Age 42:
- Finite market implementation. This needs alot of communication towards the playersbase to inform beforehand that it will be a good idea to stop leeching from the market and try to clean up your balances regularly.
- Bring Nazgul back into play.
- Take Dwarves, UD, Dragons and Balrogs out.
- Remove EM. Remove price alteration on FoR. Introduce new human racespell.
- Alter Pest and Heal workings.
- Introduce a bunch of basic titles/medals. Add some every age if possible.

Age 43:
- Bring back Dragons, UD, Balrogs and Dwarves.
- Take out Repts, Uruks, Viks, Ravens.
- Remove market building. Add 'keeps' or whatever name the passive def building will get. Alter CH/GH traits accordingly. Introduce fixed building cost. (see in next post for details)
- Alter barracks effects to lowering unit cost, build cost, explore cost, maintenance (and eventually unit losses in battle?)
- New starting acreage: x (1k?) acres standard. Dying of age results in a 20(?)% increased starting size. Dying in any other way will make you start at x acres.
- Change CoM to Mortality for Orcs, alter DF and Brood. (see below)
- Announce the possibility that some explorer races will be slightly nerfed in the age 44 changes without being taken out.

Age 44:
- Bring back Repts, Uruks, Viks, Ravens.
- Take out HEs, Olegs, Templar, Britt.
- Introduce ingame automatic teaching system for new players, eventually including some bot tribes etc... If this can be done earlier, all the better but I can imagine this is a lot of work to code.
- Announce age 45 agechanges with respect to a bunch of explorer races that will be adjusted without being taken out.
- Possibly tune down efficient races like WE and remove some imba Mori traits (this might actually be needed to happen earlier as Moris are already very powerful and nerfing all other attackers in previous ages will make them utter imba)

Age 45:
- Bring back HEs, Olegs, Temp, Britt.
- Adjust Mori, DE, WE, LE, Owl, Spirit.
- Introduce famesystem based on damage for all sorts of damaging or healing actions between tribes.
- Evaluate the sci system and decay in respect with increased possibilities to achieve sci without running labs (possible human racespell, UD sacrificing and ofc still Napa)
- Evaluate the war system.
- Create rating system in the race choice page.
- Completely renew the guide.

--------------------------------

That's the change guideline roughly. Here's some of the things mentioned above in more detail.

Add Building: Holding/Keep/Castle/Whatever name :). Reduces damage with 2.5% per %, 20% of this building max (=50% resistance to all, t/m/a damage).
Remove the provides 2.5% reduction in magic/thievery/attacker damage from GH/CH/Walls.
Change 1% provides 2.5% resistance to magic/thievery damage to 4% (WALLS DONT GET THIS).
Remove 1% weaponries gives 1.5% increased building damage. Add 1% weaponries gives 1.5% increased enemy military losses (in accordance with walls decreasing it).

Remove markets. Fix building cost in a formula with cost (crowns, logs) increasing based on tribe size.

Change Barracks. Barracks now does nothing but: 1% reduces costs .5%. This counts for All costs: military training, building, exploring, even maintenance if you can code it

Dragons can build for free but have no access to the market. (their lower prices mean they won't be raided for quite a while, and they shouldn't be stacking resources).

Exploration change. We'd like to add a nice calc button like building costs has (buying all the stuff you need for you).
Exploration formula change. Exploring no longer costs crowns, citizens and defense. It now costs crowns, food, wood, basics, and defense (specific amounts as of yet unknown).

Race concepts will follow in next post.

Sounds awesome!

Here's a CONCEPT for each race roughly. This is all far from final but are mainly ideas to steer toward.

Orcs: Mortality. This spell enables your troops to slay immortal units when attacking or defending and adds 5% offence to your troops.


Uruk: +25% base unit losses.
0/0; 50 cr.
8/0; 850 cr.
0/7; 700 cr.
10/3; 1300 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

Uruks are devised to be the best plain simple attacker and fastest grower without fancy stuff. A good race for a new player to learn the game.

Oleg: Second general +10% off. Double pillage gains. Immune to reconing.
0/0; 40 cr.
7/0; 700 cr.
0/7; 700 cr.
6/6; 960 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

A more tactical attacker. Can potentially deal double damage due to the second general and has a good defensive trait in being immune to recons. This is at a high efficiency cost though when you compare with Uruk.

Mori: 45% homes allowed. 3 hour attack time.
0/0; 50 cr.
6/0; 700 cr.
0/6; 700 cr.
5/5; 900 cr.
3/3; 300 cr.

A versatile thief-attacker.

Reptie: Venom Attack (1-4 updates). Double military losses on enemy when defending.
0/0; 50 cr.
7/0; 650 cr.
0/7; 800 cr.
9/2; 850 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

A tactical defensive attacker: good for protecting tribes around you and exhausting enemy troops by increased losses both when attacking and defending.

--------------------------

Elves: Deep Forest. This spell makes your forests grow faster, giving you +2500 wood per update as well as 5% additional defence and 1-8 acres randomly.

DE: +50% mana regeneration. Guilds produce 1/3rd rp.
0/0; 50 cr.
6/0; 450 cr.
0/5; 400 cr.
5/7; 750 cr.
0/0; 150 cr.

A straightforward hardcore mage with retalling ability on suiciders.

HE: All units are immortal. +50% fame gains in battle, +50% fame effects. Quadruple fame loss on retreating.
0/0; 40 cr.
7/0; 700 cr.
0/7; 700 cr.
6/6; 960 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

Another tactical attacker. Alike Olegs, but with a thirst for fame and ofcourse being immortal!

WE: +25% max tp.
0/0; 50 cr.
6/0; 450 cr.
0/6; 500 cr.
0/8; 800 cr.
0/0; 100 cr.

A simple efficient thief without much other options. Might also receive a wood-production bonus.

LE: Elendian, Matawaska, Lord of Harvest and Quanta give all +50% bonus instead of +10%. SELF-spells cannot be voided.
0/0; 50 cr.
6/0; 750 cr.
0/4; 650 cr.
2/5; 850 cr.
0/0; 350 cr.

A good defensive tribe and the best food-producer in the game.


------------------------------

Humans: Scholastic Sciences. Every 500 citizens produce 1 rp per update.

Dwarves. +50% weaponry and wall effectiveness (20% max walls results in 30% def bonus). 2 hour build time. Dwarven buildings don't require wood.
0/0; 50 cr.
7/0; 700 cr.
0/7; 700 cr.
8/3; 900 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

A human attacker with a good building trait for increased military possibilities when needed.

Vikings. Deals double military losses to enemy when attacking. No increased resting time on destructive attacks. -25% base unit losses.
1/1; 75 cr.
7/2; 675 cr.
3/7; 725 cr.
9/3; 1100 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

The beast of attackers: killing any other attacker in 1 vs 1 battles except possibly Repties. A lot slower than most others though.

Brittonian. +25% science production.
1/0; 25 cr.
7/0; 675 cr.
0/6; 625 cr.
4/7; 775 cr.
1/0; 75 cr.

A good explorer, scientist and thief.

Templar. Thief = Mystic unit (1 MPA = 1 ML). 45% homes allowed. No thievery available. +25% science production(?)
0/0; 50 cr.
6/0; 700 cr.
0/6; 700 cr.
5/5; 900 cr.
3/3; 300 cr.

A unique mage with retalling options.

--------------------------------

Winged: Brood. Gives +10% base citizen growth, reduces military training time to 2 hours and gives randomly 1-8 acres per update.

Dragons. 3 hour attack time. All buildings hold 20% of normal amount of citizens. +25 years lifespan. 50% damage reduction on all building-damaging forces. 20%(!) of normal farm/yard/mine production. 20% of normal maintenance costs. 20% of normal unit losses.
Can not sell goods to the market(!!!)
5/5; 50 cr.
35/10; 700 cr.
10/40; 850 cr.
60/15; 1450 cr.
5/5; 250 cr.

Probably the toughest race to handle. Note the idea in previous post about free building and no acces to market.

Eagles: Gain 0.3% of maximum population as free soldiers per update. Intelligence operations require no tp to perform. Eagle academies give 1/2 to max tp but add no thievery regeration. Eagle hideouts give 1/2 to max mana but add no regeneration.
1/0; 10 cr.
5/1; 390 cr.
0/5; 440 cr.
2/8; 890 cr.
0/0; 150 cr.

A hybrid t/m with good intelligence skills. Nice to be able to intel your KT without losing the tp for that extra arson.

Ravens: 1 hour attacktime, even on retreats. -25% damage on destructive attacks. -10% base unit losses.
0/0; 30 cr.
4/1; 400 cr.
1/6; 620 cr.
5/5; 850 cr.
0/0; 200 cr.

The speediest grower in game probably. Can withstand little though. Do not engage Viks or Repts but rather race ahead of them ;)

Owls: 1 hour thievery return time. 1/2 selfop gains. Owl thieves leave no traces in enemy news on failed operations.
0/0; 30 cr.
5/0; 450 cr.
0/7; 800 cr.
5/5; 850 cr.
0/5; 500 cr.

The ideal inteller to keep track of enemy alliances without them knowing.

----------------------------------

Cursed: Pestilence. Pestilence is spread by succesful attacks if either of the opposing parties is infected with Pestilence. On any attack the infection is reset to it's maximum value: 12 hours. Cursed races gain +10% base citizens regrowth and +5% offence. Non-cursed races suffer -20% base citizen regrowth. The only way to fight pestilence is by casting the Heal spell: each succesful casting shortens the infection by 1 hour. (Pestilence is immune to Magical Voids because it is a disease of magical origin rather than a simple spell or enchantment).

Balrog: Only 15% homes allowed. Non-homes hold 50% of normal amount of citizens. 25% damage received on all building-damaging forces. 50% of normal farm/yard/mine production. 50% of normal maintenance costs. +25% damage on destructive attacks.
0/0; 50 cr.
13/0; 650 cr.
0/13; 800 cr.
13/13; 1100 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

A good but slow attacker with additional maging power.

Undead: Can not explore. Can not cast selfspells. Do not use basics. Vampires are immortal and return in 3 hours. 25% of slain units will join your army as Vampires. Each 100 citizens slain on raids will give 1 rp. Undead also have the unique option to sacrifice their own citizens for rps (1 rp per 100 citizens)
9/0; 1050 cr.
0/8; 850 cr.
7/9; 1300 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

The most efficient and slowest attacker ingame. Much like old Nazzies.

Spirit: Immune to visions. Spirits do not require food. Spirits don't lose thieves on failed operations.
0/0; 40 cr.
6/0; 500 cr.
2/7; 750 cr.
6/3; 750 cr.
0/2; 200 cr.

A very good allround race.

Nazgul: 2 hour returntime. Immune to intercepts. 25% magic & thievery autoblocking, including SELF-spells/ops.
0/0; 50 cr.
5/2; 450 cr.
0/7; 750 cr.
6/4; 850 cr.
0/0; 250 cr.

A semi-Raven which is a bit less fast but alot safer to play. Note that being immune to intercepts is nice but not guaranteedly safe. Ppl can track your def by checking your targets def.

yes, great job guys!

Pestilence is OP. -1hr for each heal!?
What if you are playing alone, or in a small, inactive alliance?

Anyway... The changes sound really good. Even though I would like more efficient races, I believe this will help solve our infinity balance problems :)

Good work Joe & Staff!

tl:dr but the volume looks very impressive. good job all you overworked devvies :P

With decreased efficiency will we still see 400+ DPAs and consequently 1:2 cit:military ratios?

I like the changes :)

GJ!!!!!

orkfia's going to become OP :D

i like

you killed temp :(

This will become brilliant (with some more minor balancing ofc:) )

like that pestilence

As sanzo pointed out pesti will be quite hurtful for single man allies..

A single man isn't an alliance, strictly speaking ;p

Thats not the point...

Also another thing that I really dont like is the fact that the ultimate “huge tribe killer” - the vik is no longer capable of dealing with immortal races...

looks like some good and lengthly work and thinking was done- good job, and thanks for sharing-

i am curious as to how you picked which races to remove together and in that age order?

That's the same question Sweets asked Joe

probably by how severely they are bad/imbalanced :P except mori >;

pestilence seems to have gone from underpowered to oped...and the banr of solo or noob allis lacking support

@mazja: here's a copypaste from the dev forum.

First squad is Dwarf, UD and Draggie because these are to some degree complete overhauls. Dwarf lose their main point as non-home race. Draggie lose acces to the market. UD lose SELF-spell ability. I put Balrog along with these because they are most alike Dragons and require similar coding of traits etc. but they actually belong somewhat to the second squad.

The second squad is all elite-based races which get nerfed but not changed in a qualitative way very much. The main change is that the elites of Vik/Uruk/Rept lose many defpoints. Uruks are changed most drastically by making them the most plain and simple attackers in the game and an ideal noob race to learn the game with. Ravens do not belong to this group but are taken along because they will become overpowered if they keep 5/6 leets while all powerful attackers are toned down. The same goes for Mori (which is listed lower with a warning that it might need a preliminary nerf before already). Balrog could easily swap with a race like Uruk or Reptie eventually.

The third squad is a re-balancing of the currently true spec-attackers (HE and Oleg) as well as a qualitative change in the first 2 explorer race: Temp and Britt. These are not just slightly nerfed but completely redesigned but done later because explorers have less impact on the game than attackers.

The last squad is a complete rebalancing of all races that aren't taken out and consist of explorers only.

-------------

But, as noted in the first post, this is not a final thing but rather a general guideline. It is far from impossible that Mori will be changed earlier etc..

I do wonder however what is so overpowered of Pest? Are we so used to it being useless that if it actually starts eating citizens it is all of a sudden overpowered?
Here's some options for solo/noob alli's if they really do NOT like to lose citz to pest:
- Pick a cursed race
- Pick a bird
- Pick LE.

Any of these will still have citizen growth, even when Pest is running (due to citz growth exceeding 20% per tick with Brood/ubermata or being cursed).

Finally, being an explorer should also be a simple way to stay clear of pest 99% of the time.

Note also that Heal will probably become cheaper and possibly easier to make up partially for the 12-fold cost.
And there also is the nice idea I'd like to throw up here of having a 'Cleanse' spell which basically is Heal but on a non-friendly tribe. If you really hate Pest, cleanse the remaining pest of your target before hitting him. Or just to randomly annoy UDs ofcourse (who cannot cast selfspells so they can't cast Pest either :D)

Isnt it more like a 3-fold cost, or did I miss the change where all ticks kill pop? :S

ty that does make sense- another q if u dont mind?

while looking at htese changes, or even changes as they developed, has anyone looked at possibility of looking at each race when first developed, like in raw form? (starting from 0 based on present traits and unit values?)

now realize i was away from ork for a period of time here and there- i started in classic, returned when infinity, and brief abscnece again- for instance I remeber when ravens were 6/5, mori assasins were 6/0-

don't mean to be long-winded but sometimes to fix/improve on something that has been modified too many times starting from scratch can be beneficial- but then again maybe not from coding standpoint as i am not a coder!

mazja: from a coder point of view that is to some extent true, but changes to the stats of units (where cost is a stat) is not much work coding wise, if we for example would totally rewrite how attacks works then starting from scratch would be beneficiary, but even with all those changes a large part of the code base will still be the same. (Which doesn't mean that all this is few coding work)

The changes here are in a way a start from anew in a dev/balance way. Of course lots of the archetypes are still found back (and even the same races as they were, because they fit thematically) but that means that we weren't utterly wrong to begin with :)

As you can see, i'm not a very good writer, but hopefully it adds a bit to the respect you guys have for the dev team (Joe and Bolle at the moment).

oh crap, dev is joe and bolle :P

- Ey bro, what you think about this?
- Yo bro, gonna work fine!


I like some, dislike some :P