[0.951] Balance

I disagree with this. By the time you actually tech up to the spellbooks (they dont come until midgame generally, by which time champion development is set), you'll almost always have access to all the spell schools you need through other champions. (unless that changes and spellcasting champs become rarer, which I'd like to see)

I don't find the Pariden spellbooks all that useful, TBH. Scrying Pools and Arcane Monolith are the real stars of that Pariden Enchanters ability.  I rarely end up imbuing another champion or sovereign  with a spell ability, because there are only so many levels I gain during the game to level their existing ones up.

I like the spellbook cost increase. Note that it seems to cost 2 points to buy a new school, and 1 point to advance a school. I like this because it means it's easier to specialize, than to generalize your Sovereign. I like the individualization this gives, and I like that it helps make it slightly more difficult for your Sovereign to be good at melee AND at spellcasting, or for your Sovereign just to be good at everything in general (though more work needs done in this regard).

Ridiculous list I must say. It will cause much more problems to the balance than Beta4 has now. General rule is: making things more powerful gives more disbalance. Developers should do the other way round, namely decreasing the effects preventing the situations when mantle of ocean + equipment + path of mage gives free mana spell casting for instance.

Its hard to believe that devs expect to hit 90+ score. They should carefuly start polishing balance right at this stage till the release.

yes  casters should be much rarer (and much more focused on a certain role instead of the usual jack of all trades)

anyway spellbooks should just be removed from the game its an unfun mechanic and really not necessary

This would be utterly crippling. I don't think you've really thought this through.

I can't see anyone, under any circumstances, willingly making their building queues take twice as long.  -25% is a harsh enough penalty in the game, where at present, construction is so vital, and queues are so congested from having to build every little thing, even having to build resources in cities that arent specced for production.

The only one of the weaknesses I see that needs to be any more severe, is Vulnerable to Magic, and even then we won't be able to judge that until the game actually starts using magic against the player on a wider basis. Right now it doesnt often come into play, and -20 doesn't seem like a big deal, especially when there are plenty of ways to offset it. 

Good point. I forgot that you get the spellbooks midgame and this means that your Sovereign has many interesting traits to choose from at each level up. Getting another spellbook will make these choices even more difficult, which is great.

It is currently possible to play with your Sovereign and your armies alone (hard difficulty, medium map, standard settings) and not getting champions is a problem, but nothing gamebreaking. I think the current version of Cruel is an advantage, because you get + 1 attack and 1 point.

its not twice

its 50% longer...

if it would take 100 turns then it will be 150

Man, I would hate to play as Pariden and not find an earth mage. That would be a brutal start. 

Ah yes. I read that as -50% building production.

Still, far too much. The existing 25 % penalty is quite severe enough. I certainly  wouldn't want it.  It's already ruined Pariden for me.

I'm not actually willing to live with any of the current Sovereign weaknesses, except for the Spell Resistance one (which I now fully expect will be increased now that I've said that).

pariden was shit already

also consider the buffs

+1 research for every city is quite huge early game

i think the idea behind is correct, devs dont want pariden to be another rush cities and building and take over the world, but focus research and use the magic of the world instead brute force

but ofc it seems too huge to have such a malus to buildings

and like sean said, earth at start would make a too huge difference

and its quite a joke, one that should supposed to be THE caster in the game that relies on finding another caster to be playable lol

Please don't start this again. You looked silly enough saying this in the other thread.

yeah you look smart saying that she was supetr strong b4 and now ONE nerf and she is weak

lol

plz try to think b4 posting sometimes

She/Pariden is still powerful. But that new malus is more than I'm willing to live with.

In any event, I won't pollute this thread with arguments about an obsolete build.  Anyone who wants can go to that thread, and read the arguments for themselves and make up their own mind.  Or, you know. Just bang their head against a wall for 5 minutes or so, which will produce roughly the same effect.

you keep lacking logic in every sentence, make up your mind

2 posts ago you told it RUINED her

and now you say she is powerful

must be very ruined to be still powerful

also you "dont want to live with" some... POWERFUL

ooook

From another topic:

I agree.

Weaknesses:

- Cruel: Can not recruit champions

Seems pretty harsh

- Cowardly: - 20 to accuracy and spell mastery

The trait to pick for fire mages who don't care about such things, effectively rules out any other build type

- Inefficient: Constructing buildings take 50 % longer

I can't see anyone ever picking this

- Vulnerable to Magic: - 30 to spell resistance

You could make this -100% and I'd still pick it over all the other weaknesses every time. The number of times I run into a curses is just too low to care, and they usually have enough mastery to make my piddling resistance worthless anyways.

Professions:

- Adventurer: Sovereign starts at level 3

- Bandit Lord: Sovereign starts with 1 Bandit henchman

- Hunter: + 25 % attack vs. Non-Humanoids

Yes yes and yes

These would actually make me consider them, though Adventurer, may still be weak, as it doesn't take much to get the 1st couple levels- would have to see how much of a diff that makes to start out at 3.

I think the spells of a fire mage will be resisted much more if he has the cowardly weakness, because the spell resistance helps now against damage spells, too, which is a great change. This makes vulnerable to magic more dangerous, too.

Mantel of Oceans and Blizzard should not be in the same school in my opinion, because the player gets a 40 % mana reduction AND can damage multiple units within a large radius. With the path of the mage, mantel of oceans, affinity and the adept robe a single Blizzard costs 5 mana and kills a complete army.

Fireball with the smaller area of effect should be very good against large units, but it should be more difficult to hit units that are scattered over the map. Blizzard with the bigger area of effect should be very good against single units that are scattered over the map.

Fireball: 18 fire damage and 6 fire damage per shard, damage is NOT multplied with the number of units, 50 mana, casting time 1 -> 6 fire damage and 2 fire damage per shard, damage is multiplied with the number of units, 40 mana, casting time 1

Billzzard: 8 cold damage and 4 cold damage per shard, damage is multplied with the number of units, 30 mana, casting time 2 -> 15 cold damage and 5 cold damage per shard, damage is NOT multiplied with the number of units, 40 mana, casting time 1

hrm hadn't noticed spell mastery resistance had been changed to include spell damage.

That does make cowardly far less attractive to the fire-mage.

I think vulnerable to magic remains a fairly innocuous weakness:

Even with direct damage magic putting a hurting on you.... Few monsters cast damage spells and few factions sport damage mages- so in most of your battles your the disadvantage doesn't exist at all. When it does the targeting AI doesn't seem to take the vulnerability (expected damage) into account, when choosing its spells. But maybe this is just my hero centric play style.

Yeah i think that the AI uses damage spells rarely is a huge problem at the moment and as soon the AI uses spells trained units will be less useful, because with the high damage differences they can be wiped out before (Pillar of Flame, Vertrars Howl, ...) or in (Fireball, Blizzard, ...) tactical combat.