Age of Wonders III

Age of Wonders III

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Tactical Rework - Draconians
   
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10 Mar, 2017 @ 2:59pm
18 Oct, 2021 @ 4:51am
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Tactical Rework - Draconians

Description
My Tactical Rework series aims to improve races that feel inconsistent or lacking in flavor. Numbers-wise, Draconian racial units always struck me as being artificially worse than the equivalents of other races — low defense, unarmored, no shields and few noteworthy abilities. If this is supposed to be the price for their innate Fast Healing, it can't be called a bonus anymore.

While reading up on the flavor, some interesting pieces of lore came up, but it feels like it hasn’t been very well-translated into the gameplay. Therefore, after playing with a few possibilities, I decided to base this rework on the following themes: survival, growth, pride.

Draconian units now have stats comparable to other races, with some abilities focused on defense, so that they can actually survive to use their fast healing. Players are rewarded for keeping their units alive (a balanced army composition greatly helps in auto-combat). As a tradeoff, draconian units now have a higher upkeep, and some also have a higher starting cost as well.


Documentation:

Looks like Steam is not allowing google docs links anymore. I'll try to find a way to circumvent this, but for now it looks like the only way to access the document is to copy-paste the link into your browser :/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1igzkrNzjiI3rkC_MPBxT39XnBq1HmjOhVwCtZCArz_8/edit?usp=sharing

Compatibility:

This mod makes changes to Shrines, Observatories, the draconian race settings, draconian governance, draconian racial units and many draconian class units (listed in the above documentation). It also slightly alters the Global Assault spell, to avoid an Evolve exploit. Lastly, the Red Raptor mount has been tweaked for convenience.

If you're using a mod that alters those resources, it will likely be overritten, but only in the entries where there are conflicts, so it should be compatible with most other mods out there. If you use it with the Empire Building Mod, you'll run into the odd scenario of having a couple of units that look a bit similar, but the mods shouldn't be incompatible per se except as mentioned above. Let me know if you find any issues.

Changelog:

v1.0: We exist and have been playtested.

v1.1: Balance changes.
- Lowborn base damage reduced by 1, cost reduced to 50.
- Aspirant cost reduced to 50. Has Expert Flanker (+2 flanking damage) and projectile resistance in place of shield.
- Elite Aspirant starts with expert flanker II (+4 flanking damage) in place of bleeding wounds, gains inflict crippling wounds on veteran and bleeding wounds on elite.
- Challenger is now Armored, but no longer gaisn first strike on silver medal. Goad now is usable only once per combat and allows retaliation if the target is in melee range.
- Elder's bolt damage reduced by 2, but now they can inflict fire weakness through a new ability called Primordial Fire.
- Awaken Ancestry fire damage bonus reduced to +2 from +3.
- Tales of Pride morale bonus reduced to +100.
- Tier 4 military governance now also gives +4 Speed to support units.
- Tier 5 military governance now gives +10 Health in place of +1 Armor and Resistance.
- Tier 1 economic governance now algo gives +3 Mana generation to shrines.
- Many previously untouched class units got buffs to compensate for their increased upkeep (see documentation for the specifics).

v1.2: More balance changes.
- Hatchling base cost reduced to 45 gold and 3 mana.
- Lowborn now evolves into Challenger on elite.
- Aspirant no longer evolves upon reaching elite. Now gains +5 hp on silver and Vigilant on elite.
- Flametamer no longer evolves upon reaching elite. Now gains Inflict Immolation on elite.
- Challenger no longer gains extra stat bonuses per challenger rank after elite. Armor reduced by 1, base hp increased by 5. Lastly, now they have Lava Walking, so they can escort Elders through lava.

v1.3: Even more balance changes.
- The recruit cost of racial units has been changed to reflect their actual gold cost, so now they can be slightly slower to train in low level cities.
- Lowborn now starts with Overwhelm instead of Charge. No longer starts with Demolisher. Gains Demolisher on veteran. Lowborns that evolve now have same stats they had prior to evolving (instead of getting a downgrade) and get to keep their Overwhelm and Demolisher abilities.
- Flametamer now starts with Immolating Touch. Base defense reduced by 1 (is now 8). Gains Projectile Resistance on veteran (in place of Immolating Touch).
- Elder now has true sight. Gold cost increased by 10.



If you find any bugs or issues, please report. Constructive feedback is always welcome. Feel free to PM me on steam.

* If you would like to translate this mod (or any of my mods), please add me on steam and PM.

* For my Goblin Rework mod, see: https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875086885

* For my Halfling Rework, see: https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1115235227
20 Comments
SprendiX 2 Dec, 2023 @ 3:17am 
In my opinion, you overdid it a lot with the last unit of the Draconians. It turned out too strong. He has a pike, a shield, and a square of pikemen, and tirelessness and pain transmission....I forgot to add bend everyone with one skill!!! Now the knights of men are looking at your Draconian flyers with envy.
Sëhan  [author] 16 Oct, 2021 @ 9:49am 
@Rollar: New patch hopefully fixes that issue. Now that I'm back into modding for AoW3, I might be able to push more tactical reworks. I think the remaining races are already in a pretty good place, so I intend to implement just superficial tweaks and racial/governance changes.
Rollar 25 Mar, 2020 @ 3:23pm 
I have to say, I enjoy your mod, but my friend and I who play together find that ANY extra bonuses on Champion rank unbalances the game, making the mod unusable. Also, we'd love to see you do other racial reworks, even if it's just base racial bonuses and governances, as most base governances are 'good choice or sucky choice'.
Sëhan  [author] 1 Jun, 2019 @ 3:34pm 
Thanks for the feedback, you've helped to confirm some of my concerns. I'll make a note to address these issues next patch.
Moonshine_Brew 1 Jun, 2019 @ 3:45am 
This is a great mod, though the challenger turns into a fricking killing machine, as long as you can keep it alive. A troop of challengers and a high priest hero will turn into an unbeatable force at some time, thx to the extra dmg,hp,defence and resistance they get for each master rank (and yes, as high priest it is quite easy to get them to master 20)

So yeah, besides the fact that their master ranks are borderline overpowered after some time, this is a great mod
Sëhan  [author] 13 Apr, 2019 @ 3:13pm 
Thanks, glad you like it! :)
Yeah, they would be cooler a bit more reptilian, but unfortunately I don't have art skills to make 3D models etc.
!!!( ARON DREAM )!!! 13 Apr, 2019 @ 2:06pm 
Cool mod. I just wish that the Draconian race would look more reptilian.
Sëhan  [author] 25 Nov, 2017 @ 11:24am 
No problem, I hope you like it!
The Dawg 25 Nov, 2017 @ 9:13am 
Thank you for the info I will try out the mod once I get the chance. Thank you for taking time to make this mod.
Sëhan  [author] 25 Nov, 2017 @ 5:04am 
New units from other mods are affected by the racial traits and governance changes, but their individual stats and abilities remain untouched. I use mods that add other units too, it works just fine :)