Pick Your Recruits Armageddon (Standard & Extended)

[Horus2]

We still didn't play the training course to show what DDs can do... hopefully i'll have more time in january than now...

What i can tell you, DD is a specialist, and better to compare to Ghost than Cav.
An average team has only 1 tool to deal effectively with DD, and that's a mage with elemental damage. If this tool is not around, it can mess your lines as long as it wants.
If you're handling more and more DD's at the same time, the more deadly the Tool will became. The Tool is much cheaper than DD so the opponent will break you economically when the time for fighting arrives. Thus, having only 1 DD, or 2 in multifront map is wiser. This way you can expect a more usual structure in enemy lines, and less Tool.
The DDs main role is to cover the back of the more fragile specialist units - or even the core warriors - in a similar manner the Gryphon shields the dwarves while they are on grass, way to attack. For impact and pierce units, they have 72 hps, 50% terrain defense and regenerates 12 hps every turn, if they are on dirt, and that's monstrous. So you can choose the right time for the attack safely. Maybe 2 Tools can blast it out, one of them gets a retailation of 15 dmg... then you can kill the Tools for free which means less invested money lost and more xp for you.
Also worthy to note if there's only 1 natural enemy for your DD's, consider to select the natural enemy of every Tool: the ulf. The effect is very similar to the way the knalga plays against UD.
And even if the actual battle started and your poor devil got weakened, the way it deals with the crucial remaining hps of village defenders is priceless. Oh, and it deals with skeletal enemies with ease, so you can name the spearman as your core. And they will be thankful.

[Horus2]

After more than three months of dead silence i proudly present the newest version of PYR Armageddon in the line: in 1.1.0 numerous changes are waiting to be discovered. Besides various significant unit balancing it contains the well-known multiplayer maps from Random Map Picker rewritten for usage in this era as well as a map to easily unlock every unit's description. You can find all the changes in the era's folder in the changelog.

Also, i felt Quick gamemodes had no purpose at all (although was useful in the testing progress), so i simply deleted it. If anyone thinks the opposite and wants it back, then let your words heard.

Download it as soon as possible and have fun!

[Horus2]

For the lovers of the era:

You might have a hard time when you're trying to find an opponent on the servers. So here's what i offer:
At July 3. 15:00 (GMT) a PYRA playing session is already planned in the inner circles of some Hungarian players on the official server, however everybody is welcome, so if you were looking for opportunity to try this era out, then look no further.

And if you missed this time, don't worry, a next one will be announced a bit later (and more earlier before the event).

[powershot]

I want to play; 15:00 GMT, got it.

[IceAssassin]

Regretfully, While i have no skill in coding, may i suggest that someone make PYR For the extended era? With chaos and such? Because that would be incredible.

I use this era a lot, and i love it, Keep up the good work.

[Horus2]

After a month of healthy wesbreak i'm returning to the project.

Regretfully, While i have no skill in coding, may i suggest that someone make PYR For the extended era? With chaos and such? Because that would be incredible.

I use this era a lot, and i love it, Keep up the good work.

Thank you.

However, some words have to be said about including further units, since it is and will be a popular demand. So, why did i have to limit the number of the units? I can tell you, not because of a round number.


1) Notoriety of units

Everybody saw already the core unit's and maybe treir statistics, at least approximately. Also that sounds like a good reason to take a look at the era: "There's the beast that stomped my hero onto the floor in that campaign, but now I will be the one who is stomping..." On the other hand of course, people who have dislike for campaings can narrow the range of units to the default ones.

2) Structural issues

Theoretically, there could be a new category made, like PYR Advanced, or PYR Ultimate. However as i know, the code was written to work with the two existing gamemode. Introducing a new one might not be easy at all, and have to dig up the whole design.

3) The desired unit's harmony with the system aka balance

I have to emphasize that even current units can change time to time; adding a new element to an unstable mix could result something unforeseenable. Until i feel more secure about current values i rather not do that. The best you can do to force me to consider to include your favorite faction or anything at all: to keep play it, play it a lot and discover hidden anomalies. Khalifate and Invasion From The Unknown are the most possible candidates for a later expansion, but some units amongst them can be really a bugger, for example the Ekim. A strong healer like it could strengthen entrenching stategies and could make units with a bunch of high resistances (Skeleton, Cavalryman etc...) more valuable.

4) Strategical diversity

If there's more unit in the game, there's more unit and strategy to be aware of when building a conception. It can end up to the point when no matter how well you select your men (and ladies), the opponent might just set up something which has significantly better chances against you. This an unfortunately well-known phenomena in unbalances eras, and even in default! PYR Armagedonn was written with this in mind: to be free from factional imbalances.
The only effective way to letting able to calculate with every outcome is to increase the fixed gold limit in that gamemode, while some conception's power is already kept in level with this limit. The main culprit is the Dwarvish Witness-based armies, because the cost of the Witness represent initial weaknesses until the (late) midgame.

5) Diplomatic confrontations

I drawed a line at core units because if i decide to include another era, units of hundreds of other eras' implementantion becomes available. Who will say which of them are used and which not? While sci-fi or plain silly eras with geometrical shapes as units might not, but I don't want to reject people one by one to put in this and that.
I wish to keep high standards in the field of the graphics too; that's why i pack in 1.9 branch sprites. I can understand that people want to play with nice units. While it's a very subjective thing to say which graphics reach this standard, core units have the obvious advantage, because even if it's really obsolete in it's current state, some artist may take it up and enhance its quality.



In short, these are the reasons.

[Khadras]

where can i download your era?

[Horus2]

where can i download your era?

It's where each of them are: downloadable at the Add-ons menu point.



As i mentioned before, there will be another meeting session soon, namely next week's Thursday. So if anyone is interested in this era, but unsurprisingly having difficulties to find (good) opponents, then join our ranks at August 11. 14:00 (GMT) on the official server. You'll probably find my name in a PYR game there.


Until then, here's a nice 2v2 match produced recently on the Underworld in the company of such great players like soul_steven, Mint, noob-killer... and Cookie. Definitely worthy to watch! (i feel bad for the steelclad part, however, rematch is welcome).

4p_-_Underworld_pyra.gz

Horus and soul_steven VS noob-killer and Mint

(40.08 KiB) Downloaded 655 times

[Khadras]

There is nothing that it is called Pick Your Recruits Armageddon (Standard & Extended) in Add-on menu point. I'm sorry, but maybe i don't understand its name.

[MattDakka]

Look for the add-on named: "Pick Your Recruits A" by Horus2,Zaton in the list.

[Khadras]

Look for the add-on named: "Pick Your Recruits A" by Horus2,Zaton in the list.

There is no "Pick Your Recruits A" by Horus2,Zaton in the list. For witch version of Wesnoth? I have 1.9.8. I looked in the add-on list from the game and into the add-on list on the addons.wesnoth.org and nothing was there. Beleave me.

[MattDakka]

I have 1.8.6.

[Horus2]

Version 1.2.0 is on the add-on server for a while, go and download it.
It's 1.2 branch already, since it contains something spectacular amongst the bugfixes and balance tweaks: 3 new units in Extended gamemode!

And no, they're not from the Khalifate. Not yet. As long as they're not implemented in the new stable version on Wesnoth, with refined stats. I don't like the idea to modify them all the way as their testing progresses.
For now, i offer the three masked dwarves from The Hammer Of Thursagan. Originally they were equivalent to normal dwarves, but here all of them got a wondrous abitily while their general fighting potential (HPs, damage of the main weapon) have been decreased. You may also notice that Orcish Shaman and his older counterpart got a new special too.
Try them out and have fun!

[Mint]

I have a little nitpick in default leader choice. Shouldn't it really be random? Everyone has this love for lieutenants
and think they're awesome but I see past their scheming and see them for the usefulness they really are

[Horus2]

I have a little nitpick in default leader choice. Shouldn't it really be random? Everyone has this love for lieutenants
and think they're awesome but I see past their scheming and see them for the usefulness they really are

You posed a strange question, and what makes it strange is that i was recently thinking about random leader usage too, and i threw a certain idea into the bin.

First of all, i have to disagree that Lieutenant would be so superior that it would make other leaders useless (which was rather a valid statement for quick dwarvish leaders), although it's certainly in the top ten. Since leaders are for free and some leaders are the lvl2 versions of more expensive units than others, base idea "each of them is considerable" is not something i'm able to carry out. The most i can do is to keep the range of the selection wide, and that's not so narrow right now. Leaders i would use without hesitation: Lieutenant, yeah, not bad. It was my previous favourite too, but later i found it too fragile and moderate in hot situations. Then Elvish Marksman, that needs no advertisement. Drake Flare can rival the loy leader for sure. Drake Warrior is a fierce one, the combination of mobility and raw strength proves its usefulness quite ofter, and has a nice village to cap with it on The Freelands. Deathblade is a killer, Rogue is something considerable albeit has its drawbacks. Dwarvish Steelclad and Thunderguard can still occur in certain cases, like on Sablestone Delta. And there are some trustworthy mages around too, and event amongst them the White Mage is a deviant character, tbh i have no experiences with it, but looking promising for some curious strategy.

I was thinking about forcing random leader, but if one is gifted with Trapper and the other gets Elvish Marksman, then it's inbalance right from turn one, something i really have to avoid. Another plan was a narrowed top16 leader random, but it gave up one of its original purposes of getting random leader while still had a certain problem. Namely: the only little piece of information you can rely on while preparing for a full random army is its leader, and it is good to have, because it, again, make the role of luck smaller. You can expect that your opponent wants a slow-paced game it he has a Lieutenant, you can choose units whose are using the right damage type against that leader, so he can't play Rambo... (And finally, forcing the lamest 16 leader would be wrong too, since you need power to keep first day rushes in bay.)



On a sidenote, v2.1 is out! I'm a bit late with saying that, since this has been uploaded for a while, sorry all, hope you all found it despite the lack of instruction. And just to know, v2.2 is coming soon, and when i'm saying coming soon, i mean hours. So be on alert and check for updates!
And until then, enjoy the self-written hints - or not, it's up to you - which can be found inside the folder of the era to replace original message of the day. Are you annoyed by Wesnoth keep informing you that Great Sage Dacyn realised in 626? Hell, how these simpletons survived devastating assaults by ancient lich lords circa the Foundation without knowing the elementary fact how one can blast a horde of skeletons into bone shanks in fifteen minutes? They needed more than 600 years and the wisest member of a think tank to finally face what every newbie knows about White Mages, maybe without starting the game at all! So, if you find it irritating too, you might want to overwrite that file to provide yourself with actually useful tips for beating other players in PYR Armageddon with a better chance - and Great Sage Dacyn for sure.