This video brought up interesting topic. Let’s get real only real military of Dark Age is a Militia(Caveman literally) and nothing really else really. Thus making it extremely boring part of the game. We have Empire Wars but that kinda never hit the mark as complain from pro-player scene has been ignoring the early game too much for many civs. So let’s think how it can be done right. My thoughts on this for no Dark Age:
9 vil start and 2 house. Atleast first TC always giving 15 pop
Start with Medium(500f, 500w, 300g, 400s) resource instead.
First Market only at Feudal Age takes a lot of time but Castle Age first market will just be fine. To prevent FC Market Abuse. (OPTIONAL)
Barracks, Archery Range unlocked right away. To unlock Stable, you need to build either Barracks or Archery Range
Man-At-Arms available right away.
Loom researched.
Scout will need Stable to gain extra stats and Eagle will need Barracks.
No Empire Wars like already villager working.
Might need a lot of tweaking of existing civs. This’ll atleast be a fine ground between Empire Wars and Standard start.
no. of the many problems this game has, this isn’t one of them
counter points:
-the entire balance is done around the standard dark age start, any changes will make some civs op, and others useless
-dark age is necessary for scouting
Nowadays ladder is just dominated by unorthodox FCs. Started by hoang and perfected by RedPhosphoru. Today if you see its coming then you can answer with only few answers. AOE4 atleast was better in this with adding more to Dark Age gameplay. Lack of real variety is why I am saying this.
Also 9 vil start still didnt made standard yet. 9 vil start atleast skips first few minutes of the game. Even pro-scene showed positive sign.
Rebalancing the whole game aside, It would remove strategies like fc, super tight feudal timings, forward production buildings, tower rush, the douche…
Also, personnaly i like the slower start, compared to said for example sc2 where you can be rushed by zerglings after 2 minutes. In aoe2 I can warm up while I think about the matchup, my civ if I’m a new player, how I’ll wall, the scouting, etc.
For the same reasons I’m not a fan of empire wars, too much to handle in the first 30 secs, and if I forget something I’ll fight an up-hill battle for the next 30 min.
Obviously a shorter dark age is better for casters and live event organisers. But I’m not sure it would make the game more pleasant to the players, just because more action = better.
I am talking from military pov. You just have Militia and thats kinda it? AOE4 atleast did this part right. It has a lot of early age plays.
Currently only point of Dark Age being feudal rushes and odd FCs. Nowadays doing odd FCs being meta in the ladder now, Recent market ruined many of the previous feudal strategies as well. Like old Saracens rushes are no longer viable anymore.
I still think shorter Dark Age is still better. Your first few minutes are universally same no matter what. Even the oddest strats you do. You basically skip two house drop to eating of some sheeps until you reach 9. First vil either goes to boar + 3 on wood or 4 wood on wood. 30 second to think of strat that you actually do accross.
Thats why I talked about a fine balance. Instead of starting that way, you play it something like Feudal Start with medium resources with some changes. Which starts more like standard game compared to what Empire Wars did. You somewhat slow down very extreme start in a sense.
Bruh, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 27 years of balance changes and most of the civs in a decent but not OP win rate and you want to change that? Would destroy ranked if it replaced classic random map as it might take years to rebalance civs. Of course I am not opposed to this being its own game mode outside of ranked or as a replacement for empire wars ranked.
I can see a 5 or 6 Villager Start happening, with every player having a passive 2 or 3 housing.
I feel any more than that would make the game too hectic. You need time to scout your map.
If you want a quick start there is already Empire Wars.
that is very reductive. in dark age you also:
-pick what strategy to go for, accordingly pick a build order
-scout the map
-scout what your opponent is doing and what build order he is going for
one of the big downsides of empire wars is that both players pick a strategy and just go for it, there is no strategy adjustment based on what your opponent is doing, because there is no time for that.
9 vil start makes sense for pros who have the ability to scout their own base and that of their opponents before clicking up, most people can’t do that
make a poll and see how many people actually WANT 9 vil start for themselves
