The Chinese variation of the house (Village) is currently unbalanced, being overpowered. I understand and agree that China as a civilisation needs buffs in order to remain competitive, however, the previous continual buffing of the Village creates clear, uneven values of buildings in DE. I will explain in much more detail now.
First let’s look at the current version of the village:
- Costs 180 wood
- Has 2500 HP and provides a walling protection (like all buildings)
- A line of sight (LOS) of 32 I believe
- Provides 20 population space to start (its main function)
- Functions as the Chinese equivalent of a livestock pen with 5 maximum gatherers
- Provides a shipment point for home city shipments
- Can garrison up to 20 villagers
- Provides accessibility to the population upgrades for China
The village has too many functions, and is too cheap for everything it includes. I agree that the village should be valued at 180 wood: to make it a cheaper alternative to other civilisations houses, and so China can focus less on cutting trees in the early game. However if you give estimate prices for each function based on other building’s statistics and their functions, I calculated the estimated price of village based on its function to be at least 250 wood or more.
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Based on 4 straight walls making a square shape (to resemble the shape of a building and the pathing it blocks) for all/most buildings that would approximately be 20 wood (5 wood x 4 walls)
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To calculate the effective cost of population space alone I looked at the Indian house at 70 wood cost, as its only function besides walling/protection of that small space, is to provide 10 population, meaning that 70 wood - 20 wood (walling effect) = 50 wood for 10 population, giving 5 wood per population space based on a civilisation’s bonus (cheaper house). For the village providing 20 population space, this means 100 wood of the village should be allocated just for population.
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I personally believe that the livestock pen should be much cheaper; however if you count the fact that the village can have up to 5 herdables fattening on ONE village at a time (and most players would have multiple villages), it has access to produce goats, and has the selective breeding technology accessible, it would function as half a livestock pen (at conservative prices) rounding down to 100 wood for this function.
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Guessing looking at the town centre, the outpost, war huts, blockhouses and other buildings with a shipment point, for the only function of having a shipment point would cost at least 50 wood as a low measure (up to 150 wood) based on the percentage function of the outpost being used as a shipment point over the defensive aspect of that building.
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To garrison population I estimated to be at least (as a minimum) 2 wood per population housed, meaning 40 wood for the village ability to garrison villagers based on rough calculation from the tc’s functions.
If you add these costs up, it totals 20 + 100 + 100 + 50 + 40 = 310 wood (as conservative measures).
What this means is that certain buildings have certain functions that are valued much less or severely less when compared to the village.
My suggested balance for the village (nerfs and buff):
- Reduce the number of maximum garrisoned villagers within the village to 10 down from 20. This change means that villagers can still hide inside the village, however much less, meaning villagers must be more separated and therefore more vulnerable.
- Reduce the line of sight to 18 down from 32. This makes the building more in line with the LOS of other buildings, and yes even though it has a shipment point as well 18 LOS is still considerably larger than other houses.
- Reduce the maximum number of herdables being fattened at the village to 4 down from 5. This makes the number the same as the Japanese shrine, and more comparable. This will mean that the herdables (when more than 4) must be spread out to other villages, making them slightly more vulnerable.
- Last nerf suggestion is the biggest one, removal of the shipment point at the village altogether. Let be honest, the village has too many functions especially since with the removal of the shipment point, it would still be able to garrison villagers, provide 20 population space and function as a livestock pen equivalent.
- Buff: the village should be given greater build xp (and therefore also bounty xp). This would boost China’s economy and experience curve in a game.
In summary, if you have read this long you are really cool. I believe that China needs numerous other buffs (don’t get me started on flamethrowers), to their units and other economic components, and that the chinese village should remain affordable and cheap at 180 wood, but it should be balanced with some or all of the suggestions I made above.
Have a good day