Making the Doviello more unique

[philippe]

Lurkers comment: I like these thoughts for the doviello.

 

[zup]

Well I have a game running and the only empire that rivals my own in land is the Doviello. They probably have more cities too and certainly the largest and most powerful army. Good thing they are on the other side of the world. Too bad the wait between turns became unbearable. And it's not even turn 400. This game puts my laptop on its knees. Interestingly enough they are at peace with the Amurites, whom they usually crush into ashes of history. So far Illians have not died either. Lanun they wiped out. Poor Falamar probably has only one ship left. Good thing for my diplomacy is I joined the war against Lanun. +4 attitude bonus for doing nothing is not bad in my opinion.

They get a good start as Charadon has barbarian trait and don't need buildings to create better units, particularly axemen. For example, in the same game Svartalfar have hordes of warriors when I have champions.

 

[Avahz Darkwood]

I would also add a suggestion to allow their hero unit (can not remember his name, but the one you start with) gain the ability to learn the Hero promo if he can get combat 5 before he is eaten by a few axemen.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

nice suggestion. I tend to get attached to Lucian

 

[Doviello]

I nearly always play Doviello, Mahala, so this thread is very interesting. Its weird to think of my guys as beastmen when i have huge walled cities full of wonders and towns/farms all over a continent. Id like to see my empire more 'bestial', i mean, no roads, hidden cottages in forests, maybe nomad cities that can pack up and move somewhere else, etc But what about the seas? You do need big productive cities with drydocks and stuff to pump out a good navy, and that dosent really fell "doviello"... unless you get new kind of beastmen, like, 'seaman', or maybe you could get upgrades on your infantry, like 'wings', 'gills', 'claws' (so you can climb mountains), etc, for a diverse civilization of wild people.

 

[orangelex44]

I wouldn't see the Doviello as very good seamen. If they absolutely had to cross a long distance across water, I think they'd hire out or try brute force; i.e. building tons of crappy rafts and hoping at least a couple survive once everthing's done with.

 

[Domingo]

I think it would be nice if Doviello animal cages had a bonus to food (them eating the beasts) and/or randomly spawned whichever animal types were present in the city (them training the animals for war). That would help offset some of the tundra/ice disadvantage and at least give them an alternative tech tree to pursue in the early game.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I still think the biggest boost they need is the ability to have their fight each other for free xp, upgrades, etc.

The ability to steal commences from defeating enemy units (which is pretty easy in FF) is good too.

 

[Fenboy]

I still think the biggest boost they need is the ability to have their fight each other for free xp, upgrades, etc.

There's an interesting ability in Battle for Middle Earth II where Orc units can fight each other for XP. Perhaps that ability could be telegraphed into FFH2.

 

[orangelex44]

I think the Warhammer guys have something like that for Orcs in that mod, as well...

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

speaking of lucian: I think it'd be better to give the hero promotion to him instead than the war machine: it makes way more sense, see Lanun: guybrush vs the black wind. by the way, the war machine is at Machinery, a tech that takes a looooong time to get as the doviello... maybe it should be weaker and available at an earlier tech. I'd put it in the metal-working line instead of the engineer-line, actually... construction->engineering->machinery doesn't make you think about wild barbarians now, does it? while bronze working->smelting->iron working is way more flavourful for them. Iron working as the prereq for the war machine is fair imho

 

[Stoik]

I agree about the hero's promotion idea for Lucian. But it won't be a free unit, U would have to build it even without a tech requirement. And it sounds weird for me a machine that could earn experience, even if his driver can. And Doviello have to be powerfull at the start, so....

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It does seem like it would make more sense for Lucian to be their hero, doesn't it?

As for The War Machine gaining experience, I'd say that is this represents Dentaro gaining experience and gathering materials to to add to his machine every time. The machine is not static, but gets improved whenever Dentaro finds something in the soil of war which he thinks could be useful.

 

[Stoik]

U r right, but if i follow u, the war machine get experience by adding material from war, but hero 's promotion is like a training gain, (or something "divine", i don't know)(no need to battle, time is enough), so hero's promotion don't fit in my opinion. It would be better if Lucian was Doviello's hero. War Machine could only be a powerful unit, but without that promotion.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

cool, you could have the war machine have a random chance to get a random buff every time it defeats a unit... ( maybe not all of them, only those that look fitting )

 

[Domingo]

Can't it be both?

 

[Nor'easter]

@orangelex44

Regarding the Doviello's sailing, I guess I tend to see them as somewhat resembling the Vikings. Maybe it's because their cities have Scandinavian names (Urslo, Suderholm, etc.). If they're intended to be modeled on the Vikings, then they would be able seamen.

@Stoik

I agree with you that if -- IF -- Lucian gets the hero promotion, he shouldn't be a free unit, since it would be overpowered for one civ to begin with a hero unit.

 

[Saytr]

I always thought a civ needed to be made that could survive a Lanun navy. The Doviello navy could all start with the promotion Juggernaut. Juggernaut would remove 1 point, but add 1 .

 

[merciary]

The only problem is that would infer that the Doviello are innovated ,other than Dentaro, which is what gave the Vikings their naval advantage (better ships). So I can only see their ship being what they ca steal or some basic rafts or canoes.

 

[Saytr]

It's not the ships that are great- hence the slow ships from poor design- it's the men on the ships. The crew of the ships are crazed. They'll throw their own crewmen at the other ship's masts to slow it, leap large distances to board, etc.