The Lamest Problem

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

The recent addition of unchaseable Chickens has been a really good change overall, but it also gives people way more options for their scout - and that means way more laming.

Now, I’m not the sort to think that laming is all bad. If it weren’t an option, there would be precious little to do in the dark age. That said, when you successfully steal another player’s Boar, it’s a really MASSIVE swing, to the point where that single move can easily win the game, especially at middling elos like where I’m at.

Essentially you lose about 300 food and your enemy gains about 300 food, at very little cost. There’s precious little time to stop it, and if you fail, well, that can be GG.

Again, I don’t think this needs to be stopped entirely. Rather, I’d like to see something added, an alternative food source, so players who DO get lamed can at least make up SOME of the difference.

My thought would be, what if each player had a guaranteed small pond, with 2x shore fish, somewhere nearish to them but far enough away to not be worth gathering in normal circumstances?

The nice thing here would be, the collection rate would be slower than the boar(since that’s directly under your TC), but because the lamer took some damage laming the boar, they are at an offensive disadvantage, meaning they wouldn’t be able to take those fish as effectively as their opponent. They would still be a net ~200 food ahead(since they cost their opponent 300 food AND gained 300 food), but they wouldn’t be able to take their own fish as easily.

In general, milling shore fish is slightly better than dark age farms, but is also much more vulnerable to to attack, so this addition would only mainly be used in the event of laming, and would serve to equalize things a bit.

Thoughts?

2

I liked the unchaseable chickens. I’d be even happier if the deer worked the same way.

1 Like
3

The chickens can’t be lamed. At least I could not kill them with my Scout.

edit:
They can be killed by other military units. Seems like the meta on Arabia will become even more aggressive than I predicted.

4

I am referring more to the fact that, without having to chase deer, your scout is free to do other things, which includes laming the enemy’s boar. It’s okay for that to be a thing, but the consequences of losing that fight are a bit too extreme at the moment. One fight like that shouldn’t determine the results of the game.

5

Btw, does mongols have 40% for chicken?

6

Yes, Chickens are considered hunt.

2 Likes
7

Maybe chickens are the cause and the solution: if opponent lame your boar, you build a mill on your chicken (like you would have done with the pond).

I think we will figure it out by playing, but I suppose that, if your opponent has a laming civ (Mongols, Viets, Meso or Burmese) and you see the chicken, you prepare your defence against laming, by guarding the forward boar or by hunting it before building the lumbercamp. And by gather all the sheeps near the TC (since ou don’t need them to explore, your scout will do it instead of pushing deers).

Goths could be a major threat, since a single vill could kill all your hunyables, but this happens even with deers so it won’t change so much.

Building a barraks just to kill chickens won’t be high rewarding I suppose, but a Drush-M@A opening could have the side effect to disrupt the hunting economy.

If we want to discourage laming, I think the solution could be similar to the chicken pushing: boars could have a luring range and, when they distance themselves from they original spot, they simply come back. So laming could still be useful by denying the opponent his 300 food, but not enough to gaining it.

Another solution could be in map generation, by putting huntables (both boar and chickens) in the back of the base.

8

If majority hates laming, just make boar stop chasing a scout after 4 seconds and return to the original spot.
I think laming should cost you bit more.
Lets say you can buy 1 scout at the start of the game for 80 food from town center and training time of 1 villager. Or you can play with 80 food more and have no scout but 1 vill more. Your choice. And make a bigger area around your base explored at start.