Thread by @SandyofCthulhu

How I created the Mayans for Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors. First off, I created them basically so the new building set for the Aztecs would be useful with more than a single civ. I didn't want the Mayans to have gunpowder or horses, so they needed some way to make themselves useful.

The Aztecs were already going to be the warrior tough-guy civ, so the Mayans needed to be a economic civ.

First off I created the Eagle Warrior to be the horse-substitute for both Mayans & Aztecs. This is a fast unit with a distinctive look (so you can tell it's not the same as other infantry). It's not as fast as cavalry, though so people with horses can still think they're cool. On the other hand, the eagle warrior isn't cavalry, so it gets infantry upgrades & isn't weak against pikes.

Eagle Warriors didn't have as much hit points as cavalry (since they're infantry) so I gave them a slight bonus against cavalry to help them compete one-on-one. They're a solid unit, which can be the backbone of your battle plan, but also which you can ignore if you have a better plan.

To replace the mounted Scout from other civs, I gave both Aztecs & Mayans a starting Eagle Warrior, which also had the side benefit of making them a little scary in the early age.
1/

But the Eagle Warrior, cool as it was, was shared between Aztec & Mayan so didn't make them distinctive. Because the Aztecs were so famous for their awesome infantry, I decided to boost the eagle warriors a bit for Mayans, and gave the Mayans a special tech which almost doubles the eagle's hit points. Ouch. The Aztec eagle warriors can still compete, because of the Aztec infantry edge (faster training & higher attack). So Aztec vs. Mayan eagles is almost a wash, but the Mayan eagles last a LOT longer against the Europeans.

Now that was taken care of, I decided to focus on archers for the Mayan main weapon. I had their archers be cheaper in the various ages AND their unique unit - the Plumed Archer - was one of the most interesting archers in the game. It was really hard to kill, for an archer, but had a weak attack. This made it able to kill things that are vulnerable to archers while it could last a long time against counter-archers.

I also chose to make Mayan skirmishers NOT be cheaper - so they were comparatively worse than their archers. The intent here was that they had good archers & eagle runners, and shouldn't rely on skirms. I hate civs that can do "everything" and didn't want the Mayans to be one of these.

Also I knew someone would complain about the fact that Mayans get access to crossbowmen. Tough. We're not going to make another whole new unit with identical stats to the European crossbow just for some kind of fake historical verisimilitude. Remember - our whole team was less than a 10th the size of Age 2. We had to pick and choose our battles.

Below are plumed archers from the Definitive edition which I think look cool except for their comically long and impossible feathers (can't think of a single bird besides Ostriches with plumes that big).
2/

Well as I said earlier, I wanted the Mayans to be economic. I'd already handled their military so while it wasn't maybe the mightiest or most interesting military in the game, it at least could hold up to an enemy. And perhaps with a good economy they could outproduce the bad guys.

I wanted the Mayans to have an economic bonus that kicked in RIGHT AWAY, at game start. Why? Because I wanted a first-time player to immediately see that the Mayans were cool and different. Also, since this was an expansion pack, I could rely on players not being total n00bs - they already know the game. For this bonus, I gave them an extra starting villager, which is, of course huge.

Immediately the hue & cry went up. "An extra villager is WAAAY too good, Sandy. What have you done?" It lasted one playtest. I still wanted the extra villager, but knew I'd have to somehow modify the advantage. What I came up with was starting the Mayans with 50 less food (it costs 50 food to recruit a villager). Now the first thing a player does when they start the game is immediately queue up some villagers in the town center. But the Mayans can queue up one less. But it doesn't hurt them because they START with one more, and can set the new guy to scout for berries, build a hut, or hunt a boar. It's a fun ability, and the 50 less food means if you don't use that extra dude wisely, you've lost any advantage in a couple minutes.

More to the point, players immediately "got" how good this bonus was, and it made the Mayans interesting and fun right away.
3/

However, the +1 villager bonus, while cool, wasn't really enough for an "econ civ", so I needed something down the road. Something long lasting, but also different from what any other civ had. I had the idea of making their resources last longer. So a pile of berries that would normally give 150 food has 172 food if only Mayans pick from it. Obviously we had to do the hated "math" to make this work, but we made our programmer handle that part. I just told him what I wanted and he did it.

It helped that I had Angelo Laudon on my team. He was hands-down the best programmer I've ever worked with and yes that includes Sid Meier and John Carmack (sorry guys). Not just because he is good at coding, but also because he is polite, quiet, and really "gets" games. At Ensemble Studios, we all learned that when Angelo spoke up in a company meeting, we had to hush and listen. It was funny to hear the gaming veterans shouting down newcomers at these meetings. "Quiet quiet! Angelo is saying something. We have to hear him." Angelo didn't talk much but when he did it was cogent, important, and straight to the point. I personally can't ever remember anyone overruling Angelo on anything. I'm sure it happened - Angelo probably remembers it. But I don't.

Anyway Angelo made the Mayan econ bonus work just like I wanted it. And it was interesting because their workers didn't work any faster than anyone else. They chopped wood or mined gold at the same rate. It's just that over the long haul they had to build new mining camps slightly less often, and they could stay eating sheep or deer or boars a little longer before they needed to lay down farms. It was a gift that kept on giving.

Also unlike some econ bonuses, it was "invisible" to the player. He knew he had it - he just didn't have to DO anything to take advantage of it. It was always just there. Helping.

It's really my second-favorite econ bonus I ever came up with. The first of course being the Hun no-house rule.
/end.