Ok, here are some responses to the last three pages of issues.
Firstly, thank you 1. The Ape, Gypsy Dancer and several other graphics do not recoulour correctly using ugmp 1.1. I'm gonna talk to Pawels or Hamlet about why that might be. These same graphics were an issue in Dwiggs 4.5 as well.
2. I may tone down the defense/hit points on the Shire Adventurer, but reducing marksmanship would make it too similar to a Rogue or Slinger imo. (Thanks for the spelling of Centaur )3. The Prowler animal trait is not so much due to the graphic as it is to gameplay. It's quite a strong unit for the cost, and making it an animal gives races that have control animal an opportunity to counter it. But I agree with you, it does seem more humanoid than animal.
4. The Scorpian Priest does indeed jump a bit. I can slow down that animation, but if I cut parts of it, I think the graphic will flash. There seems to be a whole batch of graphics that leap to the side when hit, so please continue to report 'em. Cheers.
5. The Orc Overlord was deemed unnecessary by me because the Orcs already have a tough fighter with leadership I. I also preferred to use that graphic for a hero. The Hafling Eagle is mainly a scout or auxillary unit, even though it's a level four. It was given Transport so that it couldn't be stacked, but could still move a powerful helper around to keep it safe. I don't think the Haflings should get an uber warrior level four. It's not in their character. Besides, level fours don't get stacked much anyway, and in my opinion having one Eagle is more beneficial than a single Titan, unless you're at the opponent's capital Most people (ok, everyone but me liked the old Hellion, so I'll change it back. I like the lower level Incarnate, as long as it's not too powerful, and I don't think it will be once it's tested a bit more. Besides, thematically, possessed has to be a Demon trait. And making the Spider Queen a level four gave us the Great Spider, which seems to be the favourite new unit of many people, including me. I'm still hopeful that the Reaper can be given Invoke Death. Mabye the problem isn't that the Spinx is too good, but that other level fours aren't good enough? Stone Skin will be changed back, since most feedback seems to indicate the 2 def, 1 res was better for gameplay. I don't think having a strong Ram is a problem, as it can only be used against one type of unit: i.e. a flying one. The other option for an Air Elemental, cold or lightning strike, would be far more unbalancing. I could increase the cost a bit, though. I'm still not sure about the Air Galley.6. Spells. If Golden Age is such a good spell, I would like it to be available early. Whereas Tremors, as a less desireable spell, might as well be available late. The key here is balancing spheres and making them all useful and interesting. One reason to go all earth is to get Golden Age. What I mean is, I would pick Fire over Earth for it's powerful lower level spells. But, if Earth has an interesting and helpful level 3 like Golden Age, it might cause me to choose it. Domain of Darkness probably should be a level four, though. In regards to sphere having two many low level spells, I am going to balance that out, as I agree that five should be the limit I'd happily take mastery for 75 upkeep. I think it's worth the price of maintaining 12 Lurkers Mastery is such a better spell than Earth Awareness, I'm not sure why you keep comaparing them, Air. First, if you opponent destroys his nodes, he hurts his research and spawns groups of annoying avengers. If he doesn't destroy them, you get domain in all his lands and all the research given by these nodes. Plus, it's like casting alter node on every node on the map, which wouldn't be cheap if it was done individually. My opinion of Master Spells: boring, but very powerful.
7. Stephen, I haven't gotten your list yet Please do email me your Demon suggestions, as I'm not completely satisfied with their appearance either. There seems to be a problem with the flaming arrow graphic. Has anyone else other than me gotten it to work? 8. Some of the AoW graphics become too fuzzy if they are made much bitter. Of course, a Turtle big enough to carry a ballista should be bigger than the ballista, though....I've fixed the Demon walking issue (and renamed him tenatively as an Arch Fiend, thanks ), and am going to give the foul folk some growth for their outposts too. I'm not sure how I managed to mess that one up, lol :s I'll find a way to make it clearer that some units are "summoned" especially the Demon ones. It's in their ability list, of course, but it should be clearer.
9. Heroes who get limited shots get it because their ability is an especially powerful one. You don't see any heroes with throw blade or hurl stones 3/3 Sagestone's bolts are pixe dust plus fire, the Frostling gets shoot javeling, which is a very strong ranged ability. The Nature Shrine was an error. I've corrected it. That's why this is a beta Humans have enough bonuses to make up for their research issues, imo. You'll note that several structures, such as the monastary and casting chamber add a slight research bonus now, which will make up for what the Humans lose. Remember, Humans murdered the magical races (Elves) in the AoW world. They hate magic and wizards in AoWSM. It would be odd if they were as good at magic as other races, especially since they have good production and growth as well. One of the keys of making races unique is ensuring that no one race gives the player the best of all worlds. What incentive would there be to choose another race? Personally, I think the Humans are a terrific race. Although maybe giving them back their old Galley would be fair....
Demon non outposts is an error and will be fixed, as will the mana bonus listings. Cosmic spray is fine for what it does: it can poison, freeze, give vertigo, set on fire...that's the power of it, not high damage.
Kalindor, how many units did you find Swallow Whole on? I certainly don't want it to be common! I thought it only occurred on two or three units at the gold medal?
Mitch, I will change the old watchtower back. This one was just for testing and for custom maps, and I'm working on getting a flag on it Flying heroes are not a problem imo because: their stats are lower than other heroes of their type (Aria has 23 hitpoints and 7 def, whereas all other warriors have at least 24 hps and 8 def, though she could use one less hitpoint, perhaps). If you remember our game, the flying heroes died easily while my walking Orc destroyed an entire army of fairly strong units. Plus, there are not that many of them, maybe three or four. There are more floaters, but they have a stat reduction as well. Besides, what's the point of giving all heroes a new graphic if they are more or less all the same? Wasn't this the grip about AoWSM in general? All level one swordsmen were more or less the same, right up the big bulky level four tanks...?
Ok, ok, on the Crusader . I changed it because I wanted the Avenger to be an interesting unit. I disagree on the War Shrine. A stack of eight human swordsmen with extra strike, or 8 dark elf Executioners with Lightning strike or 20 gold and growth or 20 mana and research? It depends on what you want. If you're rushing with a fast army, the extra toughness can make all the difference. And, of course, there are other buildings that you can build to compsensate for the weakness of the War Shrine. You lose 5 happiness and growth, but a temple complex gives that back, a Monastary gives you huges bonuses in that area also. It comes down to how you want to play. Now, if no one will choose a War Shrine because of these slight weaknesses, then it needs to be changed. Just like Humans would have to be changed for their research of mana loss. I'd like to hear other player's voices here; if it seems a widespread issue, I'm happy to change it I think lowering the cost of the purger may be the better solution, or maybe making an altogether different unit. I rather like it for what it does, though. Floating and healing, holy bolts at silver, is a really useful combination. But, obviously, you won't do much with armies of them....any other ideas?
The Astra was not strong because she was flying and ranged, she was strong because she had 27 hitpoints, healing, fire strike, 16 attack, 14 res. Find me a flying hero like that, and I'll happily nerf it On the skills. Constructor seems like a very good skill to me. I'm not convinced that Expander should be twice as expensive. Even if you grow cities, fast, you still need to build lots of structures to gain income benefits and build units in them. You don't get any bonuses just for making them bigger. It's true that Dwiggs growth makes this skill quite valuable...so maybe it does need two picks as per the original Dwiggs. But I don't see it as being as valuable as explorer.
The Death Knight has no need of block. It is an anti good unit that gives the Undead an answer for the Archons so that they don't have to get whomped by them in the end game. It is not intended to be the be all and end all answer for the Undead. If I was playing against a neutral races, I would build Bone Horrors. That's strategy That's it for now Best regards,
Brad