Unit ability: defends

[CyberJack]

CyberJack: here's a description of your effect.

Whenever an opponent's unit attempts to attack a unit of yours, if both it and the attacker are adjacent to this unit, then the attacker has a percentage chance to attack this unit instead, displayed next to this ability in the unit desription. If two units with this ability attempt to redirect the attack, then their probabilities are evaluated in a random order.

Thank you.

That's roughly what I would have written if I were writing for the helpfile. But on this forum I feel a more technical approach is appropriate, especially while we're brainstorming lots of alternatives. It can be rewritten into user-focused active-tense form once we know what's actually implemented.

[nitpick]
The first 'it' is ambiguous (opponent's unit vs. yours). This clause could be shortened to "If both are adjacent to this unit,".
The %age probably won't be displayed, it'll be specified in the definition of the ability (just as the %age bonus from leadership is) and will be the same for all units. Unless anyone decides otherwise, of course.
[/nitpick]

[Elvish_Pillager]

The %age probably won't be displayed

Your explanation of your description said it was! Didn't it?

[entropomorphic]

I don't like where this is going... Having a bodyguard unit that has a certain chance of absorbing ALL of an attack would only serve to increase the sense of luck involved in the game. Good features should coerce a player to think strategically, not make them angry when the bodyguard didn't save their half-dead mage from the Troll Warrior. How many of us would load the autosave until he did? I thought so.

This is why I think having the bodyguard absorb a certain percentage of the damage from all attacks on ajacent units, except maybe magic attacks.

[romnajin]

I could see a lot of people doing that!


me included

[Assasin]

Really, I don't see any use for the bodyguard accept to protect key units, like leaders or weak units like mages. They'd be too expensive to make a lot of, and the enemy would focus on them first instead of the unit they were after. So, you've just spent 30 gold on a unit that moves really slow, doesn't have a good attack, and just died. If ur lookin fr a bdygurd, use irn mulers, they wrk wel

[CyberJack]

I said in the first place that I wasn't very keen on the bodyguard, and having implemented and played it I have these observations:

60% (or 50%, or even 40%) chance-to-intercept is way too high. Two bodyguards make the guy between them almost unhittable, certainly unkillable. The replay I attached earlier shows this; the leader doesn't even have to strike back, just stay surrounded by guards while the attackers wear themselves out in a futile attempt to reach him (heh! why don't film villains ever do this?).

OTOH, 30% or less makes a single bodyguard almost worthless. When you're trying to save a guy in the front line who's unexpectedly low on HP (after bad luck in his round of combat), such a weak guard is unlikely to save his charge from the fatal stroke.

So, although it's straightforward to implement, this concept of "a unit that intercepts some attacks (or takes a proportion of the damage) directed against another unit" doesn't seem viable in terms of balanced gameplay. It's still been worth doing, though; better to reject an idea after trying it out than just on guesswork. And if anyone wants to take my code & improve on it, please do; maybe someone else can find a way to make the concept playable after all.

Meanwhile, can I point back to the other concepts proposed earlier in this thread: the unit that improves adjacent units' defence and the Empath?

[js138]

I think it would be quite fun to have this ability split into the current 'offense is the best defence' damage increasing variant and a 'defence first' defence improving variant.

[indeed you could concoct 8 branches - improve damage, reduce damage, improve to hit, reduce to hit, and affect opposing unit or friendly one for each of those].

an ability which could reduce the opponents chance to hit the adjacent unit by 10% (and I don't mean from 40 to 50, but from 40 to 36 and from 80 to 72) would be interesting - particularly so in less good defensive terrain.

Has the merit of simplicity of application, tho balancing might be less simple.

[Assasin]

You are making it too complicated. I play Wesnoth after I burn myself on my homework. If we add all of these factors in, it'll make it way to confusing

[turin]

I was assuming that no units that are lvl 1 get bodyguards; if this is true, there is no problem. You kill the bodyguards before attacking the leader. This should be obvious! Haven't you ever watched one of those assassinate-the-president movies? They go for the secret service men, take them out one by one, then go inside the building where the president is.

[drachefly]

Haven't you ever watched one of those assassinate-the-president movies? They go for the secret service men, take them out one by one, then go inside the building where the president is.

I'm sorry, I can only think of The Manchurian Candidate. ;>

In any case, if we do it in the same fashion as Taunting Elf, then they won't have any option, will they?

[romnajin]

Why don't we make it 50, but no more than one bodyguard on one unit?

[Elvish_Pillager]

Why don't we make it 50,

Make WHAT 50?

[romnajin]

Why don't we make it 50,

Make WHAT 50?

The chance that an attacker will hit the bodyguard instead of it's target.

Really, I don't see any use for the bodyguard accept to protect key units, like leaders or weak units like mages.

Assasin got it!