Dynasty entries now grant troop support choices (3 options) instead of unlocking dynasty buildings.
Song Dynasty: 2 Early Palace Guards / 3 Zhuge Nu / 1 Imperial Official
Yuan Dynasty: 6 Shaolin Monks / 5 Early Grenadiers / 2 Nest of Bees
Ming Dynasty: 9 Imperial Guard / 20 Yuan Raiders / 3 Bombards
Tax rework: Buildings generate 1 Tax per 15 resources received (replacing villager-based tax). Unit production grants 3 Tax. Tech research grants 15% of its cost as Tax.
Yuan Dynasty bonus increased to 15%.
Jiangnan Tower new effect: Gain 1 Imperial Official when Landmark is built.
Palace Guards adjustments:
Cost: 100F 30G
Damage: 10/13/16
+2/3/4 vs Cavalry
Attack speed reduced to 1.5
Shaolin Monastery rework: Functions as Monastery and unlocks Shaolin Monks for all Monasteries.
Shaolin Monk cost reduced to 180F .There is a bug in the description of Shaolin monks. Under the influence of the elite army tactics and the bonus of the Ming Dynasty, the damage is (15 + 3) * 1.35 = 24.3, instead of the correct (15 + 3) * 1.15 * 1.2 = 24.84.
Temple of the Sun: “Divine Defense” now gives +20% attack speed to Gunpowder units, but no longer affects defensive buildings.
Zhu Xi 's Library:
Remove research limit
Each completed tech doubles remaining tech research time
Roar of the Dragon: Triggers every 5s, deals +50% damage
Dynastic Protectors: When Palace Guards/Lancers die, revive with 15% HP. Once per unit.
Advanced Administration: Removed
New Tech: Upgrade 2 other Landmarks
(- Meditation Gardens: Boosts resource income
Jiangnan Tower: Can train Palace Guards/Crossbowmen/Yuan Raiders
Shaolin Monastery: Reduces Shaolin Monk cost
Mount Lu Academy: Imperial Officials no longer cost population
Temple of the Sun: Activates a second tactical toggle)
Yuan Raiders unlocked at Imperial Age. Imperial Guard requires all Landmarks built.
Imperial Guard rework:
Heavy ranged gunpowder cavalry (handcannon)
200 HP, 10/3 armor
25 ranged damage (+10 vs Cavalry)
Attack speed: 2.12
Speed: 1.62
Range: 3
Active Ability: Charge and switches to melee mode (35 damage, +12 vs Cavalry, 1.62 attack speed) with 30% melee damege reduction for 15s
Its that Lancaster and KT are busted. So all your classic civ players are basically struggling right now. On the plus side when changes come, if you main a classic civ you wont have to change your playstyle too much. But i dont see the current HOL and KT remaining unnerfed/unchanged.
Think about it man, like, japan players, english players, you think you have it bad?
Most of the options… well, almost all of them (1-10) are about balance, and ZuXhi is currently Tier S+, so I see no reason for the moment to improve it further.
Except for historical reasons, since it’s technically China 2, or at least a version with all the “experimental” weapons or militias that didn’t make it into the base civ, plus various technologies.
That said, 11 should never be used.
On an aesthetic and historical evel, think about it:
How many people love Joan of Arc LV4 as a Horse Handcannoneer Lady?
Answer: NO ONE, and they’re even asking for a rework.
Do you want to repeat the same thing, but for China?
That unit that you suggest didn’t even exist.
It’s clear that the Black Rider aroused jealousy, but China had its own Horse Archers from the Yuan Dynasty. There’s no need to invent a unit that didn’t exist just to compete.
The key thing to remember is, all these changes serve one simple purpose: when a gun gets made, it absolutely needs to shoot.
1 and 3:If I had 1800 resources right now, I’d probably use them to produce units, upgrade tech, or save up to advance to the Imperial Age. But, I’d never waste resources transitioning into the Yuan Dynasty—since that’s such a bad deal. Entering a dynasty should feel as impactful as advancing an age, and ideally, Chinese should get unique bonuses from dynasties to make them stand out.
4:Jiangnan Tower is hands down the worst structure in the entire game,no explanation needed.
5:Zhu Xi’s Palace Guards don’t feel as strong as the Chinese ones. If you want specifics, check their stats against Ghazi Raiders.
6 and 7:In early versions, Jeanne’s Companions could only be trained from Keep — but players barely trained them. The devs later moved them to Barracks and Stables to make them more appealing. Now Shaolin Monks are stuck in the same exact situation. Other civs spam their unique units like crazy, while Shaolin Monks just vanish after Relic fights.
8 and 9:All I want is for these options and techs to be balanced choices, just like how the latest patch buffed some of Ayyub’s wing. You know, make them actually worth picking.
11:Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. The Shenjiying-Ming Dynasty’s elite force specializing in gunpowder — mixed infantry, cavalry, and artillery. The Guanningtieji (late-Ming heavy cavalry) wrecked enemies with multi-barrel, triple-shot handcannons. Qijiajiun’s cavalry trick: they charged while firing their guns, then switched to melee weapons up close.
If you care about historical and aesthetic accuracy, this game has too many mistakes. Early Palace Guards wear armor that didn’t exist until the Ming Dynasty. Fire Lancer and grenadiers popped up way back in the Song dynasty.Temple of the Sun built to honor Sun Tzu (author of the Art of War) has zero connection to anything’divine’. At this point, its name makes people think it’s some Mayan religious temple.
Actually I suggest you try to creat a new civ rather than change old one if your idea is kind of inspired.
In my option, the biggest problem of ZXL is lacking of efficient anti-Cavalry unit. As you know, ZXL has ZGN to anti light units, has wonderful own cavalry like Yuan Rider, but it is do lacking of method to deal with Cavalry for it don’t have Handcannoner. Spearman is too weak in late game, and ZGN can’t fight with horseman who has high range armor.
Maybe I can make some suggestions in other post later, I still have some thought about JD.
OK, Yes, you convinced me. They’re great, and historically cprrect, so in theory, they could be added to the game.
I don’t know if they should be for ZhuXi or China, because as you mentioned, they seem very strong and exclusive to the Ming Dynasty, and the civ that “unlocks units” per dynasty is China. Also, ZhuXi lacks Handcannoners, so I don’t see them giving them a mounted one.
I’d actually suggest that grenadiers be unlocked in the Imperial Age and no longer be exclusive to advancing to Ming Dynasty (still, NO ONE uses them), and that they be replaced by this Guanningtieji unit, or “Guanning Iron Cavalry.”
And if it’s really broken, they could do like with the HRE Black Rider, and have their number depend on the number of Keeps (5 x Keep)… I feel like this mechanic will be used in many civs in the future.
It’s the devs’ fault for wanting to give Zhu Xi an Early Palace Guard without considering the historical armor, I guess to “save resources”. At least in the latest DLC, the Templars are well-crafted, and no unit has armor after 1300 with plate armor, just chainmail.
Thanks, though, I’ll add it to the list of things I’d like the devs to fix.
Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense for the Yuan to unlock it, especially considering the Jin and Song invented the Fire Lancer to fight the Mongols. I guess it’s another one of those early game balance cases: When the civs weren’t allowed to have more than 3 or 4 unique units, and to “balance the Chinese,” their fire lancer was a dynasty unit. But since the Song had Zhugenus, they gave the fire lancer to the Yuan, even though they were expected to only use one dynasty unit, blocking the rest.
Since things have changed, they might as well give the Chinese another unit for unlocking Yuang and make the fire lancer unlockable normally in Castle Age.
So, regarding OP purposed change 7: making the Shaolin Monk cheaper without a significant balance pass tied to it seems like a bad idea to me.
The Shaolin Monk on paper is a hybrid unit that is half MAA-like unit half religious unit. However, as a melee unit it overpreforms to the determent of the Palace Guard and other MAA like units. I think the Shaolin Monk is poorly balanced for the following reasons.
1.) Train Time: The Shaolin Monk has a train time of 20 seconds which while marginally faster then the Palace Guard is 10 seconds faster then the Monk. (Suggestion: make the Shaolin Monk train time 32 seconds)
2.) HP: The Shaolin Monk has high HP at 170 and gets access to two HP upgrades with Piety and Elite Army Tactics a combo which gives the SM a total HP value of a little south of 240. (Suggestion: Set the Shaolin Monk’s base HP to 108 before upgrades)
3.) Melee Armor: The Shaolin Monk has a innate melee armor value of 2 which increases to 5 after researching all melee armor upgrades. This is one category where the SM doesn’t make the Palace Guard redundant. That being said giving a unarmored unit innate armor is…weird imo.
4.) Speed: This is a bit of toss up for me because the SM’s speed is set between the Monk and MAA/Palace Guard so its not terrible where it is.
5.) Damage: SM base damage is 15 and 22.5 with damage upgrades + Ming Dynasty effect vs ZXL Palace Guard’s base damage of 9 and 19.55 with all damage upgrades + Ming Dynasty Effect (Suggestion: reduce the SM base damage by 40% so the SM does not outpace the Palace Guard)
6.) Rate of Fire/Attack Speed: SM has a ROF of 0.75 seconds which is the fastest of all MAA and MAA-like units by quite a margin. (Suggestion: Make SM attack speed more in line with the Palace Guard)
Sorry,since these terms don’t have official English equivalents, I’m not sure whether literal translations would be accurate — that’s why I kept their Chinese pronunciaton. Your earlier suggestions were solid, but I still think Zhuxi desperately needs an anti-cavalry unit. They sucks against elephants because they got no HandCannoneers, and spearmen will die in masses.
Shaolin Monks’combat power should be comparable to Teutonic Knights since they cost about the same. To make them stand out from Palace Guards, give them unique traits — like lower HP and armor but way higher DPS to balance it out.
