Custom units/commanders - assigning cost ?

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by velk:
I have been playing around with some custom units, but I have been having great difficulty coming up with a good way to assign resource and gold cost to them. How do you guys decide on these values ?

If you download the combat sim, and put a new unit in the "UnitTypes.txt" file (specify armors and weapons), it will autocalculate the resource cost for you. Or you can do it manually by reading the sticky thread about equipment stats. Those resource costs are for size-2 units: the armor resource value scales with size.

[PvK]

Holy is a big reason to increase cost, in my book, since:

1) They will cost half to maintain, and maintenance cost is about as important as purchase cost, in the long run, particularly for units that might survive a long time.

2) Holy units can have various beneficial spells cast on them that others can't, most obviously, blessings which can add large improvements to their stats.

PvK

[General Tacticus]

If you look at Pythium's two themes, Hydra cost 250 gold in normal theme and 300 gold in serpent cult, where they become sacred. Likewise, Hydra hatchlings go from 50 to 60. On the other hand, Serpent Cataphract stay at 60 gold.

I think part of a unit cost is dependant on nation, with some nations/themes having deliberately lower cost for certain units (like Ulm paying 10 gold for his heavy infantry, where similar units are 15-25 gold for other nations). Still, sacred costing +20% gold seems about right to me...

[Kristoffer O]

Sacred normally costs 25-50% more.

Ulm does not cost more than other soldiers because they are not better trained. They have the same stats as other units, but they have beter equipment. Equipment does not cost gold, but resources.

Unit costs
Militia/archer: Skills: 8, prec 10, Cost 8
Regular soldier: Skills: 10, Cost: 10
Elite: Skills: 11, Mrl: 11-12, Cost 13-15
Special troops: Skills 12, Mrl: 13-15, Cost 20+

These are not absolutes and may vary from nation to nation. Arcoscephale has the cheapest elites in the game (hoplites with skills 11, mrl 12, cost 12). This might be considered an advantage. Mictlan has cheaper troops (cost 9), Ulm has lower MR and higher HP, etc.

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by General Tacticus:
If you look at Pythium's two themes, Hydra cost 250 gold in normal theme and 300 gold in serpent cult, where they become sacred. Likewise, Hydra hatchlings go from 50 to 60. On the other hand, Serpent Cataphract stay at 60 gold.

That's really cheap. But it's one of the main points of Serpent Cult - they give up a LOT compared to standard Pythium to get those sacred hydras and serpent cats. Don't they lose the ENTIRE theurg hierarchy, from the arch theurg all the way down to the communicant, and get it replaced with some greatly inferior poison-resistant priests with minor nature magic?

I think part of a unit cost is dependant on nation, with some nations/themes having deliberately lower cost for certain units (like Ulm paying 10 gold for his heavy infantry, where similar units are 15-25 gold for other nations). Still, sacred costing +20% gold seems about right to me...

Ulm HI is well equipped, but not more skilled than other nations' (if you're comparing to something like Emerald Guards or Iceclads, those also have higher attack and defense skills). Equipment is usually reflected by resource cost, not by gold cost.

Most sacred units cost about 50% more than a non-sacred equivalent (and therefore about 25% less upkeep). Compare Royal Guard to Knights of the Chalice, Knights to Knights of Avalon, etc. A lot of sacred units don't have a non-sacred equivalent to compare them to, though.