Era of Magic (EoMa) 4.6.2 - now on Ko-fi!

[ForestDragon]

3) Goblin Assasin will now gain +Magic-counter in melee.
So it can be more nasty to kill by certain melee enemies.

Unlike other balance changes, this one seems rather odd to me. Barbarians barely have any special enchanted gear even on higher-end units, but some random goblin gets magic counter?

NEW UNIT: Lv3 Goblin Sentinel
HP: 54
Movement: 5
6-3 pierce melee +poison +magic-counter
8-4 pierce ranged +first-strike +poison +marksman +magic-counter
9-2 pierce ranged +skilled +poison +split-fire
AMLA XP: 150
Price: 48g

Features:
65% defense on castle/village/mountains

This other option is a more passive-aggresive defender , that uses its poisoned bolts at BOTH ranges , while in melee range not being so accurate or strong, posion feature still bothers a lot. This unit is also +Magic-counter in BOTH ranges, so this unit in high defense is very agile defender that features 65% in some terrains and also improved magic evasion. Despite of the lot of virtues it has, it losses the option of being slowing ranged in offensive/defense and it also moves 1 less than all other goblins for a gain of 2 HP that is not that much but helps in garrisons. This unit steals the previous split-fire on the goblin raider but getting a better version of it ... and at being a bonus attack this one will not have +magic-counter nor +first-strike , so in certain situations the unit will not try to use the bonus defensive accuracy in prior of defensive +magic-counter on ranged.

Split-fire poison seems way too similar to the saurians, something you wanted to avoid with removing split-fire from current main lvl3. Magic counter also feels a bit odd here. And calling a unit "Sentinel" usually makes people think "tanky unit" rather than "ranged poisoner" tbh.

[IPS]

3) Goblin Assasin will now gain +Magic-counter in melee.
So it can be more nasty to kill by certain melee enemies.

Unlike other balance changes, this one seems rather odd to me. Barbarians barely have any special enchanted gear even on higher-end units, but some random goblin gets magic counter?

NEW UNIT: Lv3 Goblin Sentinel
HP: 54
Movement: 5
6-3 pierce melee +poison +magic-counter
8-4 pierce ranged +first-strike +poison +marksman +magic-counter
9-2 pierce ranged +skilled +poison +split-fire
AMLA XP: 150
Price: 48g

Features:
65% defense on castle/village/mountains

This other option is a more passive-aggresive defender , that uses its poisoned bolts at BOTH ranges , while in melee range not being so accurate or strong, posion feature still bothers a lot. This unit is also +Magic-counter in BOTH ranges, so this unit in high defense is very agile defender that features 65% in some terrains and also improved magic evasion. Despite of the lot of virtues it has, it losses the option of being slowing ranged in offensive/defense and it also moves 1 less than all other goblins for a gain of 2 HP that is not that much but helps in garrisons. This unit steals the previous split-fire on the goblin raider but getting a better version of it ... and at being a bonus attack this one will not have +magic-counter nor +first-strike , so in certain situations the unit will not try to use the bonus defensive accuracy in prior of defensive +magic-counter on ranged.

Split-fire poison seems way too similar to the saurians, something you wanted to avoid with removing split-fire from current main lvl3. Magic counter also feels a bit odd here. And calling a unit "Sentinel" usually makes people think "tanky unit" rather than "ranged poisoner" tbh.

I don't know, you're free to change the names if needed, but the idea is basically a poisoner that has poison melee and ranged and being passive/aggresive defender.

Goblins in EoMa are signifacntly smarter and more agile & deadly because in other games including wesnoth default they have denutrition problems because orcs abuse and slave them, but EOMA barbarians are very sociable (Mehir betrayed them in Badass mode LOL , I know really very well of what I'm talking about) and really good friends so they don't abuse/slave their gobbos so they are sincerely smart and agile in EOMA universe.

I've even thinked about an excuse why goblins in EOMA are so competent and in overall low HP but nice units.

Kamikaze gobbos (by me) my idea is that sick/disused gobbos or volunteers offers them to sacrifice over enemies with explosive loads to do as much possible to be recognized as heroes.

Magic-counter is usually in things that are meant to be agile/assasins somewhat often, as barbarians suffer really hard because Fire god really hard-counter almost whole faction which lead me to invent the goblin shamans to make it even possible for barbarians to kill these things without doing more harm to yourself than to enemy.


Been thinking also about Goblin Raider, it's net attack can be increased to 7-3 , so it can be 9-3 at night which suits better for an optional attack on a lv3 unit.

But it's required that certain barbarian units have magic-counter in melee range so they don't be THAT hard countered by Maras or Fire avatars/gods.

[ForestDragon]

I don't know, you're free to change the names if needed, but the idea is basically a poisoner that has poison melee and ranged and being passive/aggresive defender.

More importantly than name, the similarity to saurian to saurian assassin is too high in the proposed stats.

Magic-counter is usually in things that are meant to be agile/assasins somewhat often, as barbarians suffer really hard because Fire god really hard-counter almost whole faction which lead me to invent the goblin shamans to make it even possible for barbarians to kill these things without doing more harm to yourself than to enemy.

Ok, makes sense.

[IPS]

I don't know, you're free to change the names if needed, but the idea is basically a poisoner that has poison melee and ranged and being passive/aggresive defender.

More importantly than name, the similarity to saurian to saurian assassin is too high in the proposed stats.

Magic-counter is usually in things that are meant to be agile/assasins somewhat often, as barbarians suffer really hard because Fire god really hard-counter almost whole faction which lead me to invent the goblin shamans to make it even possible for barbarians to kill these things without doing more harm to yourself than to enemy.

Ok, makes sense.

Both attacks in propossed goblin are lv2 damages, but out specials it gets its status of a lv3. Fair considering it's gobbo.

54 HP on a lv3 is really low, it's close of Arch Mage HP's which is famous of to have low HP among lv3's.

Sausian Assasin can also be massive 9-5 poison on night combined of ambush and skirmisher, that's very deadly specially at dealing with Sky Guardians or Golden Warriors. This gobbo is only 10-4 at night , but SLOWER (-1 movement, no skirmisher, worse movement costs than saurian). Second important flaw in new gobbo unit is that it SUX really hard at dealing againist machines or undead, because ALL attacks are PIERCE, while saurian has 9-2 impact melee. Last point is that new gobbo is marksman 8-4 and 9-2 skilled, while the main attack of saurian assasin is 7-5 +Skilled so saurian retaliates much better in terms of DMG's. I find enough differences between both units to be honest.

But gobbo is weaker than saurian Assasin because of being significantly slower in rough terrains and being 5 movement. Saurian Assasin as said can ambush and skirmisher, so the new propossed gobbo is just better at defending if on 65% terrain.

Resume:
New gobbo is a new passive defender unit , that is annoying to deal with if on 65% defense, while Saurian is a more assault unit , they're by far more different of what you could guess. Saurian is also a more complete unit and stronger if spammed if directly compared to new gobbo unit spam. Saurian Assasin is less dependant of an army compared to new gobbo.

Edit:
If you don't like poison melee being 6-3 , then rework it to 8-2 so it has less chances of poisoning in melee and forcing it to be used as a retalaition instead of being a viable offensive againist mages in your turn. So you now have the option to pick between 6-3 poison OR 8-2 poison for melee.

Edit 2:
Poison is one of strongest specials in lv1 game, but at lv3, it's not as much great, because it doesn't even feel that much compared to the decens of damage few untis can deal in few tiles, so Poison scales terribly bad as a weapon special in units of lv3 or higher , also posioning can be done by a lv1 unit with less dmg if your only intention is to poison, and save a stronger lv3 for more dmg's in your turn.

[ForestDragon]

Edit:
If you don't like poison melee being 6-3 , then rework it to 8-2 so it has less chances of poisoning in melee and forcing it to be used as a retalaition instead of being a viable offensive againist mages in your turn. So you now have the option to pick between 6-3 poison OR 8-2 poison for melee.

My main complaint is the poison+split fire combo, something I feel that Barbarians shouldn't have in common with their main enemy.

[IPS]

Then we could try making it +beam special or something new and more interesting that doesn't yet exists. But I would like to see a weak 9-2 to 11-2 with skilled as defensive tool as it's weaker than the 7-5 from saurian assasin main attack.

If that is your only one opjection, then you are free to do whatever you want with that second attack. I even considered a +no-counter-attack , but that would require the unit to NOT have skilled IN THE attack (maybe marksman or lesser revenge, BUT NOT SKILLED). Butwhatever, do whatever you want with the 9-2 (or stronger) without split-attack or just add something more special to that one attack.

[IPS]

I saw some little things in unit stats that I think must be corrected, mostly minor adjustments.

1) Orcish Warrior ranged damage decrease from 5-2 to 4-2.
It hurts so much at ranged.

2) Barbarian Lord ranged damage decrease from 9-2 to 8-2

3) Clan Leader XP from 110 to 103
It's really HIGH XP.

4) Heavy Cavalry XP from 90 to 86
High XP

5) Bishop XP from 100 to 95
Kharos have no good ranged damage at all in faction.

6) Sculptor XP from 100 to 93
It's harder to level up than black mage, so we decrease XP.

7) Architect AMLA XP from 160 to 150
Just standarize value for AMLA in ERA's patterns.

8 ) Earth Golem (all levels) magic-counter in melee attacks?
This is more a request than anything else, so they would be oddly agile when dealing againist magical melee. It makes sense if we consider Terramancer is getting this same buff, and earth units are not very popular among players. It also makes sense if we consider that Sky Kingdom's Golems already have +Magic-counter(offensive) , so something related to earth element and +magic-counter in melee in lore could explain this.


Gonna test soon newest EoMa version and try to spot more thigns, but this is mostly simple sight AND analysis feedback with my based conclusion in each suggestion.

[IPS]

By the way, been thinking exactly the same as inferno8 that Sky Kingdom has the least mount of units. To be honest I was planning for a more agile/less tankier ANOTHER lv3 advancement for Mystical Guardian that is more hybrid fighter than melee but that will be topic for later. Now I got a more new idea about giving to Battle Eye another lv2 advancement, but this one is swifter and more melee centred. Will mention stats in here

War Eye Lv2
HP: 36
6-4 Blade melee +Greater-Marksman +Magical +Magic-Counter
7-3 Arcane ranged +Precision
19-1 Secret ranged +Precision(offensive) +Attack-only +Anti-armor
Movement: 9

Features:
1) Same ressistances than lv1 , but only 15% more on blade.
2) Apart of faster, it's more agile, so Cave movement cost is 2 and 40% defense.
It's smaller compared to cosmic eye, deadly and agile assassin if needed.

Price: 48g

This version of the cosmic eye is less tankier than the Cosmic Eye, but it retaliates harder in melee and also performs better in defensive formation againist Mara/Nightmares or Fire Avatars thanks to the Magic-Counter on melee. Been considering about not making a reality warp attack but then considered the unit was under-equiped compared to Cosmic Eye, so then I considered adding it but lowered damage and only in offensive. Obviously Cosmic Eye is better unit, but for big map gameplay, this one reaches faster far villages, which means it costs less because of the extra movement in flying movement.

One additional note, this unit is actually stronger againist lv1's than cosmic eye is, but Cosmic Eye does better againist bigger lv3 enemies most of time, so this option is VERY strong in PVP matches , but comes from lv1 that requires most XP to lv2.



Last notes about a possibility of the other lv3 Mystical Guardian is that I'm thinking about making him more an Agility unit (full magic-counter in melee), no pierce melee but also bit more ranged maybe 9-4 secret ranged +skilled and maybe 1 extra movement but having no resistances increases compared to other lv3s, any opinion about this concept? Mystical Guardians still not so popular, while this line is very vital for the faction which leads players to have certain deficit because of not having melee, but also, helping sky kingdom somehow. Or just tell me if this advancement is unnecessary OR if it can be reworked into something different.

[IPS]

Yo, spotted a very interesting game in a quick replay in one of that lot of 65 x 55 and I have to comment some few things about Kharos and why some units with certain features needs to be repriced URGENTLY

First of all, least obvious of all that I have to say is that Kharos is a somewhat easy faction to use but very likely THE HARDEST faction to master. I will mention the reasons of why this comment. We know that in large map and in very rich games teleporting feature is something VERY powerful, but it precises very correct positioning and planification, also enemy players have to be cautious that Kharos even if they can't burst high damage in few units still they got some TRICKS that if correctly welldone, they are game changing, so I'ma explain some of these.

1) Teleporting Gold Warriors, not the most obvious, but in night time you might recheck the traits of all your lv3s sitting villages, specially looking for quick/strong/FEARLESS traits as picking the right Gold Warrior can make an HUGE difference... as fearless not only increases melee damage on night, but also RANGED damage in this specific -25% ToD. This Fact exists at Lv2 and Lv4, but in Lv2 is not so relevant and in Lv4 there will not be likely too many to pick and most likely any Master of Sun you pick will do a better task than any Gold Warrior

2) PRO MOVE ONLY: Cataphract is known to be the a underrated unit, but still it has an hidden and very situational but if WELL DONE, you can TROLL your opponent's game in ONE TURN. Cataphract has one very specific attack special in its 10-2 ranged attack, even if this attack is really low on damage, if on very right situation this unit spots over an enemy village and then this unit attacks, it can move 1 tile away out of village .... and if more kharos unit can kill the few units that are standing next to that village that used to be enemy.... THEN A WHOLE ARMY OF SILVER/GOLD Warriors can come FROM A VILLAGE THAT USED TO BE OWNED by ENEMY in same turn .... THIS IS BRUTAL AND STRONG interaction which is very hard to trigger but my lord if you do it, you are most likely to WIN THE GAME by allowing a whole army of GOLDs attacking in a situation that was IMPOSSIBLE to predict. So yeah, CATAPHRACT while not looking that great, its a escential piece for a magistral move that is GAME CHANGING FOR SURE.

While I did not try/do this 2) fact, still, turn 17 is proof about how important is knowing positioning and priorities to maximize teleport potential and how focusing in certain objectives is far more important than anything else if you consider it possible...


But now, replay ended short after I got trolled by a little friend with ambush special.... which proved me that a lot of units are being underpriced because of certain interactions and tactics that were not counted in addition of their stats already. So I lost one unit cause to ambush special which ended my motivation at continuing that game ... BUT SPOTTED SOMETHING very important !!! a blatant proof that Ambush units are underpriced , specially Saurian Assasin.


So I'm nerfing severely unit pricing at both Jungle Champion and Saurian Assasin , specially because they're very agile, nice movement costs and can trick opponents so easily. Green Salamander will not get priced to higher because that unit is much slower which worses seriosuly its ambushing potential unlike the other 2.


BALANCE FEEDBACK:
- Jungle Guardian price from 47g to 52g
Ambush (forest is very common terrain) in combination of skirmisher and nice movement costs is a powerful combination, so the unit sincerely has to get priced higher.

- Saurian Assasin price from 48g to 55g
What the hell, a whole +7g nerf? YES.... it has reasons to be, first of all is that it has the advantages previously mentioned from Jungle Champion but this unit is at other whole level ... it has high accuracy ranged attack of FIVE STRIKES which allow it to last hit something very easily and in night this unit is extremely powerful physical ranged, even without poison this unit is VERY GOOD and underrated OVERPOWERED (because of being seriously underpriced).

- Temple Guard arcane ressistance increase by +10%
Just to make them more useful againist Kharos, also I've buffed really hard arcane damage type at decreasing a lot of arcane ressistance to human race in Ageless

For now I'm ignoring concealment feature, as villages is a less common terrain but also can troll quite much, still Dark Blooded need that component in Temple Guards. Still regards +Divine special I would like to know if it could be changed just a bit, to make it of more universal use instead of only useful EOMA feature.

+Divine Special
- Instead of only working in Undead & Magicals, why not adding it a filtrer that if enemy is undrainable , then this attack can be used? Similar in how AWE nerf does work, but regards divine special. This would allow the unit to work in anything that is inmune to drains AND monster race. This buff would make the unit massively better in Ageless Ecosystem or in any place out of EOMA. Lastly, it would allow it to use this attack againist Cosmic Eyes, Tharis Orbs and few more things. If this buff occurs then , reprice Temple Guard from 48g to 53g as this attack would be usable againist a lot of things, even in cases which the unit losses damage but gains hit accuracy, meaning it can last hit better.

EDIT: 10% more arcane ressistance for Temple Guard, so they can be quite useful againist Kharos at least....

[ForestDragon]

By the way, been thinking exactly the same as inferno8 that Sky Kingdom has the least mount of units. To be honest I was planning for a more agile/less tankier ANOTHER lv3 advancement for Mystical Guardian that is more hybrid fighter than melee but that will be topic for later. Now I got a more new idea about giving to Battle Eye another lv2 advancement, but this one is swifter and more melee centred. Will mention stats in here

War Eye Lv2
HP: 36
6-4 Blade melee +Greater-Marksman +Magical +Magic-Counter
7-3 Arcane ranged +Precision
19-1 Secret ranged +Precision(offensive) +Attack-only +Anti-armor
Movement: 9

Features:
1) Same ressistances than lv1 , but only 15% more on blade.
2) Apart of faster, it's more agile, so Cave movement cost is 2 and 40% defense.
It's smaller compared to cosmic eye, deadly and agile assassin if needed.

Price: 48g

This version of the cosmic eye is less tankier than the Cosmic Eye, but it retaliates harder in melee and also performs better in defensive formation againist Mara/Nightmares or Fire Avatars thanks to the Magic-Counter on melee. Been considering about not making a reality warp attack but then considered the unit was under-equiped compared to Cosmic Eye, so then I considered adding it but lowered damage and only in offensive. Obviously Cosmic Eye is better unit, but for big map gameplay, this one reaches faster far villages, which means it costs less because of the extra movement in flying movement.

One additional note, this unit is actually stronger againist lv1's than cosmic eye is, but Cosmic Eye does better againist bigger lv3 enemies most of time, so this option is VERY strong in PVP matches , but comes from lv1 that requires most XP to lv2.

To be honest it feels too similar to cosmic eye, especially the fact that it has a 1-strike precision antishield attack too. I believe that alt. branches should have a more extreme difference from main branch than that (maybe leaning even harder into melee at the cost of ranged damage staying unchanged from lvl1, or maybe ranged getting outright removed in favor of the melee)

Last notes about a possibility of the other lv3 Mystical Guardian is that I'm thinking about making him more an Agility unit (full magic-counter in melee), no pierce melee but also bit more ranged maybe 9-4 secret ranged +skilled and maybe 1 extra movement but having no resistances increases compared to other lv3s, any opinion about this concept? Mystical Guardians still not so popular, while this line is very vital for the faction which leads players to have certain deficit because of not having melee, but also, helping sky kingdom somehow. Or just tell me if this advancement is unnecessary OR if it can be reworked into something different.

Seems unnecesary to me. it's not that different from Sky Guardian's 10-3 antishield attack, and I believe it's better to give alt. advancement to lines that don't have them first

[Hejnewar]

At some point honestly it is worth considering if less isn't more.

[inferno8]

Yeah, Hejnewar is right. EoMa already has almost 300 units which is a huge number, if you think about it. Adding more would make balancing the era almost impossible in the long run. I also expressed that concern a few months ago. So at this point I'd like to add new units only where it is *absolutely* necessary.

The idea of making Barbarians a more popular faction in MP by giving them lots, I mean *lots* of new units is not a good direction, in my opinion. I think that adding a well designed Cyclops Mage line consisting of 2-3 units max would solve a lot of issues here. So at the moment I am a bit skeptical about expanding goblins in that faction.

Barbarians lack serious magic users. That's the fact. There are trolls and goblin shamans, but they are not enough. That's why I've been seriously thinking about adding a rather unconventional, slow (but capable of teleportation), recruitable Cyclops Shaman (lvl2) who could advance to Cyclops Ritualist and (possibly) a lvl4 Cyclops Blastmage. I don't have any more details for you right now, but I believe inclusion of such unit will make a huge difference for the faction.

A few weeks ago ForestDragon suggested adding a lvl4 Hellish Hydra unit which I think could make a good addition to the Tharis faction. Lvl4 units are very rare thus they don't affect MP balance that much, so I will probably implement that unit at some point in the near future.

Similarly IPS proposed an idea of adding lvl4 Wyvern which would pair well with the aforementioned lvl4 Hydra, but I still haven't decided whether to make it a reality or to make it a campaign-specific unit.

Together with ForestDragon we believe that, in terms of units, some new lvl4s would still be neat (since there's been a lvl4 Divine Executor added to Kharos recently, and Sky Kingdom got Chronomancer). Gradually moving towards "each faction gets at least 3 lvl4s total" would make sense, since this is already pretty much where the era is heading and it doesn't affect balance that much.

We've got an idea for a lvl4 Master Banisher for Summoners, but it is a low priority. We also think about changing Runemaster's Mechanical Dragon to a lvl4 unit (due to its huge sprite size - which needs update, btw) and making a new in-between lvl3 Mechanical Wyrm - but this is still a very early concept.

There was also an idea to make an alt branch for Tharis Disciple focused around spiritual aspects of that faction - Dark Cleric (lvl2) and Dark Prophet (lvl3), but due to already big number of EoMa units I am leaning towards scrapping that idea and making these two campaign-specific units only.

As for Sky Kingdom (which has the least amount of units) the faction is already quite popular and loved for its simple unit structure. I am not saying no to expanding it in the future, but I need to carefully plan ahead. I want at some point make a campaign about this faction and there might be new units there, which could later be reused for EoMa. So in case of Sky Kingdom I suggest taking it slowly.

In case of Magical Eye line expansion, I can imagine a completely melee oriented lvl1-2 variant which sacrifices its ranged attack for deadly saw-like rotating blades. But then again, adding such unit needs to be well thought-out from the MP perspective.

Here's the current EoMa unit count table for those who are interested:

Each faction has currently ~36 units on average, which I consider a very good, optimal amount. Going above it may result in balance issues in the long run. I think that the average unit count of 38 per faction should be an absolute limit. At least that's how I see it at this point in time.

[IPS]

Yup, sky kingdom still if not having so many units compared to rest of other factions they're very complete in terms of gameplay, with a moderate leak in physical damage but they got secret and most likely the best mages in the era. Only objection is that when something is very magic ressistant Sky Kingdom suffers from killing that enemy unit... so my propossals to that faction would be lead to them at dealing more physical damage, specifically in that.

Sky Kingdom random buffs at movementcosts/defenses in terrain like water/sand/mountains (at elementalist line and sorcerer/master-mage) makes they feel smoother and help at making the faction require less unit count to work well.

Still, the idea of the melee battle eyes can be readjusted for much later, not completely with the stats I've given but STILL as a concept for something. Maybe this battle eye could have some secondary pierce melee attack in its rotating blades to make it more different from Cosmic Eyes , well we can see later.


Lastly, I want to know more details about Dark Prophets in Tharis faction, they will be arcane/cold damage? as I guess the idea is NOT adding more healers to Tharis and I planned a lot of alternative ways for Tharis to reheal while battling for tharis as in my tests I determined that it's very necessary because in very intense games that will lead a difference that previously made tharis in disadventage compared to the rest of all other factions just because of being the only one with no healers. Alternative healings makes tharis be very strong faction even with the addition of ONE random healer from Ageless or any other era. Still I'm trying to spot if there are still units with XP issues in that faction because I've considerably buffed the XP values of many lv2 units to make them easier to lv3 because well .... things requiring 100 XP for very low HP gain is not fun, so many units in that faction got lowered XP's to Lv3 (even Hydras did!) , but I'm not completely sure if there is still more XP buff required appart of the ones I mentioned some weeks ago.

[inferno8]

I want to know more details about Dark Prophets in Tharis faction, they will be arcane/cold damage? as I guess the idea is NOT adding more healers to Tharis

No, Dark Clerics/Prophets won't be healers.I envision them as physically very weak, fragile even, but good at motivating others. That's all I have to say. I don't have any ideas for damage types etc. at the moment. Don't forget this is a very early concept and I am still not sure whether to include these new units or not. Tharis in their current state are already one of the most interesting and fun to play EoMa factions, so I don't want to accidentally ruin that.

so my propossals to that faction would be lead to them at dealing more physical damage, specifically in that.

Maybe a lvl3 Golem? But lvl2 War Golem is already an excellent unit. A "melee-oriented Magical Eye variant" option is still on table. Might as well leave things as they are now.

After a very interesting discussion with ForestDragon today, we have come to a conclusion that there should be some significant unit changes in the upcoming 4.4 EoMa update.

And lastly we think that 2 recent Barbarians units - Savage Roc Rider and Orcish Brawler - should be phased out to make a room for more interesting additions like Cyclops Mages.

Savage Roc Rider in our opinion should be redesigned into a very cool lvl3 Roc Rider with bolas, sniper bow, good effectiveness at night and other stuff. In its current form the unit is a bit too much overlap with goblin hunter/assassin.
Orcish Brawler on the other hand should be removed from the Era because in our view he offers almost nothing besides a different attack type and overall feels too similar to the cyclopes. The unit's code and sprites will still be part of EoMa though, so others can still reuse him in their own add-ons. Of course if someone doesn't like the idea of removing this particular unit from MP, we are always opened to your suggestions.

Lastly we think that Runemasters' Flying Fortress unit should utilize some form of aura effects to make it still a viable choice once Mechanical Dragon becomes a lvl4 unit. We want to avoid a situation where everyone goes for that dragon. Runemasters lack good units with aura-like abilities in general. There is a lvl4 Runemaster with probably one of the most powerful auras in the Era, but his usefulness is quite limited due to various reasons.
So we want to give Flying Fortress an ability which would affect adjacent units in some way. We believe such ability would greatly distinguish this lvl3 unit from Mechanical Dragon and Battlecopter.
We want Flying Fortress to become a very good support unit. To achieve that we need to find out about Runemasters current weaknesses and build our concept around that.
Currently there are 3 options for that hypothetical Flying Fortress aura, but we are would like to know your opinion.
1) Fire Support aura: some kind of damage boost for all adjacent friendly units.
2) Defender-like aura: +10-15% resistance boost for all adjacent friendly units.
3) Flying leadership aura: all friendly flying mechanical units nearby fight better.

There are also two other but more radical options:
4) to allow Flying Fortress to transport units via right-click and deploy them later (which I believe would make gameplay even more complex, which I really don't want) or
5) to make a special lvl1 Parachutist variant capable of advancing directly to lvl2 dwarvish units (which I personally find the least interesting option of them all)

Let us know what you think.

[IPS]

Actually flying fortress is a good unit, even at certain momment it has to be seriously nerfed because it was blatant OP (1.- no first-strike in cannon impact attack LOL , 2nd, -1 movement , 3.- Higher cost in Masters's).

One thing I've been thinking is that Mechanical Dragon is really hard to balance because of the AOD special at ranged attack, so I think mechanical Wyrm being a lv3 and a more melee focus could be a viable plan , but steam copter is ranged unit, still we got lv3 battle copter which would be the better version of steamcopter and also a different lv3 patch.

One important thing to mention is that Runesmaster is the only faction that cannot summon units at all , they don't have summoning units yet... being the only faction missing this feature. Lv3 flying fortress having this feature and also summoning special to summon parachutists that then can level up into lv2 balloons OR Dwarvish Cadete/Soldiers could be a NEAT idea. Meaning parachutist could be reworked into a lv0 unit that requires bit higher XP than lv1 to promote , to jump from a lv0 into 3 different lv2 options (Balloon, Cadette & Soldier). If we make that lv0 require something like 55-60 XP to become a lv2, this summoning could have certain potential and making Fortress to be an interesting unit.

Other thing is that I think that flying fortress could be used as some type of "command center" for alied flying units, meaning that if other flying units be next to them having higher damage or damage reduction (no ressistances, we talk about damage reduction, which is bit different) ... so we could say the unit can of have +10% offensive aura for all flying units and also 10% damage reduction for near flying units , or just using inspires1 or inspires2 similar to Awaken in Kharos. Other option is allowing it to summon lv1 mechanics (at bit overpriced) but yeah, that could be of help LOL

So I think that a very minor aura and the capability to summon parachutists is fair enough for flying fortress.


Actually lv3 battle fortress is more popular unit than Lv3 mechanical Dragon by players, so mechanical wyrm/dragon overlapping Flying Fortress is something that must be tested and checked because it's not that easy, specially if we consider that players kept loyal to Maras/Apocalypse in comparation of Harbingers/Doom-Calls in Destroyers addition. Players liked very much the addition of the Yari atokpies very much, they become popular enough which sincerely I love the ressults ... still I don't understand why Harbinger are so impopular, same as with Black Portals.


Sincerely I dislike very much the idea of transport feature in that unit, that decreases value for AI when using that unit, while favoring too much human because being capable of more interactions. So both parts disagree at this, so this gets discarded.