New Civ: Xiongnu/Huns

[:1]Before you read further: READ THIS:Huns, known as the Xiongnu, are TIME APPROPRIATE!

Granted... there may be some cheating of history, but you gotta a little bit.

It's true! The Huns of BCE are not the Huns of the Danube... or rather, they WOULD be, but in BCE times, the Huns are raiding China and Korea and whatever sturdy suckers lived in frigid Russia, if any. These Huns are truly Asian, and in Campaigns, would be dealing more with other Asian civsthan withRomans to start out with.

Main Gimmick: Huns... need houses! They do! I'm sorry to say but they need them in this game. BUT the houses are only slightly more expensive than usual to counteract their double pop capacity: +5 wood, +5 pop, not a bad deal! Furthermore! Storehouse centers can be unpacked to move if a resource runs dry. They move slowly, but its better than rebuilding. In fact, their star tech increases movespeed!Hunnic armies are cavalry based with some Camels of the Gobi and meh siege and infantry. They're going to need those boosted houses! Their Steppes horses do not take much bonus from camel riding units, and are fast.

Barracks

Spearman: As basic as they come, draped in rugged hides with a face twice as rugged and a body that wishes it were mounted. Age 1 cavalry counter.

Archer: A simple anti-infantry unmounted unit. Age 2

Skirmisher: Ajavelin throwing anti-archery that resists missiles and siege. Age 3.

Horseman Center

Light Cavalry:Sword wielding raider, moves very fast and kills archers nicely. Age 2.

Tarkan: Heavy Spear cavalry that destroys buildings and other cavalry. Age 4.

Tarkan Archer:Heavy cavalrywith a bow thatdoes bonus against infantry and uses burning arrows to damage buildings. Age 3

Camelry Stable

Gobi Raider: A camel rider with a throwing axe. Counters horses from a distance somewhat but also infantry. Age 2.

Tarkan Camelry: A tarkan on camel. Destroys horses well but is somewhat slow. Age 4

Heavy Camel: A sturdy sword wielding camel. Less effective against horses than spears and other camels but all around useful. Age 4

Fortress

Wall Scaler: Can set up hooks to let allies climb over walls. If hook is destroyed, climbing units lose half their max health.

Trebuchet: Swapped pack and unpack loadings from a Pantinlonlon. Has greater accuracy than usual. Age 4.

Siege Workshop: Siege units are pulled by horses, making them weak to anti-cavalry but faster to reach their destination. They tend to lack raw power.

Temple

Shaman: Basic healer. Can convert.

Dock: Rather vanilla. There are plenty of animal hides on their boats

Armory: Due to the extreme number of mounted units, armor is split three ways: Unmounted, Horse and Camel. Simply figure out which unit is on what and that will be what gets upgraded.

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Nice - Xiongnu, Huns, Mongols...whatever you call them they are all from the same area, use the same tactics and may as well be considered the same group.

Living in the mountain steppes, in the middle of a continent, far from any open water, should give them significant naval disadvantage though.

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Well, their disadvantage is their lack of advantage. To me, water shouldn't be a competetive aspect that effects land play.

It's difficult to balance around being a naval civ in a game when PvP might include no water. It's not like in other AoE games where you can change your civ between matches. You COULD change civs in this game, but likely you'll be at either a lower level or/andyour wallet will be emptier to have those extra options to begin with.

|||Another good idea! I really like barbarian civilization and I always liked to play with the huns in TC.
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I like the superhouse idea. No matter how far you go, Huns still need somewhere to call home.

And can we call them Yurts?

|||For some reason you like fancy names. I'd say no. The name should be kept simple for the player. A new player might not understand what a yurt is but if he sees a house, he'll get it quickly. They can LOOK LIKE yurts, but renaming them might also confuse hotkeys.|||I'll bump it a HUNdred times over if I must.

unit movement is terrible

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I'm sure all of you know what I am talking about.

-You tell a villager to go repair a wall while he's on the safe side of it. What does he do? Somehow finds that the long way around path that includes walking out the front gate to repair it from the other side is the optimal route........what??? this was a problem I saw in beta that I assumed they would have fixed by release. Apparently not.

-Secondly, recalling forces back out of a hot zone. If you move an entire spread out group out of an area, the ones that are lagging occasionally walk ABYSMALLY slow like they were in the front waiting for their group to catch up, making them easy pickings for pursuers.

-I can't even use the attack move feature because they always target the most non-hostile thing first i.e. a villager or wall over an archer or soldier. At the very least, give them attack priorities or better yet, give us the players better controls over groups of units, not just a stand ground feature (which doesn't do what it says it does) and aggressive (which usually means they will pursue them all the way back into their village filled with towers). What I would like to see is 2 things in this department: 1. formation controls. And to add to that, formations that they actually follow while your at it. it gets pretty retarded having to move them all back and forward about 6 times just to get them all to properly fall into formation. 2. more than two stance settings. aggressive and stand ground are just simply not enough to work with. One I would like to see is a stance that targets only hostiles, ignoring walls, non-hostile buildings and villagers entirely(unless engaged by one). Maybe another one that causes them to clear an area of everything standing once all hostiles are dealt with i.e. what aggressive is supposed to be (kill eveything in sight and chase runners)

Other suggestions:

- walls can be somewhat of a pain to place next to trees. Maybe some kind of visual indicator so show holes in a local area that infantry can work through, rendering walls useless as a deterrent.

-an auto-repair mode for villagers. Many other RTS games have this feature, which reduces the monotonous micromanagement, not demands additional skill. I used to in PREVIOUS AOE games place a villager near all wall sides to auto repair any damage caused to that wall. Now I can still do that in this version but I have to manually target the wall AND have to watch them repair due to the fact that villagers have the quirkiest pathing of any AOE game( see problem 1).

Some of these simple fixes will and suggestions will take most of the pain of this game out of it, in just about any playstyle a players chooses (PVP, quest, etc).Granted, I have not played any PVP games yet really so I cannot really comment on that aspect.but reaping harsh consequences or even failing/losing games over mistakes made entirely on poor unit decisions is just frustrating. I've lost walls after failing an offensive and trying to fall back due to the fact that when they hit my walls trying to get into my town on a counter attack, my villager decides to path out from behind the wall and gets killed, leaving my walls unrepaired and vulnerable. Once they get through the walls, my whole town, with limited forces now is under complete siege, simply because my villager is stupid is as stupid does. Fix at least the issues that should have been completed before release and I will consider purchasing premium. Without it, this isn't what I would consider a worthy game of being paid for as it's predecessors had most of these simple features. Not quite sure how a game can jump backwards but this is what this game tends to feel like sometimes.

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First of all, I really like this game. I believe it has a potential to be great and I hope the devs can see it.

At the same time I agree with everything you say. It amazes me how unit handling and pathing like this got through beta.

bump

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I agree, this stuff was all better in previous AoE games then it is now.

I would just like to add a small point, something that also infinitely annoyed me in Supreme Commander 2 (GPG):

When a group of units is selected they form a formation,the entire group waits for the unit that might lag behind.
Traditional rts games fixed this by making the unit that was behind move a bit faster than the rest instead of slowing down or downright stopping the entire formation.

"-Secondly, recalling forces back out of a hot zone. If you move an entire spread out group out of an area, the ones that are lagging occasionally walk ABYSMALLY slow like they were in the front waiting for their group to catch up, making them easy pickings for pursuers."

Isn't that because of the snare thing? I find snare to be annoying but I guess it has some gameplay value.

Anyway, even with the current flaws in it I still likeAoEO alot, hence my effort in suggesting improvements.

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"-Secondly, recalling forces back out of a hot zone. If you move an entire spread out group out of an area, the ones that are lagging occasionally walk ABYSMALLY slow like they were in the front waiting for their group to catch up, making them easy pickings for pursuers."

I agree, I understand that a unit, or two get snared, but the whole group doesn't need to slow down.

|||There's a trick to repairing walls. You click to repair the thinner wall sections of them, not the wide post sections. The posts are the issue, I'm guessing there's something wrong with their geometry. Since I've started doing that I've never had a villager be an idiot about repairing them unless there was legitimately something in the way.
|||the problem is that groups always move at the speed of the slowest unit, so if a unit is snared into being the slowest, there you go. there should be a way to move a group while ignoring differences in movement speed. like double right clicking causing the units to all move at their own speed rather than the slowest.|||Well, the unit movement is not perfect, but it is not terrible.

Save Option

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What bothers me about the game is that there is no save option during the missions. If the server is out, or the electricity goes out, or even some other issue where the game shuts off suddenly, then you must start the mission all over again. I wish that there was a save option, that way, atleast you could save and not have to redo the mission hoping that it doesn't shut off again. It is not fun playing the same mission over and over from the start.

Unbuildable terrain in "Defence of Crete"

[:1]RecentlyIhavediscoveredthat it is impossible to build walls and towers on the "brown terrain" surrounding the monuments and the pathway up to it. This makes it difficult to defend the monument due to the lack of building space. I would not be bothered so much if the trailers didn'tpurposelyshow walls being build around the monument to defend it, which is what drew me into buying the DLC. I am hoping this will be fixed.|||

I understand the devs may have thought it would be to easy if you have the entire wonder area fenced off, but the attackers do have battering rams and catapults right?

With the siege weapons usually making short work of any type of defensive building, I think players should be allowed to just build near the wonder.

|||I completely agree, not being able to completely takes away the "Defending"aspectfrom DEFENCE of Crete. WhatIam bad at more however, is that they advertise theexpansionin a way that shows that you CAN build walls around it. False advertising...I love the game and all, butIfeel that the Devs choice to do that was just stupid, and not to mentiondeceitful. I would not have bought it the DLC if i knew you could not actually "defend" the monument properly.|||Instead of complaining here, in the same time you would have earned the money amount of the booster pack by working in real life.|||

@Jagulars That just doesn't make any sense at all, please shut up.

|||BRB, stealing Jagulars car because he can just earn it back.
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I could also buy a car that doesn't work, just as folly

I have the booster back,Ibought it, thatdoesn'tmake my complaint any less valid.

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actually building walls takes away the fun, people would only reinforce walls and build fortress/guard towers. I prefer it this way, i have so much fun this way.

EDIT: I noticed that in the trailer it is able construct wall, but i guess that changed for the best over the development of the booster pack

|||I don't really see how it makes it more fun. When i saw the trailers for Defence of Crete, i saw a DLC that you could pretty much make your own Tower defence, and build the ultimate defence against hordes of oncoming enemies, which would have been great..but nope..i can barly even build towers..I dont like that.

Civilization Ideas: Atlanteans

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I think they could releasethe Atlanteanmythological civ. with a Historic civilization along with it. The Atlanteans exceled at Navel Combat because they needed a strong navy to defend their island city of Atlantis. They could have the best navy in the game and have the same land units as the Greeks. They could share the Greek reigons plus an Athens reigon, Corinth reigon, and a Megara reigon for Atlantis related quests or Atlantean colonies that have been established.

Barracks

• Murmillo: An anti-calvalry swordsmen. Very weak at later ages. Age 1.


• Hypaspist: And anti-infantry swordsmen. Basically the same as the Greek Hypaspist, but had a shield and a single sword like in Age of Mythology. Age 2.


• Destroyer: Anti-Building unit and slow. Not very good against other units, especially Anti-infantry.

Stable

• Contarius: Same as a Sarrisophoroi, but has a longer range. Age 2.


• Prodromos:Anti-calvalry. Age 3.


• Chariot: All around, fast calvalry unit. Age 4.

Archery Range

• Arcus: Basic archer. Age 2


• Peltast: Anti-range. Short ranged javelin thrower. Age 3


• Gastraphetes: Anti-infantry. Long range crossbowman. Age 4

Siege Workshop

• Battering ram: The exact same as any other ram. Age 3


• Ballista: As powerful as the Greek Ballista. Age 4


• Cheiroballista: Weaker, cheaper, more mobile version of the ballista. Handheld. Age 3

Temple

• Priest of the Olympians: Heals and converts groups of units and buildings at long range. Age 3


• Priest of the Gaia: Can create forests, gold mines, stone mines, and berry bushes with a 5 minute cooldown in between each summon. Age 3


• Priest of Kronos: Creates chaos among the enemy ranks and causes enemy units to attack anyone. Age 4


• Priest of Oranos: Can teleport units to locations that is in an allies or your line of sight. Age 4

Atlantean Knight Fortress

• Hoplite: The strongest of all Atlantean Knights. All around infantry unit. Age 3


• Hippikon: A mounted, heavily armored knight. All around calvalry. Age 4


• Toxotes: The archer of the knights. All around Archer. Age 2


• Somatophylax: An armored building destroyer. Age 3


• Heteroi: An armored mounted warrior with a torch. Age 4

Harbor

• Fishing Boat: Fishes for food. Age 1


• Bireme: A slower version of the trireme with only 2 sails instead of 3. Age 2


• Merchant Transport: A transport ship that can carry 20 units instead of 16 and then 24 once upgraded. Can trade between two docks. Age 2.


• Trireme: A 3 sailed, fast warship. All around warship. Age 2.


• Fire Ship: A slow warship that is effective against other ships. Age 3


• Ballista Bireme: A decent speed bireme with a ballista. Effective against buildings. Age 3


• Ballista Trireme: A fast trireme armed with a ballista. More effective against buildings than Ballista Biremes. Age 4

Town Center

• Citizen: The Atlantean equivilent to a village, but moves slower and doesn't require a drop-off site. Age 2


• Villager: The normal villager. Age 1


• Age up by building different monument that shows their pursuit of knowledge over power, including the Tower of Learning to go to the Bronze Age, the Great Academy of History to go the Silver Age, and the Library of Reading and Writing to go to the Golden Age. Monuments can be rebuilt for free if destroyed after completion.

I created the monuments from my imagination and the Atlanteans favored knowledge over power, but their army and navy can be quite challenging to defeat without the right strategy, especially if they player or AI (Campaign only) is using Atlantean Knights. If you like the idea of adding a mythological civilization, please leave a comment or suggestion.

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Yeah great I guess, maybe a different name for citizen, since citizens are villagers?

|||Bad Idea... AoM is for Mythologies... keep AoE for the History.

Legendary idea

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Hey guys, when i saw this picturehttps://skydrive.live.com/?cid=D631B5A70C471751&id=D631B5A70C471751%21168i say wtf, why gold, i mean it's end game pve, many old player (mainly pvpers), who have played a lot will not even play the legendary quest cause they have already a lot of coin, so they will easily gear up for pvp, i 'maybe' get an advantage (if legendary gear are aimed for pve and not for pvp). But if you DEV just put another currency like you did for Argos, Sparta, everybody should have to regear from 'start' so every level 40 will restart gearing at the same level.

So no advantage for the gold farmer who will have big advantage from these legendary gear from the patch.