Since we now know that AOE3:DE won’t be receiving any more official updates, I thought I’d put together a list of changes and additions I would have liked to see in a final update. A couple of years ago, I shared a similar wish list, and to my surprise, @Opdepov turned it into a mod for me—it was honestly the best birthday surprise ever! Since then, it has gained hundreds of downloads.
So, here I am again, tossing another coin into the AOE forum wishing well and seeing what I get back.
General Changes
- Make Advanced Arsenal techs available by default in the Arsenal (adjust costs for balance if necessary).
- Add Grenade Launchers as a tech in the Arsenal, removing it from the Home City. Introduce a cost for balance—maybe 450 wood and 350 coin in Age 3.
- Combine Fencing School and Riding School into a single card.
- Move the Mercenary Loyalty tech to the Tavern (or equivalent building) and set its cost to 400 food and 200 wood.
- Give Asian civs an Imperial Mercenary tech, obtainable from the Monastery for 2000 coin.
British
- Replace the Infinite 13 Cherokee Riflemen Home City card with an Infinite Gurkha card. These Gurkhas should be remodeled versions of the Cherokee Riflemen with identical stats. Ideally, they should be slightly shorter than regular units and wear Ranger uniforms with pillbox hats featuring team-colored pompoms.
- Give the British access to Surgeons, possibly as an Age 3 Home City shipment that allows them to be trained at Churches. It’s odd that they are available via the British Consulate but not from the Home City.
French
- Introduce a Foreign Legion Home City card that sends an infinite 10 reskinned Zouaves called Legionnaires. These should wear desert kepis, blue tunics, and red ballooned trousers but have identical stats to Zouaves.
- To make them unique, consider giving Legionnaires different abilities when using different stances, similar to Nizam Fusiliers.
Japan
- Rework the Meiji Restoration tech to be more impactful.
- Convert it into an Advanced Home City Church Tech Card (similar to The Glorious Revolution or Edict of Nantes) that unlocks two new upgrades at the Monastery:
- Imperial Modernization – Converts Yumi Archers into rifle-armed units, giving them an Imperial Japanese uniform and switching their wood cost to coin.
- Treaty of Kanagawa – Sends 10 U.S. Regulars, 5 Marines, and 2 Gatling Guns to your town. This should cost 1500 coin.
Final Thoughts
These are just casual ideas I’d love to see made into a mod. The Japanese proposal is a bit random, and I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t make the cut, but I thought it could be a fun addition.
Since this is just my wish list, let me know if I missed anything! 
4 Likes
Hey Jamesagrahm5,
I was able to mod most of your suggestions however I do not know how to make new unit models so everything is recycled assets. I also did not remove any cards as to not mess with anyone’s decks.
Fencing School makes Infantry and Cavalry train faster. Riding School gives 1 Mongol Scout.
There is an issue I could not figure out where aging up with the Mercenary Contractor to age 3 with Italy removes the Mercenary Loyalty tech from the lombard. As long as you don’t age up with that Politician it should be fine though.
The British have access to both 13 Cherokee and 13 Gurkha but they share the same build limit. Fun fact: From the files it seems like Gurkha were supposed to be a minor civilization unit from Nepal. There exists some strings in the files that follow the minor civilization upgrade format. It also makes sense why you can find a Gurkha as a treasure on some maps.
The British have access to a new card “Royal College of Surgeons” which gives 2 Surgeons, 1 Field Hospital Wagon, unlocks trainable Surgeons, and improves Surgeons’ heal rate.
The Legionnaires get 1.25x vs HI in volley mode, 1.25x vs siege/artillery in stagger mode, 1.5x vs cavalry in melee mode, and 1.25x vs cavalry in defend mode.
I did not have the assets needed for the Imperial Modernization tech so I just added the Treaty of Kanagawa as an age 4 mercenary shipment.
Bug fixes:
- Fixed bug where mercenary loyalty shipped an extra Uhlan with the German Logistician.
- Fixed bug where Infinite Habsburg Allies was discounted -25% with mercenary loyalty instead of -10%
- Removed German Mercenary Loyalty setting Wallenstein’s Contracts to 1500 coin when the tech already costs 1500 coin.
- Humbaraci now have 14 range in defend mode instead of 12 range.
- Humbaraci now have their multipliers in a consistent order amongst all combat formations.
- Fixed a bug where the Italian Grenade Launchers card says it enables grenadiers.
- Fixed a bug where Italy does not have access to Incendiary Grenades despite having access to Grenadiers.
If you run into any issues let me know. And here is the mod discussion page: Some Suggestions by Jamesagraham5
3 Likes
Oooh, I did not know that Gurkas were originally intended as a minor civ (and I’ve played the game from a long time!). Makes sense though as they are the most out of place unit for the Indians!
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The game has a unit type icons, they are used on “damage statistics against”. My wish is to add them icons to the foreground before “HP” stat, which clearly indicates what type the unit belongs to! At the moment this is in words only in the unit description, which is not conveniently visual! Thanks for understanding!
First of all, a massive thank you @SnowLynx2 for making this!!! I am completely overjoyed! It just shows that the AOE3de community is the absolute best!
Most amazingly of all it’s my birthday in 48 hour which is insane timing 
3 Likes
I wonder how much would it cost to get Nepalese voice lines…
We may try with a voice AI generator, like ElevenLabs
I can’t commit to doing it because I’m really tight on time right now, but if you could provide images of what you want, I could try something later.
Meanwhile, I have a Zouaves mod (Mods Single - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio) that may serve to your wantings. Just put them the Askari hat instead of theirs, and it will be enough.
2 Likes
Thank you for contributing the Zouave model @SealingEar046. I added it to the mod.
I added support for all Languages supported by the game. The translations were done with Google translate so it may sound a bit unnatural though.
I also corrected the Legionnaires name from Legionary to Legionnaire.
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I tried looking into it a bit but wasn’t sure how to do it. I think it may have to be done with code. It would be a cool QOL feature.
Anyone got any luck with Meiji Japanese uniform model? Would be nice to have some use for Meiji Restoration tech in Japanese Isolation consulate.
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This community is irreversibly cooked
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