Nargott
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Updated information for all the abilities mentioned above.
I have now realized that it makes sense to consider abilities that haven't changed significantly (for now, only those concerning humans and demons—other races will be considered later).
Stun, Charge, Intimidate (and other similar ones)
- The factor for all abilities (except guaranteed ones) was set to 1.
- Ideally, I would like to have a fixed chance (1/3 or 1/2) for any such abilities to trigger—however, this requires additional edits to the exe (theoretically possible in the future).
- Right now, the factor can be raised to 2, which would boost these abilities to exactly those values (1/2 with a health advantage and 1/3 with a health disadvantage).
- The decision to set the factor to exactly 1 was dictated primarily by the convenience of calculating the exact chance rather than practical considerations.
- It is now becoming clear that these abilities triggered too rarely, which is especially noticeable against other very powerful and non-random abilities.
- Soldier's Luck provides the greatest bonus trigger chance precisely at a 50% base chance.
- Every time a random ability fails to trigger, it leads to disappointment—that is why an optimal chance of around 50% is best, so that triggers and failures occur with equal frequency.
Strike from the Heavens
- A perfectly balanced ability that requires no changes.
- The damage is high enough to justify spending 2 turns on this ability (1 turn activation + 1 turn delay).
- The delay is exactly right so that the opponent has time to move their units away, except in special cases (Haste, Slow, Blindness, tactical waiting).
- The ability now works with medium rather than high initiative (but this can be corrected by casting Haste).
- This means that certain effort is required to guarantee a landing against a unit with lower initiative (requiring a double turn for this) by using tactical waiting.
- The ability is effective against ranged units or Sorceress (because they rarely move) and ineffective against the heavy class, as damage is halved.
- Unlike the original, the unit has sufficiently sturdy physics to not fear being destroyed immediately after landing.
- With a stronger ability (higher damage or lower delay), the unit would have to pay for it with their physics.
- Meanwhile, the unit can now operate effectively both with and without dives (just like other upgrades), which provides additional choice in which mode to use the unit.
Standard abilities that cannot be changed:
- Shooting without penalty
- Arrow protection
- Cover (arrow protection aura)
- Unanswered attack
- Infinite retaliation
- Bloodlust (cleaver)
- Strike without penalty
- Half-power shooting
- Magic resistance (25%)
Added after 18 hours 18 minutes
I tried the new factors—before and after are like night and day.
Now stun, charge, and intimidate will work noticeably more often than in the original.
Another question is that their cost needs to be calculated correctly; for example, the Nightmares currently have physics that are too strong for such magnificent abilities.
For example, Crimson Nightmares now:
- Scare immediately in almost 50% of cases
- Charge in another 25% of cases (if they didn't scare + charge triggered)
- Scare after charging in another 12.5% of cases (if they didn't scare immediately + charge triggered + the scare triggered on the second hit)
And all these amazing abilities are layered on top of an attack with excellent physics, which seems like overkill.
That is, some time is needed to test better and re-evaluate the updated abilities, but it is definitely worth it, as the chances are an order of magnitude better than they were.
Nightmares should nightmare, creating chaos, not just hit!
Added after 1 hour 7 minutes
With a factor of 1, in 24% of cases over a series of 5 attacks (on average per battle), the ability will not trigger a single time, regardless of the player's actions.
With a factor of 2, such an atrocity happens in only 6% of cases, which is many times better.
The point of a random ability is not that it happens rarely, but that it creates unpredictability—and from this point of view, a trigger chance of around 50% is optimal:
- it ensures a high enough contribution of the ability (with minimal chances that it won't work at all)
- it does not create inflated expectations of one outcome or another
- as a result, it minimizes the gap between expectation and reality (variance)
The only exception is abilities with a very strong effect, such as deadly strike. Such abilities work even when they don't work—creating high danger and influencing the opponent's plans.
Halving a unit is not the same as simply scaring it. Therefore, a 25% chance here (as in the original) is quite justified.
Given the new factors, combinations of Slow + Stun or Slow + Intimidate become a real threat of completely removing a unit from the game (considering that Slow reduces initiative 3 times for a long period).
There are also 2 other abilities for which there are plans and which I forgot to mention:
- lofted shot: 50% damage is clearly too little, I want to make it 60%
- aura of terror: needs -6 morale instead of -3 (-3 is not terror, but a slight fright—too minor an ability)
Both edits require changing the exe (there is a chance they can be implemented in the future).
I have now realized that it makes sense to consider abilities that haven't changed significantly (for now, only those concerning humans and demons—other races will be considered later).
Stun, Charge, Intimidate (and other similar ones)
- The factor for all abilities (except guaranteed ones) was set to 1.
- Ideally, I would like to have a fixed chance (1/3 or 1/2) for any such abilities to trigger—however, this requires additional edits to the exe (theoretically possible in the future).
- Right now, the factor can be raised to 2, which would boost these abilities to exactly those values (1/2 with a health advantage and 1/3 with a health disadvantage).
- The decision to set the factor to exactly 1 was dictated primarily by the convenience of calculating the exact chance rather than practical considerations.
- It is now becoming clear that these abilities triggered too rarely, which is especially noticeable against other very powerful and non-random abilities.
- Soldier's Luck provides the greatest bonus trigger chance precisely at a 50% base chance.
- Every time a random ability fails to trigger, it leads to disappointment—that is why an optimal chance of around 50% is best, so that triggers and failures occur with equal frequency.
Strike from the Heavens
- A perfectly balanced ability that requires no changes.
- The damage is high enough to justify spending 2 turns on this ability (1 turn activation + 1 turn delay).
- The delay is exactly right so that the opponent has time to move their units away, except in special cases (Haste, Slow, Blindness, tactical waiting).
- The ability now works with medium rather than high initiative (but this can be corrected by casting Haste).
- This means that certain effort is required to guarantee a landing against a unit with lower initiative (requiring a double turn for this) by using tactical waiting.
- The ability is effective against ranged units or Sorceress (because they rarely move) and ineffective against the heavy class, as damage is halved.
- Unlike the original, the unit has sufficiently sturdy physics to not fear being destroyed immediately after landing.
- With a stronger ability (higher damage or lower delay), the unit would have to pay for it with their physics.
- Meanwhile, the unit can now operate effectively both with and without dives (just like other upgrades), which provides additional choice in which mode to use the unit.
Standard abilities that cannot be changed:
- Shooting without penalty
- Arrow protection
- Cover (arrow protection aura)
- Unanswered attack
- Infinite retaliation
- Bloodlust (cleaver)
- Strike without penalty
- Half-power shooting
- Magic resistance (25%)
Added after 18 hours 18 minutes
I tried the new factors—before and after are like night and day.
Now stun, charge, and intimidate will work noticeably more often than in the original.
Another question is that their cost needs to be calculated correctly; for example, the Nightmares currently have physics that are too strong for such magnificent abilities.
For example, Crimson Nightmares now:
- Scare immediately in almost 50% of cases
- Charge in another 25% of cases (if they didn't scare + charge triggered)
- Scare after charging in another 12.5% of cases (if they didn't scare immediately + charge triggered + the scare triggered on the second hit)
And all these amazing abilities are layered on top of an attack with excellent physics, which seems like overkill.
That is, some time is needed to test better and re-evaluate the updated abilities, but it is definitely worth it, as the chances are an order of magnitude better than they were.
Nightmares should nightmare, creating chaos, not just hit!
Added after 1 hour 7 minutes
With a factor of 1, in 24% of cases over a series of 5 attacks (on average per battle), the ability will not trigger a single time, regardless of the player's actions.
With a factor of 2, such an atrocity happens in only 6% of cases, which is many times better.
The point of a random ability is not that it happens rarely, but that it creates unpredictability—and from this point of view, a trigger chance of around 50% is optimal:
- it ensures a high enough contribution of the ability (with minimal chances that it won't work at all)
- it does not create inflated expectations of one outcome or another
- as a result, it minimizes the gap between expectation and reality (variance)
The only exception is abilities with a very strong effect, such as deadly strike. Such abilities work even when they don't work—creating high danger and influencing the opponent's plans.
Halving a unit is not the same as simply scaring it. Therefore, a 25% chance here (as in the original) is quite justified.
Given the new factors, combinations of Slow + Stun or Slow + Intimidate become a real threat of completely removing a unit from the game (considering that Slow reduces initiative 3 times for a long period).
There are also 2 other abilities for which there are plans and which I forgot to mention:
- lofted shot: 50% damage is clearly too little, I want to make it 60%
- aura of terror: needs -6 morale instead of -3 (-3 is not terror, but a slight fright—too minor an ability)
Both edits require changing the exe (there is a chance they can be implemented in the future).