced to compensate. nonstarter mines also have gold contained increased by 50%. Market upgrades and dedicated card now all increase yields by 25%.
mills, farms and estates now gather regardless of animation state, just like rice paddies. estates are now available in age 3, just like rice paddies. estates and rice paddies can now harvest wood. the base rate of all infinite resource buildings is now a unified 40% of base natural resource gathering rate. all 4 now also have 4 different 25% gather increasing upgrades, resulting in 80% of base natural gather rate. the new treaty only capitol upgrades increase these by an additional 150%. cards that increase gather rates from these buildings adjusted. Farms can now hold both 10 livestock and farmers at the same time.
cost of all 4 now increased to 800 wood. town center cost also increased to 800 wood. land grab and its counterparts now only reduce cost by 25%, advanced cards reduce costs by 50%.
Land grab removed from the game; Advanced plantations/ mills/ farms/ paddies now reduce costs by 50% to 400.
Trade post, factories and trickles now follow base gather rate ratios. Base factory food generation reduced to 5, but now has 2 more expensive upgrades which increase it by 30% and 50% for each resource.
All livestock now fatten food as a % of their max food capacity, all civs now have two 25% fattening and gathering speed upgrades at their livestock building. Decay for all dead animals reduced to .1 a second and no longer have any sort of collision. Livestock cannot be deleted until fortress age. Max food increased, sheep to 500 food, cows to 1000. All different types of herdable now have a 30 unit build limit.
Fulling mills card changes livestock pens into an automatic livestock gathering building. When livestock are fattened they enter are quickly consumed. U.S., Ottomans, Germans, and certain revolutions now gain access to the card as well as the British.
All exploration/commerce age explorer cards now also reduce town center costs by 50% to 400 as well. Dutch explorer card benefit changed.
Capitol
now buildable in age 4, with a similar counterpart available to the Asians + Aztecs and Incas called the imperial palace, and the federation of nations for the Lakota and haud. while alive the building increases xp gains by 25%, and certain upgrades are now available in age 4. imperial resource gathering upgrades are now treaty only and available in the industrial age. these upgrades now also greatly improve trickle card and trade post income. spies are available in the industrial age as well, allowing revolutionary civs to research it. Asian civs can now rebuild wonders in age 4 through the wonder wagon, which has the same train cost as building an age 4 wonder. if starting in an age above the exploration age, they now also spawn with 1 wonder wagon for each aged skipped. factory wagons and consulate unlocked buildings can also be rebuilt in the capitol as well. U.S. starting in ages past exploration now have a temporary unique button in tc that allows them to pick cards for every age skipped.
The now Industrial age spies no longer reveals building foundations, only buildings that have begun construction.
Factories and fort limits
by default, all euro civs have 2 base factory build limit and can build factory wagons in the capitol, their factory cards do not increase factory build limits. Revolutionary infinite fort wagon cards now ship 2 forts instead of 1. Forts also have 1 base build limit and are now automatically rebuildable by villagers and explorers. The industrial age card Castrametation card now ships 2 fort wagons instead of 1 as well as a new industrial infinite 1 fort wagon card.
Unit Train Speed Unification
churches, plazas, and monasteries now contain upgrades to increase military train speeds rather than spread out through cards, big buttons, and wonders. in the church fencing school and riding school are now commerce age upgrades that increase train speed by 20%, mass cavalry and standing army are now fortress age upgrades that further improve train speeds by 20%, and a new upgrade called national mobilization increases by further 20% in the industrial age. Asians and natives now have their counterparts in the plaza and monastery. 2 20% train speed upgrades for artillery as well. immigration no longer improves train speed at all.
Revolutions
Access to spies, legendary natives, and capitol. All revolutionary units like hajduks, mamelukes and pirates cost food instead of gold.
some need alot of help. Indonesia spears increased ranged resist to 50%, damage 15, give them siege trooper tag, elephant card now gives 2 instead of 1. Finland skirms have massive yield bonuses, can now build some basic buildings as well as church, market, arsenal, and capitol, and their cards give more natural resources. Haiti pirate pistol card now changes default stance to ranged and gives them ranged and gunpowder tags, and a new satchel ability vs buildings. Egyptian mamelukes constantly regenerate hp.
New dreadnought unit for brazil, this unit also shows up in certain campaign missions and as a recruitable mercenary in single player. Upgraded Dragoons cost pure food, Ruyter’s pure gold, and have larger melee bonus.
Other revolutions like Mexico, barbary states and America are also underwhelming, and every revolution need access to an infinite mortar card.
Thanks for reading.