Jump to content

LetswaveaBook

Balancing Advisors
  • Posts

    953
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

Posts posted by LetswaveaBook

  1. 22 hours ago, ChronA said:

    . The game needs to have some mechanics-based hard counter cycles so that not every battle is decided by marginal differences in unit numbers or strength that are mostly attributable to the snowballing of minor decisions and tactical blunders from 10 minutes ago.

    That is the meaning of a soft counter system!

    I think some flaws are just inherent to an soft counter system and the citizen soldier system, but on other points these systems have their charms. These two systems might have their strengths and flaws, but I think we need to stick with what makes 0ad stand out. Which is off course these two systems.

    • Like 1
  2. I think the game on itself can have some merits, but it comes at a $50+ price. Probably it is not so much about the money for me, but more about the idea that it does not justify its price. If you like history, creating things and finding your way around in the 0ad engine, you could try to make a 0ad campaign if you are super bored. If you are into competitive multiplayer, I don't know if AoE4 gives better experience than age of empires 2 on voobly. You could always try DE of course.

     

    But in the end, you need to decide for yourself what things in live you enjoy.

  3. I wanted to advocate an idea for an campaign and hope we can create something. The first thing I would like to do is to find historical inspiration for the missions.

    Mission 1: Battle of Gaza: Together with your ally ptolemy, you defeat Demetrius the besieger. In this mission the both sides start with a big army and you get to control it.

    Mission 2: The Babylonian War: This time the opponent are the antigonids again. In this mission it is important to capture local/gaia CCs and get the local support. Maybe we can find a role for Local(Persian) troops in this war.

    Mission 3: Seleucid–Mauryan war: The opponent is the Mauryas, but I am not sure what the mission should further look like. I think that from the fact that Chandragupta Maurya accepted to marry Seleucids daughter probably means Seleucus army fought honorably.

    Mission 4: The battle of Ipsus: Personally, I prefer mission where u build an army instead of just starting with some armies and then fighting it out. So I do not have a lot of ideas for this mission.

    Mission 5: The defeat of Demetrius in Cilicia: In this mission, you will avoid a direct confrontation and instead you will opt to chose a number of fortifications in order to to trap the army of Demetrius of which they join Seleucus.

    Mission 6: Aftermath of the Battle of Corupedium: After Lysimachus is defeated, you are tasked with a small army to take some possession in Asia Minor.

    Maybe extra mission could be added. Also it would be nice if the galatians could get a role if they deserve so.

     

    • Like 4
  4. 34 minutes ago, Philip the Swaggerless said:

    The challenge is everyone knows and is used to mainland so it's hard to fill up game on other maps.  The tournaments in the past helped get people to play other maps for awhile.

    FeldFeld has been able to create balanced mainland and that one seems to be used. Also, if there are complaints then those people might enjoy a change. The only problem with the mod system is that it can be a little cumbersome to install mods (It can take up to several minutes!). If map mods are published on mod.io that could make it less cumbersome.

    • Thanks 1
  5. 3 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    This way, around minute 12-16 there would be considerable risk to having all of your units be rank 1, since someone who planned for having a powerful, partially ranked CS army could attack you (and disrupt your economic process to reach champions). 

    Does in your setup quality(advanced rank) of units outclass quantity(cheaper rank 1) CS soldiers? That is a very big question.

  6. 53 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

    Rise of Seleucus

    Anabasis of Alexander

    Clash of Civilizations: The Greco-Persian Wars

    Hannibal at the Gates

    Wrath of Boudicca 

    Iberia: Arena of Death 

    The Last Cataract

    I think the story of Seleucus has the advantage in that he interacted with the macedonian, the ptolemies, the persian (after the achaemenids had been defeated), the galatian gauls and the mauryas.

    • Like 1
  7. 4 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    The rank 2,3 option creates the possibility CS can beat champions in some instances, not 1 to 1 and not between units of the same class. Champions are good but they are flawed in that there is not much diversity of champions accessible to each civ. Being the first to champions gives too big a reward and often means that other players won’t have enough economy left to make their own even if they have access to a champion that can fight the enemies. Truly rank2/3 units’ purpose is to provide a non-economic unit that players can afford when their economy is not quite good enough for champions. Because of this, it bridges the power gap between someone who has champs and someone who does not. 

    Do you think the feature has any merit beyond the topic of countering champion-masses, like in the booming=military discussion?

    Maybe it helps if I rephrase the question. Suppose we want to make 50 spear cavalry. A player could chose between having 30 rank 1 CS spear cav and 20 champs or the player could chose for 50 rank 3 CS. What is the big difference between the two assuming things are properly balanced? I don't really see the effective difference between the two options myself.

    4 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    Champions are good but they are flawed in that there is not much diversity of champions accessible to each civ.

    That is issue the same for CS units. Athenians, Carthaginians, Macedonians, Muaryans, Persians, Ptolemies and Spartans (ignoring skiritai) all have only two types of CS infantry. Neither looks the variety of CS cavalry really hot, especially since the spear cavalry and the seleucid/persian horse archers are difficult to use. Also 6 out of the 13 factions have at least 4 champions(including elephants): the Gauls, Kushites, Macedonians, Mauryas, Persians and Seleucids. I guess a complaint about unit variety is not something that just comes down to issues with champions.

  8. 7 hours ago, Player of 0AD said:

    Even Persian and Seleucid champ cav? They get a health bonus.

    CS javelin cavalry perform very decent against CS spear cavalry. For champions it is the same logic, but the only basic champion javelin cavalry is the briton chariot, which performs against the champion spear cavalry similar as the CS javelin cav does against the champ spear cavalry. The iber fire cav is special in that every javelin adds 1 fire damage for 5 seconds. It needs to be noticed that the fire damage ignores armor. Against a champion spear cavalry, that means that the javelin does 36*0.9^7=17.2 pierce damage without upgrades on both sides (and 17.9 if both sides have full upgrades). So if you do 18 damage, then doing 5 more is really significant (28% more damage). This outclasses the 20% extra HP. When you put a spear campion cavalry against the iber fire cavalry in a 1v1, the iber fire cavalry receives 191 damage, so having the spear cavalry last 20% longer is just not enough.

    Roman in Iber campion cavalry are indeed special and we need to ask if all champion cavalry are inbalanced or whether it are just these two.

    Back to the topic about champions, I think champions are not the only trick a player with a better economy can use

    On 16/10/2021 at 1:34 PM, LetswaveaBook said:

    Firstly I will name some things you can do if you are able to collect more resources than your opponent:

    1. Transform your food economy to corrals and cavalry, which means you need less women and can get more army.

    2. Get will to fight.

    3. Build an wonder and get the glorious expansion technology. In the game replay section of the forum I posted some games where Havran did this to show it can be vialbe.

    4. Make champions.

    I don't believe any of these options themselves create imbalance. The imbalance is caused by the fact that some players are able to put themselves into a position to use these options. Only eliminating champions as an option wont stop the players in the better position to use these options.

     

    8 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    The reason for bullet 2 in my starting post was to allow all players to more easily train at least some quantity of their champion, meaning a cav player with champions could still run into champion spear inf of some type. Also, it would mean that unique champion buildings are actually important/good rather than a hindrance to champion training, because they are cheaper than a fort and do not have a unlock cost (which would be a lot more than 600 food) like the barracks/stable.

     

    I think the proposal you made changes things, but they don't necessarily solve issues. If you need fortresses for champions, then instead of 4 stables, a fortress and the champion upgrade, you would build 3 fortresses. So that does not fully limit the production of champions. Also, you would limit the usage of champions to those players who play passively and build fortresses. So then the player would be excellently defended and still train champions. I don't agree that having unique buildings is a major hindrance than a benefit. If you do the unlock champion tech it will cost you 600 food, while the number of barracks remain the same. If an Athenian player builds two gymnasia, then he spends 400 stone and 400 metal, then you can produce CS soldiers from your barracks and at the same time produce champion. If you compare the cost of building 2 gymnasia with that of building 2 extra barracks and the champion upgrade, you will get similar results (400 stone and metal vs. 600 food, 400 wood and 200 stone). Also gymnasia have a better batch training modifier.

    8 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

     on the "mass champs=cheap" note, take iber as an example. If you are making cavalry you might use a combination of spear and javelin combined with the firecav you could afford initially. As you win engagements, you will still take losses from spearcav and CS javcav dying, but you can retrain with firecav until you have 30-40 total, and at this point it is very hard to lose more firecav than you can afford to retrain.

    I think this is something that happens, but it would apply to all champion units (and citizen units trainable at higher rank). It is barely an unique abuse.

    8 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    I give a scenario that I hope demonstrates the possible tradeoffs for rank 1,2,3 cs training. A player plans to go for champions, so they make all CS rank 1 so they can have a fast economy and produce the game-ending mass of champs, another player starts making rank 2 and 3 units in anticipation of launching a fast attack as the other player is trying to unlock/train champions (the attacking player has an advantage of being prepared and training ranked units for use in battle sooner rather than having them gather res for a long time before fighting). Having rank 2/3 units more readily available bridges the power divide between champions and CS: it is a way to break the steady-state where a player can afford only to retrain more and more rank 1 units that are instantly defeated by the critical mass of champions and will never reach rank 2 or 3. As an example for how it could help reduce the ease of champ massing, imagine mace player making rank 3 spearcav (at a large cost, but much less than champion) to try to beat iber firecav. 

    Instead of training all your spear cavalry at rank 3, you could also train some spear cavalry at rank 1 and mix it with spear cav champions. What does the rank 3 "in between" option solve? If you want to have a better army, you can also currently mix in some champions.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 2
  9. 4 hours ago, alre said:

    Also melee units have steeper ranking benefits, so increasing the value of melee units may actually result in heavier snowballing probably (kind of what we have seen with melee cav in this alpha: when it starts rolling it just gets stronger).

    They indeed have steeper benefits, but it is a lot harder for them to promote, even if ranged units need more xp. Xp is gained per damage dealt and ranged units deal more damage and aren't prone to dying as much a frontliners. Also, promotion is a subject we could tackle in other ways.

    I was playing with Leonidas and had hoplite tradition, so you expect to do more damage and get easy promotions for the hoplites. That was not the case in the battles.

    • Thanks 1
  10. 1 hour ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    iber firecav and consular bodyguard

    These units are different from all other champions so the deserve a different treatment. These units are very good. Iber firecav can beat any infantry or cavalry champion, so that deserves a nerf. Roman champion cavalry is also better than all/most other melee cavalry and it is a faction that historically did not have good cavalry. For other champions, I would say they deserve to be strong and they deserve to have advantages. Personally I think their strength is okay, considering the role they play. If you are able to afford champions, you should in my opinion get some return on that. If your opponent ignores the most powerful units of his arsenal, he deserves to be potentially punished for that.

     

    1 hour ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    You seem to disagree that the barracks/stable xp generation as it is implemented now is a feature fulfilling the "can get rank 2/3 CS units" idea; do you support an improvement of this feature or do you think it should be eliminated or left a mostly useless feature?

    I think the feature is nice as an extra, but it is not a way to actively gain rank 2 or 3 units. Who can afford having his melee infantry contribute nothing for 200 seconds? On the other hand, I would not like a feature where players just sit with their melee units in a barracks waiting till an enemy shows up or until the units are fully promoted.

    1 hour ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    well, once you have 40 of them, your kill to death ratio will increase more and more, and you will be re-training fewer and fewer of them.

    That is logical reasoning.

    1 hour ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

    Ideally it gets more expensive to maintain more champions rather than less expensive as it is now.

    That is opposite to the previous statement which represent the current state. Why would you consider it ideal if maintaining more champions would be more expensive? Having a better army should gain rewards, shouldn't it?

    • Like 1
  11. Something I noticed about snowballing is the imbalance of ranged/melee units, where ranged units are more valuable/important.

    If you defeat an opponent in a battle, he loses some of his ranged units. While the winner only loses some melee units and keeping the more valuable/important ranged units alive. Currently, you only IMHO need enough melee units to tank enemy fire. So having lost some melee units is not bad as long as you have enough to tank opposing fire, In some situations having about 10% melee units can be enough in these situations. If you have most of your ranged (&valuable/important) units alive, then you remain at nearly full firepower.

    So here is another way for me to advocate reducing the power of ranged units.

    • Like 1
  12. 21 hours ago, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

     0 AD attempts to represent factions at their zenith.  

     

    Why is it necessary that all heroes/units are from a factions zenith? If you take heroes from different eras you also get heroes that fought different enemies so that leave more room for stories and such. Taking only heroes from a factions zenith means the Macedonians do not have a Greek enemy represented in the timeframe of their power.

    For me it seems to be fine to represent most factions as they were during the period of their zenith and the time thereafter until say 0AD.

     

    • Like 2
  13. 4 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:
    • Broad armor reduction (this way it will be harder and more expensive to keep a mass of champions, which will also help prevent the champion armies from growing as easily as they do now). Special attention would be paid to some of the worse offending categories like cavalry overall, and iber firecav and consular bodyguard.
    • return champion training to fortress/unique building with no unlock technology. Also, give some kind of nerf to training champion from barracks/stable (or batch buff to training in fort). The purpose of this is to make it easier to train some champions and harder to make a lot.
    • Allow some mechanic to make CS at rank 1, 2, or 3 without fighting. The purpose of this is to allow a player to make some kind of economy vs military decision for the CS, and to help bridge the power gap between champions and CS. My favorite idea (not sure who thought of it) to implement this was to add the rank 2 option in barracks/stable in p2 and give it extra cost in the form of food wood and metal, subsequently rank three in phase 3.

    I guess my opinion on all of these points is voiced earlier. I will say that I disagree with all 3 of them. However we could do something about ranking. I think we might give heroes auras that help gaining experience. Every hero has the inspired defense aura and we could maybe add to units getting (more) xp when garrisoned together with the hero.

    3 hours ago, Player of 0AD said:

    Already implemented

    referring to the barracks/stables? GoodJokes.

  14. On 11/07/2021 at 6:10 AM, vinme said:

    anyway where do i stand/used to when i played?

    I don't know where u used to stand in A23 and we did not play a lot of games in A24 together. But according to the leaderboard, you are with a respectable rating of 1905 just a single point behind me ;)

  15. 6 minutes ago, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

    it is also unique to have only one champion unit and let it be available early."

     

    That is opposite to what I was thinking, but I can respect that. The thing I dislike about Sparta is that they have so little variety of units, but that could say more about my views than it says about the Spartans.

    8 minutes ago, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

    Why does the bodyguard exist?

    A good question, but I would like to rephrase it: Why does the consular bodyguard exist and have excellent stats? If it was a sub-par unit, I think it would not be such an issue from a historical point of view.

    • Like 1
  16. @lagger, I think you are jumping on conclusions to quickly. First of all, you assume someone misused their powers, whereas a little more interest in that person might bring you on other views.

    For the case of being expected to resign after your allies have lost, that is indeed something. Against 4 opponents you won't have a fair chance and that is something you understood as well. Noobdude decided to close the game, which seems rude to you. In 0ad we are in the inconvenient position that if the host leaves the game, the game closes. That aside, I think the notion of ''rude'' depends on how you view it. Obviously you might have fun trying to defend, but what if the other 4 players just consider it a waste of time? Is it then still rude to leave the game? The answer on that question depends on what is bringing you towards the game and if that is competitive play, then winning 4v1 is not your thing. So probably those people view that you are just wasting their time by trying to play 4v1, while the game is all ready over in their view. Also, if they think that someone who drags unwinnable games on, they might consider that annoying. So is a person allowed to kick someone from a game if they consider that person annoying? Or let me rephrase it: Do you have to accept annoying people in your games? If the answer is "no", then you can hardly call that an abuse of power.

     

    While I (hope to) understand your point of view, there are people with other views.  I think that both views should be respected and phrases as "rude" and "abuse of power" are not in place.

    Also if you don't like Noobdude or anyone in particular, you could always host your own games and decide with who you want to play.

    • Like 1
  17. On 19/05/2019 at 12:50 AM, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

    It likewise would be cool if Spartiates were available in the village or even the town phase to open up new offensive and defensive purposes for the unit; after all it's weird to have the male citizens only present at the late phase of the game.  

    I think Sparta without Spartans is weird, but it is also weird to have only one champion unit and let it be available early.

    So I would suggest something like the  Trophimoi, non-Spartan citiziens who received Spartan education. That would also be fitting for the team, as Spartan education is something that Sparta provided to loyal allied nobles. I would suggest to make the Trophimoi available as a team bonus (available at the CC once p3 is reached, no upgrades required). Both champions should be champion hoplites, but the difference with the Trophimoi could be that instead of the +25% HP, they get an small aura to inspire/drill/boost nearby spearman. That is also what Xanthippus of Carthage did in the first punic wars. Xenophon had sent children to the agoge and Clearchus of Sparta was a spartan mercenary helping the Persians.  The existance of Trophimoi also boosted probably the morale of the Spartan non-citizen hoplites, as it was a way to gain a better social class. So boosting Spartan CS hoplites would also be justified. I think having a champion with aura as a team bonus is more interactive than just some extra health.

    Anyway, I think there are a lot of "ill-designed" team bonuses, that help with all strategies but nothing in particular. Also, it is a pity to me that the Iberian&roman team bonuses are more impactful than most regular bonuses.

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...