Random questions

[MrBiscuits]

When a hero makes a level in the pop up box it says "+1Defense" instead of "+1 Defense"

When you use the surveyor over coal/iron it says "reduces normal unit cost by10%" instead of "reduces normal unit cost by 10%"

Yea, those are due to space limitations, these texts are internal, not coming from an LBX file. Can't add another character unless I move the whole string elsewhere which is not worth it, especially as space in the DS is extra valuable.

Ah I thought that might be the cast. 

Maybe "hit points" could be renamed "health" to save enough space?

Could change the second one to "reduces unit cost by 10%" or "reduces normal unit cost 10%" ?

The bonus for getting multiple books starts at 9 doesn't it? It seems a bit stingy, even if you take 11 books you only get a 15% reduction. Maybe start it on the 8th book instead?

[MrBiscuits]

Does armourers guild unlock anything for nomads?

[Seravy]

Rangers

[Arnuz]

Right, about this - there's a little incoherence in the building unlocks, units are not shown unless it's the last building left for the unit, while the buildings are immediately visible (although they can't be built till the other requirement is also finished).

I wanted to bring it up... Don't know if there's any solution.

[MrBiscuits]

Right, about this - there's a little incoherence in the building unlocks, units are not shown unless it's the last building left for the unit, while the buildings are immediately visible (although they can't be built till the other requirement is also finished).

I wanted to bring it up... Don't know if there's any solution.

Yes I find this. It would be good if there was space to say "unlocks unit along with the other building".

Another question, does the asymmetry between enchanting and dispelling in combat bother anyone else? If you enchant in combat then the enchantment disappears at the end of combat, but if you dispell then it stays dispelled. 

When there are sorcery wizards it's almost pointless buffing your units as one dispelling wave (especially with aether binding) can cost you hundreds of mana points and turns as well as creating loads of micromanagement afterwards.

It would be nice if the dispelling only counted during the combat.

[Seravy]

If you enchant in combat then the enchantment disappears at the end of combat, but if you dispell then it stays dispelled.

You can't dispel them outside combat unless you are playing Sorcery and that better stays that way as dispelling is way too powerful on the overland map.

When there are sorcery wizards it's almost pointless buffing your units as one dispelling wave (especially with aether binding) can cost you hundreds of mana points and turns as well as creating loads of micromanagement afterwards.

It would be nice if the dispelling only counted during the combat.

Dispelling Wave happens to be THE only spell that can dispel on the overland map too, and believe me, you don't want THAT to happen more often instead of during combat.

...Added the unlock inconsistency to my "to do" list will look at that after I win my current game.

[MrBiscuits]

It makes sense, but I find dispelling quite annoying. 

It creates a huge amount of micromanagement to re-enchant all the missing buffs and they can all just get dispelled again the next turn. Worst is when you are fighting a non-sorcery wizard and they have a hero with dispelling wave that you didn't know about that wrecks your stack.

As late wars often turn into wars of attrition the mana cost of enchantments that dispelling wave can destroy for just say 100 mana is massive. For a full stack it could easily destroy 1000s worth of power.

Is the chance of dispelling wave working less when fighting a larger stack in the same way for Wave of Despair? If so that would at least give the player a way of combating it.

Also does each enchantment have the same chance of being dispelled on a unit or does it get reduced for each extra enchantment? For example it a unit has 10 buffs are they all as likely to get dispelled than if the unit just had one?

I'm fighting a sorcery wizard with buffed units and I'm trying to figure out the best way of beating him.

[Nelphine]

The buff vs dispel thing is something I've dealt with for a long time. The AI isn't good at buffing - too many rules and corner cases to teach it effectively, so when the AI does do it it needs to matter (similarly, even if the human only uses a few overland buffs they should matter). But that means the human can effectively buff, which ends up with a human that goes for a strong buff strategy being much stronger than the AI. So the AI need a way to counter it.

Right now, the only effective counter is either dispel magic with aether binding, or dispelling wave. Unfortunately, both spells come from sorcery, so the only AI that can effectively counter a strong buff strategy is sorcery - and since they'll probably have both dispelling wave and aether binding, they don't just counter buffing, they smash it into pulp.

This leads overland buffing in general to be a gamble. If you don't have a sorcery opponent, you win. If you do, buffing is virtually useless.

Maybe if aether binding lost the dispel improvement (the skill bonus is still amazing), and a different realm, maybe chaos? Got the dispel bonus somehow, that might make buffing feel a bit less of a one trick 'I win button' that has an extremely hard counter in sorcery.

But it would need to be flavorful as well, which is difficult since sorcery is classicly the realm any dispel bonuses should come from.

[MrBiscuits]

The thing is that if you select your build to go for a buffing strategy then it's just luck whether the game has a sorcery wizard that can counter it effectively or not. 

In my current game the Myrron wizard is sorcery so I couldn't have taken him out early and now I'm wondering what strategy I can use to get around him using dispelling wave in every battle.

The trouble with scissors, paper, stone between realms as it seems like it is a lot to do with luck as to whether you can win or not.

I don't think it is a problem that the player is better at buffing, since the AI gets such large bonuses on higher levels.

[Seravy]

The AI isn't good at buffing - too many rules and corner cases to teach it effectively, so when the AI does do it it needs to matter

Instead, I would have said
"There are 32 different buffs in the game. That's about a third of all overland spells, so they have to matter."
Albeit, city buffs are buffs too, so make it 50. (Dispelling Wave removes both).

The rest I agree.

and a different realm, maybe chaos?

Chaos doesn't benefit from dispelling that much. Its spells already ignore most buffs by...dealing doom damage or outright killing the units. And the last thing we want is a wizard that can first remove all protections from all cities and units, and then destroy them with spells anyway. That's not a fun game to play.

The problem with dispel is that it's an "ALL" type effect. Those are inherently not balanced - you pay the cost once but the number of targets depends entirely on the opponent. The more potential targets you create the more overpowered your "all" spell becomes.
Flame Strike is fine - there is a hard limit of 9 units in a battle. However, there is no hard limit on the number of enchantments you can have on a stack or city.
On the other hand if it was single target...well, that would suck.

Btw Sorcery being the realm with dispel is exactly what makes it not that much of a gamble. Sorcery wizards have a weak early and midgame. You can usually annihilate them before others and in fact you should, if they reach endgame they'll do a lot more troublesome things than just dispelling. Yes, if the Myrran wizard is mono sorcery, too bad for you. Except, not really. If you are heavily buffing and it's the only way you can win, it means you play Life. If you play Life, you have access to Myrror in the early game. It's your responsibility to find out they are playing heavy Sorcery there and if they do, plan for invading Myrror early - best way to beat an early sorcery wizard is a good hero with a True Sight item. (you can't rely on nonitem buffs and Myrran units are probably better than yours without buffing and you can't summon good creature with monolife - you can if you add 2-3 other books though.)
(yes, I know, it's easier said then done, sometimes there are multiple wizards you want to get rid of early, but this sort of randomness keeps the game interesting)