Talk:Elephant Archer (Age of Empires II)/@comment-27726014-20190328190031/@comment-2003:DB:F3D6:1BD2:CC3E:B6B3:89AD:4CD4-20190728140152


 * decrease their pierce-armor and increase their meele-armor; that would be the thing necessary to make them more succeptible to archers, and less so to close-quarter units. Increase damage by most siege-units, also, as a side effect.

I should have added that into the comment above.

Thinking about it: drop the extramage I just suggested against spearman, have them take a bit less extra-bonus-damage (anti-cav) instead; that and a slight increase in HP, good increase in attack (and substantial decrease in accuracy), and the armor-points re-distribution I just mentioned, should make for a much more fun experience. Balance price-tag accordingly... they'd thuse make for a walking tower (a slow moving tank), pricey, and (for maximum efficiency) carrying a combined pop-cost of 4 (boarding archers; see above); giving extra-protection for archers, and building-damage on top of that. & yes: Do dare to flat out GIVE UP the "cavalry-archer" armor-class and categorize them as "siege" instead (why isn't the war-wagon considered siege, btw.? - visually they are much rather in that category, than in that of "cav archers"!). Be bold, and straight forward, putting gameplay over [flimsy] realism.

... yes, EA's are "technically" well categorized as "cav-archers". From a VISUAL standpoint, but NOT for game-play-mechanic considerations (and that makes balancing them such a pain in the you-know-what). They just don't have the advantages of any actual cavalry-archers, like the huge hit-and-run potential. The "more damage but much less accuracy" kind of balances that out a bit, making the space to be bridged (for spearman, e.g.) more meaningful (but... if you think further, and even dare to drop the frame-delay, you could actually almost have an akward species of an actual cav-archer; like a black hole of sorts, where space is being distorted and every tiny bit of space feels more lengthy), as the potential to be hit increases dramatically once you get close to them. But really: just go all in on balancing them and drop the visual prejudice. They are siege-weapons, as the anti-stone-defense damage suggests (how realistic is that bonus, anyway, for a non-siege-unit? - why have it, and not go the extra mile, classifying the unit properly?). Having them be countered by siege-rams would be so much more funny of an engagement, than their laughable weakness against pretty much everything else that they do have to put up with now.

Anyway; as it stands now, I just flat out hate this unit. Most useless weapon in the game (it is in the game just to be in the game. B/c it looks cool. That's it. Gameplay-wise it's a sore). Once you have the resources to be wasting them on these glass-tanks, you may just as well just overpower your enemy by pure force (not giving them the opportunity, to pour out trash-units that make short work of your luxury-unit, to get back in the game the only way he can do, anyway), with a much more useful unit-composition of gunpowder-units and imperial camels...

// thinking about it, I finally feel like genuinely likeing my own idea here.