Default Plus Era

[Celtic_Minstrel]

This is an extension of the default era that includes most of the core units not available in the default era and a number of units from mainline campaigns, with some custom units to flesh out the advancement trees a little. It also has a number of additional factions, most of which are remixes of the default factions to focus more on a single race (for example, "Wood Elves" or "Merfolk"). Currently there are 18 factions in total.

I haven't worked on balancing anything at this point; some factions are almost certainly a lot weaker than the rest. It's still a work in progress somewhat; there are still a number of plans and ideas for further expansion (though nothing drastic). I'm considering including the Steelhive and Khalifate factions; I may consider adding other factions as long as they're standalone factions rather than part of an era (for example, there will be no Dalefolk from Era of Four Moons or Devlings from Era of Myths included in this era; if that's what you want, try Ageless Era).

As of this post, version 0.1 is on the add-ons server. In addition to "Default++", it includes an "Age of Heroes++". The AoH++ version allows recruiting the level 1 unit in lines that are normally leader-only (for example, the Sergeant). Generally speaking, core units were left unchanged while units from mainline campaigns were sometimes tweaked. [acronym=Except the ones I forgot <_<]All[/acronym] units have additional AMLAs as well, though currently they need two or three health boosts first.

Current list of factions:

When it says "same as default" it means that it's a superset of that faction in the default era, not identical to it.

• Kingdom of Wesnoth — same as default Loyalists
• Undead — same as default
• Rebels — same as default
• Northerners — same as default
• Dwarven Doors — same as default Knalgan Alliance
• Drakian Empire — same as default Drakes; not entirely happy with the name
• Wood Elves — just elves, no woses/merfolk/etc; includes Elvish Hunter
• Trolls — just trolls and ogres; very weak
• Outlaws — outlaws with two mage lines (Dark Adept and branching Rogue Mage)
• Orcs — orcs and goblins, with a shaman line
• Monster Lovers — most monsters are included here
• Merfolk — all merfolk plus a couple of fliers
• Loyalist Humans — just humans
• Free Saurians — all saurians and nagas
• Forest Alliance — basically woses and some monsters
• Knalga — just dwarves, no outlaws
• Drakes — just drakes, no saurians
• Desert Elves — from Under the Burning suns, with an extra branching mage unit line

[Faerie_Storm]

Update on the addons server with the latest version which is 0.1.3
Minor revisions as well as new graphics have been added.

The merged change log is as follows:

Spoiler:

- new re-coloured sprits for the blue mage, frost mage, and desert adept
- fixed the frost mage losing heals + 4 when levelling up from the blue mage and gave them the cures ability.
- added the female rogue mage, female shadow mage, and shadow lady graphics and implemented the female variants
- fixed a bug where the dwarvish fighter skipped to the runemaster
- fixed a bug where the naga tracker was level 1 (now level 2) when it upgraded from the naga hunter (also level 1)
- fixed a bug where the desert ranger had woodland move type instead of desertfoot move type
- fixed the male desert archmage graphic appearing blank (wrong images referenced)
- added the soldier ants spit attack graphic
- reduced the melee strikes for all the elvish hunter lines by one (both wood and desert)
- increased the cost of the rogue mage from 17 to 20
- increased the cost of the wood elf hunter from 16 to 18
- added in the missing thief to the outlaws faction
- in the desert elves faction the ranger, avenger, sentinel and prowler gain the camouflage ability
- fixed the special notes for the camouflage ability referring to it as "ambush"

[Dwarven_Void]

I tried you era, and it was good. I have a couple of criticisms:

-Why would anyone choose wood elves over rebels? Fewer, and less varied recruit, not to mention less magic. Maybe reduce the number of elven units available?
-Trolls are useless with only 2 recruits. I recommend following TEG's footsteps, and having a level 1 shaman (you can take sprite from there). Alternative, you can have a "Cave dwellers" faction - trolls, spiders, bats etc
-Giant ants are hideous overpriced. 12 gold gets you a unit with 6-2 attack and 22hp. An elvish fighter (14 gold) is 6-4 and 36 hp. I know where my money is placed...
-Instead of recruiting gryphons, take a young gryphon (from TsoG or A Gryphon's tale) and use that. It feels more "right" than a gryphon, and decreases the number of level 2 units on the battle
-Finally, don't allow Yeti's to be leaders. An 80 gold leader is such a massive advantage over a 30 gold leader (which is what everyone else is likely to have)

It's a nice era though, for all that it needs work.

[Celtic_Minstrel]

-Why would anyone choose wood elves over rebels? Fewer, and less varied recruit, not to mention less magic. Maybe reduce the number of elven units available?

I'm a little unsure what you mean by that last sentence. The wood elves do have two units (Civilian and Hunter) that the Rebels do not, as I recall, though I can see how that may not be enough. (In particular they, like several other factions, lack a good water or flying unit.)

-Trolls are useless with only 2 recruits. I recommend following TEG's footsteps, and having a level 1 shaman (you can take sprite from there). Alternative, you can have a "Cave dwellers" faction - trolls, spiders, bats etc

Yeah, I want more trolls. First I need to find graphics for them that I like, though. I'm not sure I like the idea of including spiders with them, though bats I suppose I could see. I was also going to include the yeti.

-Giant ants are hideous overpriced. 12 gold gets you a unit with 6-2 attack and 22hp. An elvish fighter (14 gold) is 6-4 and 36 hp. I know where my money is placed...

Noted. Do you have a recommended price to use instead?

-Instead of recruiting gryphons, take a young gryphon (from TsoG or A Gryphon's tale) and use that. It feels more "right" than a gryphon, and decreases the number of level 2 units on the battle

A good idea; I certainly do want to get rid of the level 2 recruits as much as possible. (Is TsoG = The Soujournings of Grog?)

-Finally, don't allow Yeti's to be leaders. An 80 gold leader is such a massive advantage over a 30 gold leader (which is what everyone else is likely to have)

This isn't going to change per se, but we had some vague plans to create a whole yeti line, so once that's done you'd get a level 2 or 3 yeti for your leader (for default/AoH respectively). Of course, it sort of needs more graphics; simply shrinking the existing yeti graphic probably isn't enough.

[Dwarven_Void]

I'm a little unsure what you mean by that last sentence. The wood elves do have two units (Civilian and Hunter) that the Rebels do not, as I recall, though I can see how that may not be enough. (In particular they, like several other factions, lack a good water or flying unit.)

I would recommend giving the rebels only one or two elven units (maybe just the fight + archer). Also, IfTU & AtS have level one elven "Ascetics" which boil down to being L1 elven magic for the wood elves. You could also consider letting the WE's recruit falcons (also in IftU) which kinda makes sense, and improves the faction a lot.

Yeah, I want more trolls. First I need to find graphics for them that I like, though. I'm not sure I like the idea of including spiders with them, though bats I suppose I could see. I was also going to include the yeti.

I suggest you don't use the Yeti too much. It's big, it crushes everything, and I can't think of a reason why it would be allied with trolls.

Noted. Do you have a recommended price to use instead?

7, and drop the giant rat to 5 (it's really no better than the mudcrawler, which is also 5)

A good idea; I certainly do want to get rid of the level 2 recruits as much as possible. (Is TsoG = The Soujournings of Grog?)

Yes

This isn't going to change per se, but we had some vague plans to create a whole yeti line, so once that's done you'd get a level 2 or 3 yeti for your leader (for default/AoH respectively). Of course, it sort of needs more graphics; simply shrinking the existing yeti graphic probably isn't enough.

Well, if you get that working, great.

[taptap]

This era is completely unbalanceable with current MP maps, because you have many terrain dependent factions. Unless you publish dedicated unsymmetric maps it simply isn't possible to balance e.g. wood elves vs. merfolk where one side is exclusively water dependent and the other has no unit able to go through water. I guess it can be fun in survivals or so, but it definitely doesn't look balanceable for normal multiplayer.

[Celtic_Minstrel]

I would recommend giving the rebels only one or two elven units (maybe just the fight + archer). Also, IfTU & AtS have level one elven "Ascetics" which boil down to being L1 elven magic for the wood elves. You could also consider letting the WE's recruit falcons (also in IftU) which kinda makes sense, and improves the faction a lot.

I like the idea of the falcons; would the khalifate falcon be acceptable though? I don't know how it compares to the IftU falcon. Using the ascetic line also sounds like a good idea.

I can't think of a reason why it would be allied with trolls.

I dunno, it seems vaguely troll-like somehow.

This era is completely unbalanceable with current MP maps, because you have many terrain dependent factions. Unless you publish dedicated unsymmetric maps it simply isn't possible to balance e.g. wood elves vs. merfolk where one side is exclusively water dependent and the other has no unit able to go through water. I guess it can be fun in survivals or so, but it definitely doesn't look balanceable for normal multiplayer.

I'm not worried too much about the merfolk, to be honest. I don't want to get rid of the faction, but I understand that it would be pretty much impossible to balance with respect to any of the other factions on any of the default maps. If I can get all the factions other than merfolk (and perhaps monster lovers) to a state where they are at least not horribly unbalanced, I think that would be enough.

[Dwarven_Void]

The khalifate flacon is a much better idea. Go for that.

Also, having run through again, giving desert elves acess to scorpions, and maybe cactoses (TSoG again) would greatly improve them.

As a way to balance the merfolk, (wild idea here) maybe they have recognised the fact that they are rubbish on land, an hired mercenaries? Maybe they can recruit hired khalifate soldiers, which would make them instantly more playable. Not all of them, maybe just the Arif, the Jundi, and the naffat. That would help.

[Celtic_Minstrel]

Uploaded version 0.2 to the add-ons server.

Changelog:

• Reduce cost of Giant Ant and Giant Rat (as suggested by Dwarven_Void)
• Add the Khalifate faction (from version 2.0.1 of the Khalifate Era)
• Add falcon to the elf factions (not including Rebels) and bats to the troll faction
• Add Elvish Acolyte line to the wood elves faction
• Yeti can no longer be chosen as the monster lovers leader

(Note: between 0.1.3 and 0.2 there were two other minor revisions for recoloured graphics in the Desert Mage line.)

I'm not sure I like the idea of the merfolk hiring Khalifate mercenaries. In fact, I don't personally feel a need for the merfolk to be balanced with respect to the default maps; for me, it's more of an outlier for special situations, such as ocean or swamp maps.

I saw cactoses somewhere and didn't particularly like them, so I probably won't use them. Giving scorpions to desert elves might be okay; I'll think about it.