Give Leadership Ablility to Lancers ?

[YbeRn00b]

A 10 move leader would make him the most useful leader in the game I guess. I think it might be a bit overkill to give him leadership.

However I could see the Lancer with this ability
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17634

[Velensk]

Fearless lancers, thats a kind of scary thought.

[Urs]

I think lancers are fine just the way they are now. They are of the solitary type, not the rallying leader type. And fearless is going a bit far/overpowered.

[turin]

Giving leadership to the Lancer might work if it only applied after he had attacked that turn (since he's leading by example, you would assume, not through his great tactical wisdom). That way his being really fast wouldn't be as overpowered, since you couldn't walk down the back rank giving leadership to 10 different units then attack yourself... it might still be overpowered, of course, but not as overpowered.


I have no idea if that type of special ability is possible to code. And I don't think the lancer needs changing. I'm just throwing this out there because it seems like it helps remove the problem of quickly moving units with leadership being in general overpowered.

[Erk]

Giving leadership to the Lancer might work if it only applied after he had attacked that turn (since he's leading by example, you would assume, not through his great tactical wisdom). That way his being really fast wouldn't be as overpowered, since you couldn't walk down the back rank giving leadership to 10 different units then attack yourself... it might still be overpowered, of course, but not as overpowered.


I have no idea if that type of special ability is possible to code. And I don't think the lancer needs changing. I'm just throwing this out there because it seems like it helps remove the problem of quickly moving units with leadership being in general overpowered.

Now that is an interesting idea as a way of representing a Spearhead ability that does not rely on complex formations. I would even suggest calling it Spearhead. I'd also suggest not making it like leadership: rather, a +25% damage bonus to all adjacent friendlies regardless of level until the end of the player's turn (so it does not work to enhance defenders).

Spearheading unit comes in, does damage, and is followed by a rush of boosted attackers, whose boost flags after the turn ends. Pretty good simulation, I say.

[thespaceinvader]

THAT sounds perfect.

[irrevenant]

I propose "Inspire" as a name for that ability...

[Edward V Riley]

Great Idea..and inspire is a great name for it.

[CIB]

Is that possible with WML?

[thespaceinvader]

I still like spearhead - inspire's too generalised for my taste - spearhead tells you how the ability's best used.

[PingPangQui]

Giving leadership to the Lancer might work if it only applied after he had attacked that turn (since he's leading by example, you would assume, not through his great tactical wisdom).

That was more or less the thought I had when when proposing the idea of giving lancer the leadership ability. My original thought was to give the lancer leadership ability when he kills a unit, or attacks a more powerful unit, i.e. a unit of higher level. Another option I had in my mind was to let the lancers leadership ability apply only to mounted units.
However all this would lead to a new ability which I didn't want to propose here, since i think that there is enough variety concerning this matter.

Personally, I still think that it would be a good idea to give the lancer the current leadership ability (afterall there isn't said anything where this leadership ability comes from - "leading by example" or "tactical wisdom"). Firstly, for the sake of simplicity. Secondly, since i don't really see how adding this ability would practically effect multiplayer matches (presuming default settings, maps and era) but it would add at the same time more flavour to the lancers branch in campaigns.

What's more, I don't think that giving the lancer leadership ability would divert this unit from its intended use, i.e. being probably the most offensive unit within this game. Not using the charge potential of the lancer and just hiding him behind the lines would be simply a waste. Sure that would be an option but there are other units that do that job much better (Elvish Marshal, General, Konrad).

Concerning a possible new ability "inspire" / "spearhead": What about calling it rouse/arouse/rousing ?

[appleide]

I still like spearhead - inspire's too generalised for my taste - spearhead tells you how the ability's best used.

I like what spearhead means, but it doesn't sound that good. How about "Fearless/Terrifying charge", as the Lancer would have had charge on attack, and its terrible fearlessness would have 'inspired' (damn I had to use that word...) nearby troops.

[thespaceinvader]

That's getting a bit wordy i think. There is a word that would be a good compromise, but i can't think what it is >.<

[Edward V Riley]

affect, animate, arouse, carry, cause, commove, elate, embolden, endue, enkindle, enliven, exalt, excite, exhilarate, fire up*, galvanize, get*, give impetus, hearten, imbue, impress, infect, inflame, influence, inform, infuse, inspirit, instill, invigorate, juice, motivate, occasion, produce, provoke, quicken, reassure, set aglow, set up, spark, spur, start off, stimulate, stir, strike, sway, touch, trigger, urge, work up

These are the thesaurus equivalents of Inspire. There were none for spearhead. Worse, even the dictionaries online had only a spearhead-head or tip of a spear as it's definition. Yes, I and anyone with a twinkling of military knowledge knows what it means, but apparently the scholar world doesn't.

Many of these sound good, but the one that sticks out at me is Spur, since the lancer uses a horse. I do this merely to give ideas as I still like Inspire. Drive would also work.

[PingPangQui]

(..)Drive would also work.

No that's reserved for mechinised units with an artifical engine.