AMLA Brainstorming Thread

[Dave]

Darth Fool and I are intending to embark on a new sub-project: we want to make AMLA more interesting. We think the game would be more fun -- especially during long campaigns -- if the player could choose something a little more interesting than a 3 hp increase when a max-level unit levels up.

Thus we want to give unit-specific AMLA advancement opportunities. In general advancement options would only be of mild power, though we could temper more powerful options by making them take up much more experience.

The purpose of this thread is to brainstorm different AMLA ideas for specific units. So please post ideas for AMLA possibilities for various units. Darth Fool and I will look over the ideas and try and implement the ones we like.

The purpose of this thread is NOT to start a debate on whether this is a good idea or not, or if any of the ideas in this thread are good ideas or not. I will delete any posts which are the least bit argumentative. If you want to argue that this is a bad idea, you may start another thread in a different forum, though I can't guarantee that Darth Fool or I will read or respond to your thread.

David

[Dave]

Some ideas to start off with...

Elvish Ranger:

- Swimming: -1 shallow water movement requirement. +10% shallow water defense
- Herbalism: gives 'heals' ability
- Caving: -1 cave movement requirement.
- Archery: +1 ranged damage

Silver Mage:

- Frost Spell: gives new attack: 7-5, cold damage
- Fighting: +2 melee damage

Mage of Light:

- Introspection: gives 'regenerates' ability.
- Turn Undead: makes melee attack 'holy'

Hopefully this will give people some ideas of what we are looking for in terms of ideas. As usual, simple straight-forward ideas are preferred.

[Duke Guillermo]

Elvish Champion

- Blade Mastery: +2 for all melee attacks
- Exploration: -1 hill and mountain movement requirement
- Accuracy: gives new attack: Bow: 10-3, pierce, marksman
- Inner Peace: +12 HP

Elvish Shyde

- Entrapper: +1 to # of Ensnare attacks
- Forest's Protection: +20% resistance to pierce, cold
- Pixy Summoner: Gives new attack: Pixies: 3-6, impact, charge

Goblin Rouser

- Presitge: +1 to level #
- Survivalist: +20% resistance to blade, cold
- Banner Hoister: +20% defence in hills, +10% defence in mountains

[Eleazar]

As i understand it you are planning to give these AMLA options to all units?
It might be more expedient to allow the same special AMLA option to a small selection of units. More than one elf might have the option of "Caving" for example.

And rather than totally reinvent the wheel, why not allow the selection of additional traits for all units as the first line of AMLA options? Everyone already knows what traits are.


some L3 archers:
*Careful shot: an additional attack. 25-1 at 80% CtH for when it' really important to kill w. one blow.

various mages/ Shyde
*Light - similar to illuminates but weaker, night would be turned to dusk, dusk/dawn would be turned to day.

MoL:
*Glorious Light - Illuninates would be upgraded by a larger radius glow ability

Elvish champion:
*Death-blow - a 25-2 attack

Elvish Avenger:
*backstab.

Troll Rocklobber:
*an attack to throw multiple smaller stone.

Gryphon Master:
* Darts - a weak ranged attack.

P.S. Dave you meant "Elvish Avenger" not the L2 "Elvish Ranger", right?

[Darth Fool]

The idea would be to add new AMLAs appropriate to the unit type. Some might be shared amongst several unit types, whereas some might be unique to one unit type. Basically, we want to make people have to make interesting decisions even when they AMLA.

[romnajin]

Warriors(non-specific
Weapon-mastery(sword/mace/ax etc.)
+2 Damage
Archers
Weapon Mastery(same)
+1 damage
Fire/Cold/Holy Mastery(good name?)
Add +2 to specific mage damage



EDIT: And, Dave, is this gonna be a one shot thing, then a revision to the +3 hp AMLA, or is there going to be an Elvish Avenger who(in id not name) is an Elvish Avenger+Caves+Swimmer+etc). and will every single combination have to be cfged, or is there an automater for that?

[Glowing Fish]

Off the top of my head, for the Merman Hunter line, a "submerge" ability where it could prowl in water would be great.

[Rune]

Great idea!

Here's a couple of suggestions:

Mermen/Nagas:
Deep Diver: +10% defense in deep water
Surface Dweller: +10% defense on grassland and villages
First aid: gain Heals ability

Archers:
Maybe give all high level archers the option to get the Marksman ability

Elvish Sylph/Shyde:
Improved flying: -1 movement cost in cave, mountains, deep water and tundra

Goblin Impaler:
Death wish: Berserk ability on melee attack
Extra spear: second ranged attack with the spear


I also think that the HP increase option should give a different amount of HP to different units. More to fighter type units and less to spellcasters etc. Using a percentage of current HP instead of a static number would be nice.

[JW]

Orcish Assassin:
Poison on melee

Saurian mages:
Thick Skin: +10% to pierce, +2hp

Deathblade:
Unholy Speed: +1 move

Lich:
Unholy pact: +3 to drain melee, -10hp

Gryphon Master:
Eagle Eyes: can see an additional hex (2 hexes?) past movement for fog purposes.

Dwarvish Berserker:
Directed Rage: +5% CTH on all melee

Drake Enforcer:
Weapon Specialist: +2 to any melee attack (pick one of the three)

Any good?

[Dave]

EDIT: And, Dave, is this gonna be a one shot thing, then a revision to the +3 hp AMLA, or is there going to be an Elvish Avenger who(in id not name) is an Elvish Avenger+Caves+Swimmer+etc). and will every single combination have to be cfged, or is there an automater for that?

The game has long supported a 'modification' concept, where traits, items, and AMLAs can apply a 'modification' to a unit. The 'modification' system is fairly comprehensive, but we might have to extend it a little to cover all we want to do.

The game already supports giving units several different AMLA options upon advancement. You just have to put in the unit's cfg file what the possible AMLA options are. If you look in most max-level unit's cfg file at the moment you will see they have just one option invoked using the macro {AMLA_TOUGH}. Once we define e.g. AMLA_SWIMMER in amla.cfg you would be able to add {AMLA_SWIMMER} in the cfg file to show that that's a possible AMLA the unit can choose when it advances.

What we are doing here is evolutionary, not revolutionary.

David

[romnajin]

Oh ok, thanks for the clarification, that makes things a lot clearer, I thought it might be a little hard :)

[Stilgar]

Here are a few ideas, not sure if all of them are the sort of thing you're looking for but hopefully you'll like some of them!

Great Mage:
- Flaming Hands - Gain a melee attack with fire, weaker or comparable to the melee staff in damage

Paladin:
- Righteous Light - Do extra damage against any chaotic unit

Lich:
- Lord of Darkness - Do extra damage against any lawful unit
- Inflict Decay - Gain an attack with poison

Outlaw units (maybe Goblin Pillager too):
- Plunder - Gain a little gold each time this unit kills an enemy

Ogre:
- Brawler - Gain impact fist attack

Goblin Pillager:
- Pyromaniac - Able to light nets on fire before throwing them (alternate attack with fire damage)

Orcish Warlord:
- Slavedriver - Gain Leadership

Master Bowman:
- Forester - Better movement in forest
- Fire arrows - Alternate fire attack like the orc archer has

Dark Sorceror (and Lich too?)
- Crush Will - Gains a ranged spell that causes slow on the enemy.

Iron Mauler, Troll Warrior:
- Crushing Blow - Gain an attack with only one swing, but the potential to do more damage than the normal one

Dwarvish Dragonguard:
- Powder Bombs - Throw primitive gunpowder grenades that do fire damage

Gryphon Master:
- Sky Drop - Gryphon can lift an enemy in its talons and drop them from the sky, gaining an attack with one swing which deals impact damage
- Fell Swoop - Gain a charging attack
(Perhaps the above two could be combined into one?)

That's all for now, if I think of more I'll add them.

[Duke Guillermo]

Many of these AMLA listed implement new ideas such as the robbing ability of the outlaws. I think that these suggestions should be limited to abilities and bonuses that already exist in the game.

[scott]

Silver Mage

- Levitation: -1 movement on snow, swamp, mountains, and shallow water

Dwarvish Lord

- Armorsmithy: +10 blade/pierce

[Tomsik]

Lich: Arcane Spells: +4 dmg, ranged
Deathblade: Unholy Protection: +10% to all resistances
Soulshooter: Bow Mastery: Makrsman, ranged
Bloodbat: Sharp Teeth: +2 dmg, melee
Draug: Rage: +1 attack, melee
Nightgaunt: Skirmisher
Spectre: Baneblade Mastery: +2 dmg, melee
Dark Sorcerer: Staff Mastery: +2 dmg, +1 attack, melee