First, some thoughts about the captains.
Light captain is really beautiful.
Dark captain choice is wrong for me. Somehow, it's unnatural for a bandit to lead undead armies. Maybe a Myrmidon, with some modifications, would be a better choice.
I've said it before, the thing that is also bothering me is that when you select Shade for a general you get a Shade plus dark captain. In TATW, for instance, when you do the same with Sauron, or some other unique unit, you get only that unit, which is more natural. You did the same with Wolves, so if you can apply that on Shades and other units that would be more natural without captain it would be really cool.
Second, about some units morale.
I think that you should give all undead units (Myrmidon & Soulless along with Thrall) unbreakable morale. It's kinda more natural for me. It won't change the gameplay drastically, and it can only do good. Why? Because as things are right now, it's almost impossible for light forces to lose battle. Dwarves are common part of light armies, and when they start firing dark forces go into one long cycle of retreat-comeback-retreat until defeat. So, a couple of unbreakable units would only even things a bit. I understand that more powerful dark units are yet to come, but 90% of current roster can't do much against the Dwarves cause their impact on enemy morale is too great.
Third, about Dark forces variant.
I don't know if you planed to distinguish them otherwise, but you can make different Fallen Lords units to have different stats. For instance, one can have stronger Thralls, other can have stronger Soulless, etc. If there is room for that in mythology, of course.
-Peasants-
They are exactly what Peasants should be, in any game or mod. Nothing to add or take. Nice textures, well balanced stats and lovely addition in form of deploy stakes. They can beat enemy skirmishers (Soulless), fend of Wolves and from time to time defeat a pack of Ghouls. I myself am not fan of that rounded 'rabble' formation, but that's just me. If some sort of loose square formation, with units falling out, is possible, it might be worth considering.
-Warrior-
For me this is the most complete and most beautiful unit of entire game. Sort of light multipractic. I would lower their speed, but I understand why this was necessary in original game, so it's fine really. I remember you said that you are planing for them to have different unit sizes, from like band to full legion. Now I wonder if it's possible to script the campaign so that buildings produce one same unit with different sizes. I'm not sure if I can explain this proper, but here it goes...
Script would work like this:
You have building that produce and retrain Warriors.
In level 1 it produces smallest Warrior variant (from now on 'Unit 1').
In level 2 it doesn't produce Unit 1 but it produces Unit 2, which is Unit 1 with higher soldier per unit number.
In level 3 it doesn't produce Unit 1 or 2 but Unit 3, etc.
So you have building that produces one same unit with different soldier per unit numbers, and you can take previously trained unit and retrain it to full soldier number as you upgrade the building. Being the same unit type it has to be 'Warrior', but you can name the building levels Barracks, Legionary Barracks, Imperial Barracks, etc. I'm really skeptic if this can be done though...
-Journeymen-
Very nice addition to light armies. Their number per unit, and stats seem fine to me. Chanting is certainly useful, but if you want to reflect their casting from the original game, then I have this idea. Obviously they can't heal units, but there is a form of friendly casting in M2TW. If you remember from Kingdoms, that faction leaders there had unique abilities that affected entire army. So you can make their presence slightly boost nearby units morale, and instead of chanting they could cast a 'spell' that would greatly boost entire army. Unfortunately, there are no cooldown abilities in M2TW so they would have only that one cast.
-Thrall-
They are a lot of fun to play against! Though I admit it is a bit irritating when they charge, it really is no big deal, when you did such a great work on their animation. You made first real zombie unit. I do have a few notes about their appearance though. Their armor is very good, but I would like it to show more signs of decay. Rust is only visible in Soulblighter's variant. So it would be nice to add rust, cracks and splinters, arrows sticking out, etc. Also, if it's not too far off from the original, they could wield different weapons. Like in addition to two handed axes, smaller axes, old swords, etc.
-Soulless-
Brilliant job with death animation. As a bonus, when it gets knocked back it decompose and then reassembles, which gives a nice humorous tone to the whole thing. I really like it. On the other hand, the unit is largely ineffective. Even peasants can defeat them. They are too slow, and missiles don't have that much effect on the morale. I know you are using rotting cow effect, but in M2TW it had much greater effect on morale, I think. Because of their slowness, they are easily caught by any light unit. They can only do some performance when firing on units that are already caught in melee, in which case that unit will rout. But as they are restricted from firing on friendly units it's hard to position them to have a clear line of sight, which is required for all models in a unit to fire. And because they are slow it is even harder to position them properly in the midst of a battle. If I got things straight, they should be anti-Dwarf unit. Right? But because they don't have unbreakable morale, they can't really defeat Dwarves, if they don't largely outnumber them.
Now, there are two ways to make them more effective. One is to increase their speed, so they can skirmish more effectively, and thus wear down enemy. Other is to give them higher melee attack and defense, so they don't dissolve in melee that easily. Friendly fire problem must also come in mind.
And I strongly suggest that you consider giving them unbreakable morale, and more power to the rotting cow effect.
-Fetch-
The most beautiful effect ever. A real eye candy. I honestly must say that you are a wizard for this kind of things. Yet, Fetches, as they are now, are most ineffective unit of the game. I mean, they should be super powerful ranged unit, right? But they can only fire 2-3 (if that) missiles before they get dissolved in melee. Why? Their ready-reload-fire animation takes some time, and their range is short. Plus they can not skirmish. So when I tried them out, over and over, it looked like this: They pick target, they start to fire, and then the enemy catch them and destroy them. It's hard in M2TW to retreat them manually and get few decent shots. I've tried to put them just in front of wall of Thrall, and as they start firing I move Thralls froward. But they wont fire through friendly units, so you must wait for the enemy to brake the lines, or try to go around the flank and fire on enemy from the rear, and this is something a thinking player will counter.
So, I think you should firstly change their formation to square, so they can all pick targets. Secondly, you should give them skirmish ability, so they can safely fall back behind friendly lines. I mean, they will be an expensive unit, right? So you would want to use them, and preserve them for next battle.
Now, if you increase their range, then they will have more time to pick targets properly, so you could then retreat them manually, and give the enemy nasty surprise. In which case, they wouldn't have to have skirmish ability.
Again, overcoming friendly fire is something I would like to see, and it kinda go well with dark forces. But making them able to shoot trough friendly units can make them too powerful....
-Shades-
It's hard to make unique unit, that's not too strong or too weak, but you are on right track here. Their appearance, animations and performance are sweet. But, I haven't yet found a proper way to use them. They behave different, from time to time. With their spell they can destroy whole armies sometimes, other time it backfires, and sometimes it strike only one enemy model (soldier). In melee, sometimes they fall on the spot, other time they perform fine. But in general, their defence can be higher. They should be physically strong, and you would want them to be in melee longer. So higher defence for sure. But this can be tricky, not making them too hard to kill. Further balancing is needed, IMO. And their morale, if not unbreakable, should certainly be little higher.
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