Night Vision on the Dwarven Machines is a good idea, I think. Consider it done.

On the Cross bowman, I might add a bit more defense, but this is an issue I've thought about before, and I like the unit being a level 2 without any dramatic improvement. It's harder to kill with spells than other x bowmen, and is reasonably proficient in melee combat. It's always been a level 2 in Dwiggs, though there was a time when I considered changing it to a level one. I was convinced not to do so by BigBen (who only played Dwarves) on the strength of its stats, and am content with that decision. With its hit points, defense, and x bow attack, it's really not that inferior to a ballista, and 9 upkeep isn't such a bad deal in my opinion.

Cheers,

BJ

Mighty meek is something to consider too, since level 1 might meek units will have +1attk, +1dam on it. If you were to cast mighty meek on it, it would do minus -1 att & dam on anything level 2 and up.

You want to compare it to a ballista unit? Dwarven def and resist is only 1 point in each higher. Its health is 4 less. It has a retaliation, which means if attacked it can lose its crossbow attack that turn. Speaking of, its range attack without medal is 2 less, damage 6 less, and range one notch less. (only long instead of extra long, the difference between hitting units when they first appear and waiting for them to get closer, also the difference between reaching the enemy cannon etc)

What ever you compare it to, human crossbow unit, ballista, longbowman or wildblade. It comes up as a little less.(especially for something that needs a warhall too) Its only useful for rushing in a defense of a walled town when you can't afford to rush in anything better.(like ballista) And worth considering disbanding when you do get something better and gold income is less then great.

With something decent at medals, its a fair reward for having the units survive that long (they die easy, especially in autoresolve) and reason to keep around after rushing in for emergency defense.

You telling me that if crossbowman had UG concealment at silver they'd be too powerful? That EW at gold would make them terrors of the UG? I agree the unit doesn't need "dramatic" improvement. But it does need some from my experience, if its to be a level 2 unit that requires warhall. Please explain whats "dramatic" about my suggestions. As medal rewards, especially gold medal rewards it won't even come up that much.

Oh, and crash gates a bit too cheap. 14 is too little, I'd say 16 at least.(if not 20 or more)

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 05-26-2006 @ 07:12 AM).]

Was gyroscope suppose to have firebombs?

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 05-26-2006 @ 07:51 AM).]

Ohh yah before I forget, what do u think about adding a level of transport to the racial transports at silver? (transport V -> transport VI)

Obviously the only way to get this is to go shrine of war. It seems an obvious consideration, so if you've thought about it and dismissed it dont worry bout it

While where on the topic, what shrines do you guys use and with what race? I only take Order or War, but nature recently has become more attractive, anyone try it?

[This message has been edited by Stillborn (edited 05-30-2006 @ 08:29 PM).]

And I'll follow up on your transport idea, Still

What about instead of strike, they have sabotage (or sabotage 2 etc)?

EW, holy champion, leadership etc doesn't effect sabotage right?

Glad to hear transports will get a boost at silver, I like the idea of extra functionality on the shrine of war.

So nature shrines on "farm" towns, that makes sense especially on those towns that are population capped.

For somereason I always just stick to one type of shrine, as if cheating on your gods is punished. Is there any disadvantage? (besides contradicting quests ie:Raze anything and a shrine of order)

Is there an advantage in the number of quests u can get by going different shrines? 4 cities with 4 diff shrines, will each give u a quest with a reward? or will completing each quest just make it so that u avoid punishement?

[This message has been edited by Stillborn (edited 05-31-2006 @ 08:00 PM).]

The only drawback of building multiple shrines is that some are opposed to each other. You can build Shrine of Order with Shrine of Magic or Nature without conflict, but build a Shrine of War, and the Order god gets angry. So, War is opposed to Order, Magic is opposed to Nature. They will try and get you to do things that make their opposite god angry (War likes to raze towns, Nature likes to raze nodes, for example). Whether or not a god will give you units or avoid punishment depends on how they feel about you. If you have a ton of War Shrines and build one Order Shrine, the god of Order will be pissed. But if you have one War Shrine and build an Order Shrine, both gods might be willing to reward you, assuming you haven't done anything else to tick them off.

In summary, a god's feelings toward you dictate whether you get stuff from them, and these feelings are based on your cumulative actions, not just Shrine conflicts.

Quoted from stranger:

The presense of the shrines themselves, apart from any quests they give piss off opposing gods. AFAIR, you say build a order shrine and already own a war shrine, you will not get a quest from order. I think taking over shrines works a bit differently.

Quest stones will of course give you a quest of that god no matter your standing. But completing a quest of that god will still anger the oppossing god, no matter what that quest is. Like if you complete a order quest that has you explore a dungeon, the war god will not like you as much. But if the quest is to do something the opposing god hates as well, then that doubles in there as well.

Casting certain spells, being in certain stats of war/peace/allience, razing etc effects your relationship with this or that god..

If you never plan to do quests, then Id not worry too much about any of this. Though I do believe if a god gets pissed enough at you it will do negative things to you, but its rare, I think.

But quests are good. So never build order& war shrines or nature & magic shrines.

Oh also, evil towns take a hit to moral with order shrines(obviously the order shrine itself cancels out this effect) and good towns take a hit to moral with war shrines

P.S. Stranger, what did you think of the idea of sabotage instead of strike for battering rams?

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 06-01-2006 @ 01:35 AM).]

Sabatoge wouldn't work for the reason Air lists as well as the fact that it would look silly to see a Ram sabatoging an Air Galley

I've spent some time this evening making racial ships for all the races as well as a new catapult unit for the Fey Folk.

Regards,

BJ

Sabotage is also interesting in that it can attack at full even in red zone, which makes you feel like the unit was rushed at the wall.

The Enchanted Sword and Armor have different names in their descriptions which, IMO, lend flavor to them than just being enchanted weapons.

Order shrine lowering morale of evil races and War shrine doing the same for good races is not true, btw.

My suggest is that dominate ability in sphinxes are 9 at start, 12 in silver and 14 in gold. Many troops have lower res and possess in att 9. Sphinxes are good fighters too.

Concerning dwarven engineers.
They should come from siege workshop or master guild.
A. Because this makes so much more sense for them.

B. Dwarves already have a level 1 equivalent (even though it is a bargain recruitment cost wise) for war hall. The engineer in battle is at best a level 2 (I understand its battle prowess is less to compensate for its misc abilities and range attack which is rare for dwarves outside of machines, still a let down come champion guild). Which leaves only ruin master as a actually tough unit to recruit come champion guild.

Probably not a good idea to just have one unit for champion guild, either creative rearranging or another dwarven unit perhaps?

Dwarven engineers don't get rebuild structure till gold. But when they rebuild a structure, you lose the unit(!) No fools going to lose a gold medal engineer just for rebuilding. (well maybe in the right extremely rare circumstances) Since the rebuild unit costs the same as a dwarven engineer yet are faster.

Please either make it so you don't lose the engineer when rebuilding, or move rebuild structure to start out/nonmedal.(the first is preferred if possible) (P.S. you also lose em when making watch towers which requires a silver medal and the dwarven builder can also do)

Dwarven engineers should have sabotage. It makes sense for them. If they know how to create machinery, of course they would know how to sabotage it.

Watchtowers made by dwarven engineers should have night vision.

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 06-01-2006 @ 09:22 PM).]

TP, we've discussed the Dwarven Engineer, so I won't post here. The Transport is buildable from the Builder's Hall.

Time, the Lady is back, and the sword has been changed to fit its description.

I hope to see some of you this weekend for a game, and release the patch next week.

Cheers,

Bj

...and I agree with Muna, sphinx should be toned down a mite.

[This message has been edited by Timelord (edited 06-02-2006 @ 05:24 AM).]

I responded the sphinx is a giant desert statue,(ice gets in the rock and splits it) unlike any other tigrain unit. And any number of units of same race have weaknesses or strengths that others don't. Take death knight with holy immunity when all other undead have holy weakness.

He didnt have anything to say to that.

Weakness is a a good way to go IMO, but otherwise less defense. I perceive that a better solution then necessarily reducing the attack of domination or direct physical attack if you guys feel spinx too much.

I don't think they get experience when dominating a unit, so the gold bonus probably won't come ..as much.

As far as special summons like red or golden dragon. Even with summon trait and your level 4 summon being researchable right after your first spell researched.. still takes many a turn to research.(at least at first, especially if you want to save up enough mana for casting it as well) But Its pretty easy to get and complete a quest within a few turns of playing, where you might just get a level 4 summons off the bat.

We could make these special summon spells as only explore item spells, with tough guards of course. Maybe dragon summoning could be something you can possible get from exploring dragon caves? Taken out of quest rewards, you could take down its casting cost. But as quest rewards, stranger makes good points.

P.S. Don't saints have true seeing? I could have sworn they do, if not those are good candidate for a true seeing archon.

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 06-02-2006 @ 06:05 AM).]

I also mentioned the incarnate before but haven't tried it out in this release yet to see if it was fixed (if Stranger thinks it needs fixing, of course )

Saint has true seeing but as Archons are a holy race, they should have more true seeing units - Avenger, Paladin, the likes...

Quoted from TL:

Abilities like that where one benefits the whole group (true sight, vision, bard, leadership etc) should be kept to a select few units. (I know some races have a number of units with vision, but those races don't have a many a unit that have much vision)

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 06-02-2006 @ 03:00 PM).]