We've made quite some changes on the balancing as we are trying something out. Goldcost on Strategymap has been upped. Recruitment costs in Combat have changed across the board to reflect this.
You seem to have sccidentally missed the "Recruitment costs in Combat have changed across the board to reflect this" part.
To reiterate,
Warlocks recruitment cost increased from 6 to 7.
Imp Fighters recruitment cost increased from 12 to 14.
Devastators recruitment cost decreased from 35 to 18.
Transports recruitment cost decreased from 14 to 12.
Ironclads recruitment cost decreased from 18 to 16.
Bomber Balloons recruitment cost decreased from 24 to 22.
Zeppelins recruitment cost decreased from 14 to 12.
Most of the changes DECREASE the RTS cost of units.
Effects:
- The amount of units you can bring in to RTS mode from the Strategy map has not really changed much. If anything, it might even have decreased.
- Strategy map units are much harder to replace, making them riskier to use.
- It is much MORE cost-effective to move a low cost unit or two into a territory, enter RTS mode, and build whatever you have there. Why move a trio of expensive 14 gold Armour units into a territory when you can make 9 yourself for only 125 recruits?
- Strategy map units are now much more effective for Auto-resolve than they are for RTS battles - the exact opposite of what the experiment was trying to find out
- The "Increase gold revenue" card is now less useful. Before, there was the option to use it on a low-income country with a War Factory so you could produce 6 units on it for a turn. Now unit costs are so high that there's no point in playing this card on anything but a capital country.
Buildings price now increases for the more of that type of building you already own. Combine that with the increased cost of units, and the effects are:
- It is now PROHIBITIVELY expensive to place a building after your first. You simply cannot afford the hit to your unit production budget.
- "Create a free building" cards are now a lot more valuable, as are "Destroy an enemy building" cards.
- Strategy map units take longer to move about because there are fewer buildings producing them. This slows the speed of the campaign down a lot. I think part of the desire for more valuable strategy map units was to INCREASE the speed of the campaign progression. Now RTS battles still take as long as they did before, but the campaign takes longer.
My suggestion for another try-out balance:
- Return the gold costs on the campaign map to where it was.
- Double the conversion rate from strategy to combat for all units (or just except a few like juggernaut and bomber balloon)
- Double the recruit costs for all units produced on the RTS map and for all buildings
This may be a little bit exaggerated, but at least let us try out a build with a similar balance.
I agree with this. That's probably too far for the final final version, but it would definitely let us see the difference it would make.
