New Idea Bring Back the Nonplsyer Units

[Hammurabi the Lawgiver]

Reason

These units were simply fun to have, so it’s an enhancement.

Details

Special Buildins that produce military units would include the nonplayer units found in Brinze Age, Early Middle Ages, and Industrial Age, as the did previously. Producing building must be in one of those three ages to produce nonplayer units from that age.

Balance

No impact on balance

Abuse Prevention

No potential for abuse.

Summary

Restore ability of Special Buildings to recruit nonplayer units as they did prior to introduction of the Welcome Event and the revised early game quests.

Have you looked to see if this has already been suggested?

Yes

Before the introduction of the faster game start with the Welcome Event, Special Buildings that produce military units could produce the three nonplayer units encountered on the campaign map when the producing building was in these specif ages:

Bronze Age - Clubmen
Early Middle Ages - Barbarians and Barbaria Slingers
industrial Age - Braves and Mounted Braves

So a Bronze Age Knights Pavilion would sometimes produce Clubmen.

After the introduction of the current new city start with the Welcome Event, this capability disappeared. Special buildings now never produce these nonplayer units.

Can we have them back please?

 

[Ironrooster]

I vote no.
These units take unit production slots that could go to more useful units. In the early ages not enough units are produced to begin with.

 

[Fury the Avenger]

You can still get them. Just use a knight pavilion!

 

[Thunderdome]

Bronze Age - Clubmen

Never had them.

Early Middle Ages - Barbarians and Barbaria Slingers

Both were useless. Their special ability didn't really stack up when used by the player. They were a pain in the a*se when battling them, though. Maybe Inno broke them.

industrial Age - Braves and Mounted Braves

Probably useless even further.

In the early ages not enough units are produced to begin with.

Speak for yourself, mate, heh heh. I came at a good time to get the Helianthus Arboretum that produced some (heavy) units for the next age while I was in Iron Age on the live server. I'd probably had like 10-15 of those things I got from that one event. But I can understand if said player didn't have those items to begin with and had to rely on their basic building construction and hopefully snagging a 'traz along the way for unit productions.

 

[Hammurabi the Lawgiver]

Comments.

1. I never said that they were GOOD units. I just like having them. Also, the Clubmen use the same graphics as the High Middle Ages Berzerker. I’ve seen players who attacked my city run off at the sight of them, understand the misapprehension that they were totally outclassed.

2. To Fury. Trust me, the Knights Pavilion no longer works to recruit these units, and hasn’t for about 2 years. I even used a reversion kit to boot a Knights Pavilion back to Bronze Age and in over a year it hasn’t recruited a single Clubman.

3. IronRooster, if you don’t have enough units in the early ages something is wrong. Practically every Event now gives buildings that produce units, plus the ones from the Settlement buildings and Emissaries. The distribution of units in each age is random, so for Bronze Age 1/6 of the units produced would be Clumen. In EMA and Industrial Age, nonplayer units averaged 2/7 of the units recruited.

 

[Fury the Avenger]

[...]

Both were useless. Their special ability didn't really stack up when used by the player. They were a pain in the a*se when battling them, though. Maybe Inno broke them.

[...]

The ability does works for players, but it sum very badly with base A/D percentage, because it's is applied after the percentage.
So with a 10 attack barbarian, a 50% A bonus will make it 15. Losing 7 other barbarian would make it 31. But both together would be just 36.
The higher the percentage the less effective it is.

Comments.

1. I never said that they were GOOD units. I just like having them. Also, the Clubmen use the same graphics as the High Middle Ages Berzerker. I’ve seen players who attacked my city run off at the sight of them, understand the misapprehension that they were totally outclassed.

2. To Fury. Trust me, the Knights Pavilion no longer works to recruit these units, and hasn’t for about 2 years. I even used a reversion kit to boot a Knights Pavilion back to Bronze Age and in over a year it hasn’t recruited a single Clubman.

I'm pretty sure I used the knight pavilion less than 2 years ago for EMA barbarian. But I might be wrong. Never tried it for bronze age.

3. IronRooster, if you don’t have enough units in the early ages something is wrong. Practically every Event now gives buildings that produce units, plus the ones from the Settlement buildings and Emissaries. The distribution of units in each age is random, so for Bronze Age 1/6 of the units produced would be Clumen. In EMA and Industrial Age, nonplayer units averaged 2/7 of the units recruited.

The emissaries that give units require multiple iteration of a settlement to unlock.
I think the first one available is on the 5th iteration of the Egypt settlement which can be started only nearly the end of Iron Age.

 

[Hammurabi the Lawgiver]

I view the Emissaries as a byproduct of doing the Settlements for the main building, especially Egypt. You do need to unlock Plowing on the right side of the Iron Age tech tree, but if you follow the shortest path, it’s possible to get there within 2 weeks of starting the city. Then with discipline i can complete one Egyptian Settlement every 15 days. The first one gives you the Level 1 Royal Bathouse that produces one free unit per day, and you don’t need to wait for an Event.

 

[Emberguard]

You can still get them, just not when it's Next Age production. Has to be from Same Age production.