Posted May 17, 2010
I'd like to make a shameless plug for my MoM mod project, Project Catnip! It it hosted on Dragon Sword (dragonsword.com, under Forums) where kyrub's amazing patch is also being developed and various other features are available. Come check us out. kyrub is providing valuable assistance with some of the stuff that requires hacking beyond simple hex editing.
The main points of the mod are as follows:
Higher unit speed
Overland movement is a drag, unless you're using pathfinding it takes forever to get anywhere. Stuff like Forester and Mountaineer is generally useless because most units have 1 movement. During combat, low speed contributes to making ranged units way overpowered. I've increased speed by 50%-100% across the board.
More hearts for normal units
Main reason why Elite is so powerful is that most normal units have only a single heart by default, leading to a 100% increase. Starting units off with roughly twice the hearts lessens the impact of experience quite a bit. Similarly, swords have been increased across the board.
Rebalancing basic units
Most of the basic units (spearmen, swordsmen, bowmen, halberdiers, cavalry) are plain boring and generally strictly inferior to racially unique units. I've changed them around as follows:
- Spearmen have 2 swords, 3 shields, 8 figures, negate first strike, cost 20
- Swordsmen have 4 swords, 2 shields, 7 figures, large shield, cost 30
- Bowmen have 2 bows, 6 ammo, 1 shield, 6 figures, cost 40
- Cavalry have 6 swords, 2 shields, 4 figures, first strike, cost 60
- Halberdiers have 5 swords, 3 shields, 5 figures and armour piercing, cost 50
Rebalancing unique units
I've lowered the figures of most high end units in order to keep them from being dominant. They get stat increases to compensate. For example, Longbowmen have 5 bows and 4 figures. Paladins have 10 swords, 8 hearts and 2 figures.
Races
In addition to rebalancing unique units, races will also be rebalanced through changing building restrictions and bonuses to their basic units, possibly growth rates as well.
Rebalancing wizard creation
If possible, I'm planning to change the costs of retorts around (they're horribly imbalanced as is) and change the spell structure sp you start with no spells. Instead you get to choose a number of guaranteed spells (same as the original version). If this can't be done through hacking, I intend to make it an optional self imposed rule that can be implemented manually through save game editors.
Magic
Casting, research and upkeep costs will be rebalanced across the board. There are obvious imbalances, allowing a dozen or so spells to be far dominant and most of the rest quite useless. Research costs will be lowered across the board to encourage you to actually get those high end spells, research seems to be inferior to me compared to just using the low end spells and spending your resources elsewhere.
Buildings
There'll be a number of changes to building costs and requirements, allowing for more diversity in building options (rather than simply going Granary + Farmer's Market every single time). Production cost and upkeep of buildings that contribute directly to the city will go up (food and production), upkeep and construction cost of buildings that give access to new units will go down, buildings that give imperial benefits (money, mana, resarch) have higher construction cost and lower upkeep.
Misc
- Alchemy conversion will become more costly
- Speed building will become more costly, and the loophole to buy and then change production item will be closed
- Monster lairs will be rebalanced
- City walls will likely be changed around a lot
- Stale mate (all units retreat exhausted) will likely be turned into forced retreat for the human player
- More races in each game, enemy wizards will be able to start with any race and neutral cities will be less likely to start with the continental race
- Lots of other stuff :)
Feedback and assistance is more than welcome, so please drop by if you want to comment or help out. Also come check out our upcoming tournament which is about to begin.
The main points of the mod are as follows:
Higher unit speed
Overland movement is a drag, unless you're using pathfinding it takes forever to get anywhere. Stuff like Forester and Mountaineer is generally useless because most units have 1 movement. During combat, low speed contributes to making ranged units way overpowered. I've increased speed by 50%-100% across the board.
More hearts for normal units
Main reason why Elite is so powerful is that most normal units have only a single heart by default, leading to a 100% increase. Starting units off with roughly twice the hearts lessens the impact of experience quite a bit. Similarly, swords have been increased across the board.
Rebalancing basic units
Most of the basic units (spearmen, swordsmen, bowmen, halberdiers, cavalry) are plain boring and generally strictly inferior to racially unique units. I've changed them around as follows:
- Spearmen have 2 swords, 3 shields, 8 figures, negate first strike, cost 20
- Swordsmen have 4 swords, 2 shields, 7 figures, large shield, cost 30
- Bowmen have 2 bows, 6 ammo, 1 shield, 6 figures, cost 40
- Cavalry have 6 swords, 2 shields, 4 figures, first strike, cost 60
- Halberdiers have 5 swords, 3 shields, 5 figures and armour piercing, cost 50
Rebalancing unique units
I've lowered the figures of most high end units in order to keep them from being dominant. They get stat increases to compensate. For example, Longbowmen have 5 bows and 4 figures. Paladins have 10 swords, 8 hearts and 2 figures.
Races
In addition to rebalancing unique units, races will also be rebalanced through changing building restrictions and bonuses to their basic units, possibly growth rates as well.
Rebalancing wizard creation
If possible, I'm planning to change the costs of retorts around (they're horribly imbalanced as is) and change the spell structure sp you start with no spells. Instead you get to choose a number of guaranteed spells (same as the original version). If this can't be done through hacking, I intend to make it an optional self imposed rule that can be implemented manually through save game editors.
Magic
Casting, research and upkeep costs will be rebalanced across the board. There are obvious imbalances, allowing a dozen or so spells to be far dominant and most of the rest quite useless. Research costs will be lowered across the board to encourage you to actually get those high end spells, research seems to be inferior to me compared to just using the low end spells and spending your resources elsewhere.
Buildings
There'll be a number of changes to building costs and requirements, allowing for more diversity in building options (rather than simply going Granary + Farmer's Market every single time). Production cost and upkeep of buildings that contribute directly to the city will go up (food and production), upkeep and construction cost of buildings that give access to new units will go down, buildings that give imperial benefits (money, mana, resarch) have higher construction cost and lower upkeep.
Misc
- Alchemy conversion will become more costly
- Speed building will become more costly, and the loophole to buy and then change production item will be closed
- Monster lairs will be rebalanced
- City walls will likely be changed around a lot
- Stale mate (all units retreat exhausted) will likely be turned into forced retreat for the human player
- More races in each game, enemy wizards will be able to start with any race and neutral cities will be less likely to start with the continental race
- Lots of other stuff :)
Feedback and assistance is more than welcome, so please drop by if you want to comment or help out. Also come check out our upcoming tournament which is about to begin.
