Changes: Home City

Revision as of 13:02, 7 December 2019

Londonevening — The British Home City, London

A Home City is the capital city of a civilization that delivers economic and military shipments to a player's in-game colony, adding extra functionality to normal gameplay. The Home City concept is a feature first introduced in Age of Empires III.

Overview

Home Cities enable more diverse game-style decision-making, where players can ship a variety of economic, land military and naval-oriented units or technology upgrades. Furthermore, players are also able to customize European Home Cities.

Each civilization has its own unique Home City, the real-life city locations of each are the following:

British: London
Dutch: Amsterdam
French: Paris
Germans: Berlin
Ottomans: Istanbul
Portuguese: Lisbon
Russians: St. Petersburg (St. Basil's Cathedral, located in Moscow, appears in the background)
Spanish: Seville (Torre del Oro, the Spanish Wonder from Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, can be seen in its background)

In The WarChiefs expansion, only the Aztecs have an actual city - the other civilizations are represented through Tribal Councils.

Aztecs: Tenochtitlan
Iroquois: Caughnawaga
Sioux: Hunkpapa

In The Asian Dynasties expansion, the civilizations have:

Chinese: Peking/Beijing
Indians: Delhi
Japanese: Edo

Cards and decks

See Home City Card.

Every civilization has a unique assortment of improvements, units, and resources that are called Cards, which can be sent to the "New World" colony as shipments. The higher the player's Home City level is the more Cards are available for use. The cards are also available by Ages, such as troops start coming in during the Colonial Age while artillery start coming in at the Fortress Age.

There are five categories of cards, represented by a building in the Home City for European and Asian civilizations:

Economic resources
Military upgrades
Building upgrades
Economic upgrades
Naval upgrades and mercenaries

All of the cards for a Home City are put in a group called a deck. A deck can contain 20 cards plus one extra for every ten levels, to a maximum of 25. This forces players to make decisions and to only use the cards they believe to be the most important.

Experience

See Experience.

Experience is the fourth resource added in Age of Empires III.

Cost

Certain cards, such as those of mercenaries, cost a particular resource to account for the greater power of the card. This resource is usually Coin but can also be Wood or Food.

Levels

In the original game, all Home Cities begin at level 1 and are provided with 15 cards. From The WarChiefs onward, Home Cities begin at level 10 instead. As more XP is gained the Home City is able to level up and a new card can be added to the deck. Choosing cards must be done carefully and a certain amount of strategy must be used.

Many cards must be unlocked through reaching a certain level Home City before becoming available. Some cards can also require other cards as prerequisites. Focusing on specific units or technologies minimizes the amount of cards that need to be purchased.

Customization

There are several ways the Home City can be customized so it looks unique from any other player's Home City. Customizations are varied; some provide entertainment to the streets of the Home City (jugglers, artists, drunks...), or even market vendors and nobles. The design the buildings can be modified through the building color, adding "Market Day" flags, etc.

Available only to European civilizations from the vanilla game, customizations are unlocked as the Home City level increases.

@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 All of the cards for a Home City are put in a group called a deck. A deck can contain 20 cards plus one extra for every ten levels, to a maximum of 25. This forces players to make decisions and to only use the cards they believe to be the most important.
-== Cost ==
-Certain cards, such as those of [[Mercenaries (Age of Empires III)|mercenaries]], cost a particular resource to account for the greater power of the card. This resource is usually [[Coin]] but can also be [[Wood]] or [[Food]].
 == Experience ==
+{{See|[[Experience]]}}
-Experience is the fourth type of resource, gained passively, or through many other ways, with some civilizations being better than others.
+Experience is the fourth resource added in ''[[Age of Empires III]]''.
-=== Acquiring experience ===
-; Passive trickle
-Experience is gained by everyone passively over time at a rate of 2 per second, or 120 per minute.
+== Cost ==
-; Civilization bonus, and penalty
+Certain cards, such as those of [[Mercenaries (Age of Empires III)|mercenaries]], cost a particular resource to account for the greater power of the card. This resource is usually [[Coin]] but can also be [[Wood]] or [[Food]].
-The [[Spanish (Age of Empires III)|Spanish]] require 27% less experience than other civilizations to receive shipments from their Home City. The [[Germans]] require 10% more experience to receive shipments.
-; Treasure hunting
-Some [[Treasure]]s provide experience, as well as the killing of [[Treasure Guardian]]s. The [[Japanese Home City Cards/1|Mountain Warrior]] card available to the [[Japanese (Age of Empires III)|Japanese]] can double the experience gained from the treasure, but not the guardians. The [[Aztec War Chief]]s experience aura on the other hand can increase reward from the guardians, but not the treasures.
-; Construction, and demolition
-Constructing buildings grants 20% of the original cost. Destroying buildings grants twice the experience as constructing them.
-; Unit training, and killing
-The amount gained from training [[Settler]]s, [[Villager (Age of Empires III)|Villagers]], and [[Fishing Boat (Age of Empires III)|Fishing Boats]] is 5% of the cost, [[Coureur des Bois]], [[Cree Coureur des Bois]], and [[Settler Wagon]]s is 10%. Experience from training military units is also 10% of the cost. Training [[Mercenaries (Age of Empires III)#List_of_outlaws|outlaws]] grants 20% of the cost instead.
-The amount gained from killing all units, except outlaws, is 10% of the cost, outlaws grant 20%.
-; Building trickles and bonuses
-Some buildings can produce constant experience as well, specifically [[Shrine (Age of Empires III)|Shrines]], [[Sacred Field]]s, [[Mosque (Age of Empires III)|Mosques]], [[Toshogu Shrine]]s, [[Consulate/Spanish|Consulate]] and [[Trading Post]]s built upon a [[Trade Route]]. Tasking [[Hunt#Age_of_Empires_III|huntable animals]], or [[Herdable animal|herdable animals]] on Shrines will increase production. Tasking herdables on Sacred Fields will also increase production.
-The [[Torii Gates]] will increase the experience from constructing, training, or destroying buildings and units, as well as the passive experience trickle by +50%. This is incredibly powerful when combined with the [[Japanese Home City Cards|Seven Lucky Gods]] card. The [[Udasi Temple|Punjabi New Year]] upgrade can also increase Sacred Field and herdable animal experience rates for India. A [[British]] ally can boost the experience generation of Indian livestock and sacred fields, as well as livestock tasked to Japanese shrines (including Toshogu) by 20%. by sending the [[British Home City Cards/1|TEAM Wool Staple Ports]] card.
-; Purchasing
-Experience can also be purchased via a one time upgrade at the [[Church]], [[Consulate/Spanish|Consulate]], [[Mosque (Age of Empires III)|Mosque]], and [[Zen Temple]].
-=== Cost and train/build reduction ===
-Cost reduction cards for units or buildings do not reduce the experience gained from constructing, training, or destroying them. Therefore some combinations of cards and upgrades can effectively allow significant experience boosts from construction to be purchased at a very low cost (e.g. Land Grab, Advanced Plantation, and Cree Textile Craftsmanship (in that order) for 96% cheaper Plantations (32 Wood) and granting 160 experience every 12 seconds, equivalent to 13.3 experience a second).
-Cards or upgrades that reduce construction, or train times of buildings, and units will also improve experience gain (e.g Stonemasons, Medicine, Fencing School, etc).
-=== First eight shipments ===
-* First - 300, 219 ([[Spanish (Age of Empires III)|Spain]]), 330 ([[Germans]])
-* Second - 345/645 (cumulative), 252/471, 380/710
-* Third - 397/1042, 290/760, 436/1046
-* Fourth - 456/1498, 333/1094, 502/1698
-* Fifth - 525/2023, 383/1477, 577/2225
-* Sixth - 604/2627, 443/1920, 662/2887
-* Seventh - 693/3320, 513/2423, 757/3644
-* Eighth - 792/4112, 593/3016, 862/4506
-=== Gather rates ===
-This table shows the initial gathering rates, card and Consulate granted trickle rates are fixed and can not be increased, though they can be stacked with other trickle cards available to that civilization. [[Trade Route]]s will vary depending on length, and number of sites available, shown is the average one can expect on the majority of maps.
-[[Herdable animal]]s are for the [[Indians (Age of Empires III)|Indians]] only, though the individual pages also list the effect provided for [[Japanese (Age of Empires III)|Japanese]] [[Shrine (Age of Empires III)|Shrines]].
-Shrines, and [[Toshogu Shrine]] require the [[Japanese Home City Cards|Seven Lucky Gods]] card to produce experience.
-{| class="article-table article-table-selected" style="width: 500px;" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="0"
-|-
-! scope="col" |Method
-! scope="col" |Initial rate
-|-
-|Passive trickle
-|120/min
-|-
-|[[Sheep]]
-|4.8/min per Sheep
-|-
-|[[Goat]]
-|5.4/min per Goat
-|-
-|[[Cow]]/[[Water Buffalo]]/[[Yak]]
-|6/min per animal
-|-
-|[[Llama]]
-|7.2/min per Llama
-|-
-|[[Indian Home City Cards/3|TEAM Sumptuary Laws]] (card)
-|12 coin, food, wood, and 6 [[Consulate|export]] and experience per minute
-|-
-|Sumptuary Laws (card)
-|18 coin, food, wood, and 9 export and experience per minute
-|-
-|[[Consulate]] ([[Spanish (Age of Empires III)|Spanish]])
-|48/min as long as they remain an ally
-|-
-|Trade Route (stagecoach/trade cart)
-|72/min per Trading Post
-|-
-|Toshogu Shrine
-|21 coin, wood, and food per minute, 55.8 experience, and increases regular shrine gather rates by 33% (but not experience)
-|-
-|[[Porcelain Tower]]
-|10.8 (Colonial), 15 (Fortress), 24 (Industrial), or 60 (Imperial) experience per minute depending on the Age in which it is constructed.
-|-
-|[[Sacred Field]] (Sheep)
-|8.4/min per Sheep (10 max, 84/min)
-|-
-|Sacred Field (Goat)
-|9.6/min per Goat (10 max, 96/min)
-|-
-|Sacred Field (Llama)
-|10.8/min per Llama (10 max, 108/min)
-|-
-|Sacred Field (Cow, Water Buffalo, Yak)
-|12/min per animal (10 max, 120/min)
-|-
-|Shrine
-|6 coin, [[wood]], 8.4 [[food]], and 20.4 experience per minute per Shrine (20 maximum, 408/min)
-|}
-==== Strategy ====
-The [[Spanish (Age of Empires III)|Spanish]] or [[Portuguese (Age of Empires III)|Portuguese]] can train [[Llama]]s for the [[Indians (Age of Empires III)|Indians]] at a [[Livestock Pen]] after sending the [[Spanish Home City Cards/3|Llama Ranching]] card, thus gifting them experience indirectly. 7 of them is 50.4/min compared to the [[Consulate]] bonus for the [[Japanese (Age of Empires III)|Japanese]] by having the Spanish as an ally, at a cost of 490 [[food]], 250 [[wood]], and a card shipment for the ally, versus 100 [[export]] cost for Japan. However, this allows India to effectively have access to a consulate ally bonus typically unavailable to them. With a [[British]] ally sending [[British Home City Cards/1|TEAM Wool Staple Ports]] as well, the total bonus for India jumps to 60.48 per minute (half of the passive trickle, and the bonus Japan gets if they build the Torii Gates instead of allying with the Spanish). The Spanish, Indians, and British also synergize well for [[Monitor#4v4_Carpet_bombing|Monitor]] long-range bombardments, especially if the [[Chinese (Age of Empires III)|Chinese]] become a fourth ally. The Chinese can then use [[Chinese Home City Cards/3|TEAM Provincial Administration]], doubling the population provided by their own villages and British, Spanish and Indian houses. The first ally gaining a significant population advantage by manor booming, the second recovering the cost of the [[Livestock Pen]] and saving wood for [[Missionary (Age of Empires III)|missionaries]] (unction), and the latter to save them wood, which is required instead of food to train villagers.
 == Levels ==
-All Home Cities begin at level 1 and are provided with 15 cards. As more XP is gained the Home City is able to level up and a new card can be added to the deck.
+In the original game, all Home Cities begin at level 1 and are provided with 15 cards. From ''[[Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs|The WarChiefs]]'' onward, Home Cities begin at level 10 instead. As more XP is gained the Home City is able to level up and a new card can be added to the deck. Choosing cards must be done carefully and a certain amount of strategy must be used.
-Choosing cards must be done carefully and a certain amount of strategy must be used.
 Many cards must be unlocked through reaching a certain level Home City before becoming available. Some cards can also require other cards as prerequisites. Focusing on specific units or technologies minimizes the amount of cards that need to be purchased.
@@ Line 161: / Line 57: @@
 Available only to European civilizations from the vanilla game, customizations are unlocked as the Home City level increases.
+== Gallery ==
+<gallery>
+Homecity Concept Art.png|London, British Home City Concept Art.
+Concept Art of London, British Home City.png|Concept Art of London, British Home City.
+</gallery>
 [[Category:Age of Empires III]]