Unit Abilities as Warfare Research

from Elemental Forums

After playing MoM again one of the things I love is how unit abilities make the units feel different. And I know alot of us are wondering if and if so, what, kind of unit abilities we are going to get with our little men.

So what are the abilities you have seen in other games that you love. Things like First Strike, Armor Peircing, Immunities, Poison Breath, ect ect

Another Idea would be what if abilities like First Strike were researchable in the Warfare Tree and Magical abilities were researchable in the Magic Tree.

So for example you could research First Strike and then teach it to your units as they were created. This would obviously add to the time and cost of the unit and to what extent would have to be determined. But that would be the basic principle.

But It would add alot of choice to our unit creation and it would add more techs to the research trees. Neither are bad as far as I am concerned.

5,085 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

actually i would prefer that abilities be conferred by the type of weapon a unit uses.  such as a spear would have first strike because of its range.  while other would be given to a unit because of magic.  one of my favorite spells in master of magic was the lycanthropic curse spell the infernal book gave you.  i just wished that spell would have taken into account the creature you are casting it on.  i just would have loved some real werewolf trolls!

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

well, i know its a bit obvious but always loved counter attack. nothing like seeing an enemy kill its self just by attacking one of my men. just gotta make sure theve got a big shield right? hey it worked for the spartans!

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I thought I always liked the idea of researching some skill (first strike) and then being able to teach it to others.

However, i too am (re)playing MoM currently and I think the fact that you CAN'T do that adds to the uniqueness of the units/races. That is my single biggest complaint regarding AoW:SM.  The races (and Magic spheres) are sooo cookie-cutter.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I definately like certain upgrades requiring requisite of certain techs.  I think Fall From Heaven 2 did this pretty well.  And of course, I like Morpheus's idea to make certain upgrade requisites weapon based.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I like the idea of granting certain bonuses to troops through advanced training... Why can't my Elite Light Infantry first strike with swords? Who is to say they arn't like Samurai with insane speed and combat reflexes? Or why can't my Lightly armored Shadow Knights hide in the woods? Adding abilities like this that can be researched in War tech on unit design would allow for far greater customization and personalization of your units and I for one think that would be excellent. You could still have weapon and gear centric abilities such as pikes or spears granting First strike... Though I wouldn't discount the idea of adding special features to a unit through their design. Obviously though multiple special characteristics would greatly increase their training time and gold cost. That way people specialize units rather then trying to make an almighty all-purpose unit.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Nitpicking: in MoM, *cavalry* had first strike, while pikemen had 'anti-first strike', which is essentially what made them good versus cavalry.

 

On the subject - IMO, special abilities can come from three distinctive sources:

  • Gear - The stuff you equip your units with confers specific bonuses (and minuses). Think of it like equipping a short-bow to your pikemen gives them the 'shoot' special ability.
  • Training - You can train your units to be camouflaged in the forest. Sure, a special gear set would also do the same job, but it would probably be more expensive and inefficient in non-forest environment. Same way, you can train your units to do special actions, like 'berserk rage'.
  • Magic - I cast 'Chaos Channel' on my pikemen and the entire unit has sprout wings, and therefore received the special ability of 'flying'.