Feedback?

Would anyone like to provide feedback to this mod?

What works and what doesn't.

hmm right now new era is quite balance you know me hmmm the only things that could use alittle more balance is hmm i cant think of anything right now the only thing that really needs fixing that i rember is limit the number of bone dragons cause those things could be endless spammed, also the anti air need more dmg or at-least some splash dmg. Add some custom races (illohir, undead, Delean, barakda, Cursed, Solaron, Fairy, demons, Order of light (i have the balance addon for it) and Ethia and i can help you with the balancing for them well all but illohir cause the creator pretty much done balanced them) but other than that the mod is pretty well balanced oh wait make the demi gods more powerful and not easy to kill also give them that explosion that the gods have also increased cost and production time, Arch angel needs an upgrade to her dmg cost and production time. Mummy needs slightly more dmg and probley more cost, Fallen angels need there dmg reduction at first lvl and have more dmg as they lvl up, give the Church like a healing aura because it feels kind of useless, Make the Wvynn riders a T2/T3 unit and increase there production time, dmg, health and slow there speed and increase there cost, increase the flys hit box cause they are pretty hard to hit.

Also the Anti air turrents need mre defence they are way to easy to destory i mean just buff up there defences a bit.

Also add some units that have some form of lifesteal units that should have it the shadow demon, berserker, barbarian. hmm i dont know what other units should have this.

give the mages like more abilities i know you can find away to add it but it would be cool if you could add that

Admin note: Don't double post.

I have some input as someone who really loves this game and has high hopes for this mod but take *any* of my input with a grain of salt as most of my experiences are 1player vs com or my brothers and I vs coms and are just to serve as inspiration/ideas to consider or maul over:

1. Collision has always been one of the weakest aspects of this game and by extension the mod will also suffer this- has anyone ever tried shrinking the collision box of all units once? It would likely cause sprites to be larger than the hitboxes and cause sprites to overlap but i think that could help reduce units getting stuck on each other and make it easier to push onward. Ive tried patching my pathfinding but its still rather bad. I would likely avoid doing this to any defense structures however as that could get pretty over entrenched in a small area. Would be nice to have buildings that summon units have a much smaller hit box so units it produces can actually get around the building and reach the front line or where ever the unit is being sent rather than getting stuck against the building- very important for bigger units like catapults

2. Unit limit reached- Rather vague in the mod. Can be hard to tell which units have a limit of 1 at a time versus the normal overall unit cap. If you play the mod enough you will likely remember which units have a limited cap but maybe some kind of special border around the portraits of unique units would be helpful. If possible having a separate text alert for when a unique unit had reach it's unit limit would VERY helpful- bonus points if the alert let you know which unique had reached it's limit

3. Would be nice to see a bit more combat from units, everything can deal a lot of damage and units can fall very quickly. If units did a little less damage and had a bit more life you would see some more combat and have a chance to try more strategies in combat. Otherwise it would be nice just to see the bigger units be able to soak up a bit more damage: dragons are awesome but even these mighty beasts can get very quickly be killed by a couple defense structures before it even gets to shoot one fireball. If units could soak more damage they would also have a better chance to earn their veteran statues as i rarely see any gold units unless a small unit got the lucky last hit on a big unit or structure and it will likely not live longer than 2 secs to enjoy it OR its a very long range unit very far removed from combat

4. Defense structures- maybe larger LOS (not necessarily longer attack range), less damage or slower attack speeds, and much more life to compensate for damage nerfs. (kinda along the lines of my previous comment). I think in the lower tiers defense structures play a vital role in damage output and holding back enemies but by upper tiers it maybe be better for defense structures to play more of a support role of granting vision and serving more as outposts and special roles. Part of the reason you want to move up your tech trees for units is to be able to overcome defenses and entrenchments but its hard when enemy defense structures are also getting bigger and badder

5. Roles- kinda touching on the balancing aspect which will be a never ending battle for any great game. Again the dragon is likely the best one to touch on, this is a unit that should be able to send to intercept a small attacking army or scout around or break/weaken a small defense structure entrenchment but is way to easily killed to complete its role and is a large investment to die so easily. Units that can fight and heal/build would benefit from being able to restrict their roles to one or the other if you choose- a dark priest army is quite nice except for when they want to stop what they are doing to heal a random unit on the front line or help you build your project rather than trying to defend it as you wanted them to.

What you have here is awesome and i hope you continue to make it shine

Hi naton9,

This is great feedback. Did you notice all these things on v5.7?

1. I've already reduced the amount of space each catapult type unit takes as to prevent them from causing traffic. How far in the game were they getting stuck, and which units, all of them? I've only noticed this issue after an hour in the game while watching AIs play, but it's mostly because they try to target themselves while seeing the entire map. Line of Sight should be on to prevent this issue.

2. Units that have a limit are pretty much the ones that are named, such as Joreth, Ayla, etc. I'll test to see how text over the image looks in game, and include it in the next version. i.e. Limit 1.

3. I've also noticed that if someone is pretty much patrolling units to the enemy base, they end up dying quickly. AxlRose mentioned a while back to consider a system like TAs, where tier1 defense/attack stats range from like 0-1000, tier2 range from 1000-2000, so on and so forth. I'll check it out. Another thing is that dragons can wave from the start now, where you don't have to gain experience points in order to use its 3rd weapon; this is a huge advantage in the battlefield, plus you can use tier 3 and 4 builders to assist, and get it build faster.

4. All units Line of Sight were increased from like 100 to 400, so the difference now is huge, especially birds, where their LOS become like a 700 due to the height that they fly from. Every unit is now independent from LOS, but again birds will give you tons more; mons can also build them, so buildings can focus on getting units out instead.

5. I'll look into the attack/defense system more as to help balance the game, and help identify which are the stronger units. I kind of did this. i.e. weather witch - can turn corpses into executioners, switch weapons 1 with 2, lighting no longer consumes mana, speed and maxdamage increased.
You should be able to use the C key to resurrect more than one corpse at a time. If they're healing, you're probably setting them to patrol. I would micromanage more by targeting units, and then retreating them quickly, so they don't get killed on the front line.

Great feedback. I'll be looking into these things for the next version.
Thanks!

Sorry for late reply, yes these were things i had notice in v5.7

This version runs much better than the last version i used to play which was v3.31, that had a few units that were very hard to target and sometimes unkillable, right now ive only had one of sage's subs still have that issue and have basically just stuck with aramon vs aramon games when i can find time to play

Ive noticed that structures (generally defense structures) are pretty good for getting catapults stuck as they can have an issue getting around them and if they start piling up then it becomes a mess

Might have to micro mange more although its nice to let the fliers fly in and focus on micro managing the ground troops as they tend to need your focus more than air support does. It is nice to see the computer actually fight back well for a change, un-modded games usually require me to give the computer multiple starting kings on customized maps- likely due to the weight system and more starting mana with extra kings/queens which causes the computer to suddenly become competent


EDIT (got to stop editing my posts)
multiple kings/queens as in multiple starting techs like giving Elison and Lokken. computer seems to do better when it has a larger unit pool to build from

naton9 wrote:

Ive noticed that structures (generally defense structures) are pretty good for getting catapults stuck as they can have an issue getting around them and if they start piling up then it becomes a mess

Are you talking about defense structures such as Strongholds? Catapult footprints were already reduced. I've just noticed that Strongholds' are actually larger than cats now. If this is what you're referring to, I should then reduce footprints on this type of structures.

Yes. Never see this problem with other bigger ground units such as the giant boar

Thanks for the feedback naton9.

All units that are limited in number, will now say it on their respective avatars. You will now know which unit is creating the message: "unit limit reached, unable to create more units".

Defense structures were also adjusted, so units have better mobility around them.

i play only taros (notice other races have similarities in structure), and not on multi so pardon me if im wrong, those are my feelings:

the cost of Factories is too low. I can create way too much spawn points.
now is 2000/4000/8000/12 000  ==> 3000/6000/12 000/24 000 ??

DarkPriest carpet T3 builder is OP. Mostly because he can assist in creating units. I would for sure remove this ability from him.
Instead you could add him AoE spell that would clear the map decoration. It would be blessing in creating building space.

I have too much mana from controlling territory. I think this would be Best address by limiting amount of Lodestone:

lodestone - limit 8, +20, can be build on water
Divine lodestone - limit 5, +40
Well - sea mana store and generator
mana vault - mana store

i would add special Water Lodestone with own limit. This would increase available mana points, make sea more attractive territory. Could available to build only by the Pirate Ship, sea unit.
normal Lodestone could be still build on water.

maybe interesting would be to make ONLY Divine Lodestone build able on water? t3 builder is flying. It would be good synergy.

i would give wall and gate building only to t2 Mason. So he would have unique role of creating fortifications.

starting flying scout unit (gargoyle, parrot, hawk), i would change to be sea factory exclusive, and make them anti air. Make it a 50% less spam unit.
this would force other flyers to land sometimes to avoid getting damage (zhon king)


i think that some building except lodestone, could require also to be build on Sacred Stones. F.ex mana stores. You could build generators in home base (to help losing players). But to increase store, you would need to leave base and create expansion just for increasing store. this would create natural new target points for enemy attacks.

Late tier units could require to be build on sacred stones, instead in T4 building.
this would force winning player to clean One lodestone to make ultimate unit or maybe force him to create dragons out of the main base.
again good new target for opponent.