New Default Factions

[Sir_Cryer]

Hello,

First I would like to say that is very good to see a new faction implemented on default factions (khalifate). Sure, it would be good to have an entire campaing to it but i guess it will come in long time.
I think it would be very good if devs could do some lil balance and implement another 2 factions as default. One lawful and one chaotic.
Now you can say: You can just play with a mp addon. Guys, most mp eras are totaly unbalanced. So my idea is basically to pick two of the most popular addon era, one lawful and one chaotic, do some balance and test and implement it as default factions.
And you can ask: why? Because it would bring more diversity and would increase strategy as you would have to think more about your enemy characteristcs.

Just for example, two factions i think are very popular but unbalanced are celestials and vampires.

Thx

[Crendgrim]

Your idea somewhat touches on FPI #20: More Units. While obviously it would be great to have a higher diversity of factions (and, thus, playstyles), integrating a faction into mainline means balancing it. And this balancing progress is a long and tiring process, requiring many tweaks and playtests. Each faction must be balanced against all the other existing ones, so this job becomes harder and harder the more factions exist already. Integrating the Khalifate took several years, and was still regarded quite sceptically.

So, sadly I do not see a new faction appear in mainline in the next few years.

[tekelili]

Guys, most mp eras are totaly unbalanced.

So my idea is... do some balance and test

How could developers have not thought about it before?

[ChaosRider]

You should create your own addon with your own era, units, changes and your ideas!

[Dixie]

I think that the fact that they are available to anyone as an add-on is already pretty great diversity-wise. I really don't know what's with everybody wanting to have stuff mainlined? It's not like non-mainline is considered worthless crap or something it's jsut... it's an add-on, not the core game. It can still be pretty fun and awesome.

Also, the more factions you add, the harder it is to balance. the current 6 are still being tweaked, and upper levels are probably kinda unbalanced still, so this still has some way to go. Besides, most commercial games have what, 2-3 factions? Wesnoth is pretty diverse and badass with its 6, if you ask me...

[ancestral]

You should create your own addon with your own era, units, changes and your ideas!

Absolutely what ChaosRider says here: just because it’s not in mainline doesn’t mean it can’t still happen! There are many great factions and units through the add-on manager. Please feel free to create an add-on with your faction in it and get people playing it

If you have designed a faction that plays extremely balanced with the other core factions, through rigorous play-testing, and most importantly we can get new art for the sprites (this would likely be the most difficult part), then we could discuss the possible steps for inclusion into mainline. (That would be a long way off.)

[UnwiseOwl]

I understand the fascination with wanting to get more default factions as a UMC maintainer, because mainlining is the way that most people play your campaigns. Even popular UMCs see only a fraction of the player base that the mainline does just by virtue of being packaged with the game.

I also see why it's not a reality for most of us to see our factions become core, though. In the mean time, just let me shill the Imperial Era and Tale of Vaniyera, go download the add-ons and check them out!