I feel like the innovation of creating the Outpost->Fortified Outpost mechanic is one that may be sleek, but ends up feeling deflating and kind of sad in contrast to how Towers generally work in games.
It does not help that Outposts do not come equipped with anything, instead, depending on a flexible arrow-based system of garrisoning units for them to do anything. Though many of these decisions make sense, I feel they have deprived many players of a very satisfying strategy in this Realtime STRATEGY game.
I love towers. I love buildings that do damage. It is fun to build aggressively. However, AoE4 has done its very best to make this as deflating and uninteresting as possible. Keeps, which are the “Tower” replacement in this game, do not feel the same nor do they even look that decent.
I would be much happier if Outposts were separate units to the Fortified Outposts (as they are in most games), with the difference being that the second one comes equipped with offensive facilities (at a higher cost) and lacking those bonus arrows per unit that is garrosining.
And yea, I get it. You can upgrade them. But, a flat 30 seconds to upgrade on a tower that at minimum takes 1 minute to build is so… cringe. Rus, which is suppoused to have an exciting version of the Outposts, are even more boring somehow.
I get that the game has catered to players who are allergic to defensive gameplay. But, this is just frankly shit.