Board Thread:Development/@comment-26393217-20170201131119/@comment-26393217-20171123201419

Hello,

I am preparing a true changelog of what is done, so that you can see that, as I wrote, only cosmetic changes are scheduled, indeed (be patient). There was no real will of having new ideas, rather of correcting a few things. The main reason of this is that a last version of WBC3 can't be the work of a single man, and neither two, and shouldn't erase the work of a whole community, or even a restrained group, I mean in case the game I play with becomes more than a personal mod, and is finally released. A more practical reason is that I don't have the code's source, nor the graphic expertise, to mod what I would like to be changed (Again, what I would like is not what it should be, as soon as we start considering a public release!). Another reason is that I know nothing about balancing a game for both solo and multiplayer experiences.

I worked from all the material I could find or was provided with, namely a working ToDo list from the modders who once considered a more refined v1.03.25 patch, had to release it in its current state, and listed all of their ideas for a future "v1.03.26" patch. I found only natural too, to introduce the player to the main stand-alone mod where the modding community is still working on, so I used the Protectors' changelog to include as much features as possible (without breaking WBC3's balance, and even if some are not so to my taste)

That said, I'll answer to all your proposals (as far as I know or was told).
 * Spiders and the Swarm: As per v1.03.25, they are already produced by the Swarm, and are tagged as Swarm units in the config file, and the resource cost has been adjusted. Sadly, the code wasn't corrected to make them benefit from some Swarm upgrades. We can't do anything about that.
 * Spiders and the Dark Elves:
 * Balance consideration aside, I'd say quite the opposite about what faction spiders are more fit with. Melchor and the Swarm are originated from the desert, and although there are spiders in sandy and hot places on Earth, I see them more fit to a damp jungle/forest environment.
 * Also, as I wrote, I don't see a real interest for spiders when you already have husks and scorpions, besides some niche situations (special foes, lack of resources). Moreover, spiders in Etheria are children of a peculiar daemon (or divinity), Aranea, whereas the monstrous ants and scorpions, husks, and both scorpionmen are Melchor's creatures.
 * Now, denying the Dark Elves the ability to breed/herd/summon spiders could be done easily by modding the army and buildings config files, I think. I don't have the tools to do that, but anybody with VBASIC 2010 should (it's used as a resource by the modding tool).
 * War Dog: I read you, and I still disagree: they are as large as small horses, and size doesn't matter when it comes about ferocity! As I wrote, I would even deny them access to towers if I could (the same for spiders, btw). That said, we could experiment with making them faster and cheaper to produce, and faster to die too. We should compare their stats to that of a civilian, and that of a few infantry, starting with the barbarian (how many to kill a swordsman?). Currently, they can kill a rider single-handedly. If you want to keep them as they are, I'd rather change their name to "Lion", or "Warg".
 * Wood Elves and the Feys:
 * Again, I won't cancel what was decided by many. What could be done however, if we could access the config files, is to postpone the production of Fey units (the new Oakman included) to some higher Keep level.
 * Ssrathis:
 * Triceratops _are_ advanced dinosaurs already (T-Rex are elite).
 * About changing the name of the Lizard Rider: on one hand, elephants are not named "Elephant Riders", on the other hand, riders and wolf riders are not named "Horses" nor "Wolves" ;). While all riding units have their own production building, I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to do the same with the Lizard Rider.
 * The main obstacle would be that you'd have more Hatcheries, and less Warrior Sects on the map. Would this fit the Ssrathis more? For the rest, yes, why not. I mean that the Naga was already moved out of the Temple Sect in v1.03.25, so that that would make one unit per sect building, and three units for the Hatchery, if we retain your proposal.
 * About postponing the production of the Snakepriest until Keep level 3, and having Lizard Rider produced from Keep level 2 on, it's too much a balance impacting issue to me (I mean that this would change the faction... on the other hand, the Ssrathis are the only, or one the only, faction to produce mages that early).
 * That said, all of your proposals could be implemented by modding those same, @#$... config files. Except that Lizard Riders wouldn't benefit from Saurus Pen upgraded (it's harcoded), else we would have had to degrade their stats accordingly for them to not become über-units. Concerning the Dragonmaster skill, I think it could be done by changing the racial tag in the army config file (I remember that dinos and hydras are now tagged as "dragons"), but I don't know the exact consequence of removing the Ssrathi tag. Note that being tagged as Cavalry units, they already benefit from the Riding skill. No unit can benefit from two experience skills.
 * Btw, my proposal of an unmounted velociraptor wouldn't have made the Lizard Rider an obsolete or duplicate unit. Firstly, if it was up to me, it would be produced earlier, faster and at a lesser cost. Secondly, it would be made quite un-controllable, like frenzied, and would be less potent (say a kind of current War Dog, as I wrote). This unit would be used like über-goblins to auto-roam the map, and like mercenaries to instant help an attacked base ("Open the gates! Loose the dogs!"). They even could be timed and vanish after a certain time (read: before returning to wild state).
 * Barbarian elephants:
 * Again, I'm mixed, both lore-wise and balance-wise. Empire is more a forest/jungle faction than the Barbarians, except for the Diraquine Empire. I'd let this responsibility up to a sizable modding community, such as The Protectors'.
 * That said, this could be done by modding the... config files. A problem is that the Elephant can't be tagged as both an Empire unit and a Barbarian unit. If it's already tagged as a Monster, then it's okay.
 * Hydras: As per v1.03.25, hydras are already basic/advanced/elite monstrous infantry. Note that this changes absolutely nothing as they can't enter towers, and there's no skill for/against advanced units.

Hmm... Did I say that we need to alter some army.cfg and building.cfg files? That is, to use some XCR editor that needs Visual Basic to be installed? (Anybody who runs a modern MS system should have this required libraries already installed)

I hope that you don't feel like rebuffed. Just keep in mind that a released "v1.03.25c" or "v1.03.26" patch can't be a best personal mod. Now, I can help you in modding your own personal game according to your taste (still if we can access, etc.), and anybody can upload his personal mod to ModDb or the like.