Trying to balance Ents

**Surgeon** · April 17, 2010, 05:38 PM

So I was playing around with the Ents to try to make them slightly stronger in battle, and it kind of worked except now they've become a little too good. All I did was increase the area of effect for their attack, but somehow this has apparently made them more lethal with their attacks too. Before they used to throw people into the air and maybe 1 in 2 would get back up. Now it seems only 1 in 4 at best and none at all at worst regain consciousness. Maybe this is how it's always been, but now that their attacks affect more people it has become more evident?

I've tried taking away their AP bonus and lowering their attack value but apparently they do the exact same amount of damage as before, although I haven't tested this too thoroughly. Does anybody know what can be done, or should I just stick to a smaller area of effect for their attacks? Currently a battle with Ents goes something like this:

Ents: HULK SMASH!
Advisor: Our enemy has lost half their men!
Ents: FALCAAAAWN-
Advisor: Our enemy is retreating!

**Berserker1** · April 17, 2010, 05:42 PM

How did you change the area of their attack? Also, how do you tell how far the enemy is thrown, this has puzzled me for some time. Oh, one volley of snaga javs is all it takes.

edit:
nevermind, ents are cavalry? That means that javelins instantly kill them, but why doesn't flaming arrows light ents on fire, and have them running amok?

**Surgeon** · April 18, 2010, 12:27 AM

You can edit the tusk_radius line in their entry to change their area of effect. I'm pretty sure the enemy getting thrown is a question of unit mass. The more it weighs and the faster it's going the higher/farther things fly.

Running amok is disabled for Ents and flaming arrows affect them in the same way they affect all units. I don't think it's possible to give fire arrows a specific bonus against Ents.

**Ozzmosis** · April 18, 2010, 03:31 AM

Is it not possible to give the flame arrow projectile a bonus vs elephants? (but then mumakil would be affected as well).

**Wolfiefang** · April 18, 2010, 05:08 AM

I just want Ents to fight Trolls better... so that I can't fight trolls... with SOMETHING as elves.. You fix that and I'll take any other bad effects. XD

**Ozzmosis** · April 18, 2010, 05:10 AM

You could try giving ents Armour piercing attribute. It wouldn't make too much of a difference to how they smash up the man-sized units since they have 45 attack already, but would give the another edge over the trolls.

**Berserker1** · April 18, 2010, 08:52 AM

I quentoupled the mass of mumakils, but units do not necessarily fly higher by mass alone. Tusk z, what does that do? When I increase it for mumakils, they get confused and will not attack (so annoying).

**Nicolaos** · April 18, 2010, 11:34 AM

dont you think ents trolls mumakil etc are already strong enough?
i hate fighting them because they cause so many casualties, the only really effective thing i know that really messes them up are ballistas.

**Berserker1** · April 18, 2010, 06:50 PM

Why is it the trolls can do area attacks, but any other heavy infantry unit can not? Trolls have the same coding as a berserker, but you can not make a berserker do area attacks.

**el Cid** · April 19, 2010, 04:03 AM

It might have got something to do with mass, and I believe I read somewhere that they are cavalry in their modding origin and elephants can do an area attack.

**Berserker1** · April 19, 2010, 11:30 AM

Yeah, ents are cavalry, which esplains why javelins kill it so fast.

Well then it is hardcodes that infantry can not hit multiple units unless they are way bigger... The physics in this is sort of limiting, because you can not tell how far the units will go into the air, at what angle, etc. They for the most part will go straight up into the air and down.

I wish the game was more flexible about that stuff.

For one thing, their animations are way way too fast. When I download goat and milkshape, do I just extract the animations, then it is a matter of opening the animation? Is it simple? I am pretty sure I could modify the animation to be slower.

**Marshy** · April 20, 2010, 09:39 AM

Why do you want to balance Ents? They are the Elven godsend! Without them in battles the Elves of Lorien, Mirkwood, and the High Elves have nothing in particular.

If you are going to balance Ents then balance Trolls and nazgul, and the balrog.

Too much?

Evil player I presume?