Warhammer Heart of Chaos: Design Discussion

@ Ahriman

<- hmm... i dont know if the vampires should have it... they dont have any war machines in the tabletop either... even darkelves just have the bolt thrower and no catapults/canons...
Gameplay really needs some method of knocking down walls (or ignoring them). And I'm pretty sure I got the skull thrower from the GW website.

ignoreing can be used with the etherial units like spirits and the banshee, they would just pass through the walls.
and dont forget that they have necromancers. they can just summon units that they can throw against the walls.

maybe fear/terror could be used too. i.e. if a unit inside a town is affected by fear or terror they reduce the defence value a bit (fear 2%, terror 5%) as they cause a bit panik inside the walls...
in the table top there is a death spell that inflicts fear/terror... maybe this spell can be used somehow in civ4 that your own units cause terror instead of fear for a round to lower it by 5%.
or to inflict fear or terror into the enemy stack so they lower that defense value because units in a town are affected by fear/terror.

or generally undead units attacking a town reduce the defence by -1 or -2 %. it could be seen like this: the city defenders see endless waves of undead units attacking the town and they get frightened... i.e. zombies could be summoned behind the walls too (i know you cant in civ4 summon units in enemy stacks. but you could see summon like that too) i guess it would panik the town when zombies come out of their graveyards inside the town and waves of enemys from the outside.

hmm... maybe undead units could cause "unrest" or -happyness in a town so that it rebels (a bit)? and the defence value is lowered that way.

atleast to lower the defense value like this could be more fitting to undeads then adding a catapult... ofcourse adding a catapult is way easyer then implementing the other ideas above in a balanced way...

The Lamian vampire is an assassin, this is radically more powerful than normal units; a Lamian vampire archmage retains the marksmen (assassin) promotion). The blood dragon can get the metal weapons promotions that boost strength.

ohh, i missed the part that it is seen as assassin. (had no idea what the marksman promo did)

so a lahmia mage that upgrades from strength 8/5 to 6?
or a necrarch from 7 to 6?
Turning it into an archmage makes it an incredibly powerful spellcaster, its no longer a combat unit.

I thought the intention was to tie the magic casting only into the vampires, particularly the nechrarchs? Otherwise there is little incentive to build necrarchs.

but vampires ARE powerful necromancy casters and powerfull warriors...
yeah i see the problem ofcourse... they dont have much weaknesses then and are quite strong.

maybe limiting blood dragon to lvl1 spells
all others to lvl 1+2
and necrarch to lvl 1-3
necromancers to lvl1. (spells 0-2)
could help?

but they all can cast all 7 spells and they are the "heroes" of the vampire army and they are the mages of the vampire army too.
they "just" get little (compared to a vampires) necromancers as other magical unit. who can just know 1-3 spells of the first 3 (0-2) with one power dice (magic lvl1).
vampires have magic lvl 1
vampire lords have lvl 2 and can buy lvl 3 and can buy the 4th lvl with a bloodline skill.
(7th vampire edition)

The Great Pyramids of Khemri (wonder) <- some boni to propulation grow im all towns?
Khemri population will be based on the Scions of patria mechanic; their population doesn't grow by itself at all. But yes, several of these buildings will effect the Reborn spawn rate.

yeah, a boni to the spawn rate... not population grow.... but the spawn rate is somehow the population grow for khemri :)

Skelton Horsearchers
They shouldn't get these IMO; neither cavalry nor archers are an undead strength.
Most factions don't get horsearchers.
true, vampires shouldnt get horsearchers. khemri should get them.

but cavalry IS a strength for vampires. (in a different way then britonnia or empire, but it is a strength)
thea have:
dire wolves (light cavalry)
corpse cart (light support necromancer chariot)
black knights (medium cavalry)
blood knights (elite cavalry)
black coach (special chariot)
and the blood dragon knight vampires.

hmm you dont have a mechanic in the mod that represents their weakness of (what is it called in english?...), in the tabletop game they lose extra wounds when they lose the combat... extra models die... and when the general dies they all have to test and lose models... argh i dont know the english name... but i guess you know what i mean.

maybe that -20% strengh of the ethernal army promotion can be seen as this.

but when you think vampires are too strong, why dont you add this weakness too in a bit more radical way?
like: when a vampire dies the whole stack and own units one field next to it have a 25% chance to lose 0-25% health. (thrall 0-25%, count 0-50%, lord 0-75%)
or/and:
when a unit takes damage 10% of that damage gets added after combat. (i.e. a str 4 unit fights and survives with str 2... so it lost 50% of its str in combat. so they take 25% of that as additional damage, that would be 25% of 2= 0.5 so they have 1,5str after the combat.
if it would have survived with str 1: -25% of damage3 = 0,75 ... so it would lost 0,75 more and it would have 0,25 str instead of 1 at the end.)
or/and:
if a unit is under 10% base str it dies imediately.
(i.e. the 2 examples from above. the str 1,5 one would have more then 10% of its base str (0,4) so its alive. the 2nd unit with 0,25%str would die imediately because it has less then 10% of its base str (0,4)... ofcourse this unit has the chance to resurruct now)


and seduce is stronger then dominate (atleast in the tabletop game).
Balance.
balance can be adjusted...
i.e.:
domination: 1 random unit cant attack and has no firststrikes.
seduction: 1 random unit attacks its own stack.

you chose the target enemy stack and a random unit is chosen as target.
if you think its too powerfull... change the balance.

lahmia thralls could seduce 1 random unit. counts 2 random units and lords 3 random units. (if my idea from above with the promotions is used)

(in the tabketop they are:
domination: costs 40 points, morale test, if failed cant attack and all attack against it hit automaticaly.
seduction: costs 55 points. morale test, if failed attacks its own side... etcetc...)


Desert Dwellers +1 food from desert, +1 food and +1 hammer from Oasis, -0.25% unhealthy from floodplains (no additional food bonus from floodplains). -1 food from tundra and ice.
Don't these guys live in cities? They're not nomadic like much of Araby. If you do give +1 food from desert, make sure it doesnt' apply on floodplains, and remove the +1 food from oasis (oasis is only on a desert, so they already get the desert bonus).
true, they have not much to do with the desert.
khemri are the desert undeads... vampires are not.


Skeleton Heavey Horsemen
Mis-spelled. And I don't think they should be getting a knight unit. Chariots are very Tomb King; knights aren't.
they have a heavy knight unit... but you cant compare it to britonnia heavy knights or empire knights... or even to vampire knights.
the tomb king "heavy" knights are not in heavy armor and the steeds are not barded either...
and yeah... "chariots" are very tomb king... but, these chariots are light chariots, so they are weaker as all other chariot versions. but can make groups.

so tomb kings have:
light cavalry: basically a skeleton with a bow on a skeleton horse. (light horse archer lvl1 in your design)
heavy cavalry: a skeleton with a spear, light armor and a shield on a skeleton horse. (light lancer? cavalry lvl1)
light chariots: builded with bones... quite fast but not quite durable or strong... can use bows like light cavalry... (light chariot lvl1) i guess normal light chariot stats with -1/-1 (or -1/-2)str, some movement bonus in desert, and a little withdraw chance?


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@rocklikeafool

a Cold One is a Cold One
they get the bonus "cause fear" (tabletop a bit more like +1 armor, +1 str) and the malus "stupidity".
should be the same with lizardman ones.

On the Manticore, a poison tale is better.
yeah, it is... the problem i have is more the killing blow :)

On the Hydra, Hydras aren&#8217;t red dragons. Spitting fire is a red dragon thing. I think they should keep poison. If we do add fire, make it +1 poison & +1fire. But I&#8217;d rather it just be poison.
warhammer darkelf hydras have nothing to do with poison. and have nothing to do with red dragons either.

atleast when you go with the warhammer lore (have the 7th edition d11 book infront of me atm) poison isnt mentioned atall not even in the story text. and its "unknown" where the hydras come from: if they existed already as the old ones where still there. or if they are influenced with chaos of the winds of magic in their evolution.
but its mentioned that they breath fire. (rules are: fire breath weapon. strength is the same as the number of wounds the hydra has remeining.)

but i guess to argue over +2 poison or +2 fire is quite useless. :lol:

Skeletal horsemen <- might should have "ignore terrain penalitys" as they move like ethereals through trees, houses etc.
Skelton Horsearchers <- these too... actually the skeletal horses move like ethereals.
Spirit host <- too.
Tomb Banshee. <- too.
YEAH&#8230;except we have to consider balance here.

Consider a normal Horse Archer. Gets -25% terrain penalty in forests, etc. So, we have a str6 unit. 6 - 25% = 4.5str on forests. You&#8217;re suggesting Skeletal Horse Archers get none of that. In this mod, that&#8217;s a major difference. Huge balance issue.
oh, you got it wrong what i mean. not the terrain penalty of i.e. -25% str in forests.
i mean they "ignore MOVEMENT penalities" as they just pass through things because they are etherial (banshee/spirits) or use the "etherial movement rule" (skeleton vampire steeds) so i.e. bushes, a hedge, a wall, alot rocks... that would restrict fast movement are ignored.
 
but its mentioned that they breath fire

Well, if it&#8217;s mentioned, let&#8217;s make it fire. We should stick with WH lore as much as possible. PL, if you&#8217;d please change the +2poison to +2fire. I&#8217;ll change it in the XML.

atleast to lower the defense value like this could be more fitting to undeads then adding a catapult... ofcourse adding a catapult is way easyer then implementing the other ideas above in a balanced way...
But a catapult IS way easier. The AI understands siege engines, while it&#8217;s iffy on spells (even now, with all the improvements Kael made to the FfH base code to make&#8221; AI smarter&#8221;). Plus, your other ideas would require more code than their worth. I mean as much as we&#8217;re trying to stick to WH lore here, sometimes it&#8217;s best to do it the simplest way. What you&#8217;re suggesting would require a lot of code. A catapult OTOH, the code is already there. Imho, there&#8217;s no reason to have a very intricate mechanic for only a civ or two, when we already have a mechanic that (1 does the same thing, (2 the AI understands perfectly, (3 is something we&#8217;re already working on balancing & (4 is already there in the FF base code.

I thought the intention was to tie the magic casting only into the vampires, particularly the nechrarchs? Otherwise there is little incentive to build necrarchs.
Why not just scrap Necromancers for the Vampires. Leave those to the Tomb Kings. It&#8217;s easier, eliminates balance issues, & encourages a difference in magic units.

oh, you got it wrong what i mean. not the terrain penalty of i.e. -25% str in forests.
i mean they "ignore MOVEMENT penalities" as they just pass through things because they are etherial (banshee/spirits) or use the "etherial movement rule" (skeleton vampire steeds) so i.e. bushes, a hedge, a wall, alot rocks... that would restrict fast movement are ignored.
OK. Now I see. Problem is how can we code that? I mean we can tag the Ethereal Promotion onto them. But that wouldn&#8217;t really ignore city walls. I think as far as city walls go, just be easier to have a catapult as I said above. I don&#8217;t think we need to worry about terrain restricting movement for this.
 
No way man. Hydras are poisonous not fire breathing monsters.
 
Well, someone decide already. This is kinda rediculous.
 
Well, someone decide already. This is kinda rediculous.

The deviation from the classic Hydra is lame. Belching smoke and fire? WTF. Hercules would have used a fire extinguisher instead of his torch.

Hydras are not dragons. Dragons breathe fire. Of course, Hydras, if they don't die horrible from torch hits should regenerate.
 
That was my original line of thought. Screw it. Hydra gets poison. Next topic.

Edit: That was a bit snarky. Sorry.
 
That was my original line of thought. Screw it. Hydra gets poison. Next topic.

Edit: That was a bit snarky. Sorry.

I think War Hydras should have poison just like their classical greek example. F*** gamesworkshop, these are the same dark fantasy buffs who brought us pegasi riding knights...

edit: Nelia Hawk, I am not siding with a project member blindly, this is what I think the Hydra should be. Trust me, I throw rlaf under the bus all the time. Ask any team member.
 
Trust me, I throw rlaf under the bus all the time. Ask any team member.
I'm still trying to sue the bastard from last time. Anyway, it's late. Going to bed. I have a Trig test tomorrow. Peace for now, y'll.




<lame joke>Don't worry, we'll have a massive WAAAAAAAAAAGH! later.</lame joke>

Edit: Waiting for the the next civ design. ::anticipation theme from the old Ketchup commercials starts up:: :p I think I'll start coding the Lizardmen tomorrow, btw.
 
true. ill fix this later
good points. consider them changed.

No, please unchange them. Nelia, its great to get some ideas and feedback and I appreciate that, but I think you don't have the whole mod design in your head the same way that I do.

We don't want every undead unit in the game to have fear and terror. In tabletop, that was true, but those were relatively weak mechanics. We are changing the mechanics slightly and making them more powerful. It is boring if every unit has fear and terror, and you can't just slap these powerful abilities on top of existing units without weakening them in other ways. I'm happy to discuss which units have fear/terror.

The unit strengths are based on the slots of units in the civ mod.
You can't just go around changing them; you can't have 2 units at the same tech level where one is more powerful than the other just because you think they're better in the fluff.
Thats not how balance works. If there are 4 options at the same tech level, then they need to be different in their own way, but equally powerful, so that it can be strategically desirable to go one way rather than another. If blood dragons are just better than other vampires, then you would always go that way every game, and not see the other vampires.

Plus, the listed strengths are the *base* strengths, not including metal weapons access and the like; iron weapons (very common by the midgame) gives +2 strength. So now your blood dragons are strength 10/9 multiple move cavalry, while your Lahmian vampire (a recon unit that doesn't use metal weapons) at the same tech level is strength 6/5.

PL, please don't make balance changes from suggestions like this without consultation.

I may be "clueless when it comes to code" but I'm pretty good when it comes to design.
 
Had this I 1.5. We should have it again. Be easy to make a promotion for it. I’m thinking a +15% bonus against archers.

They had this before, but it should be a minor 5% bonus mostly for flavor. Otherwise it makes them into superior city attackers, which is kindof wrong.

Black guard
<- nothing special about them?
The base royal unit slot is already very special and elite. Its silly to go through every army and make their "elite" unit even better than the normal elite.

Cold one chariot
I agree. I thought it odd that the Cold Ones Knights caused fear, but this unit didn’t.

Balance. The Cold One knights are a high level elite heavy cavalry unit in the mod. The cold one chariot is just a normal early-midgame chariot slot.
Dark elves aren't particularly about chariots, so they should just have a normal chariot.
Cold one chariot is just a name and art style here.

YEAH…except we have to consider balance here.

Consider a normal Horse Archer. Gets -25% terrain penalty in forests, etc. So, we have a str6 unit. 6 - 25% = 4.5str on forests. You’re suggesting Skeletal Horse Archers get none of that. In this mod, that’s a major difference. Huge balance issue.

Yes, a key implementation of cavalry design in this mod is that they are good at attacking units on flatlands, but poor at attacking units in forests or jungles or such.

Cavalry also aren't a strength of an undead army, so their cavalry should generally be inferior to other armies.

If they're really ethereal, rather than just skeletons on skeleton horses, I am not opposed to removing their terrain penalties and having them ignore terrain defenses IF we tone their strength down. So, a lancer replacement rather than 6/4 3 moves with terrain penalties, could be 5/4 2 moves no terrain penalties ignores terrain defensive bonuses.
 
ignoreing can be used with the etherial units like spirits and the banshee, they would just pass through the walls.
and dont forget that they have necromancers. they can just summon units that they can throw against the walls

Having some ethereal units evade walls can be nice, and some summoned cannon fodder can be nice, but it isn't enough.
The AI has to be able to capture cities on its own, both from other AI players and from human players.
The combined defensive benefits of walls, castles and culture in this mod are large; you could easily have +100% city defensive modifiers.
That means that the AI must have some means of knocking these down (the best solution) or of bypassing them with a large chunk of their army. A few units that can ignore walls still generally won't let the AI take cities.
And vampire counts *should* be a faction with a decent offensive ability; they should be a serious threat to the Empire in the WH world map for eg.

or generally undead units attacking a town reduce the defence by -1 or -2 %.
I'm not sure that this makes sense, particularly against a well-drilled professional army. I think if anything they would be uplifted by seeing the enemy throw themselves against the walls uselessly, doing trivial damage.

Some interesting ideas, but I think just giving them a catapult works fine.

maybe limiting blood dragon to lvl1 spells
all others to lvl 1+2
and necrarch to lvl 1-3
necromancers to lvl1. (spells 0-2)
could help?

In this design, necrarchs are 1-2, sylvanians are 1, and then archmage versions are 1-3
In the mod, spell-casters need to be lower strength than normal combat units, otherwise they become far too powerful.

but cavalry IS a strength for vampires. (in a different way then britonnia or empire, but it is a strength)

Powerful cavalry units are not a vampire strength; they aren't Brettonnia or Kislev here.
Merely having access to some mobile units is not the same as being a flavorful strength.
And being faithful to flavor is far more important than accurately representing tabletop mechanics.
The flavor of sylvania is gothic horror, with powerful vampires, hordes of weak unkillable undead and some nasty spirit monsters. Good heavy cavalry are not a part of that theme (excepting the blood knights).

hmm you dont have a mechanic in the mod that represents their weakness
maybe that -20% strengh of the ethernal army promotion can be seen as this.
That was the intention. And again, we are trying to capture flavor, not specific gameplay mechanics.
This is a mod aimed at civ fans, not just WH tabletop grognards.

they have a heavy knight unit... but you cant compare it to britonnia heavy knights or empire knights... or even to vampire knights.

Hence why they get a unit in the Lancer slot, but not the Knight slot.

balance can be adjusted...
i.e.:
domination: 1 random unit cant attack and has no firststrikes.
seduction: 1 random unit attacks its own stack.

The marksmen ability is fine. They don't need more abilities or spells.
OK. Now I see. Problem is how can we code that?
Easily. -1 movement point cost from terrain. Its a standard unit effect.

I have no opinion on hydras, fire, poison, whatever. There are mythological justifications for both. The original greek mythology hydra is poisonous of course, no fire breathing monsters until the West steals dragons from china.
 
Automatically kills a unit? No way! Just have it cast the Light spell that causes blindness and gives immune to fear.

sorry that was a massive typo. it was meant to say *WHEN* it killes a unit.

Re Farmers Market and Fish Market. both removed :)

What is your logic for this design? IMO Nippon should have an average peasant unit core, but some excellent samurai elite units that are very good vs melee.

ah i was thinking of the ashiguru using katana and such as backup when they met melee units. this plus training which i assumed they would get would give them a minor advantage. but i agree with your design. how shall i change it?

Why do they have superior longbowmen (extra first strike)? Doesn't feel very japanese. Normal longbowmen would be fine.

The Yabusame also have special ninja stars that they use when the enemy gets too close for their bows but close enough for the stars. gets them an extra attack. plus ive always pictured elite Nipponese archers as very very accurate. personally.

I suggest a rethink.

i accept your suggestion. i didnt really have a goal when i wrote that all out. it was basically idea-diorrhea.

but in my defence most of that was copy paste from your design ;)

These are city defenders? They seem weak; why wouldn't you just build an archer instead? It would do a better job. Or this just comes free from the temple?

these are only free from the temple. non buildable etc. they could get promotions later on according to other city buildings if you like? i just thought theyd be relatively early units.

ill go over the others later.
 
sorry that was a massive typo. it was meant to say *WHEN* it killes a unit.
So it blinds the stack when it kills a unit? That sounds quite cool actually.

ah i was thinking of the ashiguru using katana and such as backup when they met melee units

Japanese society was very feudal; ashigaru were peasants, and a peasant could be executed for even touching a sword. Ashigaru using katana would feel very wrong, only samurai should be using katanas. They also wouldn't be allowed to ride horses. Ashigaru are just drafted peasants, they aren't particularly effective either.

but i agree with your design. how shall i change it?

How about:
Samurai warrior (replaces militia swordsmen)
Strength 5. Can use bronze/iron/steel/meteoric iron weapons. +35% vs melee units, +10% city attack. 1 move.

Ashigaru spearmen (replaces militia spearmen).
Strength 4. +60% vs shock cavalry units. +25% vs chariot units. Can use bronze/iron. 1 move. 15% lower hammer cost than normal militia spearmen.

No-Dachi Samurai (replaces pikemen). Strength 6. +50% vs melee units. Can use bronze/iron/steel/meteoric iron weapons. 1 move

Samurai master (replaces royal guard) as normal royal guard, but extra +25% vs melee.

Normal ancient cavalry.
Yari cavalry (replaces lancer, same as lancer)
Samurai heavy cavalry (replaces knight)
Strength 9/6. 2 moves. Can use bronze/iron/steel/meteoric iron weapons. +20% vs melee units. 25% vs archers. normal knight terrain penalties.

No horsearcher.
plus ive always pictured elite Nipponese archers as very very accurate. personally.
Ok. (Though throwing stars are useless as an actual weapon, of course.)
How about we make it an extra first strike chance, rather than a full first strike?

Yabusame Bowmen (replaces longbow). Strength 6/8. Can use meteoric iron/quality bows. 1-3 First strikes. +25% city defense. +25% hills defense. +25% vs missile cavalry.

Wakato Bowmen (replaces Militia archers). Strength 4/6. Can use wartats/quality bows 1-3 First strikes. +40% city defense. +25% hills defense. +25% vs missile cavalry.

Normal handgunners (and for Cathay too).

But whatever you prefer here, they did have decent archers.
 
Don't these guys live in cities? They're not nomadic like much of Araby. If you do give +1 food from desert, make sure it doesnt' apply on floodplains, and remove the +1 food from oasis (oasis is only on a desert, so they already get the desert bonus).

think of Araby/egypt/babylon ruled by vampires. same diff.

Does this prevent them from gaining XP?

yeh, ill mention that. its similar to golem.
And you're sure the scorpions aren't just undead?

lol yes im sure. theyre made from marble gold, stone and wood and are powered by the mummified corpse of a dead Liche Priest.

My understand was that *all* of the Tomb Kings troops were dead, and that they didn't have any living human soldiers. Hence me making these units undead eternal army.

Well, technically there are 2 phases in Nehekhara/Khemri's history. the alive part (before Nagash) and dead part (after Nagash) i thought perhaps make the ancient units alive and then the more advanced units undead. but this would be wierd gameplay wise if the player still has some human spearmen in the late game.

Why the extra bonus? They already have eternal army, immortality on a late game unit!

becase Tomb Guard are UBER tough. they have killing blow and all sorts of other nasties. we can tweek it down if you insist?

Mis-spelled. And I don't think they should be getting a knight unit. Chariots are very Tomb King; knights aren't.

corrected. and its legit and in the rulebook. thus it fits :)

They shoudl have shifting sands strength, not desert strength, similarly for everywhere else where you have desert strength. A strength attack penalty outside borders is ok, but a strength defense penalty is probably too much, particularly on top of the eternal army -20%.

good point.

This seems *very* unworkable. Why not just have them give +20% attack strength to all units in their stack when they are outside their cultural borders, to offset the penalty?
I'm also leery of low level units with full immortality; I prefer eternal army, for the partial regeneration chance.
Or only have the archpriest be immortal.

i knew youd either hate this or love it. pity it was hate.

Ok, i think this is a really really good idea and came from the fort commanders. fort commanders generate a small bubble of culture around them. so i figured give liche priests a similar promotion. this means that they can tie their liche priests in to the main army, it creates a form of Heirophant dependancy on the army which is VERY VERY important in table top (your heirophant dies, your army starts to crumble and fall appart) and also means we can get rid of one of the khemri incantations (the one that heals undead) because it has become passive. i also think the AI can learn to use these guys well, they often attack with spellcasters anyway and understand the need for units with Medic to be in the unit (even if it wont work on undead units.) so if we put the medic heal chance effect on the culture bubble promotion the AI will make sure to include them in with their army.
11 strength strength immortal spell casters? Far too strong. These guys should be support units for the swarm, not uber combat units in their own right.

note the national cap of 1. also note the high proportion of death damage. a unit with death resistance will PWN these guys. ill tone it down a bit regardless.

... maybe.... but i can see the AI just freezing itself like this (and not attacking) and destroying its other priests.

ill give the open casket a set maximum duration then and have a cooldown period as well.
 
I understand what you're trying to do here (representing the Japanese Shinto beliefs of spirits in mountains, waterfalls, trees, etc.) but the effect is just too powerful. Happiness caps should be important, but these can easily be +4 or more happiness from a single building in the early game.

Maybe we have a happiness bonus from Peaks, instead? Partial compensation for useless peaks tiles.

Also, spirit guide isn't a good idea, because this overlaps with your design for the Spiritual trait, making one or the other redundant. If units are going to have the spirit guide promotion, then you need to change the spiritual trait to give something else, even if its just combat 1. This is also an issue for any other disciple units with the spirit guide promotion.

Military production penalties don't seem very Nipponese either; their unit roster isn't particularly high quality, and they're not really pacifists (though I recognize you were trying to balance the happiness).

I prefer Kami as well.

hows this?

Temple of the Kami Replaces temple of Spirituality. +0.2 happy from forest, jungle and kelp, Peak. +1 influence. Disciple units built get the 'Guardian Spirit' Promotion. Spawns a single 'Temple Dog' guardian upon completion.

Guardian Spirit acts like stone skin.
 
think of Araby/egypt/babylon ruled by vampires. same diff.

The: "If you do give +1 food from desert, make sure it doesnt' apply on floodplains, and remove the +1 food from oasis (oasis is only on a desert, so they already get the desert bonus)."
applies to Araby too. Malakim were hideously overpowered when they got +1 food from floodplains.

yeh, ill mention that. its similar to golem.

Then its a problem, and the units with it are underpowered.
Is there any particular reason why ushbati and scorpions shouldnt' be able to gain xp as normal?

i thought perhaps make the ancient units alive and then the more advanced units undead. but this would be wierd gameplay wise if the player still has some human spearmen in the late game.

I understand, but I think all undead will make more sense. We aren't really modelling the Nekeharan civilization, we're modelling the Tomb Kings faction. They'll be immune to food and health and happiness from the very start of the game (fallow mechanic etc)

becase Tomb Guard are UBER tough. they have killing blow and all sorts of other nasties. we can tweek it down if you insist?
I insist; if you want them super-strong thats ok, but then remove eternal army.

corrected. and its legit and in the rulebook.
My impression from GW and from Nelia above was that khemri knights werent' even close to being on par with knights from other factions; hence they fit better in the lancer slot than the knight slot. If you want to keep a unit in the knight slot, then make it much weaker than other faction knights.

Ok, i think this is a really really good idea and came from the fort commanders
I think its a really bad idea.

You can create dependency on hierophants (both the healing and the lack of outside-border-penalties) without needing to mess with culture.

If for example being outside culture gives -20 attack strength, and being inside culture gives can heal while moving, then just have:
a) a promotion added to all tomb king units that are inside borders that gives can heal while moving
b) a promotion added to all tomb king units that are outside borders that gives -20% attack strength
c) a promotion added to liche priest units that are outside borders that gives another promotion to tomb king units that gives +20% attack strenth and can heal while moving.

So, while units are inside borders, they will always have can heal while moving.
While units are outside cultural borders, they will not heal and will have -20% attack, UNLESS
While unit are outside borders and in a stack with a liche priest, they will have net 0% strength change and will heal while moving.

Thus, you get all the benefits of the your intended mechanic, but WITHOUT messing with culture.

Trying to create a culture bubble:
a) messes with Influence driven war somethnig fierce
b) Won't work in high-cultural strength enemy areas; the fort doesn't give an absolute 3x3 culture bubble, it can be over-riden by cultural strength as normal
c) messes up friendly/enemy roads; it doesn't make I wouldn't be able to use my home-culture road advantage to attack tomb king stacks advancing through their my territory.

so if we put the medic heal chance effect on the culture bubble promotion the AI will make sure to include them in with their army.

If you think that we can get the AI to use them effectively, I'm willing to go to -20% strength outside culture rather than -20% attack strength. Can't hurt to try it.
But I still oppose using a culture bubble; it is unnecessary to get the desired effect.

Liche Arch Priest (UU national cap=1) cannot be built. can only be upgraded from a level 6 Liche High Priest. strength 4+4 Death, Immortal.
This sounds fine.

ill give the open casket a set maximum duration then and have a cooldown period as well.
Its worth a try. It will need a very obvious graphic effect too. I do love the Indiana Jones Lost Ark feel.

Temple of the Kami Replaces temple of Spirituality. +0.2 happy from forest, jungle and kelp, Peak. +1 influence. Disciple units built get the 'Guardian Spirit' Promotion. Spawns a single 'Temple Dog' guardian upon completion.

Guardian Spirit acts like stone skin.

Well, the kelp bonus feels a bit weird - they have help spirits in shinto? And I think stoneskin is a bit too strong, how about its like stoneskin but just gives 0-2 first strikes.
Otherwise good. I do like the idea of a bonus from terrain features, it has nice flavor.
 
PL, please don't make balance changes from suggestions like this without consultation.

dont worry i didnt change them cause i didnt have enough time. and i DID intend to wait four your oppinion first. i just didnt mention it because of the said lack of time.

I may be "clueless when it comes to code" but I'm pretty good when it comes to design.

im sensing i hit a nerve with that one... sorry about that Ahri i didnt mean it to come out like that :( it was more of a joke really. and yes, you are bloody invaluable when it comes to design balance.

So it blinds the stack when it kills a unit? That sounds quite cool actually.

YAY A COOL IDEA :D *mass joy*
yep :) and you said it much more concisely than me, im changing it to your description haha.
Japanese society was very feudal; ashigaru were peasants, and a peasant could be executed for even touching a sword. Ashigaru using katana would feel very wrong, only samurai should be using katanas. They also wouldn't be allowed to ride horses. Ashigaru are just drafted peasants, they aren't particularly effective either.

fair enough :)

i did all your nippion changes from post 334 :)

also:

Cathayan Artificer (Replace Handgunners (picture firework-missiles :D Kaboom!): Strength 7/9. Can use meteoric iron. Can NOT use bronze/iron weapons. Collateral damage to 3 units. +25% vs melee units, +25% city attack. +25% vs missile cavalry.
 
dont worry i didnt change them cause i didnt have enough time. and i DID intend to wait four your oppinion first. i just didnt mention it because of the said lack of time.

No worries. I'm happy to talk about which units should have fear/terror.
sorry about that Ahri i didnt mean it to come out like that

Again, no worries, I know what you meant. Let's make it: I'm clueless when it comes to coding anything :)


Cathayan Artificer (Replace Handgunners (picture firework-missiles Kaboom!): Strength 7/9. Can use meteoric iron. Can NOT use bronze/iron weapons. Collateral damage to 3 units. +25% vs melee units, +25% city attack. +25% vs missile cavalry.
Sounds ok, but I'd maybe make them 8/7 instead of 7/9, and drop the missile cav bonus (explosives aren't very accurate; they're good at attacking big clumps of infantry, but not hitting agile missile cav, and they tend to have low rate of fire so aren't great on defense)
 
The: "If you do give +1 food from desert, make sure it doesnt' apply on floodplains, and remove the +1 food from oasis (oasis is only on a desert, so they already get the desert bonus)."
applies to Araby too. Malakim were hideously overpowered when they got +1 food from floodplains.

oh yeh. ok.

Then its a problem, and the units with it are underpowered.
Is there any particular reason why ushbati and scorpions shouldnt' be able to gain xp as normal?

oh i thought u meant u wanted them to not gain EXP. nah there is really no reason why they shouldnt be able to IMHO. make them gain EXP as normal then?

I understand, but I think all undead will make more sense. We aren't really modelling the Nekeharan civilization, we're modelling the Tomb Kings faction. They'll be immune to food and health and happiness from the very start of the game (fallow mechanic etc)

true. all humans are now dead :evil:

I insist; if you want them super-strong thats ok, but then remove eternal army.

this ok or more?

Tomb Guard (replaces Royal guard). Strength 7/9. Curse of Nagash, Eternal Army, Death does not cause War Weariness. Can use bronze/iron/steel/meteoric iron weapons. Bodyguard. +25% vs melee units.

My impression from GW and from Nelia above was that khemri knights werent' even close to being on par with knights from other factions; hence they fit better in the lancer slot than the knight slot. If you want to keep a unit in the knight slot, then make it much weaker than other faction knights.

hows this:

Skeleton Light Horsemen (replaces ancient cavalry) Strength 3+1death, 2 moves. Can use wartats/bronze/iron weapons. Can withdraw from combat 15%. +25% vs chariots, +25% vs missile units, +25% vs missile cavalry. Curse of Nagash, Eternal Army, Death does not cause War Weariness.
Skeleton Heavy Horsemen (Replaces Lancer). Strength 4/2+2death, 3 moves. Can use bronze/iron/steel/meteoric iron weapons. Can withdraw from combat 25%, +25% vs missile units, +25% vs chariots, +50% vs siege units.Curse of Nagash, Eternal Army, Death does not cause War Weariness.

Trying to create a culture bubble:
a) messes with Influence driven war somethnig fierce
b) Won't work in high-cultural strength enemy areas; the fort doesn't give an absolute 3x3 culture bubble, it can be over-riden by cultural strength as normal
c) messes up friendly/enemy roads; it doesn't make I wouldn't be able to use my home-culture road advantage to attack tomb king stacks advancing through their my territory.

Curse you and your infernal Logic! *shakes fist in anguish*

(changed to your method. is this ok?)

how about its like stoneskin but just gives 0-2 first strikes.

done.
 
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