So, town patrol is one of the worst tech in the game, and is almost never researched due to its high cost.
Town watch is great, but the patrol upgrade is just bad and should be made better imho, so how could we buff this tech instead of making it just cheaper and boring?
i would add +1 Range to TCs when town patrol is researched, so that TC can still be protected a bit from early castle age aggression from mangonel + crossbows, while atm they both outrange TCs and can push a TC in castle age without an issue.
this would make this a panic defensive tech to push back mangonels, and would indirectly help rams that could become more relevant for an early siege push
The two techs (Town Watch and this one) combined give you 8 line of sight. That’s brilliant. It’s very good to spot an incoming raid. Perhaps it’s cost could be reduced.
It be insane power drip for the Lithuanians. Leave as it is.
I would say that it can cost no gold.
The price of 300 food will still keep it from being researched too early.
But After clicking the Imperial advance, it may be more easily to try.
in no case this should be the way to go. Just remove the gold cost and add a further +100f cost and it becomes a fine late Imperial age tech.
Castle age aggression doesn’t need to be even weaker, it’s incredibly easy to defend at high level vs aggression with Monks, defensive Castle, quick walls… the tools are numerous.
So brillant no pro ever researched it? Nah, i don’t think so…it’s a bad tech and you do not need that much vision anyway, not for that cost at least
Also Hill forts for lithuanians Is considered one of the worst UT already. It’s unlikely a +1 range on top of that even while researching this tech would make them OP or something like that…
This is the easiest option but also the most Boring imho, as it’s just the same tech as the previous variant (Town Watch) and to me there is potenziale for something cooler
Well mine was merely a proposition to follow the defensive theme of the tech. Also the tech would cost many resources and would not be that good for defending aniway. No one is researching Hill forts that is 3 times the range than this after all…
But you could drop another alternative buff! Since making it cheaper is clearly easier but also boring, as i’ve sayd
Again, i do not see how a change like this would completely shut down Castle age aggression…would not be the case simply. Lithuanians have Hill forts and they never research It cause it’s considered a waste of res…
But again i would gladly hear other inspired ideas other than just cheaper cost, to make the tech a bit more interesting…
Even something like “villager inside TC heal twice as fast” in addition to the vision or something niche like that
The tech itself good as is. Not all techs need to be cheap enough to research everytime or nearly everytime. It surely niche tech but still have some role in the game. Some techs are always researched and some techs are rarely researched, it make game more depths.
Its effect is also highly underestimated. We can always see players miss opponents’ castle drop, tower etc by 1-2 tiles. +4 Line of sight is especially insane when imperial age you have Castle/Outpost and other building all across the map.
Also now it is bonus for Byzantines to get it free and it is good for other civ difficult to research. Not I say Byzantines should have advantage over other civs but the bonus itself give significant difference from other civ which is good (When only Town Watch is free, it was very minor bonus considering its cost only 75F)
cavalry able to garrison in town centers would be an interesting perk of town patrol - though useless for civs such as le eagle warrior types, perhaps those heal at a x2 rate. on that note, I now believe that cavalry should be able to garrison in town centers as is even without such an upgrade to allow it.
I prefer the +1 range honestly, it would give it more of a reason to be researched
Since it’s an extension of Town Watch, it is reasonable to only cost food and to only increase LoS.
However I can understand you thinking it’s boring and wanting something cool.
The problem is, this is a tech that all civs have, and the so-called something cool is likely to affect the entire game. Perhaps the new extra effect is making Outposts cost no stone or gain more health. Not sure.
Costing only food would be consistent and reasonable i agree. I agree that a buff would affect all civs but i also think that the buff we are talking here is so small is unlikely to affect anithing in a particular manner, especially if we keep the Gold cost as a trade to add a interesting effect
Outpost costing no stone would be amazing imho
Other options could be maybe increase garrison space for TCs and towers and castles by 5
Or make TCs capable of train Militia line (as they already train flamish militia for burgundians)
Or a small buff for villagers like Loom 2.0. not supremacy villagers of course but maybe able to tank 1 more hit here and there
Town centers with +1 range would be able to kill manganels, so it would be way harder to push TCs, that on top of being just better against against knights and xbows.
Hill forts is “bad”(it actually isn’t…) because it requires a castle, which by itself already defend you against manganels and castle age push.
Among all those costs i think 300 food and no gold would be decent cause at least would keep the food cost from Town Watch while dropping the problematic part of Gold cost. But even 200 food would be good imho since 300 food in Castle and early imp is still a big investment, something that only great techs have (bracer, chemistry, and such) even at 300 food, would still be one of the most opinionated expensive techs in Castle age