FfH2 0.32 Balance Feedback

[vali]

I enjoyed the constellations, but I agree they were hogging all the special events. Maybe tie them to a second counter, and have them change every five, maybe ten turns?

Secondly, in my game as Cardith Lorda blight bumped all my cities down by a third and kept them there for the rest of the game, greatly weakening my nation. There needs to be some more late game health boosting buildings, or a way to weaken the blight. Or maybe have blight only last for a limited number of turns, or weaken in strength over time.

Enclaves are nice, because by the time you get them and start growing again your city has most of the improvements to support the larger population.

 

[Blackmantle]

Blight indeed does go away with time (and pestilence which can happen multiple times depending on counter uses the same mechanics albeit a bit lower in effect. So that may be what caused to make it happen "again"). One unhealth a turn and is tied to city-size (so bigger cities like a Kuoritates Metropolis = much bigger unhealth.)
So working as designed (and much better than the Version pre BtS. That one really sucked in a very unfun way.).

There is a way to prevent or delay blight though: Work to actively lower the armageddon counter (sanctifying ruins and finishing of evil civs.). Blight is meant to suck. (And Cardith is Good so you should try that flavorwise as well. That civ really has to lose alot by Armageddon. playwise and lorewise.)

The only real problem seems to be that blight can happen again if you lower the AC below 40 and it then goes above 40 again. Don't know if that has allready been fixed / is easiely fixable.

 

[xienwolf]

Is it intended that the Lightning Elementals spawned by Air Elementals are permanent? I ran a test with both .32a and .31e thinking that I had caused it myself in my MODCOMP, but every Lightning Elemental I spawned was without duration.

 

[Grey Fox]

It would be pretty lame if they wernt permanent.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think that they should not be permanent, but should start with all the promotions of the Air elemental that spawned it (at least the empower and mobility promotions, if not sentry and flying)

I think they should have air affinity (and maybe no base strength)

Duration from combat could also be nice.

 

[Wyrmhero]

Not sure exactly how much balancing this needs, but since constellations are the most common event so far, the Grigori are quite badly hit by this. They never get anything from them, as they are Neutral, and can't adopt a religion.

 

[xienwolf]

Is it intentional that Nox Noctis makes units so completely hidden that not even Hawks and other "Can see Invisible_Land" units can see anything outside of the cities?

EDIT: I played with it some more and it is even worse: Not even Revelation can reveal the units, nor can it even be cast when they are in range.

As an added bonus, I found that Revelation is not set to force the game to refresh the screen, so when you cast it to reveal an invisible unit you will be able to mouseover the tile and see the data on the unit, but their model will not show up on the screen until something else causes a refresh.

 

[daladinn]

ok ,

i have not tried it yet , but does this mean we are back to having fire ball throwing invisible workers again?

 

[Blackmantle]

Sounds fun.

Perhaps should rather give the Hidden promotion instead with a duration of a turn or until the beginning of next turn (if thats not the same) to all your units in your borders and reapply every of your turns?

Otherwise workers and other noncombats should be excluded perhaps?

 

[loocas]

I don't remember the discussion about this before it made it into the new version, but is the 90% damage limit on illusions supposed to mitigate Gibbon as well as Alazkan?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Gibbon's summons will be non-lethal, but that makes it easier for him to kill off enemies himself, for free xp.

 

[Zechnophobe]

It's very much a nerf for Alazkan, though I think a reasonable one.

Gibbon seems sorta like he got caught in the path of it though, since I didn't find him particularly unbalanced.

 

[loocas]

It's very much a nerf for Alazkan, though I think a reasonable one.

Gibbon seems sorta like he got caught in the path of it though, since I didn't find him particularly unbalanced.

He's able to summon before most other units, but once you get Archmages he loses some effectiveness. I suggest removing Illusionist from him.

 

[loocas]

Sorry if I'm repeating someone: I don't like Loki having the Mutate Spell. It takes away the fun of the Freaks, which is some of the game's best art and a yummy mechanic for the Balseraphs. Now I'm better off mutating an entire stack of swordsmen or warriors when I'm taking them to war. I liked the inherent risk of having Crazed freaks in my cities.

One other things, if it weren't for Inspiration I would suggest that Vampires have Mind magic rather than Death. The new Death II makes them even more powerful (needlessly). Charm and Domination, however, are very suitable for them.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Sure, gibbon can summon earlier, but you have to be CoE. It's a macro balance thing that works out nicely I'd say.

And while Loki can mutate, you generally have him off in other civ's causing trouble, not near your cities. I think the greatest strength of freaks is that you can build 'em, and then throw useless ones into the arena, until they are either not useless, or dead. Ones you like, you upgrade to swordsmen.

 

[xalien]

Is it intentional that Nox Noctis makes units so completely hidden that not even Hawks and other "Can see Invisible_Land" units can see anything outside of the cities?

Huh? You mean CoE shrine makes units invisible or something?

Edit: nvm, just read the in-game description.

 

[Polycrates]

Sorry if I'm repeating someone: I don't like Loki having the Mutate Spell. It takes away the fun of the Freaks, which is some of the game's best art and a yummy mechanic for the Balseraphs. Now I'm better off mutating an entire stack of swordsmen or warriors when I'm taking them to war. I liked the inherent risk of having Crazed freaks in my cities.

This is something that really bugs me too. The Freaks are totally cool, but there's never any reason you'd want to build them.
The other aspect of this (even without Loki's spell) is their high cost; 60 hammers is a lot for a unit that is rarely as good as a swordsman (especially when you factor in the cost of the Freak Show and the tech cost). It also means that it only costs 5 gold to upgrade to swordsmen, so there's never any reason to keep the unit itself (and its incredible art) around.
I've been playing with Mutate-less Loki and 30-hammer freaks and it works really nicely. Freaks are worthwhile as an early alternative to the bronze working path, without being overpowered; and the flipside to their cheap cost is a 65-gold cost to upgrade, which is a serious investment to reserve only for the very best. And you get heaps of cool mutant units around with cool art, and it just feels a lot more flavourful to me.

 

[uberfish]

Loki having mutate is fine, remember he costs 180h which is a lot early game and I like the choice we have right now between whether to keep him at home to mutate/buff our own units, or to send him out to try and cause revolts in other civs' cities.

I agree that freaks should cost 30h though. I'd actually like to see their art stolen for the balseraph swordsman, call it a Mutant or something.

 

[loocas]

I'm sure the reason Freaks are so expensive is for post-Bronze Working, so you can't have 30h + 5g swordsmen with random promotions.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I personally don't like the mutate spell at all. There shouldn't be spells that have the same effect as their mana's passive effect. It takes away from the passive effect, and from Freaks. I still think that Chaos 2 should be summon Chaos Marauder. (In my version, I added this spell, and made the marauders start mutated. Summons also start enraged, and enraged is not removed by combat in my version.