User blog:Papermaniac/Posible bonuses for Age of Empires II still not used by any civilization part 1: Economic Bonuses

In the Waits of Dawn of the Dukes expansion i decided to theorize and analize posible bonuses for Age of Empires II, I have a document  I made on the issue and  I feel its time to share it with the community so we can have some debates and discussions about the viability, posible uses of each one,  how potent those can be etc. Of Course I will analize bonuses that can make sense so for example i will not analize a bonus like " cavalry technologies benefits villagers" since villagers are on foot. i will also not analize bonuses that were removed from the game or that we cannot know if these are possible to program

Why Age of Empires II? you may ask and the reason is very simple:  civilizations on Age of empires II are much more simetrical than in Age of Mythology, Age of Empires III and the upcoming Age of Empires IV so the comparisons and the analysis is more simple ( unlike in the other games which this kind of comparisons are much more complex due to the highly assimetric differences between factions); also Age of Empires II gameplay is arguably a better version of the gameplay of Age of Empires I which uses the same Genie Engine.

I hope the community participates in this discussion and I invite you to give your thoughts and ideas.

Bonuses regarding Villagers:

1. Villagers have faster attack and fire arrows faster: Imagine a civilization which their villagers have a faster attack lets say 10% faster and it increases 5% per each age, this may allow the player to perform tower rushes and villager rushes in a similar fashion to the Incas prior to the latests patches but even better since this bonus may be for free. Posibbly a way to nerf it a bit is to make this bonus depending on researching a particular technology like Loom. This bonus may also help when hunting boars or just for defense against a raid.
2. Villagers have better Hit points: The posibilites of implementing this bonus can be achieved by different means, perhaps villagers get +10 hit ponts per age, another way to implement it is giving villagers +5 hit points per each Town center Technology etc. In any case this can be an interesting defensive bonus that may aid for Tower Rushes, Castle Drops, just plainly defend againts a raid, lower the posibility of your villagers get killed by a Boar when hunting and of course helping against wolves
3. Villager benefits from Barracks technologies ( Supplies, Arson and Squires): This can be seen as a combination of the berber and Indian bonuses for villagers in regards to movement speed and cost respectively, but is not quite the same since you have to build a barracks and research those technologies so their effects actually comes later than its respective parallels. Possibly this bonus may be a bit overpowered so a civilization that posses it may have to lack some key economic technologies
4. Villagers are a bit better collecting all resources (Maximum 5% except fish): We already have civilizations that their villagers are particularly good at collecting one type of resource like Turks having better Gold miners, Koreans having better Stone Miners, Celts with better Lumberjacks etc. and each one of those have a substantial advantage on collecting that particular resource; but we still don't have a civilization with this type of bonus that is generalistic, maybe the Aztecs and berbers are the closest we have currently with their villagers that carry more resources and faster villagers respectively but not in the exact same way
5. Villagers are a bit better collecting all sources of food ( maximum 10% except fish and farms and maximum 5% for fish and farms): I already made a civilization concept using a variant of this bonus, The Polynesians which you can find on my blog posts. We of course have civilizations that are specialists on collecting from Herdables, like the Britons, collecting from Bushes like the Franks or collecting from huntable animals like Mongols; but none of them are generalistic in this particular wa,y and this can be a very interesting food bonus since no matter what kind of map you get you can always rely on this bonus unlike any of the other specialist civilizations but with just a bit better impact than a generic civilization
6. Villagers get more attack per age: this can be seen as a variant of the Incan Bonus but in this case is just by advancing age, and may be even better at this probaly having +2 attack at feudal age +4 at castle age and +6 at imperial Age, and normal attack at Dark age, balancing this bonus may be a little bit difficult but it can offer a villager that can defend by itself and can help when attacking at the latter stages of the game in a similar manner Incan Villagers and Spanish villagers with Supremacy does.
7. Town center spams 1 villager per age, each new town center from Castle Age spams 1 ( perhaps 2) villager: There is almost nothing like this in Age of Empires II, the most closest bonus to this are the Chinese and Mayan extra villager bonuses from Dark age which of course impact the economy very early if those extra villagers are properly microed. But in this case the first extra villager spams when you reach Feudal age so its not quite the same and a bonus like this can be extremely useful for a booming strategy
8. Villagers are created 5%/15%/20%/25% faster per each age: This bonus is pretty similar to the Persian town center bonus but it focuses only on the villager unlike the persian bonus which applies to technologies and age advancement. Of course in a sense this bonus is better but any civilization that would have it may have to lack some economic technologies for game balance and of course the bonus should be for just the villager and not for fishing ships unlike the persian bonus which also makes Docks to produce fishing ships faster
9. Villagers are improved in some way per each relic captured: Like the Lithuanian cavalry bonus of course you would have to reach castle age in order to get the relics. This mechanic offers the posibility of having some of the other villager existing and non existing bonuses repeated but in a better way and even so it will still be balanced since its a midle to late game bonus so any economic advantage out of relics can only be noticed on long games or at least games that reaches such point in which you can collect them.
10. Conscription benefits villagers: Conscription is an Imperial Age technology so any possible advantage (if supposedly it can be applied to town centers) comes very late in the game and it is a technology that makes military buildings to have better workrate (33%), this possible bonus may be used for recovery after an opponent raids the player's town and kills a lot of villagers more than anything else.
11. Villagers generates trickles of resources: we already have a variant of this bonus with the "Burgundian Vineyards" technology of the Burgundians which gives farmers a trickle of gold, also some users on the wiki have also proposed civilization concepts in their blog posts that uses the trickle mechanic like Dark Paladin X did with his Tibetan Civilization concept in which he proposes that Tibetan Villagers should generate a trickle of food. The possibilities of this kind of bonuses are interesting to say the least, the main problem here is how to balance them and there are so many opinions on the matter. If for example making the villagers to generate food just by themselves may snowball the economy very quickly unless that particular civilization have its technology tech tree limited in the economic upgrades and / or buildings ( just like Dark Paladin X proposed in his Tibetan Civilization if villagers generates trickles of food they should not be enabled to make farms for example.)
12. Villagers can get food out of wolves, lions , bears, etc. Currently the only function of wolves and other " wild predators" on age of Empires II is to basically kill a villager unexpectedly, and in some maps players can lure these animals to an enemy base and perform the " wolf rush". However it can be interesting if a civilization can use these animals for its economy and not just for annoy another player or be delayed by gaia.
13. Villagers return part of their cost if die: a bonus like this can be a defensive bonus for recovering from a raid, also a civilization with this bonus may use their villagers as frontline builders for performing Castle Drops, and Tower rushes.
14. Villagers cost Wood instead of food: This could be an interesting bonus but it comes with the inconvenience that the player has to make a build order that may be almost entirely diferent from any other civilization from the start of the game
15. Villagers occuppy half population: probably the best way to implement this is as an Imperial age unique technology since otherwise this bonus may be too overpewered.
16. Repairers work faster: this bonus has been proposed several times in several mods, it can be a very useful defensive bonus.
17. Villagers carry a lot more of a particular resouce: We already have the Aztecs which their villagers carry +3 of every resource ( it used to be +5 originally) and Goths hunters carry +15 food. However it is possible to make more " specialist " versions of this particular bonus for example having villagers that carry lets say +10 extra wood, or what about a civilization which their farmers carry +3/+5/+7/+9 extra food on each age progresively ( which we know from experiencig the Aztec bonus with just +5 originally and now +3 that this could be a very powerful bonus)
18. Villagers don't needing drop off sites ( like the Khmer farming bonus): the Khmer Farm bonus comes with a cost since you still need to reseed your farms which balances it out and considering this bonus it is posible to also think about similar bonuses applied to other resource items like Berry Bushes, Huntable animals, Gold mines, Stone mines, or Trees; however in some cases ( Stone, gold and wood ) if made as a bonus may be too overpowered unless in these three cases the bonus is obtained via a unique technology so it only comes in mid to late game. in the case of food items aside the Farms (Berry Bushes Herdables shore fish and huntables) it can be a more suitable bonus if it only applies to that item ( with the exception of herdables because a bonus like this is technically useless applied to them).

Technology related economic bonuses.

1. Economic technologies are researched 50% ( or more) faster: Portuguese already can research all of their technologies 30% faster but, Why if a civilization have a bonus like this that focuses just on their economic technologies? the player that uses that civilization of course should have to get good timing and research the technologies as early as they can in order to get the most out of them. We can see the Burgundian economic bonus as a variant of this idea but in a different way
2. Economic technologies having a better effect: Sicilians already have a version of this with their farm technologies giving more food to the farms, however it is posible to imagine vertions of this concept for the other economic technologies. For example having a better wheelbarrow that gives 30% more carrying capacityy to villagers instead of 25% and 15% speed instead of 10%, and a better Hand Cart that gives 60% more carrying capacity instead of 50% and another 15% speed instead of 10%
3. Town center technologies can be researched at another building ( for example the Mill). this bonus can be very helpfull as it will act in some way like the player has 2 town centers but only one produces villagers, supposing the player researches Loom, and wheel barrow using a Mill instead a Town center it eases the time creation of 4 villagers ( since those two technologies takes the time creation of 4 villagers together) which is a substantial advantage at Dark and Feudal Ages.
4. Economic technologies does not costs food: Vietnamese currently have just the opposite " economic technologies does not costs Wood" but probably this version may be much more useful and potent, and it can enable for fast Castle age, scout rushes, and infantry rushes.
5. Gillnets is free: This can be a minor bonus, maybe a team bonus since this technology only applies to fishing ships
6. Treadmill Crane is free: this is a castle Age technology that so this can be a nice team bonus. Also the Spanish have something much better having better builders since Dark Age
7. Market Technologies does not costs gold: This bonus can be great if playing on team games since the player would just need food for researching all of them, outside of teamgames probably it is not very useful except for getting Guilds almost for free.
8. A set of Market Technologies are free ( For Example Coinage and Banking or Caravan or Guilds): like the previous bonus a bonus like this can be very useful on team games outside of teamgames are not useful and considering this maybe these can work as Team Bonuses.
9. Economic tecnologies costs halved: this is another variant of getting the economic technologies cheaper but the player still has to pay the respective food and wood or gold just half the price.
10. Stone Mining and Stone Shaft Mining are free: We already have the farm technologies for free with the Franks, Gold mining for free with Malians ( they used to have also Gold shaft mining fo free but that was overpowered and devs removed it) Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart for free with Vikings and the lumber camp upgrades for free with the Burmese, but we still don't have a civilization that has the stone mining upgrades for free. Any civilization that would have it may be a potent defensive civilization as this bonus may enabled for Tower rushing, Castle Drops, and walling early with Stone Walls.
11. University technologies does not cost wood: Most university technologies have a wood costs with only three exceptions ( chemistry, Heated Shot and Murder Holes) and if a civilization does not have to pay wood for University technologies supposing it has all of them or almost all, the wood savings would be very substantial and may enable for steady defenses at the same time, the closest existing bonus that is similar to this is the Italian university technologies discount bonus.
12. Unique Technology similar to " paper money" or " Scutage" that gives the players on a team another resource: The posibilities here are interesting but probably the most interesting is having a technology that gives stone to each player that may aid for making more castles walls or towers. we can extend the concept and maybe there can be a unique technology that states " gives to each player on the team 1 ( maybe 2) villager per each town center" for example which can be also an interesting posibility depending the cost of the technology of course.
13. Unique technology similar to " burgundian vineyards" that converts a resource into another resource with a good convertion ratio: Burgundian vinetyards currently converts half of the food stockpile of the player into gold in a 2:1 ratio ( it used to convert all food into gold at 2: ratio) in adition to enabling a trickle of gold to farmers.Considering this is possible to also have a technology that converts wood or half the wood into gold in a 2 : 1 ratio, or probably converting Gold into stone in a 1:1 ratio for example

Building related economic bonuses

1. Houses, Mining Camps, Lumber Camps and Mills are created 50% faster ( or more probably even 100%) : Spanish already have a similar bonus ( builders work 30% faster) but it is not focused on just a set of buildings like in this hypothetical bonus; we also have the Sicilians which build Town centers 100% faster and it is a substantial economic bonus. Being enabled to create the droping sites faster enables to also starts to gather resources faster which of course can have an impact on the economy, and regarding houses it also eases population growht so the player doesnt have population tops so oftenly.
2. Mills, Lumber Camps, Docks, Mining camps, Monasteries, Castles, blacksmiths, universities, Towers supports +5 population each ( or probably more depending on how the civilization is made): Housing bonuses have been proven to be also potent economic bonuses since it eases population growth and at the same time the player saves wood. I already take the idea of Dock providing population space in my Polynesian civilization concept and there are currently in the game similar bonuses ( Incas houses enabling 10 population space instead of 5, Chinese Town centers providing more population space and Slavs team bonus), probably the most balanced way to implement this bonus is by having a civilitation that states "dropsites ( except town centers) provide +5 population each" but also a civilization that states " Outposts, Towers and Castles provides more population space " can be also interesting since their defenses may serve also for housing, Monasteries providing housing can be ok for a team bonus and the same goes for Blacksmiths, Docks and Universities.
3. Dropsites ( Mills Lumber Camps and Mining Camps) can Pack /unpack like the trebuchet: This is an interesting one and it can be used for a " nomadic" civilization like the Khazars for example. The posible main advantage of a bonus like this is that the player does not need to make more buildings saving wood in the process, They just need to pack the building and move it where it is needed for taking another mine, another forest or another set of wild animals or berry bushes. One other posible idea that can be made is instead having a building that " packs /unpacks" is to having a unique unit like an Ox Cart, like the one existing in Age of Mythology for the Norse civilization ( which is a dropsite that covers the same functionality of Mills and Camps for the other civilizations of the same game), the Ox cart can be made to cover the Building prerequisite to advancing to feudal Age by having 1 of them and a Mill for example ( so in this case that ox Cart just covers the Mining and Lumber Camp functions) and of course the respective technologies should be researched there. This idea of pack / unpack economic buildings may be implemented on Town Centers but maybe in this case it should come with a cost since otherwise players may abuse it for Town Center rushing.
4. Having a unique building that covers the same functionality of several dropsites: this can be made but i see it as less interesting option than the previous one.
5. Building having a trickle of x resource:we already have the Feitoria but the idea can be applied to giving a trickle to basically every building in different ways, probably you can have a building that just gives a trickle of food for example, or a building that just provides a trickle of gold it may be hard to balance it out but there are so many ways to implement this kind of bonuses
6. Farms with 2x2 size: This bonus has been proposed several times in several mods and it is an interesting one for two reasons: the first reason is that you can obviously can fit more farms in less space and secondly villagers walkaround is shorter impacting positively in gathering rates.
7. Having a unique building that is basically a placeable Forest: In Age of empires III the indian civilization can sent cards that enables the player to create Mango Grooves which are basically trees for wood, In Age of Mythology,Gaia has the power of creating trees. Placing trees as a bonus in Age of Empires II is not really that farfetch considering several civilizations contemporary from medieval time period knew how to grow and cultivate fruit trees and also some others knew how to grow trees for wood.
8. Relics improving the Workrate of the Town Center and /or the Dock( maximum 4 relics like lithuanians): since a bonus like this should come until Castle age each Relic may provide a +10% boost so if all 4 relics are collected that player may get a 40% boost to the Workrate of the Town Center or the Dock which despite coming later than the Persian Bonus that is similar in the end that civilization will have the upper hand in villager and / or ship production.
9. Town center spawning a Relic at Castle age and a second one in Imperial age: This bonus could be helpful for a civilization that may require gold at the late game and can be used also for a monk focused civilization. Probably in the " capture the relic " game mode this bonus may disrupt the victory condition ( so in that case that civilization should not have the relic in that game mode) as well as being a disrupting bonus for the Relic victory condition in a standard game match
10. Town Center Spawning a Deer when aging up, ech newly constructed Town center spawns 2 deers from Castle age on: This can be seen as a variant of the Sheep spawning bonus of the Tatars.
11. Buildings return part of their cost if destroyed: this can be a defensive bonus that may allow for recovery after a siege.

Startup bonuses

1. Starting with extra resources: we already have 3 variants of this type of bonus ( Lithuanians starting with +150 food, Aztecs starting with +50 gold and Persians starting with +50 food and +50 wood) However these other variables are still available : a) starting with +25 of each resource, b) starting with more wood posibly +100 extra wood c) starting with extra stone posibly +50 stone maximum and d) combinations of two or three resources excluding starting with food and wood. probably the most interesting extra resource bonus that is still not used is tthe extra wood, supposing a civilization starts with +100 wood that civilization can use that wood for placing their second building in Dark age and perform a Fast Feudal strategy or use it for a Barracks from the very start of the game.
2. Starting with an extra natural resource near your Town center ( deer, bushes, wood, Gold, mines or Stone mines) regardless of the map. While not seem too interesting at first glance having even just one extra tile of a natural resource can change the course of the game. The posible best version of a bonus like this could be having an extra tile of stone or gold on every map except in nomad style maps in the case of deer it is posible to program it in the same way the extra llama of the incas son in a case like that a civilization that states " starts with an extra deer" will have that deer even on Nomad maps.
3. Starting the game with 2 scouts ( but that scout is a unique unit that is not as effective in combat than Eagle Scouts or Scout Cavalry unless the two attack at the same time like karambits compare to champions): Scouting is an escential part of the early game and even sometimes scouts may serve for economy by stealing a boar from an opponent, and by luring deer into the town center. A civilization with 2 scouts instead of one can find faster the sheep but probably in this hypothetical example they would be worse at luring a boar. another option ist to having a civilization that has a horse a a second scout alon a scout cavalry, the horse cannot attack and don't take population so it will help with scouting but will not make that civilization better at luring boars or deers with the scout.
4. Starting with an extra farm regardless of the map: This bonus may have a similar impact than the Llama bonus for the incas, but unlike the incan llama bonus you cannot use the farm for scouting while also having more food waiting to be gathered at a slower pace than the llama, probably in this case the player may have to start with -25 wood in order to balance a bonus like this.
5. Starting with a special unit that transforms into a dropsite building ( Mills, Lumber Camps or Mining Camps) but -100 wood: this can be seen as a variant to the Chinese and mayan extra villagrer bonuses but applied at buildings, it of course has to get the corresponding nerf to the resource needed for the building. A bonus like this may enable to the villagers to focus more on gathering the food early instead of worring about creating their first lumber camp or mill also the special unit may help a bit on early scouting but it should not have an attack. One interesting idea is to combining a bonus like this with the "Dropsites can Pack /unpack like the trebuchet" Bonus i previously mentioned on the Building related bonuses section on the same civilization.

Trade Bonuses

(Note most of these bonuses are perfect as a team bonus and just some of them can be applied as main bonuses)

1. Being Enabled to trade with your own markets or docks: This can be potentially overpowered I Used this Concept on the Micronesian civilization concept i made that you can find on my blog posts, but still have to use a nerfed version since this bonus means you can have an infinite source of gold in every match, probably if the bonus states that the gold generated is 50% or less than the gold generated by trading with another player could be balanced.
2. Trade Cart and Trade Cog only occupies half population: This Bonus can be potentially overpowered in team games so probably it should be a unique technology that only applies to the player that researches it however it is less overpowered than halfing the population space of the villagers ( because trade units are only useful on team games and only produces gold) so probably ths can be a Castle age Unique technology rather than an Imperial Age unique technology.
3. Trade units move faster: This can be a great idea for a team bonus, even if its just 10% faster.
4. Trade units can generate other resources alongside gold or as an option to gold: this can be achieved in several ways like giving the trade units a trickle of a resource, but probably the best way to implement this idea is by enabling these units to carry an additional resource aside the gold or as an option to the gold ( which can be made by giving selectable "modes" to the trade unit with buttons available to the unit). And the most interesting option for this is enabling stone to be generated by the trade units.
5. Trade units are produced faster or markets work faster: The closest to this is the Portuguese +30% speed bonus for researching a technology which of course applies to the market technologies or the persian dock workate bonus that of course applies to the Trade Cogs. But we still dont have a bonus that helps and focuses to produce Trade Carts faster. One option for this is making the Conscription technology to benefit the market.
6. Trade units with more Hit points or armor: We already have Portuguese trade cogs with more hit points but still not an specialized bonus since that is because portuguese HP bonus applies to alll its navy also there are still no bonus in this regard for the Trade Carts. Depending the extra amount of hit points or armor, this could work ok as a team bonus and may help against raids targeted at the commerce on team games.
7. Trade Carts benefits from stable technologies or cavalry blacksmith armor upgrades This way the player can get trade carts that moves faster and have better hit points at the same time probably ok as a base bonus and not just as team bonus.
8. Trade units being enabled to attack: This can be ok as a shared unique technology, of course the attack should be done in a way that it just help these units to defend a bit but still requiring support of your army so that player can´t actually use these units as replacement for an army.
9. Trade units returning part of their cost if killed: this can be great for a team bonus and may enable for recover the trade route after a heavy raid

Miscellaneous and Naval economic bonuses

1. Starting the game knowing the location of resources ( for example starting the game knowing where the boars are or where the Gold mines are): We already have a variant of a bonus like this with the Burmese team bonus ( relics location revealed since the start of the game) but there are other posibilities that are interesting like for example starting the game knowing where the Wolves are as this may allow that civilization for the Wolf Rush even on maps outside of Gold Rush or Wolf Hill, other than that bonuses like this bonus may be op especially for nomad style maps ( since this will allow the player to rush for a location on the nomad maps and also the player may deduct where its opponet is and steal its resources).
2. Relics generating trickle of Wood or Stone: We already have Burgundian team bonus which makes relics to generate food and the Aztec team bonus makes the relics to generate more gold than normal; but we still don't have versions of this bonus for the other 2 resources, and each one may be used for team bonuses as well. Probably the mos interesting of the two missing bonuses is the Stone generating relics since stone is the rarest resource of the game.
3. Transport ships as a housing unit: I already use this idea on my Polynesian civilization concept. Why transport ships and not any other unit? the reason is simple, Transport ship only purpose is as its name states just for transporting land units so a bonus like this may work and still be balanced while also help in some way to the economy of the player by easing population growth.
4. fishing Ships Tranport Ships or Trade Cogs generating trickles of resources: this is similar to the idea of villagers generating trickles of resources it may be nice for a naval civilization to have a bonus like this.
5. Military units generating resources: We already have the Keshik which generates gold while attacking another unit, however it is possible to think about civilizations that may use their military units for economy in order to represent things like " looting", " stealing", "Piracy" ( in the case this idea is applied to the navy) or even "Cannibalism" etc. There are many ways to do this one is for example just giving a set of military units a trickle of resources just for existing just like Dark Paladin X did with his Tibetan civilization concept in which he proposes cavalry generates food just for existing; another way to do this is the Keshik way by enabling resource generation while attacking, i tooked this concept applied to a unique infantry in my Polynesian civilization concept; and the thirth way is by giving a military unit the ability of gathering a certain resource like a villager does which is an idea that can be applied to a unique unit.
6. Receiving additional resources when aging up: We have one variant of this bonus with the Ethiopians which receives +100 Food and Gold for advancing age, but there can also be some other interesting variants of a bonus like this for example Receiving 100 wood and gold ( which can help for an Archer rush on feudal age or for performing a Fast Castle) reciving +50 of each resource ( which is the most flexible version of this kind of bonus) Receiving 100 wood and food ( which is useful but probably less potent than other options) receing 100 stone and some other resource ( in every of this options a tower rush could be a good strategy and can help to boom in Castle age because the player can create 4 more town centers instead of just 2) receiving one big amount of just one resurce ( whic could be more limited than the other options) etc.
7. Fishing ship being enabled to attack: this can aid the fishing ships to defend themselves a bit. Most of the time fishing ships are helpless against enemy galley rushes unless you also have enough war ships, it doesn't need to be a high amount of attack just the necessary to aid the fishing ship in several circumstances.
8. Fishing and Transport ships returning part of their costs if killed: This can be good for recovering as a defensive bonus and considering how important wood is on island maps this can impact the later stages of the game.
9. Resources lasting longer in a specialized way: Mayans have resources that last longer but this is a generalist bonus so the amount for each resourse is better but not a large amount, we also have tatars extra food sheep bonus which is an example of an specialized lasting resource bonus. But here there is still room for a lot more. You can have a civilization which fish last much longer ( that could be nice for naval maps), you can also have a civilization which Stone or Gold lasts Much longer or a civilization that huntables ( Deers, Boars, etc.) last much longer as well.
10. Being enabled to actually create sheeps, cows etc. like all other units: This bonus has been proosed several times in many mods and civilization concepts, also the Tatar Sheep spamming bonus in a sense can be considered a variant of this idea but not in the exact same way since in this version you have to actually pay a resource and wait the unit to be created at a specific building unlike the tatar extra sheeps that justs spams for free at new Town centers and you can't create more ( unles you keep creating Town centers)
11. Fishing ships occupy half population: This can be a great bonus for a naval themed civilization, unlike the other similar bouses ( villager half population and trade units half population) this can be a good outright main bonus since first fishing ships are useful on 1 vs 1 games or FFA unlike trade units and secondly their use is much more limited than the villager since fishing Ships can only produce food wich is also a much more common resourse than the gold produced by trade units and can only do that when water is available on the map.
12. Fishing ships don't needed to drop of food like Khmer farmers: this may be an op bonus if applied to fish and fish traps but if it is applied to just fish or just fish traps it may be balanced and a good bonus for water maps. probably if applied to both it should be done as a Castle age unique technology.