Reduce Man-at-Arms upgrade time in Imperial Age

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

Upgrading to Man-at-Arms takes 40 seconds, to Long Swordsman another 45, to Two-Handed Swordsman another 75, and to Champion another 100. In total, that’s 260 seconds, or over four minutes.

Because of this, switching from Militia to Champions in Imperial Age is very time-consuming. For comparison, upgrading from Archer to Arbalester takes just 85 seconds (35+50) and Spearman to Halberdier takes 95 seconds (45+50). And while Knight to Paladin actually takes 270 seconds (100+170), this is mostly due to the very time-consuming Paladin upgrade.

One way to solve this would be to reduce the upgrade time from Militia to Man-at-Arms in Imperial Age. This would be an exception to the general rule that upgrade research times are always the same, but since Man-at-Arms is the only unit upgrade in Feudal Age, I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

For example, in Imperial Age the upgrade wouldn’t take 40 seconds, but just, let’s say, 10 seconds (the same as Sappers). This way, upgrading from Militia to Champion would take 230 seconds, instead of 260 seconds. Still quite long, but at least less than four minutes. If you do the Man-at-Arms upgrade in Feudal Age or Castle Age, it will still take 40 seconds as before.

Good idea? Or would it be too confusing?

4 Likes
2

Maybe it would be better to reduce 2HS and champion upgrade time (e.g. 15 seconds each)

3

or they could just shave M@A and LS down to 30 seconds baseline, THS down to 60 seconds, and Champ to 75 seconds.
now its down to 3 minutes and 15 seconds and you’ve shaved off over a minute.

4

This would impact M@A opening in feudal which is already strong enough imho.

Then, thinking about imp transition into champions, time reduction due to conscription should be taken into account.

2 Likes
5

You’re right, I didn’t think about that. Though even with a 33% reduction I’m too impatient to wait for the Champion upgrade I guess.

6

I really like your idea. By reducing the research time in Imperial Age, it wouldn’t impact most games or balances. But, it would encourage civs to consider tech switches when otherwise it would be ‘too late’.

2 Likes
7

I wouldn’t mind reducing LS upgrade time by quite a bit. LS are rarely optimal in Castle age anyway.