So yeah, having now downloaded the new version and read up on what yummy changes I can look forward to once I get down to playing it, I do of course have a few thoughts, or perhaps more pertinently, questions. So I'll just chug 'em out here and let myself be enlightened.
Additions/Removals:
13. Removed the resource Stone.
Why, in particulars, this move? I know you work against perceived redundancy, but really, is having Stone
and Marble really any more redundant than the bazillion different food resources? And furthermore, if Stone is now removed, will Marble be made more common, or is it just meant to make us appreciate the rarity of owning on one as such?
21. Removed the Guard Station building.
No more maintenance reductions for the Bannor eh? And those were so lovely for maintaining those nice, big,
vast law-abiding empires.. *wistful sigh* But I suppose between Sabathiel's Organized trait and the new Law mana bonus, we'll make do.
22. Added the Affinity mechanic. The unit gains a bonus to strength (either to base strength or to a damage type depending on the mana) equal to his affinity times the owners amount of that mana.
Ver' nice! Ver' nice indeed!
I strongly like this idea. Allows you to customize in an interesting way, and also encourages (or at least rewards) you to actually consider owning in excess of 1 Mana of every type, which I always felt was
lacking previously. Sure, starting out with the first level of a sphere for Adepts was good, but.. Really, as opposed to being able to access a whole different sphere? It was seldom worth it. But it seems like this version takes a HUGE step in the direction of making it worthwhile to focus on fewer types of magic, which I personally feel is
awesome.
23. Added the BUILDING_MAX_BONUSES_NEEDED global define and set it to 3. Meaning any building only needs 3 of its bonus requirements to be built (ie: Lesser towers will only need 3 of their 4 bonus requirements to be built).
This means, overall, that it is easier to achieve a Tower of Mastery victory, if I'm reading it right. You don't need to collect
every single type of mana, just a majority of them, in essence, yes? In which case it probably is a good move, because a Tower victory was nigh-on impossible in my experience, so this should make it viable, while still being tough as nails to achieve.
27. Removed the disciple cycle promotions (Invigorating Passion, Relentless Devotion, Unquenchable Vengeance, Purifying Ardor, Habitual Conditioning, Divine Favor and Immaculate Piety).
Why this? That was one very short duration of stay.. Granted, I didn't use them much myself, but that was in part because they were simply new, I hadn't yet gotten used to thinking about them as a part of the mod and all. Did they not work as intended, or did you just feel they didn't add anything?
Balance changes:
1. Giant Spiders get defensive bonuses.
Eee! Giant Spiders get defensive bonuses
in addition to their current level of strength, or are they just being revamped to being stronger on the defense than the offense? Because they are pretty damn lethal as is, in my experience, without being nigh-impossible to root out as well. But if they are made weaker on the attack, but tougher on defense, I guess it would balance itself out more.
15. Tar Demon changed from 4/6 to 2/7 strength. When killed a tar demon is split into 2 2/3 tar demons. When a 2/3 tar demon is killed he splits into 2 2/1 tar demons. Split Tar Demons will slowly grow back to full strength.
I know these comments are borderline spam in the quality of their relevance, but.. That is absolutely fricken astounding! Better than fricken sharks with fricken lasers on their heads, man!
20. Life mana no longer gives +2 health, instead it grants +1 health per node controled.
21. Body mana no longer gives +1 health, instead living units in their own borders heal an additonal 3% per Body mana that player controls.
22. Living units suffer a -3% heal rate per entropy mana when the lands of an opponent who has entropy mana.
23. Mines have an increased chance of finding mineral resources based on the amount of Earth nodes the player controls.
24. Spirit mana no longer gives +1 health, instead all cities get +5% Great Person rate for each Spirit mana the owning player has.
25. All cities get +3% research per turn for each Mind mana the owning player has.
26. Law mana reduces city maintenance costs by 5% for each Law mana the owning player has.
27. Chaos mana has 3% per node chance of mutating newly built living units.
28. Enchantment mana gives +1 Happy per city per mana.
This is probably the single part of 0.22 that I am the most itching to try, and the most positively surprised to see in. I've been hungering for..
Some kind of mechanic to this general effect, and now I have it! I predict I shall be happy as.. A pig in mud, or.. Something similarly verbose.
I do however wonder.. What about those Mana types that aren't covered here? Can we expect them to be covered in the future, or are we just to assume they are considered good enough on their own without providing any bonuses?
49. Chaos Marauder Betrayal is back in.
Yay! They were a little too useful/strong whent hey didn't have that chance. Though still very delicious for Barbarian trait leaders,
of course.
50. The barbarian player gets to count affinity for every node of that type in the world!
Owch!
51. Ars changed from 12 (+12 Death) strength to 12 (+6 Death) and Death Affinity:2.
Owch!
54. Crusades great people modifier reduced from -100% to -50%, but you can only get Great Commanders while you are on a crusade.
Whoa. Hold your horses here. You can only get Great Commanders while on a Crusade? Is this part of some mysterious Crusade game mechanic I wasn't aware of, never really having used it and all.. Or does this imply only Bannor can get Great Commanders
at all now? I'd assume not, since that seems a tad harsh, but..
66. The AI made more likely to build adepts (aiweight increased from 0 to 300), more likely to sit on them to allow them to level up (unitai switched to city defence) and kept from spamming them (the ai will stop building them if he already has 3).
One small step for mankind, one moderately big step for FFH's ability to have the AI use spellcasters effectively!
Okay, whew, there we go.
Apologies for the meaty post, but I promise, I only ever make one of those for each new released version!
Yeah, I actually think its a great opportunity for a scenario designer to make a map full of animal dens, barbarian cities, barrows, ruins, and roaming animal packs. But I dont want them the normal game to have animal hordes every time (that would get old after a while).
Good luck!
