admtanaka
Warlord
Good news on the mutation system; I'm looking forward to seeing the changes in action.
Defending improvements from trolls with warriors is very nearly impossible. They're a recon unit, so i can't promote vs them, they have high defense strength, receive defensive bonuses, have a first strike, have a high base withdrawal chance, don't take river penalties (first city is almost always riverside), and heal really rapidly.
Enraged trolls are the worst offenders because they can move and pillage, and there's no chance of killing one attacking with a warrior.
Perhaps Enrage could weaken a units defensive strength significantly. It doesn't seem like a berserk unit would make good use of terrain to defend themselves; more likely they'd attack on their own first. Having Enrage cause the unit to lose terrain defense bonuses and possibly a unit of defensive strength wouldn't do much in the late game, but would help against trolls and possibly also minotaurs.
Just popping in to say that all the feedback on mutation has been listened to. I've done a few things to the system.
First off, I changed the weighting algorithm; Rarer promotions will show up with the right frequency now, rather than not at all. Had a freak with +1 strength and Crazed; Some of the rarest good and bad effects.
Second, I've modified the ratio of Good/Bad/Neutral mutations; It was 25/25/50, it is now 40/30/30.
Thirdly, I have added MaxApplications; Can define the maximum amount of each mutation effect that a unit can receive. If you are at that max, the promotion is not considered valid and is ignored. This has also led to some more varied mutations.
Has there been any adjustment to the current 'feature' of mutations changing when you upgrade the unit?
Also, have the totally bizarre mutations (ex. -10 first strikes) been removed?
Thanks
Hmm. How exactly are mutations changing when the unit is upgraded? I'm trying to reproduce this, but am unable to; Upgrading Warrior to Swordsman maintains the same mutations.
Defending improvements from trolls with warriors is very nearly impossible. They're a recon unit, so i can't promote vs them, they have high defense strength, receive defensive bonuses, have a first strike, have a high base withdrawal chance, don't take river penalties (first city is almost always riverside), and heal really rapidly.
Early game all i can do is cower in my city and hope they choose to suicide rather than pillage, unless i'm playing a civ that gets some overwhelming instant military advantage. I've had a couple games i just gave up because i got wave after wave of trolls who would strip pillage every improvement i had (re)built before charging my city, or worse yet just running off to lurk outside my borders.
Personally I dislike the idea. It would just add more complexity for the sake of complexity without giving any real benefit.
Also, there is something that was always bugging me about the Arcane trait.
It gives just one real benefit (the free Potency promotion). Meanwhile Spiritual gives that, Mobility and no anarchy.
So why is there a trait that does all that Arcane does but better. And why is Arcane so neglected?
I don't know if it is a balance issue or a bug :
in the victory conditions I had (for religious)
FoL 12%, Esus 0%
Esus is present in at least 10 cities out of 17 cities in the whole world.
I think it might be related to the fact that CoE in any city is hidden from the other civs if they don't have CoE as state religion.
Thus it is not counted toward religion victory.
So I don't know if the victory condition doesn't work for CoE (bug)
or if CoE is deprived of victory condition (balance issue).