Age of Empires 2 Remake

Age of Empires 2 Remake Idea

Age of Empires 2: Age of Apple Dough

3 Ages

 * Dark Age: Equivalent to AoE2's Feudal Age.


 * Feudal Age: Equivalent to AoE2's Castle Age.


 * Imperial Age: Equivalent to AoE2's Imperial Age.

Defenses
Defenses will overall be easier to construct in the Dark Age and Castle Age due to new sources of stones. Murder Holes will no longer be necessary, as all towers will start with the ability to defend themselves from units at their bases.

The goal is to allow players to construct a real city before the Imperial Age, when siege weapons become extremely powerful.

Resources
No new resources but several new sources of income.


 * Ruins: Ruins will randomly be placed on the map and there will be two near the player's starting Town Center. Ruins are a very fast source of Stone and essentially function as one big block of stone as opposed than the isolated, single-tile stone mines. In real life, towns were frequently founded near older towns and people would strip old ruins for use in new buildings. When Castles are destroyed, they will leave a ruin with a portion of the stone used to build it intact.


 * Monasteries and Markets: Monasteries and Markets will slowly generate gold but to a limited amount. Say only the first four Monasteries built will generate some gold income. A Market will generate a small amount of gold based on your current population, and only one Market will do so. Players will be able to research techs that will increase this gold trickle. Both buildings will retain their Relic and Trade Cart functions, but players can trade with themselves at a fraction of what they would get trading with allies.


 * Trees: Trees will regenerate after a long time, but players can click on used tree stumps and "uproot" them, preventing them from regenerating. Trees that have been hacked down will be "tagged" by the player's villager starting from when the Villager "kills" the tree and can gather from it. An enemy player will have to actually move a Villager into LoS around downed trees to tag it for themselves, and then they can create buildings on top or click on them to uproot them. This is to prevent early Scouts from finding an opponent's base and taking away their trees closest to their Town Center, thus heavily hampering their efforts.

Castles

 * Castle Costs and Customization: Castles will be individually customizeable and start off as cheaper. Several techs will be available for research at a Castle and they will only affect the individual Castle itself. For instance, a Hoardings-like tech that gives the particular Castle +1000 HP will cost about 75 Food and 75 Wood compared to the old Hoardings 400 of each resource. Holding Shift will research the tech for all Castles, and take away the appropriate number of resources.


 * Examples of New Castle Techs: "Turret," which would be researchable up to 4 times per Castles and allow the Castle to fire an additional arrow. "Star Fort" would be a drastic change that allows the Castle to fire Bombard Tower like cannonballs.


 * Aesthetic Changes: Individual Castles will change aesthetically to reflect their unique improvements and can be named by the player.

This change is to encourage the players to build multiple Castles throughout the game, and thus allow the player to use their Unique Units more often.

Monks

 * Healing Change: The main change to the Monks' gameplay is to reduce their micro management. Monks will heal all units in a small range around them at a much slower rate than AoE2.


 * Conversion Change: Monks will also have stances, and an aggressive stance will cause them to convert units in their LoS automatically. Monks will also have a change in their conversion ability. It will no longer be semi-random like in AoE2, but will take the same time each conversion and also take less time depending on how close the enemy unit is to the Monk.


 * Building Conversion: Monks will gain the ability to convert buildings without research. They can convert defensive structures at a range, especially Castles.


 * Castle Conversion: 1 Monk will take about 2.5x as long to convert a Castle as a single Bombard Cannon needs to destroy one. A player will be able to counter-convert and slow down the conversion with their own Monks, but their own Monks must do so while at the base of the Castle.


 * Monk Uniqueness: Furthermore the Monastery techs will be expanded somewhat and players can upgrade Monk armor, pierce armor, HP, range, and movement speed in increments. Each civ will have their own unique set of technologies. A couple of civs will have overall stronger Monks than certain other civs, but those civs will still retain a niche. For instance, Korean Monks will probably be the worst Monks in the game but will still have more range than any other Monk. Monastery techs will also be alot cheaper overall, even considering the incremental upgrades.

The goal of the Castle conversion is to simulate sieges where besiegers would starve out a fortress and then capture it.

Gathering Point Additions
When queueing Villagers, there will be a paralleling set of icons that show where each Villager is heading to. Players can set it so that Villagers will head to specific places individually. For instance, a player who queues 9 Villagers can set it such that Villagers 1-4 go to a Gold Mine, Villager 5 will head to a Farm foundation, and Villager 6-9 will go to Trees.

Farm Queue
There will be an option at the Mill called "Infinite Queue" which will queue up farms until there are no Wood resources left. If there is no Wood left, Villagers whose Farms get exhausted while Farming will idle until there is enough Wood and then automatically make a Farm.

Military Unit Gameplay

 * Prioritization: Military units will have the ability to specifically target a certain unit type. For instance, Skirmishers can choose to target only Foot Archers. Military units can prioritize up to 9 different unit types and can prioritize them on 9 different levels. Military units can also be ordered to ignore certain units.


 * Maximum Unit Control: The maximum number of units a player can control at once would be raised to 200.

Heavy Infantry

 * Bodyguard (Dark): The equivalent of the Militia line. The idea behind renaming this unit the Bodyguard is that small-time, local rulers would often use loyal bodyguards as their elite forces. These men were the closest thing to a standing army in a Village and were often paid in loot, just like how the Militia in AoE2 line is made using gold.


 * Retainer (Feudal): A Retainer is essentially a Bodyguard but broader in scope. As you advance to the Feudal Age, you will have a bigger city, and in the Feudal Age you'll have multiple Town Centers. The Retainer is a loyal man, a lower-level noble, who is from the further provinces of your territory.


 * Man-At-Arms (Imperial): The Man-At-Arms is usually a lower-level noble or a veteran commoner. Minor nobles usually couldn't afford a mount but could afford the armor and weapons, while a commoner who's survived a few battles could have saved up enough money for those same armaments. This signifies that the Feudal System is in decline, and common men are playing a bigger role in a job usually reserved for the nobility.


 * Champion (Imperial): A Champion can come from any class, as long as he's good at what he does. Money and skill eventually supercedes social standing, which is what the end of the Middle Ages were all about.

Medium Infantry

 * Militia (Dark): A Militia man is somebody who's raised from the peasantry, with little experience and meager weapons. He often just brings his farming equipment. It didn't make sense for the Militia to cost gold back in AoE2, so I renamed the Spearman. This particular Militia would bring his pitchfork, which would work suspiciously similar to a spear...


 * Spearman (Feudal): Now the Militia has a role and specific weapons.


 * Pikeman (Imperial): Halberds and Pikes were different weapons with different uses. It would be nice to include the Halberd somehow but Pikes were just used much, much, much more often.

Light Infantry:

 * Eagle Runner (Dark): An Eagle man who runs around and scouts stuff. He's an inexperienced fighter who can participate in battle but doesn't have a defined role yet. A major change is that the Eagle is available earlier than the equivalent of the Castle Age.


 * Eagle Warrior (Feudal): He's now a full-fledged fighter


 * Eagle Knight (Imperial): The closest translation of the Aztec word is Knight, and this is their name in Age of Empires 3. I am also striving to reduce the use of the word "Elite" and "Heavy."

Foot Bowmen

 * Bowman (Dark): I want a little continuity between Age of Empires I and Age of Empires II, so I renamed the Bowman. Plus with what I have in mind, he needs to be renamed.


 * Composite Bowman (Feudal): The civs with the best Archers tend to be the ones with Composite Bows. Crossbowmen are still in the game though, no worries. This is more accurate than the Crossbows being the top Archer.


 * Recurve Bowman (Imperial): Most civs with strong Archers usually use Recurve Bows.

Skirmishers

 * Slinger (Dark): A Slinger would just be a dude who shows up at a battle with one of the most basic weapons in history.


 * Skirmisher (Feudal): The word Skirmisher implies an actual role on the battlefield.

Artillery Men

 * Crossbowman (Feudal): This upgrades to the Hand Cannoneer. It initially sounds like it doesn't make sense, but Crossbowmen and Hand Cannoneers occupied the same niches in warfare. Crossbows and Hand Cannons were easy to use and massable compared to a Bow, which would take years of training, and most civs who used Hand Cannons and Crossbows would eschew a regular Bow. They were often fired in volleys behind defenses. Crossbowmen are available after researching Crossbow. Crossbowmen would fire forward just like Hand Cannons, but they wouldn't have the stupid random chance missing in AoE2. Crossbow bolts would keep going until they hit something or until they reach their maximum range.


 * Hand Cannoneer (Imperial): Now the trick with this unit line is that Hand Cannoneers are instantly available upon researching Chemistry wether you have access to Crossbows or not. Crossbows would be powerful

Horse Archer

 * Cavalry Archer (Dark): I reserved the word "Archer" for the Cavalry Archer. This isn't really historical or anything, but it makes it really easy for players to differentiate between Bowmen and Archers when talking strategy or in chat between players. Now the thing with the Cavalry Archer is that he has a million different techs that can improve him in small ways. He's one of the few units without any sort of upgraded version, he relies on multiple small techs increasing his abilities until he's useful per age. His range, power, and firing rate is pitiful in the Dark Age,

Elephant

 * Elephant Archer (Feudal): This is going to be a unit common to certain civs like the Eagle. The Elephant Archer's starting cost is ridiculous. The Indians, Khmer, and Malayos will all share a cost reduction bonus which makes the Elephant actually useable. The Persians will have a crazy HP bonus but no cost reduction bonus, while the Chinese and maybe the Mongols and Saracens will have access to Elephants with no cost reduction.
 * War Elephant (Imperial): The upgrade to the Elephant Archer. The old Persian War Elephant is intact though, no worries.

Light Cavalry

 * Scout (Dark): Name changed because he's a regular scout with no real combat role.


 * Scout Cavalry (Feudal): Now he has a combat role.


 * Light Cavalry (Imperial): Now he has a more clear and defined combat role.

Heavy Cavalry

 * Knight (Feudal)


 * Cavalier (Imperial)


 * Paladin (Imperial)

Camel

 * Camel Rider (Feudal): Name changed for continuity with AoE1. A Horseman is not called a "Horse." Early on, Camels were not used for warfare very often and even the Arabs highly preferred the Arabian Horse for their war needs. The implication here is that a Camel Rider was recruited for a vague campaign but with no actual role.


 * Camel Cavalry (Imperial): Now the Camel is a true Cavalry unit with a military role.

Graphics
The game would have a similar 2-D art style of Age of Empires 2. The idea would be to streamline the game's graphics and keep it simple such that 8 player, 1000 population games are possible with no lag.

West Europe

 * Britons
 * Franks
 * Teutons

East Europe

 * Vikings
 * Slavs
 * Magyars

South Europe

 * Byzantines
 * Italians
 * Spanish

West Asia

 * Saracens
 * Persians
 * Turks

East Asia

 * Chinese
 * Japanese
 * Koreans

South Asia

 * Indians
 * Khmer
 * Malayos

Central Asia

 * Mongols: Architecture set is determined by nearest non-Mongol player (ally or enemy). East Asian vs East Asian and East Atlantic civs, West Asian vs West Asian and West Atlantic civs, South Asian vs South Asian and South American civs, and East European vs all European civs. Mongol vs Mongol will result in each getting a random set out of East Asian, East European, West Asian, and South Asian.

West Atlantic

 * Ghana:
 * Bantu

East Atlantic

 * Aztecs
 * Mayans

South American

 * Inca

Cut civs

 * Celts: Can be represented by Britons, gameplay style semi-replaced by Khmer and Slavs
 * Goths: Can be represented by Vikings, gameplay style semi-replaced by Mayans
 * Huns: Can be represented by Magyars or Turks, gameplay style semi-replaced by Ghana and Magyars

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