I like the goal but it might not need such a drastic change. I already see a huge improvement after the wall nerf in dark age. May be extending it to feudal age should be enough. Make dark and feudal age buildings weaker in general.
That creates another problem of even further increasing the power spike in castle age (since now buildings also get stronger). To compensate that, may be introduce a tech like masonry to increase building HP. So that players have to research this additional tech to get more HP, apart from advancing to new age.
Extend researching time a little (maybe just 50% more) it is really drastic? No need balanceā¦ the balance is more units needed in feudal in order to survive until reach castle ageā¦
It costs 800 food 500 gold in Age of mythology. In comparison 2nd age (Classical) is 400 food and 4th age (mythic) is 1000 food and 1000 gold, but your Dark age military was useless so there was no militia rushes. However hitting Heroic (castle) age and picking something like Bronze or Flaming weapons would automatically win you the next fight, so the game had very strict Heroic (castle) age times.
They did improve A LOT of things for age of mythology that were subpar in Age of Empires 2, sadly the game is buggy as hell. And introduction of titans, Atlanteans and Chinese civilizations ruined it. Also the popcap is terrible in that game, its like 25-40 military even with 160 pop.
It is drastic in the sense it will have excess impact on people who want to play closed maps. Age up time is boring in maps like arena so now people will have even less to do. Also it doesnāt address the underlying problem. Feudal age army is just too weak for buildings and walls. Increasing age up time can be countered by walling up even earlier. I am sure it will result in see some increase in feudal play, but reducing building strength will have better impact without impacting closed maps.
Well the comparison is kind of useless since AoM has mechanics that arenāt in AoE2 at all isnāt?
Nerfed wall are fine, but nerfing all buildings (maybe besides houses) wouldnāt be good either, as youāre not supposed to be able to kill production buildings that early.