All the elementals are Neutral. One of obvious solution is to just give Highmen 4 Life and Undead 4 Death Spheres in the maps they're in, instead of being contrarian and giving them major elemental magic.

That works fine in maps you make. Not when other maps might be using your mod. :)

It probably isn't a huge deal in most maps simply because those spells are basically out of reach anyway.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/545363164162687017/652511200785072169/Screenshot_6.png

An image from my upcoming map, 'Towers of Khazlkound'. The map has actually been fundamentally complete for a few months, but I haven't got around to polishing it and naming its cities yet.

* Swordsmen +2 def seems overkill, how about parry instead?
* Please just remove all instances of dominate and life-stealing. These are OP abilities.
* Shamans +3 ATK = what? Lifesteal = WHAT?
* Catapult: Cost 58 to 40 = this undoes the balllista change, people will just use catapults instead. They may be less reliable but when they hit they do more damage, especially with heroes that makes them better as 10 hits anyway.
* NEW UNIT: Iron Dragon = bit silly TBH, how many turns to build it?
* Ships: I disagree on your assessment, both me and Thereunto built galleons to good effect in swirlmount. That's the best way to use a faraway shipyard. You forget that ships can't be combined with other ships, meaning that it's a lot more important to have a strong ship in a water stack than it is to have a strong unit in a land stack. IMHO leave them as they are.
* Druid: Lifestealing, lol, no pls

HUMANS
* Pikeman: unneeded change, good as they are. First strike is powerful.
Charlatan: DEF 3 to 4, RES 5 to 6, Dispel Magic I/II/III, Parry, Marks II/III/IV, True Seeing, MV 26 to 30, Cost 64 to 44
lol heavy handed much? Charm is a very good ability. Good as it is, or just add MM. Maybe parry? No cost reduction...

AZRACS
* Lancer: First Strike = OP and unneeded. Cavalry's very strong already.
* Scorpion: Slot-switch w/Elephant, Wallclimb, Desert Concealment, Cost 15 to 5 = it's already a pretty good unit I wouldn't give it lower cost. It's better than swordsmen in many ways, it just seems to kind of suck because of the installment. I would keep desert concealment at gold like the others and give it cave crawling instead, it's weird that it doesn't have it and in this way azracs have a cave crawler at lvl 1 like orcs.
* Elephant: Slot-switch w/Scorpion,, Cost 37 to 42 = good idea the switch. I wouldn't raise the cost as it needs to be installed.
* Priest: ATK 3 to 4 = why should priests be better swordsmen than swordsmen?
* Raider: Cost 36 to 26 = it's a super good unit, I've used them a lot in swirlmount, with additional vision the cost reduction is unwarranted despite def reduction.

FROSTLINGS
Dire Penguin: RES 3 to 5 = no need, Doom Gaze at Gold = how about life-stealing instead? doom gaze is used to force AI to move units towards you in tactical.
Yeti: MV 28 to 30, Forestry, Snow Concealment, Cost 95 to 65 = wouldn't raise speed on a mountaineer. Wouldn't drop cost.
Frost Queen: Leadership, Physical Protection, Marks II/III/IV, True Seeing, Cost 65 to 45 = PP is very good, wouldn't do both that and cost reducing. True seeing defeats concealment.

LIZARDMEN
Racial: Water Concealment at Gold except Slug, Salamander
Archer: Cost 15 to 18 = why?
Swordsman: Cost 15 to 18 = why?
Giant Slug: RES 2 to 1, HP 5 to 10, WallClimb, Regen, Poison Imm, Marksmanship II/III/IV = heavy handed. No need for HP and MM.
Frogrider: First Strike at Gold = too good
Turtle Catapult: see above for catapult. Also, how about giving it strike since it's not just a machine?
Lurker: Dominate = OP, True Seeing = defeats your concealment changes
Green Wyvern: HP 12 to 14 = it's a flyer, beware

ELVES
Cleric: Entangle Strike = OP on a support unit. You already want to have one with your hero, makes it doubly necessary and useful
Nymph: HP 5 to 7 + Physical Prot = annoying...
Nature Elemental: maybe add wallcrushing? Or pass-wall?

HALFLINGS
Cleric: Magic Imm, what lol
Satyr: Physical Prot, Lifestealing, remove both pls, it's already a very good unit for charm. (better than seduce)
Rogue: DEF 4 to 5 = I'd actually reduce it, it's a v. good unit, MV 26 to 30 = too good imho
Eagle Rider: MV 36 to 40, already good as it is, Transport I = you can't transport it anymore or stack with transports, I annoying
Centaur: MV 36 to 40 = it can already kite the AI very well...

DWARVES
why the cost raise?
Berserker: ATK 4 to 6, ogod they're already my worse hero killers lol
Cleric: Construct = this is a super cheap way to construct....
Mole: RES 4 to 2, Cost 105 to 60 = the cost is due to digging, that's a situationally good ability.






.... Will add more

- I don't think +2 def on swordsmen is overkill, honestly. They are truly awful in TS136.
However, that combined with -1hp and -1def for archers made them a lot, lot better than archers, which is not really necessary, even though archers ought to lose to swords, because archers have the niche of fighting flyers and big melee enemies that splatter the swordsmen with retaliations. Anyhow after testing some fights in autocombat I decided to remove the -1 hp for archers, since it felt a bit wrong thematically for them to have less hp for holding a bow. Besides, it would be an unnecessary buff to altars. Hopefully reducing the archer nerf also makes various other buffs to various units less egregious.

- I don't think lifestealing is OP, it only takes effect on offensive hits, not retaliations. Dominate could be stronger than I bargained for with the yuge RES nerfs though. I don't think it would be OP but it would mean not making such units as strong overall

- Shamans with +3 ATK and lifestealing - I wanted to make them distinct from Priests and Clerics. They are certainly distinct that way, but maybe it is silly or bad gameplay and should be toned down.

- Catapults have one 3/7 attack versus the ballista with two 5/5 attacks. Against a 3 DEF enemy the Catapult has one hit that does (7+4d7)/10 = 2.3 damage on average. (Sorry the maths is unclear/unexplained, I can't think how to explain it concisely. The divide by 10 is the 10 values you can roll to hit, while the 7 is the critical hit that can happen when you roll a 10, and the 4d7 is the other 4 chances to hit normally, with d7 = 4 on average)

The ballista has two hits that each do (5+6d5)/10 = 2.3 damage, so 4.6 average output, which is twice that of the catapult. This means the siege engine that costs twice as much also does twice the damage, but with less HP and without wallcrushing abilities. That should make the catapult always the better choice. So you are broadly right and Ind I will revert most of the gold cost changes to both units because of it.

Also, often you only have a limited supply of upgraded t2-t3-t4 cities, so making twice as many catapults for the same gold isn't an option, and while the initial cost is halved, the maintenance cost is equal, as is the city upgrade cost (if paid), the cost of not producing merchandise, which are mild levelling factors between any two high tier units with different gold costs.

A tier 3 unit with 0 initial gold cost is actually something potentially not unbalanced at all, because it still has upkeep, opportunity cost of not making a different (presumably stronger if more expensive) unit, lack of produce merchandise, and maybe city upgrade cost.

The iron dragon would take 4 turns to install and 8 to build. It is supposed to be silly, so maybe I need to make it more expensive, or 18 MV for lower cost or something, or Transport 1 (so it cannot be put in an Air Galley), otherwise it could be very good which is not the intention.

I disagree with your disagreement about ships - the galleon has 50% more HP and some MV and Transport and marksmanship over the dragonship, in exchange for taking twice as long to make and costing more than 3x as much. Even with a chokepoint you might be better off having 2-3 dragonships than a galleon, or 4-5 dragonships versus a galleon + 2 dragonships. However the chokepoint concept is a good point, so I think I will tone down the inflated stats of the higher tier warships, especially since I made those stats before coming up with the Tier reduction idea (which would make them all faster to build and install)

-Druid lifestealing - real-history Druids conducted human sacrifices and AoWs druids are Neutral, not Good. I think it is arguably good for the theme. I want edgy holy men, like with the Shamans. Consider the gritty dark age tone of aow1, and the real-life human sacrifice religions like the Aztecs and those guys the Jews eradicated.

-Pikeman: I really think Pikemen were weak, they were somewhat better than swordsmen who were awful. Plus I am biased for Pikemen and wrote a new (hopefully not cringy) ingame lore for them, so I guess I will make them more expensive in response to your assertion this change makes them too strong.
Edit: oh right I had their ATK at 6 lol

-Is Charm actually a good ability, compared to being a burly T3 like the Cavalier? especially when you have 7 HP and 3 DEF, so you do pay some for failed attempts. I guess I will tone down the manifold buffs though

-Lancer First Strike, other cavalry buffs
Ja I guess I started to have power creep on everything and got overexcited, I should tone things down

-Scorpions: I'm pretty sure scorpions were utterly bad - worse than swordsmen, which were way worse than elephants. Cave crawling is a good point though, i will do that, I thought I did give them it but maybe I forgot. They are lacking the swordsman stat buffs here.

-Elephant cost increase - I like aow1's walls being immune to non wall crushers, which is why this mod messes with battering rams a bit. same with the elephant. Maybe in a world of 4 def swordsmen the gold increase is not needed though.

-Azrac priest with 4 attack - it's a racial high attack thing, so the azrac priest at 4 still does have less ATK than the Azrac swordsman.

-Raider: Cost 36 to 26, ja, I maybe got overexcited with cav buffs, that DEF 2 tho

-Dire Penguin - officially now a joke unit, like it was always meant to be. Doom Gaze penguins (at gold) is epic!! 3 to 5 RES reflects them being DIRE. Consider that they are missing out on the swordsman stat buff.

-Yeti: yeah I guess those buffs were not needed

-Frost Queen: PP isn't that good actually, since it doesn;t affect 1 DAM attacks like slingers and half of archers' shots. and it takes 3 DAM hits down to 2, not 1.5, etc. So it is more like you take 33% less damage against a d3 DAM enemy, so 50% more HP, not 100% more. But liek the Charlatan I guess I did load this unit up with too many buffs.

Lizardmen swords and archers costing 18 gold: it's because they have swimming.
Giant slug: I don;'t know if it is heavy-handed. I think the low range might delay their spit attack by a round in autocombat (?) and even with 10 hp their DEF and ATK are bad.

Giving Turtle Catapults and Ballistae Strike is a great idea, they probably don't have an animation for it, but that doesn't matter too much given the rudimentary animations in this game. Thank you!

Lurker: maybe with the increased concealment in the mod, True Seeing is enough of a niche and the Lurker does not need Dominate. true.

Green Wyvern: yeah I had a lot of power creep changes. I guess I was just really really triggered at archers dominating everything.

Elf cleric: yeah entangle strike probably should be at Gold

Nymph: guess I overkilled that one given the blanket RES nerf.

Halfling cleric: magic Im would rarely have an impact on the game, it is just an attempt to make it feel a bit unique, given that it's a high RES race.

Satyr: yeah I overdid it.

Rogue: interesting, I guess I will reduce the buffs a bit

Eagle Rider: Transport I might be annoying for stacking but the 1-unit transportation could be very cool, I want to see it in action. I have never seen people stacking up flyers in a PBEM that I can remember, because they are usually out raiding by themselves.

Centaur MV kiting: meh, AI is going to get abused anyway

lowlevel Dwarves got cost raised like the lizards, for having mountaineering, maybe the full cost raise is unecessary and they do have lower MV, after all

Berserker 6 ATK: I just really hate archers, this way they *definitely* have a niche

Dwarf cleric Construct: DWARVES! thematic, if not balanced. Thing is with the mold gold cost reduction, I think someone who installs a mole and makes one for digging shouldn't be punished THAT much by not having Giants installed. They should be able to stick with the moles. I think I will tone down the cost reduction but not remove it.

etc, keep the analysis coming if you like!

Thanks for the answer. One point on dire penguins: ok but they swim, same effect as lizardmen. I'd do a lot of those joke units in swirlmount :)
Life drain makes them be the same joke as in AOW2, and doesn't work against boats.

Ability feedback:
SPECIAL ATTACK
Archery: 10 -> 5
it's a very good skill to level up the hero at start, kind of like lifesteal or regeneration for a while.. I'd keep it at 10. Or 8, BTW poison darts reaches its damage potential at MM 2 and beats it at MM 4,plus poison. But it starts with 1 less damage potential so I'd keep those at the same cost.
Black Bolts: 10.1 -> 5
.1 means unavailable at selection.
Dominate: 15 -> 15
IMHO more valuable, especially at the start. Dominating gives exp lol. It gives you not just free units, but free units around your leader so at the front of your exploration: it gives you free units where they matter, so with 0 maintenance in a way.
Doom Gaze: 15 -> 10
IMHO more valuable - exploits weak AI in tactial forcing it to move. But, many spells do the same so maybe not? Wait - spells need mana, you can do it only once. So it's better than spells. I'd keep it at 15 at least. Or 16. A tad less than hurl boulder.
Fire Musket: 15 -> 15
see doom gaze
Healing: 15.1 -> 15
Better than regeneration, works in combat and on others. 25?20 but reduce regeneration?
Lightning Bolts: 10.1 -> 10
ranged lightning strike = incapacitates units, 15?
Spell Casting: 20 -> 20
22? Makes it just a bit more expensive, lets you spend in movement in the meanwhile

STRIKE MOD
Entangle Strike: 30.1 -> 30
too much? Not that much different from lightning
Extra Strike: 15 -> 15
IMHO somewhat more valuable - synergy with lifedrain, works in combat
Life Stealing: 15 -> 10
nooo definitely more, ok leave extra strike as it is but life stealing keeps hero fighting dropping the risk in tactical completely, = much faster level up. 20 like regeneration? It's IMHO better than regen as it works in combat.

STRATEGIC
Bard's Skills: 10 -> 5
it's more useful than this, I've had it at 10 happily as my first and only level up for the walking hero in swirlmount. That lets me keep a called archon hero as a goblin.
Cave Crawling: 5 -> 5
IMHO better than the other speed modifiers - this gives permanent haste in every cave. You put mountaneering 10, I'd put this 15
Flying: 100.1 -> 100
:) imho too much, equivalent to swimming+mountaneering+wall climbing more or less. 50?
Forestry: 5 -> 5
10 like mountaneering?
Regeneration: 10 -> 20
agree or maybe 15, life stealing is better as it works during fights
Swimming: 30.1 -> 30
too much? In games lizards have 4 MP less, so that's 8 points.
Ug. Concealment: 10 -> 10
IMHO better than steppe, snow, etc - those are situational, this is an entire map level so it's even better than grass conceal.
Vision: 5 -> 5
IMHO better than this in MP, where info wins the match.

DEFENSIVE
Cold Protection: 5 -> 5
3? 4? Some skills at 3/4/8 would let us get some movement without having to get it 5 times as it's the only skill at 2.
Magic Protection: 10.1 -> 10
combines with physical prot. To make heroes impervious to magic weapon attacks. IMHO more.
Why is physical prot not on the list?

Parry doesn't do anything against archers, which was the point of buffing swords in the first place.

I'm amused you triggered on Lifestealing Druids but not Entangle Strike Druids, which is the FAR more devastating ability. XD

Life Stealing might extend a unit's lifespan proportionally with how durable the unit already is, but Entangle Strike can be an instant death sentence and it works on both attacks and retaliations.

I've never considered Charm very powerful, especially on a Charlatan. He simply isn't durable enough. The Resist nerf across the board might change this some, but generally Charlatans mostly aren't worth building when you could build Cavaliers instead.

I've never considered a very good unit. It is slower than standard infantry, and it had some extra defense and poison strike instead of the extra azrac offense.

Azracs have increased attack over other races. The Azrac priest still isn't a better swordsman than the Azrac Swordsman, and having the A. Priest be on par with other races swords in attack sort of reflects the Azrac focus on better attack values.

It is useful in auto combat, giving them a ranged attack that can be used from round 1. Also, Doom Gazing Dire Penguins are amusing.


Please please please don't anything except multiples of 5 for ability costs. Trying to get full value from your skill points becomes a nightmare otherwise.

Entangle Strike is far better than Lightning because ES can stun for 3 rounds. 1v1, it is pretty much a death sentence.

Eh. Cave Crawling only functions in caves and it doesn't actually give any new movement options. Mountaineering gives a whole new movement option.

I have the impression you haven't fought ranged flyers very much. 50 is stupidly cheap for true flying. If you want your hero to be straight up immune to all non-ranged walkers, then you need to be paying an arm and a leg for it. 50 would mean to always, always, always take this ability so your leader becomes immune to Titans, Warlords, Nature Elementals, First Born, Dread Reapers, Karaghs, and a whole host of other units that might otherwise be worrisome.

That movement reduction is important, and Lizards also have lower resistance. Have you fought Lizards much? Swimming is a PITA to deal with when you don't have it yourself.

Eh. Depends heavily on the map. A lot of maps don't have the lower levels are important layers.

That's protection (half damage), not immunity. It is an okay resistance, but like all resists you have to get a lot of them to really get that damage reduction.

The idea with some skills being cost 4, 6, 8 etc is to make taking points in movement less annoying.

Thanks Book. The biggest points I see are these, the others are a bit subjective I guess.

Will you be amused when 2 beat your galleons at 1/10 the cost? Don't forget the naval stacks issues.

I don't say that it's unimportant, I say that its value is 8 points in level points (1mp=2pts). Didn't notice the resistance. How much is it?

Magic weapon is super common however, so in a lot of cases heroes have magic+physical. Protecting against that gives a lot of value, and I haven't seen many times that protection while other protections seem to be much more common.

Two penguins with Def 3, 7 hp, and a 6 att/5 dam single shot long range attack versus a single galleon with def 6, 40 hp, and a 6 att/5 dam double shot long range attack? I have no fear for my boat. I'll be concerned at 3-5 gold penguins. And then I'll wonder how you're getting so many penguins to gold.

Currently, each point of resistance costs 5 skill points.

I haven't seen Physical Protection for heroes be common at all. Liquid Form, I guess.

But they still have to worry about the various weapons that add the other damage types, or Fire Halo, etc.

I dunno.

Sheesh, no wonder I got bored making the item set and just plonked some stuff out. There aren't 120 items in it. There's 119 item graphics and 238 items. I scaled the costs of the items 80/160/240/320, from swirlmount that seems to have been rather too low, though I had thought it in line with the base game.

Damn, I thought items were assigned by their goldcost or rarity values, which are assigned to them in the editor. But I just ran a test game with three items (and only three) available, no other items enabled. All three were ''Exceptional'' rarity and were 500, 700 and 1000 Value. There was but a single dungeon in the map and, when explored, it had all three! Does this mean a map must manifest all items? strange.
Or does it mean that type of dungeon must have three on offer, as it still did when I added my item collection to the map?

You know what would be a funny map idea? One where you can only move between cave areas using warp party.

Upon testing, I think a dungeon's ''Item Value'' setting doesn't reference the ''value'' or ''rarity'' of items at all. I think it just has 1 item if set to low, 2 if set to medium, and 3 if set to high! Item value is used in the campaign, but what is rarity for?

Maybe Rarity works, or doesn;t who really cares. What's interesting is that Spellcasting can be added to items, and works. That's right, a Spellcasting V item is fully functional.

Edit: when I say fully functional I mean it glitches out without the specific mod installed to allow it.
Edit2: nope, got it working without the mod. it just glitched that one time for no specific reason, so i will be including Spellcasting V items everywhere, with no plausible likelihood of glitches. What could go wrong? Maybe everyone casting warp party everywhere? Is that a bad thing?