This article is about the building in Age of Empires. For the building in other games of the series, see Dock. |
ā | Used to build and upgrade fishing, trade, transport, and war vessels. | ā |
—In-game description in the Definitive Edition |
The Dock is an economic and military building in Age of Empires. It is available in the Stone Age once the Town Center is built.
Docks can build and upgrade naval units, and are the destination points for naval trade.
Trained ships can be garrisoned inside the Dock by setting the building's rally point to itself. Once a ship is ejected, it cannot be regarrisoned.
Gameplay[]
Uniquely, Docks must be built on water, and in specific locations: alongside a shoreline, and not in deep water.
In Return of Rome, Docks are deposit points for shore-fishing Villagers. Villagers catch fish faster than ships do - in fact, Villager shore-fishing has a faster gather rate than any other food source in the game. Dock communities of Villagers along the shore and Fishing Boats in deeper water can form the core of a boom economy.
Docks can also yield gold via naval trade, although the exact mechanism has changed in different versions of the game.
Primarily, though, Docks are the training building for all naval units:
- Fishing Boat/Ship: a non-combat unit that collects food from fish. In Age of Empires, there is no water equivalent to farming, so when all the sources of fish in a body of water are depleted, the Fishing Boats no longer have any use and can be deleted.
- Trade Boat/Merchant Ship: a non-combat unit that collects gold by travelling to/from another player's Dock.
- Light/Heavy Transport: a non-combat unit used for carrying land units across bodies of water. If the Transport is destroyed, all units inside are lost; any Artifacts they carry will appear on the nearest shore.
- The Scout Ship line: the primary warship, these fire arrows, with damage and durability far beyond most Archery Range units. The Trireme final upgrade instead fires ballista-style projectiles, which are slower but deal more damage.
- Catapult Trireme/Juggernaut: the only naval siege unit, whose slow projectiles damage anything near the impact site (friend or foe), and deal extra damage to buildings. They are somewhat long-ranged if the faction has access to Engineering, but even the Juggernaut can't match the reach of a land Catapult. Unlike Catapults, though, they completely ignore armor, making them particularly effective against Centurions and Cataphracts if the defender isn't paying enough attention to dodge the projectiles.
- Fire Galley: the only naval melee unit, faster than other warships and dealing massive damage. It is an effective counter to all naval units and coastal buildings.
Trade[]
Naval trade means to send trading vessels to another player's Dock to acquire gold, which the ship deposits back at their own Dock.
The further the distance between the two Docks, the greater the gold yielded. This doesn't take into account obstacles to movement, so a nearby Dock with a direct route could possibly yield more gold over time than a distant Dock along a winding river. But if both routes are direct, +100% distance with a Merchant Ship yields approximately +62% average gold per second, so in most cases the longer route will be more profitable. The exact amount of gold per distance changes with the map size, and in most cases the yield is far lower than a Villager at a Gold Mine. Short distances yield 0.1-0.2 average gold per second; only trading from one side of the map to the other can match the gather rate of an un-upgraded Villager (just over 0.5/second).
In Return of Rome, the trading process is greatly simplified and brought in line with Age of Empires II. A trading vessel just visits the other player's Dock and returns with the gold, making it an endlessly sustainable resource, unlike anything in the original game. Trade vessels now automatically deposit gold at the furthest accessible Dock from the target, so they can be trained at a Dock near the target and will return to a distant one for maximum gold yield. Return of Rome also introduces land trade via Trade Carts, and commodity trading at the Market, so there are other non-mining methods of acquiring gold.
In the original and Definitive versions of Age of Empires, naval trade is the only means of acquiring gold besides the exhaustible Gold Mines, and has more caveats:
- The player loses 20 food, wood, or stone when the trading vessel reaches the target Dock; the resource type can be chosen by icons when the ship is selected. (These resources simply disappear, they aren't tributed to the other player.)
- Docks have a special resource called trade goods (depicted by the pot icon to the right). When a trading vessel arrives, it actually collects the trade goods, which are only converted to gold once the vessel returns to its own Dock. Trade vessel missions deplete the trade goods at all of the target player's Docks; they automatically resupply at a rate of 1 per second up to a maximum of 100. Trade missions always deplete 20 trade goods, so if a player is receiving trade missions more often than every 20 seconds, their Docks will be depleted faster than they can resupply, and their trade goods will eventually be reduced to 0. Trade vessels visiting the player's Docks will have to wait for them to resupply.
- Gold yield is always calculated based on the player's nearest Dock to the destination. There is no benefit in directing a trading vessel to return to a more distant home Dock.
The target Dock can belong to any other player regardless of diplomatic stance, or even to a defeated faction. Note that trade only affects the player sending the mission. The target player neither gains nor loses resources in any version of the game.
Units[]
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Unit availability[]
Civilization | All | |||||
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Assyrians | ||||||
Babylonians | ||||||
Carthaginians | ||||||
Choson | ||||||
Egyptians | ||||||
Greeks | X | |||||
Hittites | ||||||
Lac Viet | ||||||
Macedonians | ||||||
Minoans | ||||||
Palmyrans | ||||||
Persians | ||||||
Phoenicians | ||||||
Romans | ||||||
Shang | ||||||
Sumerians | ||||||
Yamato | ||||||
Civilization | All |
Further statistics[]
Building strengths and weaknesses | |
---|---|
Strong vs. | Nothing |
Weak vs. | Everything |
Improvements | |
Hit points | Architecture (+20%) |
Line of Sight | City Watch (+3) Writing (shares Line of Sight with allies) |
Build time | Architecture (-33%) |
Civilization bonuses[]
- Macedonians: Docks are four times more resistant to conversion.
- Phoenicians: Docks have +150 hit points and +4 Line of Sight*.
- Romans: Docks cost -10%.
Team bonuses[]
- Babylonians: Docks are built 10% faster.
- Choson: Docks have +2 Line of Sight.
- Minoans: Docks cost -20%.
- Palmyrans: Ship upgrades at the Dock and technologies benefiting Docks are researched 30% faster.
Changelog[]
Age of Empires[]
- Docks have a work rate of 200% in the Bronze Age.
The Rise of Rome[]
- The Fire Galley can be produced at the Dock.
Definitive Edition[]
- Docks have a work rate of 170% in the Bronze Age.
Return of Rome[]
- Team bonuses added:
- Babylonians: Docks are built 10% faster.
- Minoans: Docks cost -20%.
- Palmyrans: Technologies at and benefiting the Dock are researched 30% faster.
- Villagers gathering Shore Fish can now deposit fish at Docks.
- Phoenicians: Docks have +150 hit points and +4 Line of Sight.
- Choson (team bonus): With update 93001, Docks have +2 Line of Sight.
History[]
ā | The earliest boats were simply tied up to rocks or trees on shore to take on or drop off cargo or were physically pulled onto the beach. Later, wooden structures were built out into the water to facilitate loading and unloading. Docks were also safer for ships because ships could avoid being beached, which strained the hulls and increased leaking. When the dock was extended beyond the shallows, even larger ships could be tied up, farther improving efficiencies. | ā |
—Age of Empires manual |
Gallery[]
Buildings in Age of Empires | |
---|---|
Civilian buildings | |
General | House Ā· Temple Ā· Government Center Ā· Wonder |
Economic | Town Center Ā· Dock Ā· Storage Pit Ā· Granary Ā· Market Ā· Farm |
Unconstructable | Aqueduct Ā· Army Tent Ā· Barricade Ā· Chain Ā· Colosseum Ā· Granary Ā· Great Pyramid Ā· Hut Ā· Monument Ā· Pyramid Ā· Ruins Ā· Trade Workshop Ā· Yurt |
Military buildings | |
Production | Barracks Ā· Archery Range Ā· Stable Ā· Siege Workshop Ā· Academy |
Tower | Watch Tower Ā· Sentry Tower Ā· Guard Tower Ā· Ballista Tower |
Wall | Small Wall Ā· Medium Wall Ā· Fortified Wall Ā· Small Gate Ā· Medium Gate Ā· Fortified Gate |
Unconstructable | Mirror Tower Ā· Zenobia's Tower |