Upgrade skipping would allow you to research the next technology in a tech tree while the prerequisite tech is still researching in order to skip the researching time. You would still be have two pay 1300F 555G but would be able to go directly from Militia to Champions in 100 seconds. This would make tech switching substantially faster and avoid those moment where a players are force to stall until they have all the necessary Upgrades for their counter units. This would also allow Khmer to go straight from Darkage to imperial so maybe don’t give this ability to TC’s. With units that have two imperial age upgrades this might be an unintentional buff.
-
Knights could go upgrade directly to paladin saving 100 Second of research time though you would be stuck with Knights for 70 seconds longer
-
Imperial camel would pose the same problem but in that case I think its more balanced
-
Siege Onager could also be researched 150 seconds though the high cost might make this unlikely
-
Siege Ram: Being able to go directly to SR might be a problem
*Champions: can also be researched directly after Imperial age this is actually a reasonable buff.
Why? Upgrade time and cost for tech switching are a feature, not really a bug?
16 Likes
I see no reason for such a convoluted feature and it goes against the very nature of rts in general.
13 Likes
Why go through all this trouble? Just start the game in Post-Imperial Age, no need to research anything! 
8 Likes
Yeah, but to go from Milita to champion it takes 260s plus the time between an upgrade finishing and you clicking next upgrade it’s just unnecessarily tedious and the ability to make faster tech switches makes games more dynamic and don’t see a major downside other than the examples I have listed.
So heres an idea. Ask for the militia line techs to be faster to research
2 Likes
That would also buff M@A alternatively researching techs from the previous ages could be 50/100/150% faster
No. You just make ths and champ faster. Simple. Thosd are the long ones
This break core features of the game for no gain at all.
2 Likes
But you still would save 35S on M@A an LS. it would also help with other units provided you don’t have the prerequisite upgrades. Halberdier and Hussar would save 15S Arbalest save 12S and Elite EW save 17S.
You say that but you haven’t explained how. This would allow for faster tech switches allowing player to adapt much faster making games more dynamic.
Skipping research time is controversial, because time is part of the cost for the tech
Your suggestion could be considered if it was “upgrade queueing” as it follows:
Upgrade queueing would allow you to queue the next technology in a tech tree while the prerequisite tech is still researching (or in queue) in order to research all upgrades in a row
That would be an interesting quality of life for certain transitions.
3 Likes
How? Im against your idea. The only change i woild ro is make ths and champ faster. Which have zero impact on maa and ls
1 Like
Upgrade queueing is something id bd okay with.
4 Likes
I consider Upgrade Queueing a bare necessity remember how you couldn’t queue multiple Vills in AOE1 and you had to spend precious APM minimizing Tc idle time?
Ok, lets push your suggestion in that direction.
Research times are part of the game, as price added to your resourcers to het the return of your investment.
Portuguese resesrch bonus, for example, would be useless with your proposed research skipping feature. Same for lots of civ bonuses. It is better to not mess with research times
3 Likes
I nice to see one who actually explains the negative ramification rather than simply alluding to the danger consequences of changing a fundamental gameplay mechanics. The only civs I can think of are Portuguese and Bulgarians both of which are low to mid tier civs and do not deserve an nerf I suppose this also effect Malians negatively but only if they are researching Keep or Architecture.
I think the problem with Upgrade Skipping is that it punishes the players that committed to a strat that worked, while helping the player that made a poor decision.
For example player 1 went for knights, player 2 saw the stables but decided to go archers anyway. Well in late game the archers get killed by the knights and player 2 realizes he made a mistake, so by upgrade skipping he can research halberdier “instantly”, and who knows, even blast furnace and plate armor. This punishes the player that committed to the knights and had his strat work. Player 2 gets punished by having lots of research time ahead, which is the reward player 1 gets for committing to a strat that worked in his favor. Which makes sense, in my opinion. Aoe Is a strategy game after all.
I hope this makes sense.
3 Likes
Or maybe just allow it so you can queue the next upgrade immediately on top while the current one is cooking.
5 Likes
Any civ with a bonus of the type “certain building work X% faster” would be affected: celt siege workshop, briton archery range, huns stable, goth barracks, franks chavalry UT…
It is rare for them to suddenly transition into one unit affwcted by their civ bonus, because they usually upgrade the unit as soon as the upgrade is available…
But this is important for the paladin upgrade, or siege ram upgrade, because those upgrades also require an imperial tech prerequisite.
In fact, franks UT had to be moved to imperial age because od the power spike of researching cavalier and paladin faster.
2 Likes