Major Changes and Features of Delenda Est

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Okay, so since the first release is soon with the next alpha, I will use this space to list all the change and features in Delenda Est compared to vanilla game. This is not a changelog because I don't have the time to document every minor change. I will organize this better later.

 

New civilizations: Principate Romans (Imperial era, heroes are Augustus, Titus, Trajan, they have a "Slave Economy" mechanic and a "Auxilia" mechanic; they also unlock phase upgrade by building Temple of Vesta and Triumphal Arch respectively), Epirotes (a war elephant Greek civ with interesting mix of mercenaries, war dogs trained from houses), Thebans (fire raiser, Sacred Band, Thespian Black Cloaks), and Scythians in the planning stages (with packable, moveable buildings).

 

All new technology tree for every civ. About 75% of the tree is shared, but 25% is unique to each civ, especially at the Blacksmith. Pair techs reimplemented with lots of technology innovations (for example, there is a tech pair at the Blacksmith that either reduces cost for blacksmith techs or reduces research time. Since blacksmith techs tend to take 60 seconds to research, this can be interesting choice if you want to rush or anticipate being rushed).

 

Phases are like this now:  Each phase upgrade increase unit line of sight (which start very small) and Civic Center territory radius.

Phase I "Village" - Economic focus. Storehouse and Farmstead can be built in own and neutral territory. Can only train infantry soldiers and 1 cav (cavalry limit removed at Phase II "Town"). Dock is split to 2 buildings, the Dock (economic) and Shipyard (military). Dock available in Village Phase, with whole new technology tree

Phase II "Town" - Settlement becomes more sophisticated with access to more important buildings, like Market (whole new tech tree), Shipyard (warships, with whole new tech tree), and Blacksmith (large new tech trees unique for every culture). Stone Wall is unlocked too, so use stone to build powerful walls or use the stone to go to Phase III "City"

Phase III "City" - Can now build Fortress and train heroes and champions. Catapult and Bolt shooter unlocked with Ballistics technology. Civic Centers can be built now so you can plant new colonies. Build a WONDER to go to the last phase. Wonder automatically increases the max pop cap for the player, "A Wonder for the Ages." 

Phase IV called "Empire" Phase - Unlocks a bunch of powerful technologies. All siege upgrades can be obtained in Empire phase as well as champion and hero upgrades.

 

Defense Towers have upgrade from Wooden (Village Phase) to Stone (Town Phase), for 100 stone cost and 30 seconds. Outposts can upgrade from Wooden to Stone as well, for 50 stone cost.

 

Mercenary Camps are permanent objects on the map that can be captured by any player. Train up to 30 mercenaries at the camp very quickly, but cost a lot of metal. Mercenary limit increased +10 for every camp under control. Not all civs have mercenary units yet in this alpha, but will for next alpha.

 

Formations: 3 formations deleted, the rest are altered. Column formations give a speed boost. Phalanx and Syntaga formations are slower, but because of "Locked Shields" aura for hoplite units and "Massed Pikes" aura for pike units, units get armor and attack bonuses respectively. The Wedge formation for Cavalry gives a big speed boost. "Open" formations look a little messy.

 

Melee Cavalry have a trample aura. It is not idea, since it works even if the cabalry are standing, but it's a start. Chariots have this aura too.

 

War Elephants are very strong now. They have a Trample Aura and a Terror aura. The Terror aura reduces the attack and speed of nearby enemy units. War elephants are countered by Skirmishers and Flaming Pigs, which have an aura that reduces the max health and attack of war elephants. Train a pig from the corral, then set it on fire with the upgrade button (lol).

 

Ranged siege are revamped. The stone thrower or catapult class siege is no longer trained at Fortress and no longer packs up to move. Instead it can be built by soldiers in the field and is stationary.

 

All new unit balancing and hard counters. This is not quite balanced yet due to lack of 1v1 play. Costs and train times for everything adjusted.

 

All new skirmish maps: Britannic Road (2 players), Caldera (3), Miletus Peninsula (2), Treasure Island (2), Two Seas Redux (6), White Cliffs of Dover (5). Acropolis Bay heavily altered. Autymn Fields is a reskinned Gallic Fields, and Alpine Valleys reskin. New sandbox scenarios for many of the civs. Started on Corinthian Isthmus (8 players), Blue Nile (4), and Scythian Steppes (4) - these last 3 will finish in the next alpha.

 

Population dynamic is changed. Support Units are 1 pop. Infantry are 2 pop. Cavalry are 3 pop. Default population limit changed to 500 to reflect this. Population limit options revamped.

 

Game Settings: Population options revamped (100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 500, 750, 1000), new Victory Condition (Conquest Civic Centers), Conquest Units renamed to Genocide. Starting Resource options revamped (default set to 500 each). Game speed options adjusted. Descriptions of things rewritten.

 

New loading screen tips and images.

New GUI portraits for many units. New technology portraits by myself, Lion.Kanzen, and others. Going to remove the placeholder ones for the release bundling.

New map preview images for many maps (most skirmish maps, some scenarios, and all random maps).

 

Female Citizens can be captured now, but Spartan women cannot. Celtic women double capture points.

 

Carthage is revamped so that mercenaries and embassies are a lot more important, because "citizen" units are limited to 40.

Sparta is revamped so that the Syssition is more important. Spartiates can be upgraded to Olympic Champions (limit of 2). Sparta starts with 1 Spartiate as a special starting unit. Sparta can't build stone walls until Empire phase.

Macedonians can upgrade the Barracks to a Royal Barracks, with more techs and champions. Can upgrade individual champions to better versions. Macedonians also get a 4th hero: Craterus.

The Republican Roman and Principate Roman army camps can be upgraded to Civic Centers in Empire phase.

"Mediterranean" civs, like Romans and Greeks and Successors train their heroes from the Civic Center.

 

A bunch of updated terrain textures with spec and normal maps. Much to do in this area.

 

More to come.

Edited September 25, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[Lion.Kanzen]

Sounds great.

[imperium]

 

then it will all be in delenda east ?? What have the Romans ???

ok

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

12 minutes ago, imperium said:

 

then it will all be in delenda east ?? What have the Romans ???

ok

This list is everything I can think of that is in Delenda Est right now. Will be release within a few days of next alpha (couple weeks from now).

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

I  found a great source for free music, attribution-only required. Might include this music in the next alpha.

Edited September 25, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[imperium]

 

but delenda east is a righteous mod ?? the Leggionari are there ??

[Lion.Kanzen]

2 minutes ago, imperium said:

 

but delenda east is a righteous mod ?? the Leggionari are there ??

Yeah and the auxiliarii too. 

[imperium]

You can give me the link ...

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Berserker Elephants!

 

Use upgrade feature to promote an elephant to berserker mode. Use this feature as a quick terror weapon to destroy and kill a lot of things in a short amount of time, but in the process you will likely lose the elephant.

Upgrade automatically available in Empire Phase. Put one elephant in berserker mode or a bunch of them at once. 

Attack +150%

Speed +25%

Elephant trample aura increased

Health decays by 3 hps, so the elephant will die

Cannot be healed by priests when berserker

Elephant cannot be rescued from this mode once it has gone berserker, you will lose the elephant (but it will cause a lot of damage to the enemy)

[av93]

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Berserker Elephants!

 

Use upgrade feature to promote an elephant to berserker mode. Use this feature as a quick terror weapon to destroy and kill a lot of things in a short amount of time, but in the process you will likely lose the elephant.

Upgrade automatically available in Empire Phase. Put one elephant in berserker mode or a bunch of them at once. 

Attack +150%

Speed +25%

Elephant trample aura increased

Health decays by 3 hps, so the elephant will die

Cannot be healed by priests when berserker

Elephant cannot be rescued from this mode once it has gone berserker, you will lose the elephant (but it will cause a lot of damage to the enemy)

 

Don't know if playing with decay component (and giving them a huge decay rate), thus making elephant gaia, and giving them animal AI could work? Just crazy suggestion

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Just now, av93 said:

 

Don't know if playing with decay component (and giving them a huge decay rate), thus making elephant gaia, and giving them animal AI could work? Just crazy suggestion

Don't know! I didn't think of that. I may play with that yet this week. Thanks for the suggestion.

[av93]

Well, the point is to make the elephant decaying loyalty to gaia, but uncapturable (the UnitAi is forced to attack a uncapturable unit?). Don't know if it's possible. 
3 hps isn't too slow? Also, champion elephants would need a faster health decay cause have more hp

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

3 hps is a bit slow, will probably go up to 5.

 

I am do not think that you can make something "decay loyalty" but also make it uncapturable. If something have capture points then it is automatically capturable I think.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Made Mauryan Maiden Archer can transform between Fire archer or Sword and back again. So, 3 modes for the Maiden Guard. It's pretty cool. Would work even better if we had battalion feature.

Edited October 9, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[Palaiogos]

Wait, in the next alpha will we finally have the ability to switch weapons? Can you implement that legionaries can use their Pila when charged by cavalry? That happened in the Battle of Carrhae.

[Stan`]

In the next Alpha no but he implemented ticket #252 's patch in his mod allowing him to be able to do so

[Palaiogos]

So, will it be able to have archers switch to meleé if possible, and pikemen switch to short swords?

[bb_]

Archer to melee is possible with ticket #252, pikemen to swords not. (but it will not be implemented in vanilla a21)

Edited October 9, 2016 by bb

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

You guys got it wrong, actually. I am use the 'Upgrade' feature that has been implemented in official game. The difference in DE is that I am exploring the possibilities of the feature while the team focus on other things. This is the same feature that I use in DE to allow player to upgrade individual Wooden defense tower to Stone defense tower (for 100 stone and 30 sec). It's the same feature that let player make his elephants go berserk. Also, I use the same feature in DE to let the player upgrade his Hypaspists to Silver Shields, and his Macedonian Barracks to Royal Barracks. 

 

With the Maiden Archers I explored the possibilities and made it possible to manual switch back and forth between types of weapons. It is the same feature as the towers, elephants, hypaspists, etc., but looped so the player can make the unit "upgrade" back to what it was before (in this case, back to archer from swordsman or back to regular arrows from fire arrows).

 

Honestly guys, looking at #252, I feel like disappointment will be mine when secondary attack implemented. And without battalion system, things are going to get messy and clicky.

Edited October 9, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[Stan`]

Quote

Honestly guys, looking at #252, I feel like disappointment will be mine when secondary attack implemented. And without battalion system, things are going to get messy and clicky.

 

Why is that so ?

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

4 hours ago, stanislas69 said:

 

Why is that so ?

Well, already even with upgrade feature I am use on units, it's too many clicks I feel. Plus you will have to manage more different units, remember who are what upgrade, etc. A lot more to parse. Would be a lot easier to just upgrade or weapon-switch battalions of troops at a time. See Battle for Middle Earth II mechanics.

Edited October 10, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

 

Any other ideas for to use the Upgrade feature? I was thinking of giving every champion infantry unit a Banner Carrier upgrade option that boosts the performance of units around them (does not stack, so sprinkle them around). They'd have no attack, but very good armor or health.

 

Definitely an Immortals Spear <-> Bow option. Any others? I thought about a Hastatus Sword <-> Pilum toggle, but I think the Pilum should be use differently in the game (throw pilum more like a "first attack" option if the enemy is right distance, then charge with the sword). But I might include in Alpha 21 for fun anyway. Some of these will be made obsolete later with proper secondary attacks implement, but that's okay. And in case I don't like the way secondary atack implement then I can always use the upgrade feature. This is one of the best feature impemented in a long time.

Edited October 11, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[bb_]

On 10/10/2016 at 3:10 AM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Well, already even with upgrade feature I am use on units, it's too many clicks I feel. Plus you will have to manage more different units, remember who are what upgrade, etc. A lot more to parse. Would be a lot easier to just upgrade or weapon-switch battalions of troops at a time. See Battle for Middle Earth II mechanics.

The approach in #252 is less clicky then with an upgrade feature, with upgarde you need to click manually if you for switching per (group of) unit(s) and indeed need to keep track of which unit is in which state. The #252 patch is based on order so a player can give an order for a specific type with an hotkey and the unitAI/attack component will decide themselfves which attack is best (based on DPS/range) when there is no forced order. So one does not need to keep track of units in "attack states" but he can press a hotkey per time he gives an attack order.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Evrntually you will need a logo/emblem for the mod.

[fcxSanya]

On 10/18/2016 at 8:55 AM, Lion.Kanzen said:

Evrntually you will need a logo/emblem for the mod.

Done!  DE = Delenda Est

(not a completely serious proposal, just something what inevitable comes to mind, maybe even was already posted somewhere)