Even though all are core elements of RTS games, we had the impression the balance was tipped too much to execution rather thanВ tactical decisions. Because of that, flawless execution of a standard build order often meant more than having tactical insight and adapting to your enemyвЂ™s choices. Even though we tried to boost Fire Ships and Demolition Ships in The Forgotten, it didnвЂ™t touch the base problem: there is no counter system in the Feudal Age. Most water maps are decided by who has the most galleys the quickest. Water warfare is a tricky business in Age of Empires II. Last but not least, a lot of the Castle Age unique technologies will see their costs slashed. WeвЂ™re still deciding how exactly theyвЂ™ll change, but expect some powerful Eagle Warriors streaming from the Andes. More specifically to вЂњthe 3 IвЂ™sвЂќ, Italians, Incas and Indians. So, which civs to balance? Overall, weвЂ™re quite happy with the state of the game now, some of the original civs will see changes, but most of the changes will come to the Forgotten civs. This also means that with the release of The African Kingdoms, owners of The Forgotten will also see those new units pop up alongside the new balance changes. Speaking of which, there will be 3 new generic units, twoВ of which will be revealed later in this dev blog. This means, that regardless of the expansion you own, youвЂ™ll see all balance changes and also all new generic technologies and units. All balance changes will be the same in both expansions. With a second expansion coming out, how do we combine this with the first one? What about people who just have The African Kingdoms, will they miss out on the earlier balance changes? A lot of questions to answer, but we picked the most player-friendly one. WeвЂ™re focusing on bringing extra strength to some of the civs that desperately lack it and weвЂ™ll keep the nerfing limited to places where we see no other realistic options.

Which is also the road weвЂ™re taking from now on. Players prefer to see boosts toВ unpopular units, rather than seeing their beloved units being punished directly. However, not all of those changes were as popular. Good starts but in some cases, we couldвЂ™ve gone further.

Huns are nerfed all across the board, Mongol Mangudai arenвЂ™t as completely OP anymore, Aztecs lost some of their early strength and Mayans see their Plumed Archers come at a higher price. But we can try! Looking back at AoF, we wanted to make sure more of the existing civilizations and units would have a chance to shine. And no matter what you do, not 100% of the players will be satisfied by it. While the release date is lurking closer, weвЂ™re hitting the game hard with the balance hammer!В But before weвЂ™re going down that rabbit hole,В letвЂ™s take a look back at The Forgotten expansion, toВ see what we did right and what we did wrong.Д«alance changes always come with the necessary controversy.

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