[Altered Melee] Ayurin Shores - The Valyr Race

[iamxaxas]

I'm working on a campaign, but I'm also making altered melees with the races from that campaign. You can find the map with the race I'm currently working on here.

To play as the Valyr, choose Humans and set your handicap to 90. The computer AI is a bit buggy, not sure why... Can anyone explain me that?

I haven't added tooltips yet, so:

Techtree (Original)

Unholy Slave - basic worker, has the Frenzy ability. T1.

Crusader (Garrison) - First warrior. Can learn Battle Rage (faster attack, but decreased damage reduction). T1.

Chapel Gheist (Garrison) - Second Warrior. Very effective when you use the powers. Has Holy Syphon (Life Drain). Can learn Haunt (Casts Curse on units in area). T1.

Purger (Garrison) - Has Spell Imunity; Purge. T2.

Ydur Witch (Ydur Altar) - Spellcaster. Can cast Solemn Offer (Soul Burn). na also learn Ydur Rage (Fireball) and Ritual (resurects 3 friendly corpses). T2.

Ydur Envoy (Ydur Altar) - Ultimate Unit. Has Angelic Shield (Devotion Aura) and Smite (instantly kills a unit below level 6). T3.

Priest (Cathedral) - Spellcaster. Has Soul Mend (Heal), Sanctify (Dispell Magic) and Faith (Inner Fire). T2.

Sacred Keeper (Cathedral) - Ultimate Unit. Has Resistant Skin. Can also learn Detonate (explodes dealing damage to units around, both allied and enemy). T3.

Holy Catapult (Cathedral) - Siege Unit. T2.

Phoenix (Phoenix Nest) - The usual Phoenix, without the Pohenix Fire ability and doesn't lose life or turn into an egg when it dies. T3.

Changelog

8th June 2014

Crusader - Replaced Battle Rage with Cleaving Blade (T3 Ability), which is like Cleaving attack and Phoenix Fire combined, but a lot weaker.

Chapel Gheist - Replaced the Holy Syphon ability with Persist, which spawns two soul shatters (8/10 Atk; 0 Arm; 190 HP); Haunt now costs mana and its effect area is reduced from 800 to 450.

Ydur Envoy - Can't be resurected anymore. Smite now deals great damage instead of killing.

Ydur Witch - Ydur Rage now damages units in area, but doesn't stun. Also costs more mana.

Other minor changes. THE LINK TO THE MAP IS OUTDATED. THE UPDATED VERSION WILL BE AVAILUABLE SOON.

Reviews, suggestions and other constructive feedback apreciated.

 

[noob]

There is units who looks like exact copy of original ones and there is few custom abilities.
What will this race will add as new mechanics or new gameplay except some small variations who are only add of things which concept looks unbalanced like resurrecting 3 units at the same time is too much and one-shotting any unit the opponent can own is excessively powerful (6 is the level of the highest level unit which can be trained)
The phoenix is hard to counter if not impossible when heavily massed 6 phoenix can give very very high threat especially if combined with the two previous.

 

[iamxaxas]

There is units who looks like exact copy of original ones and there is few custom abilities.
What will this race will add as new mechanics or new gameplay except some small variations who are only add of things which concept looks unbalanced like resurrecting 3 units at the same time is too much and one-shotting any unit the opponent can own is excessively powerful (6 is the level of the highest level unit which can be trained)
The phoenix is hard to counter if not impossible when heavily massed 6 phoenix can give very very high threat especially if combined with the two previous.

What do you suggest?

one-shotting any unit the opponent can own is excessively powerful (6 is the level of the highest level unit which can be trained)

maybe, but the Envoys are relatively easy to kill if not properly protected and smite costs a lot of mana and takes a lot of time to recharge, not to mention the research time

 

[noob]

But what happens is that you send some phoenix some envoys and some witches and you can with those phoenixes attack fast and reduce heavily enemies forces the envoy kills the huge heavies on the ennemy side and if they are killed you resurrect them fast but anyway they will not be killed if you use fast the soul burn on enemy heroes and use ydur rage combined with the phoenixes fast and heavy attack on the small units (because the hudges ones have been killed in a small time by your envoy) running fast toward your envoy.

 

[Xonok]

A melee warrior that can sustain himself AND curse entire groups of enemies? This can't be a tier 1 or 2 unit. More like tier 4-5, as no player unit in melee has such abilities.

Ydur units extremely OP.
2 witches can resurrect as many units as a lvl 6 paladin. Furthermore, it scales so high that you can essentially resurrect your whole army 2-3 times.
Envoys are spam-based. Cover them with some long-ranged units and you have a perfect army. Envoys kill the most dangerous enemies instantly when you enter battle. Once that is done there is very little left that the enemies can do, since their heavy-purpose units are down. And this is before the battle even started... OP.

Priest is the usual human/high elf priest. Nothing special.

Sacred Keeper - Sounds like a heavy-duty tank. Giving them a panic button is too much. Atm the gameplay would be about sending them to fight the enemies. Whenever one of them gets low on health you just detonate it. This can not be prevented through enemy micro and is counter-intuitive, as the unit is essentially a tank-damager hybrid this way(which doesn't exist in player control usually).

Phoenix - There's good reasons why phoenixes aren't normally trainable in melee. The first thing being that hero ultimates are ALWAYS better than anything they can get through the techtree. Thus, being able to spam multiple phoenixes is simply OP. This unit is balanced to be unique.

Other notes:
Give more information. You haven't really mentioned the tiers of units and all the buildings.
Some units are not elaborated on at all, such as the catapult. Make them special from melee units somehow.

 

[iamxaxas]

Updated: see changelog.

 

[Fingolfin]

I have a problem with the way you make all your units into spellcasters. The units which constitute the bulk of your army should never have active abilities, especially not ones that require a target. The reason for this is that it otherwise requires a lot of micromanagement from the player to be used effectively. A totally overboard example of this is how the workers have the frenzy ability - since it makes them move faster, you will want to keep your workers constantly frenzied for increased harvest speed, and this will only benefit the player who can smash his buttons the fastest.

From a design point of view, i see where you are going, but i think you should try to find better models for some of the units to get a more cohesive look for your race. Some new building models would be nice too.

 

[iamxaxas]

A totally overboard example of this is how the workers have the frenzy ability - since it makes them move faster, you will want to keep your workers constantly frenzied for increased harvest speed, and this will only benefit the player who can smash his buttons the fastest.

I was going to remove Frenzy sooner or later... It was initialy supposed to be a minor initial defense, but then I noticed the advantage it would give when it comes to harvesting matters...

From a design point of view, i see where you are going, but i think you should try to find better models for some of the units to get a more cohesive look for your race. Some new building models would be nice too.

I was going to use Ujimasa Hojo's Gilneas' models, but I'm going to need those for the Taraenor race (see campaign thread), except the crypt model which is already being used in this race.

There is also some stuff that I couldn't find, such as a good model/skin for the purger (any suggestions?).

Still, thanks all for the feedback so far!

 

[Xonok]

It is possible to make the attack speed of a unit higher against other units than it is against trees. Check peasants for an example.

 

[iamxaxas]

It is possible to make the attack speed of a unit higher against other units than it is against trees. Check peasants for an example.

How? =)

 

[Xonok]

Check peasants. Did you know that harvesting lumber is actually attacking trees? Well, now you do.
Peasants have 1 attack for fighting and 1 for harvesting.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Does this relate to Valyrians of Game of thrones?

 

[iamxaxas]

Does this relate to Valyrians of Game of thrones?

haha, no, not at all. Only in the name