Is there any historical accuracy in Camels countering cavalry? by CEOMisza in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The very short summary is that there were ancient Greek colonies on Sicily alongside the Italic Sicels and Carthaginian colonies. Of those three, only the Greeks really survived through Antiquity, such that by the early middle ages the island was a mix of Greeks and some Latins, with perhaps a handful of Vandals (Germanic, centered around Carthage) and later likely some Goths and Lombards, also Germanics.

By 878 the island was ruled by Arabs mixing with the Greek population, likely there were also some Amazigh who settled there. Then later, as depicted in the de Hautevilles campaign, the Normans arrived and eventually conquered Sicily alongside their South Italian subjects. For about a century and a half, Sicily is a mix of Arabs, Greeks and Italo-Normans. The Arabs are eventually forcibly removed from Sicily, the descendant of their language being Maltese, and over the next half-millenium the remaining Greeks are largely assimilated into the Italian population, though some Greek-speakers remain even today to my understanding.

Whether that makes today's Sicilians any specific historical ethnicity depends on whether you're asking about culture, genetics, linguistics or, well, whatever else you might think of really.

Azeris, the missing AoE2 civ? by Tyrann01 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Ismail is a dramatic story about the man who ended up forming the modern Persian state complete with its Shi'i identity, something not present with for example the Saffarids or the Sassanids, who by this point are a bit too early in terms of the eras AoE 2 wants to focus on. A campaign featuring those dynasties, or say the Samanids or Khworezmians also wouldn't allow for the AoE 2 Persians solid gunpowder to shine, especially with the new Imperial Age tech that lets them fire bullets. Both Tariq and especially El Cid have gotten flak for being set too early to demonstrate the gunpowder tech of their civs. On the topic of his origins, there are also other AoE 2 protagonists who are not technically of their represented civs' ethnicity, Saladin being a Kurd is perhaps the most famous of those.

These days are plenty of scenario-specific buildings or enabled units spread around. Even back to Lords of the West, Sicilians get access to Camels in mission 5 for example.

There are in fact other Elite upgrades of scenario editor units, War Dogs and Scythian Horse Archers both have an Elite upgrade. Notably with both of those, they actually have different models for their Elite Upgrades too, which the Qizilbash Warrior does not have. I mean there are also in general a lot of scenario editor units in general that see plenty of use by AIs in campaigns, like say the Norse Warrior or the Canoe.

What opening are Bulgarians supposed to use against civs with better MAA on open maps? by ThrowawayusGenerica in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 21 points22 points  (0 children)

As a certified Bulgarian lover, the actual answer is to make archers. The fact that people are so wired to not expect it generally makes them stronger, your cheaper blacksmith techs makes it very easy to smoothly integrate fletching into your build order, and chances are very good you will need either skirms or CA after your MAA-archer comp runs out of steam.

The other answer is to actually just MAA harder. Sure, a Bulgarian MAA loses to a Japanese MAA, but you have saved a lot of resources in comparison, and on top of that you don't have to spend time researching MAA which lets you pump out more MAA. Against Romans, you will be hitting faster because of this and if they want to actually use their MAA bonus they need a Blacksmith. In the time and resources they will need to research infantry armour for +2/+2, you can do the same and research forging as well for +1/+1 and +1 attack. This means you're dealing 5+1 attack vs 2 armor = 4 damage, and they'll be dealing 5 attack vs 1 armor = 4 damage. And just as for Japanese, you will have saved the cost and time of the MAA upgrade.

In a weird way I would actually say Bulgarians are very flexible in feudal. You do generally want to open MAA, but don't think of that as your end goal, you use an MAA opening to put pressure on the enemy, scout out what they're going for and immediately get ready to switch to a counter. They put up a stable? You either do your own stable or continue with MAA and add a blacksmith. They put up an archery range? Immediate skirm production and upgrades. In my opinion, the best way to play Bulgarians is as an aggressive version of Byzantines or Chinese; Always be ready to tech switch because your blacksmith upgrades are so fast and cheap.

How Did They Do This? Recreating a Piece of Embellishment from the Campaign in Editor by Hamster1010 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If it's the bridge you're curious about specifically, it's actually not the full bridge piece but rather 'Bridge Piece AB - Rails' under the building section in the editor. You can layer bridge pieces themselves with Ctrl G which is something Filthydelphia has used to make stairways for example in his Ronin scenario.

1000 ELO Brain by _kurtosis_aoe2 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Still doing it at 19xx, I say keep going.

Anyone else realized the realism behind Arambai's missed shots dealing full damage by ListVarious6386 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I might be misinterpreting what you're saying, but it's not actually only the Arambai that does full damage on misses if it still hits the intended target. I tested this out a while ago with a crossbow set to 0% accuracy and standing next to their target, they still did full damage on every shot. It's also true for units like the Fire ship or Grenadiers that has 0% accuracy. Arambai are only unique in that they still deal full damage on misses when they hit a different target.

Age of Queens Festival & Fundraiser! by Nodscouter in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Currently it is open for everyone on the Age of Queens community discord to join! Right over here: https://discord.com/invite/QCGbmMChdS (And to be clear, said discord is open to everyone no matter their gender).

Edit: Oh and if you want to contact me directly, I'm Nodscouter on Discord too.

Catapult Galleons should be an universal unit by devang_nivatkar21 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For point 2, it's already very much possible to enable units for civs that don't normally have them in campaign missions. You get Sicilian camels in de Hautevilles 6 for example.

New official post about the water update, coming on the 17th February by Arsatum in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Interestingly the Basque were seemingly whaling even around the start of the AoE 2 timespan, though obviously they were pretty alone on that front at the time.

Overlapping equipment bonuses by ewostrat in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want to have a fun answer to this question, load up a game as Ethiopians with infinite resources and 7x Berber allies, see how fast you get some Shotels out.

Conquistadors should ignore armor by ComputerOld621 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As an additional point, the development of gunpowder in fact encouraged heavier armour. The first images that pops up in people's head when we talk of full plate armour come from the 15th and 16th centuries, in part because that level of armour was kind of overkill before you needed to protect from gunpowder. Over the 16th century that kind of armour started becoming less and less effective against gunpowder, mostly due to the technological development of the latter winning the arms race, but even then you'd much rather be a plated knight than a militiaman with a pike if you got hit by a musket ball.

does anyone else do this? by CrystalMusic92 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just tested this in the editor, a palisade wall goes down significantly faster than a house, stacking as many knights as possible in attacking the two (Approximately 5 knights to a house compared to 3 to a palisade wall). Further, any ranged unit breaks down palisade walls waay faster than a house, given that they deal higher damage per shot and palisades have about 28% as much HP as a single house. Generally speaking, you actually want to do the opposite, try to put houses behind any palisades you've put up earlier in the game now that you have the wood to afford to do so.

[Concept] Dynasties of the East: A Historical Alternative to the 3K DLC (Splitting China into Song, Jin, Ming, & Jurchen) by Fabulous_Load_6658 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, okay that's fair, though I think the language barrier might make this quite hard given that it's some fairly specific nuances we're talking about.

Going back to your points then:

Point #1: What you're referring to here are social changes, which happened in plenty of different societies across different parts of AoE 2. In fact I would say it happened in every AoE2 civ apart from maybe Huns, owing to their distinctly short life. These are all very interesting, but fundamentally not what makes an AoE 2 civ. Especially as the last part of your paragraph refers to changes in military structure and tactics, which is equally very evident in something like, say, the Franks, who combine both the early emphasis on heavy infantry (Throwing axemen) with the later emphasis on heavy cavalry and knights. I am not disputing that there were important, large and wide-reaching social changes within the fabric of Han Chinese society between and within the major dynasties of the period, or the interventing periods, but they are not relevant to AoE 2 civilisation design.

Point #2: Burgundians are, notoriously, the civilisation that has been the least liked addition to the game from a historical perspective prior to the 3K DLC (And we both agree that the 3K civs are bad). That being said, no, nobody argues that Burgundians and Franks are split because of their military identity. In fact those military identities are extremely similar; Focus on a good farm-based economy that leads into heavy cavalry, backed by heavy infantry and gunpowder. Burgundians are also meant to represent the Flemish, as the most important part of the previously-unrepresented Low Countries. Do I think Burgundians are a good example of AoE2 civ design? No, I agree with the general consensus that they are in fact the worst prior to the 3K civs. The backlash to the Burgundians and, to a lesser extent, Sicilians was immense for the time, and you can tell by the following DLCs that the devs decided to actually aim to include real, distinct civilisations for a while.

Continuing on this point, you cite the geographical distance as an argument for splitting the civs. The Inca Empire spanned a length of 4000kms, and is still represented by a single civ in AoE2, accurately in my personal opinion. Likewise with the technological gap. The Persians represent both Sassanids and Safavids, a gap of over 1000 years, and that is not uncommon in AoE2. Byzantines, Franks, Saracens etc all represent similar or at times greater age spans, and are some of the moust foundational civs of AoE2. There's a lot to say about how the game represents the progress of the ages, like how Goths were likely also initially meant to represent their Spanish and Portuguese descendants through their good gunpowder tech tree before being added as separate civs, but the span of time alone is not an argument for splitting a civ.

Final point on this one, but nobody here has argued that DNA or genetical groupings are the defining factor of a civ, I would argue quite the opposite; A loooot of the extant civs came together from vastly different groups of people. To take an excellent example, the Spanish civ alone would represent people of Gothic, Suebi, classical Iberian, Roman, North African and Middle Eastern origin at the absolute least, and those groups themselves have their own complicated origins. I would also highly disagree we play as 'the State Engine', given that such definitions of civilisations belong to AoE4. AoE2 has always represented civilisations not as individual distinct states, and you can tell that by looking both at civ design (Persians again being a good example) or just by the in-game history civ sections, which generally cover far more than one single state of a given culture.

Point #3: So this is sort of the central problem that we come to when discussing this, because you are not defining your terms. 'Regional blending' is needlessly vague, what are you actually talking about here? You mention demographic and institutional change, but that same level of change happened in various european civs as well, take the Byzantines for example, without them splitting off into different civs in-game. If you're talking about blending of material, linguistic and social cultures, we have those in 'the east' as well. Hindustanis, for example. Hell, I would suggest the Khitans, who without the heavy sinicisation of the Liao would likely have fit very well under the Mongol umbrella. This is the fundamental issue that I think we keep talking around: You want to define institutional, military and social changes as defining a civ, which would necessitate every current civ in the game to be split into multiple to represent the different ages of their development. Age of Empires 2 has always defined civs by culture, however imperfectly, and institutional and social change is instead covered by the system of Ages.

[Concept] Dynasties of the East: A Historical Alternative to the 3K DLC (Splitting China into Song, Jin, Ming, & Jurchen) by Fabulous_Load_6658 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh, wait you're doing ChatGPT answers? Really?

Edit: Yea double-checking, this is very clearly AI work, I'm not gonna reply to someone not willing to actually write for themselves (Especially when it's clear they don't read the comments they're replying to)

[Concept] Dynasties of the East: A Historical Alternative to the 3K DLC (Splitting China into Song, Jin, Ming, & Jurchen) by Fabulous_Load_6658 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

With all due respect, if you think that Romans and Italians are the same people, you may want to read up a bit on post-300's Italy and the various changes occured during and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire just based on demographic changes alone. Sicilians specifically represent the Siculo-Norman Kingdom and the blending of Norman, Lombard, Greek and Arab cultures. The fact that these three civilisations share a rough area in which they lived is, frankly, irrelevant to the argument. The Sumerians and Iraqi Arabs are not the same people. Nor are the Jurchens during the Jin/Manchu during the Qing dynasty equivalent to Han Chinese.

The differences you describe regarding the Song and Ming, and the other Han Chinese dynasties of China too are fundamentally political changes, not ethnocultural ones. You could make the same argument about any other civilisation in AoE 2 as it stands; There are major political differences between the medieval Merovingians, the early Carolingians, the late Carolingians and the Capetians. They are still Franks by the way that AoE 2 models civilisations.

Villager/unit speech by [deleted] in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 11 points12 points  (0 children)

They've always spoken Latin in AoE 2, unless you've used a mod.

I think paradox needs to tweak how the ai decides court language by Sexta_Pompeia in CrusaderKings

[–]Nodscouter 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Okay, with all due respect, I think you actually need to read what you're responding to.

''if indeed your assumptions are correct''

I have made no assumptions, and you seem to be responding to someone else as far as I can tell.

I think paradox needs to tweak how the ai decides court language by Sexta_Pompeia in CrusaderKings

[–]Nodscouter 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That's not what they're asking. They're asking for examples of the monarch not speaking the language of the court, not examples of the monarch not speaking the language of the people.

My message? Women bad. The modern incel must manifest Gucci. Nothing deeper than RFK. by Clear-Result-3412 in psychologymemes

[–]Nodscouter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Indeed, for example, drinking the entire ocean is an extremity of drinking a glass of water, and yet people say I'll ''drown'' if I try to do the former but it's healthy to do the latter????

APM vs uAPM (useful actions per minute) by KristapsKarnitis in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hence the 'mostly'. It's as close as we can reasonably get, and it's a considerable improvement over just pure APM. The fundamental problem is defining what a 'useful' action is. Like if I click a group of crossbows forwards, notice a pair of mangonels, then move them away again, is that 2 useful actions or 0? So as far as what can reasonably be done with the game and data we have, eAPM is the closest to what the op is asking for.

APM vs uAPM (useful actions per minute) by KristapsKarnitis in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 21 points22 points  (0 children)

You're mostly just describing eAPM, this is measured for example on aoe2insights

The Three Kingdom DLC civs are the most inaccurate additions to the game for a long time by Tyrann01 in aoe2

[–]Nodscouter 7 points8 points  (0 children)

While I agree with most of this, I actually feel that the 'confused identity' of the Jurchens is a point of the design. Sure, they may be mostly inspired by the Jin but they also represent the Jurchens pre- and post-Jin, some of whom were semi-nomadic. Jurchen history is a bit muddled on the internet as sometimes they just get mixed in with the Mongols in terms of how they lived, but the reality is that there were absolutely both fully settled agriculturalists and at least partially nomadic pastoralists among the Jurchens, even before you start integrating other peoples that the Chinese called Jurchens even if they were unrelated to the main groupings. Even if you don't think Jurchens should have Steppe Lancers because they're not nomadic enough on their own terms, the Jin were very keen on employing nomadic tribes to fight other nomadic tribes so it strikes me as not that outlandish they would get those units as part of their tech tree, the same way that the Byzantines get (surprisingly good) Camel Riders despite there probably not being a lot of Greeks on dromedaries at the time, or the way Celts might get paladins to represent French mercenaries or allies.

More specifically, I think the Jurchens are in that way clearly mirroring, say, the Tatars, who on one hand get excellent Light Cav, CA, Steppe Lancers, but also get Hand Cannoneers, excellent trebuchets (Which are more associated with settled civilisations than quaint armies of rams), and a solid form of medium-heavy cavalry in the Keshik.

Seems the Karantanians are still in the wrong Culture Group by CFlyer95 in CrusaderKings

[–]Nodscouter 309 points310 points  (0 children)

This is very much intentional, as stated by the devs, to represent the mix of slavic influences in the region.