Military Adjustment - ​​Issue of tactics

[p]Hey bosses,[/p][p][/p][p]I'm Pierre, Game designer for Amplitude since the beginning of the preproduction of Endless Legends 2, and I have 3 main missions:
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1. [p]Heroes content & systems: I'm the one to blame when you break the game with your level 50 hero (they should never be that level)[/p]
2. [p]Battles: I'm also responsible for battle systems and content; we'll mainly discuss this today.[/p]
3. [p]Necrophages: Kind of the main client of my 2nd mission, making them a pain in your games when facing them or feeling like the ever-hungry (and angry) swarm when playing it.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]
We heard you, and recognize that sometimes the “stats check” part of battles makes them feel kind of “too” straightforward. We are trying to make the battle still accessible while having good tactical decisions to make; the game is still a 4X at heart. The complexity shouldn’t mainly come from military resolution; there is a balance to be found that'll be chased during the early access following your feedback.[/p][p][/p][p]To start in this direction, we implemented a small new rule: encirclement.

Units start losing defense when multiple enemy units are adjacent to them (Starting with 3 adjacent enemy units):
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• [p]-25% Defense per additional enemy. [/p]
  • [p]3 enemies > -25%[/p]
  • [p]4 > -50%[/p]
  • [p]5 > -75%[/p]
  • [p]6 > -100%[/p]

[p]
This should help make the position matter more, making the lines of players more compact to avoid getting completely crushed next turn. This would also decrease the strength of defense, which we are keeping an eye on, even though the other change of this update might compensate for this loss of power by encirclement.
[/p][p]This is a first step, the goal is to find the sweet balance of complexity. We'll follow up on your results and look forward to your suggestions. Battle is an evolving feature.[/p][p][/p][p]Keeping a unit alive so it becomes elite is a cool thing to have: veterans fighting for you since day 1 is a great fantasy. Not so great when the small soldiers become complete veterans after 50 turns. Gapping the stats of other units in the game makes conquest too easy. [/p][p]We adjusted experience and veterancy rewards, so it follows a healthier line: [/p][p][/p]

• [p]Experience required has changed 👇[/p]

[p] [/p][p]This change of value is also accompanied by a 2 new era effect of Military Discipline (era 2 & 4): giving +30 % experience gains on hero and units. The idea is to create soft caps for units and heroes so they don’t snowball their experience out of control if you didn’t build into specific experience bonuses (meaning I don’t want you to have level 3 units turn 20 🔫).[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This graph, for the more math-oriented of you, displays the raw amount of experience required to level up units. The 4 curves show the difference in raw experience required to level up. Those soft caps should be more obvious. Tell me how they feel in-game![/p][p][/p][p]Test it and break, we will adjust the values following your feedback, but the goal is clear => less veterancy early on, work for it (also keep in mind that era unlocks give experience to units on creation, so the units don’t fall too much behind if you didn’t kill every single minor faction early on).[/p][p][/p][p]We also did some Veterancy changes: to compensate for this slowdown in unit experience, we adjusted its effects: Veterancy was giving +5% Health & damage and +2 defense, now it grants +10% health & damage and +3 Defense. This is a first pass on these news values and is subject to changes if we feel the early veterancy level feels too important, but keeping very experienced units very efficient. [/p][p][/p][p]We updated every single unit of the game to give them a clearer role or dynamic. The first version you tested made the unit gain a bit of all stats, making comparing the two choices hard, as it is a small amount of everything. Now unit specialization should be clearer:[/p]

• [p]Dust path = a bit of stats and small/no ability upgrade from the original[/p]
• [p]Strategic path= More stats and an additional/upgraded ability from the original unit.[/p]

[p]
[/p][p]​For example, the legionaries were changed a bit: the Left pass is more of a damage-oriented unit with fewer abilities, the right one still the protector it was: gaining the defensive aura and gaining more tankiness, a mix of those cheap legionaries specialized will work well together. Finding another "support" unit or "damaging" unit will also do the trick well.[/p][p][/p][p]This is a step forward; the roles of units are going to evolve more and more as patches ship and we get stats on what you are picking, finding the "boring" or "pointless" units in order to make sure that everyone has a seat at the table.[/p][p][/p][p]Some abilities from the base units were also removed or changed, as well as some abilities adjusted/balanced. [/p][p][/p][p]For example, tripping now has an effect when using a defend action instead of attacking, dealing the status to all adjacent enemy unit instead of only the attacked unit.[/p][p][/p][h3]Additional examples[/h3][h3][/h3][p][/p][p]We know that their numbers are a bit low. We're adjusting them as you’ll read this, we’ll see if we have to send it to you before you can access the build, if so, full recap in the future changelog. [/p][p][/p][p]We also considered the hero experience required to level up following the new era unlock, so you don’t end up with a level 29 by turn 150, try to break the glass ceiling. I’ll be watching you from my data table 👀🔭.[/p][p] [/p][p]This seems like a lot of changes already, feel free to tell us what you think about it, what you’d like to see or reflect upon. I hope you’ll enjoy your time playing the game, and I’m really excited to hear about your feedback. There is still a lot to do, but I’m ready to cook to make combat feel great. [/p][p][/p][p]Seeya,
Pier
[/p][hr][/hr][p]This will be part of the next update![/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Your Feedback Matters: Reviews and Community[/h2][p]Big thanks to all of you who have already shared feedback with us! Hearing from our players is critical to making the game better, through Early Access.   If you haven’t yet shared your thoughts, now is a great time to leave a review or join our community on the forum, our Discord, or here on Amplifiers. [/p]