Faction balance changes in the upcoming patch - read on

[MarcusValerius]

I think a better solution for the BP might be to increase the cost of wages for non undead troops by roughly 50 to 100% through some form of modifier on the Undead book. Even really evil mercs should hesitate before throwing their lot in with a bunch of spirit stealing undead raising demon lovers. On the flip side, if offered enough gold I think most mercs/non-undead (can that be a word?) would still go along with it. This would create a natural limit on troops from outside the BP, since the amount of cash needed to support them would get rather crazy rather quickly.

This idea really depends on a wage modifier being possible however.

Regarding the Crusaders, I think they are fairly tough as it is. It takes a decent sized force to take down even a small party of them. Toning down the gold drop from them a bit might help, but I don't consider having to outnumber them by at least 2:1 with halfway decent troops in order to win at 100% difficulty is very early in the game.

[Kardiophylax]

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 

Yeah, those are good words to live by.

I will modify the book of the dead to grant the following

-while in your inventory
-must be a member of the blighted plague faction to receive bonuses
- +2 leadership
- +5 Necromancy Skill (this will bring the player up to 15 at the start of their campaign.  Later there will be ways to raise this, probably to a maximum of 30 or so)

Similarly, the Insignia of the Feron and Helm of the Highchief will require you to be a member of the feron faction (it may already be this way, have to double check).  I won't limit Death's Hand since it really just affects stats.  The other two offer other, faction specific bonuses.


A wage modifier is possible, but again it is matter of how much we want to limit the player.  If I force them to have to be a part of the Blighted Plague faction to receive the book of the dead bonuses, it limits their options quite a bit right there.  Even if they leave the faction and keep the book, they will lose the bonus it gives.  Down the road we can revisit these options if we feel things need to be narrower/limited further.
If people want to 'cheat' by hiring illoriaon paladins into their undead army, I suppose they can.  I personally wouldn't, but that's me.

Members of the Blighted Plague have no need to eat and always maintain a neutral level of morale.  This is already implemented in the released version.  That on top of the necromancy bonus is exclusive to them.  They do not need to carry food.

[Alenmare]

Good plan. About the Crusaders, I find them actually a pretty formidable force. If one hits you, you're down for good, and my men fair terribly against them. I usually use melee, haven't tested them out against the Planelords yet.

Edit: If anything, the Crusaders need to be tweaked down. I had 27 Planelord soldiers, including the Taleran Adventurers, and I lost my men in the first minute of play. My screen was chocked full of orange text saying how they'd knocked my men unconscious - on easy .

I rode around, cut down a fair amount of them, then lost my horse. Even cheating for health I died - their stats are overdone, in my opinion. I kind of put them in at the last minute without enough testing. Silly me.

[Kardiophylax]

Good plan. About the Crusaders, I find them actually a pretty formidable force. If one hits you, you're down for good, and my men fair terribly against them. I usually use melee, haven't tested them out against the Planelords yet.

Edit: If anything, the Crusaders need to be tweaked down. I had 27 Planelord soldiers, including the Taleran Adventurers, and I lost my men in the first minute of play. My screen was chocked full of orange text saying how they'd knocked my men unconscious - on easy .

I rode around, cut down a fair amount of them, then lost my horse. Even cheating for health I died - their stats are overdone, in my opinion. I kind of put them in at the last minute without enough testing. Silly me.

They should probably be toned down a bit.  I know of a few people using them as part of their defense force because they are so powerful.   

Should I consider tweaking their stats and armor down a little and possibily increase the number of crusaders in each party a little?  Or is this another thing better left untouched?

[Alenmare]

Hmm. They die pretty easily, actually, to a skilled swordsman on horseback, but men drop like flies against their hammers. I think weakening them, or removing their horses would be ideal to at least let some fall to arrow fire.

[Ghoura Agur]

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 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.....

Why couldn't the Blighted Plauge simply be Machivellian about it?  Why must they be so stupid as to say, "I want this world for my own, and must take it on my own!"  The more squabbling amongst your enemies, the better!  I see no reason why the Blighted Plauge wouldn't form an alliance with anyone so that they could better focus their forces.  At the same time, since they'ld simply be stockpiling troops and positioning themselves to better attack their "ally", I can also see no reason why anyone would accept their outstreched, rotted hand of peace.

But that they insist on conquering this world single handedly seems to me to carry, in a way, an almost childlike innocense to it.

They're undead!  What's the hurry to conquer the world?!?

(Also, why exactly am I paying wages to zombies?  What on earth are they doing with the money?)

[Cookie Eating Huskarl]

(Also, why exactly am I paying wages to zombies?  What on earth are they doing with the money?)

Buy lotions so their skin dun dry up?

[NukularPower]

Good plan. About the Crusaders, I find them actually a pretty formidable force. If one hits you, you're down for good, and my men fair terribly against them. I usually use melee, haven't tested them out against the Planelords yet.

Edit: If anything, the Crusaders need to be tweaked down. I had 27 Planelord soldiers, including the Taleran Adventurers, and I lost my men in the first minute of play. My screen was chocked full of orange text saying how they'd knocked my men unconscious - on easy .

I rode around, cut down a fair amount of them, then lost my horse. Even cheating for health I died - their stats are overdone, in my opinion. I kind of put them in at the last minute without enough testing. Silly me.

They should probably be toned down a bit.  I know of a few people using them as part of their defense force because they are so powerful.   

Should I consider tweaking their stats and armor down a little and possibily increase the number of crusaders in each party a little?  Or is this another thing better left untouched?

Both imo, and I'd like to see some of them have weapons with pointy ends, just cuz as I've said elsewhere, they are free experience/troops if you can not get totally wiped out, since there is no risk in fighting them unless you totally lose.  Not to mention they drop very good equipment (too good imo, hardly a point in buying anything, just fight a few packs of crusaders and you're decked in plate for free)

[Kardiophylax]

(Also, why exactly am I paying wages to zombies?  What on earth are they doing with the money?)

I've addressed the alliance/peace issue.  it's not happening for them.  The Dread Lords BARELY tolerate each other.  They also hate all enemy leadership, if you read the book of the dead you may understand a bit more about them.

On point 2 about the wages, I will think about it.  Wages also need to be spent on equipment upkeep and such.  Also, outside of roleplaying, making them wageless as well as moraleless and without a need for food may make it a bit too easy on a human player.

[Ghoura Agur]

(Also, why exactly am I paying wages to zombies?  What on earth are they doing with the money?)

I've addressed the alliance/peace issue.  it's not happening for them.  The Dread Lords BARELY tolerate each other.  They also hate all enemy leadership, if you read the book of the dead you may understand a bit more about them.

On point 2 about the wages, I will think about it.  Wages also need to be spent on equipment upkeep and such.  Also, outside of roleplaying, making them wageless as well as moraleless and without a need for food may make it a bit too easy on a human player.

I entirely understand the issue about wages, and it's no real problem at all.  Perhaps the paltry denars expended to in some way represent the necromance having to expend willpower to keep the undead, ah, un-dead.


And I read the book of the dead, and, I truly am thankful that so many talented writers worked on this project and made it feel like something genuinely unique, however, I felt very often, particularily when it said, "Consult with other necromancers for more information" kinda killed the feeling.  Who would consult a book that promising to reveal the secrets of necromancy, actually refers people to the experts.  At least refrence some other book, the Necronomicon, or something.  I realize the book itself was inteanded more to explain some of the dynamics of the BP, and necromancy in the game, but with books such as these, you lore writers really are given the go ahead to go all out!

I hope you don't think I'm complaining; I don't mean to at all.  What you've done is something unprecedented (so far as I know) and I'm eternally gratefull, but...

It should feel like I'm reading the works of a madman!  His logic should be flawed, his grammer, even worse.  He should end senteces before they begin, and start some senteces halfway through a thought!  He should reference things in the universe, things which are foreing to us, things which are foreing to even the people of Taleria!

No, perhaps not so very informative, and considering most folks will read the book, and then never again gaze at it's pages, perhaps that would be bad.   But then again, I say, if people will look at something only once, it had better be a worthwhile experience for them.

[Kardiophylax]

I entirely understand the issue about wages, and it's no real problem at all.  Perhaps the paltry denars expended to in some way represent the necromance having to expend willpower to keep the undead, ah, un-dead.


And I read the book of the dead, and, I truly am thankful that so many talented writers worked on this project and made it feel like something genuinely unique, however, I felt very often, particularily when it said, "Consult with other necromancers for more information" kinda killed the feeling.  Who would consult a book that promising to reveal the secrets of necromancy, actually refers people to the experts.  At least refrence some other book, the Necronomicon, or something.  I realize the book itself was inteanded more to explain some of the dynamics of the BP, and necromancy in the game, but with books such as these, you lore writers really are given the go ahead to go all out!

I hope you don't think I'm complaining; I don't mean to at all.  What you've done is something unprecedented (so far as I know) and I'm eternally gratefull, but...

It should feel like I'm reading the works of a madman!  His logic should be flawed, his grammer, even worse.  He should end senteces before they begin, and start some senteces halfway through a thought!  He should reference things in the universe, things which are foreing to us, things which are foreing to even the people of Taleria!

No, perhaps not so very informative, and considering most folks will read the book, and then never again gaze at it's pages, perhaps that would be bad.   But then again, I say, if people will look at something only once, it had better be a worthwhile experience for them.

The references to seek out other necromancers is because that element WILL be present in the future.  The Blighted Plague quests are not implemented at all right now.  In fact, that whole element was only introduced to support the miscellaneous quest in-game. 

As far as the lore goes, I've written a lot it (including the entire book of the dead) in addition to doing the majority of the coding.  There is only so much I can do and produce anything playable in such a short time frame.  The book serves to show that the Blighted Plague are not some generic evil group.  They have a history and you get a sense of why they are the way they are.  The writer of the book was NOT overcome with a greed for power, and that is why he is coherent throughout.  He is one of the only ones left who recognized what had once been his dream had now become a new nightmare.

I'm sorry if there are too many loose ends or whatnot, but what we are doing here is developing a game, not a motion picture (and even those cut corners).  Sorry you felt one line to seek out others killed the book.  I myself am quite happy with it.

[Khandrak]

I've addressed the alliance/peace issue.  it's not happening for them.  The Dread Lords BARELY tolerate each other.  They also hate all enemy leadership, if you read the book of the dead you may understand a bit more about them.

Right, and then you have to consider that with the way the BP work, they would only bring in armies under their rule. There is no way in hell the Feron would go for that.

[Kardiophylax]

Proof that war can happen between the "good" factions.  Based on feedback on the finalized, bug fixed Release 2 I will consider increasing the chances for them to declare war, based on the fact their alliance is rather shaky.  The buffs I made to the Feron and Plague may reduce the need to do that though.  I just thought this was funny as I had reloaded a game to do some testing and this popped up.

[Alenmare]

Heh, that's never happened to me before. Still, I haven't stuck with one character for a while now.

I've addressed the alliance/peace issue.  it's not happening for them.  The Dread Lords BARELY tolerate each other.  They also hate all enemy leadership, if you read the book of the dead you may understand a bit more about them.

Right, and then you have to consider that with the way the BP work, they would only bring in armies under their rule. There is no way in hell the Feron would go for that.

I think a lot of the time we sort of view the Blighted Plague as guys with dried skin. Which is true.
However, the people of Talera have been ravaged by the Plague, entire villages consumed by them. An army would never serve beneath the undead, because their leaders would be far too prideful, their troops far too fearful. Every race has their reasons to fight to the death:

Illoriaon, for reasons of faith, Asaleth for reasons of pride, the Planelords for reasons of pure resistance and nobility, and the Feron because they're just too badass.

@Ghoura, problem is we don't really have a lot of lore writers, at the moment. Glaehron and I would be more than willing to help, but often Kardio works so quickly and efficiently that he writes on his own - we all are in different timezones, so that's also a bit of an issue. I personally found the book sounded awesome, and seemed to be written by the last sane man, while the hordes of Plagued zombies were hammering on his gates.

[Kardiophylax]

I think a lot of the time we sort of view the Blighted Plague as guys with dried skin. Which is true.
However, the people of Talera have been ravaged by the Plague, entire villages consumed by them. An army would never serve beneath the undead, because their leaders would be far too prideful, their troops far too fearful. Every race has their reasons to fight to the death:

Illoriaon, for reasons of faith, Asaleth for reasons of pride, the Planelords for reasons of pure resistance and nobility, and the Feron because they're just too badass.

@Ghoura, problem is we don't really have a lot of lore writers, at the moment. Glaehron and I would be more than willing to help, but often Kardio works so quickly and efficiently that he writes on his own - we all are in different timezones, so that's also a bit of an issue. I personally found the book sounded awesome, and seemed to be written by the last sane man, while the hordes of Plagued zombies were hammering on his gates.

Thanks Elenmmare.  I will be looking to you and Glaehron (though he reported to me his time is a bit more limited at the moment) for support for sure with the next release.  I've already got a lot of the quest dialog written out for the Illoriaons (assuming I can find my paperwork...     but I'm planning to introduce a lot of new items and such that will need descriptions, backgrounds, etc.  In addition, Everyone should know that Elenmmare is frequently bombarded by me in PMs as a sounding board for my ideas.  His feedback is immensely helpful to me. 

I enjoy writing, it's one of my favorite hobbies, so I don't mind writing the dialog, lore, etc.  I also enjoy reading other people's material and it has the added benefit to me of allowing me more time to work on code.  So I really enjoy the division of labor we have going on.  I think our finished work shows it.