Mod: Urdheim, The Infinite Horde

[Sombre]

Based on playing a quick 15 turns or so, I really like the nation - there are lots of interesting units, lots of colourful spells. It's like a cross between an Amos nation and a regular dom3 one. That's mostly a good thing (although I don't like Amos' nations that much, I think the quality there is excellent).

But to be honest they do seem overpowered. Just as an example - the Kobold warchiefs autosummon 5 light infantry a turn and they only cost just over 100 gold. They pay back the investment very quickly and do it without having to sit still and summon allies.

The poison doubleshot I'm also not too sure about. This is the early era and they have a missile weapon (one-shot, true) which is basically better than a crossbow. I think I'd prefer if it were slightly less good and the mediums were slightly cheaper.

I like the fire-breathing units a lot - there are some strong similarities between this nation and my skaven, although your 'flamethrowers' have higer prec so don't tend to toast your own guys as much. I also really like the idea of the traps used by the casters/commanders. Very nice.

I haven't played them long enough to say much more - they do seem a bit good, that's all. Early game size 1 swarming and facehugging combined with national thugs, great magic etc.

[Saulot]

Thanks for the response Sombre. Balance and flow/gameplay are my two biggest concerns. Naturally, things tend to be overbalanced before they're more in line with where they should be (Dom2 Ermor/ Dom3 Van comes to mind). Oddly enough the warchief and the med. infantry were two of my bigger concerns about being unbalanced (after the glaurung scion/ascendant). As for the warchief, there are several solutions that come to mind:
1. Increase gold cost.
2. Remove summon5, and replace with 3 or 4 summon1's (I think that would work).
3. Replace summon5 with summon1 med. infantry.
4. Replace lt. infantry summon with the much less hardy skirmishers.

I'm leaning most towards option 1. I feel like the vast numbers effect you get from the strong autosummon is quite thematic (puts the Infinite in Infinite Horde). And the great chieftains should be well paid.

On the other hand, upkeep is still a factor, and lt. infantry do drop pretty quickly. Even when sending out warchief groups (4 warchiefs supported by 1 sorceror). Often times there will be 25 casualties. This may just be against the high independent setting I play at. Will wait for more input.

As for the poison doubleshot, it does do less damage than a normal crossbow (plus has shorter range though that is somewhat irrelevant).

Possible downtweaks:
1. Lower damage from 8 to 7/6.
2. Lower precision on the doubleshot from 2 to 1/0.

I'm not sure about either one, will wait for more responses to come in.

Yes, I love the traps. Before the traps, I just felt like it was really missing something. Something kobold-like and important. Like a leg chop.

Undoubtably there will be some serious balancing going on over the next few weeks. Due to my playing style/limited MP experience, I seriously doubt I'm using some tactics/strategies/combos to full effect.

[Endoperez]

You'll also have to remember that in late game, the light infantry could be boosted substantially. Marble Warriors, or even Wooden Warriors, Battle Fortune... and a bit earlier, Arrow Ward. Those cut off the losses you'd take substantially.

You can't have more than one #summon1 command per commander. You can have #summon1 and some #makemonster working, though. What about #summon1 and #makemonster 4?

[Saulot]

Before I continue, I should point out I never did any testing of late game. I only played 4 quick games against 1-2 AI's on the silent seas map. (3 of those weren't even very good tests since I changed things in the middle of them, and also changed things after them.)
I assume you mean Arrow Fend (there was no arrow ward in the manual). Battle Fortune would likely be more useful on something with better defense than lt. infantry. For both those spells, they require A3 and S3 respectively, both tough orders to fill for Urdheim. As for marble/wooden warriors, you have a very good point.

I'll be thinking about the possible options suggested, though I lean towards:
1. Gold cost increase.
2. Replace with skirmishers. May be combined with option 1.
3. Replace summon5 lt. infantry with summon1 med. infantry, and makemonster 4 lt. infantry. This may be combined with option 1.

As for the medium infantry, I'll wait for more comments to come in.

Edit:
Oh, and also, I noticed there are 20 downloads, and only 2 comments so far. Feedback is important and appreciated, and I'll need it to improve the mod.

[Theonlystd]

After i downloaded it lost power.But played it a bit more now..

Dracolichs price needs to go up or be tweaked a bit..

It only died once taking on lvl 9 indies with no spells cast on him and no other troops supporting

I pretty much always do SP with 300supply,resources and such.. So stuff that summons other stuff isnt as usefull.

So far Firebrands have been my worse enemy .. Size 1 + area of effect weapon = lots of Medium Infantry dead..


Will have to play more before i suggest anything else

[Saulot]

Brought the first post more up to date. (Some stuff was obsolete).

Progress towards v.20:
Increased Warchief cost from 120 to 160
Decreased doubleshot damage from 8 to 7
Decreased Dracolich fear aura from 10 to 5
Decreased Dracolich HP from 180 to 160
Fixed a few grammatical errors in descriptions.

I hope to release v.20 on friday, and try for a once a week update until it seems ready for final status (well, final for v3.08 of dominions).

[Saulot]

Unfortunately, due to unforseen time constraints and some balancing issues with a new hero, the next version will be coming out tomorrow instead of today.

[Saulot]

Version .20 of Urdheim is now available at the first post.

Changes from v.10 to v.20:

Dracolich fear from +10 to +5
Dracolich HP from 180 to 160
Warchief goldcost from 120 to 160
Med. Infantry goldcost from 16 to 15
Doubleshot damage from 8 to 7
Kobold Pick damage from 1 to 2
Net Trap range from 25 to 30
Blades Trap range from 25 to 30
Scion of Sirrush now has siegebonus 15
Fixed a few grammatical errors in descriptions
Fixed potential *nix capitalization problem with one errant sprite
Summoner goldcost from 300 to 280
Master Summoner hero added
Magma Drake summon added


Hopefully this will fix most of the balance issues. Also, I'm really happy with the new hero.
Anyway, Enjoy!