I made a tool that calculates the strategic combat ratings for each unit in the game. The output is attached.
This should help decide if the AI is expected to under- or overperform with any specific race.
units.txt (Size: 14.06 KB / Downloads: 7)
In the "cost effectiveness" column, higher is better. All of these are calculated without any levels.
Looking at at Dark Elves, their units aren't that bad. They're pretty average. Warlocks stand out as absolutely horrible for obvious reasons but the rest are decent. So the problem wasn't that.
It's the growth. It's so absolutely horrible, the AI can't keep up even with average units, power advantage and Myrran resources.
Which got me thinking. The primary selling point of Dark Elves is the power/pop. Which is twice as good as most other Myrran races. Sounds amazing. Except, if you have half the growth, well, it's not doing anything until the endgame where all cities are maxed. Even then, you'll have fewer cities (poor outpost building ability) so ultimately the advantage is just...not there. We probably need to get rid of the entire "very slow growth" thing for this race. High Elves are a different story because on Arcanus other races produce zero power. So any power you get is useful, even if growth is low. But on Myrror, other races also make power, just not as much as Dark Elves.
The secondary selling point of the race are the good units. Nightblades are invisible, amazing, even vs the human player. They are at least average in AI vs AI. Warlocks are pretty much a defense/noding unit only. They do this well, although they suck in AI vs AI combat like all magicians. Raising their melee will not fix this because it's caused by the low health, figures and defense. They rate lower than a swordsmen in that and their (ranged) attack rating is high enough, adding more there does not help. Hardcoding an exception might be the only way to improve that. Finally Nightmares, these are supposed to be the amazing, scary, big guns. But their actual cost-effectiveness is medicore. Flight and 5 moves are amazing things, and ranged is better than melee, but these don't apply in strategic combat - and make the unit cost a ton. And while the unit is strong on paper, 4 ammo runs out quickly, limiting the value a lot.
I think the race needs a drastic increase in growth and maybe a small reduction to unit costs.
This should help decide if the AI is expected to under- or overperform with any specific race.
units.txt (Size: 14.06 KB / Downloads: 7)
In the "cost effectiveness" column, higher is better. All of these are calculated without any levels.
Looking at at Dark Elves, their units aren't that bad. They're pretty average. Warlocks stand out as absolutely horrible for obvious reasons but the rest are decent. So the problem wasn't that.
It's the growth. It's so absolutely horrible, the AI can't keep up even with average units, power advantage and Myrran resources.
Which got me thinking. The primary selling point of Dark Elves is the power/pop. Which is twice as good as most other Myrran races. Sounds amazing. Except, if you have half the growth, well, it's not doing anything until the endgame where all cities are maxed. Even then, you'll have fewer cities (poor outpost building ability) so ultimately the advantage is just...not there. We probably need to get rid of the entire "very slow growth" thing for this race. High Elves are a different story because on Arcanus other races produce zero power. So any power you get is useful, even if growth is low. But on Myrror, other races also make power, just not as much as Dark Elves.
The secondary selling point of the race are the good units. Nightblades are invisible, amazing, even vs the human player. They are at least average in AI vs AI. Warlocks are pretty much a defense/noding unit only. They do this well, although they suck in AI vs AI combat like all magicians. Raising their melee will not fix this because it's caused by the low health, figures and defense. They rate lower than a swordsmen in that and their (ranged) attack rating is high enough, adding more there does not help. Hardcoding an exception might be the only way to improve that. Finally Nightmares, these are supposed to be the amazing, scary, big guns. But their actual cost-effectiveness is medicore. Flight and 5 moves are amazing things, and ranged is better than melee, but these don't apply in strategic combat - and make the unit cost a ton. And while the unit is strong on paper, 4 ammo runs out quickly, limiting the value a lot.
I think the race needs a drastic increase in growth and maybe a small reduction to unit costs.
