Disclaimer:



This is just my personal take on how the tech and hero skill systems could be changed for the better.

It's intended to show how things could work differently, not a fix. I haven't crunched the hard numbers!



Tech Tree



I don't believe there's any major issue with the current system. I think it's good. The problem is I believe it could be so much better:

• ages could be more unique (not so much linear upgrades), I like the idea of sidegrades or "upgrades based on you achieving some goals"
• ages could help the game flow along much better; encourage less warmongering early on, encourage warmongering later on when everyone is passive, etc
• dust and upkeep could be much more of a concern, right now there's no reason not to get everything on everything
  
  

I like the idea of having more choices in the era and given the current techs (and that I think some techs should jsut be cut), 5 eras seem like a better number.



Some Major Themes

• Dust is a very limiting factor. There is only ONE dust production building in the entire tree; there are a few dust boosting techs but you have to meet requirements for them. Even the one dust research you can get is a choice with luxuries unless you get it or luxuries for free with the faction.
• There's very little research boosters. You can't just research to get ahead in research you have to build research cities and focus on defensive play.
• Extra food/ind/sci/influe per worker is a generally limited to heroes, not city/tech upgrades. You are encouraged to build a ton more heroes.
• Early game army size bonuses apply only to heroes, to encourage use of mass reinforcement armies (and work with the "always starving for dust" theme).
• Advanced happiness upgrades requires you to reach some city levels or build something like a more advanced districts. You can't just spam all the happiness boosts on a city blindly.
• In Age III you have the choice of removing a lot of the expansion disapproval; at this point the expansion disapproval just prevents expanding and encourages passive play. I believe it's better to error on the side of encouraging players to be active.
• Weapons and Armors (aside from last level) require linear upgrading, no skipping lv1
• There are a few researches to make you choose if you want to build triangles and lines or want to have very natural looking cities.
• You can place watchtowers anywhere (limit of 3) and they work as fortification for armies in area, not just vision.
• Scientific victory is more anti-climatic, as it should be.
  
  

Market Place System Changes



So in the major themes above I mention how dust is a limiting factor. The game balance should error on the side of you being annoyed of not having enough not the other way round. Right now dust as a resource is fairly underwhelming and a large part of this, aside from all the super powerful dust production buildings, is the marketplace. Being able to sell a useless resource and getting 10,000 dust kind of screws that up. The hero and unit sections also have some serious issues in availability (it's easy for players not to play with heroes and mercenaries) and off faction heroes are too easy to get. Selling units is also a little too much.



So before we go into tech tree changes, here's an alternative Market System,



"The Black Market"



Hero & Unit Market

• You can buy heroes from your own faction from age 1, no research required; they cost 25% of what heroes currently cost.
• You can buy units just like now, no cost difference but you can only buy your own faction units or units from friendly minor factions (dont have to be assimilated), if you parley and pacify a village in a region you dont control that faction will be considered friendly to you (this is to encourage more play in gray regions). Pacified villages in your region are always friendly so long as they have 1 village built. The number of villages you pacify influences the number of market units you can get.
• Age III you can research Foreign Legion which unlocks off-faction heroes and purchase of any unit. Foreign faction heroes do cost current cost, so very pricey.
  
  

Strategic Resources & Luxuries

• You have to start an auction for resources; players are notified when you create one.
• You can pick the best offer next turn.
• There's always a mysterious agent that will occasionally buy it from you. They are as predictable as winter (you may have a bid last 10 turns and not get bouth).
• You can auction only strategic resources and luxuries.
• There will occasionally be mysterious auctions popping up from mysterious agents.
• You can also trade luxuries for other luxuries
• You can't directly sell or buy them.
• If you make an auction for some resources you better make sure you're selling good quantity and for a while because anonymous agents really hate buying same thing again (if they even buy it).
• Resources are reserved while auction is happening. You may cancel the auction at any point.
  
  

Age I



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/C61MZj6.jpg





Age II (requires 7 techs)



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/bZJSMZa.jpg





Age III (requires 11 techs)



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/sPSnRQL.jpg





Age IV (requires 9 techs)



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/0zWkQXg.jpg





Age V (requires 9 techs)



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/MrxssOb.jpg





Hero Skill Tree



Problems with Hero Skill Tree & Unit levels

• Experience is broken
• Nobody cares for unit levels
• The advance skill stuff doesn't ever get to apply
• The first choices in the hero tree are boring and commit you for a bunch of levels
• Everyone picks off-faction heroes because why not pick from faction focused on heroes being strong?
  
  

Proposed Alternative System



Heroes gain +1 skill point for every Age. Age 1 they have 1 point. Age 2 they start with 2 points. Age 3 they start with 3 points. If a hero is made in a previous age they get a point when the player reaches the tech age so heroes are never disadvantaged for being recruited early game.



You can get levels on hero for killing armies, conquering cities or training. Nothing else (no building to upgrade hero).

Training costs dust, you activate it and the hero essentially draws from your income to upgrade. 5 turns per skill point, but ever growing cost in dust.



Heroes have 3 era levels: Leader, General, Hero. You need 4 points in one era to be able to put in the next. You also need to be in the era to get access to the era abilities; you're free to save your points if you get 5 points before Era 2 for example.



Eras correspond to Tech Tree eras. There is no 4th and 5th era because those are tech based eras, the art of war is mastered in era 3. Researching players dont get any hero advantage from tech era 4.



Your Hero has 4 categories:

• Administration
• Army
• Map
• Faction
  
  

Each hero starts with random techs in all categories. A hero always gets 1 in every category no matter what, and you can't actually see the abilities he rolled for the next era before you reach the era in tech. Administrator, Army and Map are shared with all Major Factions, but Faction are unique to the faction you are playing. Some abilities will also be limited to only heroes of the same faction as well.



Disclaimer: The following is a very minimal version, ideally there should be twice as many in all categories and a lot more faction specific abilities; this is just an example.



Hero Age I Tech Tree



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/bPLZevG.jpg





Hero Age II Tech Tree



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/KnKPXwb.jpg





Hero Age III Tech Tree



Large Version: http://i.imgur.com/sjjndKV.jpg

Awesome tech tree, it would be great if this was implemented...

Fix'ed a few typos. Added explanation on market and hero system since the explanation inside the tech tree images probably weren't very clear how it differed from current.



Also added some more words on how this system differs in intent over the current one, to make some things easier to follow.



@Kingsguard



Thanks!

Would love to see a better hero tree implemented. This one is pretty decent.

I would definitely appreciate the change to the hero skill trees. Current one forces you to pick tons of trash you don't need. Good job on the tech tree, but it is hard to access how well it would work in game tbh. I would rather iteratively improve on the current one than rebuild everything from scratch.

MANoob wrote:
I would definitely appreciate the change to the hero skill trees. Current one forces you to pick tons of trash you don't need. Good job on the tech tree, but it is hard to access how well it would work in game tbh. I would rather iteratively improve on the current one than rebuild everything from scratch.

I'm sure it's absolutely terrible. Since when has v1.0 of anything been good? For example I forgot about forests. My point is really just to show how it could be different; especially with things like the hero tree.