xienwolf
Deity
Included with your download of 051 is a module called BannorChainOfCommand. This introduces a fairly intricate system to the Bannor which makes full use of the new Commander/Follower systems. Please note that this is NOT an official part of Fall Further, as it needs some serious balance work and simplification. This is an example of what you can do with Commanders and with Modules.
Essentially all Bannor Units are able to take a new series of Promotions which indicate a ranking in their military. Each of them do little for the unit taking the promotion, but a LOT for anyone involved in a Commander/Follower relationship with them, leading to eventually turning the unit into a Commander themselves, or rather, something better than a Commander in that they can still fight quite well.
So, if you manage to get a unit up to level 20 and make him a General, and have him being followed by a full squad of Captains, who are each followed by a full squad of Master Seargents, and they are each followed by Seargents who are each followed by Corporals, then you are looking at some serious unit enhancement.
The General is potentially leading 6 Captains, each of whom can possibly be leading 8 Master Seargents, each of which lead 3 Seargents leading 1 Corporal each. Total units involved in the chain of command: 343 Units (144 Corporals, 144 Seargents, 48 Master Seargents, 6 Captains, 1 General)
The Captains each had their Command Limit increased by 2, and I am assuming they have purchased all 3 available ranks of enhanced Command Limit for themselves (so each is level 13 AT LEAST). The Captains gain an extra 100% XP or more from their Master Seargents (bonus 20% from the General, bonus 10% from each of 8 followers, and another 10% for each Follower following them and so on down the chain)
Everyone under the Captains are gaining:
Free Unit status
doesn't cause War Weariness
+75% Combat Strength
+40% Magic Resistance
20% Earned XP bonus for their own battles
Bonus 10% Shared XP per Follower (so 10% bonus for the Seargents, 40% for the Master Seargents, previously stated 420% bonus for the Captains, and a 2580% bonus for the General)
All of this of course in addition to whatever promotions they have taken for themselves normally (Captains were assumed to be level 13 instead of just level 10, and have spent 3 promotions on Command range, plus the 4 Promotions on just gaining their rank, so have only actually purchased 6 "normal" promotions in their lifetime, in spite of being level 13)
There is the relatively severe "Opportunity Cost" in this system of course. If you take Corporal as your first promotion, then you are 20% behind everyone who took Combat I as their first promotion, and it gains you NOTHING because you aren't following any commander yet so cannot give him any XP, let alone extra XP. And a level 10 unit who promotes immediately to Captain has only taken 7 standard promotions and now has a different unitcombat so cannot take any more.
But, if you ever reach the point of getting a General, there is most likely a considerable bonus gained to make up for the heartache of getting to that point.
Also, XP Sharing is a Trickle-up effect:
Corporal gains 10 XP in a battle. The 20% bonus his Seargent grants boosts that up to 12 XP, his Seargent Commander gains base 25% + Corporal bonus 10% of that, so 4.2 XP. His Master Seargent Commander has 2 Seargents under him, so has a 20% bonus, plus another 20% for each of the Corporals under the Seargents, and thus gains 65% of the XP that the Seargent gained, so that would be 2.73 XP, and his Captain Commander is lead by a General and has a full 8 followers for a total of 445% so gains 12.14 XP, finally the General has 6 Captains following him for a 60% XP gain bonus plus the bonus each of those captains was already gaining (445 each -- 2605% total) and thus gains 316.46 XP.
All of these numbers are assuming that each unit is within 5 levels of his commander so that they get maximum sharing rate. And that you have developed yourself a FULL command system, which would take considerable effort, even with worldbuilder. So real numbers in game will be considerably smaller, but even then you can see they easily become rather significant (though due to rounding if the initial unit had only gained 0.5 XP the final numbers would be rather severely different)
The rank system has a few quirks:
You cannot join a unit whose rank is the same as your own, or lower than yours. Units who have Command Limits but no Rank promotions (should only be Great Commanders and some Hero Units) are assumed to be higher ranking than a General, so any military rank can join to them, but they cannot join under any military rank. The Bannor UU replacement for Great Commanders starts with Captain, so can join under a General, or even become one himself. However, the UU starts only with Captain, not with Master Seargent, Seargent and Corporal. So he offers no bonus XP to anyone whom he follows (unless it trickles up through him from another unit with Corporal), and offers no Motivated or Hardened Troops to anyone following him (though his followers might offer it, or a Promoted General above him may trickle it down through him).
So popping a Great Commander shortcuts you to Captain rank if you haven't nurtured a level 10 unit of your own yet, but this unit isn't a fighter (your other Captains are probably actually Champions and can hold their own in combat) and lacks some of the nicer Trickle effects. Though he comes with one very nice Minion Promotion of his own to offer his immediate followers which you cannot acquire by any other method.
Also, since you cannot lead a unit higher or equal rank than yourself, that means if you are following a unit you cannot promote to the same rank as he is, only to the one below that at best. So if you want a second Master Seargent and one of your Seargents made level 5 before your previous Master Seargent got to level 10, you need to split him out of Follower Status and give him a command of his own, or remain a Seargent for a while longer and wait for your Commander to promote and give you room to grow.
Another complication of this system is a more player oriented one: Micromanagement.
Since you will have many potential leaders, it can be a bit tricky figuring out who you will join with when you go to cast the spell. That is why there is a nifty trick with the Help Text when you hover the ability, it will tell you precisely which unit will become leader and which will become follower when you click that button.
If there is more than 1 leader with space available on the tile, then the lowest ranking unit is selected. If more than 1 of those people with space for a follower is the same lowest rank, you will join to the lowest level unit among them. As long as that rank is higher than your own of course.
To "violate" these rules and choose a different commander, you can group your units together. No matter what the rank or level of a unit is, the ones from your group are given preference for joining. So select the unit you wish to become a Follower, SHIFT+CLICK on the unit you wish to become a Commander. Then click AGAIN on the Follower (they will remain grouped, but now you are giving orders only to the Follower) and you can have him join the Commander you selected. If you do not make that last click then when you cast the spell the unit you wanted to lead will also look for someone who HE is allowed to follow and join them if able. If there is nobody available for him to follow then nothing special happens for him.
The Mouseover of the spell will tell you EVERY unit which will attempt to join a Commander when you cast it with multiple units selected. Though it doesn't know precisely what the command limits of those units are and how they will fill up, so it may be slightly misleading, so it is preferable that you cast it one unit at a time, in groups of 2 (intended Follower grouped with intended Commander), then you re-group the units into a Mega-Stack and head out to kill.
End Picture:
You can probably see a couple of potential balance concerns, as well as the possibility that it doesn't mesh with anyone's playstyle. But it may wind up that in practice is vastly different than the raw numbers, so we shall see. Do expect that when something along these lines is done officially for the Bannor in the main mod it will likely share little with this module.
Essentially all Bannor Units are able to take a new series of Promotions which indicate a ranking in their military. Each of them do little for the unit taking the promotion, but a LOT for anyone involved in a Commander/Follower relationship with them, leading to eventually turning the unit into a Commander themselves, or rather, something better than a Commander in that they can still fight quite well.
- Corporal - Bannor Only
Grants your Commanders "Regimental Discipline"- Regimental Discipline
Grants itself to your Commander (Trickle-Up effect, hits everyone above you in the chain of command)
Stacking bonus of 10% Commander Feedback XP. So if you have 3 Followers and each one grants you this bonus, you gain 30% more XP whenever any one of them gains XP for you. Of course, if one of those Followers also has a Follower who grants this, you gain bonus for that sub-unit as well (and any units following him, and...)
- Regimental Discipline
- Seargent - Requires Corporal and Level 3
Increases your Command Limit by 1 (so you can lead a single unit who is no higher ranking than a Corporal)
Grants your Followers "Motivated"- Motivated
Grants itself to your Followers (Trickle-Down effect, hits everyone below you in the chain of command)
Unit gains 20% more XP in battle (which in turn means more XP for the Commander since that 20% is gained before the Commander's share is calculated)
- Motivated
- Master Seargent - Requires Seargent and Level 5
Increases your Command Limit by another 1 (you can now lead 2 units, neither of which can be higher than Seargent, each of which can have a follower of their own if they are a Seargent)
Grants your Followers "Hardened Troops"- Hardened Troops
Trickle-Down Effect
+25% Combat Strength
+10% Magic Resistance
- Hardened Troops
- Captain - Requires Master Seargent and Level 10
Increases your Command Limit by another 1 (so now 3 total, can lead Master Seargent and Below)
Increases your Command Range by 1 (so now your Followers gain Promotions even if they are one tile removed from your location)
Changes UnitCombat to Commander (You have new promotion tables, you may lose some previously purchased promotions, but will retain most of them, you also retain all previous stats and abilities since you are still the same unit)
Grants your Followers "Enlisted"- Enlisted
Trickle-Down Effect
Free Unit
No War Weariness
- Enlisted
- General - Requires Captain and Level 20
Increases your Command Range by 2 (and you may have already increased it with standard Commander Promotions, so it could now be potentially range 5, letting you offer promotions to followers in a different city than yourself)
Grants your Followers "Superior Training"- Superior Training
Increases your Command Limit by 2
Grants you an extra 20% XP Share from your Followers
Grants your Followers "Chain of Command"- Chain of Command
Trickle-Down Effect
+50% Combat Strength
+30% Magic Resistance
- Chain of Command
- Superior Training
So, if you manage to get a unit up to level 20 and make him a General, and have him being followed by a full squad of Captains, who are each followed by a full squad of Master Seargents, and they are each followed by Seargents who are each followed by Corporals, then you are looking at some serious unit enhancement.
The General is potentially leading 6 Captains, each of whom can possibly be leading 8 Master Seargents, each of which lead 3 Seargents leading 1 Corporal each. Total units involved in the chain of command: 343 Units (144 Corporals, 144 Seargents, 48 Master Seargents, 6 Captains, 1 General)
The Captains each had their Command Limit increased by 2, and I am assuming they have purchased all 3 available ranks of enhanced Command Limit for themselves (so each is level 13 AT LEAST). The Captains gain an extra 100% XP or more from their Master Seargents (bonus 20% from the General, bonus 10% from each of 8 followers, and another 10% for each Follower following them and so on down the chain)
Everyone under the Captains are gaining:
Free Unit status
doesn't cause War Weariness
+75% Combat Strength
+40% Magic Resistance
20% Earned XP bonus for their own battles
Bonus 10% Shared XP per Follower (so 10% bonus for the Seargents, 40% for the Master Seargents, previously stated 420% bonus for the Captains, and a 2580% bonus for the General)
All of this of course in addition to whatever promotions they have taken for themselves normally (Captains were assumed to be level 13 instead of just level 10, and have spent 3 promotions on Command range, plus the 4 Promotions on just gaining their rank, so have only actually purchased 6 "normal" promotions in their lifetime, in spite of being level 13)
There is the relatively severe "Opportunity Cost" in this system of course. If you take Corporal as your first promotion, then you are 20% behind everyone who took Combat I as their first promotion, and it gains you NOTHING because you aren't following any commander yet so cannot give him any XP, let alone extra XP. And a level 10 unit who promotes immediately to Captain has only taken 7 standard promotions and now has a different unitcombat so cannot take any more.
But, if you ever reach the point of getting a General, there is most likely a considerable bonus gained to make up for the heartache of getting to that point.
Also, XP Sharing is a Trickle-up effect:
Corporal gains 10 XP in a battle. The 20% bonus his Seargent grants boosts that up to 12 XP, his Seargent Commander gains base 25% + Corporal bonus 10% of that, so 4.2 XP. His Master Seargent Commander has 2 Seargents under him, so has a 20% bonus, plus another 20% for each of the Corporals under the Seargents, and thus gains 65% of the XP that the Seargent gained, so that would be 2.73 XP, and his Captain Commander is lead by a General and has a full 8 followers for a total of 445% so gains 12.14 XP, finally the General has 6 Captains following him for a 60% XP gain bonus plus the bonus each of those captains was already gaining (445 each -- 2605% total) and thus gains 316.46 XP.
All of these numbers are assuming that each unit is within 5 levels of his commander so that they get maximum sharing rate. And that you have developed yourself a FULL command system, which would take considerable effort, even with worldbuilder. So real numbers in game will be considerably smaller, but even then you can see they easily become rather significant (though due to rounding if the initial unit had only gained 0.5 XP the final numbers would be rather severely different)
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The rank system has a few quirks:
You cannot join a unit whose rank is the same as your own, or lower than yours. Units who have Command Limits but no Rank promotions (should only be Great Commanders and some Hero Units) are assumed to be higher ranking than a General, so any military rank can join to them, but they cannot join under any military rank. The Bannor UU replacement for Great Commanders starts with Captain, so can join under a General, or even become one himself. However, the UU starts only with Captain, not with Master Seargent, Seargent and Corporal. So he offers no bonus XP to anyone whom he follows (unless it trickles up through him from another unit with Corporal), and offers no Motivated or Hardened Troops to anyone following him (though his followers might offer it, or a Promoted General above him may trickle it down through him).
So popping a Great Commander shortcuts you to Captain rank if you haven't nurtured a level 10 unit of your own yet, but this unit isn't a fighter (your other Captains are probably actually Champions and can hold their own in combat) and lacks some of the nicer Trickle effects. Though he comes with one very nice Minion Promotion of his own to offer his immediate followers which you cannot acquire by any other method.
Also, since you cannot lead a unit higher or equal rank than yourself, that means if you are following a unit you cannot promote to the same rank as he is, only to the one below that at best. So if you want a second Master Seargent and one of your Seargents made level 5 before your previous Master Seargent got to level 10, you need to split him out of Follower Status and give him a command of his own, or remain a Seargent for a while longer and wait for your Commander to promote and give you room to grow.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Another complication of this system is a more player oriented one: Micromanagement.
Since you will have many potential leaders, it can be a bit tricky figuring out who you will join with when you go to cast the spell. That is why there is a nifty trick with the Help Text when you hover the ability, it will tell you precisely which unit will become leader and which will become follower when you click that button.
If there is more than 1 leader with space available on the tile, then the lowest ranking unit is selected. If more than 1 of those people with space for a follower is the same lowest rank, you will join to the lowest level unit among them. As long as that rank is higher than your own of course.
To "violate" these rules and choose a different commander, you can group your units together. No matter what the rank or level of a unit is, the ones from your group are given preference for joining. So select the unit you wish to become a Follower, SHIFT+CLICK on the unit you wish to become a Commander. Then click AGAIN on the Follower (they will remain grouped, but now you are giving orders only to the Follower) and you can have him join the Commander you selected. If you do not make that last click then when you cast the spell the unit you wanted to lead will also look for someone who HE is allowed to follow and join them if able. If there is nobody available for him to follow then nothing special happens for him.
The Mouseover of the spell will tell you EVERY unit which will attempt to join a Commander when you cast it with multiple units selected. Though it doesn't know precisely what the command limits of those units are and how they will fill up, so it may be slightly misleading, so it is preferable that you cast it one unit at a time, in groups of 2 (intended Follower grouped with intended Commander), then you re-group the units into a Mega-Stack and head out to kill.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
End Picture:
You can probably see a couple of potential balance concerns, as well as the possibility that it doesn't mesh with anyone's playstyle. But it may wind up that in practice is vastly different than the raw numbers, so we shall see. Do expect that when something along these lines is done officially for the Bannor in the main mod it will likely share little with this module.
