Conceptual Balance Mod 1.94 released!

[Fantomen]

The rationale behind the high degree of compensation to the glamour nations was that hammer removal hit them the hardest because they rely so heavily on thugs. It's possible that the were overcompensated and needs rebalancing, as was done with Ulm and Agartha for example. I would like to see more than theorycrafting to justify that though, as in actual game data proving they got too powerful.

The monkey summons cost pearls, the most valuable gem and a critical resource for those nations. So they aren't actually cheap considering the opportunity costs involved. You never have enough pearls as monkeys. I'm not sure when and why the reduction was made, but I suspect it was because the removal of clams hit monkey nations the hardest, and they needed compensation for that.

I haven't tried the Dai Tengu, I've fought them and never seen them dominate the game in any way.

When discussing national summons or other national traits, I think it's important to see them as a part of the whole nation, not as individual spells or units. The rudra is "cheap", but your troops suck, this gives you a weak early game and a strong lategame that is part of the theme for those nations. The important question is whether the nation as a whole is interesting and balanced enough. And you're going to argue for changes, those arguments should be based on real MP testing.

[Redeyes]

Originally Posted by Fantomen

The rationale behind the high degree of compensation to the glamour nations was that hammer removal hit them the hardest because they rely so heavily on thugs. It's possible that the were overcompensated and needs rebalancing, as was done with Ulm and Agartha for example. I would like to see more than theorycrafting to justify that though, as in actual game data proving they got too powerful.

And you're going to argue for changes, those arguments should be based on real MP testing.

Was there anyhing like this at the different times when the changes I mentioned were made? The explanations you make seem like post-factum explanations at best. You aren't a primary source for the changes.

And we aren't touching the really gratuitous stuff now, like Machaka's cursing rock shards or point-blank fear spell.

I have some understanding for the forge bonuses the glamour nations got as the idea always apparently was having a few strong thoughts. The blood change looks like an attempt at making the nations relatively better at blood in comparison to others (and if that wasn't the intention then it is the effect) which never was their theme to begin with, the change looks very gratuitous.

The changes to the glamour nations seem very schizophrenic as an earlier version of cbm also lowered the cost of all their troops to make the nations less about their commanders.