How come the undead can be healed?

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revolting_peasant
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Joined: May 29th, 2012, 5:45 pm

How come the undead can be healed?

Post by revolting_peasant »

When I started playing Undead, I was rather surprised to notice that they heal just like any other unit:
  • They heal +2 at rest.
  • They heal in villages.
  • They are affected by healer units.
Now, I know this is part of the balance now and will absolutely not be changed ever. But still: What's the rationale for these two phenomena? I mean,
  • The Undead are decaying, barely held together by magic. They're not in a process of becoming more healty, or alive; on the contrary, everything about them is itching to fall apart, decay, pass away.
  • There's nothing particularly positive for Undead in villages (at most it's a place to rest).
  • Most undead should not be able to tire (with the possible exception of Ghouls)
So was there a rationale here or was it an overight that stuck?

PS - I mean the properly undead units, not Dark Sorcerers, or bats and stuff.
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MathBrush
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by MathBrush »

One thing people have mentioned in the past and that I agree with is that resting allows the magical forces holding them together to strengthen, and that the healing force from healers gets cannibalized by those same magic energies.
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Elder2
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by Elder2 »

They can change their bones or stitch their wounds. xD
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Eagle_11
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by Eagle_11 »

Gameplay balance reasons, if it were up to me heal abilities wouldnt affect undead at all.
"Heals at rest" part of the game is not easy to influence.
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ChaosRider
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by ChaosRider »

I sense here idea for new mode. Get ready, set, CODE!
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Tad_Carlucci
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by Tad_Carlucci »

I asked my pet zombie, Daisy, about it. She (I assume it's a she, otherwise he's probably upset about his name) said, "Gruruth gah ah ga." Which, if you speak zombie, loosely translates to "There's always someone in a village who is not prejudiced against life-challenged individuals, and is willing to help out." (Well, OK. *VERY* loosely translated. Some words in zombie just are not spoken in polite company.)
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Sapient
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by Sapient »

Villages have lots of delicious villager brains and souls for the undead to devour, of course. And while the skeletons are resting, they can get fitted with some nice replacement bones, which the villagers helpfully provide. :geek:
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Tad_Carlucci
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by Tad_Carlucci »

That's the problem with translating to zombie. There is such a small difference, when translated to zombie, between "Yes, you may eat me," and "Yes, you may eat WITH me." You really can't blame the zombies if they think the villages really do want to be eaten.
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Vyncyn
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Re: How come the undead can be healed?

Post by Vyncyn »

Villages usually have a cemetery so undeads can find some replacement parts there.
In some other games I've seen undeads get no regeneration at daytime and double regeneration at night, but this would be hard to balance in wesnoth as they can't rest at night because it's the best time to fight.
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