Does Auric need a change?

[Lade]

Does Auric need a change when he becomes the God of winter? Pick all that apply please

EDIT: sorry about the typos in the poll, I really hate the words "to" and "too"

 

[mo123567]

Major changes

I'm definately with the people who suggest making him pretty much invincible with exception to the godslayer. Global effects or at least non-retreating ice while he's alive would be nice as well, if it can be done without wiping out people's processors. And, someone mentioned a more fantastic death when he is killed... I like that too.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

You are tempting me to select all of them .
Anyway, from what I have read, he can be too strong, if you place them on impassable terrain and cast his spell as a tactic.
With the recent changes in guardsman he should be much more easier to survive when accompanied by an army, though.
Making them stronger, could be giving the game to the Illians on a silver platter. But, again, if the Illians have managed to build him, as the related recent thread have proved, they should be able to win anyway, just Auric helps them do it a bit faster.
Having gone through all the trouble needed to ascend him, though, I guess they should get a bit more powerful pretty toy to play with. So, buff him, I say. It will be more fun

 

[Emptiness]

With the recent changes in guardsman he should be much more easier to survive when accompanied by an army, though.

Did a miss a change to Guardsman? All I've heard is talk.


(I didn't vote because I'm not qualified to have an opinion about Auric's strength and I don't like pie.)

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Did a miss a change to Guardsman? All I've heard is talk.


(I didn't vote because I'm not qualified to have an opinion about Auric's strength and I don't like pie.)

IIRC, a thread started because there was a change in a patch negating marksman if there is a unit with guardsman in the stack.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I've already voiced my specific suggestions about Auric, anyway Major Changes Needed. his mechanics feel rushed out of the door right now, and that is so not-ffh

 

[Bad Player]

OOh I like the idea of an Aurlic vic condition!!! Ideas???

 

[mahazel]

He needs two things: faster healling (or full heal in the beggining of player turn) and blitz, and he will be ok. Maybe some defence bonus too.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

I wonder who voted that Auric is too strong as it is, nerf, nerf... Kael maybe?

 

[darrelljs]

(March and Blitz) || (the ability to gain promotions + strength decrease)

Darrell

 

[Gigaz]

I don't like the Illian world spell. It's so damn boring when you play against Auric and you suddenly have 10-40 turns of anarchy. Can't he just cast a super blizzard that destroys every unit on one tile or something like that?

 

[PotatoOverdose]

If guardsman can protect him, all he needs is blitz and a heal increase and he'd be fine imo.

 

[KnightBoat]

I don't like the fact that one unit can get get lucky, and that's it. Permanent war, no diplomacy and your cities hit by the Draw, and one longbowman gets his 1% win and Auric is gone forever. So, maybe make him immortal, and that he can only be killed permanently by the Godslayer.

Speaking of, how do you get the Godslayer? Is it an event triggered by the Ascension ritual?

 

[WarKirby]

Auric eeds to be immortal unless killed by the godslayer. Normal units can still have their chance at "killing" him, but it would only earn them temporary respite, and far less experience than properly killing him, if any.

I've also mentioned before, some of his other flaws

1. He needs a lesser proportion of ice strength. As is, he's too vulnerable to magic immune units.

2. Snowfall should destroy roads, to prevent sneak attacks on him from afar.

3. He needs the cannibalize promotion, or something similar, so lots of little units can't be used to weaken him..

4. He needs blitz. Come on, really. A god who can only kill one thing per turn is pathetic.

 

[Mailbox]

I'd like to see his Snowfall be permanent and destroy unallied improvements/roads, but that's about all I'd change.

 

[PotatoOverdose]

Auric getting Immortal except vs. godslayer makes sense. Statistically if you have several hundred champions or other equivalent unit (which is not uncommon in the late-lategame when Auric is available), auric will loose. This makes no sense thematically or in accordance with the lore. However, flavor/rp/lore, as I've pointed out in other threads, is not a good reason for a balance change. A good reason for a balance change would be: any of the dragons, with a modest amount of xp, would have no problem in surpassing Auric in terms of raw strength. The same goes for a large number of other late game units that are also available much much earlier.

While I'm not opposed to the immortal argument, blitz+heal after combat would be the most balanced idea imo.

 

[orgonebox]

Personally, I told Auric he needed to change a long time ago. I was like, "Dude, I know you're bound for godhood and all that, but I don't care how cold it its, you've got to change the underpants at least several times a week, if not daily." And then Auric was all like, "The frivolities of which you speak, this undergarment, are nothing but temporary vanities which distract from the coming storm." And then I said, "Okay, but you've been eating baked beans and occasionally going to Arby's. Being around you in an enclosed space is just wrong."

So any chance we could snip him a new mammoth-hair flatus shield and tape it on somewhere? Thanks.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

one of the funniest posts ever

 

[WarKirby]

This makes no sense thematically or in accordance with the lore. However, flavor/rp/lore, as I've pointed out in other threads, is not a good reason for a balance change.

Here's a good reason for a balance change, then.

For the effort you have to go through to make auric, you could usually win many other victory conditions far easier. The Draw makes you declare permanant war on the entire world.

I believe building Auric should essentially be a victory nigh indestructible. in 95% of games, it's already won by the time someone gets as far as omniscience.


For the it takes to make auric, you could create an army of phalanxes, berserkers, eidolons, and immortals. And just go on a rampage around the world with them. As it stands, that would be far more useful, and you'd probably have a better chance of killing your enemies.

 

[Dominicius]

Auric eeds to be immortal unless killed by the godslayer. Normal units can still have their chance at "killing" him, but it would only earn them temporary respite, and far less experience than properly killing him, if any.

I've also mentioned before, some of his other flaws

1. He needs a lesser proportion of ice strength. As is, he's too vulnerable to magic immune units.

2. Snowfall should destroy roads, to prevent sneak attacks on him from afar.

3. He needs the cannibalize promotion, or something similar, so lots of little units can't be used to weaken him..

4. He needs blitz. Come on, really. A god who can only kill one thing per turn is pathetic.

Again I agree with almost everything except for blitz and maybe cannibalize. Blitz because I feel that it should be the job of snowfall to actually kill massive stacks of enemy units and cannibalism only because if you make him immortal then having him fall to massive numbers won’t be an issue.


I also suggest a massive overhaul of how his abilities work. You see, Mulcan is supposed to be god, meaning that he would be able to affect the whole world and not just the place where he is currently standing. His power should be felt no matter how far away they are.

I think he should be given a spell that functions like the ICBM from vanilla civ, dealing massive damage to any unit in a 3x3 area, destroying all improvements, lowering city population and turning the surrounding tiles into ice (changed from deserts/fallout). However, instead of causing global warming it would cause global cooling. Having it used a lot during the game would cause random tiles to change into ice rather quickly. Using it would also reveal the position of Auric on the global map.

I think this is balanced by the fact FFH spell system only allows a unit to cast a single spell every turn making abuse of this impossible. However, there remains the issue of flight and high speed, so obviously it should not be usable in terrain where he could not normally walk and once used it would make Auric lose flight for the rest of the turn and have only a fraction of his speed on the next. Auric himself and the unit wielding the Godslayer would be immune to this ability while units with spell resistance would only have a slight defense (Avatar does lower spell resistance by -50%).

This will make you truly feel like you are controlling a god rather than just a strong unit.


Another idea that was suggested (not only be me) is to have Auric turn water into ice allowing Illian armies to walk across oceans on a trail of ice would further enhance the role of intercontinental warfare that Auric currently holds.


Another idea that was suggested was to have the Illians auto win once they have Auric Ascended and a certain % of the world is covered in ice. While I think that this is nice it just doesn’t give the same sense of satisfaction. I suggested that once a large part of the world is covered in snow (probably around 75-80% of the landmass) Auric could use something akin to an Ultimate Stasis, working the same way as the world spell but having an infinite duration. Granted this is basically the same as just winning the game but on the other hand it would truly allow the player to feel what it is truly like to put the world into eternal stasis as the God of Winter. The only way to end this would be, of course, to kill Auric with the Godsalyer as Kylorin had done in his time.


Lastly there just remains the issue of improving Auric’s death animation and the effects of his death. But these problems are really a no brainer and are easily solved without input from the community. It is only important to know that they are there, the rest I believe, will sort it out eventually.