Less random game

[Ambegen]

Hi
I'm new around there, just several days ago i found about this game and loved it. But when i lost my best unit ( Defliador ) in fiirst mision HttT due to bad luck i realized that i don't want game where i need to save/load often.
I didn't want to mess with code so i mess with units, i multiplied units number of attack by 4 and their hitpoints by 5 ( i want to make units a little harder to kill ), changed also traits and general options. This way i got more balanced but still random battles.
Just wonder if anyone would be interesed about this modification and where i eventualy can place it.

[Academicus]

there is no difference if you multiply the hit points by 4 but the attacks also by 4, the chance to die is the same, just now with higher numbers. If you wanted them to be harder to kill all you needed was raise the hit points, there is no need to also raise the attack.

[turin]

It reduces the luck factor, which some people think is good.

Here's a tip for you, though: if Delfador keeps dying because of "bad luck", it's because you are putting him in a vulnerable position. It's not because of bad luck, it's because of your own bad tactics. Try to protect him more.

[unsung]

It's not because of bad luck, it's because of your own bad tactics.

now that needs to be the standard argument against unrandomization from now on.

[Academicus]

It reduces the luck factor, which some people think is good.

If you attack 4 times, each attack dealing 10 damage and 50% hit chance to a 40hp enemy, it have no difference of you attacking 4 times, each attack dealing 20 damage and 50% hit chance to an 80 hp enemy.

[(S)elfish weirdo]

Do you see difference to 8 attacks, 10 damage, 50% chance of hitting a 80 hp enemy then? (compared to 4 attacks, 10 damage 50% to hit and 40 hp enemy) if you don't, you're [censored], but on second thought, wouldn't this make healing next to useless?

Now this would make playing without losses far too easy for my taste...

[Ambegen]

but on second thought, wouldn't this make healing next to useless?

you can increase healing rate as well

Now this would make playing without losses far too easy for my taste...

it's just a personal preference...you still can lose units because of bad strategy, but a lot less chance to lose unit because of very bad luck

[(S)elfish weirdo]

True, but a good strategist should be able to prepare for the worst and survive anyway, without the posibility of suddenly losing a unit it would be too easy for my right brain half's taste.

[Casual User]

People have been fighting about randomness since I got on this forum. Here's the first sensible idea ever.

It doesn't involve any new coding, just a lot of repetitive tasks : multiply number of attacks, hitpoints, healing, poison, etc... by x. Very interesting, a fork after 1.0 would be great.

A few suggestions :

1 - Four times would be too much if you ask me. Twice would be good.

The best would be making it an option. 'Randomness smoother', a sliding scale, from 1 to 6, which would change the multiplication. But to make it simpler, twice or at mose thrice would be best.

2 - Careful with traits. You'll need to double resilient, but strong and dextrous will stay the same (practically).

3 - Maybe some units could get double damage instead of double number of attacks. I'm mostly thinking about thunderers. but there might be others.

4 - Don't make them harder to kill. Make it just a randomness smoother.

Maybe the idea will get some people fired up about it. I would like to see what it would be like. Too often, you will lose a battle because you had bad luck once. And save/loading is a pain. Not to mention that it adds to the frustration.

P.S. The 'randomness smoother' sliding scale could be implemented in 'standardnoth' too...

[breversa]

there is no difference if you multiply the hit points by 4 but the attacks also by 4

He would multiply the HP by 5 (FIVE), not 4.

[Academicus]

He would multiply the HP by 5 (FIVE), not 4.

So he should just leave attack the same and raise hp a little, I said that there is no reason to raise both. But that's pointless now since what he meant was to raise the attack number, not the damage.

[Dave]

What he is saying is that he would multiply the hitpoints each unit has by 4, and the number of attacks each unit has by 4, leaving the damage inflicted the same.

This would indeed reduce the luck factor in the game. Before if you needed 1/3 attacks to hit with a 70% chance of each one doing so, you would now need 4/12 attacks to hit. The latter has a higher chance of happening than the former.

The problem with the idea is that it reduces the difference between units. There really is alot of strategic difference between a 12-2 attack and a 6-4 attack. They both have the same damage potential, but one is more reliable, with the other doing alot of damage quickly. If two such attacks meet each other, the 12-2 attack has the potential to wipe the other out quickly if they are low on hp, while the 6-4 attack has the advantage of being more reliable.

With the change we would have a 12-8 attack, and a 6-16 attack. Now sure, the 6-16 attack would still be more reliable, but with everyone having so many attacks now, the difference wouldn't be very noticeable.

David

[Elvish_Pillager]

It would be different, though. Doing damage quickly would be more important.

For instance, if two units with 48 HP left fought, and one had a 12-8 attack and the other had a 6-16 attack...

[Ambegen]

The problem with the idea is that it reduces the difference between units. There really is alot of strategic difference between a 12-2 attack and a 6-4 attack. They both have the same damage potential, but one is more reliable, with the other doing alot of damage quickly. If two such attacks meet each other, the 12-2 attack has the potential to wipe the other out quickly if they are low on hp, while the 6-4 attack has the advantage of being more reliable.

With the change we would have a 12-8 attack, and a 6-16 attack. Now sure, the 6-16 attack would still be more reliable, but with everyone having so many attacks now, the difference wouldn't be very noticeable.

David

Sure, it can rebalance the game, the other problem i found is that slow is almost useless now.
The unit with 12-8 still would be better to finish wounded unit, bacuse it will inflict damage faster but it will take some damage though. You also cannot count for lucky hits ( like unit with 12-2 attack lands two hits on enemy ), landing all 8 hits is a lot harder to happen.
Also the units become more uniwersal, for example if enemy has 13 HP and you attacking with 12-2 unit with 60% chance to hit, you got only 36% chance for killing oponent, after the mod chance will be a lot greater ( i think more that 50% ).
But this is open source game, so everyone can modify it to suit his own needs ( i'm really very grateful programmers for letting players modify their game so easy )

I don't plan to do other modification ( like attack x2 ), i spend several hours editing every single unit file and won't do this again.

If anyone is interesed or want try this mod, please tell where could i upload this. To use this you only need to replace your older units files with new ones ( do backup before doing that), and it probably won't work with already saved games. ( not sure though )

[xtifr]

Sure, it can rebalance the game, the other problem i found is that slow is almost useless now.

Well, obviously you have to make slow remove four moves as well.

The problem with this (as with most attempts to reduce the luck factor in Wesnoth) is that it removes good luck along with bad. It also has the disadvantage of making battles take much longer, without having any significant impact on their outcome. Frankly, I'd rather take my chances the way it is. If I wanted a deterministic game, I'd play chess.