Ideas for new traits

Brainstorm ideas of possible additions to the game. Read this before posting!

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Forum rules
Before posting a new idea, you must read the following:
Post Reply
User avatar
EarthCake
Posts: 377
Joined: March 29th, 2019, 1:57 pm
Location: The Wall

Ideas for new traits

Post by EarthCake »

Hello!

I thought that some new traits that could be added in Wesnoth would be interesting.

- Fearfull trait. This trait would be an interesting and simple one. Like fearless units fight good at every time of day, this one is different.
This example is for lawful units.
- 25% damage in night
- 25% damage during dusk and dawn
+ 25% damage during the day
During dusk, dawn and night, units will fear for their life and will fight very bad, but during day, they think they can survive and fight better.
Reversed for chaotic units.
Units that can have this trait can be Thief, Footpad, Goblins (every goblin type), Ruffians and Peasants, Woodsmans, Orcish Assasins and Slayers(feedback for more units that can have this trait is appreciated).
To balance the game, maybe developers should put chance to have this trait be less than 1%.
This trait is only for some units.

- Young trait.
This trait should be one that is set by WML.

This trait is opposite to Aged trait.
It should give:
+ 10% xp to level up. This units are young and not very skilled with weapons, so they need more combat to get skilled.
+ 5 hp. Younger = healthier!

- Unhealthy trait. Opposite from healthy.
For orcs and humans, but with very small chance to get.

Should give:
- 2 hp and - 1 hp per level.
User avatar
WhiteWolf
Forum Moderator
Posts: 769
Joined: September 22nd, 2009, 7:48 pm
Location: Hungary

Re: Ideas for new traits

Post by WhiteWolf »

EarthCake wrote: May 7th, 2019, 4:04 pm - Fearfull trait. This trait would be an interesting and simple one. Like fearless units fight good at every time of day, this one is different.
This example is for lawful units.
- 25% damage in night
- 25% damage during dusk and dawn
+ 25% damage during the day
During dusk, dawn and night, units will fear for their life and will fight very bad, but during day, they think they can survive and fight better.
Reversed for chaotic units.
Units that can have this trait can be Thief, Footpad, Goblins (every goblin type), Ruffians and Peasants, Woodsmans, Orcish Assasins and Slayers(feedback for more units that can have this trait is appreciated).
To balance the game, maybe developers should put chance to have this trait be less than 1%.
I really like the flavor of a trait opposing the existing fearless one. :) This definitely has a place in UMC with some implementation. However, I doubt it would do mainline any good - those units are considered very well balanced, and this kind of addition may not be welcome. Also note, that if something is OP for any reason, making it appear less frequently is not always a good solution, game design-wise.
But in UMC sure, it's a very nice idea.

- Young trait.
This trait should be one that is set by WML.

This trait is opposite to Aged trait.
It should give:
+ 10% xp to level up. This units are young and not very skilled with weapons, so they need more combat to get skilled.
+ 5 hp. Younger = healthier!
However, I do not find this trait logical. Why is exactly younger healthier? In Wesnoth, higher level (== more experienced == older) units have more HP, rewarding a unit for being "young" with more HP is rather counter-initiative.
Also, how young exactly? Aged makes sense, a very old person cannot fight as well, but I'd argue most soldiers are recruited in their prime. So if someone is titled "young", it is because they are younger than average, considering a human faction, probably teenage? Considering elves and long-lifespan races I'm not so sure, but sticking to humans, a youth soldier is far more exposed to threats than men in their prime, they can't carry as much heavy equipment... there's lots of factors. Again, I doubt it makes to sense to reward it with more HP.
But it might not even make that much difference. There could be a lot larger discrepancy between two middle-aged soldiers based on strength and stamina than between a middle-aged and a younger one. I'm trying to say, age at a young stage might not make as much difference as a trait like "strong" or "resilient". I underlined young stage, because at an old stage of course it does make a difference, and that is why we have "aged". "Young" might not have a place among traits in my opinion.

- Unhealthy trait. Opposite from healthy.
For orcs and humans, but with very small chance to get.

Should give:
- 2 hp and - 1 hp per level.
Could be called "sickly" perhaps? Again, could see play in UMC, not so much in mainline. You must consider that adding a negative trait like this to races that have positive traits is very unbalancing. A unit that receives this, not only lost one positive trait, but also gained one negative! You could consider this unit twice worse than your other units. It's not a coincidence that (mainline) units only have strictly positive or strictly negative traits, and a random combination of the two is not allowed.
Main UMC campaigns: The Ravagers - now for 1.16, with new bugs!
Old UMC works: The Underness Series, consisting of 5 parts: The Desolation of Karlag, The Blind Sentinel, The Stone of the North, The Invasion Of The Western Cavalry, Fingerbone of Destiny
User avatar
josteph
Inactive Developer
Posts: 741
Joined: August 19th, 2017, 6:58 pm

Re: Ideas for new traits

Post by josteph »

WhiteWolf wrote: May 9th, 2019, 1:13 pm It's not a coincidence that (mainline) units only have strictly positive or strictly negative traits, and a random combination of the two is not allowed.
But there could be a (UMC) race that gets one random positive trait and one random negative trait, right? For example, one of [strong/quick/intelligent] and one of [weak/slow/dim].
Post Reply