Faction balance changes in the upcoming patch - read on

[Kardiophylax]

It has come to my attention, based on numerous posts, that the Blighted Plague, and the Feron to a smaller extent, are having a lot of trouble due to the initial alliance of 3 (Asaleth, Illoriaon, and the Planelords).  Now it is certainly possible for those factions to end up at war later on (currently random, but the Blighted Plague will eventually get a quest to incite a war between two of them), but in the early days they will most likely be joining up to defeat the Plague/Feron armies.

Due to this, I am planning the following changes (in addition to the completed bug fixes) for this patch:

Both -

Reviewing siege settings in the Topic: Siege Defense.  If you want to sound off and read my ideas on how to improve the Feron/BP chances of surviving a siege, go there and read through it. 


Blighted Plague -

- 2 additional types of Necromancy troops that can be revived.  These include Revived Taskmasters and Revived Overseers.  The Taskmasters will be fairly rare compared to getting Revived Corpses (what is currently in-game).  Overseers will be very rare.  The general idea from a roleplaying perspective is that the Taskmasters help drive the revived corpses and other low level undead to fight.  The Overseers are more of a field general type, rare, but they are the ones that help lords command the revived corpses and taskmasters. 

What this means in reality: Taskmasters will be a higher level troop, and Overseers will be even higher.  Around the same level as a Fallen Hero in game.  These troops can ONLY be achieved through necromancy, and will be significantly rarer then Revived Corpses.  Also, the player can not get Overseers right now.  It is not possible for them to get a high enough necromancy skill until the Plague quest line is released (the player is not as skilled as the AI lords right now since they can only become an initiate (upon joining the BP)).  Therefore, the player can get Taskmasters and the AI can get both. 

- To go along with the 2 new types, a few changes.  Revived Corpses will remain most common.  Taskmasters less common, but not that scarce.  Overseers will be stronger and rarer.  There are no upgrade paths for these troops.  What you get when they are raised is what you get.  They do not 'improve' because their abilities are based on how good they were in life (this is only from an RP viewpoint, you can technically have a chance at a farmer becoming an overseer, but it is slim, perhaps they had the ability but never chose to use it in life).

- AI players now convert prisoners on a daily basis to the Revived line of troops.  This does not include heroes.  Also, they will only convert 33 to 50% of the troops successfully, the rest resist the ritual and are lost (removed from the party).  I do not have this implemented for the player yet, but will allow the player to do so in the future, probably in Blighted Plague owned castles.  I have not put a limitation on the BP conversion time or place because they need the help.  They are supposed to be a zerg force and aren't really right now.

- Starting Lord changes.  All BP lords now receive 1 overseer, 5 taskmasters, and 20 Revived corpses in their starting army, giving them a healthy defensive boost in the early game (they still get killed when 3, 4, or more lords combine against them, but this helps).  In addition, they have been given +2 pathfinding to compensate for the loss of party speedh and to help speed escape should the allied forces attack.


Feron Tribe

- I am considering giving either additional personal guards to the starting armies or possibly 10 or so tribesmen.  What do you think?

- Should the rate of bloodthirst for the berserkers be increased, or is it fair the way it is?


Hopefully these things sound good to people and will inspire more people to play the Blighted Plague in the patch.

[NukularPower]

All sounds great to me!  More troops to the Ferons would definately help, too..

[Morrowind Mod Man]

Is the Cursed Shroud that the Dread Sovereign gives you going to increases the chances of getting these rare undead types?

[Kardiophylax]

Well, it's really meant for only hero class troops.  It is required if you wish to be able to obtain any of them.  I will eventually make it more complex to obtain one, when the Blighted Plague get their quests and improvements, but I just added that in as it was necessary to have it in game for this release.


 Your chance of raising higher tier undead will depend upon your necromancy skill, which will be increased by acquiring certain items.  As described in the book of the dead, it is possible to contain a part of a necromancer's power (ie. skill points) in an item and add it to your own.

None of that is present right now though because their quests are not completed.  This mod, while playable, is still very much so a WIP.  The player's default necromancy skill when joining the Blighted Plague is 10.  This is obtained by getting the book of the dead.  I will probably also attach a rather large leadership gain to that item so that the player can support more undead.  The issue then is controlling the player so he doesn't just stock up on some other non-undead high tier troops since that's not what it is meant to do.

[NukularPower]

Is it a given that the Feron and BP have to start at war with each other?

I can see why it would be, but it could be argued that they could start at peace, with war declarable (like the other factions)

[Kardiophylax]

Is it a given that the Feron and BP have to start at war with each other?

I can see why it would be, but it could be argued that they could start at peace, with war declarable (like the other factions)

From a gameplay standpoint, I can see your point.  Alliance of 2 vs 3.

From a Talera world standpoint, there is no possible way I could put the two in an alliance.  One is power hungry and evil, and the other isn't really evil, but is intolerant of leadership outside their tribe.  There is just no way the two would ever, ever get along with any of the other factions.  Both want total control of Talera for themselves.

Their power is being increased and in the future there will be ways to incite wars between the 3 some without waiting for random chance.  For now, just have to tough it out!

[Bellum]

On the troop level, as a necromancer I'm having real trouble against the Planelords. The area around the Planelords and BPs home are either very wooded, very rugged, or both. It makes perfect sense in that light for them to be equipped as they are, but they are also extremely skilled, it would seem. They're almost as fast on foot as I am on horseback and they're also very accurate with the bow, and good at melee as well. A heavy barrage of arrows is particularly damaging to my ranks (and to me). They can be swiftly taken down by a good swing on horseback. Perhaps their weakness was supposed to be their ineffectiveness toward cavalry? Unfortunately, the AI is completely incapable of navigating the terrain we're dealing with, and I can't take them all out on my own. Invariably, as I'm hacking through their ranks, one of them head shots me (an instant kill) or slaughters my horse.

I've not been playing this mod long, so I'm not that familiar with all of the units and how they work against other units, but that's just my observations as a guy just starting out.

[Kardiophylax]

The Blighted Plague's strength is supposed to be based on their larger swarm numbers and higher health.  In addition, they have a spear line that uses full shields to block a lot of arrows, and horsemen with high health that can disrupt archer fire. 

I will be increasing the necromantic effects and party sizes for the Blighted Plague as I have admitted the swarm numbers aren't quite there.  In addition, I would advise not charging ahead of your platoon into the fight. Try not to engage them in the woods and hills, that is one of the best places an archer heavy troop can fight from.  Horses also have a lot of trouble in these areas.  Try and draw them out into the plains.  If you engage them in the open and break their ranks with some horses, most stop firing arrows and can be taken down.  Alternatively, follow behind your shielded spearmen and your expendable revived corpses. In mountainous areas you may want to dismount your horses and follow behind your spearmen as well.

The Planelord armor is the weakest of any of the factions by a good amount and also less health.  They are quick to swing their weapons, being highly skilled, but if you can get a good hit off on them they fall faster then any other faction.

[NukularPower]

Is it a given that the Feron and BP have to start at war with each other?

I can see why it would be, but it could be argued that they could start at peace, with war declarable (like the other factions)

From a gameplay standpoint, I can see your point.  Alliance of 2 vs 3.

From a Talera world standpoint, there is no possible way I could put the two in an alliance.  One is power hungry and evil, and the other isn't really evil, but is intolerant of leadership outside their tribe.  There is just no way the two would ever, ever get along with any of the other factions.  Both want total control of Talera for themselves.

Their power is being increased and in the future there will be ways to incite wars between the 3 some without waiting for random chance.  For now, just have to tough it out!

Yeah, I certainly don't mean allied.  I just mean not in active war to start with.

[Kardiophylax]

Yeah, I certainly don't mean allied.  I just mean not in active war to start with.

Sorry, I suppose my statement was unclear.  I didn't really mean "allied" in an actual sense where they would help each other.  That was a poor choice of wording on my part.

Still, I can't justify not having them at war.  There odds of success will be increased though, so stay tuned.

[RayvenQ]

The issue then is controlling the player so he doesn't just stock up on some other non-undead high tier troops since that's not what it is meant to do.

How about, if the player has the book in his inventory, he gets the leadership bonus but at the same time it makes it so he has high negative relations with any fief that isn't a blighted plague one, though I don't know if it's possible with coding.

[Kardiophylax]

The issue then is controlling the player so he doesn't just stock up on some other non-undead high tier troops since that's not what it is meant to do.

How about, if the player has the book in his inventory, he gets the leadership bonus but at the same time it makes it so he has high negative relations with any fief that isn't a blighted plague one, though I don't know if it's possible with coding.

That's a good idea and leads to some further questions.  I think it's a question for a new topic though, which I'll work on now.

[Khandrak]

I don't know about you, but I pick up my uber enemy faction units from the prisoners of foes that I defeat. Why train them when I can just pick up a bunch of top level planelord archers for free? Personally I don't run around with them, though. I just garrison them at a city I own. I like sticking to one faction if possible when I'm fighting.

So I'm not sure if there's any way you can stop people from getting those units unless you can somehow restrict a portion of your army to be only raised undead, and I don't think that it can be done. You'll just have to trust people to not run around with mixed units like that. If they want to have a stupidly overpowered party then they can go ahead and do so. Their loss, in my opinion.

[Kardiophylax]

I don't know about you, but I pick up my uber enemy faction units from the prisoners of foes that I defeat. Why train them when I can just pick up a bunch of top level planelord archers for free? Personally I don't run around with them, though. I just garrison them at a city I own. I like sticking to one faction if possible when I'm fighting.

So I'm not sure if there's any way you can stop people from getting those units unless you can somehow restrict a portion of your army to be only raised undead, and I don't think that it can be done. You'll just have to trust people to not run around with mixed units like that. If they want to have a stupidly overpowered party then they can go ahead and do so. Their loss, in my opinion.

Okay, I'm going to post here instead of a new topic.

Should a restriction be placed on hiring prisoners or should that be left as a player decision? 

The only way to restrict a certain part of the army to be undead is to basically deactivate the leadership bonus if the player doesn't have at least 10 of the revived troop types.  If I shut it off then the player would be over the limit and a hardcoded script menu will pop up that randomly pulls 10 of your troops away to put you back in compliance...  not a very graceful solution.

It may be best that these be player decisions.  If they want to make the game easier, they can use the extra leadership to hire uber troops I suppose.

EDIT: Also, should I reduce the value/strength of the crusaders gear?  Is getting it early (to use or sell) on by stealing it from one of their small parties too much of a cheat? 

[Khandrak]

I think it should be left up to the player. Trying to force some sort of restriction will inevitably wind up messing with people just trying to play normally and not trying to amass an army of mixed, top tier troops. So long as you keep the NPCs balanced, then I don't think it's too big of a problem to leave something like this to the player. That way if the player wants to play a balanced game, then it is available to them.

Always remember KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid. It's a good rule of thumb