3rd Race Hijinks

Because I think there might be more overhauls once Tyrak is done. And because, sitting in the hospital - with my new daughter! - I have some time on my hands and my mind wanders. And sleepless delirium is great!

So let's begin...

Both Solaron and Orison have struck me as otherworldly, if you'll allow me to ramble....

I used to believe the idea behind Orison to be merely a weird cult situation which has arisen in Aramon, but that was the original race incarnation. The latest with the added alien ships and the like give it another layer of sophistication. So it's established then that Orison is an interplanetary force. They utilize conscripts of poor native (human) quality as slaves and meat shields while their Insetoid troopers add the real punching power. However, theor technologies from the stars seem to have failed them, as only a few units display greater technical abilities. Aand they need to be reworked a little. So that's the goal with these guys, to create a more streamlined hybrid of bastardized alien-mogrium technology.

In this vein, they're likely to field a few units the Creonites would be proud of, but I'm thinking that these Insectoid Aliens - eh? - might've found their particular planet's own power source of *Mogrium doesn't quite nice with Darien's. Mind of like each being has unique DNA, each planet has their own flavor of Mogrium. Hence their space age tech doesn't quite function here, and you end up with there patchwork sort of units. That's how I perceive it anyway, and I do like a good story.

So more techy Creon style and less real raw magic.

In this vein, I expect I'll probably steal some of the 3rd party Creon units, and maybe a few of the more techy units from other factions. To flesh them out, I have a batch of truly 'alien' sorts of critters to serve as the rank and file. This all in addition to simply reworking the units Orison currently has, as well as rebalancing the obviously broken ones. All in all, I don't think it'll be quite the complete overhaul of Tyrak, and that's simply because Tyrak was just Taros-lite. Orison already has its own thematic identity.

-Creon Attack Drone, Condor/Stinger, XTAP, ...
-Ara Martyr, Avalanche?, Faerie, Metal Beast, Snake Warrior, ...

Solaron, methinks, should fall a bit more along the lines of a heavy faith-based order, one that is dedicated to the power of the sun. Mayan or Aztec sort of thing. I'll have to think on them a bit more, but more raw magical powers than not, certainly. And while they have some light tech, it should revolve more around simple staples than gunpowder type stuff.

-Heliod, God of the Sun, armed with Sunspear javelin
-Courser (centaur spearman)
-Sunforger (mage builder), Luminarch (white angel sort), Dusk Herald (centaur); Temple Garden (Hanging Babylon), Nyx Shrine (BFD)
-Spells: Banishing Light, Starfield of Nyx, Nevermore, Blind Obedience,
-Suppression Field...?

For Future Reference:

Gemsis
-Catapult dies by ranged. No problem. Cata dies by melee. Game crash.

Ethia
-Obelisk stoning attack OP!
-Two T1 Ranged? Purpose?

Orison

Solaron
-Fire Mage no aggression stance. Keeps Lihr Aura.
-Light Mage accuracy issues, weapons too weak.
-Dark Knight magic seems off.
-Solar Mage 3do sticks, and magic is broken. Needs no mana attack.
-Undead Mage is OP and just odd.
-Elemental Lord... dude is a hoss. Locked him in gates and he killed 600. Severely broken for price.
-Phoenix limit of 3. Suuuper slow turn rate.
-Siren limit of 7. Odd.
-Axe Cav accuracy issues.
-Healing Crystal thingy... disappeared upon game reload.

As someone who loves Solaron and is one of my msot played 3rd party races along with illohir, fairies, demons and order of light (with the fix deekay did for me) and solaron can get stupid when paired with delean, veruna, aranon, and mabye taros.

for anyone who doesnt know solaron is more late game and they have a weak early game start but one they get there late game mage units all hell breaks loose as a fully upgraded master of elements can dish out alot of dmg and tank waves repeatedly (atleast from what i have seen) and there fire mages have a huge nuke.

but i hope alot of this doesnt change there playstyle but they could use some updates. mostly mana decrease for somethings mana increases for other. need to fix a bug with undead hunter as i found it to be alittle glitchy at times and it can crash your game.

It's mostly for my own OCD peace of mind. The race never had white the right cohesion or feel for me, what with random undead units and every elemental mage under the sun. Didn't like it. So I'm altering it quite a bit. Again, mostly for my own purposes.

its cool as long as it doesnt change how they work as they are heavly late game now my only complaints with this faction mostly is no sight units as sight is very important they pretty much get no sight early hell the only worth while air unit is the pheonix and even then you can have only 3. now i will give you that having the random undead units is strange at its finest unless you count necromancy witch is a type of magic.

but solaron is elemental magic not undead magic so i can see where your coming from.

if anything the Elemental lord is way broken in this snce when he gets gold he is immune to wave attacks even from mons he takes 0 dmg i dont knwo if this is a bug or what.

also zombie hunter crashes the game when being made its a solaron and anthor faction unit but it crashes the game when being made.

The idea I have is to have a simple, small and dynamic low tier. And notice there are no defensive units. That's bad. Also a small, but specialized mid-tier. Then, yes, late game they shine.

well thats how they are now small low teir units decent mid teir with near godly late game units. also something i noticed with the space elemental sometimes her attacks wont work sometimes they will crash (most of the time it wont work) so if you decide to keep them then pls fix that.

from what i can tell your giving them an update and thats something they really need as they have the potential to be very good.

Still no major production achieved. Newborn and new job.... But still brainstorming and the odd test game when I can. Mostly all I've gotten done is some balancing tweaks.

But for something completely different.

Gemsis
I thought this was a funky idea when it first came out. Not least because the makers were none too clear on where to go with the race, just that they liked the idea of a gemstone based race like Azurians were rock and ice.

But upon playing it with fresh eyes, I find it... Well, just thin. Other than gem related names, the only thing linking the units is the ugly blue-colored texture on them. And those don't make much sense half the time. And why blue? Just blue. It's not even sapphire blue. Not that I suppose one can be very picky with TAK textures, but still.

So I've decided that I'll eventually get to them as well, and while I can produce at the moment, I can still gather my thoughts. So that's what this post is all about. I'll edit it as I go, because it's 1 AM and I'm feeding my kid with my other hand, and can't rightly remember every bit of the race right off.

Monarch - will come back
Lodestone = fine
Wall of Dead = blech, Gemstone race and wall of dead? No.
Cristal Fire = NO! Gems, Crystals, Minerals = NO NEED OF FIRE! Something else if it must be done, like Veruna Pillar.
Watch Tower = too simplistic rip of Aramon, and too much "gem" texture
Cristalian = T1 factory. fine, whatever.

Cristalian
---------
Dragonfly = scout. No. Just no. Why a dragonfly for a subterranean mineral race? Needs something quirky, like a cave bat or something more mystical.

Archer = too similar a gem-textured rip of Azurian

Gemwarrior = fine, in theory, but the bland "gem" name is lacking. Needs a bit more character is all.

Horse Rider = NO! Like dragonfly and fire, why are there horses underground? Something crazier, a lizard sort of cavalry. Things that make sense to be underground. Giant Spiders or whatever. I don't know. But not Horse Rider. That's just stupid. And a sad simple rip of the Knight. No.

Catapult. Toss it. Go with something more unique for a subterranean rock race. Not least because it crashes the game when it dies. And it's just ugly.

Miner - t1 builder. Like the concept, hate the model. Needs a pick axe instead of magebuild hammer. And he's super tanky. Fix that shiz. And the texture. Bleck.


Miner
------
Cristal Beak = Roc transport rip. Scrap or refit with bombs. I like a bomblet idea, but fixed to a gemstone theme...?

Lightning Ship = Don't hate it, but needs some unique-ifying. Unfortunately, I don't see ocean-going wooden vessels being a major concern for a gemstone race. So perhaps a creature not dissimilar to the Kraken?

Cristal Blaster = sad rip from another horrible 3rd party rip the "Soul Blaster" which itself has a broken 3d0. I do not like it and say get rid of it. End of story.

Cristal Palace
--------------
Aquamirar
Blademaster
Turquoise TNT
Cristal Rider
Sapphire Mage
Fly Builder


Geomancer. Builder or Mage?



Blaster cannon thing. Broken 3do, and ugly. Revise or toss?

Teir or Class. Precious gems. Ohms Scale?

personly i did like Gemsis but it was everywhere it didnt know what to do it had fantasy units.

it needed alot of reworking.

for the cat make it more like a bomb thrower.
Roc refit with bombs
Blaster cannon revise  or make it the cat or more like a stationary tower that dous loads of dmg but cant hit air units to good and have decent range.
Geomancer why not both
hmm i would go with Teir class doesnt soot it

its a heavy miners faction but again its units where everywhere

actully you can turn Cristal Blaster inst something else or fix its model to be more gem themed i mean it fits with the gem theme and removing it doesnt sound like a good idea mabey fix the 3do model and make it better

also i like the Cristal palace units but blademaster seem alittle out of place im not saying hes not a good unit but when you get to solaron mabye move him over to them and put him in either the stronghold or the magic castle.

Bardan wrote:

For Future Reference:

Gemsis
-Catapult dies by ranged. No problem. Cata dies by melee. Game crash.

Ethia
-Obelisk stoning attack OP!
-Two T1 Ranged? Purpose?

Orison

Solaron
-Fire Mage no aggression stance. Keeps Lihr Aura.
-Light Mage accuracy issues, weapons too weak.
-Dark Knight magic seems off.
-Solar Mage 3do sticks, and magic is broken. Needs no mana attack.
-Undead Mage is OP and just odd.
-Elemental Lord... dude is a hoss. Locked him in gates and he killed 600. Severely broken for price.
-Phoenix limit of 3. Suuuper slow turn rate.
-Siren limit of 7. Odd.
-Axe Cav accuracy issues.
-Healing Crystal thingy... disappeared upon game reload.

actully when i played solaron i got more phoenix than 3.
Light mage i dont really care for the accuracy its mostly his weapons cause i agree the weapons are to weak.
Dark knight is ok since hes a type of magic knight so dont mess with him.
fire mage mostly the 3do modle is the only problem i see with him.
undead mage just needs his power town down and have his @nd attack moved to 3rd and increased mana cost on it.
Elemental lord is only broken when he hits gold rank he is very weak before that so his price is ok for whaat he does but if anything i would nerf his gold rank since its the only thing about him.
Siren never noticed the limit
ax cav there accuracy is fitting since they are throwing axs they need to be inaccuract.
never noticed the problem with healing Crystals.

some problems you didnt say was
skeletion hunter breaks the game when being made (vharun thinks its missing the frozen thing since its a remodeled hunter.
the T1 building or T2 building will crash the game when destoried even fi you delete them.
No sight till T2 the spnyixs give no sight whats so ever
Charges have a very bad 3do model and it feels like their attack doesnt fit there model.
No T1 towers
Magic dragon needs an updated model
and if im correct no god
Space elementals attacks either do little dmg, dont work or crash the game. i would fix these problems.
Raptors need better ranges.
Rangers need either an attack boost a health boost or both or move them to T2
Mon attacks need a rework like his first attack is a trist 2nd atatck and he doesnt loose mana for using it hes stupid good at dueling.
needs a T1 tower.

Considering I'm upturning half the race, I wouldn't worry about most of that...

as long as the elementals stay im good