Orbis - the original thread

[Wauthan]

Glad you like the changes. Regarding academies, I blocked getting both castra and wild haven in one city. Only military academy can coegzist with any of them. I plan to add some more (but need good ideas for mounted/archery etc academy) and they should follow the same pattern.

I've been thinking about new buildings but it's not very easy. Problem is that the mechanics of Civ 4 are a bit too straightforward, everything is about bonuses and penalties. Also, you seem to desire that the buildings add flexibility, rather then outright bonuses.

Since cavalry is already very strong units I don't think they can be boosted without creating an imbalance. So how about a building that let's you upgrade other units, even heroes, into the cavalry line, while keeping their promotions? This would of course be very costly in GP. If possible melee, priests and mages upgrade into cavalry while recon and archers upgrade into mounted archers. A powerful ability, but only something you would invest in your most experienced units. Perhaps a lvl 10 cap to stop the AI spamming it? This would be the equivalent of a knightly order.

Alternatively you got a sacred knightly order that provides bonuses just as the Haven does. Only this building grants bonuses based on the religions present in the city.

Archers are even worse! They are already the most powerful unit line in Orbis. A group of Crossbowmen can take out just about anything. It's the percentage damage system. Means a powerful str 20 unit takes more relative damage then say a str 5 unit. The fact that they do collateral damage makes this even worse. Since you have already added ranged attacks, and FFH added defensive strikes, I think you should remove first strikes and collateral damage from the archer line. Their special building then adds these abilities back to them.

The caster units don't need any building, since no one needs an insensitive to build them.

Ships could use a boost. Perhaps something that gives them defensive strikes? Makes sense and favors the player that send out his ships in armadas. Or perhaps a monster slaying bonus? Means that the first one to build the wonder gets past the "sea monster barrier".

 

[Wauthan]

After reading the post by Arkham4269 regarding the sea creatures I propose a new radical idea. Delete all the sea creatures. Yep, you heard me. Then add back the turtle and the serpent as unique very high strength animal units, similar to Malagard and the leviathan. Lesser versions could still be spawned by events or looting sea lairs.

The seas will still be a plenty dangerous place with all the new ship units, the hidden nationality bonus plus the fact that the end of the sea creature horde would mean that more barbarian ship spawns.

The more I think of it the better this solution sounds. It will save Ahwaric a pile of work and keep both the fluff and the fun intact.

 

[Ahwaric]

Ok, I got it. Sea monsters are now officialy my top priority to fix. Especially as I did a "breakthrough" in some other fields (details in changelog in the second post).

Good idea on knightly order. In fact, back when I added wild haven and castra I wanted it in, but lacked time to expand the idea. I will do it now (well, after sea monster fix, hopefully )
Good point on the archers, too. Especially that I am already tired of the amount of first strikes every single unit seems to have... But truth be told, I am not sure if I really like defensive strikes. But do not worry, not going to remove.

So, still naval and perhaps siege ideas needed. Just do not tell me that siege is overpowered as well... Well, maybe...

Edit: Wauthan, that is a bit... radical... Let me waste some of my time trying to fix it first...

 

[Seon]

I was also thinking it would be nice to have a 'drown' promotion for OO ships so as if the ship is destroyed in battle, a drown is created.

Genius... I also think that Sea monster problem has to be addressed, it was getting on my nerves lately in my game as Lanun. I did not want to go FoL, so I chose OO, but even then the sea-monsters would be munching through my ships. Anyways, I think it would be cool if one could lower the spawn rate of Sea-monsters significantly, or at the very least place a weaker monsters, such as giant shark, fish, or slime, and make it so that those would feel the oceans instead of sea serpents. To balance it all out, you can put a Cthulu type monster that spawns late game and goes around the sea.

Is Ballista supposed to bea able to kill things? I once killed Alazkan the Assasin with a volley of Ballista arrows

 

[arkham4269]

Since cavalry is already very strong units I don't think they can be boosted without creating an imbalance. So how about a building that let's you upgrade other units, even heroes, into the cavalry line, while keeping their promotions?

I'm pretty sure in Orbis you can upgrade archers to mounted archers already. With so many mods, it's hard to say. Personally I wish you could upgrade certain units to things like griffin-riders if you have a captured wyvern in the same way a elephant can be upgraded to a war elephant. That being said, with the new way of using animals as a power-boost promotion, I think it's better to just use them that way. Saves on having to have lots of new unit animations.

Alternatively you got a sacred knightly order that provides bonuses just as the Haven does. Only this building grants bonuses based on the religions present in the city.

This is something that I was thinking about: different Knightly orders. Similar (but not exactly) like the Civ specific pagan temples, but you could have a certain number of Knightly Orders that would require you to build either a wonder or national wonder to be able to build these types of crusaders. Then all civs could have Crusaders, but only after they build the wonder for it. Now I'm not sure how you 'd want to work them being tied to a religion, a civic or maybe a combination of both.

Plus an idea is each Knightly Order has a Quest associated with it and if they complete the quest, they get some nice goody. If tied to a religion, only the player who first created the order could fulfill the quest for the prize.

Some ideas pulled out out of my behind:
Order of the Broken Wheel: Sort of based on the Sheaim ideal of destroying creation to get out of the pain of it. Creation is flawed and better to destroy all and start over. So their Crusaders would have the raider promotion as well as the ability to use the scorch spell. Maybe their quest would be to destroy the Order's Holy City or raise the AC by a certain amount (only their actions to raise the AC count)

Knights of the Grand Order: The 'basic' crusaders you get now from Order.

Order of the Green Knights: Wants to see Erebus restored to it's natural beauty. Act as raiders and can create forests. Their quest might be to destroy a certain amount of improvements and add X number of forest tiles.

Brotherhood of Man: Sort of a counter-reformation against the gods. have the inquisitorial promotion and when they take a city, all temples are destroyed. Perhaps could sacrifice themselves to build a "Academy of Man" which would give a boost and maybe make that city more resistant to the works of missionaries.

Order of the Fighting Man: Believe in the whole Nietzsche thing about what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Superb fighters but dangerous in peace time as they can become enraged and attack friend and foe alike.

Knights of the Red Fang: A Doviello sort of Order where each crusader unit is gifted with a random animal specialty at creation. Like the Order of the Green Knights, these guys would be into destroying towns and fields. Perhaps could also summon animals or create animal lairs depending on their promotion.

Legion of Stone: Sort of like legionnaires. Stout fighters, but also builders. Can build roads and perhaps could sacrifice themselves in a town to create certain buildings. If combat units can't be coded to also do worker actions, perhaps they have the ability, like the Doviello, to change into a specialty worker that can switch back and forth between combat unit and worker. It would be even spiffier if they automatically switched if a enemy unit came into range.

Servants of the Dragon: Affinity to fire and perhaps could act to spread the Cult of the Dragon (since they don't have missionaries) when they take a city. Tough and immune to fire.

Knights of the Beatific Templar: A day of doing good deeds is a good day indeed. Can generate a blast of culture like a watered down missionary and get a bonus fighting demons and undead and units of evil Civs.

Legion of the Damned: Life is pain! Leave it behind as embrace the life in death! Taking the idea of the Calabim vampirism, the Sidar shadow life and the way of the Scions, the Legion give up their life for power in death. They live to feed and all start with the cannibalistic trait and feed on life. Killing live units give them a temporary power boost and they aren't as expensive to maintain as other units.

Archers are even worse! They are already the most powerful unit line in Orbis.

I agree, in some respects you almost don't need siege engines anymore. Why buy them when you can just build lots of archers that can do double duty as garrison troops. You just pummel the hell out of a city with the archers before sending in the grunts. That and why build anything more than battering rams anymore? While you are hitting the defenders with your archers, your grunts all use their battering ram promotions you've built for them to attack the walls. In a turn or two, your golden. Plus while the battering ram is lost when the unit is killed, at least you don't have to worry about assassins taking them out. That an slowing down your line of advance.

Ships could use a boost. Perhaps something that gives them defensive strikes? Makes sense and favors the player that send out his ships in armadas. Or perhaps a monster slaying bonus? Means that the first one to build the wonder gets past the "sea monster barrier".

I like the idea of a defensive strike for certain types of ships. Due to the nature of ancient/medieval naval warfare, any ship moving to board/ram is probably going to take fire coming in prior to the attack.

 

[Seon]

Yes, in naval battles, the hits taken to either at the front of the ships or from the behind is the most damaging as those are where they store gunpowder, and is hard to repair. However, that logic does not work against sea monsters like sea serpents, They suddenly appear out of the sea and crush your ships don't they? I believe that those things should be immune to first-strike, if we make ships have the first strike. I don't think that Erebusians invented depth charge yet

 

[arkham4269]

An idea for an 'event' of sorts. Since Erebus is a magical world, perhaps when a certain amount of units die in a square, there would be a chance of something like a 'cursed battlefield' being created. This would raise the AC by a small amount due to the horrors of that particular battle.

This would could either act like ruins or maybe like the Scions haunted lands. Units moving into it would have a real good chance of causing a nasty creature to spawn sort of like treants under Guardian of the Woods.

Thus you'd either need to go in with life mana to clear the site or take the risk of clearing it like you would a ruins, but the chance of a good thing happening would be mostly zero.

 

[arkham4269]

Yes, in naval battles, the hits taken to either at the front of the ships or from the behind is the most damaging as those are where they store gunpowder, and is hard to repair. However, that logic does not work against sea monsters like sea serpents, They suddenly appear out of the sea and crush your ships don't they? I believe that those things should be immune to first-strike, if we make ships have the first strike. I don't think that Erebusians invented depth charge yet

Depends on the ship; you figure the pre-gunpowder ships are going to have archers and could possibly ram the critter during an attack.

 

[Wauthan]

Too radical? Bah! Fish lubbers the lot of ya! Have at ye!

But back to the matter at hand. Naval and Siege special buildings. They are very similar units so they need very different types of bonuses.

Well the weak spot of the ships in Civ 4 already have remedies. Speed is remedied by air magic and mapping the globe. Carrying capacity is increased by the Hansa (great idea by the way). So what remains? Well ship are expensive units, and they are usually far away from your own cities. This means that the main annoyance is that ships take along time to heal. And even if you invest in promotions that let's your ship run away it tends to be destroyed in the very next turn. Very annoying but common way to loose your best ship.

It could be tied to the state religion (which in FFH is more important then nation):

OO grants "Submerged" (invisible until you attack)
FoL grants Regeneration (Damaged hull grows back)
Empyrian grants "Sun Flare" (enemy ships can't move for one turn)
CoE grants "Steal the Colours!" (Target enemy ship. Your unit is now considered to belong to that nation for three turns, but can't move. The enemy ship turns barbarian for three turns, but can't move)
Order grants "Relentless" (A blow that should have killed the unit merely makes it flee, basically an extra life)
RoK grants "Lode Stone Curse" (All nearby enemy ships -2 move (min 1) for three turns)
AV grants "Dread Pirate Crew" (+25 chance to capture the enemy ship instead of destroying it)
The agnostics get "Rum" (+% Bonus for every brewery you control)

These abilities only work once. You then need to return to the city with the building to "restock".

Siege weapons are trickier. They already do exactly what they should, and also fight enemies in melee for some reason. It looks really odd to see catapults in battle. Perhaps one could add a different unit to the graphics to represent the crew? What comes into mind is different ammunition depending on what mana you got available.

Air grants +1 range.
Fire does more collateral.
Earth does more bombard damage.
Water leaves them soaking wet and very annoyed.
Dimensional gives marksman promotion.
Death cases % chance of disease.
Entropy causes % chance of rust.
Sun causes % chance of blindness.
Chaos causes % chance of being mutated.
Mind causes % chance of insanity.
Spirit damages culture.

Ammunition type is selected randomly. I'm sure you can come up with better ideas than me. Alternatively the siege "building" is simply a super siege unit, perhaps one that can't move but has tremendous range.

 

[arkham4269]

It could be tied to the state religion (which in FFH is more important then nation):

OO grants "Submerged" (invisible until you attack)
FoL grants Regeneration (Damaged hull grows back)
Empyrian grants "Sun Flare" (enemy ships can't move for one turn)

I like thise.

CoE grants "Steal the Colours!" (Target enemy ship. Your unit is now considered to belong to that nation for three turns, but can't move. The enemy ship turns barbarian for three turns, but can't move)

What is your rationale for not moving? I would think that being thought of as that nation's ship and then 'sinking" the pirate would be a coup indeed.

Order grants "Relentless" (A blow that should have killed the unit merely makes it flee, basically an extra life)
RoK grants "Lode Stone Curse" (All nearby enemy ships -2 move (min 1) for three turns)
AV grants "Dread Pirate Crew" (+25 chance to capture the enemy ship instead of destroying it)
The agnostics get "Rum" (+% Bonus for every brewery you control)

Well you forgot that many of the 'agnostics' really have Civ specific reasons for them.

Illians would have Iceberg: immobilizes the target hex in ice for a turn or two.

Grigori would have Heroic Crew which would be like your Dread Pirate Crew. For the AV, I would have Bhial's Fire which would damaged the ship by half but have the ability to create a ring of flame.

Scions could either have "Into the Mist" which would make them invisible but unable to attack or "For the Emperor!" which would act like the Calabim blood rage in that you'd get a temporary boost in power, but have a 1/4 chance of losing the ship as the crew REALLY gets into defending the Emperor's name.

Humanistic would grant Cunning Tactics which would act as a double first strike and give a good chance to withdraw.

These abilities only work once. You then need to return to the city with the building to "restock".

This sounds about right.

 

[arkham4269]

Siege weapons are trickier. They already do exactly what they should, and also fight enemies in melee for some reason. It looks really odd to see catapults in battle. Perhaps one could add a different unit to the graphics to represent the crew? What comes into mind is different ammunition depending on what mana you got available.

My beef is that for the most part siege weapons where used against static emplacements. Even canons had to wait till the 15th century before field guns began to make an appearance. Except for the Korean Hwacha, siege weapons are meant to fire at fixed targets. So I don't think that catapults/trebuchets should be able to melee.

As I mentioned earlier, with the ability to 'graft' battering rams to melee units, the reason to build catapults/trebuchets goes way down. Sure in game mechanics they are good against stacks. While not historical, that may just have to be lived with. However, I'd rather see archers have a much smaller collateral attack against stacks.

Not sure if it could be coded, but I don't believe that archers should be allowed to do ranged attacks against forts/cities. That's just not historical or even really possible. Then you'd have a much better reason to build siege weapons, especially since they'd be the only ones able to do mass collateral damage.

Air grants +1 range.
Fire does more collateral.
Earth does more bombard damage.
Water leaves them soaking wet and very annoyed.
Dimensional gives marksman promotion.
Death cases % chance of disease.
Entropy causes % chance of rust.
Sun causes % chance of blindness.
Chaos causes % chance of being mutated.
Mind causes % chance of insanity.
Spirit damages culture.

Ammunition type is selected randomly. I'm sure you can come up with better ideas than me. Alternatively the siege "building" is simply a super siege unit, perhaps one that can't move but has tremendous range.

Actually I'd see water damage either causing disease or more structural damage. Of course you could also have it have a % chance of destroying buildings by flood damage. I take it the "sun blindness" would be like Flare?

 

[Wauthan]

Thanks arkham4269. Heh, I'm glad you liked any of the ideas. I just typed down stuff from the top of my head.

My idea for "Steal the colors!" was that the it was supposed to be some kind of desperate last ditch defense, or sneaky way to get the AI to sink it's own ship. That they don't move was based on the idea that the crews on the ships are literally fighting over the colors. Three turns would give you the time to heal a damaged ship, or time enough for the AI to sink the "Barbarian" attacking one of their "own". Trouble is of course that the AI is going to spam all these abilities randomly.

I like the Iceberg idea for the Illians but I would also make it damage the other ship slightly, and only only a % chance of becoming immobile, also it would only trigger if attacked. Sort represents the Illian crew instafreezing the water behind their ship, causing the pursuing enemy to crash headlong into a sudden iceberg.

 

[arkham4269]

I like the Iceberg idea for the Illians but I would also make it damage the other ship slightly, and only only a % chance of becoming immobile, also it would only trigger if attacked. Sort represents the Illian crew instafreezing the water behind their ship, causing the pursuing enemy to crash headlong into a sudden iceberg.

I was thinking more of the Illians creating a patch of ice, trapping the other ship.

 

[Wauthan]

My beef is that for the most part siege weapons where used against static emplacements. Even canons had to wait till the 15th century before field guns began to make an appearance. Except for the Korean Hwacha, siege weapons are meant to fire at fixed targets. So I don't think that catapults/trebuchets should be able to melee.

As I mentioned earlier, with the ability to 'graft' battering rams to melee units, the reason to build catapults/trebuchets goes way down. Sure in game mechanics they are good against stacks. While not historical, that may just have to be lived with. However, I'd rather see archers have a much smaller collateral attack against stacks.

Not sure if it could be coded, but I don't believe that archers should be allowed to do ranged attacks against forts/cities. That's just not historical or even really possible. Then you'd have a much better reason to build siege weapons, especially since they'd be the only ones able to do mass collateral damage.

Actually I'd see water damage either causing disease or more structural damage. Of course you could also have it have a % chance of destroying buildings by flood damage. I take it the "sun blindness" would be like Flare?

I fully agree with you. The mechanics in Civ 4 creates a situation that's truly odd if one tries to visualize it. Siege should be created on the spot by engineers, and only be able to bombard, much like the battering rams already implemented. City fortifications, as well as the Fort/Castle improvements, should give nigh immunity to ranged attacks. This would mean that archer units would be demoted to open field warfare, and caster units take their place as "Hard Target Smashers" and responsible for collateral damage. Though this is a fantasy setting and thus one can expect novel uses for siege weapons. Recently saw Prince Caspian, were trebuchets are just like their FFH counterparts. Looked just as weird as well.

 

[arkham4269]

This would mean that archer units would be demoted to open field warfare, and caster units take their place as "Hard Target Smashers" and responsible for collateral damage. Though this is a fantasy setting and thus one can expect novel uses for siege weapons. Recently saw Prince Caspian, were trebuchets are just like their FFH counterparts. Looked just as weird as well.

Another thing to think about is I think Walls should make a city 'proof' against fireballs used as a siege weapons. Stone generally doesn't burn well and while I like that walls give a promotion now, it would give more reason to build them.

As much as I hate it, using fireballs into a town to affect the units should have a chance to destroy buildings just like the old bombers used to do. It all comes down to this; how much damage do you want to do to the city in order to take it. It's the same today; in order to keep ground casualties down, we use the Air Force to blast the crap out of the target. Great at keeping ground casualties down but you've now taken a ruined city. Attacking with less of that will mean more units lost but more of a city to hold.

Of course that brings up an interesting event. If a certain amount of troops die in a one turn assault that takes the city, you could enable a "Magdeburg Event" where the troops are so pissed about taking casualties that they burn the city down and commit lots of atrocities. This event would cause the city to be raised regardless as well as a AC boost and a (-) diplomatic effect.

 

[Endovior]

Just ran into something noteworthy... Rabies is not cured by the Pool of Tears.

Figured I'd note that so it can be fixed.

 

[scutarii]

CTD

and buboes is VERY quiet there...

one more aspect, regarging to tactic-warfare. Injure melee don't do so much dmg, right? But archers and siege weapons inflict the same amount of collateral dmg even if they are one step from death. So collateral dmg should be affected from health.

another issue is magic dmg vs fortifications. Kael has already nerfed it in latest patch - reduced1/4th vs fortified cities, but I have better proposition:
vs palisade: -10% magic dmg to targets; walls -20%, citadel -30%.

 

[Ahwaric]

My beef is that for the most part siege weapons where used against static emplacements. Even canons had to wait till the 15th century before field guns began to make an appearance.

What you say is true for trebuchets. They work best if stationary, but I think there were some smaller mobile ones. Other weapons could be used in the field - romans certainly did. But I agree, there is a reason they are called siege weapons
Anyway, here is what I did for now:
archers do much less collateral damage, affect less targets (with exception of elven ones)
cannons no longer ignore bombard protecting buildings (they did)
walls promotion will add a nice defensive strike boost (should work even if unit had not defensive damage ability - there are many interesting ways melee units can use to kill attacking troops using walls "equpment").
Fireballs damage to walls is already much reduced, but I want them to be an option. And walls are not only stone - most city walls (including the ones in my city) were topped with wooden parts. That parts are small, but still can burn. And buildings inside have much wood in them, too

Just ran into something noteworthy... Rabies is not cured by the Pool of Tears.

Figured I'd note that so it can be fixed.

Thanks, I fixed that. Every bit helps

CTD

and buboes is VERY quiet there...

Ok, this one was tough - took almost 2 hours. There were actually 2 priests of leaves with UNITAI_ATTACK upgraded from fawns. No idea what exactly is causing it, but I will change fawn default AI to explore. If it still works this way, I will disable upgrade from fawn to priest (unless someone can explain it to me and I will know how to fix this problem).
Fixed save is attached below - hopefully it works.
And buboes is guarding a lair. I imported all(?) Kael's fixes, and that was supposed to be fixed in one of them...

one more aspect, regarging to tactic-warfare. Injure melee don't do so much dmg, right? But archers and siege weapons inflict the same amount of collateral dmg even if they are one step from death. So collateral dmg should be affected from health.

another issue is magic dmg vs fortifications. Kael has already nerfed it in latest patch - reduced1/4th vs fortified cities, but I have better proposition:
vs palisade: -10% magic dmg to targets; walls -20%, citadel -30%.

Actually, ranged attack scales with injury. Injured archers/siege do less damage accordingly to % of damage.
Collateral damage is % of normal damage, so it should scale, too.
The math behind all this is as follows (in simplified form):
current attacker ranged strength / current maximized defender strength (maximized means modified by tile defense, city defenses and any extra promotions that can apply). So, it takes into account both injury level and defender's tile. Then a fixed percent of inflicted damage is transfered to a fixed maximum number of units (unless they already reached collateral damage limit).
It works quite well. I tried to make tile defnse count even more, but so far no luck. On the other hand, if you think ranged attack is overpowered, I will simply reduce ranged strength and/or limit. Well, unless someone will do the sdk changes for me
Spells do not do just 1/4 damage, but 1/4 of city defense is added to resistance. So it scales with buildings.

Regarding ballista, it normally has limit of 70% damage on ranged, so cannot kill. But nothing a few promotions can't change. Experienced ballista crew can be dadly, these bolts are big

Thanks for the ideas! I like them, but that causes some trouble - now I have to compress the ideas (i.e. can't add so many knight orders, it is simply too many to make it much fun), plus code it

 

[arkham4269]

Playing a game with all the latest patches as Doviello. I must say they went from "eh" to a GREAT race. Why? Well considering you can make workers into beastmen then the slavery civic is great if you have since you can make beastmen out of slaves you take during an advance. Best yet is between all the wolves you get out of your World Spell and the animals created if you build the Nature's Revolt wonder, you have this massive pool of animals almost all of your units can take and then add as a promotions! Plus being able to create battering rams out of forests means you don't have to slow down for your siege weapons! I mean it's pretty nice to have Sons of Aenas with bear promotions and battering rams!

I mean couple all of the above with mobility 1 promotions and you have now become a real force to be reckoned with! Best yet, for the most part is that you can achieve most of this pretty quickly. Also going with FoL to get Fauns makes the Doviello even better!

I do have a question about the Blood Moon: what causes it? Is it a random promotion/event?

Plus, while I've pushed for Mokka's Cauldron to be able to create zombies, maybe different races could sacrifice units to create different units. The Doviello could create werewolves!

However, I did find some bugs.
First off, I second that annoying bug of having certain ports being blockaded with no enemy in sight.

Secondly, even though I'm all patched up along with the art patch, when I build the Doviello assassin, I get a big error. First the animation is in that "Arms/Legs splayed" position. I also cannot move it or do anything else with it. Worse, I can't even click on the city it's in to try to manipulate it. All I can do is delete the unit.

Plus, not sure if it's a bug or not, but some of the AI Civs are acting odd in regard to religion. For example, I'm bordered with the Sheaim and I developed FoL & OO early and then they founded AV but even as late as turn 440, Sheaim has no religion.

Then I created Sabista the Redeemer as a vassal and had the OO in all of the cities I gave him and yet he didn't convert to OO. I then started putting Priest of Leaves to found temples of FoL in his cities and he's still agnostic. Plus, I can't get the option to ask him to convert in the diplomacy screen. Which is weird since later on I created another vassal (Arcturus Thorne) and I was able to ask him to convert and he did. As far as I can tell in the game, other AI civs are okay (the Bannor went Order and the Merchanos developed the Printing Press first but I haven't checked to see if they went to Humanism.) Next time I crank up the game I'll check that and double check to see what (if any) religion the Luirchirp went to.

 

[arkham4269]

Fireballs damage to walls is already much reduced, but I want them to be an option. And walls are not only stone - most city walls (including the Plik in my city) were topped with wooden parts. That parts are small, but still can burn. And buildings inside have much wood in them, too

Oh I realized that. I spent two years in Germany and got to tour lots of castles!


My thinking was since this is a fantasy game, your walled cities would be grand things on the order of Minas Tirith and the like. Secondly, I was thinking it could give more reasons to build walls/citadels. That and I like the idea that fireballs would be useful for attacking, but you could end up destroying a lot of the city you are trying to take.

Again, it's a trade off; take the city quickly and burn most of it out or storm it mostly with troops and lose a lot of them but save most of the city since most of the times once the attacking army seriously breached the walls, the city would surrender.