Minor Civilizations Should Have Passive Abilities

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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Changing Royal House Abilities from Active to Passive

This post will focus on some ways to implement a passive ability for the royal houses, but it would be most impactful if it applied to minor alliances across the board. Feel free to contribute ideas for passive abilities for the other minor civilizations.

Having a mechanic that takes 5 minutes to charge up and needs recurring player intervention to take advantage of is a recipe for underuse. This is especially true when minor alliances are already something that are generally peripheral to the game and easily passed by. An immediate passive bonus granted by minor alliances would be an excellent way of implementing the royal house abilities and making minor alliances in general more enticing to use.

The only drawback to this is the awesome jingles that come with the abilities. These could be repurposed to other areas such as upon the completion of a TP on their site or when triggering a trade monopoly. Or it could be as simple as adding a button to play it on command even if it has no effect.

Bourbon

The current ability is the Royal March which makes units move 5% faster for 15 seconds. This ability is entirely underwhelming considering how the French court was a powerhouse in exporting French culture across Europe. It would be much more fitting if their ability reflected some of the culture emanating from the French palaces. One such example is the magnificent gardens of Versailles.

Ability - Jardin à la Française

Villagers generate a small amount of experience when farming or gathering from berries. An alternate name could simply be Royal Gardens.

Wettin

The Current ability is Goldener Reiter which boosts the armour of cavalry in a targeted area for a short duration. It’s marginally more useful than the Bourbon ability, but in terms of theme, it’s just a statue of a horse. The house of Wettin has had far more of an impact on the world than just commissioning a statue. The Saxon princes enabled the protestant reformation by being the protectors and benefactors of reformers like Martin Luther. An ability that reflects this history would be far more fitting.

Ability - Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Healers gain a combat boosting aura. This would essentially be a watered down version of the Spanish Unction card and could also stack with that card. An alternate name could be Magisterial Reformation, or an abbreviation to VDMA.

Phanar

The current ability is Greek Revolution which spawns Sacred Band Infantry and temporarily strengthens Villagers. It’s frustrating that this is the extent of representation that a major event like the Greek revolution gets. A revolution doesn’t suit a passive bonus, and the Greek revolution really ought to be a full on revolution anyways, so this should be replaced by a different ability.

Ability - Filiki Eteria

Your hero gains the ability to train a limited number of Sacred Band Infantry. The only way to get Sacred Band Infantry is through the Greek Revolution ability so this would not only preserve, but actually increase their availability. To make them balanced as a unit that can be trained by a hero, their stats and abilities would need some adjusting. This ability would also replace the Athos Monastery tech of the same name (which is a very niche and overpriced tech to begin with).

Hanover

The current ability is Royal Fireworks which briefly stuns all enemy units. The English monarchs were fascinated by fireworks, so this actually is a well themed ability that could be adjusted slightly into a passive form.

Ability - Royal Fireworks

Town Centers gain a charged ability that briefly stuns nearby enemy units. The cooldown for this ability could be global, similar to the cooldown for US levies.

Oldenburg

The current ability is Scientific Expeditions which spawns a temporary Hot Air Balloon. This ability is also well themed with a basis in Christian IV’s expeditions, the expeditions of Vitus Bering for the Russians, and Arctic balloon expeditions. Very little would need to change to make this a passive ability.

Ability - Scientific Expeditions

Your hero gains the ability to launch temporary Hot Air Balloons. If your Explorer already had the ability to do this, the duration would increase.

Wittelsbach

The current ability is Alpine Horns which reveals enemy buildings and spawns Alpine Troopers. This ability doesn’t really work as something passive and would be better suited as a technology similar to Somali Lighthouses. Like the Somali tech, it could increase the LOS of certain buildings and have an ability that reveals certain buildings such as Trading Posts, Town Centers, and defenses. One of the existing Wittelsbach techs could then be repurposed as their passive ability.

Ability - Oktoberfest

Enables building an additional Tavern. For civs that can’t normally build a Tavern (Africans, Natives, and Colonials), this would give them access to map specific outlaws that they could not otherwise build. To not complicate the build menus of these civs, the settlement could have the option to recruit a Tavern Wagon. The Gun Running tech should still be required for Native civs to train outlaws and mercenaries from Taverns (otherwise Lakota could take advantage of their free population space to easily make outlaws).

The first Oktoberfest was as part of the celebrations of a royal wedding, so this ability is much more strongly connected to the royal house. The current function of Oktoberfest isn’t really useful or interesting, so there’s not much lost by changing it to a passive ability.

Jagiellon

The current ability is Balance of Powers which equalizes your resource stockpile. This ability is fairly useful, but would make more sense as a tech for Habsburgs who were more entangled in a network of alliances through the scheming of diplomats like Metternich. A Balance of Powers tech could replace one of Habsburg’s generic boring techs like Crown Lands.
Some of the functionality of this ability could also be rolled into the Leipzig Trade Fair tech at the Wettin house by giving markets a slow passive reset. A new ability for Jagiellon could showcase their achievements much better than this generic ability.

Ability - Collegium Maius

Technologies research faster, and each technology researched grants a small sum of experience (similar to the Bourbon Reforms tech). The university the Jagiellonians founded is their most enduring legacy and would be represented by this ability.

Vasa

The current ability is Order of Vasa which increases all gather rates for a short duration. This is pretty bland as is and would be just as boring as a passive ability. A new ability based on the powerful nobility of the Vasa domains in Poland and Sweden should replace it.

Ability - Powerful Magnates

Heroes respawn faster and/or more cheaply and have their charged ability cooldown duration reduced. The nobles of the Swedish RiksrĂĄdet and Polish Sejm were extremely powerful and often sidelined the monarchs of both countries. The founding of the dynasty even has its roots in a rebellion of Swedish nobles against Denmark.

Habsburg

The current ability is Radetzky March which ships Magyar Hussars. This is themed well and could be slightly adjusted to make it a passive ability.

Ability - Radetzky March

Adds an infinite 2 Magyar Hussar shipment to your deck for age 2.

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I am pretty sure this is considered the most powerful ability in the game, its basically infinite fur trade

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I can see that being the case in treaty, but in supremacy it seems quite situational.

They did just nerf Fur Trade, so it would probably be better for Balance of Powers to be a one time tech so that it’s not abused in treaty.

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not really, you can focus a single res and basically not waste shipments, for civs that can do fast hunt gather its basically free res

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I tested it out yesterday and I did actually find it quite useful. But it was mostly to fix my macro while getting idled by enemy raids (happens a lot facing Lakota on Courland). Using it as a way to get free resources in supremacy seems a little risky since it is only available every 5 minutes. Probably most helpful with booming on water, but there only one water map they appear on.

Even with a few decent abilities, many are still essentially useless and above all, very easy to forget about. Balance of Powers also would thematicly fit the Habsburgs much better since they were the ones with a continent spanning system of alliances.

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I also thought about making a topic about this possibility, to make it more emphatic, but I see that it has already been created.

Somehow the native TP could be considered the replacement of the relics with respect to the previous games. In my opinion it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give a passive bonus to all native TPs.

In my opinion the ability should start charging from the start of the game, and not from the start of the alliance. When you establish the alliance, you will be able to use the ability if enough time has elapsed for it to be charged. I think that in general they are good, but there are some skills that don’t give anything the longer you wait, so it would be good to give something more.

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My main problem is that the whole system is way too easy to overlook and forget about. First of all, making a TP is often skipped in the first place. And if one is built it, it still takes forever to charge up so it’s easy to forget about. Some of the abilities are also so bad that the only reason to use them are to hear the jingle.

Making them a passive ability incentivises building a TP in the first place and also eliminates the need to constantly remember to check on it and press a button. Extending passive abilities to all alliances would also make the old natives more desirable.

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Some proposals for passive bonuses:

Caribs: -5% XP and shipping time.
Comanches: -5% in cost of coins or wood in the cavalry and shock infantry.
Cheyennes: +5% hunting performance.
Apaches: +5% speed and defenses near the territory you control (Near TP, defensive buildings and TC).
Navajo: Sheep and the like 10% cheaper. It also gives you a sheep for all the shipments you have made so far.
Cherokees: Cherokee newspaper with each shipment worth 80 XP (similar to books).
Tupis: Archer cadence increased by 10%.

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I like the idea of passive abilities and your reworks sound like a lot of fun and are themeatic!

The only one I’m not on board for is the fireworks rework… if the idea is to make the power more accessible and less easy to forget I don’t think putting it inside the towncenter is going to help that. Plus, having a stun power around your TC seems way more situational than having a stun power wherever you want.

Maybe if it was automatic with a cooldown and worked on trading posts instead? Sort of like the “shotgun messengers” ability?

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I was thinking it would make it more useful as a means of defense if it was concentrated in the Town Center. Calling your militia and then stunning the enemy could be a pretty strong combo. The current ability only stuns for like 3 seconds so if it was more concentrated but longer lasting it could actually have more potential to be useful.

I’m not familiar with how shotgun messengers works. Is it just a charged attack for Trade Posts?

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yeah it just lets the TP shoot a cannonball every few seconds with a recharge

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Only just saw this thread, however I think that’s a great idea for them to have these very slight passive abilities. It’s also a great nod to AoE2 with them acting pretty much like civ bonuses.

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Passive abilities would greatly improve all minor civilizations, not just the royal houses. Here are a few potential options that could apply to the Asian holy sites.

Bhakti Temple

Ability - Moksha

Each time you lose a villager, receive experience equivalent to its value.

Moksha is the release from the cycle of death and rebirth and is one of the primary goals of the Bhakti tradition. Through devotion to a particular god, villagers are able to achieve moksha when they die.

Jesuit Mission

Ability - Great Commission

Healers gain the conversion ability. Healers that already have the ability convert faster.

The great commission is the command by Jesus to “go and make disciples of all nations”. The conversion ability provided by the society of Jesus allows them to go and make disciples.

Shaolin Monastery

Ability - 72 Arts

The melee attack of infantry increases when health decreases. Could possibly be implemented as a critical strike chance when below 25% health.

Shaolin training methods include some seemingly injurious things like punching trees with one finger, kicking rocks with bare feet, and banging their heads against walls. With such harsh training methods, elevated attack at low health makes sense.

Sufi Mosque

Ability - Sharia

+10 villager build limit and -5% villager train time.

Sharia is the religious law of Islam. These laws can provide order which allows for more villagers.

Previous Sharia technology at the Sufi Mosque is replaced with Dhikr.

Dhikr - Through repetitive prayer, cards that deliver one-time troops and resource crates can be sent again.

Udasi Temple

Ability - Panj Kakkar

Villagers gain +20% melee resistance and +20% melee attack

The Panj Kakkar are the articles worn by Sikhs, which includes a Kirpan knife that can be used for defense.

Zen Temple

Ability - Zazen Meditation

Heroes’ abilities recharge faster and downed heroes trickle experience.

Zazen is a type of meditation practiced by Zen Buddhism. It would also be pretty funny if your downed heroes changed their caption when affected by this ability.

Meditation.PNG
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Previous Meditation technology at the Zen Temple is replaced with Zen Garden.

Zen Garden - Aesthetic and low maintenance gardens improve the build experience and lower the repair cost of all buildings.

Tengri Shrine

Ability - Qusbegi

Heroes and gain the Scouting Falcon ability that provides persistent LoS over an area for a short duration.

Tengriism focuses on a sky god, so the eagle hunting practice of steppe peoples would be a good fit. It would also be a good way to incorporate innovations from AoE4. Mongol Scout units could also have a lesser version of this ability by default.

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Additionally, this is something that encourages map control and gives an advantage over those who prefer to play defensively.

We see, for example, that Stormgate has plans in this regard with neutral camps, which encourages map control and advantages for whoever does it best.

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This is a great idea!
Wonderful

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Age 4 revolts through minor Civs please.
Yeah, I’d even like to make a wonder from an Asian minor civ. (2000f/w/c) if it gives me a revolt deck. As a Lakota & Ethiopia player, I’d take a weaker rev…over “nothing” (Both have great A4).

Also a passive ability in the form of construction, like make War Huts with Maya or Livestock Market with any African Civ. Not just 4 torps with a tech, let me go all in on torps.

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I just hope that they could add more minor civs for Asia and more new maps, perhaps this will come with a new Asian themed DLC.

Currently the religious sects look awkward as minor civs for Asia, they should add some Asian natives.

At the very least they should make new maps to fill the voids in Southern China, Thailand, Persia, the Ural region, Southern Africa, the Philippines, and perhaps also Australia, Pacific Islands, and Greenland. I’m not sure why those regions are left blank.

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this is a really cool map! I love the implication that the inexplicable terrain/natives compositions on unknown maps are just what goes on in South Africa and Southern China lol

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So, the real deal here is that you don’t find fitting some of the abilities. You say that “cool down abilities are periphereal” and useless to the players and yet you point out that some are well though out, either thematically, mechanically or both and even point out to other charged abilities as the USA minutemen thingie that is integral to the US civ and i’m pretty sure nobody ignores.
This mechanic is good, can be better by adjusting recharge times and some effects, but overall the problem is not a gameplay one.

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Some are thematic but that is all. They are still mechanically very poor.

Lets take the fireworks as an example. Mechanically it is hot garbage. It only stuns for like 3 seconds after a 5 minute cooldown so even if you happen to remember it, it still has basically no impact. You can’t reasonably tweak it because globally stunning all your enemies would quickly become OP and not fun if even slightly overtuned. And it would have to be overtuned if players were ever going to reliably remember to use it.

If it were instead moved to the TC where your attention is actually focused and made more limited in scope, then it would be used more and the duration could be increased to the point where it is useful, but also not completely busted.

No one ignores it because it comes up every single game and not as something infrequent and peripheral like an alliance you could completely ignore. You also only use the levies under specific circumstances, not every 5 minutes on the clock to avoid wasted potential.

The only one that is remotely okay in its current form is Oldenburg, but that would still be better off as a charged ability of your hero since you are actually interacting with that on a regular basis and not ignoring like a trading post. Other than that, my suggestions have been for entirely passive abilities that you could mostly ignore and still get a benefit from.