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xerent
10-17-2005, 11:11 PM
I'm going to go a different route on this one, and instead of giving you the unit, I'll give you the thought process behind it, so you can see how I go about creating one of these bad boys.

While I'm creating these, you may disagree with some of my views. This is fine, but I ask that you hold onto a suspension of belief until you finish reading.

While creating a unit, the only thing that matters at this time is the concept. For my necromancer, the concept is, a spellcaster who can bring back friendly or emeny units, and have them be friendly to the necromancer.

That being said, I need to lay a foundation for balance. Here is what I have come up with as a base 'equation' for balance.

- Pre-existing units generally have 3 negative actions applied to them before they perish.
- Pre-existing units generally can perform 2 actions before perishing, if the opponent is concentrating solely on that unit.

This encompasses what I like to call:

- Unit Longevity
- Unit Potency

Of course, the strategy of the game is to increase the longevity on your most potent units, while preventing your opponent from doing the same.

With that being said, the all-encompassing necromancer needs to be balanced with the previous statement. However, the necromancer does not fall within the normal bounds of the Power Damaging HP units that already exist, so we must apply this balance in a roundabout way, using instead the unit that was raised from the dead.

It is here that we must be careful, for bringing a unit back to life would increase it's longevity by double while potency remains the same. This would be cause for a unit which is double as effective, which is fine, but we also have to factor in the Necromancer unit slot as well. Therefore, this unit would be equal to 3 unit slots, but would only take up 2 (The necromancer, and the necromanced units.). Also, we have to consider units which count as more than one unit, like the Dragon. To make it interesting, and also somewhat logical, we will have the necromancers ability apply only to human units.

One way of solving this discrepancy is by having the necromanced unit replace the necromancer, which decreases the necromancers longevity, or rather transfers it to the necromanced unit. The necromancer might have been near-death as well, and it is somewhat abusive to allow a full-health unit to replace a near-death one. So we will throw in another stipulation tha necromanced units die once they perform an action other than moving.

In order to maintain longevity, we will also make Necromanced units invulnerable, as well as not counting for end of game units, to avoid abuse.

However, the necromancer cannot just raise one unit to have it perform one attack and die, that only accounts for 1/2 unit potency. We will also add a base attack to the unit. Something appropriate for the necromancer.

Because the necromancer raises a 1-hit until death unit (once it attacks, it dies), the necromancer should have longevity equal to that of 2 negative actions.

With all that said, here is the final unit.

Necromancer

HP: 35
Power: 16 [Unaffected by Armor]
Blocking: 20%
Armor: 0
Range: 1
Speed: 3
Recovery: 1M / 2A

Special: Necromancy

A secondary ability, once activated, a list is generated detailing all the units that perished so far. Upon selecting one of these units, it is now placed on your side, friendly to you. This attack kills the Necromancer.

The necromanced unit is brought back at full health, and is also invulnerable. (This includes poison, but not non-damaging focus effects) However, once the unit attacks, after damage is applied, the Necromanced unit also dies.

Necromanced units do not count as end of game units.

The Necromancer may only use this ability on Humans.

Deck of Jesters
10-18-2005, 05:19 AM
So the Necromancer sacrafices itself for a single unit that can only attack once?

The Necromancer's attack is too weak to be effective (melee distance, Witch Blocking). This means the Necromancer's only true purpose is to bring back a dead unit.

The dead unit can be:
Scout
Knight
Cleric
Pyromancer
DSM
DMW
Assassin
Enchantress

Considering the 1 attack purpose, bringing back an Enchantress would just be stupid.

A full health, single attack Assassin is useless.

A single attack Scout is more useless than the single attack Assassin is.

Pyromancers, unless coupled with a DSM, are (mostly) useless.

On the other hand...
An invulnerable Cleric would be nice, even if he can only heal once. Some games, that one heal is what saves your tail. Nothing overpowered about this, it is simply a strategy that is not a problematic problem.

A Knight would be great to bring back. Not too overpowered, definitely not underpowered.

And, in the final catagory:

An invincible DSM is suicide on the opposing team. You could bomb with your DSM, have the second Pyro, watch as they kill your DSM, revive DSM, attack with Pyro, then attack again with DSM. That is 3 guarenteed shots made with highly powerful units, where as the norm is more along the lines of 2, even 1.

An invincible DMW would also be a pain. Imagine having a unit guarenteed to do 4 squares of 24 damage. This is only bested by reviving a DSM.



Overall, while the necroing is probably the best way I've seen to date, I cannot say I like it as-is. Perhaps if you place a cap on mages, so as to weaken their power (100% chance hit of high damage and invulnerability is a bad combo), say something like, 15. This would restrict their revivals to about the same amount as all the other units, as the unblockable attack outweighs the lower damage.

Sodamoeba
10-18-2005, 05:23 PM
The MAIN abuse I can see is that a revived DSM (with 27 power), a DT, or a DMW, when necroed, automatically kill the enemy cleric. They cant be killed, and, because they have 24+ power, unless the cleric is barriered, which another unit can fix easily, they can just move in and blast away...

Deck of Jesters
10-18-2005, 05:29 PM
Which is what I said XD btw, I could have sworn I sent you a fixed version of that sig? I left the m out in .com.

Sodamoeba
10-18-2005, 05:33 PM
The MAIN abuse I can see is that a revived DSM (with 27 power), a DT, or a DMW, when necroed, automatically kill the enemy cleric.

You never said that.:dry:

Not that it matters, but you laughed at me. :cray:

and the siggy doesnt matter, its all good anyway.:)

Deck of Jesters
10-18-2005, 05:37 PM
An invincible DSM is suicide on the opposing team. You could bomb with your DSM, have the second Pyro, watch as they kill your DSM, revive DSM, attack with Pyro, then attack again with DSM. That is 3 guarenteed shots made with highly powerful units, where as the norm is more along the lines of 2, even 1.

An invincible DMW would also be a pain. Imagine having a unit guarenteed to do 4 squares of 24 damage. This is only bested by reviving a DSM.
Ah, I forgot the DT, but it's not human X)

xerent
10-19-2005, 05:35 PM
Eh, Im not really for this unit. The main point was two fold:

1) Get a view into my thought process, and
2) Show that necromancers can be pretty decent in this game.

Office_Shredder
10-19-2005, 05:43 PM
Where does the revived unit appear? Where it died, or where the necromancer is? I would make it appear where the necromancer is, with the same health the necromancer has, and just let it be a normal unit

Cross Punisher
10-19-2005, 09:45 PM
Eh, Im not really for this unit. The main point was two fold:

1) Get a view into my thought process, and Then I guess I'll have to remember to take note of it when I return.

Moose
10-19-2005, 11:24 PM
NO MORE NECROMANCER IDEA'S!!!!!!!!!!

legacy67
10-20-2005, 02:04 AM
While (like xerent) I do not like this unit, I really enjoyed a view into his thought process, which is a very good approach to CAU.

Also, the theoretical analysis of Unit Longevity and Unit Potency is dead on.:cool:

xerent
10-20-2005, 05:42 PM
Oh no, for I have offended Moose's imaginary guideline, and have earned the wrath of the large red txt.

</woe>

Cross Punisher
10-20-2005, 11:13 PM
Where is the necromanced unit put once you revive it?

And is it really worth spending a whole unit slot just to bring back a unit that can only attack once?

Walrus
10-21-2005, 09:04 AM
Where is the necromanced unit put once you revive it?

And is it really worth spending a whole unit slot just to bring back a unit that can only attack once?

in my opinion, no.
a random thought i just had, is what if when you revived your unit, you could then use that unit on the same turn, and it would be revived where it died (or in the closest possible space)....that might help, although im still not sure if its worth 1 unit slot.