Mongols stone gather rate via the ovoo has been heavily nerfed in the early ages. However, the imporved eco upgrade costs remain the same. In order to get these upgrades, Mongols need a 100 wood ger in the radius of the ovoo. No one can reliably account for these improved upgrades in their build orders, since it’s fairly rare to naturally have a ger in the radius of the ovoo in the early game. I think it would be interesting to entirely cut out the stone cost for the improved eco upgrades, for at least the tier one upgrades. There’s precedent for this kind of boost, as pastures produce sheep faster within the influence without further investment. This means that mongol players would still need to invest an early 100 wood on a ger in order to unlock access to these eco upgrades. Stone is such a finite resource in dark and feudal age. Also, since the ovoo only lasts 12 mins instead of 15 due to the reduction of stone mine values, wood is a scarcer resource for mongols than in previous patches.
Another side point, 150 stone for 1 extra villager is NEVER worth it, I believe this cost should be reduced as well. Double producing villagers should be capped by stone cost vs the Mongol’s trickle stone income, but at it’s current price it sees zero play. Double production has the greatest effect in the early game, yet stone income has been slashed since release, without changing the price for double production. Since Mongols need to move and park their town centers at the start of every match (and sometimes villagers chopping wood prevents the tc from unpacking) Mongols start every game at least 1 villager down, sometimes 2.
Does any one have thoughts on this topic? Are these crazy ideas? I think they’re fairly reasonable. I feel like if Mongols have a way to reliably invest in early eco, then they feel less forced to tower rush etc to be competitive.