Quicker Training Times of Advanced Troops to make for a better game?

[Bowlock]

On my server (Newfoundland) I have noticed that the prices of weapons seem totally out of synch with what you would expect.

That is to say that Iron Swords are only twice the price of bronze swords, steel swords are not much more and damascene swords are almost identical to steel.

Given the extra resources one needs to create Dama Weapons and Steel it seems like a ridiculous situation.

It seems to me that the reason is that the better troops are not worth building in larger numbers (even if you have access to the resources) because of the vastly exaggerated training times of the better troops.

If the training times of for example Elite Soldiers were compressed then (given the prices) I might well be tempted to build Elites, rather than soldiers in order to reduce my losses.

Note I am not being picky on the training times in general, I just think it would be a far more interesting game if we had to decide what troops to build based on pricing/availability of resources/projected losses, rather than have this "no-brainer" situation of having to churn out recruits all of the time with the occasional militia.

If the trend continues we are going to be in the ridiculous scenario whereby Dama Weapons cost less than Steel Swords just because soldiers are quicker to train. Same logic applies to Bows, I don't have a problem churning out longbow, except that they take much longer to train than the bowmen.

Anyway to recap I am saying it would be a good idea to compress the training times of the better troops drastically, with Militia taking 10% longer than Recs, and Soldiers 10% longer than Mil etc.

I would like to know the thoughts of others.

[PChamps]

It has nothing to do with training times it is because you dont lose elite soldiers really (or very rarely) so the dama swords stock pile making them cheaper. same with crossbows.

The loot from adventures needs changing really to much steel swords/dama/crossbows/cannons are given out as loot making building them not worth it.

[Promethos]

Ooh that's a nice idea. Very easy, but would fix a few problems.

It does have a lot to do with training times. People dont lose elite troops, because they choose to keep them safe, and use large amount of recruits/bowmen instead.

In many camps you could lose less settlers by using stronger troops. So why do people choose to keep using recruits/bowmen? One of the reasons: It takes ages to build the elite troops!

If you could save time and settlers (bread) by using stronger troops, that would be nice. The weapons would probably become more expensive. Saving settlers/time comes at a price Maybe building the cannons/crossbows would become a good idea then too.