Heroes

[kyrub]

The above discussion: I am afraid that without increasing the hero poll (that means reducing units poll + a lot of work), this is getting nowhere. I like the suggestion, the uniqueness idea, but I cannot see it implemented.

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Hero abilites suggestions:

• noble: gold bonus = +5 * (hero_lvl-1) ....... you pay no charges for the hero at basic level, you get +10 at "elite" level, +40 at demi-god
  
• prayermaster: the bonus increases the defense of your troops against ranged magic as well as their resistance (current setting)
  
• blademaster: it cannot be combined with arcane power, ranged magic has no blades and the combination is awfully overpowered
  
• charmed: with better resistance-based spells system this could become a decent ability. No changes?
  

lesser heroes without random picks
I dislike repetitiveness in games and I would love to see some random traits on the very basic heroes. On the other hand, I understand the reason for having no random picks on lesser heroes: if you get a hero with blademaster or arcane power early, the game is more or less won ( = no fun). But there is a third way to go: we can define a list of major traits, that cannot be given to a (defined) group of minor heroes. Good news: it can be done within the code and it is not a lot of work.

Example: Blademaster and Arcane power will not be given to heroes < 200 cost. Or even, any super trait won't be given to these heroes. Nota bene: none of these conditions means that they cannot have the trait as a basic predestinated trait.

[Catwalk]

The above discussion: I am afraid that without increasing the hero poll (that means reducing units poll + a lot of work), this is getting nowhere. I like the suggestion, the uniqueness idea, but I cannot see it implemented.

You mean that it would be possible to implement it, but the small size of the hero pool would cause problems? If so, I'd like to think about it some more.

noble: gold bonus = +5 * (hero_lvl-1) ....... you pay no charges for the hero at basic level, you get +10 at "elite" level, +40 at demi-god

I like this a lot, is it easy to do?

prayermaster: the bonus increases the defense of your troops against ranged magic as well as their resistance (current setting)

This one doesn't quite sit right with me. How about merging Leadership and Prayermaster instead, freeing up a slot? How easy would it be to turn an empty slot into something useful?

blademaster: it cannot be combined with arcane power, ranged magic has no blades and the combination is awfully overpowered

Do you mean never giving a hero that combination or just not letting the accuracy bonus affect ranged attacks?

charmed: with better resistance-based spells system this could become a decent ability. No changes?

I still hate it, it's a bonus that becomes progressively more useless.

I dislike repetitiveness in games and I would love to see some random traits on the very basic heroes. On the other hand, I understand the reason for having no random picks on lesser heroes: if you get a hero with blademaster or arcane power early, the game is more or less won ( = no fun). But there is a third way to go: we can define a list of major traits, that cannot be given to a (defined) group of minor heroes. Good news: it can be done within the code and it is not a lot of work.

3 ideas here:
1) Restrict certain abilities from low fame heroes
2) Balance all abilities well enough that the randomness won't have as much impact
3) Divide skills into more groups:
- Fighter skills (constitution, agility, blademaster, might)
- Leader skills (armsmaster, leadership, legendary)
- Mage skills (arcane, sage, caster)
- General skills (noble, lucky)

Heroes can then have 3 types of random skills assigned: Fighter, leader, mage. Leader and mage skills won't be given to low level heroes. Whenever a hero gets a random leader or mage skill, it may be converted into a general skill instead. Note that this gives us two skill slots to put somewhere.

EDIT: Prayermaster isn't actually all that bad. If base resistance is lowered and more spells get a saving throw penalty, prayermaster is fine as is.

[kyrub]

I like this a lot, is it easy to do?

Should be.

How about merging Leadership and Prayermaster instead, freeing up a slot?

How about changing prayermaster into armor-master, a shield increase to whole army. Prayermaster is like Charmed, it is more and more useless as your units become elite. Super prayermaster...

Do you mean never giving a hero that combination or just not letting the accuracy bonus affect ranged attacks?

The latter.

Leader and mage skills won't be given to low level heroes.

It is well organized, but it puts some skills that are most useful at the beginning of the game in the higher cathegory. Especially Sage, Armsmaster, Prayermaster (old).

[Catwalk]

How about armourer instead of armor-master? And changing armsmaster to something else, like instructor.

[kyrub]

Instructor or Weaponmaster, all the same for me. You choose. Super Instructor sounds a bit like a modern management term.

Armourer / Super-armourer
Charmed -> Prayermaster ? (with super prayermaster effect). Or something else.

[I like Serena]

All good ideas! I like them!

[Catwalk]

I like Weaponmaster. Can you give us a hint about what we'd be able to do with Charmed from a technical point of view?

[kyrub]

Depends what you want to put there. I have nothing ready.
Ideas, brainstorming... anybody?

[Vagabond]

No idea if any of these are feasible or even a good idea, but some thoughts...

All unit movement boost (I'd think flat +1, not level based, but debateable)
All enemy unit debuff of some sort: swords/shields/resistance (level-based)
Spell save penalty - like from magic items

[Catwalk]

Can you make an ability which adds 2 to its owners power base per level? Would fit nicely as a mage ability, and we're kind of short on those. Spell save penalty would also be a cool hero ability.