Considering that AoE2 is supposed to be dealing with the Middle Ages, this is a non-issue. They certainly didn’t armies better than many of the later civs which are included in the game.
Which is why I don’t analyse the game this way. I analyse in terms of mechanics. When you deal with mechanics, the game becomes a lot more coherent and logical.
I read it, I’m just saying that those “mechanics” have always been part of the game, the problem is that those old mechanics are now standard for old players (like me)
I personally like how the game is going with all of this (the charging mechanic has been used a lot already in my opinion, but I don’t care too much about it)
I feel that Leitis is more broken than Shrivamshas; the Eagles have been broken since The Conquerors; Szlachta Privileges more OP than Flemish Revolution (which has been nerfed to the ground and is now useless)
A lot of people don’t like this, understandable; but it’s the same people who used to say that adding more civilizations would be bad for the game, and now it’s more alive than ever
New mechanics will come (at least it seems so) but the balance will come with them
It’s just my opinion, as valid as yours
This is not a new mechanic though. So comparing it to Flemish Revolution is not appropriate.
That’s exactly my point, you’re worried that new mechanics are dangerous to the game when other “normal” mechanics are fine → broken
I don’t think you did. We aren’t (just) talking about balance here. Standard mechanics, or any of the sub-categories I mentioned, can be broken or not broken. You can introduce a hundred new mechanics and, at least in theory, still maintain a reasonable amount of balance. This isn’t possible with certain mechanics, and might be crazy difficult, but I can think of ways it might be possible.
No, there are bigger issues. I have listed a few in the post, and people have been discussing more in the comments. I am not going to rehash it, feel free to read all of it you care.
So, I was thinking of the mechanics in the game (again), and noticed something great.
The devs have tried normalizing a newer mechanic, charged attack, with romans. Comitatenses, Roman’s imperial age UT, also now brings the total number of civs with charged attack to 3. While not as impactful as with the other two, this is helpful in normalizing the mechanics nonetheless.
So, thank you devs. I really appreciate this.
Now, romans have the following bonus.
Infantry receives double the effect from Blacksmith armor upgrades
This almost feels like a new mechanic. No other bonus changes an attribute of a researchable military technology. However, Sicilians do have a bonus that changes the amount of food you get from farms. It states: “Farm upgrades provide additional +125% food”. This only applies to buildings, and building mechanics are different from unit mechanics in my opinion.
I’m still trying to think through and work this out. Thoughts?
Yea they really needed to give a lot of these features too all civs and balance gameplay around the new mechanics. The disparity between the types of abilities is just too great and kinda immersion breaking. It almost feels like certain units or civs are from another game all together and don’t belong in this game since none of the other civs behave in the same way.
Like why has only 1 civ figured out that they can hide in their houses when they are attacked by an enemy? It just feels silly.
Actually Bohemians has a unit that can shield other units from ranged attack.
And if I’m not mistaken, hussite wagons place themselves on the outside in box formation so units inside the box are protected.
To add my two cents:
As long as the engine supports it and it makes sense within the game, I’m happy about every new mechanic that’s being added to the game.
I personally see Portuguese Civ Mod for CD Version as the benchmark of what you’re able to do with Genie engine (e.g. Wonders providing a special bonus after building them which in Conquest games actually gives an appeal to build wonders; villagers costing wood instead of food (kinda like Dutch in AoE 3 whose vills cost Gold); Units that cause temporary AOE damage such as Arsonists; (un-)packing buildings etc.)
As filter said in the OP, adding new mechanics can make older civs feel stale. That’s why I hope that civs will receive reworks and balance changes that tackle this issue. I’m really looking forward to the Persian rework and I’m curious to see in which direction it’ll go.
iirc PCM actually had edited quite a few stuff with exe to introduce some new features otherwise not available to DE. GENIE simply reads and saves info and game is the one reads them and make stuff work.
New features keep the game from feeling like excel of empires
I consider it the same as ram mechanics. We had a long coversation about this earlier in this very thread. I don’t blame you for not reading it, this is a long thread after all.
What about Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds?
Both engines are similar but not the exact same.
I thought they were the exact same engine.
People did try to port parts of swgb code to aoe back in the day but that didnt work.The jedi/sith mechanic of fighting and converting monks would have been cool to have.
Well, the Gurjara mills work like in SW:GB and are also present in PCM as one of the bonusses of the Indians. So that one should be possible
The Shrivamsha Rider also has a weaker version of the shield mechanic from SW:GB, and probably uses similar code.