AOE3 Forums

Why do we destroy each others cannons? Back in the day we would kill the artillery man and disable the cannon but after the battle (if we won the battle) we would take the enemy cannons and use them our selfs. If i could modify anything in the game i would modify the cannons. They can only be temperately disabled and not destroyed but in order to use them you have to fix them and they still take the same amount of population. This is an example of how i would do it. A group of muskets take down a cannon. The man that pilots dies  and the wheels fall off, but  the cannon  just sits there. Then you must take one of you muskets or light infantry units to replace the old cannon operator and pay 200 wood to fix the cannon and boom you have a cannon.

What do you guys think and what would you guys do to the game if you could modify it. Lets try and keep balancing of units and CIVs out of this thread. 

Thats sound pritty cool to me.  I like that idea.

How about you can cature some units and make them your own.

Friendly fire:

That now if you fire from any weapon, you can also attack your teammate, accidentally or not, because it seems kinda unlogic to me, that if a cannon ball fires to 5 units, and it just affects to 1 because its enemy.

Also, that now units cant fire through walls, just through gates. And if a gate its open, anyone can pass, this would be really cool usign such units like spies. 

I'd add more hills. Troops on top of the hill will have more LOS and an attack bonus against soliers below them and a speed bonus when charging down the hill. Soldiers on the bottom of the hill will have less accuracy when firing on soldiers on top and a speed penalty going up.

I like the hill mechanic, I don't think there's ever been a time in warfare where being on a hill was a bad thing. I also agree with the friendly fire stuff. Not so much for muskets, but for cannon.

I can accept that the game would not be very interesting if you couldn't send halberdiers in because your muskets would shoot them in the back. But cannons are a little different. Kind of silly that a cannon can hit one guy and not hurt the guy right next to him. (just because he's allied) most games make artillery do FF damage. Kind of a double-edged sword.

Completing Rico's idea, this could be used for cannons, horses and even buildings

for cannons you need some infantry units to take it and they would also take damage(the cannons, or else you'd end up with lots of them, or repaired cannons wouldn't be as good as new ones

for horses, maybe you could herd them to your stable and give you a discount on future units, for example, if you take a horse to your stable, and the next hussar you train won't cost 120 food/80 gold but maybe 80 food / 60 gold

and for buildings, you'd have to take vils to the building and you'd pay a little bit to take it, but you'd only be able to take a building if there was no enemy unit nearby on the last 50 seconds or something

dunebug12k:

I like the hill mechanic, I don't think there's ever been a time in warfare where being on a hill was a bad thing. I also agree with the friendly fire stuff. Not so much for muskets, but for cannon. ...

nowadays because you can easily see the people on the hill and snipe at them

Lordbob13:

I'd add more hills. Troops on top of the hill will have more LOS and an attack bonus against soliers below them and a speed bonus when charging down the hill. Soldiers on the bottom of the hill will have less accuracy when firing on soldiers on top and a speed penalty going up.

The only problem that I can see with hills as part of the landscape is the difficulties in building over them in treaty or nomad games. perhaps a better solution would be the option to build a redoubt with villies? It would only cost 100 wood, but would be somewhat like a teepee with a large area of effect. Units on top of the redoubt would gain 2 range and LOS, and have a slight boost to ranged armor if present.

Ways to change the basic idea of a redoubt: Have an overground redoubt (like the one I described) and an underground redoubt (provides a relatively massive boost to ranged armor (Like 50% as opposed to 20%) and features a small wall that must be taken out. Also, only two redoubts can be present on the map at one point, to prevent stuff like teepee spamming and complete map control.

I would like that every building could be garrisoned, If you garrison in a skirmisher, he'll shoot to the enemies but they can't damage him while he stays in the building.

I'd add things to naval battles, correct that thing where ships become ghostly and they go one though other (a user posted a solution for this in this forums)... Friendly fire could be good thing here, If there is a massive battle, maybe a cannonball accidentally hits a friendly ship...

Also I would add people to the deck of the ships, and when there vare troops in the ship and there is a battle with another, the soldiers shoot at them. And If you killed the people managing that ship, you could capture it (navies of the time did that, or no?).

I would add some different kind of ships, modify actual frigate and do a smaller vessel, because thay have about 5 cannons per side, I suppose the admiralls of the era would laugh if you call that a frigate. A basic frigate (2 levels of cannons, 10 cannons per side) and a big frigate, the most costly but the most powerful, but you can only make one, would look like the HMS victory (about 40 cannons per side in 3 levels). Even this would be a poly overkill

I would also like random lighting, like you could get carolina in dusk and in a next game could be almost night. BUT with the sun shining, as always. 

 

1. for ships, it's funny how they only fire one cannon at a time... so, after firing the cannon (in the ship), the cannon will withdraw from sight, reload (possibly abt the time it take for a field gun to reload) then fire the next shot (immediately after reloading). thus, if two shot are fired at the same time, the ship will do twice its base damage. also, they would move while firing those cannons :)
2. one more thing for ships, when u garrison units in them, ranged units will start to shoot the enemy boat during a naval battle (yes, if there are cannons garrisoned, they shoot cannon balls). not forgetting if the enemy ship is close enough to yours, u can order ur units (garrisoned) to board the enemy ship to capture the ship.
   
3. you could also capture units & place them is a cell & after maybe 2 mins, that unit will reveal the parts of the map it has been to (including revealing buildings)
4. when ranged inf go into hand attack, their speed will increase significantly + graphics to show them running.
5. for cannons, horses dont dissapear. instead, if you kill the horse, the cannon will not be able to move as easily as before.
   
6. day & night would be good... day lasts for 3mins, night lasts for 3 mins... smt lyk that
7. forts would be bigger, look lyk a star when upgraded (as mention in a previous thread) & have more cannons :)
8. units can be promoted. example, a normal musketeer with 10 kills plus some coin can be upgraded to maybe a sergeant. this will increase all its stats plus increase a certain stat of surrounding troops marginally.
9. ranged  horses can shoot while moving
10. have this new unit called a general who can relief you from multitasking by organizing ur army (in his LOS which can be upgraded). how ur army is organized will be based on how you normally organize them when you do it urself. example: if you normally take a bunch of musketeers to concentrate their fire on a particular type of unit, they will do the same automatically. also, if you normally use ur calvary to beat down any cannons by by passing the enemy's army, they will also do that automatically. not forgetting if you lyk to do hit & run, they will do that automatically too. the general will be on a horse, sent by shipment in age 4, cost 1000 coin, & can order units to protect it self if you want it to.
    
11. possible you can have an admiral too :) same ideas as the general :)
12. mercenaries... you can bribe ur opponents'...
13. revolution... after half an hour of revolting, u can built a new type of settlers :) there after you can built new units & buildings prior to which politician you revolted with.
    
14. a new set of 5 ages will appear if everyone in the game has been in age 5 for X amount of time. eventually u get the nuke at age 10 :) get the idea?
    

a few ideas listed here have been done in aok and aoc. in aoe2, you could send ur guys through open enemy gates, onagers hurt friendly units, and i think there was speed bonus and reduction for hills. in aoe: the conquers, there was an aztec campaign that let you capture spanish horses, send them back to your stable, and turn them into horses. i think if you used the right triggers, you might be able to recieve a unit at your base for a specific unit you kill, but im not sure.

the thing i would change would be that units can no longer fire bullets through solid objects. it would add more microing if your guys were fighting in the enemy town and you could get ambushed from behind some houses, and would have to move around the houses until you get a clear shot. cannons would be able to fire through some buildings and walls and hit units on the other side.