I am sure this subject has been discussed before, but I would like to give my 2 cents.
I think most AoE 2 players would agree that water maps are not very fun. They are probably the most banned maps, too.
To me, the meta seems to be getting to Feudal before your opponent with several docks and massing fire galleys. Demolition rafts can be somewhat helpful to prevent your opponent from gaining the upper hand, but after that you try to outnumber them with fire galleys again.
Galleys hardly play any role in the early game, because you need LOADS of them to stand a chance against a bunch of fire galleys. It’s really weird how fire ships play a more prominent role than proper battle ships.
I know this is a sensitive topic, because AoE is a classic game and we don’t want to ruin the nostalgia attached to it. But would water warfare actually be the one thing where it would make sense to depart from the original AoE II gameplay and do a more extensive rework?
Of course a proper water expansion with new units and better balancing would be great. But I think we could already make it work with the existing units by tweaking their movement attributes.
:: Suggestions ::
It would be interesting if turning around took a bit longer for ships compared to land units. That would nerf fire ships and demos, because galleys could still be able to fire at them from the side and taking out multiple galleys that are not directly next to each other would take significantly more time.
We could also tweak the movement speed. What if demos were only faster than galleys when attacking them in a straight line? That would make it possible to outmaneouver them. To make up for that, demos could have a bit more HP.
I understand that these changes could lead to some frustration with pathfinding issues, but in the bigger picture, water fights would become more interesting and varied.
You might want to take a look at the battle for Greece dlc, it adds new ships, including a counter to the fire ship that is not the one-use demo raft.
Personally I see more flavor in land battles, naval battles at that time were more about ramming and boarding, it was not as varied.
this specific change would be a nerf to galleys, because they turn a lot more than fires. If you try to micro against fires, you do 2 180 turns every 2 seconds, while the fire galley goes in a straight line
That’s nice, but I only play ranked.
I think the singleplayer campaigns have enough variety because of the different scenarios and limitations that you have to work with. But it’s a good point that changes on water unit mechanics would also affect many campaign scenarios, which probably makes them less likely…
I am pretty sure that cannons were used a lot more in the late middle ages than the game makes us believe. In AoE 2, cannon galleys are only siege units and basically worthless in naval combat.
You have to read the rest of the paragraph, too. I would make it that galleys don’t have to face a unit in order to attack it, but can shoot arrows from the flanks, too. Fire galleys might also be able to shoot fire within a 270 degree angle, but only from their fronts, which forces them to turn around if they are attacked from behind.
But those are just ideas, it would obviously need to be well thought-out and balanced.
My bad i misunderstood your explication.
Regarding gunpowder, even at the battle of Lepanto in 1571 most ships were galleys, not very different from antiquity galleys. A few ships had cannons and were very effective, but in game it makes sense we only see them late in imperial age
Well, I disagree. Personally I find many water (and hybrid) maps to be very fun.
But, and that is perhaps the crucial point, it is not about water combat per se, but rather about the balance between water and land investment, which is actually a pure strategy choice rather than mere micro or macro management.