[Beta5] 101 Balance Issues (Long)
Elemental Forums
In the spirit of the upcoming Beta5 feature lock and focus on Balance I have decided to make 1 mega thread about all the balance issues I have come across in my many many Fallen Enchantress games.
Balance Issues
-Ice Elementals are still so weak they are pointless to summon.
-One Handed Blunt Weapons seem too weak because of their heavy weight and the -4 initiative penalty. Maybe reduce it to -2. With their heavy weight you almost always get -2 or -4 because of encumbrance anyway.
-The Monk's robe is seriously OP. Please remove the +2 initiative boost. It makes these robes an absolute must for all ranged units. The weightless armor is good enough. If you want to you could add a dodge bonus instead.
-The Binding faction trait seems very unbalanced. You can get the bound elementals too fast and they are fairly useless even midgame. I suggest making it so Altars don't create them, you would have to upgrade them to shrines first. This will prevent players from spamming bound elementals super early and make them require some investment. I also suggest making the higher level shrine buildings produce higher level elementals, so that they remain relevant later in the game.
-Pretty much all the city enchantments seem very OP. They are super powerful and easy to cast even at the start of the game. Pretty much all of them could be nerfed by 50%. I would also like to see much higher mana costs so that they actually have opportunity costs and you can't always spam them at the very beginning of the game. The troop boosting enchantments are no exception.
-Why did you change Slaves to a racial bonus from a faction bonus, this makes absolutely no sense. They are not juggernauts, slaves are not genetic. Slaves Lords is still even a faction trait it simply no longer unlocks slaves. So now Quendar who are not Slave Lords still get slaves but say Trogs who are Slave Lords don't? Please change this back, it is a annoying and pointless limit on our ability to create custom factions. A similar if somewhat weaker argument could be made for Golems.
-The wealthy trait is somewhat ridiculous at 1000 gold. This allows you to build a lot of buildings instantly. Maybe reduce it to 500.
- Why does Enchanters only grant a high end lightning staff but no early game one and no rings or amulets. This makes the lightning staff pretty pointless.
-Units gain too much hp from leveling. Every level they get a 50% boost. That's ridiculous. It's easy to get high level units with 4 times the base hp! Since humans are much better at leveling units this puts the AI at a serious disadvantage. After a certain point the AI has no chance of killing my units. Please reduce the hp bonus to say +2 per level and then reduce the -1hp per level traits to -0.5.
-Wow are monsters ever weak. I can solo pretty much all of them except dragons with a single champion. All I do is walk up and autocalc for free loot. This also means that all the monsters players can get are totally weak and useless. Darklings might be useful in the first 25 turns but after that... At the same time of course their are those annoying dragons that are totally impossible to kill early game that can attack you just because the AI constantly builds right next to monsters. No thanks. There have been tons of suggestions to fix this and I lean towards removing the ability of lair guardians to move and just giving them ZoC you can't build in. The little monsters they spawn can do the attacking. That way the weaker monsters can get a much needed buff, in particular they need ranged attacks and more armor.
-Armor is another thing that seems unbalanced. It seems too powerful right now. Going up a armor level makes you pretty much invulnerable to all the lower tier weapons and monsters. The defense values granted by armor just seem too high. Even units in leather are 2-3 time tougher then unarmored units. This is especially bad when mixed with the high hp gain from levels.
- The unique units produced by certain factions like Iron Golems and Juggernauts also could use a boost late game so they stay useful. I think the easiest way to do this would be a simple unique belt item or trait that unlocks late game. That way you can boost their stats late game, and defense in particular, so they can compete with units in platemail late game. Right now they are designed as midgame units so they are useless late game, which is a waste. A similar system could be used for lair monsters like darklings and ogres, which also tier horribly and are useless.
-The outpost road tech takes to long to get. Fallen Enchantress has a lot of rough terrain and slow movement so we need to be able to produce roads quickly and early to compensate. I think roads should be an outpost upgrade instead of automatic from tech. I don't want roads running everywhere I want to be able to choose where. Also a respawn road button on cities and outposts would be nice because terrain can change.
-Earth magic is badly in need of a lv1 tactical spell.
-High level champions are hard to level, and yet the ones you can purchase usually have far fewer traits then they should considering their level. This is especially painful in regards to magic levels. Most only have lv2 magic. This makes them useless casters.
-All the unique wraith traits suck. The wraith blood ability is useless on troops and is only useful for champions early game. Please at least make it +3 hp per kill per unit, so that it is useful for stacks. Also whats with the +1 mana per kill trait? Officially the worst trait in the game.
-Random spellbooks are kinda odd. I don't mind them but they are kinda annoying because you never get the ones you want. The chances of you getting the right book, champion, and shards is pretty bad. The stars have to align... I like the idea of making them faction traits or possibly sovereign perks instead.
- Why do some city upgrade buildings for conclaves and towns boost troop production? Isn't this what forts are for? If other city types can build stronger troops why would you ever get forts?
-Fire Spells seem kinda weak very early game. Fire touch does 1 dmg to start... I think the minimum dmg should be 3 at least.
-Strategic Wither is really OP. It is unresistable and can significantly lower the attack of entire armies. It's fine cast from the tactical map where it takes time and can be resisted but the strategic version is really really OP.
-Blood Line traits are unbalanced. Trogs for example get +20 strength and +1 attack, but other races like Quendar who get 50% fire resistance and cold vulnerability don't even qualify as buffs. Maybe give Quendar +1 initiative and make Trog units more expensive.
-As mentioned here the lack of consistent upgrade paths for some weapons makes them underpowered.
-The +4 initiative on swords and daggers is kinda OP. At max it should be +2. Any more and they become a must for casters and whatnot. Their low weight and counterattack can do the rest.You can always make them do more damage.
-Yithril's faction traits seem UP. Taken individually +1 level, Training tech, and Great Axes are nowhere near as good as say Enchanters, Heroic, Binding, or basically any of the more unique faction traits.
-Natural Leader seems OP. Even changing it from free champions to paying only 25% would make a big difference.
-Clay Pits seem OP. At +2 Materials they can double the production of a city. +1 would be more then enough. You could make a rare version that gives two called Marble or something but clay pits aren't that rare and I have ended up linking 2-3 to one city in order to triple it's production.
-It seems to be too easy to completely get rid of unrest. This is mostly because Townhalls and the Cleric line of improvements are very very powerful. Not to mention there are spells and champions and many other ways to decrease it. The ability of basic improvements to reduce unrest should be diminished.
-The time it takes for champions to respawn is too short. Combined with the fact that champions can partake in defending cities even before they heal is very annoying. You end up fighting the same group of wounded champions over and over again as you take cities. Please fix it so champions don't join sieges until they are at full strength, or spawn at the Capital, or only 1 champion recovers at a time, or something.
-Champion armor costs a lot less research then plate armor.
...give me some time and I'm sure I can think up some more.
