The Golden Age

[ForestDragon]

0.2.12 is out! changes are:
nerfed orcish shaman line, renamed lvl2 to Warlock, and lvl1 to normal shaman, added Dwarvish Plainsrider line (good on flat terrains, but slow everywhere else), added Merman Storm Caller (opt. lvl2 from fighter, has a replica of storm trident as a weapon), gave Gyrocopter a secondary pierce ranged weapon which has small damage, but lots of attacks, gave Dullohan's ranged attack a new icon/projectile, nerfed Black Rider line damage back to the old stats (and decreased the cost from 21 to 20),increased Black rider line's impact resistance to 35%, Corrupted Forest tweaks (effect like that of rush mode enabled by map by default, mounted units turn into black riders on death, and assassin-ish units turn into Poltergeists and shadows,units turned into ghosts still retain their name, gender and half of their experience.when a unit dies from lightning, the ghost won't have the 'slowed' effect. now you can give units illuminates ability by using campfires), new sprite for Rancher, Colossus Lich (opt. lvl5 from Ancient Lich)

[ForestDragon]

finally finished 0.3.0! here is the massive changelog:
added Avian faction (they have an option to toggle flight/ground mode via a rightclick menu), separated The Golden Age in the normal menu into normal, and extended (extended has more miscellanious factions (aka khalifate,northerners,monsters,and the newly introduced avians)) recylced Bone Captain as an opt. lvl2 from Skeleton Sergeant, added lvl4 and lvl5 for Shadow line, added lvl4 for spectre line, changed Orcish Shaman line's curse projectile to the from SotBE, Hag (opt. lvl2 from Cunning Woman), new portrait for Cunning Woman line, added Slitherblade (lvl3 for Deathblade),added Gold Mage (lvl4 for silver mage),fixed mages being unable to advance into battemages in MP, added Signalman (lvl0 unit with illuminates), removed elvish moonranger and added Forest Warden instead, added Chameleon (saurian with poison ranged that becomes invisible when not moving), gave elvish vanquisher's pierce melee attack spear sounds, added Fire Warrior (opt. melee-oriented advancement for Fire Guardian), added Dwarvish Torch Bearer (the dwarves don't have much fire damage, so it helps), renamed Titanium Drake to 'Dragonheart Drake', made transport ability work via a rightclick-menu (and increased the cost to 33, which still barely covers the expenses), added attack anim for Minotaur, buffed up the orcish shaman line's melee damage on lvl1 and lvl2s (lvl3 were already good enough), nerfed dwarvish alchemist's ranged attack (14-2>12-2) and melee one too (9-2>8-2),new ranged projectile and melee icon for dwarvish brewer line, dwarvish scoundrel (crossbow-wielding unit line with marksman, dwarves really lacked precise ranged attackers before), Barrow Rider (opt. lvl2 from Skeleton Rider, wileds a baneblade), Forester (opt, lvl2 from Bowman with ambush), bob anim and new amla for dwarvish gunslinger, added Supreme Commander (lvl5 from Grand Marshal), added new and more attractive icon

also, i uploaded an update for TGA Map Music too (for new icon)

[IPS]

Well, after viewing some units with some atention, I can say that some units are doing too good... while others are forgotten. Let's talk about some cases:

Loyalists
Sentry: it's a unit that actually is overperforming a lot next to many other advancements from Infantryman (being much better than pikemen/swordsmen and many other lv2 units in the era). Woulds sugest leaving Sentry just for a defensive role with a 8-3 blade mele & 7-2 impact mele. He has already 40% res to arcane/blade/pierce and 20% to impact while defending apart of no defense penalties.
Custodian: All the points previously mentionated can be aplicated on Custodian too. Try at Custodiam 12-3 blade mele & 9-2 impact mele.
Chevaliers: Arcane is a very uncommon atack type. Would sugest to decrease his mele damage by 20% (5-5 mele) because units like undeads are too weak againist arcane (Strong Chevalier is 7-5 actually, at day time he's 9-5 arcane mele and againist skeletons he is 14-5 because they're -50% arcane resistant). Consdering that Lithing is a bonus weapon on this line, would try leaving it 7-1 because it's an arcane/magical bonus ranged atack.
Crusader: He has the same mele than mounted paladins, so it's alright. Also would nerf his ranged to 10-1 because it's an extra.
Warden of Light: My only objection at this one is his ranged damage. Try 14-1 ranged at him.
Signalman: You can try a lv1 for him that costs some xp (20 xp at 70% xp modifier), would sugest a not too strong mele atack of like 7-2 and an health of about 28 hp (with 20% fire resistance). Apart of increasing his price to 11g because Illuminates over loyalists is a really strong aura.
Supreme Commander: Considering the thounsands of xp he needs to lv5, wouldn't see any problem to add him +1 or +1 damage at both of his mele/ranged damage. Would sugest to take away 1/3 of Supreme's commander xp, doesn't look something worth to do on a game.
Destroyer: try to take away 1/5 of his required xp to lv5, looks too high.


Outlaws:
Young Ogres: young ogre is among most mediocre units in all core units. On your era you can give him a variation with +10% cold resistance. That could be mantained at lv2 too.
Ogre: Apart of the bonus 10% resistance to cold, you can try giving him feeding and I'm not sure if a Lv3 version of Ogre.

Apart of Ogres sugestion, I would add that Outlaws needs someone with fire atack or something like that. I can mention too some few units you can add to outlaws:
- Naga Hunters
- Naga Guardian
- Rogue Mage but with a price of 18g.

Dwarves
Dwarvish Torch Bearer: Would sugest to add him at least a lv2 version of himself, but at needing more xp than most dwarves in the faction.
Dwarvish Protector: Would sugest decreasing his ranged damage to 18-1 because it's still magical.

Well, I have to go, but later I will come for more feedback.

[ForestDragon]

Sentry: it's a unit that actually is overperforming a lot next to many other advancements from Infantryman (being much better than pikemen/swordsmen and many other lv2 units in the era). Woulds sugest leaving Sentry just for a defensive role with a 8-3 blade mele & 7-2 impact mele. He has already 40% res to arcane/blade/pierce and 20% to impact while defending apart of no defense penalties.

Custodian: All the points previously mentionated can be aplicated on Custodian too. Try at Custodiam 12-3 blade mele & 9-2 impact mele.
yep, will do that

Chevaliers: Arcane is a very uncommon atack type. Would sugest to decrease his mele damage by 20% (5-5 mele) because units like undeads are too weak againist arcane (Strong Chevalier is 7-5 actually, at day time he's 9-5 arcane mele and againist skeletons he is 14-5 because they're -50% arcane resistant). Consdering that Lithing is a bonus weapon on this line, would try leaving it 7-1 because it's an arcane/magical bonus ranged atack.
Crusader: He has the same mele than mounted paladins, so it's alright. Also would nerf his ranged to 10-1 because it's an extra.
Warden of Light: My only objection at this one is his ranged damage. Try 14-1 ranged at him.

ok, yeah, arcane is the one weapon type that i always forget about undead when balancing.

Signalman: You can try a lv1 for him that costs some xp (20 xp at 70% xp modifier), would sugest a not too strong mele atack of like 7-2 and an health of about 28 hp. Apart of increasing his price to 11g because Illuminates over loyalists is a really strong aura.

yeah i'll increase his cost, about lvl1, i'll add one, to make sure that feeding exp to him is not 100% waste, only 75% . btw, as you have seen, with healer mage (lvl1 white mage), signalman (illuminates) and fisherman (2-3 slows on ranged) the loyalists gains 3 pretty darn good support units, and when using multiple of them, it can often change the tide of a fight.

Supreme Commander: Considering the thounsands of xp he needs to lv5, wouldn't see any problem to add him +1 or +1 damage at both of his mele/ranged damage. Would sugest to take away 1/3 of Supreme's commander xp, doesn't look something worth to do on a game.

ok, i'll make his damage +1 each and make the base exp 385, looks better now? btw, i wouldn't make it lower than that since he has lvl5 leadership and protection (resistance boosting ability)

Young Ogres: young ogre is among most mediocre units in all core units. On your era you can give him a variation with +10% cold resistance. That could be mantained at lv2 too.
Ogre: Apart of the bonus 10% resistance to cold, you can try giving him feeding and I'm not sure if a Lv3 version of Ogre.

yep, that will be easy to do, since i already use cloned units (TGA <insert ID>) to provide new advancements, so it will be easy to add. about Ogre, i guess i could give him an ability that simply heals him after killing something by 4, but not increasing his max hp, lvl3 (it already exists in TGA, btw) could do the same, but 6 or 8 hp, and lvl1 could do it for 2 hp, or whatever numbers you suggest, i guess killhunger (the ability that heals the killing unit) is much less poweful than regenerates, but provides a smal, yet helpful advantage

Apart of Ogres sugestion, I would add that Outlaws needs someone with fire atack or something like that. I can mention too some few units you can add to outlaws:
- Naga Hunters
- Naga Guardian
- Rogue Mage but with a price of 18g.

nagas won't do since they are mostly swimming units, but yeah, rogue mages will probably do, also, i could use the woodfolk mage line, or something else. EDIT: i guess i could just use the south-seas Arsonist line from Archaic Era

Dwarvish Torch Bearer: Would sugest to add him at least a lv2 version of himself, but at needing more xp than most dwarves in the faction

i guess i could make some kind of a franken for that

Dwarvish Protector: Would sugest decreasing his ranged damage to 18-1 because it's still magical.

it's actually attack only, but i forgot to add the special, for now it only uses 'defense_weight=0.0' to do so, but i think i would need to add a weapon special there to make it clear

Well, I have to go, but later I will come for more feedback.

i am looking forward to that, your help to the era development is gigantic

[Angelonius]

I decided to download it and I found something in the images folder. Specifically, you have a warrior+female sprite but it doesn't have a unit file nor a portrait. Please create a portait for it since that sprite looks awesome.

[Durin_the_great]

Since I am totally into dwarves and hardly anything else, I will only consider them.
I am a Tolkien fan, so be warned. Silmarillion check. Children of Hurin check. Unfinished yales check. Hardcore XD
I always liked dwarves, but by dwarves I mean Tolkeanean dwarves. Like delvers-miners-smiths-fighters-runemasters-lorekeepers. No cheats, no modern-fantasy-bomber-crazy-kamikadze-maniac dwarves. I found thunderer's. It took some time, but I accepted them (still not fully). But please dude not steam-powered-[censored] wielding flying dwarves with flamethrowers and hand cannons. Gyrocopter and steamcopter just drive me mad. If you need a fast dwarf ranged - take a boar archer. If you really need flying - them ok, take a gryphon archer or crossbow dwarf. But please no steam. Same way, lv4 thunderer is just like a hand cannon wielding modern mercenarie. T's sprite is awwwwwwfull. Same with flamethrower. It would maybeeeeeee could beeeee though not really but still possibly be acceptable, but it's lv3 is like a XXI century worker. The sprite totally doesn't fit. Same with plainrider's. It's like santa claus warrior with noone-is-doing-anything-but-my-sleigh-is-moving vehicle. Take a boar rider, a mountain ram rider, a goat rider, a ram/goat/boar charriot but not some [censored] automatic vehicle. This is a middleaged and older times game.


Sorry for bluntness. No offense. Can help. Have ideas.

Yours

Durin

[ForestDragon]

Since I am totally into dwarves and hardly anything else, I will only consider them.
I am a Tolkien fan, so be warned. Silmarillion check. Children of Hurin check. Unfinished yales check. Hardcore XD

alright, i am a Tolkien fan too actually (about the machines, the only reason they ended up there is rule of cool)

I always liked dwarves, but by dwarves I mean Tolkeanean dwarves. Like delvers-miners-smiths-fighters-runemasters-lorekeepers. No cheats, no modern-fantasy-bomber-crazy-kamikadze-maniac dwarves.

i have the same tastes too

I found thunderer's. It took some time, but I accepted them (still not fully). But please dude not steam-powered-[censored] wielding flying dwarves with flamethrowers and hand cannons. Gyrocopter and steamcopter just drive me mad.

the way you described them totally rules. i can't say i am fan of gyrocopters either, since they have an outdated art quality anyway. they were only meant as a cheap flying unit. i guess i could just put those things in the 'unused' folder or something.

If you need a fast dwarf ranged - take a boar archer. If you really need flying - them ok, take a gryphon archer or crossbow dwarf. But please no steam.

about fast ranged, hmmm, i'll think about it.. EDIT: btw, i AM going to add a crossbowman dwarf, which is also a bit outlaw-ish

Same way, lv4 thunderer is just like a hand cannon wielding modern mercenarie. T's sprite is awwwwwwfull.

well, i can't say i like him too much either, but sadly, i am kinda limited by art. if you could, for example, provide a thread with a unit sprite that would fit for a lvl4 thunderer, then that would be appreciated, but for now, the only option i have is the current lvl4.

Same with flamethrower. It would maybeeeeeee could beeeee though not really but still possibly be acceptable, but it's lv3 is like a XXI century worker. The sprite totally doesn't fit.

i added the lvl3 sprite in a haste, and yeah, it does need a new sprite indeed. i could make a franken of the lvl2 with a more middle-age-ish helmet, or something

Same with plainrider's. It's like santa claus warrior with noone-is-doing-anything-but-my-sleigh-is-moving vehicle. Take a boar rider, a mountain ram rider, a goat rider, a ram/goat/boar charriot but not some [censored] automatic vehicle. This is a middleaged and older times game.

yeah, i agree on that. btw, i was planning to add bear riders in the next update anyway, they will most likely replace the crappy car-ripoff thing that is currently used anyway

Sorry for bluntness. No offense. Can help. Have ideas.

dont worry, any feedback on the addon is appreciated by me

EDIT:

I decided to download it and I found something in the images folder. Specifically, you have a warrior+female sprite but it doesn't have a unit file nor a portrait. Please create a portait for it since that sprite looks awesome.

look, i am not an experienced artist, i am mostly a WML coder, and sometimes franken-artist when i urgently need to make a placeholder. about unit file: well i have quite a few sprites that i haven't yet added unit files for, going to do that someday, but i need some ideas

[Durin_the_great]

For quite some time I was considering a dwarvish unit
Dwarvish tamer -> ram/mountain goat rider -> ram/goat charriot (with a mechanical crossbow or sim.)
-> boar rider -> heavy boar rider

[Angelonius]

I can help with the warrior+female one in terms of unit file.

[ForestDragon]

I can help with the warrior+female one in terms of unit file.

oh, if you are willing to provide ideas, here are a few units sprites you can provide me an idea for too:

optional lvl3, i guess

elephant-cataphract.png (10.15 KiB) Viewed 3556 times

lvl2

mage_lvl2.png (2.11 KiB) Viewed 3556 times

lvl3

mage_lvl3.png (2.9 KiB) Viewed 3556 times

lvl2

shaman.png (5.25 KiB) Viewed 3556 times

lvl2, the one you talked about

warrior+female.png (4.82 KiB) Viewed 3556 times

[Angelonius]

I can help with the warrior+female one in terms of unit file.

oh, if you are willing to provide ideas, here are a few units sprites you can provide me an idea for too:

elephant-cataphract.png

mage_lvl2.png

mage_lvl3.png

shaman.png

warrior+female.png

Give me until tomorrow and you'll get the files.

[ForestDragon]

Give me until tomorrow and you'll get the files.

i can make the files myself, i just need a few ideas what to do with them

[Angelonius]

Give me until tomorrow and you'll get the files.

i can make the files myself, i just need a few ideas what to do with them

Oh, okay.

Here's some ideas.
1. Your elephant cataphract works fine as it is. Do you want a description for it?
2. The warrior+female sprite. I'll give her a name and she'll be called "Flailbearer". She can get a melee attack (20 impact damage, 2 times, marksman). Her description is "Flailbearers are elite warrior women whose mastery of the flail is peerless. Because they wear lighter armor than heavy infantrymen, they are more mobile can be deployed offensively as well as defensively." She'll get the fighter role and 6 movement. This unit's race is also human and a loyalist.
3. Are your mage level 2, mage level 3 and shaman level 2 humans?

[ForestDragon]

1. Your elephant cataphract works fine as it is. Do you want a description for it?

maybe. i think it could be that loyalists get these elephants from trading with some other race, like khalifate, for example. about attacks, i guess he could have a 20-2 trample impact melee, and 31-1 charge pierce, high HP, 6 movement, can be optional from Knight

2. The warrior+female sprite. I'll give her a name and she'll be called "Flailbearer". She can get a melee attack (20 impact damage, 2 times, marksman). Her description is "Flailbearers are elite warrior women whose mastery of the flail is peerless. Because they wear lighter armor than heavy infantrymen, they are more mobile can be deployed offensively as well as defensively." She'll get the fighter role and 6 movement. This unit's race is also human and a loyalist.

the melee damage is too high (lvl2 shock trooper has only 18-2 and no specials, which is pretty strong already), i guess 10-3 main melee, and 10-2 secondary with something like either 'shock' or 'stun' otherwise good

3. Are your mage level 2, mage level 3 and shaman level 2 humans?

yeah i guess they can be female-only mage advancements

[Angelonius]

1. Your elephant cataphract works fine as it is. Do you want a description for it?

maybe. i think it could be that loyalists get these elephants from trading with some other race, like khalifate, for example. about attacks, i guess he could have a 20-2 trample impact melee, and 31-1 charge pierce, high HP, 6 movement, can be optional from Knight

2. The warrior+female sprite. I'll give her a name and she'll be called "Flailbearer". She can get a melee attack (20 impact damage, 2 times, marksman). Her description is "Flailbearers are elite warrior women whose mastery of the flail is peerless. Because they wear lighter armor than heavy infantrymen, they are more mobile can be deployed offensively as well as defensively." She'll get the fighter role and 6 movement. This unit's race is also human and a loyalist.

the melee damage is too high (lvl2 shock trooper has only 18-2 and no specials, which is pretty strong already), i guess 10-3 main melee, and 10-2 secondary with something like either 'shock' or 'stun' otherwise good

3. Are your mage level 2, mage level 3 and shaman level 2 humans?

yeah i guess they can be female-only mage advancements

To be fair, I also have a similar idea where a loyalist-like faction gets elephants from the Khalifate. The main difference is that with me, they captured the elephants.

As for Flailbearer, I agree with your idea about her.

I'm still thinking of what to give the magi and shaman.