⚙️ FixAoE2 – General Balance Changes

Summary:
This section lists fixes that change how the game works for every civilization.
It removes unfair mechanics, improves building and unit logic, and fixes problems in combat, economy, and system behavior.
Each point explains the issue, what is changed, and the result in clear mechanical terms.

🪖 Units and Combat Changes

• Battle and War Elephants – Population Cost
Issue: Too population-efficient for their power.
Fix: Battle Elephants now cost 2 population; War Elephants 3.
Effect: Prevents elephant spam and restores proportional population balance.

• Wall and Tower Durability

Issue: Walls and Towers have too little HP, collapse too quickly, and can be rebuilt instantly during attacks.

Fix: Double Wall and Tower HP, adjust cost accordingly, make Walls 2 piles thick and Towers 4 piles in size, increase wall and tower build time by 50%.

Effect: Fortifications become reliable without being abusable through instant re-walling. 

• Naval Range and Damage
Issue: Ships have excessive range and firepower compared to land siege units.
Fix: Reduce ship attack range and damage to match equivalent land siege values.
Effect: Keeps naval combat strong on water maps but prevents ships from dominating land units unrealistically.

• Monks Auto-Convert
Issue: Monks require excessive micro to convert units effectively.
Fix: Enable automatic conversion when enemies enter Monk range.
Effect: Reduces micro load, improves consistency, and rewards positioning over click speed.

• Bombard Tower Damage Type
Issue: Bombard Towers fire slowly and miss moving targets, making them feel weaker than Keeps despite being a higher-tier structure.
Fix: Change attack from 120 pierce → 40 melee (same as Bombard Cannon).
Effect: Bombard Towers now deal proper damage to Rams and siege units, making them a true upgrade over Keeps instead of a situational downgrade.

• Infantry Population Rework
Issue: Infantry units take too much population compared to their combat value, making infantry-based armies weak at pop cap. Halberdiers also lose efficiency, needing two to kill one Paladin while taking equal pop space.
Fix: All standard infantry (Militia line, Eagle line, Fire Lancer, and all Unique Infantry) now use 0.75 population (was 1). Spear line (Spearman → Pikeman → Halberdier) uses 0.5 population (was 1).
Effect: Infantry armies scale better at population limit without altering combat balance. Halberdiers stay denser and cheaper than Fire Lancers (0.5 vs 0.75 pop), keeping their anti-cavalry role while restoring late-game viability to all infantry types.

• Siege Firing Through Buildings (Building Shield Exploit) 

Issue: Siege projectiles can pass through friendly buildings, allowing siege units to attack safely while being untouchable.

Fix: Siege projectiles are now blocked by friendly buildings and walls; siege must step forward into clear line of fire before shooting.

Effect: Removes the one-way fire shield and stops siege from dealing damage while fully protected behind structures. 

• Siege Targeting Logic

Issue: Onagers and Rocket Carts often fire when friendly units are inside the target area, killing allies and preventing coordinated attacks.

Fix: Siege units no longer fire if friendly units are within the target area.

Effect: Prevents self-inflicted losses during assaults and allows coordinated mixed-unit attacks. 

• Onager Attack-Ground Removal

Issue: The attack-ground command lets Onagers pre-aim at approaching cavalry, hitting them with splash damage while avoiding friendly units. This removes cavalry’s ability to counter siege.

Fix: Removes the attack-ground ability from all Onagers.

Effect: Prevents aimbot-style prefire; cavalry can close distance and counter siege as intended. 

• Traction Trebuchet Targeting Mode

Issue: Traction Trebuchets automatically attack units, wasting volleys and reducing building damage.

Fix: Add a Target Mode toggle (Buildings / Units). Default mode is Buildings, which ignores units unless manually targeted.

Effect: Allows players to switch behavior when needed while keeping default focus on structures for efficient siege use. 

• Chinese DLC — Hero Unit Removal

Issue: Hero units add forced micro and clutter battlefield control, even if their effects are strong enough to justify it.

Fix: Remove all hero-type units from Chinese DLC civ rosters.

Effect: Makes battles cleaner to manage and removes the need to give special attention to single units. 

• Siege Pathing Priority

Issue: Rams and Trebuchets often get stuck behind allied siege or infantry, halting movement and wasting population. To clear a path, players must pull back their ranged siege, losing firepower and push momentum.

Fix: Rams and Trebuchets gain movement priority. When they attempt to move or deploy, allied units automatically adjust position to open a path.

Effect: Siege units continuously advance and deploy without manual repositioning. Prevents siege jams and keeps attacks fluid and efficient during large pushes. 

🏠 Economy and Building Changes

• Villager Building Speed Penalty
Issue: Multiple villagers build slower together.
Fix: Remove the build-speed penalty.
Effect: Building with several villagers becomes efficient and logical.

• Wood Resource Supply
Issue: Trees provide too little wood.
Fix: Increase wood per tree.
Effect: Longer-lasting resources and more sustainable long games.

• Wonders – Lack of Functional Benefits
Issue: Wonders only serve as a victory condition.
Fix: Give Wonders small bonuses such as a steady trickle of gold or stone income, or +10–15% population capacity.
Effect: Makes Wonders strategically useful and rewards large-scale investment.

• Building Cost Efficiency
Issue: Buildings are too cheap and can be spammed without meaningful economic penalty. Players can mass Markets or Town Centers and delete them later with almost no loss.
Fix: Increase all building costs by +25%.
Effect: Reduces spam, forces planning before placement, and makes deleting structures a real economic decision.

• House Placement
Issue: Houses can be built anywhere and used as disposable walls. Their scattered placement prevents strategic house raids — when destroyed, players can rebuild anywhere, keeping full population with no positional risk.
Fix: Limit House construction to within the influence radius of Town Centers and Castles.
Effect: Stops house wall abuse, makes housing destruction strategically meaningful, and ties population rebuilding to defended territory instead of spam anywhere on the map.

• Monuments
Issue: Cities lack variety and meaningful decorative structures.
Fix: Add Monuments — unique buildings for each civilization that act as both decoration and a gold source.
There are five Monument tiers, each larger, more expensive, and generating more gold than the previous one.
All Monuments must be built within a Town Center’s influence radius.
Players can construct up to five Monuments in total, one per tier.
Effect: Adds a new passive gold source that scales with city development and makes base building visually distinct between civilizations.

• Independent Gold System (No Team Reliance)

Issue: When gold mines deplete, players depend entirely on ally Markets for gold. If allies are weak or lose their Markets, gold income stops completely.

Fix: Make Gold and Stone Mines infinite and support up to 6 villagers each at normal gather rate. Markets generate gold over time and give extra payout based on trade distance, but total gold income is limited by the Market’s generation rate — adding more Trade Carts only makes collection smoother, not faster. If an ally Market is destroyed, only that route stops — mining continues.

Effect: Each player keeps permanent gold and stone income without needing trade. Team trade becomes a bonus, not a requirement, shifting gameplay back to conquest and expansion.

🌐 Multiplayer and System Changes

• Market Trading Mechanics
Issue: Market trades affect other players’ rates.
Fix: Each player’s Market operates independently; rates gradually revert to default values over time.
Effect: Fair, isolated markets; no cross-player price manipulation; prices stabilize after trading pauses.

• Team Resignation
Issue: When a teammate resigns, allies lose resources and population cap.
Fix: Transfer resources to allies and maintain shared population or AI takeover.
Effect: Prevents unfair instant team imbalance.

• Treaty Mode
Issue: Players can build in enemy space during treaties.
Fix: Restrict construction in a neutral buffer zone until the treaty ends.
Effect: Proper enforcement of peace periods.

• Regional Lag and Connection Issues
Issue: Games lag when high-latency players join custom lobbies.
Fix: Add region-based lobby restrictions, visible ping indicators, and allow hosts to block high-ping players.
Effect: Keeps custom games responsive and ensures fair control for all players.

• Transport Ship Capacity
Issue: Transport Ships cannot carry enough units for large-scale landings.
Fix: Increase garrison capacity from 20 → 40.
Effect: Allows full army transfers in fewer trips and supports large amphibious attacks.

• Multiplayer Pause Function
Issue: Players can pause the game in multiplayer.
Fix: Disable the pause function in all multiplayer matches.
Effect: Prevents players from halting the game.

• Auto-Rebuild Lumber Camps
Issue: When a woodline is chopped out, lumberjacks walk long distances before new camps are built.
Fix: When no trees are within 4 tiles of a Lumber Camp, a lumberjack automatically builds a new Lumber Camp near the next woodline.
Effect: Keeps wood gathering efficient without player micro or wasted walking.

• Selection Cap Increase
Issue: Only 60 units or buildings can be selected at once, breaking control of large armies and grouped eco.
Fix: Maximum selection limit increased from 60 → 120.
Effect: Allows players to control full groups without losing part of the command. Improves army micro for massed units and simplifies economy management.