Code Toy I created

[Anthony]

It's a rather simplified arena tester: two monsters are introduced at 6 squares apart, and try to kill one another. When one dies, another monster of the same type as the one that died is introduced. This continues until a max number of fights is hit (1,000 for small numbers in the input file; it's only 51 for every combat-capable monster in the game). The value of each monster is equal to the value of the monsters it kills, divided by the number of times it dies (value is not 'book' value -- it starts at book value, and then computes value 20 times, each time using the value from the last computation). There are probably some bugs; in particular, I know spellcasting doesn't work.

Using max quality mundane troops (adamantine elite), it turns out, fairly unsurprisingly, that the most cost-effective units in the game are spearmen. This somewhat overstates their true value, as a city that can produce adamantine elite units probably has a production of 30+ and thus wastes production on spearmen. Also, it's good for cheap units to be cost-effective, the main reason for expensive units is because of the stack limit of 9. The units that are terrible are also unsurprising, most of them are uncommon summons, the worst mundane unit is beastmen manticores (note: cost is the cost the game is charged to put things in a lair; this occasionally differs from summon cost).

The strongest unit (absolute) is death knights.

It's probable there are bugs (fight.txt is actually a c file)

[Anthony]

Oh, and for the other threat:
Bar Berserkers[AE] : KC 0.65, relative value 255, list value 120, ratio 2.12
HMe Pikemen[AE] : KC 0.55, relative value 175, list value 80, ratio 2.19
Dwa Hammerhands[AE] : KC 0.68, relative value 313, list value 160, ratio 1.96
Elf Elven_Lords[AE] : KC 0.65, relative value 247, list value 160, ratio 1.54
HMe Paladins[AE] : KC 0.69, relative value 322, list value 200, ratio 1.61 (Holy Bonus does not work)
Bea Minotaurs[AE] : KC 0.67, relative value 296, list value 200, ratio 1.48
Nom Griffins[AE] : KC 0.71, relative value 341, list value 200, ratio 1.71
Dwa Golem[AE] : KC 0.65, relative value 250, list value 200, ratio 1.25

[Anthony]

Oh, discovered an error: Doombolt spell was being read as giving attacks the Doom type, which dramatically increased the ranking of warlocks. Updated to tag that as Doom Strike instead of just Doom.

[Iranon]

Thank you for this, a very interesting overview.

[IndirectCell]

Joink, very interesting to play whit

[letsdance]

fight.txt is the whole program? gonna run a test on my LRM mod to check balancing sometimes =) thx for providing it.

does it read the values from the allmon.txt or from the MoM files? in the first case, did you use a program to extract the values and write them to allmon.txt, or manually?

edit: fixed RLM typo

[WhiteMage]

gonna run a test on my RLM mod to check balancing sometimes

RLM? Did you rename LRM to RLM? Is this still "letsdances rebalance mod"?

[Anthony]

fight.txt is the whole program? gonna run a test on my RLM mod to check balancing sometimes =) thx for providing it.

does it read the values from the allmon.txt or from the MoM files? in the first case, did you use a program to extract the values and write them to allmon.txt, or manually?

It reads from an input file, such as allmon -- that file is generated programmatically. I just discovered an error in how it processes stoning touch, death touch, and dispel evil. I'll be updating the original post.

[letsdance]

yes LRM, typing mistake, thx