There has been a lot of debate on balancing RoR over at AOEH the past several months. I personally signed a petition developed by wedsaz and HonoredMule several months ago that asked Microsoft for several changes that included new technologies and units to be added to the game.
I think the petition was on a grand scale, but I feel there are a few key changes that could make more civilizations competitive on more settings. I will list the changes in game play that I feel would make the game a lot more balanced.
The first change I would look at has to do with what is typically used for Bronze warfare. Composite Bowmen and Chariot Archers are the backbone to most Bronze armies. Civs that have neither are at a big disadvantage. I would give Roman the Chariot Archer in Bronze. They have Scythe in Iron therefore could be considered a "Chariot civilization". In fact I would give them the Compie upgrade also, they were dominant in their era and should at least get some options in popular archer warfare in Bronze. I would give Greek, Carthage, and Choson the Composite Bowmen.
I would give the wheel upgrade to all civilizations. Economies with the wheel are at a great advantage with the few that don’t. Persia would be greatly helped by this.
All "gold civs" would get Balista Towers and Helepolis upgrades. This will help compete against the popular Scythe Chariot. Frequently "Chariot Civs" can just wear down "gold civs" with Scythe. Helepolis and Balista Towers would even out the playing field. This impact would be felt in a positive manner I think in DM’s.
I personally think that siege weapons are balanced already. Sure Hittite Heavy Cats are powerful, but there are enough counter units out there to keep them in balance. Hittite's slow economy makes a Hittite player have to be pretty good all through the ages to even have an opportunity to research Heavy Cats, let alone put dozens out on the playing field. Furthermore if you let a Hittite player grow to the point where he can afford to place several Heavy Cats on the field you deserve to die…
I would give Palmy enough food at the beginning to get 7 villagers at the start like every other civilization. Shang was corrected in a patch to get 160 food, so Palmyran should get 300 food at start. This alone should make Palmy more playable.
I would reinstate a stronger woodcutting rate for Phoenician. They are left with a 12% increase, which isn’t anything. Give them approximately 20% (somewhere between past and present) so they can compete with Minoan, Hittite, and Yamato again on water maps.
Infantry could use some help. If Short Swordsmen were available immediately in Bronze with no upgrade, and came with a +1 against missile attack they could be more playable. In a Bronze military field that is dominated usually by speed, Short and Broad Swordsmen are still gonna struggle against Chariot Archers and Composite Bowmen even with the +1 against missile attack. But with the Bronze shield giving them a +2 ttl against missile attacks, Barracks units could become a dominating force in Bronze.
What I would avoid at all costs is changing the overall style of play. Giving a boost to units like Short Swordsmen and Broad Swordsmen that rarely get used would only enhance game play. Players could still do their multiple archery ranges and make a mass of compies/ chariot archers and go on about their business as they always have. But on the other hand, civs that don’t have any archery or siege bonuses could use infantry as their main unit in Bronze with compies/chariot archers as support. Typical weak Bronze civs like Greek, Carthage, Choson (they will all have compies too), and Persia could embrace this new found power to help get them to Iron where they perform better. Having Swordsmen able to compete against archers would force these archer civs to possibly counter with Cavalry.
Popular Zone scenarios could be: I attack with archers (either Compies or CA), you counter with Swordsmen. I counter with Cavalry, and you counter with Camels. With all of the infantry and stable units around siege weapons will have to be used more carefully and sparingly but would still be useful.
Close cheats off of multiplayer totally. Make it 100% impossible to use cheat codes in any way, shape, or form on the Zone.
If possible I would like to see a random map feature similar to random civilizations so players wouldn’t know if they were playing Conti or Hills or Medit, etc. Random Civs, random map would be a lot of fun I think for addicts like myself.
These above changes should only take minimal time from Microsoft to develop a new patch. With minimal time required it would make gaming more fun and balanced without changing the overall style of play that is currently in use.
