I've tried most of them and haven't really found any to be too strong. I think the ones that bestow armor, fire fighting, command, and repair bonuses to be the most useful and interesting while the ones that bestow spy and city-related bonuses to be the least useful and interesting but that's just me.
I've mostly used the anvil bonus, since you can't go wrong with better armor.
Eagle is rather boring in practice since it means the bulk of your army just sits around taking potshots at the enemy at long range.
Ram is also rather unappealing, since there was nothing particularly special about the grand ram last I checked. I like the idea of a -XX% accuracy to weapons, +XX% to speed or ram damage in its place.
Yeah, Ram is meant to have an additional ability eventually, where crew gain a bonus from actually ramming stuff. Basically, they'll just really like to ram things.
Do you think the +25% income bonus from the scales is too big? Any ideas for making the eagle bonus less boring?
Oh yes, and I'll be adding a "Monster Hunter" charge with a bonus to accuracy and damage to creatures - suggestions for the charge for that are highly welcome.
Maybe a monsters head with a sword through it? And firebirds idea involving the Sun charge actually sounds pretty decent to me. Also the wolf bonus seems a bit... specific. What qualifies as a small landship anyway? Maybe the ability to release attack wolves or something? But that's an idea I just pulled out of my ass and I really didn't think of how you would balance a unit like that. Just my opinion :)
On a side note (sorry for posting on an old thread, but making 2 identical threads seemed worse), if the AI gets scales it is way too overpowered, probably related to AI logic and buying ships as soon as they are available.
Every single time I've seen scales on a map I've seen it overrun every other faction, about 5 times now on large maps.
But when it comes to what I might actually use on a Large Map with Hard AI - Spider will give you a good early game if you want to get a fast spread, Eagle will make it an overall fast game. Otherwise I'd go for Module Enabling effects so that I can goof with new builds without reliance on the map.
When it comes to Scales, it might be due to how it's paired with an Affinity. Not sure...
Well, this thread needs updating, it seems... Oh and Zark, can the Vol be used to unlock triplanes? Just a side note but I think you might have made a mistake with unlockables as the triplanes is already unlocked while the biplane isn't. Is there a reason for that?
Aerial Emperor
As part of ongoing balancing, I'm interested to hear your opinions on the bonuses given by the choice of heraldic charge in conquest mode.
Here's a list of all the charges currently in-game:
Anvil
Steel armour absorbs 50% more damage
Boar
+30% HP for tracked landships
Crown
Conquered cities have no pacification period
Dragon
Dragonriders (in dev 9)
Eagle
All cannons are twice as accurate
Eye
Spy actions are 50% cheaper and 50% more likely to succeed
Gear
Mech Spiders
Guillotine
Revolting cities join your empire
Lion
50% faster reload in boarding combat
Mountain
+30% lift from suspendium chambers
Ram
Grand Ram
Rat
Injured crew members move at full speed
Scales
+25% income from cities
Spider
Spider legs and arachnid boarding soldiers
Star
Aerial torpedoes
Tower
+50% stone wall HP
Tree
+20% wooden armour and module HP
Waves
Fires put out twice as quickly
Wheel
Ships ready for commands twice as fast
Wolf
Small landships require half maintenance and move faster on the map
Wrench
Repair 50% faster
Commander
I've tried most of them and haven't really found any to be too strong. I think the ones that bestow armor, fire fighting, command, and repair bonuses to be the most useful and interesting while the ones that bestow spy and city-related bonuses to be the least useful and interesting but that's just me.
Commander
I've mostly used the anvil bonus, since you can't go wrong with better armor.
Eagle is rather boring in practice since it means the bulk of your army just sits around taking potshots at the enemy at long range.
Ram is also rather unappealing, since there was nothing particularly special about the grand ram last I checked. I like the idea of a -XX% accuracy to weapons, +XX% to speed or ram damage in its place.
Aerial Emperor
Yeah, Ram is meant to have an additional ability eventually, where crew gain a bonus from actually ramming stuff. Basically, they'll just really like to ram things.
Do you think the +25% income bonus from the scales is too big? Any ideas for making the eagle bonus less boring?
Oh yes, and I'll be adding a "Monster Hunter" charge with a bonus to accuracy and damage to creatures - suggestions for the charge for that are highly welcome.
Commander
shrugs
Eagle being a bit dull is not necessarily a major problem. Some people probably like it. Could make it give suspendium cannon or similar instead.
Severed tentacle, sacks of gold (monster booty!), pitchforks, or a raised fist as a monster hunter charge.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
The scales are a bit much, I never go without them. Maybe you could change it to + 27% income, but blights (monster effects) are 25% stronger.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
The Sun charge could make your airsailors immune to sun-related accuracy penalties.
Air Admiral
Maybe a monsters head with a sword through it? And firebirds idea involving the Sun charge actually sounds pretty decent to me. Also the wolf bonus seems a bit... specific. What qualifies as a small landship anyway? Maybe the ability to release attack wolves or something? But that's an idea I just pulled out of my ass and I really didn't think of how you would balance a unit like that. Just my opinion :)
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
On a side note (sorry for posting on an old thread, but making 2 identical threads seemed worse), if the AI gets scales it is way too overpowered, probably related to AI logic and buying ships as soon as they are available.
Every single time I've seen scales on a map I've seen it overrun every other faction, about 5 times now on large maps.
Commodore
I prefer no bonus. |
But when it comes to what I might actually use on a Large Map with Hard AI - Spider will give you a good early game if you want to get a fast spread, Eagle will make it an overall fast game. Otherwise I'd go for Module Enabling effects so that I can goof with new builds without reliance on the map.
When it comes to Scales, it might be due to how it's paired with an Affinity. Not sure...
Air Admiral
Well, this thread needs updating, it seems... Oh and Zark, can the Vol be used to unlock triplanes? Just a side note but I think you might have made a mistake with unlockables as the triplanes is already unlocked while the biplane isn't. Is there a reason for that?