Comprehensive Age 77 Race/pers balance proposal
Hello All,
I've been doing a lot of thinking and theory crafting recently, trying to come up with changes that would lead to an age 77 with a lot of diversity of race/pers combos and strategies and a lot of fun. The last couple ages I've noticed that changes for next age have been made over a very short period of time right before freeze time with frenetic discussion, and it really seems like a scramble. I wanted to get the ball rolling on this discussion much sooner. We're pretty deep into the age by now, so we have a good feeling for relative power levels of each race and personality, so I think it's a good time to start. Below is a comprehensive proposal for race/pers updates for age 77. The numbers are mainly for illustrative purposes, and more discussion and thought will be needed to make balance tweaks, even if people do like the proposals. So let's get that discussion rolling both here and on discord!
~Amras
RACES
=====
Avian:
Identity: Fast attacker with lower offense
Changes: Loses fanat and GP.
Rationale: Avian is in a good spot in the design space, but it felt too strong this age. Tuning down a bit of their raw military strength further will sharpen their weakness, which is sorely needed.
Orc:
Identity: Standard attacker
Changes: none
Rationale: Orc is in a good spot right now. Feels like a strong standard attacker pick but isn't overwhelming. A possible change could be losing 1 offense from their elite and gaining bloodlust, pushing them further in the kills-focused attacker direction.
Dryad:
Identity: Slow attacking tank buster
Changes: Horses increased to 4 attack. +1 general.
Rationale: Dryad feels very underwhelming this age. Even as a high-offense attacker, they don't feel particularly strong in that regard, and their weakness of extremely slow attacks is so overwhelming that once they are chained they are totally worthless. Giving them a boost to horses lets them reach higher with offense, but still with counterplay of steal war horses available, and giving them an extra general lets them stay afloat when chained but shoudln't realistically let them make an extra attack against un-chained targets, so it doesn't mitigate their attack speed weakness before they are chained. When chained, they still will be out-gained over time by orc and avian, but they won't be completely dumpstered.
Elf:
Identity: defensive supermage
Changes: dspec decreased to 7, elite changed to 7/6 11nw $1100 gc, gains GP
Rationale: Elf feels a bit strong this age. They occupy a good position in design space as the defensive supermage, but their ability to tank up while still being a strong mage and a solid attacker is a bit too overtuned.
Dark Elf:
Identity: offensive mage
Changes: Elite changed to 5/7 10nw 1k gc, spell damage down to 20%, every 2 prisoners counts as 1 wizard
Rationale: DE is in a weird spot with the ability to be military-focused with excellent stats on their units, but also having NM and spell damage, suggesting they are mages. This change creates more cohesion to their bonuses, making them have to attack to get prisoners and make the best use of their bonuses, and NM helps them attack better. It also opens counterplay and provides a reason to use the oft-overlooked free prisoners op.
Dwarf:
Identity: Adaptability via buildings
Changes: build speed bonus increased to 66%
Rationale: Dwarf is a bit underwhelming right now. Increasing this bonus will allow people to make faster building swaps and take full advantage of Dwarf's BE bonus, cementing their identity as strength through adaptability. E.G. you could attack, swap all your offensive buildings into TDs to do a big thievery push or guilds to spam out a fast ritual, etc., and then swap back just in time for your army to get home and attack again. At 50% this isn't really feasible, but that's what Dwarf's power should be about. To account for this improvement, the BE bonus may need to be decreased.
Bocan:
Identity: Offensive thief
Changes: loses honor bonus, elite changed to 4/7 9w 800gc, +1 ospec, gains bloodlust
Rationale: I was confused last age when Bocan got specs can be used for thieves. Because Bocan can't really attack for ****. They seem like they're intended to be an A/T hybrid with their bonuses, so I'm pushing them more in that direction. Less tanky elite but much more offensive power overall, which will be able to generate the credits needed to power up their thievery. Also, lore-wise, they are evil, so honor bonuses don't really fit them, and bloodlust and attacking do fit them.
Halfling:
Identity: Defensive superthief
Changes: TPA bonus down to 40%
Rationale: Halflings are in a good spot but are just a bit too strong as superthieves, so they need a nerf.
Faery:
Identity: Support
Changes: Loses ToG, Fools Gold, and income penalty. -1 mana cost for self spells, All intel costs 1 stealth. Elite 10.5nw 1100gc
Rationale: Fae is in an OK spot right now, but this change will sharpen their identity as master supports. It will allow them to cover more ground with their self-spelling and provide more utility with intel gathering, and then maybe even free them up to be a light T/M with their extra mana/stealth, or be a light attacker. And this still avoids the faery wall problem with their elites still being 8 def instead of 9, making it similar to other T/M races.
Human:
Identity: Econ / science ?
Changes: unchanged
Rationale: I have struggled to figure out what human should look like. I think it's in an ok place, particularly with the proposed personality changes I've made, which would give it some very strong options to thrive in either a science or econ direction or both.
PERSONALITIES
=============
Mystic:
Identity: Supermage
Changes: loses instant spell damage, gains +1 mana
Rationale: From my experience, the main role of mystics is to keep MS coverage up and land MV on priority targets. The combat instant spell damage isn't hugely impactful for them. It's more of a rune efficiency bonus compared to +1 mana being an overall power bonus.
Heretic:
Identity: Maximum T/M firepower
Changes: loses +1 mana, gains +15% spell and op damage, sci effect bonus up to 50%
Rationale: It was always odd to me that heretic bonuses were split evenly between magic and thievery expect +1 mana sticking out like a sore thumb. Heretics should be all about doing the most overall T/M damage from both sides of the aisle.
Rogue:
Identity: Superthief
Changes: unchanged
Rationale: rogues are very powerful right now, but improvements to other personalities should make them more in line with everything else.
Paladin reworked to Enchanter:
Identity: Buffs / Debuffs caster
Changes: +100% guild effect, +50% magic sci effect, +25% duration of combat fading spells. Spellbook: Inspire Army, Divine Shield, Magic Ward, Scientific Insight, Clear Sight, Wrathful Smite, Barrier of Integrity, Pitfalls
Rationale: Paladin is in a funny spot right now being a sold choice for a durable attacker while at the same time being a go-to support pick with faery. It's trying to do two separate things, but the durable attacker identity really belongs to undead. Focusing on the buffing/debuffing aspect and rebranding as Enchanter pushes Paladin into a more cohesive identity.
Sage:
Identity: Adaptability via Science
Changes: Recruits start with 2 days of experience
Rationale: Sage feels pretty lackluster right now. Allowing them to swap scientists around and get novice bonuses in one tick gives them some really powerful adaptability that will let smart, active players make very strong plays in all 3 areas of the game.
Tactician:
Identity: Tactical attacker
Changes: loses clear sight, gains war spoils and full conquest access
Rationale: Tactician is very strong as an attacker pick right now. Removing clear sight's major defensive power brings it closer in line with other personalities during war. Adding war spoils and conquest range make it an ideal choice for whoring/growth, which does not see much play right now. In general, the bonuses here are oriented around gaining tactical advantages, like intel, sneaking in an attack that gets home before your opponent, and strategic use of war spoils and conquest.
Undead:
Identity: Durable attacker
Changes: casualties changed to -25% all own casualties. Loses GP and gains Town Watch.
Rationale: This change orients UD around being the very hard to kill province. You don't want to chain them because they'll have town watch up, they'll have reduced casualties, you'll all get plague, and it generally just won't be fun.
Warrior:
Identity: Military powerhouse
Changes: Loses conquest access, military sci effectiveness up to 40%
Rationale: warrior is all about military might, particularly offense. It needs a bit of a boost, and really doesn't need that conquest stuff.
War Hero reworked:
Identity: War and Honor
New stats: +100% honor bonus, +35% dragon slaying strength, immune to propaganda, minimum noble rank of Lord, increasing one rank for every war win. Spellbook: Hero's inspiration (paladin's inspiration renamed and moved)
Rationale: A War Hero should be all about winning wars. Otherwise what are they the Hero of? The minimum noble rank allows attackers to play war hero without fear of losing all of their bonuses from a chain. War hero is high risk / high reward. Your bonuses don't add up to too much before winning some wars, but win a few and you'll have a huge amount of overall power in your prov. I've toyed with a lot of things to try to make WH's identity cohere around honor and war. Things like cannot be ambushed during war, allowing them to TM without anon, but this would give quite a gains bonus in many cases as well, which feels quite strong. And gain honor from anon TMs, which could be fine too, or +50-100% war win bonuses, but what I came back to was, the meat of the WH bonus is the honor increase, and if you get chained, no matter how much honor you were able to accumulate before, you're going to lose the vast majority of your bonus, and it makes no sense for a War Hero to be complete garbage during war. Orienting WH around winning wars to secure your very strong bonus feels good.
New personality Pirate:
Identity: Econ
Stats: +50% thievery and income science. Robs and plunders gain 25% more resources. Immune to income penalties and greed. Mercenaries cost 250gc. 25% of mercenaries join your army as ospecs on successful TMs.
Rationale: I initially was thinking of proposing a merchant personality. Econ focused, a good place for immunity to income penalties, fools gold, and ToG. I toyed with an idea of decreased taxes on aid shipments, which could be really nice for a bank at the top of the kd, but I settled on Pirate as an econ/thief hybrid. Pirate can still serve as a bank at the top of the kd, but can also operate very strongly on its own with a thievery bonus and the ability to consistently reload offense with mercs and their strong income and theft. As far as lore goes, pirates love gold and taking it from others, hence the science bonuses and gains bonuses. They're already a rioting, greedy mob, so of course those wouldn't have any effect on them. And what mercenary wouldn't want to work with a pirate and even join up with them after a successful campaign?
