Any chance a subtleblue outline could be put around University techs that pertain exclusively to maritime stuff? I don’t play water maps very often, so they feel like clutter; just as Heated Shot always has, but worse.
With a blue visual separation it will help me block them out of my mind and, thus, not have to worry about them each and every time I play.
For example (quick mock-up here. Slightly more blue or vibrant might be be a little better(?), but I think this is close to what would work):
Personally, I don’t understand why they aren’t under the Dock like a bunch of or all the other maritime techs. There’s a clear distinction between water and land gameplay. Why not go to Docks for all water stuff?
I know water gameplay was revamped, but putting techs in the University just so I see them every game won’t magically make me play water map/boat games more, if that’s a partial reason
Unless you include the numbers, but those are already used for groups (forgot the specific term)
I think if they added two or three rows more, that’d be enough to keep all technologies in the dock and maybe give separate slots to regional units in All Techs mode.
I’d be okay with that, especially if land bonuses will never be added to it; which they probably won’t ( Sigh). However, I’d prefer just adding a little land-related bonus to Heated Shot (against units and/or buildings) and have it remain in the University since towers are constructed on land it makes some sense, imo.
Like, towers are pretty useless against Battering Rams (and probably trebs?). Couldn’t Heated Shot be a good tech to add some sort of bonus vs. them? Seems like for towers it could translate to fire arrows, heated pitch or tar, heated sand, or boiling water – and heated or fire cannonballs for Bombard Towers. Could similarly improve castles, too, with this tech.
I’m guessing tower land bonuses will never be added since they further nerfed towers vs. ships, unfortunately. Towers became 2nd class citizens in AoE games with all their nerfings combined with buffs against them
“Watch Tower-line bonus damage vs. ships reduced from +7/9/10 → +6/8/9.”
I just realized maybe another reason to have marine techs at University was to allow players who are struggling to get on the seas (due to strong enemy presence) a chance to get onto them by researching techs inland so Docks can immediately produce improved ships once a dock is made?
We all know how hard it can be to keep Docks alive, and, thus, research marine techs, when someone is controlling the water
That’s the only main argument for it that I can see. If that’s the case, I wish there was just a separate inland maritime tech building that could be created, like a Shipyard, but one that is inland. History-wise, I’m not aware of any such building… so I guess University is where such techs need to be
UI grid getting another column might be cool and there seems room for it, but yeah, hotkeys could become a problem. I’d much prefer that over a bunch of maritime techs at University, though. Personally, I’ve never had a problem and actually liked a 2nd page of Dock techs/boats. Seems like only newcomers who have played less than 5 hours wouldn’t like the one-pager, but I could be wrong.
To me, AoE has always been like peeling back layers of an onion. Well, I mean, that’s how it was in the beginning anyways, but the memory lives strong. The multiple pages in UI per-building made the game feel deeper. If everything only had one page of techs, somehow the game might feel more shallow and less complex. More rewarding to feel like it has multiple onion layers, imo. I’m likely overthinking it, but I can’t quite put it into words
AoE4 is a Master Class in UI becoming an active gameplay participant and hindrance to player success. The generic icons cause anxiety because they make me pause and think about and/or read what I’m clicking virtually each and every time; lest I just mindlessly spam-click icons whenever they illuminate and I have enough resources because I’m tired of having to analyze the simplistic icons
It’s artificial anxiety. In other words, the battles and gameplay should be what causes anxiety, not the UI. Similar to the 200 pop max and the claustrophobically close zoom level creating artificial anxiety for me. They’re odd, forced design decisions that get in the way of me just playing the game with a stream of consciousness. How do you enter a flow state when you’re constantly having to analyze UI icons or delete 10 villagers to make 4 siege units and 2 cavalry
Maritime techs having to be researched at University is arguably a similar hindrance to achieving true flow state:
“Let me upgrade my marine stuff”… (clicks Dock)… “Oh, I can only do a few techs here… have to go to the University now, too”… (clicks University and searches for maritime techs in the grid of predominantly land techs and finally finds and clicks them)… “Cool, got all the marine techs upgraded now for Castle Age… let me do the Dock and University dog and pony show all over again in Imp Age! Can’t wait!”
Sigh). However, I’d prefer just adding a little land-related bonus to Heated Shot (against units and/or buildings) and have it remain in the University since towers are constructed on land it makes some sense, imo.
