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FrankTrollman said:
That's the part I don't get. While the power of many units is off (especially Horse Archers, who suck), the Shortbow, the Longbow, and the Crossbow all fit perfectly together relative to each other. Why give them a new and different job on the battlefield when they are already desirable and historical as is?
-Frank
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I may change the longbow back... it's appearing to be overly powerful, and as you say, overlaps the function of a crossbow. The reason I made the change was because longbows were not fitting into their historic role, which is to kill heavily armored enemies at great distance. The historic role of crossbows, on the other hand, is to provide a use for untrained recruits (and to pierce armor at short range), as crossbows are much easier to operate and aim than normal bows. Dominions II does not seem to match either of these weapons to (what I understand to be) their historic roles, considering that
a) in Dominions II crossbows are longer range and more expensive than shortbows, instead of shorter range and cheaper, and
b) in Dominions II longbows are incapable of harming heavily armored units, while in real life they can, and
c) in Dominions II crossbows kill heavily armored units at their maximum range. In real life crossbows do much less damage at their max range than arrows; probably not enough to pierce heavy armor, and
d) in Dominions II, a longbow usually kills a lightly armored unit in one hit. This would be very rare in real life.
I was trying to rectify those things... but since Dominions II is already designed with specific roles for shortbows, crossbows, and longbows, changing them (to be, in my opinion, closer to their historic uses) can have adverse effects, and would certainly change their current relative balance, because it is (as far as I can tell) not historically accurate.
So, that's why this mod is "under development" rather than "complete." If I find (through testing) changes that made the game better balanced, more fun, and more realistic, I'll keep them. If I find changes
seem like they would accomplish those things, but in practice, actually break the balance or reduce fun, then I'll adjust or remove them.
I wish I could add things like "Damage reduction rate over projectile's trajectory", "Armor piercing percent", and "Damage type (crushing, slashing, piercing) pierce bonus versus armor type (soft, plate, chain, scale)" and even "Weapon damage modified by x% of strength", and especially "Weapon speed: 1.2 attacks per turn (for example)." Each of these would help differentiate weapons and enable them to be customized to their historic role. But I can't do any of those, so I'm doing the best with the mod tools (and game engine) provided, and thus giving longbows their very real ability to pierce armor, without making them similar to crossbows, is simply not possible.
Have you played with Man and found it overpowered?