Recruitable Unit Rebalance Version 7.51 Released.

[Saber Cherry]

More changes. Still no new version uploaded.

Game's 3 worst weapons improved slightly:
Glaive went from (10, -1, -1, 4) to (10, 0, -1, 4)
Halberd went from (10, -1, -1, 4) to (10, 0, -1, 4)
Axe went from (7, -1, -1, 1) to (7, -1, 0, 1)
Indy Archers made slightly worse:
Light Archer: +1g (7g)
Archer: +1g +1def (8g, 9 def)
Heavy Archer: -1prec (10 prec)
Heavy Crossbowman: -1prec (10 prec)
Pureblood Abysians get +1 attack (after all, they cost 20 gold, they're a warlike race, and only had 10-attack 9-defense?)
Pureblood Abysians also get -25% cold resist (from description: 'vulnerable to cold').
Humanbreds are unaffected by these changes.
Man Spearman (Short Spear) dropped 1g to 8g.
Ctissian Slave Lizards dropped price by 1g each.
Ctissian Taskmaster given 3 moves, so now they not only have a reason to exist (before, they didn't), but also, Ctis Runners have a reason to exist (cheaper, and finally there is a commander that can lead them with 3 strat moves).
Falchioneer dropped to 11g.
Royal Guard +3 rcost to 48 (it was too low compared to other mounted units with same equipment)
Skin Shifters (werewolf precursors) bumped +2 hp (15 hp) to prevent pre-shift death.
Galderman gets +4 hp, +3 str, +1 att, +1 def, +25% since he is also a werewolf.
Einheres get +1 hp (to 13) so they don't die before they berserk, and full ambidextrity (3).
Bane Spiders and Spider Warriors get 11 mr instead of 10. Must either be their mysterious spider armor, or something that happens under the tutlage of the Black Sorcerers...
Jotun Woodsmen dropped -10g to 40g. Why were they the same price as scouts that are better in every way? Plus, they are capitol only, and just not that good, with no armor, shield, javelin, or stealthy priest to bless them...

[Graeme Dice]

Saber Cherry said:
Jotun Woodsmen dropped -10g to 40g. Why were they the same price as scouts that are better in every way? Plus, they are capitol only, and just not that good, with no armor, shield, javelin, or stealthy priest to bless them...

Now this doesn't make too much sense to me, as woodsmen with an appropriate bless effect already had better cost effectiveness than niefel giants.

[Saber Cherry]

Graeme Dice said:

Now this doesn't make too much sense to me, as woodsmen with an appropriate bless effect already had better cost effectiveness than niefel giants.

Hmm, you're right, I never realized that. Should I decrease Giant costs or boost Woodsman costs, or something else? Woodsmen are not good enough for a bless strategy, in my opinion. I'd bet on the same cost in gold of Daoine Sidhe, Flagellants, Black Hunters, Vans, Paladins, Black Templars, Jaguar Warriors...

Do you find Woodsmen to be useful?

How about Giants?

[Saber Cherry]

PvK said:
Ulmites being a favorite of mine, I'll comment just on what I've read in recent posts here, since I haven't gotten time to try this yet.

* Giving Ulm troops a helmet that doesn't reduce defense will in fact be helpful, at least to some of the troops (e.g. Chain/Hammer/Shield), particularly when they start gaining experience, at least against average regular troops.

* I second thinktank's suggestion to give Ulmites higher MR. If it were moddable (tis not), I'd have every level of drain scale add to their MR, but failing that, +2-4 MR for Ulm would be neat IMO, and I'd do that rather than improving their helmet design.

* Did you look at Ulm morale? Anyone know why Ulm pikeneers get +1 morale compared to the other troops? +1 morale would also be useful for the other troops, but IMO +MR is better - there are ways for Ulm to deal with their morale - not so much for their MR.

PvK

I've been thinking about Ulm's MR problem for a while, and various other things, like why armor is totally ineffective against many of the game's spells. And I had an idea...

I'm sort of morally opposed to giving Ulmians a high base magic resistance in their default theme, because the goal of this mod is to change the balance of Dominions II while keeping Illwinter's themes and races intact. However, Ulmians are afraid of magic, and wear specially smithed armor... and now, in my mod, they wear black steel full helms, too. Wouldn't it make sense for the Smiths to use special materials, and inscribe special runes into the helms blocked harmful magic from soldiers' brains?

So, I'm thinking of keeping Ulm's base magic resistance at 9, but giving +1 or +2 MR to all Black Plate units (Full Plate of Ulm and Full Helmet of Ulm), bringing them up to 10 or 11. The description would be altered, of course, to mention that costly materials and laborious techniques are used... justifying a price hike. At 10 MR, 12g sounds reasonable, and at 11 MR... 13 or 14g, possibly with a resource hike as well. Black Plate units are currently 11g by virtue of having higher morale, HP, and more armor compared to Chain units.

This change would essentially divide Ulm Infantry into two distinct lines:

Cheaper Chainmail units (10g / 20-25 resource / 12 HP / 10 MOR / 9 MR), good against indies, Lightning (armor-negating) and Water magic (which is either armor-negating, in which case cheaper units are always better, non-armor-negating, and unlikely to kill any Ulm units), and Nature magic (again, poison is armor negating).

Elite Black Plate units (12-14g / 35+ resource / 13 HP / 11 MOR / 10-11 MR), good against Heavy Cavalry (absorbing lances), Crossbows, Fire (armor-piercing, but unlikely to kill Ulm units), Astral and Death (both MR-save) magic.

I could even make Black Plate Armor more special, with protective runes against elemental magics (+ 25, 25, 25 or + 35, 35, 35), making them some of the most battlemage-resistant troops around.

Do these sound like good changes for Ulm? They're pretty major, but still completely thematic for a nation that fears magic and entrusts both magic and forging to masterful smiths.

[Endoperez]

I also think that having extra magic resistance would help Ulm, but that just increasing their magic resistance would make them play very differently from what Illwinter meant.

I could agree on the magic resistance, or elemental resistances, but not both. I also think elemental resistances would suit them better, but that would be quite a large jump in game balance.

[Saber Cherry]

All changes can be seen at the top of the first post in the thread. Aside from bugfixes, a bit of additional "flavor," toning down Niefels and mauls, and cheapening a few bad buys, the primary changes are:

1) Giving light infantry and cavalry +1 attack, to reflect the greater dexterity of a trained soldier wearing little armor.
2) A complete and major change to all Black Plate units, resulting in a new Ulm. Please tell me if you like it or not... I have a feeling some people may not, but it makes sense to me. Moreover, it makes their unit lineup more fun, varied, and interesting, while still entirely within the scope of Illwinter's concept of Ulm (in my opinion).

As a side note, virtually all units in the mod that had major changes or equipment changes also have new or adjusted descriptions to reflect those changes.

[FrankTrollman]

I'm still very much against what you did to archery. Longbows and Crossbows already did their respective jobs well. A Longbowman was more expensive to train and much more devastating against at long range and when used against lightly armored people. 9 points armor piercing for a Longbow is completelyu inane, 14 points of non-armor penetrating damage conveys their purpose really well.

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