The idea of the discussion is that everyone state their predictions on the patch, not everyone opinions o the matter.
For example, I don’t agree with all the changes that I listed here, but despite this I still think that those are changes that will come, for various reasons.
My goal is to collect as much as expectations that I can and then confront them with the actual patch notes, to see if we are able to correctly predict balance changes that comes, and indirectly eveluate how much the forum impact on the balance decisions.
What I’d like to see is compared to my predicitons is a slight buff to the militia line, huge instead of small buff to koreans (with not affecting teamgames), no khmer nerf and water balance for italians and vikings.
I think SL buff is reasonable because both cumans and tatars were pretty bad in the last couple of month and many call steppe lancers weak so I think thats the way they want tatars and cumans buffed (paired with a CA buff ofc).
Yeah maybe turks will get a buff too, they showed them in the video so that may be a hint, there is definitely potential for that
i’m of a mixed bag on this. i don’t think they need much. a slight speed boost to LS onwards and supplies/LS being cheaper would do the trick.
if SL get buffed i don’t see it being a big buff. maybe a minor cost readjustment, nothing like some of the people are asking for though, i still see them from time to time even in tourneys and actually being effective. situational, but effective.
Yeah, I agree more or less with this. I don’t think buffed supplies would be enough alone, because slavs don’t use the militia-line either (with free supplies), they definitely need further buffs, for example a slight speed boost like you said. It is definitely welcome but I’d also like to see +1 attack for LS but that’d be risky I admit. First a supply and a movement speed buff and then we can see what will happen.
Due to their +1 range steppe lancers should be excelling in large battles if they are in a balanced state and it is definitely not happening so a small buff would do nothing imo. Their situational use would remain but that would change nothing. They need bigger buffs to be decent imo.
yeah I also saw MBL (not sure though that it was him) use them once and I was pretty surprised but I also think MBL used them for mindgaming the enemy, not because that’d be the strongest choice
i saw them a bit against mezo civs, and i also saw THS i believe it was during a full trash war and the result was even more suprising then i expected. like i always knew the militia line was good against trash but…
Liereyy vs Yo Game 6. at around 2 hours and 33 minutes. burmese THS without final armor upgrade shred through about 30-40 supply of trash in no time at all.
granted tehy are burmese with full +7 attack, but they also didn’t have the final armor upgrade, and it was only about 20 of them.
LS could for sure use some buff, the problem is how to do that without making 2h and champs too strong consequently.
For sure I would like to see a reduction of the cost of LS upgrade (and also a reduction of the research time), but that alone is not going to be enough. I am not entirely sure which one is the best course of action. Perhaps one of the following:
Increase LS damage against buildings: could be nice for applying pressure on walled enemy without having to rely on siege.
Increase movement speed: this one would be nice, no idea however if extra speed is going to make 2h and champs too strong in some cases.
Move the 1 melee armor point from champ to longsword. This would probably make most sense, though this approach is not exempt from problems. Champion upgrade should also be reduced in price, or some other bonus/stat increase should be given to that upgrade (perhaps a small increase in movement speed?). Moreover, this would be a buff to all civs without champion upgrade.
Wasn’t hard and the militia line was used all the time, probably the most common opener.
But then again you thought aoe3 outsold aoe2.
Because unlike you I realize that the swordsman line isn’t a mainstay. Its insanely cheap, trains much faster and doesn’t lose to trash.
You’ll notice im in favor of a small buff to the militia line but nothing like you want because despite claims by people like you and Parthnan it actually sees use.
In the current setting, with loom, you’ll be very unlucky if you ever lose a vil to wolves ! There are in average 4-5 wolves on the map, dispatch all over the map and far from starting TCs. They are already just here for show, the worse they can do is disrupt drushes a little bit.
I have looked the teaser several times. Also, I have in account popular forum threads after the latest big patch. These are my predictions.
General balance:
Cav archer buffed
HC buffed
LS and champion buffed (maybe a little speed buff).
Wheelbarrow/handcart cost/research time buff (indirect nerf to vikings and khmer), or effect buff (buff for vikings but nerf to khmer)
Civ balance changes.
I don’t think they are going to make a new bonus for a civ, so the changes are mainly unit/tech tweaks.
Aztecs: Jaguar warrior buffed. A minor nerf in other part (like garland wars tech cost/researching time)
Byzantines: Buff to fire galley bonus. little Buff to catchpract
Bulgarians: Buff to kreposts and konniks.
Burmese: nerf to non_elite arambai. Buff to howdah. (And remember infantry buff)
Goths: infantry discount nerfed a bit for dark age (remember buff for LS)
Indians. Elephant archers buffed. Camel team bonus nerfed 1 point. (also, remember HC buff)
Italians: Rebalance of dock and advancing age discount. (also remember buff to HC). GC training time buff.
Lithuans: I would like to say “Little Nerf leitis cost” but thy are balanced and I cannot think in a compensatory nerf…
Khmer: nerf to elephant speed bonus (remember nerf from wheelbarrow).
Koreans: Buff to siege AND towers. Maybe wood discount applied to both? Or return of the tower building speed bonus?
Portuguese: Arquebus fixed. Buff to organ guns (and remember HC buff).
Tatars. Buff to their sheep bonus, restricted to sheep (cows and similar not affected), so the total food from sheep maps equals the amount of that from cow maps. (also, remember CA buff)
Turks: Tiny Buff to jannies (remember they benefit from both HC and CA buff)
Vikings: little nerf to longboat. (Remember indirect nerf or buff to wheelbarrow, but buff to LS/Champion)
Conclussion: water battles becomes less imbalanced towards vikings and italians, infantry and their counters get buffed, and cav archer buffed. Some UU buffed for more unic battles in last castle age/imperial age.
Koreans: Wood discount applies to siege units. Towers do not cost wood. Outposts do not cost stone.
The current wood discount ought to do more for the Korean land army. As a unique unit, I think the War Wagon’s discount could also count as its “base” cost, because it’s the only War Wagon type unit in the game for price comparison. The Outpost bonus meshes well with the civ themes of strong towers and defensive bonus map vision. And having a cheap way of rapidly expanding map vision could end up being an even bigger bonus than an expanded wood discount.
I firstly propose this idea to buff Portuguese for the uselessness of free cartography in 1 VS 1. Even in TG, Free Cartography become useless once the market is built. Therefore, I propose this idea to buff the Portuguese map vision.
Koreans has already possessed a lot of bonuses. I think they better focus on towers and wood discount buff.
replace villager +3 LOS with either one of the following. regain the bonus that fortifications are built 33% faster to wall up tower fast. Or all wild animals/bush/huntables/herdables within 20 range of TC are visible at the beginning.
Military units (except siege) and military buildings cost -20% wood instead
I know that this is something that a lot of people want, but my gut tells me that it’s not coming for now (I’m saying this despite of my opinion about it, so don’t take it as such).
Now, smaller adjustments to the militia-line of some specific civs, that could be…
