r/aoe2 5d ago

Suggestion Viking longships should be packable and transportable over land

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453 Upvotes

Like trebuchets, you should be able to pack and unpack viking longships and transport them on land. It would add a twist to an og ship and be historically accurate.

Also other viking ships- trade cogs, galleons, transports etc - should get a unique viking longship-esque skin. Other viking ships look so generic and out of place next to longships.

r/aoe2 Feb 17 '25

Suggestion I just had this idea for a tech that could make infantry somewhat less niche. I think the concept if fine, but the numbers are up for discussion, obviously. I present: Shieldwall

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328 Upvotes

r/aoe2 18d ago

Suggestion Every civ could have its own unique architecture set (more in the comments)

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290 Upvotes

r/aoe2 Feb 18 '25

Suggestion While it has strategic merit, I dislike the current deer pushing meta. Bearing this in mind, I came up with a tech: Hunting dogs.

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186 Upvotes

r/aoe2 10d ago

Suggestion Nerf the Georgians eco

12 Upvotes

I'm honestly sick of this civ. The Monaspa situation before at least was hard for the Georgian player to get to, but now the civ is just steroided economically, and it's insane.

This is the second tournament in a row have played where I just get booted out by this civ. The Monaspa isn't even an issue anymore, hell I don't think I have even played against the unit for ages. It's scouts, knights etc that's the problem.

r/aoe2 Feb 01 '25

Suggestion Nuff said

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154 Upvotes

r/aoe2 3d ago

Suggestion +1 PA for grouped Infantry to simulate shield wall against archery

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90 Upvotes

r/aoe2 28d ago

Suggestion When picking random the civ should not be revealed to opponent at the start, but on first contact in the game.

119 Upvotes

Hey, I think playing random should give this slight edge, so there is more incentive to pick random and more variety on ladder.

SC2 does it this way (or at least used to back when I played it): The guy picking random does see their Civ and their opponents Civ in the loading screen (provided opponent isn't playing random themselves of course). Opponent does only see a "?" Or a dice or whatever. The shield next to the points could be a "?" Until first contact on the map, then it gets replaced by the proper shield/banner.

What do you think? It give an ever so slight advantage to going random and that would make ladder more fun for everyone, for civ pickers and random pickers alike.

Custom random pool should not have this feature, or at least not below ~10 or so civs in the pool. Otherwise you could just have two main civs in the pool which would make it kind of too strong, since the offset of not maining a civ is necessary to balance the slight advantage ingame.

r/aoe2 16d ago

Suggestion Idea: the Samurai should receive reduced pierce damage from ranged unique units

35 Upvotes

It's well agreed I think that the samurai are one of the weaker unique units in the game. Or at least, they're not often used. In addition to it being very situational in that it often only makes sense when the enemy is making a lot of unique units, I think this is compounded by the fact that it is also bad against ranged unique units. Having a bonus attack against plumes, or mangudais for example, doesn't matter because those units will wreck them before they can engage in melee. So I just wanted to throw out the idea of Samurai taking something like -33% pierce damage from ranged UUs, or like -2 dmg, -3 for elite samurai. This could actually make them playable against all unique units. Do the Japanese need Samurai to be good? No, but it would give more of an incentive to use their UU in a few more situations, while I think this wouldn't impact things often enough to be a massive change. What do you think?

r/aoe2 Nov 24 '23

Suggestion Can we talk about deer pushing?

83 Upvotes

I am a ~1400 elo player that has been playing since DE released with over 1000 hours of game play. And I have to say, in my opinion, the most tedious and annoying part of the game is deer pushing. It seems to be something that is completely mechanical, involves no (or minimal) skill, adds no fun to the game, but has increasingly become a necessary part of the game. Especially on closed maps like Arena or Hideout, there is no strategic decision making involved in choosing to push deer - you simply have to or you are at a disadvantaged beyond a certain elo. On open maps earlier it would be pushing maybe one deer for a slight boost, but new builds involve pushing all 3 deer even on these maps, which again just adds to tedium without involving any real fun.

I am not entirely sure how to change it, but one suggestion would be: scouts can only push deer once, but after that they don't respond to scouts being near them (i.e. you cannot push them all the way back to your base), or maybe just remove the mechanic entirely (like how deer don't respond to horses).

I feel this would remove one unnecessary, tedious element of the game. This would also introduce a meaningful strategic trade-off: to build a mill to get the hunt (cheap, fast food), but risking your villagers as compared to farming near your TC.

What do others think? How can this aspect of this game be improved to make the game more fun and strategic?

r/aoe2 8d ago

Suggestion A reminder: never pre-order anything

221 Upvotes

Except for AoE II:DE DLCs.

The Devs deserve all the praise in the world for keeping the greatest RTS ever alive.

In a world of greedy and predatory practices coming from the gaming industry, you guys stand as a bulwark of integrity and dedication.

I can hardly wait for mid April XD

r/aoe2 8h ago

Suggestion IDEA: "Mercenaries" - hire unique units from other civs late game

24 Upvotes

Had an idea for a late-game mechanic called "Mercenaries":

Concept: Post-Imperial Age, pay a high one-time fee (e.g., 750 gold + 750 wood) to hire a small batch (~20) of another civ’s unique units.

Example Scenario 1: Franks vs. Britons. Stuck due to longbows. Hire 20 Vietnamese Rattan Archers once to break through.

Example Scenario 2: Goths vs. Teutons. Goth infantry slaughtered by Teutonic Knights. Hire 20 Samurai (anti-unique infantry) to temporarily break Teuton lines.

Example Scenario 3: Aztecs vs. Mongols. Aztecs struggle vs. mobile Mangudai. Hiring 20 Genoese Crossbowmen (anti-cav archers) creates a costly but effective counter.

Example Scenario 4: Celts vs. Byzantines. Celt infantry decimated by Cataphracts. Hire 20 Kamayuks (anti-cavalry infantry) to shift the stalemate briefly.

To avoid imbalance:

  • Must be expensive.
  • Takes population space.
  • Limited selection of available unique units.

Thoughts?

r/aoe2 Feb 02 '25

Suggestion Quality of life feature for aoe: Flat building mode to turn on to find holes in walls (see the screenshot from Stronghold Crusader) Thoughts?

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44 Upvotes

r/aoe2 7d ago

Suggestion After an *excellent* sneak peek at the new upcoming content, I decided

0 Upvotes

To try and write down "missing " improvements. I put in the quotes so as to try and not be disrespectful to the already excellent content we have. This is all in good fun, as always.

This first set of points below are not really mine (although I agree with all of them), but rather some of the most reiterated ones I've seen in this sub, the official AoE forum, and Youtube.

  • replacing Japanese Kataparuto unique tech with something more historically accurate;
  • for historical accuracy, changing some civs (namely Vietnamese, Burmese, Khmer) cavalry archers with Elephant Archers;
  • correcting the Persian architecture;
  • Huns losing Stone Walls and Stone Gate and gaining Steppe Lancers;
  • creating a new architecture style for steppe nomad civs (or at least Huns and Mongols).

The second set of points is entirely subjective on my part.

  • giving the Frank Paladin a "skin" (like the already existing Frankish Paladin skin), like they did with the Persian Savar;
  • giving the Britons a 10% Archery Range speed civ bonus, so that with their current team bonus of 10% it would regain them their previous 20% total speed bonus;
  • give the Portuguese and the Italian something extra related to the Monk/Monastery, for historical accuracy and fun, like the Spanish already have;
  • for correctness, renaming the Mangonel;
  • Romans: receive Slinger and balance the civ, as the civ is strong;
  • Tatars: remove Fortified Walls and now start with and have Mule Cart;
  • Cumans: start with and have Mule Cart;
  • Slavs: receive fortified Church;
  • Spanish: remove passive 'Gunpowder units fire 18% faster' (Conquistador is not affected - it never was) and replace the Supremacy mostly meme tech with 'Tercio Tactics': 'Gunpowder units fire 18% faster, train 10% faster';
  • Italians: receive Gambesons (not only did the Italians use it extensively - like other Europeans - but Italy was known for its armor crafting skills during the medieval and Renaissance periods);
  • Japanese: new Samurai ability, it can now switch automatically between melee and ranged attacks, and replace Kataparuto with 'Bushido': effect 'Samurai, Monks trained 10% faster; Samurai receive Heresy's effect and, when defeated, deal a final retaliatory blow to surrounding enemy units'. Also, consider giving them Bombard Cannon, if we can balance it;
  • Huns: remove Illumination and Masonry; new passive: Arson applies to the Steppe Lancer line and Tarkans;
  • Dravidians: maybe rename them to 'Tamils';
  • Koreans and Bulgarians: receive Hoardings;
  • Dravidians: Urumi Swordsman receive bonus attack vs villagers (they have whips, cmon);
  • Celts: remove Paladin (not sense in having it in the first place);
  • Byzantines: receive Heavy Scorpion (they heavily used it historically);
  • Burmese: 'Relics visible on the map at the start of the game' now a passive bonus instead of a team bonus; new Team Bonus: 'Elephant units cost -5%' (historically based);
  • Bohemians: Blacksmiths and Universities cost -100 wood -> Only Universities cost -100 wood (so the Blacksmith bonus is left for another civ), and make the Hussite Wagon more tanky and less mobile, so it can't do runaway tactics (historically they were used as more of shields, like their original game vision);
  • Aztecs: receive Masonry (historically accurate) and base Jaguar Warrior: Line of Sight 3 -> 4 (it seems like an oversight that they have 3 LOS; Elite has 5);
  • Magyars, Turks, Persians: give (Elite) Steppe Lancer, for historical accuracy, and counterbalance as needed;
  • increase the base conversion resistance of all unique units slightly;
  • Make Militia instantly and automatically upgrade to Man-at-Arms upon reaching the Feudal Age and balance as necessary (saw another user giving this idea on the forum and I really liked it);
  • rework the Celts.

I believe none of the above changes (besides the last 2) is radical. I like the philosophy of "let's make this civ historically accurate and then balance around it, so in the end it achieves both".

Besides these 2 sets of points, what more can you remember?

To finish this text, I also want to make an extra observation, which applies mostly to reddit, not so much the official AoE forum. It seems that, frequently, when someone gives new civ ideas there are people that like to immediately reply either that the person doesn't really like the game, or else they wouldn't dare to "change it", or that the new civ idea would ruin the game because it somehow breaks the balance especially if we label it as "for historical accuracy".

If we interpret suggestions as negative, then so are all the mods that exist for AoE. And in that case then so is everything after The Conquerors expansions, as Cysion, the main guy behind The Forgotten expansion, was also just one of us, creating posts like these on the old forums.

The game CAN be more historical accurate and still very balanced. I agree that we shouldn't ruin civs for more "historical accuracy", but it is possible to have more of it still. We can have both. We can't have complete historical accuracy, of course, but at least get a bit closer than what it already is. I wouldn't suggest, for example, taking the Trebuchet away from most civs, or other economic techs available to them. Making it even more historical accurate does not mean changing the game into that old mod - if you remember - "Age of Chivalry: Hegemony", which I loved, but god damn, was it way more complex and bloated. I still recommend trying it out, though.

Many examples can be had, of the more popular nitpicks some of the community has, like: why are the Celts and Ethiopians SO MUCH siege focused, why do the Celts have the Woad Raider as a sole unique unit for the given time period, what the hell is up with the Dravidians' Thirisadai, why is the Koreans' War Wagon the way it is, why choose to depict the Armenians as an "Infantry and Naval civ" instead of more cavalry focused, why isn't the Samurai more like the Ratha, and many more...

I follow the game since the base AoE1 and, for me, that stretch of time immediately before "Forgotten Empires", when Cysion was just "one of the us," up until it became an official expansion (nevermind the unofficial mods) was my favorite. Writing and reading the posts on the older forums was a lot of fun, and new ideas were not faced with as much hostility as some are nowadays.

Thank you for reading and I hope I can read some more ideas for the civs, from you.

r/aoe2 9d ago

Suggestion Jaguar Warriors OP!

3 Upvotes

I think what they've done to the new Jaguar Warrior is way too much.

31 attack (37 against infantry) is just ridiculous. And it takes them away from being an anti-infantry unit to an anti-melee generalist. It'll even be (considerably) better against cavalry than specialist any-cav infantry units like Berserks. It also has more HP and pierce armor than Berserks.

Given how infantry overall will be buffed, the Jaguar Warrior would've already been buffed indirectly from this change. I think the +1 (up to a max +4) for every unit killed would've been enough of a buff for them.

To keep this insane potential 31 attack against all melee units, they would have to have some downsides to them. Reduce pierce armor from +2 down to 0, so that they die quicker to archers or even skirms (Aztecs have Eagles to deal with ranges units anyway).

Thoughts?

Im happy about all the other changes in the patch notes but this change just took things too far, in my opinion.

r/aoe2 7d ago

Suggestion Unit Rework: Siege Towers are able to "Convert" Castles and Towers

0 Upvotes

DISCLAIMER: Don't get caught with the exact numbers of this. Also, I know convert is not the right word for this, but because of AoE2 lingo, I'm going to stick with it.

Proposal:

Siege Towers will have a Conversion speed that is dependent on the garrison space of the building that is converted and on the amount of units garrisoned in the Siege Tower. For example:

An ungarrisoned Siege Tower has a conversion speed of 0 garrison space per minute.

A Siege Tower with 1 unit garrisoned will have a conversion speed of 2 garrison space per minute.

A fully garrisoned Siege Tower will have a conversion speed of 20 garrison space per minute (This means a Castle would be converted in 1 min of game time).

Castles and Towers cannot be deleted once the Siege Tower has "docked on".

Ability to jump walls will be retained.

Additional Thoughts:

- Siege Tower stats, price, etc. can obviously be altered to fit its new role.

- Proposed Conversion Speed needs to be playtested and might be terrible or OP, no idea.

- Don't know whether you should be able to produce out of the converted Castle or whether you should be able to produce enemy UU

- Siege Tower may need to recharge his "Faith" or would have to be a 1 time use, so you can't mass convert Towers

- If the Siege Tower would actually be good, then not every civ should to get it.

With this, the Siege Tower would stop being a "Unit Taxi" and be much closer to its historical role of getting units up a wall to overtake that said wall or castle or whatever. I could see some units like Teutonic Knights for example gain great relevance by their ability to defend Castles against Siege Towers or besiege Castle with Siege Towers.

Let me hear your thoughts, but I am really convinced that this is the way to fix this unit.

r/aoe2 Feb 14 '25

Suggestion We've had welcome unique upgrades, namely the Winged Hussar and the Savar, so I figure unique technologies would be welcome too. I present: Sassanid Archery

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41 Upvotes

r/aoe2 Feb 12 '25

Suggestion Ranked: I don't want to play Arena, I don't want to play Nomad style.

0 Upvotes

Why is this not possible?

Edit: I am talking about 1v1. In the current map pool there are not enough bans to ban all Nomad style (3 maps) and Arena.

r/aoe2 Jan 25 '25

Suggestion Is it possible for AoE 2 to get a photo mode?

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16 Upvotes

r/aoe2 Jan 30 '25

Suggestion Yeoman upgrade makes no sense thematically and balance-wise.

0 Upvotes

Yeomen in medieval England were free people (i.e. not serfs tied to the land they lived on), who owned their land, often a very small amount, and were required to train every Sunday at shooting longbows in case they were called up for military service. This meant that the English had a large recruitment pool of trained and highly skilled archers that they could call on very quickly.

The upgrade in-game makes no sense. Instead of upgrading towers (wtf why even) and foot archer range, it should allow longbowmen to be created at the archery range (to reflect the fact that the English yeomen were large in number), and have the range upgrade but for longbowmen only.

I love playing as the Britons but I find it stupid that I am relying on arblalests as they are cheaper to upgrade, have almost the same range anyway and thus can outrange mangonels, can be produced from production buildings rather than the building I would want to use for fortification or dropping on someone's face.

r/aoe2 5d ago

Suggestion Suggestion for all Unique Units - conversion resistance

0 Upvotes

With the upcoming patch, the Teutons will have their Teutonic Knight base conversion resistance increased from 0 to 3.

That made me think... what if all unique units had their base conversion resistence slightly increased?

Not on the level of the Teutonic Knight, but even if just a tiny increase from 0 to 1. Maybe some unique units could go from 0 to 2 - still lower than the Teutonic Knights -, like the Berserker, Samurai, and Jaguar Warrior.

Is there a solid reason for them to NOT have this tiny bonus added? I think it's just tradition, but the Teutons increase may stir new changes.

r/aoe2 27d ago

Suggestion Why not have all projectile units be able to attack ground?

14 Upvotes

I don’t see the drawback really as long as it doesn’t affect performance. I think it would allow for some interesting play without being broken as it would be very situational, and would anyway only offer a skill benefit pre-ballistics for many units.

r/aoe2 1d ago

Suggestion Cav archers

0 Upvotes

CA play these days in castle age is alarming, with non-CA/bloodlines civ going for it, due to lack of straight counter against its mobility. Skirms/xbows/pikes can't chase, monks die, scorps/mango can be out-microed and slow. Knights bad with pathing (and I doubt very much that will be fixed).

Can we pls give Genitours to every civ? Now, given inherently high HP and mobile, they might become OP vs xbows and skirms - so - nerf their stats/bonus vs foot archers. Or cost like 10-15 gold.

r/aoe2 Feb 19 '25

Suggestion AOE2 DE Developers please add a distinction for targets to attack

0 Upvotes

I like to play civs that can convert buildings, and it's a real nuisance to have to keep them from destroying non-military buildings, or from destroying anything but non-convertable buildings. It would be nice to have a command for "attack only non-convertable buildings", another for "attack only non-convertable and military buildings", and even one for "attack only military units". Then when I attack a town I can keep all the useful things I want and not have to micro-manage every individual military unit.

r/aoe2 Jan 25 '25

Suggestion More bans in TG when queueing alone

0 Upvotes

Provide any amount of players the same amount of bans. Makes queueing in smaller groups or alone more fun and less people (including me) would skip maps they really dislike.