CreeDakota

expendable items in general can add alot of depth to tactical battles and even the strategic aspects if players can create them. If done poorly they can make balance harder to achieve or be alot of micromanagement. Basically they need to be one of numerous ways to augment your champion's power and to spend your research and resources on.

Several people have pointed out the negatives of the xml approach for faction and race creation and modding; namely accessibility and balancing. What is the upside? What is the sophistication that Frogboy hints at?

Married other soveirgns is likely out for diplomatic balance reasons. If two factions basically became one with a clever marriage, that sounds like a pretty easy match (double champions, cities armies etc). Marrying another soveigns children could be ok, particularly if you have the required diplomacy technology for permanant alliances. Dowry could be a good tool to balance some of the m ore interesting marriage options. Rival or minor fa

you can use bow attacks as a strategic attack? on the stategic map? That sounds disappointing and a blow to tactical battles; I would hope that when two armies meet for a tactical battle that they begin out of each others range. If not it ofcourse begs the question,'what were the armies and archers doing while the enemy marched into range?' Thanks for continued efforts to support the modding community. I am considering actually trying to learn this

Tasunke- think of one attack as an instant of battle..not a single swing. That attack could have a swing, a shield bash, a kick, a dodge etc. The point - a powerful melee warrior should be able to kill multiple individuals in a single attack. A supremely powerful warrior hero with magical weapons and speacial abilities should be able to even kill tens of units in a single 'attack'.

I like scooters's burrowing and Terrain bonus creature types! I can imagine some badass dessert worm with both of those. and ofcourse all the ones the same as mine! I also like you starting to talk about weakness/vulnerbilities that some units may have. I particullary see these being associated with some equipment, for example; Short Sword of Vamprism- unit is healed for all damage it deals through melee, unit takes double damage from holy spells.

Yeah Special Abilities! I really hope access to some special abilities are tied to regular unit design and unit scaling. Special Abliities tied to unit designg and training: Shield Wall- increase defense to arrows and some ranged magic Set Spear-increase damage if recieved a charge attack Flaming Arrows - does fire damage and may set a tile on fire Taunt -Target enemy charges defen

SO many points- hard to imagine where this thread goes! Preface I havent played Beta [e digicons]:'([/e] 1- Soverign equipment: I agree. I nearly always go for the long term benefit of hard to raise stats. I recommend having the soverign start with XXX Gildar to buy some stuff, any you dont use can be used to get your faction started faster 2 I like there being restrictions and tradeoff in building your city. No city can have everything, they need to sp

this thread is sad... regarding the actual screenshots and artwork: I do agree I don't really like the look of the races, but I believe that they are trying to keep the artwork and graphicas simple. Serious thought has gone into keeping the computer specs of this game down. I really support that, and would gladly have slightly worse graphics and artwork if myself and many of my poorer friends can play the game with outdated hardware.

I highly favor as many variables as possible in unit design. All the special abilities you describe (and many more possiblities exist) add to that variability and the fun and depth of designing your own units. As implemented now it appears too one dimensional and obvious, there will almost always be a 'BEST' design based on your current tech and resource situation. This makes unit design at best a fun cosmetic exersice to demonstrate your power increase and at worst

I like to body guard idea to augment and scale hero/champion/soverign power as units power increases with organization into squards/companies etc. Adding henchmen, magical familars, and pets with more retainer slots unlocked with leveling, reserach, and equipment. That sound fun and another way to customize your leaders. Also I do not care for the additive method for generating stats for grouping units into squads. This creates strength values way too high. 100