focus mage

[imagination]

off the top of my head, this is for you mith
hp:36
armor:n/a
range:4
movement:2
attack: average* unblockable(whole mage thing you see)
recovery:3


*when the mage attacks a peice it takes the average attack of the 4 adjacent peices and attacks the peice with that much force. so lets say we are attacking a pyro that has a dragon and a knight adjacent to it 28+22=50/2=25 pyro is now at 5 health. lets say there is only a dragon 28/1=28 so the pyro would be at 2 health. if there are any peices that do no damage then their damage=0. so its a pyro and its adjacent peices are a knight and a furgon 22+0=22/2=11. wisps add 4 damage to the mix(not the initial 8). here is the kicker lets say we are attacking a friendly pyro that is next to a cleric and a dragon with 4 power (dsm+pyro) -12+4=-8/2=-4... we just added 4 health to the pyro. no drag in there and it gets 12 added.
if nothing is next to the peice being attacked then it does half of whatever that peices power is(armor does not affect)and the unit gets the equivelent of attack wait added on to it. that means if it attacks a scout with no adjacent peices the wait is one, if it attacks a dragon then the wait is 2.

ok so as i was making this up as i went i made sure it couldnt be abused by anyone, only people playing noobs that would have a dragon next to a cleric or something. I think it could server both as an offensive peice and defensive because it has the small ability to heal. ok so what do you all think, especially you mith.

[Mithrandir]

this is for you mith
Haha, I feel special.

Well of course the name sucks but I’ll get to the unit.

I like the concept, I certainly haven’t thought of it before. It could certainly make your opponent think twice about using the dragon. You explained it well, I don’t see any particular abuse potential, pretty creative. The problem is with the balance. It is VASTLY underpowered, and it took me a few minutes to see the loophole that makes this unit rather useless (unless of course I just misunderstand the whole thing in which case you should correct me).

I’m gonna take the long way of explaining it, just for you and cuz I don’t feel like going to bed, I feel like breaking into a long-winded rant. Ever heard of the “Red Queen Theory?” Don’t worry it’s nothing especially complicated, just a general concept. They may have renamed it by now for all I know, I’m no expert on it. They talk about it in Michael Crichton’s “The Lost World” (which was a heck of a lot better than the stupid movie!). The name comes from the book “Alice in Wonderland” (which is marvelous, I need to reread it), when Alice is in some kind of situation with the Queen of Hearts and she has to run as fast as she can just to stay where she is. Red Queen Theory, as applies to nature (and also in life), is basically about adapting to your environment. For the record, I’m not advocating macroevolution here, I believe that is utter nonsense (though naturally this is the wrong place to get into a religious debate so I’ll end right there). What I am talking about here in microevolution, like dog breeds. Plants and animals adapt to their surroundings, like Finch beaks. In the Michael Crichton book (I need to reread that too) the guy uses some plant as an example. This is my basic explanation of the theory, not a very scientifically accurate thing so just bear with me. In our hypothetical scenario, some tree has a problem with an animal eating its leaves so it comes up with a defense so it won’t become extinct. Maybe it causes its branches to rise to high for the predator to reach. What does the predator do? It ends up with a longer neck. Then the plant might develop some kind of chemical that the predator can’t tolerate. So the predator develops an immunity to it. This is not a real example but it illustrates the point: adaptability. And you have to keep adapting as fast as you can to keep up: Red Queen Theory.

So I’ll get to the point. I’m going to coin a new CAU term here: this unit fails because it falls victim to the Red Queen Theory. What I mean by that is that if it was introduced, it might work a bit at first but before long no one would use it because its weakness would become well known and easy to exploit: namely, that all you have to do is set up your attack and defense so you don’t have your units next to each other. I say it falls victim to Red Queen Theory because while it has benefits, in the long run (and not that long) players would just adapt and it wouldn’t be effective after they adapt.

It could probably remain decent, but unreliable, in bombs and effective against anti-rushes but I think that's it.

I’m still praying someday the Golem Ambusher falls victim to the Red Queen and people figure out how to defend against it so effectively that it is rarely used. I don’t expect that will happen because it has a particular strength that will remain effective against clerics until someone comes up with something brilliant or they make a change in the game, maybe by adding another unit.

[imagination]

as i was making it i thought about that (didnt know the name of the theory). thats why i had the healing attribute. is there anyway i could make it stronger though?

[Mithrandir]

You need to keep it from being completely reliant on that one thing, it really kills it.

Maybe give it a second ability or a base attack that it could use against units that don't have adjacent units.

[imagination]

thats why i have the half thing... maybe i could have it do like 2/3 or something no armor effect. what do you think?

[Mithrandir]

Hmmm, it could work but it wouldn't be especially original. I'd say come up with a cool way of attacking units that aren't adjacent to each other, but not as effective as against units that ARE adjacent to each other so I'd say make the primary attack more dangerous somehow.

[imagination]

i got an idea but its not original but seeing how the basic element is ill stick with the originality that comes from that. took one off recovery as well

[Mithrandir]

To avoid bumping every one of your units, could you tell me which ones you think are gold-worthy?

[imagination]

here im about to make a "my cau thread" ill say which ones i like there + you can see all of them if you want

[Mithrandir]

I saw all the threads by using the search function. I just need to know which ones you like the most. I suppose the archive thing will work.

[Forest_Archer]

Too much math for one lil' pyro.

[Ice Magic]

You guys talk alot. :bigsmile: