Binding

it might depend on what level you are...

I got the "young" version of units sometimes

I wish the game had actual documentation

grepping through XML is too much work and it doesn't even have the relevant info for something like binding

Cyndrum elementals have their uses too.

The summoned troops are not really game changing, but I don't think they're supposed to be, for balance reasons.

The troops can be quite handy early on in the game; I don't think you pay upkeep for them, do you? Probably not for your stack of doom in the middle game, and definitely not in the late game, but even after the start they can be quite handy as garrison troops, or reinforcements if your stack takes a bit of a beating and you haven't had a chance to train new troops yet.

If your trying to make the case that summoned troops from binding are except-able simply because there is no upkeep cost for them is lame. I agree that these summoned units are mostly useless. There maybe no upkeep but the player pays for them before the game starts by choosing the trait. It would be nice to see that these summoned units pay some dividends in a respectful fashion at some point in the game. They really could use some improvements.

While I agree that they might need a little more oomph (oomph meaning something like more attack and hitpoints), I don't think that they are completely useless. Depending on the amount and type of shards in your area they can be quite helpful at the very start of the game.

I didn't say they were completely useless, I said they were mostly useless. 

yeah they tend to be weak. the mirror elementals are almost pointless, the grave elementals are an "ok" substitute for tanky units, the crow demons are very nice for scouting the map (they are flying units, so they can traverse sea and mountain tiles). the fire and death shard demons aren't that great, but "ok" as a weaker (and free) substitute for trained units. once you're out of the early game, they aren't really worth using in combat any more. the demons with 3 moves are still somewhat useful for grabbing undefended outposts or burning down resource node improvements in a war with other factions (don't have to waste turns of more powerful units/armies for that task)

true, the ones I am currently summoning are young. How do I summon older ones?

if they were useful, that trait would be too strong for 1 cost

game might be more fun if they bumped the power on these and made it cost 2 or 3

Build Shrines and Temples.

Young <whatevers> come from Shard Altars.

<whatevers> come from Shard Shrines.

Ancient <whatevers> come from Shard Temples.

You don't need to lose the lesser versions of the shard critters before an upgraded altar will spawn the higher level version, but I don't think I've ever seen the young version of a critter spawn from a Shard Shrine, or either non-ancient version spawn from a Shard Temple, so if you want to collect all the critters, don't lose them.

As for the shard spawn, I tend to feel that they are not useful as combat units past the early game. They also take a long time to respawn if you lose them, and against mid-game or later troops, or against mid- or high-strength monsters, it tends to be more difficult not to lose them than is worthwhile for what they give you.

and once you get the tech to build the temples you start getting ancient versions which are quite ok i especially like the cyndrum onesjust have to get them to do a few killing blows to build up numbers

Cool.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Time to build some temples.

I was wondering where those ones went....

but they're affiliated with death shards...and I'm playing a kingdom at the moment.

Would be nice if the life shards gave you something. Maybe something similar to the wisp, but has a healing spell. Maybe can cast that spark spell aswell for 0 mana. Something like that.

I'm no modder...how difficult would it be to make something like that?

Young Cyndrum Demons are ridiculously good once you get them up to size 5.  I think they get 9x5 = 45 attack?  And a few levels adds a lot of HP to them, making them quite hard to kill.

Also, the young crow demons have that thunderstirke ability, which is great for doing quick AoE damage.  They also fly, so they make great map scouts.

The rest... well they tend to be more useful as sacrifical meatshields.  Since they're free and respawn it's not necessarily a bad thing.

You would:

1. Create special versions of the Life Altar/Shrine/Temple. I'd suggest copying the XML for the DeathAltar_Resoln, DeathShrine_Resoln, and DeathTemple_Resoln, and altering the details to match up with the XML for LifeAltar, LifeShrine, and LifeTemple wherever there are similar tags in the code. Change the internal name of the altar to be something like LifeShrine_Resoln, and make certain that the UpgradesTo tag references the next level of the correct shrine, rather than the next level of the death shrine or the standard The XML for these structures is found in CoreImprovements.XML. This is about 12 items to change in each shrine definition, but if you start from the DeathShrine_Resoln XML you shouldn't need to add any tags.
2. If you don't want your Life Altars/Shrines/Temples to summon Cyndrum Demons, then you also need to change the lines that look like this: <ModType>Player</ModType> <Attribute>LimitedUnitCap</Attribute> <StrVal>CyndrumDemon_Young</StrVal> <Value>1</Value> <Provides>Summons a Young Cyndrum Demon</Provides> </GameModifier> to something like this: <ModType>Player</ModType> <Attribute>LimitedUnitCap</Attribute> <StrVal>LifeSummon_Young</StrVal> <Value>1</Value> <Provides>Summons a Young Life Summon</Provides> </GameModifier> (CyndrumDemon_Young, CyndrumDemon, and CyndrumDemon_Ancient are the internal names for the Cyndrum Demon units; LifeSummon is just a placeholder internal name for your chosen Life Shard spawn).
3. If you aren't going to have your Life Shards summon Cyndrum Demons, you will want to create one to three creature definitions for your shard spawn. These should use the internal names you used in the shard improvement definitions (in my example, this would be LifeSummon_Young for the Life Altar spawn). I would suggest that instead of creating this from the ground up, you find the definitions for existing creatures that you'd like to summon and make copies of those with the revised internal names. Then compare it with the definition for one of the existing shard creatures or recruitable monsters and add in the missing tags. There are only a couple missing, I think. These are in CoreMonsterUnitTypes.XML.
4. Optionally, you might update the description of Binding to reflect the additional shard creatures.

I think, though I'm not sure, that that is all you'd need to do.

i think that binding is fine.

you get 3 free units (plus free replacements if they die) per shard (1xaltar, 1xshrine, 1xtempel)

and if you play a long game on a big map where you have like 20ish shards in the end that are like 60 free units.

i don't have found much use for the earth and fire ones yet, but that does not mean that there isn't one and the others are quite good imo.

Been awhile....I've long since figured out binding now, but I thought I'd throw a few thoughts down as to what I currently think about the binding creatures. In the order of best to worst (imo of course):

I have found the Grave Elementals to be the best to offer of the bunch. Juggernauts in themselves, the later ones especially as they gain sizable amounts of life per turn. Then, toss on that Thorns Spell and Fire Shield Spell and let the enemy smash themselves into oblivion. The trick is in the positioning...trying to get the enemy to attack them instead. Do wish the boulder attack did a smidge more damage though. Overall an excellent unit.

Cyndrums, if baby-sat, can become terrors in the early game. I find there power level drops off in there later versions compared to the other threats on the board....but that is okay because they are a free unit afterall. Overall a decent unit if you care for them well. 

Crows are decent. Strong attack, but a bit fragile, considering that they have to get into the thick of things to be effective. This downside is offset in that they do replace themselves from the shards over time and as such can readily be used as suicide bombers. Overall a decent unit if you care for them well.

The Wraithes also need a bit of a buff. It would be really nice if they're power up bonus was retained and acted as a permanent effect. Every combat you have to start over boosting it's attack by +2 fire per cast....it's a waste of mana. If that bonus were permanently attached to the wraith, then at least it would be a one-shot investment of mana.

Still think the Mirror elementals are quite useless. Would really like it if they received some kind of buff. I'd still recommend changing the way the damage was reflected back to be 50% of the damage dealt instead of the existing 100% of the life lost.

Well, those are my thoughts on the current strengths and weaknesses of the binding creatures.

I've never been able to finesse the cyndrums up to decent levels, myself.  But, I discovered that Crow demons gain in powers when you mass 'em when my Sov got jumped by a full army of heavily-armored Gildenites while tootling around with three Crows and an ancient Crow and some pointlessly weak junk units.  By hasting the Crows, casting contagion and the everything-crits spell, and chain-casting the knockdown Titan's breath spell and Thunderstrike every time they came available, I blew away about 600 hit points of steel-armored Gilden infantry with a bunch of airy-fairy elementals.  

It was cool.