Elf tech - Perfectly balanced blades - IMPLEMENTED

[Alexander82]

Balanced blades

Cost: 3
Builder: Elven Craftsman
Effect:
The sword dancer gain an additional action

[Sunrise Samurai]

Well, it sounds nice. Until I get to play with the dodge techs I can't say if it's really useful. Right now the only good elf melee units worth using are sentinel and centaur. Swords dancer is just too easy to kill right now for me to care to play with, since I wanty melee to tank the front lines. I've been thinking it should exchange it's building bonus for infantry bonus, becoming a melee anti infantry unit. That would give it a more defined role at least.

[Alexander82]

Yes, It might work.

[Sunrise Samurai]

Seems we've been vote happy on balance/role changes for many existing units. Think we should put up a vote topic for removing sword dancer's bonus damage against buildings and replacing it with bonus damage against infantry? It would pair well with sentinel and centaur that way. Sentinel hits hard vs Giants and cavalry, centaur hits hard vs archers, and sword dancer would complete the set at taking out infantry.

Also, it might be a good idea to remove the bottom tier elf melee units entirely. I don't see much use in them, and they detract from the idea that elf melee units are fewer​ in number, but very skilled at what they do.

[Alexander82]

Sure, why not. I was already thinking about raising his hp a bit (maybe 28 or 30) but i'm waiting for the evasion tech pack to be in (i've already sent all jsons and images to Daniel)

[Sunrise Samurai]

Ahh you beat me to the post. I edited my last to say a bit more without reposting.

[Alexander82]

I don't think we should remove swordman and warrior. They are useful sometimes. I use the warrior against cavalry when I need a fast unit and with evasion it will last more (80% dodge counter is not bad at all). The swordsman is useful to bring down some buildings (for example I recruit some in fresh captured tcs to bring down factories or towers).

[Sunrise Samurai]

True. I've done the swordsman in fresh tc approach too, since they build fast and help take the base a little quicker. Again, we come to that balancing wall of needing to see how dodge techs change things lol. If swordsman and warrior​ don't​ die so quickly, they might resurface as something we build in uncertain situations, where enemies might attack a tc within 3-5 turns.

[Alexander82]

Yes, sometimes you just have no time so you make a basic archer or a warrior instead of quick archers or sentinels

[Sunrise Samurai]

Okay, back to the original post, a third action on swords dancer sounds like it adds flavor to the idea. As a matter of alliteration, I would just call it "balanced blades" for a more pleasing name, but that is only my opinion. It might be an interesting idea to consider applying it to elf swordsman as well. I doubt an extra action would make a large difference there, aside from again, flavor.

[Alexander82]

I tought of it but that would definitely make it better than a sword dancer

2x2 turns 4 attacks

1x4 turns 3 attacks

[Sunrise Samurai]

......math strikes again

So much for that idea.

[Alexander82]

I would just call it "balanced blades" for a more pleasing name, but that is only my opinion.

To be honest i started with the same name but that would have meant that the blade wasn't balanced before (which sounds odd too) so i added the "perfectly" to make it like those blades are masterpiece.

Another option was "mithril blades" since mithril is pretty light and would have made great blades for sword dancers

[Sunrise Samurai]

Maybe "aerodynamics" would work, as they carefully reduce the drag from the air to increase speed. It would certainly indicate more precise blacksmithing.

[Alexander82]

Image

Daniel, Tell me if it is ok for you so i can add that to the vote list

[Stratego (dev)]

image is nice, but please summarize me the tech description, i am not sure it ment to affect only dancer but other elves too.

[Sunrise Samurai]

It was actually only for sword dancer. Alexander did a cost comparison on if it affected cheaper elves, and found it to be more powerful on them, and we aren't looking for more reason to use sentinel. It's just +1 action to sword dancer.

[Alexander82]

Exactly. It is just a +1 action for the sword dancer. It will make him stronger later on and even more if you research the dodge pack

[Alexander82]

Edited the main topic and added to the list

[Sunrise Samurai]

You know, for the fact that this seems designed with jump as a combination, maybe these should be made into a series, say requiring this one to research jump.

[Alexander82]

With Daniel we are working on a redesign of the game to make more connections and requirements for upgrades. I was also thinking to make balanced blades researchable after the third level smithing (it is the same blade as you can see). But that would be the same for all races (and obviously we should also revise costs).

Anyway we might already start with this combo.

[Sunrise Samurai]

Yeah. Third level smithing required for this. I'm seeing elves as the race strongest in research, just as orcs go into the strongest for individual unit upgrades.

[Alexander82]

Yeah, while humans are a mix of both

[Sunrise Samurai]

Humans also have elements​ of a third system, research to unlock powerful new units (catapults) and abilities (fireball) that I think will be a good system to start putting on undead.

[Alexander82]

Undeads are definitely strong on spells/spell-like abilities/special effects

[Sunrise Samurai]

Yeah. I'm thinking undead could balance out upgrading as researching the ability to build more powerful units, rather than changing existing units. For example, death knight or bone dragon could be researched to use (albeit this would nerf undead, so it's just an example) at say 6 turns research.

Back on topic, elf techs requiring the basic blacksmith techs related to them sounds like a good way to impart some flavor to it.

[Alexander82]

That might be a good approach and balance might be achieved by adding different steps in the middle.

[Alexander82]

IMPLEMENTED