It may be a good idea to make mutually exclusive technologies for all civ.
On Reddit one user made a proposal of mutually exclusive technologies for the first 18 civilizations : https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/1ge69nh/a_what_if_aoe2_civilization_have_unique_tech/
Coming up with 90 new unique technologies and balancing them all at once is going to be impossible.
I think we could consider making only one mutually exclusive UT per civilisation. It can be in either of the Ages.
Then we only have to do 45.
Or we could just leave this mechanic to games where it belongs; namely those with only a few available, but then highly diverse civs.
If I would make the game from the scratch, surely I would give all civs mutually exclusive UT.
I really doubt this could be implemented, but at least, Imperial UT mutually exclusive would be very refreshing.
In some cases, maybe a current civ bonus could be changed in a UT. Turks for example, the bonus " Gunpowder units have +25% hit points" could be a mutually exclusive imp UT and compete with Artillery.
But then you have to come up with new civ bonus so it’s the same
Next propositions for the twelve civilizations from The Forgotten to Rise of the Rajas.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/1giqtww/another_what_if_aoe2_civilization_have_unique/
The big issue with mutually exclusive civs is there is no coming back from this decision, you cannot pick B if you picked A, it forces you on rails. While without that you can always pick the other techs, it only costs resources.
Given how poorly received some innovative UTs like Flemish Revolution (that only nukes your economy for a time but allows you to bounce back from it) have been, this is best left to sub-modes and shouldn’t be in the main AOE2.
Is not a problem, it is its fundamental…
Aside from the issue of inventing 90 (or even 45) new unique techs, I’d wait and see how this plays out in BFG before considering it in the main game. With choices like this, it may end up that there’s actually just a right choice and a wrong choice – i.e. one choice is more useful or powerful than the other – and thus the illusion of choice is actually just a noob trap.
Also, we’re talking about two choices, which may or may not synergise. Suppose you have a choice between A and B in Age 3, and C and D in Age 4, with A and C synergising and B and D synergising. (This is exactly the case for Athenians at least.) You pick A in Age 3, but then by Age 4 you realise it would be better to have B and D – but you can only pick A and D, a pair that doesn’t synergise!
It can also lead to the issue that choosing first puts you at a disadvantage. Let’s assume that in practice, player 1 can choose between A and B, player 2 between C and D. A counters C, B counters D, C counters B and D counters A. The player that picks first (say, P1 picks A), lets the opponent pick the option that will best counter him (P2 picks D), and is hard-locked into that, as he only has to pick the good choice once he knows which one the other picked.
Might be ok to add another unique tech from a different building. Maybe a bronze unique tech from tc, addressing balance issues for most civs could be good. But definitely not the ones from that reddit post, thats terribly imbalanced. Some of them are ridiculously overpowered while others are almost completely useless.