Heroes' Duel Mode
I've been thinking about a mod to incorporate that awesome scene we see in the opening film to Shogun2 into the game. Here's what I've got made, and the idea gained the approval of several modders here in TWC.
This thread is made to extend in content the idea itself and host a stage for everyone who wishes to review it. Hopefully we'll also find someone who'd agree to script it.
The mod:
Having Hero Units fight each other before battle begins and thus affect the rest of the battle. It will also make sense in restricting the recruitment of Heroes, and finally make them useful. It'll also kick a serious amount of ass as the mod is very cinematic.
Right now, Heroes are small-sized units who only differ themselves from other units of their type by skin and stats. This mod proposal aims at changing that.
Continue reading in order to understand what should be done and how.
The new concept of Heroes
As battle begins, the player goes through the same procedures as he did until now - picking the time of day and the weather, hearing a general's speech, and deploying his troops. With this mod, the player would have one more stage to go through - Heroes' Duel.
The duel will allow two Hero units of opposing sides to fight each other in a ferocious battle in an attempt to dictate the course of battle. Each side's legendary hero will try to claw fear into the enemies' hearts and distill glory and pride into the spirits of their warriors.
It's a game-enhancing feature that will make the player go "WOW" every time anew. It'll add a fun layer to owning a Hero unit while immersing the player in the game-world, and all that without straying out of realism's way.
Needed conditions:
Both armies must have a Hero; There must be only one Hero Unit for each side in the battle; The Hero will only agree to join an army led by a general (and not a captain).
What is done:
After a heroic speech from your general, after the armies sally out, after the soldiers deploy at their position - the player will take control over his Hero and march him forward to meet the enemy Hero halfway across the battlefield.
When the two Heroes meet, their disciples standing firmly behind them, they will approach each other and commence a 1vs1 duel between them.
Committed to the Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, the legendary Heroes will fight to the very death and won't dare turn their back on the fight and flee.
After one of the Heroes defeated his opponent, the disciples - the Hero's most worthy students - will charge, clash each other and engage in battle. They will most likely fight to their death, honoring the Warrior Code and the deceased legendary Hero, though they might cower and run away, completely abandoning their cause.
The winning Hero unit will continue to assist their army during the battle.
The losing side in the duel will suffer morale damage, mourning their once-living legend.
How it's done:
► After the initial deployment, the player will be able to move his troops around - but will not be able to issue attacking orders. Artillery, if present, will be disabled. Scaling walls will be disabled, setting buildings (environmental buildings, not gates) on fire or capturing valuable buildings on the battlefield will remain active.
► The Hero units will be edited: their number will rise from 40 to 41, the one extra soldier is the actual Hero, the rest are his disciples.
► It will be possible to withdraw the Hero unit at any time - but doing so before or during a duel must have consequences, as it's not an honorable thing to do.
► The distance between two Hero units will be about 10 meters, this should give them enough room to fight each other using every possible animation and also not tire out the disciples by running, but still allow them to charge into each other.
► If the player will not reach out to meet the opposing Hero halfway through the map, the AI will rather stay put, but it might (with a small random chance) pursue the player to his own grounds.
► The Timer will be paused until the Duel is over (so one cannot abuse it to win a defensive battle by simply hiding his Hero).
► All offensive orders will be disabled until the duel between the Heroes AND their disciples is over. Technically it's like every non-Hero unit is still in the Deployment phase, only the deployment borders extend to the entire map.
► The Hero will be like an officer in the unit, his skin re-made to better fit how masters of combat looked when they went into battle (if deemed necessary by the modder and community).
► The Hero unit will act as a secondary General unit. It will have its radius of influence and special abilities, as follows: Fire/Whistling Arrows (for Bow Hero), Pike Wall (for Yari Hero and Nagitana Hero), Stand and Fight (all Heroes), Rally (all Heroes).
► The Hero will give a small morale boost to every unit within his radius of command, a slightly higher morale boost to units of his own type (arrows/katana/nagitana/yari) and a slight attack and defense bonuses for units of his own type - all of this only if the units are within his radius of influence.
► The losing side of the duel will suffer morale damage - enough to turn the tides of a very close battle but not enough to grant an automatic victory. This needs to be thoroughly tested in order to reach a perfect balance.
► If the winning side's Hero would die while fighting off the enemy's disciples or troops, his side will also suffer morale damage - though lower than the losing side's.
► Only one Hero unit of each type can be recruited for each clan at any point.
► There cannot be two Hero units in the same stack.
► If there are two armies of the same clan on the same battlefield, each with its own Hero unit, only the main (attacking/defending) army will participate in the Duel. The other Hero unit can still assist with the morale and stats bonuses throughout the battle, but will be deprived of participating in the Duel. (this is actually natural and requires no modding at all - reinforcements already work that way)
► The Heroes will be recruited as usual (top-level building of their type), though they will no longer appear as a regular unit but as a general unit or agent (whichever is possible, preferred to be a general unit), with the exception of general abilities, ie. being adopted, being appointed as commissioner, being given hostage through diplomacy etc.
► The Hero will have a name, according to historical figures who lived during the given timeframe and were master-Samurais.
► Whether or not will the Hero have his own skill tree, attributes and/or retainers is the modder's and community's choice - we need to discuss this (feel free to do so in this thread).
► The Hero will not go into battle if there's not a General in the army - he will simply not appear in battle and the battle will go on like any regular battle. Maybe even limit this further - allow the Hero to be attached only to the faction leader/heir's army...
Most Discussable Aspects:
► Killing the enemy Hero by missiles (arrows, bullets, projectiles) right after the duel is over, or retreating his Hero unit before/during a duel, will add considerably to the clan's "dishonorable Daimyo" stat in the campaign map (debate this, as I'm not sure about it).
► Once their Hero is dead, the disciples will disband after the battle - even if they did not run away during it (also debate this, as I'm not sure what to do in such situation - should they disband, elect/entitle a new Hero, or turn into a "normal" Hero unit? discuss it in this thread please).
► If the Hero died but his unit survived, they will continue to grant bonuses to morale, attack and defense as stated above - but the effect will be halved (or worse - also needs debating)
► What do you think of adding No-Dachi Hero and Ninja Hero? Feel free to debate this here. Cavalry Heroes will be disregarded at this point, but might be discussed later once we have a working product (in order to ease the work on the mechanics for the modders who will work on this project).
Note:
► Any questions by a modder regarding this mod can be asked here in the thread or by PM to me - I promise to answer each and every one of you.
So, what do you guys say? Would you like to see such a thing being modded into the game? Who is willing to work on such a mod?
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Originally Posted by Rome10
