In the new DLC Lords of the West, two new civilisations are released, both of them heavily rely on “Age III”-mechanics for their unique techs, which I dislike cause I don’t think we need Age III outside of Age III. Other than that, these unique “techs” don’t feel like techs at all. They just have an one-time effect and that’s it. Yes, techs like these have been in the game before, see paper money for Vietnamese, which is to be honest not an very interesting tech, and also hasn’t the tech-vibe to it, but for Vietnamese this is atleast just one unique tech that’s like this. The Lords of the West civs only have unique techs like this.
I think the unique techs of these civilizations should have more long term value, to feel like a tech.
I was already thinking of some ideas for these civs.
Burgundian Vineyards:
Now: Convert all food in a 2:1 ratio to gold.
My idea: Give them extra gold for selling food in the market.
Another idea: Give them gold income for food collected by their farmers. For example 1 gold per 100 food collected. This value is of course dependend on the tech tree of the burgundians, cause paladins with 50% gold return and good gold income for farming seems too strong, but I think this tech keeps the spirit of the techname, and is unique enough.
Flemish Revolution:
Now: Upgrades all villagers to flemish militia with a bonus attack against cav.
My idea: The only idea I cam up with is to make the flemish militia buildable in the barracks like maybe strong pikeman with a low gold cost, similar to the kamayuk but without the +1 range and less beefy but therefore spammable in the barracks.
Sizilians:
First unique tech:
Now: Every TC spawns 7 unique units.
My idea: Give them spawn 7 unique units per TC, but make the tech re-researchable and more expensive every time you research it.
Second unique tech:
Now: Gives you and your allies 15 gold per military unit.
My idea: Reduce gold cost for every gold costing unit by like 5, but for the whole team, or reduce overall unit cost for the team, by 2 to 5 percent.
Another idea: Give them gold for kills. 1 gold per kill is probably too much, but surely the dev team can find an balanced value for this, maybe even only give them gold for killing gold costing units, or give them 1 to 5 percent of the ressources that the killed unit cost.
I’d be happy to hear some of your ideas to put “tech” back into “unique tech”.