Board Thread:Development/@comment-26393217-20170609202750/@comment-26393217-20170621174016

Well. I had overlooked a few aspects of the game in the above proposals.
 * Vanilla speeds don't help feeling the difference between infantry and cavalry. Having a horseman moving at 150 % the speed of a footman doesn't help feeling we have real cavalry because it's a tactical game. On the other hand, irl, we can read that heavy cavalry used to move at the same speed or even slower than trained infantry on strategical distances, because mounts need to rest or to be changed.
 * That said, and according to testing experience, the higher the speed stat, the lesser the subjective speed (as perceived by the player) increase, as if a cap, an asymptotic, or a logarithmic tendency. Let's take 30 for this limit, beyond which perceived speed won't increase.


 * Command: units around the hero gain +2 speed stat, save for the Skeleton Cavalry (+1).
 * Levelling-up: Cavalry units will gain 0-4 points in speed stat upon levelling-up to level 6 (depending on their base stat), and then 3 more points up to level 13-14. But high-level units should not be the aimed at target as far as "ambience" is looked for. Level 6 (70 XP) should be a limit (Fey can reach level 7 but there is no speed change at level 7), or even level 5 (40 XP). I mean, that if the base speeds are too high, and already close to the "cap", one of the purpose of levelling units up could be "lost".
 * As a note, obviously, the stat increases upon levelling-up were not designed with these higher base speed in mind, and we could ask if something is not broken if we change anything. I mean that currently, slower units catch up with faster units when they level up. This effect is amplified when the bonuses are added to the base speed progression, because slower units tend to progress more than faster units (see a 15 Speed Wolf Rider for instance).
 * Researches: Likewise, what is the relevance of researches on speed? They can't be changed in a v1.03.26 mod anyways. We have: +3 for all 3 Knight cavalry, +3 for Nightmare, +5 for both Barbarian cavalry (and Pegasi), +6 for Wolfrider. Unicorn is not considered a Fey unit for the purpose of Zephyr research. Again, these researches should have a subjective effect on speed, and thus stack their bonus on speeds that are not too close to the "cap". Then there is the lore: when you say that Wolfriders are slightly slower than most cavalry, is it before, or after upgrade? Shouldn't Barbarians start with slow, badly trained/bred horses, as compared to the Knights' standard, and then end with Trargite steeds, the fastest of all? Etc.
 * Spells: Likewise, a few spells increase the speed of nearby friendly units. Giving too high a base speed could lower the interest for such spells as far as cavalry is concerned... and we can't change spells in a v1.03.26 mod. Spells are: Invigorate (Healing sphere), Phantasmal Speed (Summoning sphere), and Springtime (Time sphere). They all grant a +2 speed stat (+1/lvl) and last for 1 min (+1 min/lvl) save for the latest (30 sec.). Berserker (Pyromancy sphere) grants +4 speed. As a result, we ought to make "room" for a sensitive +2 speed increase from spell.

Now, on one hand, I'd think that priority should be given to subjective speed, as far as cavalry "ambience" is looked for. I mean that lighter cavalry should appear as faster than heavy cavalry, and not only by the figures.

On the other hand, there may be a usefulness to have much higher stats than needed for perception (and desired for differentiation). There comes the unit's resilience to debilitating effects and debuffing spells. I figure that a unit with 34 speed will be relatively less affected by a slowing effect than a unit with 28 speed. Stacked effects from various spells (especially Berserker), if any, could result in such resilience (rather than a really visible speed increase), hence the case is not accounted for here.

Below are four tables. The first one displays the v1.03.25 stat progression for both non-upgraded and upgraded units (through researches). The second one displays the final ranking when all researches are done. The eventual +3/+5 Speed bonus through spell & command effects is not added. The last ones are the same with but the figures I put in the files for testing, and the resultant progression. I have a second set of files to easily switch between vanilla speeds and modded speeds.