Jabarto
Emperor
Having recently gotten into XML editing, I've spent a good deal of time lately looking up old discussions on this forum to try and get a nuanced understanding of the mechanics I want to change before I go through with editing them. However, while there are many threads discussing the merits of the Drill promotions, I haven't seen many suggestions on how to mod them, or at least not as many as there are for, say, rebalancing civics and leader traits.
I recently posted in another thread about how I modded the Drill line from their original values:
Drill I - 1 first strike chance
Drill II - 1 first strike, -20% collateral damage
Drill III - 2 first strike chances, -20% collateral damage
Drill IV - 2 first strikes, -20% collateral damage
to these:
Drill I - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
Drill II - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
Drill III - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
Drill IV - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
My reasoning being that, unlike all of the other promotions, which generally have linear progressions, Drill is grossly uneven. Drill 1 is the most singularly worthless promotion in the game, offering a 50% chance of a minor bonus that a fair percentage of units are immune to, whereas the full line of Drill promotions offer a bonus that (from what I've heard) is comparable to an equivalent number of Combat upgrades. What I want is to make them roughly equal at all levels, not only at the end of the line.
On reflection, though, I have some concerns about doing this. They are best summarized by a debate I read in the "Protective Underestimated" thread, in which it was pointed out that since Drill often lets a unit win a battle unscathed, they are very useful in taking cities, as most of their oppostion will have been eroded away by siege units and the matter of base strength becomes less relevant. A similar situation arises in defending cities, where defenders get enough bonuses that even a few of them can hold off entire armies if they have enough first strikes, especially if they also have City Garrison, which as you probably guessed is complicated by the Protective trait and the fact that it confers both of those bonuses.
The point that I'm trying to get at is that while I want to give the Drill promotions a linear progression, I'm worried that giving too many first strikes too soon could be very overpowering, especially when you consider the collateral damage defense and the fact that Drill opens up most of the same promotions that Combat would. Further, since I don't have a lot of warmongering experience I'm probably not the best judge of that to begin with. So, I'd like to get a few opinions on this. What do you think of the Drill line as it stands? Would you mod it, and if so, how? Do my changes seem too powerful/too weak?
I recently posted in another thread about how I modded the Drill line from their original values:
Drill I - 1 first strike chance
Drill II - 1 first strike, -20% collateral damage
Drill III - 2 first strike chances, -20% collateral damage
Drill IV - 2 first strikes, -20% collateral damage
to these:
Drill I - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
Drill II - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
Drill III - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
Drill IV - 1 first strike, 1 first strike chance, -15% collateral damage
My reasoning being that, unlike all of the other promotions, which generally have linear progressions, Drill is grossly uneven. Drill 1 is the most singularly worthless promotion in the game, offering a 50% chance of a minor bonus that a fair percentage of units are immune to, whereas the full line of Drill promotions offer a bonus that (from what I've heard) is comparable to an equivalent number of Combat upgrades. What I want is to make them roughly equal at all levels, not only at the end of the line.
On reflection, though, I have some concerns about doing this. They are best summarized by a debate I read in the "Protective Underestimated" thread, in which it was pointed out that since Drill often lets a unit win a battle unscathed, they are very useful in taking cities, as most of their oppostion will have been eroded away by siege units and the matter of base strength becomes less relevant. A similar situation arises in defending cities, where defenders get enough bonuses that even a few of them can hold off entire armies if they have enough first strikes, especially if they also have City Garrison, which as you probably guessed is complicated by the Protective trait and the fact that it confers both of those bonuses.
The point that I'm trying to get at is that while I want to give the Drill promotions a linear progression, I'm worried that giving too many first strikes too soon could be very overpowering, especially when you consider the collateral damage defense and the fact that Drill opens up most of the same promotions that Combat would. Further, since I don't have a lot of warmongering experience I'm probably not the best judge of that to begin with. So, I'd like to get a few opinions on this. What do you think of the Drill line as it stands? Would you mod it, and if so, how? Do my changes seem too powerful/too weak?
