Probably a controversial opinion, but I really liked the game design in the campaigns with regards to the following:
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Archers when attacked in melee fought back using daggers and not their bows. I’m still very sad this got removed after the beta.
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Blacksmith was for upgrading melee units and had more techs to research. Like some tech that increased cavalry melee armor and another tech that improved spear bracing etc.
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The arsenal building which does ranged and siege upgrades. It also had techs that are no longer in the main game. The incendiary arrow tech was in the arsenal and it allowed archers to do fire damage to buildings. Much better than what incendiary arrows does now.
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Need to research chemistry before you train bombards and handcannons. This was there in the beta, and I liked it like that. Given today’s AoE4 being age of bombards, putting them behind a steeply priced tech may help.
I don’t feel like adding these things will enormously affect balance, but they do make the game richer. The game is nice, but the civilizations lack cultural depth. The game may be strategically rich but the civs are very empty by comparison.
Simplifying this game by getting rid of the arsenal and other features that were initially in some previous build was maybe a good idea for esports, but personally I enjoy a little more structure and complexity to how a civ works.