So, my poor lappy can't run AoW 3 very well, but the parts of it I can play have given me a real hankering to return to AoW 1.


Of course, to me the big problem with AoW 1 is how poorly balanced it is. It's reached a point for me where I've actually got to deliberately gimp myself in order to keep the game fresh, because otherwise the paths to victory are practically automatic. But I happened to notice that the game's actually got some decent toolsets out for it, and I thought "Hey, why not go about balancing the game out a bit?"

So... That's what I'd like to do. But I'd like your feedback on it. So, depending on time, I'm going to post a series of threads outlining the changes I'd like to make, and I'd love it if people could give their opinions. I'm going to do this by level, so here we'll be starting with level 1, and slowly making our way up to level 2, 3, 4, and eventually heroes.

I am not, I repeat, I am not adding any new content. There's already a lot of great mods out there that do a better job of that than I could. This mod is for people who want the vanilla AoW 1 experience with a bit of tweaking.

So, without further ado:

Proposed Level One Changes.

General Changes

Swordsmen: +2 DEF. Archers rock, Swordsmen suck. Period. I want to change that. Hopefully a higher DEF will make Swordsmen more viable. A possible alternative would be to give them all Physical Protection instead (those shields ain't for nothing!) but I feel like that could lead to Orcs being terrifying.

Neutral Races

Humans:

Possibly lower price for Swordsman and Archer. Other than that, more or less the same.

Azracs:

Elephant: 12 HP (was 9); 30 gold (was 37); -strike,

Elephant rushes are stupid. So the Elephant becomes cheaper, loses the ability to fight in battle, and essentially becomes a speedy, more durable Battering Ram.


This is the one change that I'm hesitant about, because while it's probably the most sorely need change at level 1, I don't know how the AI would adapt. If they don't react and continue to produce stacks of Elephants, this would have to change.


Lizardmen:

Giant Slug: 2 DEF (was 1); 6 HP (was 5); 24 MP (was 20). A fun little unit, but too slow and frail to be of any use.


Good Races:

Halflings:

Pony Rider: 2 DAM (was 3). This one I'm also a little nervous about. Pony Rider rushes are infamous, but the Halflings do kind of rely on them to make up for a weaker endgame. Ah well, that's what testing's for.


Elves seem fine as they are. The increase to swordsman defense across the board should make the higher ATT sported by both Archers and Swordsmen more valuable. Nymphs are Nymphs.

Dwarves I struggled a bit with the Berserker, as it's maybe a bit on the strong side, but not too much so.

Highmen, again, I'm wrestling with. I'm tempted to abolish True Seeing from their Swordsmen and Archers, but it does fit the race concept. Spirit Puppet is a bit on the weak side, except in certain situations where it's invaluable. Maybe I'll leave it as is.

Evil Races

Dark Elves:

c.f. Elves

Goblins:

All units: Underground Concealment on Gold. Technically doesn't benefit the Bomber unless you've got an Arena, but whatever.

Orcs:

Kobold: +Regeneration.

Undead:

Swordsman: 24 MP (was 26); 2 DAM (was 3). Description says they move slower and don't hit as hard, but this doesn't pan out in gameplay.

Archer: 24 MP (was 26)


So... Thoughts?

Head over to HeavenGames and see the already created mods which long time fans and players put together to do exactly what you're trying to do... LINK

It looks like Warlock's Rule Set has your name written all over it. :)

The one big caveat for this Rule Set is that you cannot play pre-existing maps such as the Campaign. But there should be plenty of downloadable maps for this Rule Set. (Here is the link to the Single Player maps using that Rule Set: LINK)

Have fun.

edit: Or you could switch to AoW:SM which is the most race balanced of the three pre-AoW:3 games...

Oh, I'm very familiar with Warlock's. I remember spending hours trying to get it working back in the day, and being so happy when it finally met with success, lol.

But, like I said, I want to do something very bare-boned. No new units or anything like that. Just take what's there and tweaking it a bit. None of the mods currently out really do that.

I agree that AoW SM is more balanced (or, rather, the UPatch is more balanced) but I'd like to bring that sort of thing to AoW 1 as well.