9 replies to this topic

[Mathijs]

Good afternoon friends,

 

Today we've released SaF BETA 0.610.

 

This version brings a handful of new content and balance changes to the Gundabad faction.

 

To install, please use the SaF updater utility that came with version 0.6. To find it, simply navigate to Start -> Programs -> Shadow and Flame. If for some arcane reason you cannot find it, download it from here. Running the updater will automatically patch your 0.6 install to 0.610.

 

Changelog:

 

================
Balance Changes:
================

Gundabad:
--------
- Frozen Wasteland effects no longer have a timelimit.
- Harsh Cold has its radius increased by 25%
- Hill-trolls build time increased to 60 seconds from 45.
- Troll Lair ranks up to rank 2 faster.
- Warg Rider base damage upped to 52 from 44.
- Warg-scouts have increased their health and armor by roughly 25%.
- Warg-scouts have a longer vision range.
- Increased the attack bonus from Gundabad drummer to 60% from 20%.
- Limited Cave Trolls to six units.

============
New content:
============

Gundabad:
--------
- 'Siege Hammers' upgrade for Cave Trolls
- 'Fell Blades' upgrade for Orc Warriors, Pikemen and Warg Riders
- Added Troll Slinger\Catapult
- Added banner carrier upgrade to Warg-scouts
- Added 'Howl' ability to Warg-scouts at rank 2

=========
Bugfixes:
=========

Gundabad:
--------
- Now works with the community 1.05 patch!
- The Hill-trolls weapon is now aligned to the animations.
- Warg-scouts should replenish their horde after reaching rank 2.

 

 

Note that this update does NOT include any of the announced changes to the original factions. 

 

We intend to release another update containing some more balance changes/additions within a few weeks. After that, we will fully commit to the original factions.

 

Thanks and have fun playing

 

~ The SaF Team

[Fudge]

Hoorah, well done SAF team!

[ICT]

Heyho,

 

after some testing I might list a few points (in no order, I hope I remember them all)

- Land disappears after some time, especially on FOL land, does the effect too?

- Land is viewable within castle if it is thrown before building the castle

- No leadership glow for units? Dont know if the drummer had any effect

- upgrades are way to expensive(?) given the impact they have

- wargs and trolls with hammers are very expensive and get little more armour

- overall armour of wargs and trolls is far low vs heroes and leadership

- orcs and wargscouts do almost no damage to buildings/citas

- PP warg scouts do heavy damage to heroes, I think normal scouts too

- Catas get destroyed by one shot of wounding arrow

- superpower is far to weak in armor, maybe add another attacking spell, too

- gundabad is supposed to be FOD? they do not get PP like other FOD (no pp from getting killed)

- trolls even with stonehammer/other trolls cant attack archers on walls?

- compared to other factions the obtain very little leadership at all, or have no counter to it (like Isen has rain)

- buttons for upgrading armor etc. have too less contrast. It should be clearly visible when they are ready to buy/already bought

 

if you want to really balance it ... many games to come

 

but I really like the ice effects! And Gundabad has a lot different units, almost every type avaible. I dont know if that is good or if you just should make fewer but stronger units.

 

All in all it is already fun to play! =)

 

Keep it up guys!

[MattTheLegoman]

Here is the replay. [28-11-2013] Southern Ithilien Gundabad vs Gondor

[Mathijs]

Heyho,
 
after some testing I might list a few points (in no order, I hope I remember them all)
- Land disappears after some time, especially on FOL land, does the effect too?
- Land is viewable within castle if it is thrown before building the castle

Thanks for testing. We've been messing around with land powers and we haven't finished them yet. The current plan is to make them all temporary.
 

- No leadership glow for units? Dont know if the drummer had any effect
- upgrades are way to expensive(?) given the impact they have
- wargs and trolls with hammers are very expensive and get little more armour
- overall armour of wargs and trolls is far low vs heroes and leadership
- orcs and wargscouts do almost no damage to buildings/citas
- PP warg scouts do heavy damage to heroes, I think normal scouts too
- Catas get destroyed by one shot of wounding arrow
- superpower is far to weak in armor, maybe add another attacking spell, too
- gundabad is supposed to be FOD? they do not get PP like other FOD (no pp from getting killed)
- trolls even with stonehammer/other trolls cant attack archers on walls?
- compared to other factions the obtain very little leadership at all, or have no counter to it (like Isen has rain)
- buttons for upgrading armor etc. have too less contrast. It should be clearly visible when they are ready to buy/already bought

- Glow should still be in there. Might be because of zoom that it didn't show for you.
- Gundabad's upgrades are expensive because the idea is that Gundabad can gain map control before having to get upgrades. The faction's also a template for our plans to the original factions, whose upgrades will be made more expensive and less effective.
- will look into increasing armor bonus and maybe decreasing the cost for siege hammers
- intended, building armor vs. melee is greatly increased. get fire arrows.
- warg scout damage to heroes is intended.
- catas get destroyed that easy, really? we'll look into it, but we have plans to overhaul siege mechanics anyway.
- the balrog is fine because the other factions are receiving similar superpowers. no more army-destroyers.
- they're not getting pp from being killed? I did not know. Noted.
- well, no, you'd need to throw rocks/use catapults to get to those archers.
- true, there isn't a whole lot of leadership. We're looking to add a little more, and increase the radius and damage of Harsh Cold.
- I don't really see what's wrong with the buttons (nor how to fix it).

Thanks for the compliments and feedback

And as a tip: Gundabad has the ability to spam twice as many units as Mordor. I always get Drums in the Deep asap and build two Lodges, which allows me to cover the map in Goblins in a very short time. They're very weak, but their sheer numbers (combined with some back-up from other units and Bolg's leadership in key places) can overwhelm a whole lot. We have plans to greatly decrease the enemy XP and PP reward from killing Goblins.

[ICT]

To be able to get map control fairly quick is a key to win the game. I'll take a look to that poosibility when I come to test it again. If so, and they are really much quicker than mordor, they could be overpowered. I did not look at infantery for now, only wargs and trolls, catapults.

 

If you resize the other superpowers as well, and,  considering the given command point limit - I doubt that certain games will ever end. Combined with:

Building armor greatly increased vs melee: This will probably lead to longer games as well, because it is harder to harass.

 

 

Maybe we can play a few games over the next weeks to prove me wrong . Cheers.

[Mathijs]

Oh, we can play. I love Gundabad.

 

We're reverting the building armor changes on resource plot structures (farms, lumbermills). I don't like it.

[Mathijs]

It's been great seeing the Gundabad & Gundabad vs Gondor replay. Feels good to see people trying out Gundabad. Some valuable lessons in there, too. But the Gundabad vs Gondor one doesn't seem to be there? The zip is empty.

[ICT]

here it is, played with patch 1.05 (is bypassed?) and SnF .61

Attached Files

•  SouthernGvsGu.rep   173.61KB   161 downloads

[Mathijs]

Yeah, when we added 1.05 support we did it by bypassing the changes (because we've got our own list of changes we're going to make, and because this means the mod will work with any and all patches).