Massive wall of text of balance ideas

This post is a massive wall of text of balance ideas. If that’s not your sort of thing, that’s okay.

As well as balance ideas I wanted to re-write all of the in-game landmark descriptions as they don’t seem to follow any kind of format and include a lot of double negatives. I’ve split these balance ideas up by civilization and included explanations for changes in quotation boxes. I’ve not included all of the existing landmark descriptions to try and make this post somewhat readable. You can find those here:

MONGOLS

Mongols

  • Ovoo changed from 105 stone per minute to 60/80/100/120 stone per minute

Stone generation changes depending on Age. Reduced early game Stone generation is intended to reduce their Dark Age/Feudal Age win rate.

  • Khan health changed from 90/115/300/450 to 80/120/240/480

  • Khan damage reduced from 2/4/12/24 to 2/3/6/12

The current Khan is too strong during the Feudal Age and Castle Age. These adjustments should make it more difficult to harass the opponent’s economy using only the Khan.

Deer Stones
Grants the Yam Network technology upon completion. Provides the Yam speed aura when unpacked.

The Silver Tree
Acts as a Market. Produces Traders 50% faster and for 50% less Gold.

Kurultai
When the Khan is nearby, the Kurultai heals all nearby units and provides a 25% damage bonus for 30 seconds.

Steppe Redoubt
Acts as a Ger. Gold dropped off here is increased by 40%.

Small reduction down from 50%. Castle Age win rate for the Mongols is reasonable. Their overall win rate is heavily skewed by their Dark Age/Feudal Age strength.

The White Stupa
Acts as an Ovoo which produces 240 Stone per minute without a Stone Outcropping.

Khaganate Palace
All raid income is doubled.

Complete rework intended to highlight their unique Raid mechanic. Incentivizes an Imperial Age timing push to snowball and close out the game. Weaker than The White Stupa in a war of attrition.

FRENCH

French

Chamber of Commerce
Acts as a Market. Traders and Trade Ships return 30% more resources.

School of Cavalry
Acts as a Stable. Stables produce units 25% faster.

Royal Institute
Houses all unique French technologies. Research here cost 50% less and ignore Age requirements.

Research discount increased from 25% to balance it against the Guild Hall and encourage more Castle Age timing pushes.

Guild Hall
Generates and stores resources. The more resources stored, the faster they are generated. Select between Food, Wood, Stone, or Gold.

Red Palace
Acts as a Keep. Features high-damage arbalest emplacements. Each garrisoned unit adds an additional arbalest.

College of Artillery
Produces Royal Artillery which deal 20% more damage.

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

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  • Inspired Warriors technology removed

Replaced by the Burgrave Palace changes.

  • Reinforced Defences technology removed

Replaced by the Elzbach Palace changes.

Meinwerk Palace
Acts as a Blacksmith. Research here costs 50% less.

Increased from 25% to improve their early game win rate at the cost of a better economy using the Aachen Chapel.

Aachen Chapel
Inspires villagers in a large radius so long as a Prelate is garrisoned.

Regnitz Cathedral
Holds up to 3 relics. Relics placed within generate 100% more Gold every minute.

Reduced from 200% to try and make the civ less of a one trick pony and reduce their win rate after the 30 minute mark.

Burgrave Palace
Acts as a Barracks. Produces units 400% faster. Melee units within range of a Prelate carrying a Relic are inspired, increasing their damage by 15%.

Reworked to be easier to use and promote aggressive use of Prelates in line with their civ identity. Removed Inspiried Warriors tech also granted +1 armor but this is very similar to the Abbasid Camel Support technology and would probably be overpowered as an aura effect for the HRE.

Palace of Swabia
Acts as a Town Center. Produces villagers 300% faster for 75% less Food.

20% discount removed so that this costs 2400 Food and 1200 Gold like all other Age IV landmarks. Swabia is considered one of the best Imperial Age landmarks and there doesn’t seem to be any reason why it should also come at a discount.

Elzbach Palace
Acts as a Keep. Increases the health of all Keeps, Towers, Walls, and Gates by 50%. All buildings within influence take 33% less damage.

Removed Reinforced Defenses technology granted 40% more health to Towers, Walls, and Gates. Elzbach Palace currently has 50% more health than a standard Keep. Proposed changes to Elzbach Palace sort of merges the two, leaving other HRE Keeps with more health than before. This should make a powerful defensive alternative to Palace of Swabia as well as leaving HRE players building Swabia with weaker defenses.

CHINESE

Chinese

Currently the dynasty mechanic encourages the Chinese to invest a ton of resources unlocking a dynasty, only to then lose it’s benefits when advancing to the next one. Moving the dynasty units and buildings to their landmarks would diminish the dynasty mechanic, but honestly good game play should be the priority over clever game design. These changes would make the Chinese stronger at the beginning of each Age without actually buffing anything else. Changing dynasties would be much more simple, you simply switch between the passive global buffs they grant.

Imperial Academy
Nearby buildings generate 100% more Tax Gold. Unlocks the Zhuge Nu.

Additional Gold generated can be used to help produce Zhuge Nu. Being able to unlock them without needing to advance to the Song dynasty is intended to improve their abysmal early win rate.

Barbican of the Sun
Fires a long range hand cannon and adds arrowslits when garrisoned. Offers vision into stealth forests. Unlocks the Village.

The Village is based upon a historical design which was intended to be an easily defended structure. It makes sense thematically for this to be unlocked by building a defensive landmark. If this were to unlock the Zhuge Nu instead, a proxy Barbican followed by Zhuge Nu aggression could be overpowered.

Astronomical Clocktower
Produces Clocktower Siege which have 50% more health. Unlocks the Granary.

An astronomical clock improving agriculture sort of makes sense thematically.

Imperial Palace
Has a large sight radius. Activate to view location of enemy villagers for 10 seconds. Unlocks the Fire Lancer.

One of the Fire Lancers intended uses is to harass villagers. The activated ability synergizes with this.

Great Wall Gatehouse
Must be built on Stone Walls. Increases the health of Stone Walls and Gates by 100%. Nearby units on Walls deal 50% more damage. Unlocks the Grenadier.

Unlocking Grenadiers in the Archery Range synergizes with the use of Stone Walls. Grenadiers are very expensive and producing them at a discount using the Spirit Way without needing to advance to the Ming dynasty could be overpowered.

Spirit Way
Unique units produced in nearby buildings cost 30% less. Unlocks the Pagoda.

The proposed changers effectively eliminate ‘dynasty units’ so this landmark would need a rework. A lot of sources are inconsistent with which units are the Chinese ‘unique units’. This could arguably affect Palace Guards and so fourth. The discount could be adjusted to balance this.

DELHI

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  • Fishing ships no longer equipped with an archer

This is a kind of cute civ characteristic but it doesn’t seem healthy especially at high levels of play. This is less important now post fishing nerf, however I think the playerbase in general would be more accepting of hybrid maps if this were removed.

  • Sanctity technology removed

Part of the Tower of Victory rework.

  • Reinforced Foundations technology removed

Nerf to House of Learning trying to reduce the Delhi win rate during Castle Age. This should force them to spend a bit more resources on houses.

  • Tranquil Venue technology removed

Trying to make this type of healing mechanic more unique to Abbasid and Mongols whilst also nerfing the House of Learning.

  • Village Fortresses technology removed

Part of the Compound of the Defender rework.

Tower of Victory
Allows Scholars to capture Sacred Sites before the Castle Age. Sacred Sites generate 100% more Gold.

Encourages the early game Sacred Site gameplay that a lot of players enjoyed on release. High-risk high-reward landmark as Delhi players give up the discounted Scholars from the Dome of Faith and try to battle it out in the Feudal Age where the civ is generally considered to be quite weak.

Dome of Faith
Produces Scholars for 33% less Gold.

Delhi will need to spend more Gold on Scholars if they want to speed up their important Castle Age techs like Honed Blades. This should help to reduce their Castle Age win rate.

Compound of the Defender
Infantry units can build Stone Walls, Gates, and Towers. Keeps can produce villagers.

Delhi players building the House of Learning won’t be able to produce villagers from their Keeps. The Stone discount being removed should also alleviate the issues regarding surrounding the enemy base with Stone Towers. Encourages as more defensive playstyle of using Keeps to boom instead of Stone Tower cheese. Combined with proposed nerf to Stone Wall build time could significantly reduce their >1600 ELO win rate.

House of Learning
Contains unique economic and military technologies.

Hisar Academy
Generates Food based upon the number of technologies researched.

Palace of the Sultan
Automatically produces Tower Elephants. Garrison up to 4 Scholars to increase production speed.

ENGLISH

English

Council Hall
Acts as an Archery Range. Produces Longbowmen 100% faster.

Very slight change to simplify this and just make it act as an Archery Range. It’s honestly weird that it doesn’t work like this already.

Abbey of Kings
Grants the Enclosures technology upon completion.

Unlocks Enclosures tech similar to how Deer Stones unlocks Yam Network tech. Many players have been asking for this to be changed to an economic landmark. Outside of M@A Feudal Age cheese this is never used. Unlocking Enclosures in the Feudal Age sounds overpowered except when you consider that English players don’t actually tend to have many farms until around Castle Age. Compared to how strong the Council Hall is, I think this would be surprisingly balanced.

King’s Palace
Acts as a Town Center.

The White Tower
Acts as a Keep.

Berkshire Palace
Acts as a Keep with 50% more range and double the number of arrowslits.

Wynguard Palace
Infantry units take 33% less damage from siege.

A rework to give it a unique effect that would give the English a powerful Imperial Age strength that they currently lack. Would help make their Longbowmen and Man-at-arms more resistent to Mangonels.

RUS

Rus

Kremlin
Acts as a Wooden Fortress with all emplacements already in place.

Slight buff as this would grant it a Springald Emplacement in addition to it’s current upgrades.

The Golden Gate
Exchanges resources at a favourable rate. Generates an exchange each minute.

High Trade House
Acts as a Hunting Cabin which generates 200% more Gold. Spawns Deer each minute.

Abbey of the Trinity
Acts as a Monastery. Warrior Monks produced here cost 50% less. Contains unique religious technologies.

Spasskaya Tower
Acts as a Keep with all emplacements already in place and 100% more health.

Increased from 60% to help balance it against the High Armory.

High Armory
Siege units produced in nearby buildings cost 20% less. Contains unique siege technologies.

ABBASID DYNASTY

Abbasid

The most recent patch has left the Abbasid as a reasonably balanced civ, hence why very few changes are proposed here. I believe they still could do with some reworks to encourage different build orders at their House of Wisdom, but for the time being a couple of small buffs would be nice.

Medical Centers
Keeps heal nearby units for 3 health per second.

Increased from 2 health per second, this is a small buff to encourage the use of this mechanic without creating unhealthy gameplay.

Camel Support
Camels increase the armor of nearby infantry by +2

Increased from +1 as the current aura is almost negligible in some battles, and camels in general are still underpowered.

OTHER

  • Stone Walls build time doubled

Players are happy for Stone Walls to be strong, but it seems out of place for them to suddenly appear in the middle of a battlefield. Increasing their build time should reward players for planning ahead.

  • Map sizes reduced for 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4

A large portion of the playerbase has consistently been asking for the multiplayer map sizes to be reduced. Whether this is just a vocal minority or not is hard to determine. Either way a change like this would likely require an huge amount of work to implement due to the changes to the map generation system required.

  • Sacred Sites returned to Black Forest

It’s hard to imagine Relic backpedaling on this change as I can only assume they intend to have at least one map for turtle players. I don’t agree with this personally but having one map without Sacred Sites isn’t the end of the world. I would argue this is still bizarre game design given that Delhi has techs which specifically only work with Sacred Sites.

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read all of this.

1 Like

Kurultai is already a useless landmark. decreasing it by another 5% will make it totally useless.
Instead, all Mongol landmarks need to give their bonuses and benefits to mounted units. That way, the Mongols will not be as flexible as it is now. Why? Because currently the Mongols can be played as any unit. Their infantries are fast and cheap due to ovoo. Their cavalry somehow lacks upgrades but is average. Their sieges are great.

This is way too much. Instead, it should be

  • Khan damage reduced from 2/4/12/24 to 1(+1 to scout), 3(+1 to scout), 9 (+2 to scout), 18 (+3 to scout), and range decreased by 1 from the start/ in Dark age.
  • Khan health changed from 90/115/300/450 to 90/100/250/300

This is also a huge issue here. The Mongols don’t have any walls, therefore raiding its trade is the easiest thing to do. And silver trade is not much of an issue in high-level plays. Moreover, when Ovoo, Yam Network, and steppe redoubt change as I suggested, the Mongol early aggression is much more counterable as horsemen are easier to counter with spears, etc. And they won’t have Usain Bolt infantry than can be trained 2x xD

For this landmark, I feel like the Mongols should be able to train an exclusive lancer that is stronger than the normal ones with the same price or cheaper. Or just stronger mounted unit versions.

I didn’t actually purposely do any changes to the Kurultai. The 20% is the existing damage bonus.

it is 25% you can check it

In that case the websites are lying to me :sweat_smile:

Edit: I’ve fixed this in the post.

yea, it is not very accurate when it comes to the Mongols.
Moreover, it does not illustrate Mongol improved ovoo upgrades too.

If these were the patch notes…everyone would be pretty happy I think.

To bad they wont be or even something close to them. We will get ■■■■ no 1 asked for and way way way less changes then whats needed.

ALSO REMOVE WONDERS FROM TEAM GAMES!!!

tl;dr

what’s is Ageo Fempires anyway

Many new players have tons of list of what they want. They usually want their chosen Civ to be OP always on their favor. If the game mechanics/balance doesnt favor them, they regard the game as a sucky game.

Good luck with that. This is what I will tell you. Balances change from patch to patch. A good player adapts to changes accordingly. Learn to play each Civ’s strengths and you could win many games.

Just stop whining. The game wont stick to what you wish. Make your own game so that the mechanics and balance will always be on your favor.