Base Game Changes

Expanded Mod is primarily an expansion mod, however it does also make changes to the base game for the sake of improvement, bug fixes, or consistency.

## Gameplay

* Rebalanced and changed how Fish work, they are now limited resources like other Age of Empires games, and have been divided into 4 major groupings (Small, Medium, Large, Very Large) which are worth: 350f, 400f, 450f and 600f. Sharks can now be fished. Villagers can now fish as well, but generally you are better off using Fishing Boats. Fish are also not limited to one gatherer anymore either.
	+ Small: Salmon, Herring
	+ Medium: Mahi-Mahi, Perch
	+ Very Large: Shark
* Whales and Orcas are no longer set piece units, rather they can be gathered for Gold, like Fish. Unlike Fish however they are infinite resources and limited to one gatherer.
* Certain proper counter units (Peltasts, Slingers, Prodromos) have been sorted into Trash Units (apart from Hypaspists) not counting soft counters like Hoplites, Raiding Cavalry or Hippikons.
* Ships no longer cost population, but are limited to an initial pool of units. This can be increased (will be explained later)
	+ War Ships and Transport Ships have a build limit of 5.
	+ Fishing Ships have a build limit of 10.
* Overhauled Population mechanics for non-Myth Units, Archers and Infantry will now take only 1 pop slot, Cavalry 2 pop, and Siege Weapons between 3 and 4. War Elephants are also 4 pop.
* All villagers now have less armour and slightly less hitpoints. Can gather from nearby fish (up to a radius of 1.5 feet)
* Walls are x2 more expensive and have less LOS. Can now research Athenian Wall and Safeguard.
* All Barracks-type buildings can now be built in the Archaic Age, and as such have Archaic Models now.
* All Military Buildings can now garrison the units they train inside them all the time.
* Re-instated Myth Unit counter triangle from Vanilla (i.e Centaurs are Myth Archers, Scarab Myth Siege/Cav, etc)
* Rebalanced Predator animals to be a threat depending on the unit:
	+ Bears now deal 11 damage instead of 9. Lions deal 10 damage instead of 8.
* Made Herdable units all unique in some way or another, and can be bought after researching Husbandry, can no longer be killed by non-Villagers and can now only be converted by enemies:
	+ Goats cost 25g, fatten at 0.35 per second, max cap of 275f.
	+ Pigs cost 30g, fatten at 0.25 per second, have a max cap of 325f. Start with 76f.
	+ Cows/Yaks cost 45g, fatten at 0.5 per second, have a max cap of 450f. Start with 101f.
* Chickens/Ducks now function similar to Sheep from AoE2, they are gathered from at the fastest baseline speed (G/C: 1.0, E: 0.9, Dwf: 0.8, A: 3.0, AH: 3.1) and are no longer classified as “Wild Crops” now instantly killed by Villagers.
* Weapons, Armour and Shields line of technologies no longer affect archers. Instead Archers have two separate lines of technologies (arrows and lightweight armours) for this purpose. As a result these upgrades are cheaper, as a consolidation Thor's unique upgrades are cheaper.
* Tax Collectors now makes Caravan animals train 25% faster.
* Farms are now built slower, now have variations of Cabbage, Wheat and Corn.
* Hammer Ships moved to the Classical Age.
* The Classical Age now requires 500f.
* All Heroes no longer trained at the Town Center.

## Chinese

* Scout Cavalry can now hunt and gather from Chickens, Ducks and Huntables, they don't require dropsites.

## Egyptians

* Spearman has been reworked from a weaker Hoplite (general purpose infantry) into a proper counter cavalry role (as implied by AoM's design) now cost Food and Wood instead of Food and Gold.
* Slingers are no longer trainable from the Barracks, instead going to the Fletchery Range. Cost Food and Wood now instead of Food and Gold. No longer have a bonus vs counter-infantry infantry, have a larger anti-archer bonus, and 12 range instead of 16.
* Catapults now cost 4 population.
* Egyptian Shrines now have a proper model that isn't just a copy of the Age 2 Temple.
* Scarabs now deal 12 damage vs 6.
* Sphinx now upgrade visually. Sphinxes lose their Dust Devil ability, and can now teleport instead.
* Ptah no longer gets Electrum Bullets, but Serpent Spear instead.
* Anubis gets Electrum Bullets from Ptah.
* Anubis now gains Leather Frame Shields, which now increases the pierce armour of Pitati instead of Spearmen (Yes I am aware this makes no sense, blame ES for not planning minor gods properly)
* Sun Dried Mud Brick given to Ptah.
* Shaduf given to Hathor, now increases the build rate of farms by x4 instead of x2.
* Spirit of Ma'at now has a healing range bonus, now effects EM Major God priests.
* Horus now gains Son of Osiris (renamed to Son of Horus) and Osiris gains Tornado.

## Greeks

* Hades now has access to the Archery Range and Toxotes in the Archaic Range.
* Greek Heroes no longer trained from the Town Center or Fortress, but from the new Palaestra instead. Archaic Heroes no longer require Temples.
* Sword of Dread now affects the new Theurophoroi instead of Hypaspists.
* Olympic Parentage moved to the Palaestra.
* Bacchanalia renamed to the more accurate Dionysia.
* Athena gets Athenian Wall from Hera, now costs 200w, 20fa and only improves the hitpoints of walls/gates by 20%.
* Hera no longer gets Medusa, instead gets Chimeras and Flames of Typhon.
* Artemis no longer gets Chimera, instead gets Medusa and Face of the Gorgon.
* Hera now gets Trierarch from Artemis.

## Norse

* Ulfsarks now classified as Trash Infantry.
* Portable Rams now available in the Classical Age, and moved to the Siege Camp. Now cost 100w, 75g, have 200 hitpoints, have 5% hack armour, take 2 population and are 0.3 faster.
* Jarls now trained in the Norse Academy, the Jarl's Hall.
* Ballista now cost 2 pop, deal 9 pierce damage instead of 4. Moved to Siege Camp.
* Fire Giants now have limited Range, but can melee attack when a unit is right in front of them, dealing 10 hack damage per hit.

## Misc

* Overhauled the Ambient Sounds, including new ones for pre-existing units, and new ones for units that didn't have them originally.
* Almost all Human Soldier units now have new textures, and follow a Standard > Copper > Bronze > Iron texture upgrade standard instead of Standard > Bronze > Silver > Gold upgrade standard.
* All trees are now animated and sway, rather than being static objects.
* Overhauled the Aesthetics, Attract Mode backgrounds and main menu music back to vanilla Age of Mythology. Included unique EM pregame icon, and loading splash screens.
* Cinematic Objects have been moved to the Editor's Test Class.
	+ Separated the Underworld and Stone Block variations of the Cinematic Rocks into their own objects.