why do mermen have less defense in deep water?

[romnajin]

Oh...sorry at self. I assumed...no that will make me sound more of an idiot.

[romnajin]

But., back on topic, they should be able to dart behind rocks etc. when in shallow water, but in deep they could only dive, and that is more leaving the hex, which can't be done in combat!

[dtw]

um - i been thinking about horses and deep water - horses can swim - sure, heavily armoured ones can't so well, but other wise they swim pretty well...

is there a case for three types of water - and hence another shuffling of water defense?

stream -> river -> ocean - this simply regards depth rather than appearance

[Temuchin Khan]

I want to throw in a vote for three depths of water. It seems counter-intuitive for water-dwellers like the Mermen to excell only in the depths of water in which land-dwellers can comfortably wade. The general idea seems to be:

(a) shallow (wading depth, up to neck deep)

(b) deep (lake/river/coastal waters depth)

(c) ocean (ocean depth, beyond the coastal plains that extend out from
all continents)

The natual habitat of the Mermen would be deep water: lakes, rivers, and coastal regions. Perhaps they were originally lake dwellers who then adjusted to coastal plains, but have never fully adjusted to the high seas.
Therefore, they would not be better at either offense or defense at ocean depths, mainly because whenever they venture beyond their warm, safe, well-lighted, comfortable coastal plains into the deep, dark, cold, dangerous high seas, they become frightened and paranoid.

Also, I'm not an artist, and could never do this, but wouldn't it be great if someone made a faction of sharks or killer whales for the "High Seas" multiplayer era?

[drachefly]

Problem is, true ocean depths are as you described so far out that we'd never see them, period.

I'd split it up
shallow: ~ 1m mermen defend at 60%. Land units have reduced defense and slow movement.
water: ~ 2.5 m too deep for fording; mermen at 70%. Elusivefoots are lightly-enough loaded that they can swim here, 3 mp, 10% defense.
deeps: >4 m. There are waves here. Mermen defend at 60%. The waves make it slower going, so elusivefoots are slowed to 4 mp.

[Locke]

I would like to place my vote for this feature as well. Adding a third layer of water solves a lot and seems like it would be easy to implement. The way others have described it sounds like it would work fine.

What do you say, Dave?

[Darth Fool]

Well, there is already a "River Ford" terrain for the really shallow water, so there already exists three depths of water, not counting swamp which makes for four different types of water terrain!

[romnajin]

Wasn't that officially implemented in .9.0?

[turin]

You say this "solves a problem", but what problem is that, exactly? I don't see one.