Current and past VP Congress sessions have seen a number of attempts to better-balance unit promotion trees. The activity around this system suggests there's more we can do, but consistently the suggested changes have been met with resistance, usually from all sides. I want to workshop a new tack with the community to improve its chances of passing.
The Problem:
There are grievances with the current balance of promotions. Some promotions often feel too mandatory for the performance of a unit class, and stifle use of other options.
Additionally, Human players can maintain high-level units too easily, which means they disproportionately benefit from stacked high-level units.
The Solution:
We can lessen the impact of high-level units without directly reducing the power level of any one promotion. To do this, I propose we restructure the promo trees to have significantly fewer leaf promotions, and more promotion "branches" that split from the main tree. This will subtly reduce promotion stacking by putting more XP distance between T4 promos.
I'll use Archers as an example to demonstrate the 2 Stem - 3.5 Branch structure (please note, details and numbers are not final).
Although the Archer sample is pretty detailed, the main thing I wanted to discuss was the approach and structure of the tree. Do you agree that the 2 Stem - 3.5 Branch structure is worth pursuing? Does it have too many branches? Not enough? Ideally this would slowly be applied to every promotion tree, but I figure starting with a few that share promotions is a safer bet. (For instance, the changes to the Archer tree would be paired with changes to Skirmishers and Siege, since their promotions would also be affected.)
I don't have the expertise to try this out in a modmod first, but that might ultimately be the right direction, especially if this doesn't get enough traction for the Congress.
The Problem:
There are grievances with the current balance of promotions. Some promotions often feel too mandatory for the performance of a unit class, and stifle use of other options.
Additionally, Human players can maintain high-level units too easily, which means they disproportionately benefit from stacked high-level units.
The Solution:
We can lessen the impact of high-level units without directly reducing the power level of any one promotion. To do this, I propose we restructure the promo trees to have significantly fewer leaf promotions, and more promotion "branches" that split from the main tree. This will subtly reduce promotion stacking by putting more XP distance between T4 promos.
I'll use Archers as an example to demonstrate the 2 Stem - 3.5 Branch structure (please note, details and numbers are not final).
Spoiler Archer example :
Although the Archer sample is pretty detailed, the main thing I wanted to discuss was the approach and structure of the tree. Do you agree that the 2 Stem - 3.5 Branch structure is worth pursuing? Does it have too many branches? Not enough? Ideally this would slowly be applied to every promotion tree, but I figure starting with a few that share promotions is a safer bet. (For instance, the changes to the Archer tree would be paired with changes to Skirmishers and Siege, since their promotions would also be affected.)
I don't have the expertise to try this out in a modmod first, but that might ultimately be the right direction, especially if this doesn't get enough traction for the Congress.
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