Guide on designing standard factions/eras

It's not easy creating an entire faction or era. Post your work and collaborate in this forum.

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Velensk
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by Velensk »

I generally regard steadfast as being an extension of your resistances though I should probably find a place to mention it anyway.
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Velensk
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by Velensk »

Alright, I've cleaned it up and reorganized it. I believe that it is ready to be stickied now though I'll still take feedback (for as long as I can).
"There are two kinds of old men in the world. The kind who didn't go to war and who say that they should have lived fast died young and left a handsome corpse and the old men who did go to war and who say that there is no such thing as a handsome corpse."
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gmx0
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by gmx0 »

Great guide! Will definitely keep this in mind.
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by DMB »

Hello. I read your post and found it not only intelligent but useful.
I am attempting to create a faction after Z2's game BattleNations, specifically the Empire which you play as. I attempted to model it to be roughly equal to the Loyalists and made them weak to all magic except for a couple special units. I have a model set up, it's not quite finished yet but I should have it posted (with color cordinated boxed for easy seeing!) later today, sometime after 5 central time, or 4 hours from my post time, either one.
My main worry is that I want them to be able to take on the mainline factions without being overpowered or underpowered. I'm also trying to keep the units similar to their base game counterparts, which has led to me giving them powerful attacks (and a lack of attacks, mainly melee-lacking), good armor, and sub-average to superb terrain benefits, and most worrying for not making them OP, abilities.
The faction features the Trooper, a weak lvl0 unit with Marksman as he only has a 8-1 pierce ranged attack, not overpowered at all, however if you choose to keep the Marksman route at lvl 2 it becomes a Precision attack which I made weaker than the Dwarf's attack, and they also lose melee combat ability, but it's still a hard hitting, highly accurate attack. At lvl 3 I also give the unit Nightstalk. In return I tried to give the unit extremely high XP requirements and he can only move 4 hexes a turn (unless quick) and even at rank 4(I made 3 of them to reflect the game, but the XP is so high I doubt you'd see any lv4's, let alone lvl3's in a multiplayer game unless it was a really long game) the unit still has no melee ability whatsoever.
I suppose I should just hurry up and post my unit list, but if you did read all this, thanks, and I'd appreciate any feedback. It should be easy enough to find my main post on this, and yes, before anyone asks, I'm a programming newbie without the slightest clue on how to make sprites other than the couple of "How to's" I've read.
amanII
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by amanII »

for reasons to make a faction you should also mention that someone might create a faction to see how effective it is and what its strengths and weaknesses are
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Bitron
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by Bitron »

Im not that new to wesnoth, but was never the one who tooks a lot of thinking about strategic actions in the game. But after reading this post, I'm deeply curios to try some things out. :D
Thanks for this quick guide, it's very useful!
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IPS
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by IPS »

I'm not sure if this is mentioned in the topic, but you may create custom traits to balance units that pretend to have a very different gameplay than usual. I've seen in MANY cases units that end being pretty much better if having resilient trait ... a very good example of this are the Wind daemons at Archaic - Menagerie.

Custom traits are even used in default's goblings by making them a powerful lv0 unit that gets a random negative trait when it's recruited.

For example, I had in mind a unit concept (published just to Ghype for his era) named "Insidious beast" which is a lv1 unit with 5-5 blade mele, semi squishy and not that cost efficient (not mentioning stats, but it's like 28-30 hp) which instead of gaining strong trait gains a trait named "Furious" which is +1 mele damage but -1 hp while it has a counterpart of resilient which suits the unit in a more balanced way by not making the ones with a specific trait much better than others that doesn't has this one trait.

In resume, you can create custom traits to balance in a different way units that leaves the tangent of default's standards.
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chol
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Re: Guide on designing standard factions/eras

Post by chol »

Look into some 'tweak' combos, like Trait Fearless and alignment=lawful.
It would rather hide super stats from Wesnoth Units Database:

Code: Select all

#define TRAIT_FEARLESS
    # Units with trait Fearless fight normally during unfavorable day/night times.
    [trait]
        id=fearless
        male_name= _ "fearless"
        female_name= _ "female^fearless"
        description= _ "Fights normally during unfavorable times of day/night"
        help_text= _ "Aversion to light and dark holds no sway over these brave individuals."
        [effect]
            apply_to="fearless"
        [/effect]
    [/trait]
#enddef

Code: Select all

#textdomain wesnoth-units
[unit_type]
    id=Dune Soldier
    name= _ "Dune Soldier"
    race=dunefolk
    image="units/dunefolk/soldier.png"
    hitpoints=40
    movement_type=dunearmoredfoot
    [resistance]
        cold=110
    [/resistance]
    movement=5
    experience=47
    level=1
    alignment=lawful
    advances_to=Dune Swordsman,Dune Spearguard
    cost=18
    usage=fighter
    description= _ "The Soldier forms the backbone of any Dunefolk foot advance. Many come from noble or military families, and have spent most of their lives training their craft. Given their intense focus on swordplay, they are often sent against fortified enemy positions to create a breach for the remaining troops to exploit. The sight of Soldiers on the march, shields high, has caused many a defender to worry about the strength of their walls."+{SPECIAL_NOTES}+{SPECIAL_NOTES_MARKSMAN}
    die_sound={SOUND_LIST:HUMAN_DIE}
    {DEFENSE_ANIM "units/dunefolk/soldier.png" "units/dunefolk/soldier.png" {SOUND_LIST:HUMAN_HIT} }
    {TRAIT_FEARLESS}
    [attack]
        name=sword
        description= _ "sword"
        icon=attacks/sword-human.png
        type=blade
        range=melee
        damage=9
        number=2
        [specials]
            {WEAPON_SPECIAL_MARKSMAN}
        [/specials]
    [/attack]

    [attack_anim]
        [filter_attack]
            name=sword
        [/filter_attack]

        start_time=-200

        [frame]
            image="units/dunefolk/soldier.png:300"
        [/frame]

        {SOUND:HIT_AND_MISS {SOUND_LIST:SWORD_SWISH} {SOUND_LIST:MISS} -100}
    [/attack_anim]
[/unit_type]
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