I find a little bit strange that most heroes are humans in a game with so many diffent races (the same could be said for wizards). There could be a new system where you can only summon heroes of a given race on a certain city (like if you cast summon hero on a elven city an elven hero shows up). But to make this system meaningful a 100 portrait pack DLC with heroes from all races would be needed so that`s not that feasible and maybe not even desirable as your empire has cities from multiple races. So after rejecting this idea but still retaining the desire to have at least 1 hero from each race I propose another idea: having at least a single hero exclusive for each race that can only be summoned if you choose a given race (example you start
with gnolls, you can only summon the "gnoll champion"). Why do we need this? Although the idea came from a "roleplay discomfort/ weirdness" I do think this would be an important mechanic to make the initial choice of races more meaningful. That mechanic is already subtle implemented but
there are inconsistencies as racial traits weren't consciously applied to hero design: it's obvious that Gunther is a barbarian based hero that aligns with its "barbarian civilization" although it's not that obvious why Brax is hanging around Arcanus or what is unique about Bahgtru being an orc and not something else. Long story short:
-We need race based heroes as imagining new racial habilities for them can lead to an unexplored and new aspect of gameplay
-We need to design those new racial hero traits that are something distinctive from habilities, item powers and spells (those racial traits inspired powers should only be applied to the new heroes as it's unpratical and undesirable to remake all the older heroes from scratch)
-Potencial new hero racial inspired powers:
Set 1 (habilties that interacts with racial units and racial resource rates of production)
*New resource production habilities (Food, Population, Production)
*Global Unrest reduction
*Unlocking Armory/ Fantastic stable unit production without the need of those buildings if
the hero is stationed in city
*Military Conscription: increase chance/ ensures that a "mercernary" of the given race joins
you (either for reduced cost or free). Maybe that should only apply to the hero stack.
Set 2 ("Retort inspired powers")
A) Batte retorts: Basically retorts that are only applied on the stack the hero is and do not stack if the wizard has the same retort or a similar one [example warlord and tactian]
Channeler, Warlord, Tactician, Guardian (without food bonus), Astrologer (without power bonus)
B) Resource retorts: Effects that give a medium amount of resources when the hero is summoned (as opposed to production per turn or a global percentage discount). Those B type retorts could be implemented as an event that is triggered when the hero is summoned.
Alchemy (receive X gold or X mana when summoned), Warlord (hero is summoned along with 4-6 normal melle troops), Tactian (hero is summoned along with 4-6 normal ranged units), Artificer (hero comes with a random artfifact equipped), Charismatic (bonus diplomacy with a random
wizard), etc.
*Note: I didn't come up with new names to make easier to understand what the habilities are supposed to do although its pretty easy to come up with new ones like a charismatic inspired power could give the hero the trait "diplomat" or something like that.
with gnolls, you can only summon the "gnoll champion"). Why do we need this? Although the idea came from a "roleplay discomfort/ weirdness" I do think this would be an important mechanic to make the initial choice of races more meaningful. That mechanic is already subtle implemented but
there are inconsistencies as racial traits weren't consciously applied to hero design: it's obvious that Gunther is a barbarian based hero that aligns with its "barbarian civilization" although it's not that obvious why Brax is hanging around Arcanus or what is unique about Bahgtru being an orc and not something else. Long story short:
-We need race based heroes as imagining new racial habilities for them can lead to an unexplored and new aspect of gameplay
-We need to design those new racial hero traits that are something distinctive from habilities, item powers and spells (those racial traits inspired powers should only be applied to the new heroes as it's unpratical and undesirable to remake all the older heroes from scratch)
-Potencial new hero racial inspired powers:
Set 1 (habilties that interacts with racial units and racial resource rates of production)
*New resource production habilities (Food, Population, Production)
*Global Unrest reduction
*Unlocking Armory/ Fantastic stable unit production without the need of those buildings if
the hero is stationed in city
*Military Conscription: increase chance/ ensures that a "mercernary" of the given race joins
you (either for reduced cost or free). Maybe that should only apply to the hero stack.
Set 2 ("Retort inspired powers")
A) Batte retorts: Basically retorts that are only applied on the stack the hero is and do not stack if the wizard has the same retort or a similar one [example warlord and tactian]
Channeler, Warlord, Tactician, Guardian (without food bonus), Astrologer (without power bonus)
B) Resource retorts: Effects that give a medium amount of resources when the hero is summoned (as opposed to production per turn or a global percentage discount). Those B type retorts could be implemented as an event that is triggered when the hero is summoned.
Alchemy (receive X gold or X mana when summoned), Warlord (hero is summoned along with 4-6 normal melle troops), Tactian (hero is summoned along with 4-6 normal ranged units), Artificer (hero comes with a random artfifact equipped), Charismatic (bonus diplomacy with a random
wizard), etc.
*Note: I didn't come up with new names to make easier to understand what the habilities are supposed to do although its pretty easy to come up with new ones like a charismatic inspired power could give the hero the trait "diplomat" or something like that.