Battle Balance Preview Goals and Road so far
Hello everyone, here is the first battle balance preview of what is going to change in our 1.0 release 
As the name of the thread suggests, below are the goals we want to achieve and what is already done. This, however, does not mean that what you read below is final. That is why I wanted to post this preview when rebalance is still in an early state so we can quickly adjust Currently, we are on early alpha phase, but as soon as we are sure about the values we will use, it is a quick road to go into beta and then final release. End of the introduction, here is the list of things talked about in preview, have fun and we await your opinion!
1. Unit Grade System
2. Weapon Grade System
3. Ranged Weapons Grade System
4. Pike Phalanx rebalance
5. Hoplite Phalanx rebalance
6. Health system rebalance
7. More fluent movement and fighting
8. Chariot and Elephant rebalance
9. Unit cost and upkeep rebalance
10. Flank and rear attack rebalance
11. Unique Roman combat
12. Unique Nomad combat
13. Initiative and Deadliness what is gone, what is left
14. Javelins and pilum rebalance
15. Unit size rebalance
16. Artillery rebalance
1. Unit Grade System:
Units will be now divided into grades, so the difference between levy and elite units will be visible. Combat length will still be the same as it is now, but elite units will be able to hold their own against levies, especially in frontal combat.
There will be 4 grades:
-Levy
-Standard
-Heavy
-Elite
2. Weapon Grade System
Similar to the unit grade system, but now the mod will feature much less difference in the amount of different weapons. That is due the fact the most important stat for units is Melee Attack. 20 melee attack outperforms 80 melee defence. Of course difference between levy and elite weapon will be quite big, but there will not be 20 spear types, since they were more or less the same. New system will be more mod friendly to all people who will want to toy with it. Grades are the same:
-Levy
-Standard
-Heavy
-Elite
Weapon damage is ranging from 10-20 depending on a weapon. Each grade gets +2 damage than lower grade. For Roman weapons go to point 11.
3. Ranged Weapons Grade System
This one is also divided into similar a grade system, but with bigger differences between missile weapons. Elite sling will use lead shot which will be very deadly compared to regular sling. There will even be big differences between levy and standard grade missile units. Levy slingers will be typical untrained men that have little to 0 experience with this type of weapon, while standard slingers will be more effective and easily outclass levy slingers. This is based on my own experience with many ranged weapons. Untrained people have problems even with properly holding the bow or crossbow, while after a week of training they get a bit more adept with it. The best archers can fire with 100% accuracy even while jumping and spinning mid air to hit target behind them. I myslef can shoota a longbow with 90% accuracy while walking fast from side to side on the distance of 20 meters. In other words, elite ranged units will be ELITE but this will be balanced with proper price and army caps. Javelin units will be different in damage, accuracy and range, for me it is obvious that some levy shirmisher with crude javelin will not be able to throw as far as elite skirmisher with high class javelin. The skirmish phase of the battle should be now more interesting due to bigger diversity between ranged units.
4. Pike Phalanx rebalance
This is one of major changes. Right now, pike phalanx was either OP or to weak to do any impact. Now phalangitai are able to deal damage to their foes, which starts to rank nicely with each minute of combat. That is due to +1 deadliness bonus while in phalanx to simulate the fact that pikes deal cuts here and there that make enemies slowly bleed out. The pike phalanx will simply win frontal war of attrition with pretty much anyone depending on the unit grade. There will be a noticeable digference in performance of levy and elite phalangitai. The biggest flaw of a pike phalanx is lack of ability to withstand flank and rear attacks. Due to my new emphasis on using shields, pike phalanx gives bonus to shield melee defence and armor value instead of general melee defence and armour value. With that, those formation bonuses are only applied from the front and flanking is much more deadly. Morale is also an important factor. In general, pike units will have slightly lower morale compared to units of their grade to make flanking even more dangerous, while when suffering big casualties even from frontal fighting (ex. elite infantry vs levy pike) pike phalanx will break simulating that formation lost cohesion and soldiers simply run for their lives. Elite phalanx will of course not break to easily. For example, if Silver Shields got surrounded they simply formed pike square and would leave the battlefield maintaining formation, while some weaker phalangitai would rout even before enemy reached their flank.
Levy, phalanx off:
Levy, phalanx on:
Elite, phalanx off:
Elite, phalanx on:
5. Hoplte Phalanx rebalance
Similar to pike phalanx when it comes to advantages and disadvantages with some differences. Hoplites are more durable and able to deliver quicker kills. Their morale is also a bit higher. Their attack value is a bit higher than attack value of most spearmen. That is due to the fact of being a spear/sword unit, but with lower attack than similar grade swordsmen. When in formation their attack is highest in game, but that had to be done because of some bug causing them to be less aggresive. For example, before I increased their attack, hoplites without formation would rout the same hoplites in formation. Now it works as intended, but at first attack value might seem very high. Does not matter as long as it works 
Hoplites in formation will also make use of their famous deadly phalanx charge, it will be one of the strongest among infantry. Their main disadvantages are big penalties for being flanked and slow movement besides charge.
Some examples:
Phalanx off:
Phalanx on:
6. Health system rebalance
There is a more diverse health system now. Elite units are much more tough than the light ones, which helps with elite vs levy combat, while allowing units of the same grade to fight on even footing. Simply, longer combat will be a disadvantage for lightly armed army when facing some heavy units. It will not lead into faster combat compared to current one, just make it more logical.
7. More fluent movement and fight
I've toyed a bit with unit speed and acceleration so their movement animation looks more fluent, because sometimes it seemed a bit laggy, like they are running against a super strong wind. I've also decreased time delay between attack so each attack will be pretty much followed by another one, before there were many moments when units did an attack against each other, then stood for 1.5 second like they are stunned and then attacked again.
8. Chariot and Elephant rebalance
[Wip phase] Both units were known for their rather thunderous charge and it will be their main strength. Elephants will not just stop at the point of touching an enemy line as they do now. When I did my research for BA thesis about Seleucid cavalry, elephants and scythed chariots I was pretty amazed that chariots were actually good weapon, only used in wrong manner. Their charge was able to easily break enemy formation and cause fear, but their disadvantage was being shot down with ease by skirmishers with long time needed to gain proper speed. Elephants are a bit more durable and dangerous even after charge. There should be bigger differences between African and Indian elephants, since African elephants were smaller (large African bush elephants are pretty much untameable for combat) [Wip phase]
9. Unit cost and upkeep rebalance
Units will cost according to their performance. With proper math formulas fair balance can be achieved. This will be also good for multiplayer tournaments. Elite units will cost much more to build and upkeep then regular units, but it should not be much harsher than it is now due to already difficult economy.
10. Flank and rear attack rebalance
Again one of more major changes. Due to putting much more emphasis on shield melee defence and armour bonus, units will suffer more when charged from the flank or rear due to shield values not being applied there. This will not change combat into quick killfest, but killrates from flanking will be noticeably higher.
11. Unique Roman combat
Romans can't be too weak and also can't be invincible. This one problem was the reason for many harsh discussions here in the past. How I see it is that Romans might not flourish in terms of levy/standard/heavy/elite system like other nations, they mostly lack strength of elite units of other nations, but strength or Romans is their overall high quality level. Romans are not the toughest nor the flashiest warriors, but they are deadly and I mean deadly. When a player will face Rome, he will have to take a high death toll on his side into an account. How the Roman system operated was all based on smart ways of fighting. Pilum, gladius and quality training made legionnaires tough. They do not seek big decapitating strikes, they do not risk going out of formation in order to finish off his enemy. Romans strive for cuts, they want their enemies to bleed and slowly crumble. That is how they will operate in DeI, not the fastest killers, not the toughest guys, but the most deadly army in the entire game. Sure you can leave your units in prolonged combat against Romans, but know that you will take high casualties. On top of that, veteran and elite Roman units have +1 deadliness to simulate even better use of their skills and experience from the years of never ending wars. Stats wise, most of the nations will have units with higher stats then Romans, but none will provide such a high standard as them. This, plus increased recruitment slots for Romans in 1.0 release and you might finally find yourself a challenge. You beat them once, you beat them twice and then you have no soldiers alive to fight on! For more info about new pilum system go to point 14.
12. Unique Nomad combat
[Wip phase] Due to being horse nations, Nomads will have more men in single cavalry unit at cost of having less men in core infantry units. With that Nomad infantry will be easily outperformed by infantry of other nations, but their large size of cavalry units will give them advantage and allow them to fight dismounted more effectively. [Wip phase]
13. Initiative and Deadliness what is gone, what is left
Initiative is gone and that is pretty much all to say in that matter 
Deadliness is now more a unique thing, reserved for pike phalanx and elite Roman units with small value of +1. Use of deadliness for pike phalanx and Romans is explained more in previous points.
14. Javelins and pilum rebalance
The role of pilum was to break enemy charge and weaken the enemy by making their shields useless, not to mention kills from the weapon itself. I gave pilum higher AP damage at cost of lowering regular damage a bit, plus increased knockback. Legionnaires are now able to break enemy charge, because many soldiers will fall down (simulates throwing shields away or trying to take pilum out of shield), hence greatly reduces impact of enemy assault, while allowing Romans to countercharge still broken enemy formation. Increase of AP damage will not change it into a super killing weapon, because it is still falls below most of HP value, but greatly weakens enemy soldiers who will take more casualties from charge and the beginning of combat. Of course light units will suffer big casualties from this type of weapon. Regular javelins thrown on charge will get a small normal damage bonus to make up for increased shield and hp values.
15. Unit size rebalance
This will impact barbarian nations the most. Other nations will have minor changes here and there. When it comes to barbarians, it means less men in elite units, high amount of men in levy units. Elite barbarian units were already strong on their own, but with having huge unit size of 300 men, they were outperforming Romans and Hellenic elite units with ease. I hope this will be a more accurate depiction of barbarian combat and society, with levy units being weak due to lack of proper training facilities and not enough money to cover costs of proper equipment, while elite units will represent nobility that was training their entire life in art of combat and able to afford the best stuff.
16. Artillery rebalance
[Wip phase] Artillery will differ much depending on it's role. Light siege engines like scorpions will have more "guns" in single unit, to make them actually valuable as an anti-personnel weapon. Regular anti-wall artillery might get some boost to amount of engines too, so the player will not have to carry around many of them and stay true to unit caps. By all means, those changes should not make artillery OP, bur rather expensive and specialized weapon.
Battle Balance preview Goals and Road so far
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Re: Battle Balance preview Goals and Road so far
nice work you got there! i got only 1 question. Where is the phalanx animation on that picture of the hoplites (you know, the one where they formed a compact shieldwall)?
Originally Posted by Tundra98
