Personally i think they should make both types of custom faction creator.

So that you can both have the mod type race, where you can edit pretty much everything, and the normal one, where you cant really do that much.

Aparently i almost always get the first post on one of the pages...

Yes, very important.    Frogboy, could you include this?

Best regards,
Steven.

Will the Game Editior allow us to create creatures/units and spells and such without having to learn a programming language?

Damn that is not good news.  I was really hoping for an editor that would allow a user friendly way of adding creatures/units like AOW:SM did but a little more user friendly.

Regarding the OP, the big question for me is: rather than having these abilities inherent to certain units, can we link them to equipment? i.e. every unit I equip with a mount gains the "charge" ability? This would open the door to a massive amount of unit customization; instead of equipment merely giving stat bonuses, many items could link to one or more abilities - claymore allows "cleave," dagger allows "backstab," some magic ring allows "minor heal," and so on - you could mix and match these items to turn every unit into a class straight out of your favorite RPG. That much complexity may not appeal to you, but just imagine what having even one interesting ability per unit would do to tactical combat, let cavalry have a charge ability or let assassins sneak up to and ambush things and combat becomes a lot more tactical.

Also, it's important how you limit these abilities - can they be given to non-caster units and not consume mana? Can they have cooldowns (important!) or any other limitations? I'd really prefer these abilities didn't necessarily share the limitations of spells (only useable by the few essence-wielding mana-using champions you have), but potentially useable by every vanilla unit you train. And really, how much sense does it make for a spider to need mana to cast a natural ability like poison shot, anyway?

Not that I have anything against spells, they definitely have their place as epic game/battle-changing abilities, I wouldn't want to give anything like that to a common soldier. But battles would become far more interesting if even the common soldiers had simple, situational abilities you might use at a carefully chosen moment perhaps once per battle.

And now for the derailment

[Edit: reread the original Stardock post, missed the part about custom tech trees. That does have grim connotations for multiplayer.]

I can see how it would be impossible to enforce balance on custom races with custom tech trees - but it's worth noting that Stardock distinguishes between races and factions. It's possible that custom factions (based on stock races) will still be mutiplayer permissible - they would use the stock tech trees, have traits limited by points, everything just like it is now but created out of game with a different interface. Empire Earth and Dominions 3 have very similar out-of-game custom-faction-creation options that are point limited and thus valid for multiplayer, just to give some examples. I'm not sure that it will turn out that way, just one idea for how it could work.

Meanwhile custom races (and consequently factions based on them) could be the mod-only part where balance goes out the window, with custom tech trees and units and items that are impossible to enforce any balance restrictions on. I'm worried too, just saying that I still have hope; the change doesn't necessarily mean no custom 'factions' in unmodded multiplayer, it might just mean no custom 'races' without modding.

yes also we need some way to make it a cd skill without any cost, like dunno a knight who can block an attack every 3 turns but i guess its not hard to do

[quote]I dunno. I don't really like the direction they are taking with custom created factions, races and units. It's basically an "in-place mod". It seems like it could easily be wildly unbalanced and the custom factions was something that I liked for Multiplayer. Sure, certain combos would undoubtably be better than others. But if there are ONLY TEN GODDAMN INITIAL FACTIONS then how can you have 16 man multiplayer? Plus, I'm sure some are going to be wildly better than others. /quote]

While I see your point for me customazation greatly outways any multiplayer issues it may cause.  You can always have house rules where certain abilities aren't allowed and you can probably mod changes to the system easy enough somehow.  Maybe Stardock can even have different rules for multiplayer and single player in this regard.  Or what about just making an additional 10 factions to add to the approved list.  There should be ways around the issues you are concerned about, just please don't take away the single player options.

Excerpt (long) on Special Abilities ideas

Special Abilities

Dragon Fist (requires Godhand trait) -> attacks single soldier/target with double attack (roll). If attack connects, target flies back 3-5 tiles, if it doesn't connect, target flies back 1-2 tiles.

Shear in Half (requires Massive Strength + large melee weapon) -> attacks single target, vs double the target's defense. If successful, 50% chance to instantly kill target, Else does 5x normal damage. Add +1 attack for every 10 strength to the attack after the roll.

Decapitate (requires Zen Master or Fascinated with Blood and equipped Katana) -> attacks single target, vs triple target's defense. If successful, instantly kills target. add +1 attack for every 10 Wisdom and +1 attack for every 15 dexterity to your attack after the roll.

Pierce Eye (requires Keen Sighted) -> single target, attacks vs double the target's defense. 4x damage.

Mana Burn (requires Atronarch) -> uses half your max mana, fully heals caster and makes caster invincible to magic for 2 turns.

Brawl (requires Godhand or Thickskinned) -> attacks with fist, single target. If successful, opponent is Disarmed (re-arming uses full combat turn)

"Un"Mercy Kill (requires Cold Hearted or Fascinated with Blood)-> kills an ally that has less than half max HP, reduces enemy morale

Bloodletter (requires Fascinated with Blood)-> single target, enemy defense roll +50%, if sucessful target gains "bleeding" promotion of -10% HP per turn

Fun with Torture (requires Fascinated with Blood)-> single target, half attack vs full defense, if connects halves target morale, lowers all enemy morale, and double damage

Mother Harlot (requires Harlot)-> single target, half attack, if connects double damage and restores 50% user's max HP.

Battle Cry (requires Inspirational Leadership)-> all friendlies within 5 tile radius gain full morale and +1 combat speed for 5 turns

Rally (requires Inspirational Leadership)-> all Panic-ing friendlies on map restored to (at least) low morale

Cobra Strike (requires Godhand (w/fists) or Zen Master)-> double attack vs single target, if successful paralyzes unit (50% chance to wear off per turn)

Frenzy Ride (requires Horsemaster) -> attacks all enemies in 5-tile radius (counter attacked by all victims with a spear? at half their attack roll?)

Prayer (requires Monastic) -> +10% HP and +10% mana to all allies within 5-tile radius

Sutra (requires monastic)-> uses half max mana, all allies immune to magic and morale penalties for 3 turns

Riposte! (requires Fencing master + equipped rapier, Passive Skill)-> 50% chance to (automatically) counter any melee attack. **takes place immediately after the opposing melee attack if activated

Disarm (requires Fencing Master + equipped rapier)-> attack with a halved attack roll (and add +1 for every 10 dexterity), if successful disarms opponent. If opponent tries to re-arm while still adjacent to fencing master, recieves double attack + double damage attack of opportunity from fencing master. (re-arming uses full combat turn)

Iado/Iajutsu (requires Samurai + equipped Katana or wakizashi, passive skill)-> double first attack of the battle; counter the first melee attack you recieve *before* they attack (if attacker dies in the counter, attack halts/does no damage)

Ichi-No-Tachi (requires Samurai + equipped Sword)-> uses 2 combat speed, single target, double attack (w/ katana triple attack) and if successful 50% chance deals double damage (triple w/ Katana)

*Equipable skill* Shinkage-Ryu (requires Samurai to learn, requires Light Armor or less + Sword(s) to equip, Passive)-> all Attack rolls targeting user are halved. User gains +1 to all attack rolls for every 10 dexterity.

Tight Grip (requires Massive Strength + large melee weapon equiped, passive skill)-> immune to disarmament, receives double damage from otherwise successful disarms.

I am just reading it as it has moved to not being part of game setup as it takes too long or needs more thought.  Basically I see it like what they have in Dominions where you create your leader from the menu.  There are still rules, points costs, etc.  These of course can be modded but then that would be a mod that everyone would have to load like any other mod.  I might be wrong but that's what I thought was the intention.