Oh, well then it was that AI was too stupid to use it. Even though I tried again and again and some of those tries it had more then enough rounds to use it. Maybe it didn't bother to use DG because the dragon had magic immunity (even if that would have worked)?
The basic principle is that we shorten all the ranges. It can be done. I got instructions from pawel, which I will implement and test out soon enough.
The idea is that one can not devastate a enemies rank before they can even move on the first turn of a town attack, without even leaving the walls. With attacking more of a option, the game can move faster. Plus since attackers can position their units before getting into fire range, their would be more stratagy and fun in attacking. (it is not fun having a bunch of weaker defence but otherwise good units killed before you can even do anything)
The range should start out with 7 for Xlong (which is 1 less then what medium is right now) which means you can't reach enemy attacking front ranks (except maybe corner attacks)from wall. 6 for long, 5 for medium (short would remain 4) 7 would be just enough range for cannons and hurl boulder machines to move up two spaces and attacks that need to be able to hit the walls on the first turn.
Range units would get a boost to compensate. Basic units like archers would be given stats comparable to their swordsman counterparts of the same level. Maybe a little less (testing required for exact values) More advanced units like storm mages would get more creative boosts. For example a storm mage would start out with dark gift, and get vision upgrade at silver and gold to complement their true sight (and to compensate for the devastation of some invisible units like leps)
Speaking of leps, I don't see them needing compensation for shorter range. But if someone disagrees by all means, It would be tested anyways.
An additional bonus to this would be ranged units that can better survive autocombat.
Machines could get even lower def & but lots of HP. (like 35 or so?, more or less depending on the machine) Sabotage boosted too.
Reduced radius, I'm thinking cosmic ray should have a radius of 1 but hit twice with good attack (cost adjusted accordingly) Fireball.. not sure what to do with, chain lighting, reduced damage? I also find it too powerful with poison domain & static shields. Those spells need to be moved onto separate spheres!(I mean at least so not all 3 are on the same one)
Why reduce radius spells? Same reason as shorter archer range. Plus with shorter archer range you will need to clump units together more to protect archers. Something I don't want to be too punishing.
Overhead spells I would give a larger radius so its easier to hit incoming enemies (less bother of fast clicking) but less attack/damage &/or more cost so that its not too punishing to come in and attack someone in their domain.
Domain of Darkness spell that forces someone to inch their forces foreward & memorize the map to be replaced by perhaps deathstorm. Not sure what other death spells were removed.
Haste domain made more expensive. Perhaps the cost of at least 12 haste spells worth(or half of 3 stacks) maybe even more, in both upkeep and initial cost. Research more expensive too?(which won't make the game faster, but its been brought to my attention that its too cheap & good in dwiggs)
Speed of some of the faster units reduced slightly. Like executionars that only travel 36 squares, but possibly morph to storm mages at silver. (dark gift at silver, lighting strike at gold) A number of other units slower too.
The idea is with archers reduced, we dont want people to be able to just go around their melee defenders/destroy them at their wall spots, before they even get in range of the archers.
I know people who say its "simple" just reduce the cost of buildings, make units faster, etc. But thats 1.3/MP thinking, this is dwiggs. I strongly believe this could help the mod move faster and preserve the more intricate feel of the mod.
I have more ideas too, but this is enough for now.
[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 07-12-2008 @ 02:13 AM).]