Basically, I want to make Mommy considerably harder, in terms of milking all the benefits of the current skill system. I'm also going to go ahead and flesh out the backstory a bit, incorporating the Ancients (the precursors to the failed Calradian Empire).
That said, I like the current system of army / hero buffs; it makes sense that players eventually gain some skills that make their armies better, not just themselves as individuals, and it gives players a viable way to make their armies more efficient over time. However, it's had a lot of knock-on effects that I feel need some changes at this point.
I also want to do something about the overall trend in the system, where eventually armor isn't mattering any more (it gets a bit silly when all the Party buffs and personal buffs are maxed), while leaving room for Barbs to dish out pain and for the Merc Archer to not suddenly hit a big wall and become de-facto useless, instead of continuing to be a Legolas archetype with some advantages and disadvantages.
So, just to make sure that I understand what's up on the high end, I've been playing it out with a cheater character, to see what we get when all buffs are maxed. It gets pretty ridiculous there, and since I know min-max players are often going to end up there one way or another, it's time to make some edits.
Thanks to some timely assistance from Somebody, I have some pretty neato stuff I can do now, in terms of item and troop flags that go outside the Taleworlds system of play. I am hoping this will clear up a bunch of clutter in the current damage system code, amongst other things, by allowing me to get rid of exceptional case stuff and instead go with a more natural system.
Here's the basic outline of what I'm going to try to do:
1. There will be a minimum damage value for a lot of the heavier weapons.
It's just plain stupid that army buffs, armor etc. are making people flat-out immune to strikes from stuff. I really feel it's taken away a lot of the feeling of danger that suffused earlier builds. I like the current system of army buffs, but it needs some more work. This will generally make the two-handers and the slow 1H weapons more valuable, amongst other things, and de-emphasize Pierce a bit. Yes, I could just raise their damage again, but frankly they're already 1HK for a lot of stuff and it's been a real mess trying to keep the current system coherent.
I'm not sure yet, but I think this might just fix the issues with people setting damage to 1/2 or 1/4 to some extent, too
2. There will be damage caps to reduce 1HK stuff on the high end.
This is probably the hardest part to balance well, but I'm going to take a stab at this. I really didn't like how in Native, you could get a solid slash in with a sword on an un-armored man, and he'd continue to be functional. That's unacceptable; we're not returning to that, it'd pretty much ruin the mod, imo. But the whole way it works now is just too slanted towards either Nothing or 1HK. There just isn't a lot of in-between.
So I think the cap is going to be something like 50 as a minimum (1HK range for low-level guys) up to 1/2 damage, whichever is greater. That makes the 2H and slower / heavier 1H weapons more realistically viable, in terms of 1HK, without having to have ridiculous damage values, and it and min-damage will de-emphasize Pierce as being the only viable route. It'll also make crits much less like egregious extra damage after you've already done more than enough to kill.
Anyhow, that's my starting basis for that change; I am open to constructive suggestions about this; basically, I want 1HK to be a lot less common on the high end, where elite weapons, skills, player skill and character / party buffs have made having to actually care much about damage past getting past the armor (with the exception of Flesh Golems / Alephs) a thing of the past. I really think that unless you're using something really nasty, like a 2H maul, that a level-40+ heavy troop should not just be keeling over with a single strike.
3. Enemy heroes will get a considerable in-battle buff vs. ordinary troops.
I feel that while it's realistic for, say, King Ragnar to get pwned by your armies easily while he rides towards your Missile Army of Dewm, it's just not dramatically interesting and doesn't fit the way the mod works, where you're frequently running around with the Companions stacked to the sky (at least, that's how I generally play). I have not had to fight a real duel with an enemy Lord or King, ever. My armies always take them out for me. It lacks drama.
So, vs. ordinary guys, enemy heros will get a considerable bonus to damage taken, especially vs. missile stuff. They'll probably get a bonus vs. players and the Companions, too. Basically a damage cap of some kind to keep them from being easy fodder, like the Alephs / Undead.
This may be fairly controversial, so I wanted to hear if anybody has strong opinions. Basically, I think that Lords should feel about as powerful as the Player, if not more, and should not just be randomly dying early unless they're just stupendously unlucky. To some extent, I think this should apply to Champions as well. These are meant to be special, powerful characters that the Player or the Companions will need to nullify, not just fodder for a lucky Aleph strike or your Jannisaries.
4. Poisoned attacks will be available.
Basically, poison's a secondary critical chance. Poison, if it takes effect, will deal a lot of damage. Poisoned weapons were pretty rare IRL, and very few armies ever employed it in large amounts, to the best of my knowledge; fast-acting poisons weren't easy to get or use, and slow-acting poisons were generally unimportant (why bother, when medicine was so poor that any wound might well prove fatal).
So, expect some forces to use poison, but it won't be common. I think it'd be fitting for the Khergits, as the Chinese and Mongols were actually pretty keen on this kind of thing and it would give them a very interesting buff.
5. There will be Ancient weapons that give the player buffs vs. Armies of Darkness / Light.
This is more or less breaking the "no magic" rule, but it seemed like a fun way to make the new weapons relevant, while not making them especially nifty vs. everything. Basically, they'll get a better min-damage value vs. these types, so using them for the battles vs. these forces would be preferable to using more ordinary weapons. It's about the only thing I could come up with that seemed like it'd give a real bonus to them without making them simply yet-another thing that merely requires money to become more powerful.
6. Deploying the Aleph will be expensive and hopefully become rarer, instead of being a constant crutch.
If there's been one consistent theme about the 1.5+ builds, it's that the Aleph makes things too easy, especially for players on Normal. So, I think what will happen is that the Aleph will cost a lot of money and one Ammunition to deploy. That will prevent it from being the first tool everybody reaches for when times are tough. I've already nerfed the Aleph a bit, in terms of killing power, but I think that this is probably necessary.
7. Flesh Golems will be immune to most missiles.
They'll also get the same treatment as Lords / Champions. IOW, killing them off with your missile armies while kiting them on a horse won't work out any more. I'll probably make them a little easier for players / Companions to kill in HTH, though.
8. Remnants will get nerfed a bit.
Not quite sure how, but most likely by taking away their high-Pierce weapons and giving them medium-Cut ones with Poison attacks instead. A small nerf, not a huge one. I like how they're actually challenging foes atm.
9. Death Knights / Templars will get hero buffs.
See above for the outline of how that might work. Basically, they'll be considerably harder to kill, but rarer.
That said, I like the current system of army / hero buffs; it makes sense that players eventually gain some skills that make their armies better, not just themselves as individuals, and it gives players a viable way to make their armies more efficient over time. However, it's had a lot of knock-on effects that I feel need some changes at this point.
I also want to do something about the overall trend in the system, where eventually armor isn't mattering any more (it gets a bit silly when all the Party buffs and personal buffs are maxed), while leaving room for Barbs to dish out pain and for the Merc Archer to not suddenly hit a big wall and become de-facto useless, instead of continuing to be a Legolas archetype with some advantages and disadvantages.
So, just to make sure that I understand what's up on the high end, I've been playing it out with a cheater character, to see what we get when all buffs are maxed. It gets pretty ridiculous there, and since I know min-max players are often going to end up there one way or another, it's time to make some edits.
Thanks to some timely assistance from Somebody, I have some pretty neato stuff I can do now, in terms of item and troop flags that go outside the Taleworlds system of play. I am hoping this will clear up a bunch of clutter in the current damage system code, amongst other things, by allowing me to get rid of exceptional case stuff and instead go with a more natural system.
Here's the basic outline of what I'm going to try to do:
1. There will be a minimum damage value for a lot of the heavier weapons.
It's just plain stupid that army buffs, armor etc. are making people flat-out immune to strikes from stuff. I really feel it's taken away a lot of the feeling of danger that suffused earlier builds. I like the current system of army buffs, but it needs some more work. This will generally make the two-handers and the slow 1H weapons more valuable, amongst other things, and de-emphasize Pierce a bit. Yes, I could just raise their damage again, but frankly they're already 1HK for a lot of stuff and it's been a real mess trying to keep the current system coherent.
I'm not sure yet, but I think this might just fix the issues with people setting damage to 1/2 or 1/4 to some extent, too
2. There will be damage caps to reduce 1HK stuff on the high end.
This is probably the hardest part to balance well, but I'm going to take a stab at this. I really didn't like how in Native, you could get a solid slash in with a sword on an un-armored man, and he'd continue to be functional. That's unacceptable; we're not returning to that, it'd pretty much ruin the mod, imo. But the whole way it works now is just too slanted towards either Nothing or 1HK. There just isn't a lot of in-between.
So I think the cap is going to be something like 50 as a minimum (1HK range for low-level guys) up to 1/2 damage, whichever is greater. That makes the 2H and slower / heavier 1H weapons more realistically viable, in terms of 1HK, without having to have ridiculous damage values, and it and min-damage will de-emphasize Pierce as being the only viable route. It'll also make crits much less like egregious extra damage after you've already done more than enough to kill.
Anyhow, that's my starting basis for that change; I am open to constructive suggestions about this; basically, I want 1HK to be a lot less common on the high end, where elite weapons, skills, player skill and character / party buffs have made having to actually care much about damage past getting past the armor (with the exception of Flesh Golems / Alephs) a thing of the past. I really think that unless you're using something really nasty, like a 2H maul, that a level-40+ heavy troop should not just be keeling over with a single strike.
3. Enemy heroes will get a considerable in-battle buff vs. ordinary troops.
I feel that while it's realistic for, say, King Ragnar to get pwned by your armies easily while he rides towards your Missile Army of Dewm, it's just not dramatically interesting and doesn't fit the way the mod works, where you're frequently running around with the Companions stacked to the sky (at least, that's how I generally play). I have not had to fight a real duel with an enemy Lord or King, ever. My armies always take them out for me. It lacks drama.
So, vs. ordinary guys, enemy heros will get a considerable bonus to damage taken, especially vs. missile stuff. They'll probably get a bonus vs. players and the Companions, too. Basically a damage cap of some kind to keep them from being easy fodder, like the Alephs / Undead.
This may be fairly controversial, so I wanted to hear if anybody has strong opinions. Basically, I think that Lords should feel about as powerful as the Player, if not more, and should not just be randomly dying early unless they're just stupendously unlucky. To some extent, I think this should apply to Champions as well. These are meant to be special, powerful characters that the Player or the Companions will need to nullify, not just fodder for a lucky Aleph strike or your Jannisaries.
4. Poisoned attacks will be available.
Basically, poison's a secondary critical chance. Poison, if it takes effect, will deal a lot of damage. Poisoned weapons were pretty rare IRL, and very few armies ever employed it in large amounts, to the best of my knowledge; fast-acting poisons weren't easy to get or use, and slow-acting poisons were generally unimportant (why bother, when medicine was so poor that any wound might well prove fatal).
So, expect some forces to use poison, but it won't be common. I think it'd be fitting for the Khergits, as the Chinese and Mongols were actually pretty keen on this kind of thing and it would give them a very interesting buff.
5. There will be Ancient weapons that give the player buffs vs. Armies of Darkness / Light.
This is more or less breaking the "no magic" rule, but it seemed like a fun way to make the new weapons relevant, while not making them especially nifty vs. everything. Basically, they'll get a better min-damage value vs. these types, so using them for the battles vs. these forces would be preferable to using more ordinary weapons. It's about the only thing I could come up with that seemed like it'd give a real bonus to them without making them simply yet-another thing that merely requires money to become more powerful.
6. Deploying the Aleph will be expensive and hopefully become rarer, instead of being a constant crutch.
If there's been one consistent theme about the 1.5+ builds, it's that the Aleph makes things too easy, especially for players on Normal. So, I think what will happen is that the Aleph will cost a lot of money and one Ammunition to deploy. That will prevent it from being the first tool everybody reaches for when times are tough. I've already nerfed the Aleph a bit, in terms of killing power, but I think that this is probably necessary.
7. Flesh Golems will be immune to most missiles.
They'll also get the same treatment as Lords / Champions. IOW, killing them off with your missile armies while kiting them on a horse won't work out any more. I'll probably make them a little easier for players / Companions to kill in HTH, though.
8. Remnants will get nerfed a bit.
Not quite sure how, but most likely by taking away their high-Pierce weapons and giving them medium-Cut ones with Poison attacks instead. A small nerf, not a huge one. I like how they're actually challenging foes atm.
9. Death Knights / Templars will get hero buffs.
See above for the outline of how that might work. Basically, they'll be considerably harder to kill, but rarer.
