Someone suggested making a new thread to discuss this.. so here it is ^^;
In their current form, pyre zombies seem drastically out of sync with the other units in their tier. Namely the explosion radius and lack of damage limit make stacks cause problems both early and late game. Some examples of their abuse would be to drop a stack of 10 zombies next to a city on a coast, and once there, attacks that kill these zombies will result in an explosion infliction 5%-20% damage (I'm not sure how to access python, so I might be off with this) that will destroy any defenders in that city, or other surrounding units. Taking this city and razing it becomes a simple matter of walking a healthy unit (or surviving zombie) onto the now undefended location. The unit(s) defending this city (unless fire immune) are irrelevant, as are the number of units present.
Comparatively, a catapult would require multiple rounds of lowering defenses and ranged bombardment, affecting a maximum number (6 I think) of units in that location, to a maximum damage limit of 75%. The catapults would require non-catapult units to actually succeed in taking the city. Most importantly, the attacker requires at least one round to perform this function, unlike the zombies that explode whether they attack or defend.
Comparing a zombie to a catapult:
Zombie costs 60 versus 90
Zombie has no collatoral damage limit (#of units)
Zombie has no damage limit (up to 100% on collatoral damage)
Zombie damage is magic-based (ignores strength, affected by resistance/immunity)
Zombie has anywhere between 3-8 Str and recieves terrain bonuses
Zombie has to die to cause collatoral damage
Comparing a zombie to an axeman:
Zombie does not have +25% bonus versus warriors
Zombie has +1 fire damage that can be negated by resistant/immunity
Zombie unique unit special is explosion vs other raw damage of other unique units
I presume that part of the reason that axemen have +25 vs warriors is to combat warrior zerg in the early game, and the mass explosion of pyre zombies was deemed adequate in accomplishing that. As a collatoral damage unit however, given the level required to obtain magic resistance, it seems much too powerful for it's cost. As such I'm proposing the following changes:
Option A:
1. The explosion only affects the unit it attacked, or was attacked by upon death.
2. Damage has no limit (explosion can result in killing the other unit)
3. Zombies gain +25% vs warriors >or< Explosion affects up to 2 units in that stack with +1 at "Sorcery", and another +1 at "Strength of Will".
4. Damage inflicted changed from magic to str based (to prevent zombies from zerging 60str world units)
Option B:
1. The explosion damages all units in a 1 square radius and has a chance to set them on fire 10% damage per round for 3 rounds(fire resistance grants immunity to this trait)
2. The initial damage reduced to 4-7% with of limit of 30%
Option C:
1. Zombie Strength reduced to 1, fire damage increased to +2, along with a +1 at "Sorcery" and +2 at "Strength of Will"
2. Zombies do not explode, and instead inflict collatoral damage on up to 3 units (equal to their +fire damage, no limit) and damage city defenses by 5-10%
3. Zombies have a chance to 'come back from the dead' if defeated in combat and return to the tile they were destroyed on (with reduced health)
Okay so there's my 2 cents. Hopefully this should prevent any exploitation while still retaining a useful and unique unit for the sheim. This thread is open for discussion.
In their current form, pyre zombies seem drastically out of sync with the other units in their tier. Namely the explosion radius and lack of damage limit make stacks cause problems both early and late game. Some examples of their abuse would be to drop a stack of 10 zombies next to a city on a coast, and once there, attacks that kill these zombies will result in an explosion infliction 5%-20% damage (I'm not sure how to access python, so I might be off with this) that will destroy any defenders in that city, or other surrounding units. Taking this city and razing it becomes a simple matter of walking a healthy unit (or surviving zombie) onto the now undefended location. The unit(s) defending this city (unless fire immune) are irrelevant, as are the number of units present.
Comparatively, a catapult would require multiple rounds of lowering defenses and ranged bombardment, affecting a maximum number (6 I think) of units in that location, to a maximum damage limit of 75%. The catapults would require non-catapult units to actually succeed in taking the city. Most importantly, the attacker requires at least one round to perform this function, unlike the zombies that explode whether they attack or defend.
Comparing a zombie to a catapult:
Zombie costs 60 versus 90
Zombie has no collatoral damage limit (#of units)
Zombie has no damage limit (up to 100% on collatoral damage)
Zombie damage is magic-based (ignores strength, affected by resistance/immunity)
Zombie has anywhere between 3-8 Str and recieves terrain bonuses
Zombie has to die to cause collatoral damage
Comparing a zombie to an axeman:
Zombie does not have +25% bonus versus warriors
Zombie has +1 fire damage that can be negated by resistant/immunity
Zombie unique unit special is explosion vs other raw damage of other unique units
I presume that part of the reason that axemen have +25 vs warriors is to combat warrior zerg in the early game, and the mass explosion of pyre zombies was deemed adequate in accomplishing that. As a collatoral damage unit however, given the level required to obtain magic resistance, it seems much too powerful for it's cost. As such I'm proposing the following changes:
Option A:
1. The explosion only affects the unit it attacked, or was attacked by upon death.
2. Damage has no limit (explosion can result in killing the other unit)
3. Zombies gain +25% vs warriors >or< Explosion affects up to 2 units in that stack with +1 at "Sorcery", and another +1 at "Strength of Will".
4. Damage inflicted changed from magic to str based (to prevent zombies from zerging 60str world units)
Option B:
1. The explosion damages all units in a 1 square radius and has a chance to set them on fire 10% damage per round for 3 rounds(fire resistance grants immunity to this trait)
2. The initial damage reduced to 4-7% with of limit of 30%
Option C:
1. Zombie Strength reduced to 1, fire damage increased to +2, along with a +1 at "Sorcery" and +2 at "Strength of Will"
2. Zombies do not explode, and instead inflict collatoral damage on up to 3 units (equal to their +fire damage, no limit) and damage city defenses by 5-10%
3. Zombies have a chance to 'come back from the dead' if defeated in combat and return to the tile they were destroyed on (with reduced health)
Okay so there's my 2 cents. Hopefully this should prevent any exploitation while still retaining a useful and unique unit for the sheim. This thread is open for discussion.