This is why I suggested switching Hussar for Plate Barding (although I grant that just giving them plate barding would be fine as well). It gives almost as much advantage in several melee matchups as the Hussar upgrade, but makes them much better vs ranged/for raiding, for literally half the price (550 vs 1100 res). Doing this avoids the problematic (for me anyways) implications of giving them Bloodlines.
True. Either way I like it more as a new bonus than taking something from another civ, but I agree that something more targeted to cav would be better. Someone suggested anti-cav bonus damage from scorps, but I don’t like that on a civ that doesn’t get Heavy Scorp.
I like the idea of archers being cav-resistant (this was a theme in my Tarascan/Purépechas civ), although it seems a little superfluous on Koreans with the free armor. I’m open to the idea of +1 anti-cav for their archerline, however the damage of archer units in general is so finely calibrated that I’m not sure that would be a good idea. The only civ they’ve dared to give +1 to archers to is via an Imp UT on a civ without Thumb Ring. +1 anti-cav damage on skirms may be worth exploring. Or, not that Koreans need another tower buff, but, I like the concept of Towers and Tcs having a small bonus vs cav (possibly tied to their UT). But I think the safest bet that fits the theme might be to give some cav (melee) resistance to spears and skirms.
Anyway, I’ve mostly just been throwing out ideas without regard to how they would synergize with each other, but if I were to suggest a rough synthesis of the proposals I like the most, it would go something like this:
- Villagers +3 LOS → Spearline, Villagers and (possibly) Skirms +1/2/3 (melee) cavalry damage resistance and LOS per Age.
- Eupseong (also) adds +1 anti-cav damage to all defensive buildings.
- Shinkichon (also) adds 30% bonus damage to gunpowder units.
- TB expanded to all Siege units.
- Gain Plate Barding. (Possibly lose Hussar, IDC though really)
They could probably get more, but I’d start with that. I really like the idea of gold miners generating stone, but given the resource distribution it just seems really hard to balance in a way that it provides more early advantages than the current bonus (which would be the only point of changing it), but doesn’t scale ridiculously lategame. Anything below, say 10% just seems much worse for getting to towers/castles than 20% faster mining, yet even that yields almost ~38% more stone under standard conditions, which I think is too much. So while the idea is intriguing, I’m not wild about it until the tools for finer calibration exist (e.g. Jade Mines, which primarily provide gold, but also provide stone at a moderate-high rate).
I guess I should have said “around,” like how the Gurjara berries spawn right outside the TC. Alternatively it could be walkable (like the “Pile of Stone” that exists as a hidden Editor object), but that might be a little strange.