The basic idea of Mercenaries. Mercenaries can be trained in a mercenary camp maybe. The mercenaries would be very cheap like 100 gold for 10 mercenaries. But the catch is that when a mercenary kills an enemy it takes 50 or more gold out of your treasury. Once you are out of gold the mercenaries will die. Unless the enemy has a special tec that allows monks to convert unpaid mercenaries to their side with a certain amount of gold.
Other ideas.
Maybe the Mercenaries are shared by some countries like the French and the HRE and the Britenes can get Swiss halberdiers. While the Rus and ERE(in the next patch when they add them) could get The Varangian Guard. Maybe different types of Mercenaries from different ages. The Mercenaries could also come from countries that are too small to make a full civ like the Swiss maybe (Not saying the Swiss aren’t worthy of their own Civ). Mercenaries could also be a unique unit with their own building for a Civ.
The Mercenary’s “wages” could also be based on the damage it takes or gives or the cost of the unit it is attacking. So like one hit on the enemy would be 5 gold or more and 5 gold when it gets hit. Maybe they also do not count towards the population.
The Mercenaries would kind of like minute men from aoe3 they are cheaper at the beginning but over time they may be too expensive. Also good for when you have lots of gold.
Historically armys had lots of Mercenaries in them. I think if Mercenaries are done right and in a unique way, it could be really cool. Unlike AOE3 where Mercenaries are like any other unit.
please vote and share what you think should be added or removed from this list.
the issue with mercenaries is that it’s already hard to come up with new mechanics for unique units, adding a dozen mercenaries seems impossible. Don’t get me wrong though, I’d love mercenaries in aoe4.
They should have the normal standard match and something like a adventure match. Kinda like aoe3, warcraft 3. Heroes, treasures, Mercenaries, capturing units. More user friendly for casual players and be an official mod.
Theres all them parts in the game just needs to be put together
Bit of advertising for a new adventure play style would bring a lot of players back
A mercenary unit doesn’t need to have special, unique or gimmicky mechanics. It’s counterproductive to design every unit with one. Some might or should have it, but mercenaries serve various functions in a game. And IMHO expanding array of mechanics (outside of the mercenary system itself ofc) or skills available for players isn’t one. Plus you should design the entire game with them in mind. At this point a lot of things would have to be adjusted and rebalanced, simple as.
The main pillar of their design is economical, within the existing civ eco mainframe.
The vast majority of them are reskinned existing unit types. It’s all about the balance and added flavor to the game.
AoE IV puts smaller emphasis on the world-building, atmosphere, historical richness and believability of content. Doesn’t matter if that is a roster of units, naming of the technologies or design of maps. Comparing of the the previous installment of the series.
I’m 100% for mercenaries because they are just added value in content and depth. Just more tools for the player to play with, more tools for the devs to define and enrich the world and make gameplay more varied and product to last longer.
But in AoE IV… I don’t think it would help with anything atm, or in other words- there are more important things that need to be taken care of, before introduction to mercenary, extra units.
On the other hand- if they are to be introduced, then they ought to be as soon as possible, so future civs can be designed with that system in mind.
I would love mercenaries. I like it very much how it works with mercenaries in AOE3. Besides there should be small villages on the map like the natives in AOE3 with which you can build an alliance with brings you benefits, for example the ability to build special units. This would also make exploring more fun and each map would be more unique when there are different small villages. I think in AOE4 small villages specific to the region or biome of the map would be more suitable than natives.