I do like the idea of giving them invisibility and always hostile, though I think it would be hard to balance them. They must be invisible enough to have a chance to infiltrate, but not be so invisible that it's a given. They must also be weak enough that they can't be used as hidden nationality defenders, but still strong enough that there is some risk in attacking them.
Yeah, that could be tricky. ATM (In case anyone doesn't know) they're "Invisible Animal". Given when they show up in the game I think that means they're almost always visible.
What other kinds of invisibility are there that might apply or work?
I think the best way to balance them is to give their spells some delay, that way players have some time react before they lose their food and the creepers can't destroy a farm right after it's built.
Regardless of anything else a delay could indeed be good.
Could even combine the two. When Arawn's Dust is cast, the creeper receives a promotion, let's call it "Wilting", that will decay in a short while (duration or chance per turn). Wilting give some kind of invisibility, holds the creeper and makes it always hostile. When Wilting decays the creeper is killed along with the improvement.
I'm not sure. It might make the whole process just a pointless irritation for all involved. You position your Creepers and hit the "Dust" spell, your opponent comes out and stomps the Creepers. Everybody clicks some and nothing changes...
OTOH... if the delay is short enough maybe the area's garrison can't get them all. I guess that's better than the failure chance they used to have (which I removed 'cuz of the pointless annoyance factor): A sufficiently large garrison can stomp all the Creepers. That adds an element of strategy, avoiding "pointless."
OTyetanotherH, horsemen could cover a rather large area pretty effectively, especially since there will almost certainly be a road to the Creeper's square.
I like the idea of the delay using an expiration %. Probably a fairly high one - it may be really hard to get all the Creepers before an improvement is zapped - even if you're using horses - but with luck even a few defenders could fully protect a city. Sometimes. Adds some variability and/or suspense to the process.
You mention Wilting being associated with some kind of invisibility - something beyond Invisible Animal?
A single unit parked on a Resource could completely guard it from Creepers. I don't think that's very interesting. Maybe, in addition to all the other changes, make the Dust spell range 1, with a low per-square failure chance. (And probably reduce the # of Creepers.) That should even things out between humans and the AI (human would know to place guards if Scions are around) and keep Creepers vs. guards as an active contest.
Alternatively, is there a way to make the invisible Creeper displace a guard when it casts the Dust spell? Keep the spell's req as on a farm, plantation, etc., so it's not going to be used to kick defenders out of forts or cities.
Xien:
Creepers cannot be seen by anyone but the owner, UNTIL they cast their spell to destroy an improvement.
Maybe keep Young Creepers as Invisible Animal, then Mature Creepers (which have the Dust spell) get full invisibility, but revert to Animal when Dust is cast? Or is needing a Recon unit around too higher a bar for the AI?
I like the idea of Creepers initially being somewhat visible but then going "off the scope" until they act. Can't be used as cheap defender anymore, but that wasn't supposed to be their primary use anyway, and as fully invisible they'll make even better scouts.
So far I've had a couple of false starts. Already my first problem is starting location. It's almost humourous to me seeing corn, cows, wine and the like and thinking "Damn it, useless!" Ideally the perfect starting plot would be plains/hills/gold, but the best I can usually manage is just plains/hills/forest; maybe plains/incense too. How do you guys pick up a start? My problem with plains/hills/forest is I end up with massive production, very little to do with it. So far all I've done with it is build a horde of Centinis and tried to invade someone else and take their capital, although it's almost always fallen flat (even after paying for their "15%" (aka 5%) combat boost), which is making me think pursuing that route to get a second desirable city (or at least ruins for one of my Awakened to Settle near) isn't advisable.
