[Vote] (5-06) Brute Force and Difficulty Barbarian Bonus Rescaling

[pineappledan]

Brute Force current bonus vs barbs: 33%
Brute force is currently on Adventurers, Warriors, and Spearmen (and their respective UUs)

Current bonuses vs barbarians from difficulty:

New handicaps:
Difficulty: Human - AI
Settler: 60 - 0
Chieftain: 40 - 20
Warlord: 33 - 33
Prince: 33 - 33
King: 25 - 40
Emperor: 25 - 40
Immortal: 10 - 50
Deity: 0 - 50

Lower Brute Force bonus vs barbarians to +25% (down from +33%)
remove Brute Force promotion from Spearmen (ie. revert change from last congress)

reasoning:

• Warriors would effectively stay the same or be slightly stronger vs barbarians at most difficulties, losing 8% off their promotion, but hedging that against difficulty. slingers, spearmen, scouts etc. would become stronger vs barbs
• The stated reason for adding brute force to spears last congress was that warriors are a little too good vs barbs for their cost relative to spears, which are only slightly better, but much more expensive, but that reasoning fails to account for difficulty bonuses
• Weakening brute force slightly would widen the gap between spearmen and warriors, making warriors less "efficient" vs barbs relative to spearmen, and making upgrading more worthwhile
• increasing bonuses vs barbarians overall satisfies a general complaint that barbarians have gotten too punishing, especially on lower difficulties

 

[Stalker0]

MAGI: Looks like your picture link isn't working, and needs an update. @pineappledan

 

[pineappledan]

fixed OP

 

[Stalker0]

Probably the biggest change this gives is in two main places:

• vs Barb naval ships: You will now get a +15% bonus against them.
• Mid-Game renaissance push. Often when your doing that mid game expansion to islands or a new continent, you see a lot of barbs. The explorer unit has brute force but all of your other military does not, so again you'll see a ~15% increase there, with an 8% boost for the explorer.

Immortal will be slightly weaker at a 10% rather than 15% boost (or +3% for the brute force unit).
Deity gets no benefit, or an 8% nerf on the brute force units.

so that's your overall summary of what the proposal does.

 

[pineappledan]

I can sponsor

 

[DoveCDog]

Would this proposal increase the AI bonus vs barbarians from 30% to 50% for all units? Isn't that too much?

 

[pineappledan]

The both current and proposed human and AI bonuses Vs barbarian are listed separately for all difficulty levels.

Are you referring only to the deity difficulty, where I propose increasing the bonus from 30% to 50% for AI? The bonus does not increase between immortal and deity right now, and between the proposed nerf to brute force and the increased threat of barbarians from the past few version, I think an additional step up for this bonus would be appropriate for immortal/deity.