It would be interesting to join the developers' community...
But I will add this as well:
Pirates, Corsairs:
They turned out a bit too strong for their cost; I did calculations between shooters—even though they only have 4 shots, that's usually enough, and it can be solved with an ammunition wagon.
Their damage and attack are too high; essentially, they are leaders and even surpass shooters like Medusas and Archmagi. Those are fourth-level, of course, but their cost is higher and quantity lower, while Pirates stand close to them in terms of damage and perks—they turned out way too OP.
If someone argues that they aren't that OP compared to Crossbowmen and Elf Rangers, I will explain why Elves and Crossbows aren't as strong as Pirates, but for comparison, I'll also add Lizardman Warriors from the Fortress.
Crossbows and Elves do not get increases in attack or defense, unlike Lizardmen. Lizardmen essentially lead; they deal approximately the same damage as Crossbows and Elves, and a slight disadvantage is compensated by a large amount of health and defense, plus blessing, which makes them wonderful shooters, but... THERE IS ONE BUT!
Crossbows and Elves have nothing added except for double shot, while blessing gives an additional +1 to damage, which buffs Crossbows and Elves by as much as 33-50%, whereas it only strengthens Lizardmen by 15%—all because of the double shot. In essence, blessing was supposed to solve the problem of the large spread for Lizardmen; I always felt that Lizardmen needed one more point of damage to fully compete with the blessing effect against other shooters, so it would be a good change: keep the strong spread for Lizardmen but raise the final damage, for example 2-6 (previously 2-5).
Now let's talk about why Crossbows and Elves don't even come close to Pirates. Personally, I remember how painful it is to hit Archmagi or Beholders in some dungeons, and it's not just about "no penalty in melee"
No penalty in melee: If this skill is missing, shooters deal only half damage; that's the beauty of Lizardman Warriors—they can actually do something up close with their own defense, although I would still raise their damage by one point.
But in the case of Elves and Crossbows, neither attack nor damage increases; they only get double shot, which doesn't work in melee combat! That is, for these shooters specifically, given their cost with the upgrade, they receive a 75% penalty in melee instead of 50%! Yes, they are strong shooters, but they are strong because of an ability that only works on ranged attacks. If other shooters get increases in damage, attack, etc., making the penalty half for their cost, then Elves and Crossbows, attacking in melee, receive both a melee penalty and lose their upgraded ability, becoming non-upgraded warriors—this is especially critical for them! 75%!
What we have with Pirates and Corsairs - I understand that someone probably tried to balance them against other shooters, but they have wild damage like Elves and Crossbows, which cannot be countered in any way! On top of all this, there's the "no retaliation" perk!
If they become melee warriors, here too they surpass most level 3 creatures in attack, damage, and defense; and if they don't surpass them, they stand close with the no-retaliation ability—they simply have too many perks or stats!
Their only downside is that they have low health for melee combat, but who cares—for shooters, they have a decent amount of health, and melee combat only happens if there's no wagon or when many are already wounded.
Solution to the problems: I haven't played this faction, but I clearly see that their strength is overkill. I don't think we should take away one of their features—fine, let them be such dangerous shooters who aren't countered in melee; Beholders are the same—but their stats definitely need to be trimmed a bit. They are somewhat similar to Beholders, only Pirates have higher damage and slightly lower health, but they beat Beholders thanks to the additional no-retaliation function, and they beat Elves and Crossbows because of the 75% penalty. Therefore, these shooters (PIRATES) are too versatile in battle, cannot be countered by anything, and have huge characteristics; they are strong compared to level 3 shooters and melee warriors and even some level 4 ones. Four shots are often enough for them; they definitely need to be nerfed.
Skill: Mysticism - I really liked the update to Mysticism, however, I think changing 1\2\3 to 5\10\15 was overkill. Considering that if you plan to rework artifacts in the future, it's definitely too much; even without artifacts, I was quite content with 10 mana, and here it's as many as 15. I'm glad for this update, but I think they overdid it and it should be cut back to 4\8\12
Second-level Melee Creatures: Let's talk about Zombies, but first a bit of comparison:
I was somewhat annoyed by the strength of Storm Elementals and Corsairs because of their wild potential damage and attack, but oh well—we all know that Air Elementals were often said to be able to compete well with many even level 3 creatures, but they have the smallest growth, while Corsairs have too much growth for their characteristics!
But I won't talk about them now; I'll talk about the most useless ones: Dwarves attack 7-7, growth only 8, hp 20, damage 2-4, they have reflection.
Harpies are weaker, but they are no-retaliation flyers.
Gargoyles are weaker, but growth could be increased...
PS: In childhood, maybe 20 years ago? I don't remember anymore... there was a dream and an idea: Give Gargoyles a new ability—when attacking to avoid a counter-strike, they turn to stone for a fraction of a second, as a feature -50/70% damage from retaliation attacks (does not work against those who hit twice).
Now Zombies! In terms of characteristics, their attack and defense are 5-5, lower than any other creature; they lack 2 units even compared to Dwarves. Damage is also lower 2-3, although growth is the same 8—indeed, the weakest second-level units! They can only compete with flyers, but that's the thing about flyers: they are flexible and therefore still beat Zombies.
So why did the Official developers do this to Zombies? Because these creatures, compared to Dwarves and others where they lack 2 attack and defense, have the Disease skill, which equalizes the strength of Zombies with the rest! Disease removes 2 attack and defense from the target, but there's only a 20% chance! Because of this, Zombies are the weakest second-level units; Disease doesn't equalize them. Maybe give Zombies a 100% chance for Disease since they had 2 stat points removed for this reason? Or increase the parameter reduction from Disease so that there is a point to taking Zombies—so that whoever they poison, all squads hit the infected one; otherwise, they are... well, nothing... simply put, the weakest level 2 creatures.
When specialization in these units gives +5% for every two levels, then a Dwarf having attack 7 and defense 7, while a Zombie has 5 \5, the difference at level 20 will not be 2 units, but 4 units; specialization in Zombies with such parameters works extremely poorly.
Artifacts:
I'm wondering, maybe artifacts should be nerfed too? Sometimes, and often, when getting super artifacts or similar relics, it's hard to fight against such an opponent when various buffs, stats per level, and arsenals provide these parameters more slowly than artifacts. It has become a rule that the simplest artifact gives +1 mana, while those giving parameters give at least +2—wouldn't it be better to do the opposite? The simplest artifact gives 1 attack instead of 2, or gives 2 attack but reduces magic power by 1 or defense by 1; and the strongest artifacts, instead of a +7 value and +12-3, should have a maximum +5 value and +8(9)-3? Then they wouldn't depend so heavily on stat stacking, but at the same time it would still have an effect.
In some games, or rather in many, many artifacts gave different parameters, not just helmets always giving knowledge or strength; this was balanced by the fact that they didn't give many stats.
Actually, it would be cool to see more variety in artifacts, like +1 damage to creatures or the enemy losing 4 mana every round, or an artifact: your Fire Shield and minefield with a 20% chance can also blind the target / Ice Bolt gains the property of slowing enemies' speed by 1 unit / Joy heals the owner when a repeat turn triggers.
Crypts: I suggest nerfing various crypts further; otherwise, it doesn't matter which faction you play, your striking force will often be Wyverns, Cyclopes, and Angels obtained from crypts. There is no variety—what is the point of playing a faction (unless for upgrades to these same creatures) if the main striking force in large numbers is provided by neutral loot from three or four units, and in every game everyone has the same creatures, almost ignoring their own? (We don't touch buildings for hiring such creatures, only crypts—reduce the distribution of such units as prizes). You come to hit crypts against PC-AI, three crypts, get 2-3-4 Angels = 9, and immediately go with them not against AI-PC, but against a player who lives without crypts and is trying to build up and accumulate an army—and what do you think he will do against 9 Angels?
