It’d be really cool if every military unit could keep count of their kills and “rank up” every X number of kills, and gain small damage or health, or other bonuses. It’s not unrealistic to give experienced soldiers more value in combat.
This would be a fun way to reward microing and utilizing healers
C&C Generals had a great leveling system for units that was really satisfying and exciting. Little promotion icons would simply appear next to a unit’s health bar and it would gain some new feature, like burst fire or longer range.
I don’t know if the same concept would work too well in AoE, since armies tend to be really large, and on-screen information for individual units would be really noisy. If a single battle doesn’t decide the game, things tend towards attrition with many units dying and being replaced. In either case, I think individual units are a bit too inconsequential for a leveling system to be very rewarding.
But if I’m wrong about that, it would be a fun way to reward micro management.
Well, even in C&C Generals armies can be huge and one battle can be the end of the match. I think promotions would work on AOE’s scale, but it would change the dynamics a bit too much for everyone’s sake.
Things would go a bit more tactical with the importance of keeping your army alive and healing your fellas after battles - too much like real warfare for the arcadness of AOE. Or it could go the other way around with people microing the hell out of everything to keep their veterans alive yet at the heat of the frontlines.
Veterancy could just factor how much damage a unit make or maybe add some auto-activating feature that happens randomly. It could be represented by a visible plume on a unit’s hat: no plume - green, medium sized plume - veteran, big plume - seasoned veteran.
I would love it, but I think it will not happen on AOE3DE. Also, a large portion (or at least a very vocal part) of the community hates change.
That may cause much more snowball effect. Imagine that you lose in one battle outside the base, Now enemy have not only gain advantage from win the battle, but also get a large number of high rank units. The game will quickly come into one-sided.
Well, I think that unit levels should not be a above-all factor in battles. Veteran units are better, but not little rambos with muskets. Also, experience should not be “killed one guy, leveled up”.
Also, for late game, there could be a tech or card that new units come already with some veterancy level.