AoE4 farming mechanics, tips, and civ bonuses

[@JustDaZack]

Spirit of the Farm is back!

[@darkhope97]

Spirit of the lawn

[@Dinnye01]

@@darkhope97 This comment is so underrated :D

[@yuuya5985]

@@darkhope97 11

[@KenWu-pl3or]

When will there be Spirit of da Hood

[@darkroy610]

Nah, without the intro song it doesn't feel right. I'm out

[@frederickstabell3796]

Exactly the content I was hoping for, your translation of number crunching into game expectations never fails to amaze.

[@morantNO1]

High praise from an honored member of the adeptus mechanicus.

[@PotatoMcWhiskey]

Shift clicking farms around a mill is so satisfying

[@ennioandbloom]

hey spuddies

[@Andjac2010]

Hey, Potato. Didn't know you were into AOEIV.

[@theodoreovaska597]

cool to see you here, I just recently got into civ VI and was watching some of your vids

[@iceweasel2199]

unless you miss 1 and now they are no longer neatly arranged...

[@bluebarrymore5442]

TRU!!!!!!!!!

[@ChewingGumFlavor]

So we begins, the yearly farming videos of AoE4 until the end of time

[@Fitzyhere]

Most impressive testing. Much appreciated.

[@Aeternum_]

hi fitzycake *blush* uwu

[@JessmanChicken86]

As their lord, I can't stand my peasants taking breaks, even if it's just an animation.

[@austinpugmire2843]

This lord grew up to be Jeff Bezos

[@WillieHoule]

Bezos the first, lord of Amazonia

[@guillermopassano7791]

Bezos first of his name, Hater of peasants, exploiter of farmers and Maker of chains

[@TeemoStricker]

Viva la revolution!

[@knusperkecks200]

you can press the "delete button" , maybe this motivates the other farmers...

[@wgh1378]

"Thank you to normal-name, normal-name, normal-name, normal-name, ILICKTOESATNIGHT" I absolutely love the internet.

[@josephlaspisa7120]

I was surprised you didn't talk about the abbasids and their unique farm tech and various gather rate buffs (improved processing and the golden age buffs)

[@DeaThShiNoBi213]

I was surprised as well, but their mechanics are just flat gathering rate bonuses, so I don't think there'd be that much to say that isn't already covered. Their tier 1 golden age bonus, which comes early in the game, would probably be about 7.5-8% farming bonus, if I had to guess. Tier 2 golden age is equivalent to a horticulture upgrade. Their economic wing agriculture is also equivalent to another horticulture upgrade. Since upgrades appear to be additive in AOE4, tier 2 golden age + agriculture should be exactly equivalent to England's imperial age mill influence bonus, and tier 3 golden age + agriculture should be slightly better. I actually notice when playing Abbasids with tier 3 golden age and all of the farming upgrades, my farmers occasionally exhaust the farm of food completely and go idle for a second or two, but they go back to work themselves if you don't touch them. This does not happen very often. Edit: forgot about improved processing, which is a flat 8% boost to all resource turn-ins. However, it should work the same as Chinese imperial official in that it doesn't affect gathering rate and simply multiplies turn-ins, so it should be simply 1.08x effective gathering rate.

[@gman8796]

It's quite complicated so it's a long video

[@TheSpartan451]

"It's just an animation" is an excuse I'm going to try next time my boss catches me on my phone

[@LowkoTV]

Amazing video. Thank you for sharing!

[@henriklundstrom4410]

Toxic SC2 streamer calling SOTL a NERD!

[@bbsonjohn]

Its true. Spirit Of the Law likes Excel kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYaogYl8n7OanNU

[@Hawkins676767]

I don’t even play AOE2 or 4 and I still love these videos. Probably because of how you cover the topic, usually in great deal while also pointing out tiny details. Like gathering the squares closer vs further away from the mill, the villager animation, different empires and their bonuses included. It’s thorough. Nice job.

[@Frug4l]

You're just happy you can make another farm video.

[@garyermann]

I love how AoE4 has created this environment where all the content creators and competitors from AoE2 and AoE3 are placed on an equal footing. It's like getting the best of both communities all in one place.

[@MX009m]

followgrubby from wc3 and wintergaming, day 9 from sc2 and more

[@ANSELAbitsxb]

They AoM and sc2 guys are just destroying everyone

[@ruukinen]

@@ANSELAbitsxb Even Vipah? I find that hard to believe

[@ANSELAbitsxb]

@@ruukinen Viper getting owned by even the aoe3 guys. aoe2 guys will all go back to their game soon. You need a brain to do well in 4.

[@danielmoniz394]

@@ANSELAbitsxb TheViper is literally on the top of the ladder right now, and made it to the upcoming Genesis tournament (8 players total).

[@Muenni]

Do the Chinese tax system next! That seems appropriately complex to optimize (and likely not worth it with limited officials and their straight up better supervision ability).

[@timepaintertunebird8160]

I think dark age taxes are worth it just to skip the mining camp. And also if you force drop it might be possible to do it so that you only aren't supervised when there's nobody dropping off resources. Gl with that micro though once stuff starts heating up

[@donxnik]

what I don't like is that tax collectors get the same Idle villager icon. It always confuses me that some of my worker is not working

[@kamekazi1123]

@@timepaintertunebird8160 i would say officials are never worth in dark age. I get multiple camps on single resources and split up the villagers on them

[@Muenni]

@@donxnik Oh yeah, that's very annoying. Hope they'll fix that. It really does more harm than help.

[@papasfritasduras]

@@kamekazi1123 Imperial officer enables you to have a great eco boost in Dark Age, making it easier to reach feudal (or to have a more solid eco when you reach there) - Starting villagers build mill in berries: 4 in sheep & 2 in berries. IMPORTANT: Sheep must be in Mill, to generate Tax. TC don't generate tax. - Build house with vill #7, then lumbercamp - vills #8 & #9 go to wood. - Create Imperial officer, collect taxes from mill & lumber camp - From vills #10 to #12 will go to berries, to increase tax production and get food. - Vill #13 builds mining camp. If you play for defense, go for stone (only pocket) otherwise, go for gold - Vills #14 to #17 go to mining camp. - Vill #18 builds house, then lumber or mining camp (depending on map/strategy) IMPORTANT: Imperial officer should be micro from time to time: send him to collect taxes to your buildings, and when you see him idle just ask him to Supervise your mill (at first) or your mining camp(later) after three villagers were created, make him collect taxes again and repeat. A building that is being supervised increases dropped resources by 20%, so if a villager drops 10 food after killing a sheep, 12 food will be deposited in your bank. If a berry gatherer drops 20, 24 will be added instead, and the same applies for gold. If you have a building that have more than 5 Villagers dropping resources there, an Imperial officer is worth more than a Villager in that drop off point.

[@twinsen1949]

I feel like the Chinese farming stuff was designed SPECIFICALLY around SOTL. I can 100% picture the devs all like "You know what would blow SOTL's mind???!!!" Cause this definitely blew my mind!

[@whossname4399]

@@farhan5647 spirit of the law

[@icecoldchilipreppers]

it was you technical explanations that renewed my love for AOE2, and it would seem your videos are helping to bring me around to AOE4!

[@flyingdeathcatsgo]

Best part of a Spirit Of The Law video is hearing him read off his Patreons

[@olivialambert4124]

This topic was done perfectly. Simple instructions for a basic understanding, deep figures for a better understanding. Great job, more like this please!

[@arturomargonar6186]

How about the synergy between horticolture and wheelbarrow? Is the effect of both technologies greater than the sum of each one? My guess is that, since they gather faster, they also take more trips, thus the importance of faster movement and greater capacity is amplified

[@Olibelus]

This is my favourite Age of Empires game to date, it just combines all the great previous components of AoE 2 and AoE 3 into one package. I love the campaigns too. Last time I enjoyed campaigns this much was when I was playing Starcraft II 10 years ago!

[@m.g.3013]

I miss plantations

[@circumcisionismurder7415]

With sines updates it can be good

[@firingallcylinders2949]

It needs a little work but I'm having a ton of fun. It needs more modes like KOTH and Regicide. It also needs more Civs which I'm sure are coming.

[@4C4P5]

Totally agree..I also perform way better in this one too!

[@jugg9140]

this game ia shitty. it's mindlessly rushing to level up age, and spamming villagers, the more villagers the better economy is a shit mechanic, this game is a shit show

[@massaosaito4084]

"You can't out-rice the chinese" Gaming, Mandalore - EVE Online Review (5:38) - 2016

[@rubz1390]

From which video was that?

[@Falcon0BR]

need source

[@massaosaito4084]

@@rubz1390 I edited the comment with the source

[@massaosaito4084]

@@Falcon0BR I edited the comment with the source

[@rubz1390]

@@massaosaito4084 Thank you.

[@skyqula]

A missing civ here is the Abbasid, with their golden age 10/15/20% gather rate, their 15% farm gather rate tech and their 8% increased drop off tech.

[@jeromethy]

same with Rus, bounty system increases gather rate aswell.

[@NeedaSolutionTV]

Excactly I also miss a Ranking of the best farming civ so far I watched this video I think 1. HRE 2. Englisch 3. Chinese ?

[@chronoscraft3728]

I’ve been waiting for this video since aoe4 launched, I’m so glad is out! Keep up the great content ;)

[@Kuddochan]

We were all waiting for this video. It was inevitable

[@Nachowsky]

"Thank you to those who pay me to watch plants grow" I love your subtle humor, keep up the good work! I'm pretty bad playing AoE but I love this games, so your videos really help me to improve (plus laughing a lot while watching them :D).

[@mayurkshirsagar8133]

I dont have a good unit for playing this game but this channel gives me the pleasure of that game instead, i love this channel man

[@ekimoleksander6068]

I'd love to see resource gather rates breakdown

[@CallioNyx]

That was fascinating. It's a surprisingly detailed simulation in the game.

[@iagocasabiellgonzalez7807]

Wow, devs haven't picked up a sickle in their lives. Great vid, as always!

[@nixxblikka]

For the chinese it was displayed correctly

[@skirnir393]

I remember watching your first videos several years ago and thinking that there was not enough material to continue making videos. Yet here you are in 2021 still making great videos. Thank's for the cool content and keep going on.

[@GatochanBolivia]

My man i know your channel because of aoe2 from like 7 years ago :3 and im so glad im still here :D your guides rreally help a lot bro, I REALLY HOPE YOU KEEP UPDATING THIS KIND OF VIDEOS FOR THE AoE4 COMMUNITY :3 thank you so!

[@oXMrUnknownXo]

Great video as always but would be nice if we could´ve a small summary at the end of the video due to the sheer amount of information thats provided :)

[@CallofDutyBlackOps28]

when i see the farms with the wheat, it reminds me of Rise of Nations, the sections suddenly having a yield; then the worker started to harvest the section. the little thing in games like this always was my favorite part; even if they were the smallest of things.

[@kvt1842]

Thank you for the constructive, approachable, and beginner-friendly guide, Spirit!

[@somebodyintheworld5036]

Holy shit. This is the kind of info and testing that makes me want to play the game more knowing actual tricks to make the mechanics go smoother.

[@avashsewram5817]

The attention to detail is amazing - it be nice to have mods to add like scarecrows to the farms, just to make it more aesthetically pleasing 🖼

[@WiredXDragon]

This was extremely helpful! I hope you do a deep dive into each civ eventually. I’ve been loving playing the Delhi and would love to see your take and advice on playing them.

[@Daniel-be6cj]

Right-clicking the mill is a great tip, it was driving me nuts laying down a ton of farms and having them just go through one at a time

[@EBCEu4]

Nice tutorial! Looks like we need a series, it would be useful to know how wood economy works in such great detail! Thank you!

[@emadsaberi]

Great testing! However, you're missing one final detail about Chinese farmers. In the Imperial Age Chinese have a unique technology at the university that increases all villager gather rates by 5% for each dynasty achieved. Considering there are 4 dynasties (Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming) there is the potential for a 20% increase to their farming efficiency. That, combined with the Imperial Official's supervise ability and the stacking granaries really makes their food output skyrocket.

[@tmhunter7]

1:45 That's what I keep telling my boss, but he didn't believe me until now. Thanks SOTL.

[@thefalseheroold7460]

This gave me a good chuckle. Thanks.

[@Patchnote2.0]

RimWorld in my Spirit of the Farm video? A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one!

[@Jamaramlolz]

This definitely answered some questions I didn't know I had

[@KwstasTsiropoulos]

PLEASE bring back the intros i can't be the only one who misses them

[@cutekittie9764]

Subbed and liked, commented for the algorithm. Let your channel grow as fast as rice on the Chinese farms!

[@sas_stk]

It's a quite usefull content. Also I like how automatically generated subtitles named the game as Age Vampires 4

[@HenryElfin]

Wow this is super helpful! Now I know why Mongol late game just have so much food, since their penalty is significantly less, and can be boosted by yam network

[@jayelborg]

"hey guys, its spirit of the law here..." i love it. Such a relaxing voice :D

[@sarcasmo57]

Good and thorough report, my dude.

[@skidloader1207]

Great vid as always - if I'm not mistaken the HRE inspiration Buff related to resource gathering can even be increased by 10% via a monastery tech!

[@ClanWiE]

I've been maining HRE and I was hoping you would mention Aachen! It's almost felt like a secret tech. I love the farming boost it provides.

[@bryanguerrero6213]

This is the kind of stuff I was missing from you! Miss this

[@Poetologist]

"...some of the questions you didn't even know you had." I did not have most of those questions, now I feel like I could write a thesis. Thank you :) Also love your humor and delivery, keep going :)

[@am3nnet]

This! Detailed analytics of aoe4. Waiting for the next building / unit

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Haven't been this excited in a while

[@makingivan]

So comprehensive. Thanks, SOTL.

[@johndowney6923]

This is absurdly thorough I'm subscribing. I'd vote for you too.

[@Rachenviel]

I'm vibrating of excitement!

[@phaserra]

These videos are the perfect subtitute for the missing wiki right now. Please make a playlist.

[@TheWarriorofHonor]

rejoice ! the farming updates have begun! how does the Rus' hunting bonus apply to farming btw?

[@HelloFutureMe]

I wonder what the reasoning was for farms giving infinite food.

[@thaipankatima658]

Probably people complaining that we have to keep coming back and have to click the 'Replant' button over and over on the mills in AOE2.

[@horakhty2217]

Perhaps it was a macro desicion at first forcing players to think multiple things but after AoE2 Definitive Editions auto seeding farms they just decided to remove the cost too. This is my guess which is probably completely wrong but here you go :SS edit: also farms in AoM had infitine food too perhaps they wanted that approach

[@Shero1337]

Age of mythology has infinite food farms so it's not completely out of the norm, though I doubt relic looked at AoM before making that decision.

[@JimRFF]

@@Shero1337 AoE3 also chose to do infinite food farms, as well as infinite gold plantations... the only truly finite resource in that game is actually wood, but you can get up to 2 factories for most civilizations that can both be toggled to produce infinite wood, and you can also control trade route nodes if they exist on a map to get an amount of any resource every time an npc trader comes by... so the idea of infinite resources has been played around with in the game series before, just not much in 2

[@Shero1337]

@@JimRFF I honestly forgot about AoE3, never could get into it. Great campaign though!

[@Allurian90]

Hi Spirit! Love your work. Just wanted to let you know that the "gather rate" UI is slightly untrustworthy. It just displays your income from the last minute, so will fluctuate semi-randomly if villager trips aren't an exact divisor of one minute. It's decent for ingame use but it might be a bigger effect than the some of the difference you're seeing (like the 1% from wheelbarrow).

[@bluebarrymore5442]

i feel so vindicated in min maxing my English farms now lol. TY sire you are doing the lords work.

[@acfefo9880]

Finally here, the video we've all been waiting for

[@AyuFan314]

oh my gosh, I didn't know such simple mechanic can be so complex!

[@1310y-d3t]

Been waiting for new vids so glad to see this glorious release.

[@Actimus123]

You answered a LOT of questions I never had.

[@Cyrribrae]

Wow. There is a lot of detail in this game that is superficially hidden so far. That's really cool!

[@AntonioZL]

I was expecting this video.

[@rezaniazmand4554]

Epic review, impressed with the data driven analysis.

[@DonYagamoth]

I have to admit, I haven't watched any of the other AoE4 videos so far. I just haven't had the time/interest to look into it. But... I see farming mechanics, I click ^_^

[@Choppytehbear1337]

You play Rimworld? That's awesome.

[@izzaragoza]

OK!... wow, this is a pretty nice research. I want to see you bringing us more research-

[@AndiSamiKnoll]

Yea! There are so many mechanics to be explained! Thanks!

[@grandgibbon2071]

The video we have all been waiting for.

[@vladimiralexanderlagos1477]

No one but SoTL could make a video about virtual farming so engaging and immersive.

[@kingsguard5614]

Did you take in account the gatherrate +5% per unlocked dynasty the chinese get as tech in the university? And would have loved to see how their gatherrate compares to others when the officer is overseeing the farm.

[@ianschleh8488]

THE AOE4 VIDEO WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR

[@Andy-dh2sv]

I was waiting for this, great stuff!

[@Footballar09]

Such an awesome video! Thank you for posting this. Loving AOE 4 so far

[@erccdang]

Major props to you spirit of the law and all the other video game scientists out there doing gods work! 😊😆💕

[@ZaylidinOfficial]

Great video, your content always makes AoE more fun and interesting!

[@midastheunwise2423]

Fantastic, this is the sort of content I need to not be an absolute pleb when playing this game. All the new techs and little mechanics are overwhelming and it's hard to know what's good and what's not. Gotta love those sweet sweet numbers.

[@missbelled6700]

lmao same, when in doubt or lacking a magic number, I just stick to making units and ignoring techs :P

[@purplatypus7405]

Hoping to get a video breaking down all the archer units! They seem to work so differently than aoe2. Also the Chinese special archers seem super weak to me but I won't lie it's still my favorite unit

[@YoloHoboGaming]

Thanks for this vid bro this will let me break the top 100 leaderboards

[@carmine0american0pie]

Nice work you did here. Thanks for the video !

[@RaWRpewpew]

love the visual variety in farms in aoe4

[@JaredVeale]

Thanks Spirit! This was super helpful

[@Guardian14Acky]

Love the AoE4 coverage!

[@matthewheadland7307]

Oh man “answer questions I didn’t know I had” exactly this.

[@chillingpanda7599]

WOW thank you so much was so helpful definitely answered a lot of my questions!

[@dembro27]

IT'S HERE! THE FARMING VIDEO! The best part is that farms can encircle Mills/TCs perfectly.

[@fieryphoenix586]

Grew up playing RTS games like Warcraft and Dune. Always wanted to get around to checking out Age of Empires. Looking forward to playing this game.

[@oojikarasuma1]

This is amazing and just beat all other channels hands down

[@TomLostWave]

Cant wait for specific civilization videos!

[@cloudbarrow]

You're an actual king. Thank you and take this sub!

[@LightMageMike]

*Gasp* The yearly farming update has come again and sooner than expected!

[@sc4rN]

Mate this is quality content! Thanks

[@bernhardhappach9392]

OMG someone hire this guy!

[@light_david7]

Farming videos are the best content.