Nargott
While balancing continues, I will be publishing additional information so that you are aware that work is actively underway.
As I wrote above, racial initiatives are being implemented:
Dwarves 6, 9, 12
Humans 8, 10, 12
Elves 8, 11, 14
Mages 10, 12, 14
Shadows 9, 11, 13
Demons 7, 10, 13
Orcs 7, 9, 11
Undead 6, 8, 10
In each race, 2 tiers of units have low racial initiative, 3 have medium, and 2 have high. The advantage of this approach is clear standardization, a "racial style" (you can easily recognize the race just by looking at its units' initiative).
The disadvantage of this approach, as discovered during balancing, is excessive uniformity between grades; often attack, defense, and abilities are not enough to highlight the difference between grades.
On the other hand, if initiatives are varied freely between grades, the difference between different tiers is erased.
Therefore, a compromise approach was ultimately adopted: 3 tiers of units retain an unchanged initiative, while in 4 others, one unit each receives additional initiative that differs from other grades. Thus, with minimal touches, good variety is ensured while maintaining differences between tiers.
Using humans as an example (the speed, which is the same for the entire tier, is listed first, followed by initiatives after the colon):
4 Militia: 12, 12 and 10 (primary 12, additional 10)
4 Archers: 8, 8 and 10 (primary 8, additional 10)
3 Swordsmen: 8, 8 and 8
5 Monks: 10, 10 and 8 (primary 10, additional 8)
6 Knight: 10, 10 and 12 (primary 10, additional 12)
7 Griffins: 12, 12 and 12
7 Angels: 10, 10 and 10
In addition to initiatives and speeds, units are distributed by aggressiveness (roughly speaking, the ratio of damage to survivability):
- TANK (high durability)
- DEFENDER (increased durability)
- WARRIOR (balanced damage)
- ATTACKER (increased damage)
- KILLER (high damage)
And so, racial character manifests here as well. Units of light races (dwarves, humans, elves) are based on survivability (tanks, defenders, and warriors — no attackers or killers). Units of dark races (orcs, demons, shadows) are based on damage (warriors, attackers, and killers — no tanks or defenders). Neutral races (mages and undead) have a balanced composition without extremes (defenders, warriors, and attackers — no tanks or killers).
In fact, within each race there are still more damaging and less damaging units; however, the difference between a damaging human unit and that of demons is fundamental: the former are not as dangerous but are durable, while the latter are very dangerous but fragile. Additionally, these racial differences are reinforced by heroes: all classes of dwarf and human heroes have maximum defense, while all classes of demon and orc heroes have maximum attack.
Thus, we get the following general characteristics:
Racial parameter - defense:
Dwarves. Reduced initiative, high durability (troops + heroes), very good protection (almost all melee units are heavy class), in the future on the map — good damage due to runes (racial).
Humans. Medium initiative, high durability (troops + heroes), in the future on the map — good retaliation damage (racial).
Racial parameter - spellcasting:
Elves. Increased initiative, increased durability (troops only), however insufficient protection (no heavy class at all), they deal good damage under strongest buffs or in the future on the map — due to luck/avenger (racial).
Shadows. Increased initiative, increased damage (troops only), fragile race setting a high combat pace, which is supported by heroes with high spellcasting and in the future on the map — elemental damage (racial).
Racial parameter - knowledge:
Mages. High initiative, but weak troops — the full potential of the race is revealed through magic; in the future on the map, troop enhancement via mini-artifacts is possible (racial).
Undead. Low initiative, but powerful troops — capable of dealing good damage, but very slowly (betting on a prolonged game); in the future on the map, troop enhancement via necromancy is possible (racial).
Racial parameter - attack:
Orcs. Reduced initiative, high damage (troops + heroes), very strong troops with decent survivability, which will be enhanced in the future on the map due to blood rage (racial).
Demons. Medium initiative, high damage (troops + heroes), the most dangerous troops with huge damage, but fragile; in the future on the map they rely on numbers via summoning reinforcements (racial).
And finally details of current development:
- Units of half the races are roughly calculated by parameters
- Units of all races are distributed into niches (exact speeds and initiatives, approximate aggressiveness)
- The composition of almost all abilities is approved (however, minor rearrangements are possible during calculation)
- Magic is completely ready and distributed among units and heroes
Inquisitors: returned cleansing (unique for a shooter), but reduced both initiative (to 8) and damage (due to the "half-power shot" common to all monk grades). Additionally, all monks will have low ammunition (3 shots); thus, inquisitors can remove buffs only 3 times, and even then with a delay (the hero moves with initiative 10), which rehabilitates the use of Light magic against them.
Cherubim: removed Child of Light (leaving it only for light unicorns), as a defense-burning unit with resurrection is already interesting enough (among angels, it has maximum damage).
Blood Griffins: for the first time, a creature with the "Dive" ability received initiative 12, which can also be buffed to 14 upon taking damage ("Taste of Blood"). In other words, these griffins with an area-of-effect dive can now quite possibly catch low-initiative troops for damage, similar to royal griffins.
Light Unicorns: redundant cleansing removed (transferred to Daughters of Heaven), as it is now again a unique unit with the "Child of Light" ability.
Gargoyles: no longer useless stools without damage; durability significantly reduced, but initiative and damage increased, stun and elemental auras added. At the same time, gargoyles still survive reasonably well due to heavy class, but should not be caught under high damage.
Titans: now a unique heavy-class shooter (i.e., one that cannot be focused quickly).
Harpooners: added an attack without penalty, similar to the grade, in order to strengthen the similarity between grades.
Spear Throwers: initiative significantly reduced (to 6), but wounding enhanced (guaranteed to reduce speed by 30%, rounded down, i.e., often up to 50-60%). They shoot rarely but accurately; damage will be serious even by melee standards (due to low initiative).
Thanes and Northern Dragons: very low initiative (6) and huge survivability, combined with decent damage, which is now worth throwing from a distance (Jarls and Thors). Basic thanes stand out among them by not having a ranged ability, but are much more proactive in terms of initiative (9). In general, the use of very low initiatives allows for quite significant damage scaling, thereby increasing the weight even of one-time ranged abilities.
Monstrous Cyclopes: suppression aura removed and transferred to Shock Troopers (now all 3 leader grades have auras). Monstrous cyclopes retain a stun unique to tier-7 (which is no longer present in the grade with area attack), while initiative is increased and the "Sacrifice" ability is added — now all cyclops grades have different abilities that consume goblins. In addition, the Earthquake spell has also been transferred to these cyclopes (for which they will gather mana by sacrificing goblins), which fits well thematically and can counter walls of swords blocking both the cyclopes themselves and centaurs. In the future, it would be good to strengthen sacrifice (stronger physical bonuses than +1 to attack, defense, and morale) and earthquake (I've long wanted to make a 10% ATB pushback for all enemies), but there are currently no technical possibilities for this. Nevertheless, as a minor situational ability, sacrifice can perform (let's put it this way — devouring goblins via an alt is equally situational: requires the presence of a well-damaged cyclops near the goblins).
Assassins and Scouts: planning to move them from shooter class to light class due to one-time shooting (1 shot). This kills several birds with one stone:
1) allows using a truly strong assassin poison at high initiative without balance problems (only one shot)
2) allows playing around a cool bug-feature on scouts: if stun triggers, ammunition is not spent, and you can shoot again later
3) allows using assassins and scouts as truly good melee units with high initiative, good poison or agility + stun (unlike trappers, who have agility + poison but no shooting at all)
4) leaves the possibility to unlock the same-ranged potential of scouts and assassins using an ammo cart (or soldier's luck under stun), which is fair since these warriors do not scale as well with steadfastness and BB compared to other tier-1s
I have long wanted to make assassins true killers with high damage, rather than just typical shooters with moderately dangerous poisonous arrows. And ammunition = 1 shot allows this without breaking the balance.
I expect to finish calculating the bulk of the abilities (there are about 150 of them) this weekend.
