Lets not forget that TC’s can already produce villagers that can garrison them and shoot
Yes, but Villagers can’t go out to raid and snipe 20 Farmers after the fight is over. Villagers can’t micro to snipe Monks/Mangonels/Knights/Archers whenever they please.
Villagers cost food also, which is the most precious resource in Castle Age.
Villagers can do other things better than Longbowmen though 
Villagers can do other things better than Longbowmen though
Please watch tournament games. Crossbowmen micro garrisoning in TC’s is very effective. They are amazing sniping Mangonels/Monks/Knigths. And this works even considering that Crossbowmen have less range than Longbowmen, and TC’s can’t create them at their leisure.
Villagers in a forward TC’s can’t be remotely compared to a spam of Longbowmen. They are a weakness in a real fight…
A TC producing, garrisoning, and healing Longbowmen would indeed have the strength of a Castle.
homogenization is the process of making everything the same. taking something only 1 or 2 can do (make unique units at normal production buildings) and giving it to everyone, is definitely homogenization.
not really. still have to build a castle.
so we have to make more changes, just to make the change you want. yeah that sounds like change for the sake of change. not a fan.
so clearly it’s not just a defense then is, if it can be used for offense or for other things.
Some strong UUs make this idea impossible. Arambai, Conq and Plumes for instance would make their civ nightmarishly strong in castle age, and imperial age Mongols would just destroy everything with mass archery ranges. Some UUs would also become OP instead of weak, for instance mass Karambit spam would put Goths to shame 11
Only way this could work would be to make tons of UU much weaker and closer to generic. Heck that’s why the OP is asking for longbows in TC (in exchange for a nerf btw) it’s because Longbows are among the UU that are like a generic unit. I don’t think that would be a good idea for every UU.
Konniks being another good example of a unit that should never be that easy to mass.
also what do you do about the Elephant UU civs. also Rattan Archers can be a huge issue for some civs to deal with.
Longbowmen aren’t that generic, they can really dominate battlefields with meatshield in front.
I would say that Samurai would remain way less influential…
so can most archery unique units. look at plumes, rattans, and mangudai.
No Mat… UU it is one of the keys to make a civ unique. Incentivate their use it is to make everythimg more heterogenious. Look at the games nowaday… all KT or crossbows… that is homogeious.
Give people the capacity of use easly their civ UU and they will use much more. Then work on balance… There are people to get payed for this, you don’t worry.
Not necesary. You up to Castle Age and your UU will available y the according building like KTs in Stable or CA in Archery range. You will build a castle eventually when you need it for its purpose, defence or forward.
You don’t catch me. It’s not a change for the sake of change… It is for diversity the units used in the game. Most matches are played %50 of time in Castle age where only KTs and crossbows really worth it. With this change more UU would be used and massed from Castle age.
You can use a Market to quick walling… so what? This not transform a market in a defense building…
This is Why I made the last aclaration. It has to be balanced in cost and trining time… but it would make the matches more richs I think
If everything could be OP then nothing is OP
while i agree with you, unique techs are also a way to make them unique, and you are by doing this taking a unique feature of goths, and huns, and giving it to everyone. that is a FACT.
and yet viewership and interest in the game is rising as unique units are phased out.
will they? we don’t see huns use tarkans all that much, and heck even at the pro level we really don’t see mass huskarl spam.
so unbalance the game to facilitate your change, then spend the next 6 months rebalancing the game. when the game is already largely balanced.
so that’s even worse. Mongols getting Mangudai right at the moment they hit castle age? Arambai? yeah let’s just throw a huge WRENCH in balance.
but what about civs with mediocre unique units? what about civs with ABSURDLY GOOD unique units? yeah. your plan screws balance for at least a YEAR.
and screw balance in the process. also what do you do about goths and huns? they now have 2 unique techs that need to be replaced completely.
your claim was that the castle is a building for defense. my claim is that your claim is bullcrap. the castle has many uses, including offense. and has since the launch of the game.
not everything is op though. some civs have very mediocre unique units, or very expensive unique units, or very situational unique units. and then you have unique units like the Mangudai, Plumed Archer, Rattan Archer, Konnik, Etc, which there really is no downside too and are just superior in almost every way to a generic counterpart.
Well normal longbows only have 1 more attack than xbows and some less accuracy, so they actually aren’t very different from each other. Plumes, Rattans and Chu ko nu, on the contrary, are already pretty different from xbows. In Imp Longbows do get their signature range but that’s pretty much it.
sighs… This argument is getting old you know? Like the militia line,trash units, camels, monks and siege weapons exist you know. As of UU they are used as long as they are suited to the situation. Some are more situational than other.
That’s true. And that’s why watering them down to be just a slightly different generic unit is bad.
Replace for other UU, whats the problem? I’m not proposing that all civs have all UT’s…
Based in what you say that? There is several post in this forum about buffing differents UU.
But they use them much more than Indian Ele archer, which would be a good mix with imperial camel, but you know… it is difficult to mass.
The games is always evolving, I didn’t see the problem… they are adding 2 civs nobody asked
Common Mangudai is not much more danger that a CA in Castle age… Arambai can be stopped with skirmishers… Balance the training times… Like you could mass and upgrade FU Mangudai with the eco of early Castle.
BUff the mediocre, Nerf the OP units. It is all balanceable
Same as first point. Give them new ones. What’s the problem?
Respect please. From AOE wiki " The Castle is a defensive structure and military building" .What is first? I catch your point, but this change will not be a nerf to castle…
Again, It has to balance, not a problem.
so yet more changes we have to do in order to facilitate what you want this is going to take ages to balance.
yes, doesn’t mean they all get support do they? and this would actually require NERFING unique units more then anything.
yes because the elephant archer is an expensive late game unit.
too expensive of a composition to even try to field.
but nothing so ludicrous as throwing balance out the window for a year or more.
people have been asking for more new civs since pretty much day 1.
10 more health, bonus vs siege, faster, more line of sight, lower frame delay and attack delay, and most importantly 95% accuracy (vs the 50% of the cav archer). clearly not a huge difference at all. even crossbows only have 85% accuracy. you’re literally giving mongols a unit that is better then almost any other option in the game, out of the archery range, straight from the onset of castle age, that doesn’t realistically need much to get rolling the way the cav archer does.
if this was true double castle arambai wouldn’t have been such a huge issue that it was just nerfed.
you can easily with early castle age eco maintain 2 stable knight production, why wouldn’t you be able to produce 2 archery range Mangudai?
its literally taken us a year from launch of DE just to get to the point where only “Some” civs are bad. how much longer do you think its going to take when we have to rebalance all those unique units and 2 civs replacing unique techs and etc?
balance must be maintained. you’re asking for huge sweeping changes to the game. can you say that this idea would be popular among the fan base? i wouldn’t. and for sure no one wants to go back to the nightmare years of balance where only 4 civs could do anything.
we’ve literally spent a year just since DE released working on balance. not including the wide sweeping changes that came under HD. how much longer would it take to get back to a reasonable spot when we have to rebalance all the unique units, the civs around them (because lets face it, some unique units are great (mangudai, rattan archer, etc), some are too expensive to even field right away (elephants), and some are very situational (leitis, shotels, jags, etc), you’d literally have to rebalance not just the unique units, and the unique techs (for goths and huns), but the civs themselves.
The game has 20 years and continue evolving its balance. Only a year is not big deal.
to you maybe it isn’t. to those of us who are enjoying balance being in a good spot right now, it absolutely is, and 1 year is only an estimate, it could easily be longer, the game hasn’t had to make large sweeping changes over the past year in the name of balance. to get what you want, well were talking complete overhaul. also the games balance has been evolved through relatively conservative changes in line with original game design, this is a huge deviation from that standard.
Here’s to show what some typical balance changes look like:
(July 20th, 2020)
Battle Elephant [Standard & Elite]: Reduced trample damage from 50% to 25%.
Condottiero: Increased attack from 9 to 10 .
UNITS
Elite Cataphract: Reduced the food cost of the upgrade from 1600 to 1200 food. The gold cost is unchanged (800g).
TECHNOLOGIES
Logistica: Reduced the food cost of the upgrade from 1000 to 800 food. The gold cost is unchanged (600g).
TECHNOLOGIES
Pavise now also provides +1 melee armor and +1 pierce armor to Condottieri units.
CIVILIZATION
As their civilization bonus, military units (except for siege weapons) now cost 20% less wood to train (was 15%).
UNITS
War Wagon: Increased the base cost to train by +5 wood. After the civilization discount, the total cost is now 92 wood (was 94).
Turtle Ship: Increased the base cost to build by +10 wood. After the civilization discount, the total cost is now 152 wood (was 153).
UNITS
Karambit Warrior [Standard & Elite]: Decreased food cost from 30 to 25 food. The gold cost is unchanged (15g).
CIVILIZATION
As their civilization bonus, all units now cost 20% less gold to train (was 15%).
UNITS
Caravel: Increased the base cost to build by +3 gold. After the civilization discount, the total cost is now 34.4 gold (was 34).
UNITS
Flaming Camel: Increased attack bonus against elephants from +80 to +130.
Flaming Camel: Increased blast radius from 1.5 to 2.0.
(November 17th 2020)
Battle Elephant [Standard & Elite]: Reduced bonus damage to buildings from +7/+10 
+4/+7 respectively.
Xolotl Warrior: Are now granted +30 hp, +2 attack, and +2/2 armor in matches that begin in the Post-Imperial Age.
CIVILIZATION
Reduced the number of bonus resources Villagers can carry from +5 +3.
The Aztecs no longer start with extra gold in the Empire Wars mode.
UNITS
Jaguar Warrior [Standard & Elite]: Training time reduced from 20 12 seconds.
CIVILIZATION
Increased the rate at which Blacksmiths work from 50% 80% faster.
Blacksmith and Siege Workshop upgrades now cost -50% food.
UNITS
Arambai [Standard & Elite]: Reload time increased from 2.0 2.2.
CIVILIZATION
The movement speed bonus for infantry units is now applied at the start of the Feudal Age.
UNITS
Kipchak [Standard & Elite]: Now have a 0.5 second fire delay, equivalent to the Mangudai.
UNITS
Shotel Warrior [Standard & Elite]: Reduced the cost to train from 35 30 gold. Food cost remains the same (50 food).
TECHNOLOGIES
Torsion Engines: Reduced the width of Scorpion projectiles from 0.5 0.4 tiles.
CIVILIZATION
Loom can now be researched instantly rather than at no cost.
CIVILIZATION
All Stable units now gain +1 pierce armor in the Castle Age and +1 pierce armor in the Imperial Age, as opposed to the +1 pierce armor previously granted only to Camel units.
Reduced the team bonus to damage dealt by Camel units to buildings from +5 +4.
No longer have access to the Plate Barding Armor technology.
TECHNOLOGIES
Sultans: Fixed an issue where captured Relics would generate gold ~17% faster rather than the intended 10%.
UNITS
Genoese Crossbowman: Training Time reduced from 22 18 seconds.
Elite Genoese Crossbowman: Training Time reduced from 19 14 seconds.
CIVILIZATION
Further reduced the work rate of Khmer Farmers from -3% -5%.
Reduced the bonus speed to Battle Elephants from +15% +10% faster.
TECHNOLOGIES
Tusk Swords: Increased the cost from 200 wood, 300 gold 300 wood, 450 gold.
CIVILIZATION
Now receive archer armor upgrades for free.
Korean Towers no longer gain the range bonus previously granted during the Castle and Imperial Age.
UNITS
Elite Turtle Ship: Speed increased from 0.9 1.035.
TECHNOLOGIES
Panokseon: Replaced by the Eupseong technology.
Eupseong: This unique technology grants Watch Towers, Guard Towers, and Keeps +2 range.
UNITS
Leitis [Standard & Elite]: Reduced pierce armor from 2 1.
UNITS
Gbeto [Standard & Elite]: Fire delay reduced from 1.2 1.0.
TECHNOLOGIES
Obsidian Arrows: No longer grants double the attack bonus versus Stone Walls, Stone Gates, Towers, and Harbors.
CIVILIZATION
All technologies are now researched 30% faster.
CIVILIZATION
Fixed an issue which prevented the faster reload time bonus for gunpowder units from benefitting Cannon Galleons.
CIVILIZATION
Town Centers will now spawn 2 Sheep upon reaching the Feudal Age, and newly-constructed Town Centers thereafter will also spawn 2 Sheep upon completion.
TECHNOLOGIES
Silk Armor: Increased armor bonuses from +0/+1 +1/+1 armor.
CIVILIZATION
Scout Cavalry, Light Cavalry, and Hussar units gain +1 pierce armor.
UNITS
Elite Janissary: Increased accuracy from 50% 65%.
UNITS
B-52 Stratofortress: Increased training time from 180 years 200 years.
TECHNOLOGIES
Chieftains: Increased cost from 400 food, 300 gold 700 food, 500 gold.
