Cocofang

If bound power is a big concern then making the nodes grant free power, like the Shard in Nightmare Shard, would solve that. So if players hold the nodes, they are granted all the extra power they need to fortify them without slowing down their progress elsewhere.

That'd only be useful in the handful of cases whenever you happen to encounter these enemies. It wouldn't help the card perform better across the board. I don't really have a problem with those mini-bosses being immune. Personally, I'd like a shorter CD to bulk up a Nature army and free up energy for spells.

I'd say the value of takeover tampers off as you ascend through tiers as you naturally get more powerful options enabled in your own deck. By T4 you have access to all these powerful cards so insta-killing and then owning one unbound enemy unit compared to just flattening it with your arsenal isn't as good anymore. The firepower you have at this point is generally enough to deal with it regularly. Also worth noting that one of the outlined weaknesses of the Nature faction is that it binds a high amount of energy to units. Mind Control could alleviate this because it can provide T4 equivalent units without binding energy. But a 30 seconds CD isn't able to keep up.

I'll copy my suggestions from the other thread over here, I suppose. Approachability: Change intervals on cultist runners. This would leave more time to breathe and coordinate. Change cultist runner speed. Players would have more time to intercept them. Create additional slopes off the center plateau that make it possible to still intercept the cultist runners at later points and aggro them. For example down south or in the east. Change well positions so they don't aggro patrols. This would spread the players forces less thin and help early economy. Reduce the power of patrols early into the game. This would grant more time to build up a sizable T1 force. Increase starting void. This would make T1 less of a drag. Could nerf starting well power to compensate.

Those effects are incredibly powerful but they also have to justify defending the nodes against the incoming waves, which requires dedicating a good chunk of resources. How are these effects going to be communicated to the player? Will they know what benefits they would gain to plan around so they can potentially work together to secure the node that is most beneficial to them first?

In order for players to make an informed decision as to which camp is most suitable to attack with their resources, they need to see the defending forces. Is the FoW exclusion not flexible enough to allow that?

I suppose one way to make it happen is to not grant a pre-built orb anymore. Instead the player has to build the first orb manually. With a sped up building process or even near-instant. So somewhat of a trade-off. A less seamless start to every map for the possibility of hybrid T1s.

Don't think that would work. Root Network is a multiplier. 0 times 6 is still 0. It needs some base value to scale up.

The red affinity isn't half bad. 50% damage buff to 7500 DP20 in an orb combo that only has the somewhat clunky Home Soil+Ice Barrier combo. And technically Green Peace R.

Stacking buff/debuff icons are not possible right now. For icons it's either "on or off" but not "how much/many". Also, the rule of thumb is this: Buildings and Onion-units attack faster from support. For everything else, it's a damage multiplier. So one Spore Launcher with one support has the same damage output as two Spore Launchers and so on.

@EinsteinV all cards now need to state the amount of support they provide They don't because if a player was to read Thornbarks description and it specifically mentions that it gives 3 support while cards like Root Nexus specifically state that they provide none, then the logical conclusion is that the normal must be 1 support. How the support amount functions by default can be deducted by reading the exceptions. If your network provides 18 support/battery in total (18 connected entities), does that mean 3 front line units with passive Linked Fire of 6 all do max damage simultaneously? Not if the 3 front liners are active. While active they provide no support, so they each get 5 support each from the remaining 15 idle entities. Does it actually matter if its only 1 supported unit attacking, or if multiple units attack? Only idle entities provide support. Active entities (usually means attacking but in case of Sylvan Gate also the heal) draw support but provide none. What does it actually do now, what is its purpose, why does it even exist (considering other cards), and why would I want it in my deck? Because you can quickly build up a network over enormous distances. It's a 100m radius and has Tunnel access, so it's mobility and area coverage for a previously very static and local mechanic. Yes it sucked that it takes the support, but maybe that was worth it? Sucking away support means none is left for the entity that is supposed to attack. Which means it will kill attackers slower and take more damage. Unless you commit to 6 more battery entities just to compensate for Sylvan Gate. Why was that heal so important in a faction that has an abundance of heals and heal buildings? Also note that a card can only have 4 effects listed on it. Heal, Repeater, Infused/Tainted Support, Tunnel, Accelerated Construction is 5. The lowest priority has to go and Tunnel is kinda locked in, as it is integral to the visual design to the card.

That's not possible right now. The game has four unit sizes and that's it. How much pop a certain unit size takes up can be defined but it would affect everything of that size, not just temporary summons. Introducing new sizes just for temp-summons doesn't work.

Not sure about the Lightblade restriction. A target power cost limit seems to be doable without a major rework. By assigning boss-units really high values it could lock it out. Frenetic Assault also uses a provoke mechanic. Knight of Chaos and Amok are a different effect.

The footage isn't edited, it's a recording of the mechanic after I cobbled it together as a test to see if projectiles can indeed spawn units. Was a playable, usable Spore Launcher that shot Treespirits. As such I think it would also be possible to have it as a separate active ability that scales with support. Meaning, the more heavily Spore Launcher is supported by a network, the more Treespirits it summons at a time.

@JarodDempsey There is text under the picture. @Ragenarok Nothing is being taken away from Forest Elder G. The Breeding Grounds aura is a new, additional passive that both affinities get. The old damage amp aura stays for G. It's even getting buffed to have a bigger area.

Making it possible for entities with boss immunity to be taunted would affect all taunts equally though, not just Grinder.

It would be SO MUCH cooler if the Treespirits got spawned from the projectile, not from the unit itself. I mean, it is literally called a "Spore Launcher". Having it on every auto attack (or every few ones) would be amazing but it would have some wonky quirks to work out. The amount of spawned Treespirits could even scale with the amount of spores shot and therefore with support, as far as I have seen. They'd have to be temporary though. Imagine if attackers got swamped like that. Could take Spore Launcher into an entirely different direction. Nerf the amount of default spores it shoots from 3 to 1 but let every attack spawn a Treespirit, amount of spores and Treespirits scaling with support. Unfortunately, the Treespirits would take up pop cap as we don't currently have a way to introduce new pop-counts per unit ...

@Donaar You didn't list the point that it makes the game look like a mess if such blatantly unbalanced and upon further scrutiny unfinished/broken mechanics are just left unaddressed while they proliferate throughout general play. Handwaving issues away with "Just don't use it!" isn't design. It isn't a vision to go forward with and it isn't a guideline to base meaningful decisions on. And it also disregards the underlying psychology that is at work when humans engage with content like video games. There are plenty of resources out there that examine these processes and how the state of a games content influences and guides people. It's a fundamental pillar. A common narrative is that taking away options is bad. And more options is always better. Let us test this assertion with a hypothetical. Imagine all cards in the game are neutral T1. You can play all cards in the game right out of the gate. You can also combine all cards in the game however you please. The only limiting factors are now energy and deck slots. Ultimate freedom. No restrictions. Everyone can play what they want. Maximum options, apparently the best thing for an RTS. What would really happen though? Would cards which are T1-3 currently still remain attractive? A few would because they scale throughout tiers. But would the deck building remain an interesting and meaningful aspect of the games design? After all, you can just put anything in your deck, no limitations anymore. So many more options that wouldn't be possible with restrictive tiers and colors. Yet almost all cards would vanish into obscurity. What would you have to do to get all the cards up to speed in order for them to compete with the best? Even within the (current) T4 roster, what would manifest is a very narrow pool of cards that are "the best" and everything else is just a handicap. You could still play them, of course. Nobody is forcing you to play a 5000/5000 unit instead of a 500/500. It's all just options. Yet how meaningful are any choices one could make in this environment? The bottom line is more options does not equal better. It's deliberate restrictions and limitations that make for intrigue and creativity. Because those actually incentivize exploring what is out there instead of just having "Gun!" to throw against Rock-Paper-Scissors. The amount of options is of course important but equally so is the relative quality of the options. Because options that are too good will naturally suffocate others. Worse still if that is the case because they are simply broken. It offers the illusion of more choices but in reality it just warps the game and its power levels. Untouched options may remain at their current strength but their relative power changes with the top. If you have option A being worth 100, B 50 and C 40 there is a huge difference. But if you take the A down to 60 then suddenly you are looking at A being at 100% power but B jumping from 50% to 83% and even C going from 40% to 66%. Without touching them their relative power increased drastically. Ripping the band aid off always stings but what's below festered for too long.

"No anti structure spells" is exactly the situation that pure Nature is in. And even after the update it won't have them. However, it will have other, thematic ways of dealing with high priority buildings. Namely Mind Control, which lets you take over a strong enemy unit, have it be immune to debuffs, and then send it after the target. And Grove Spirit, which lets you protect your army before it gets caught up in CC. I think an additional cleanse effect would make too strong and remove an interesting aspect of the ability. Namely having to time it right instead of mindlessly spamming it whenever. Also, the idea is that the factions are still unique and don't just get the same tools to deal with everything. So while similar, there is a unique spin to it.

Nature has more than enough healing at its disposal. If anything, the heal is there for flavor and really not that important. What is the main draw here is that units will be safe from debuffs, including CC. Notice it's worded the same way as Disenchant G. Which includes freeze and paralyze, giving Nature an extremely powerful tool to preemptively make their army immune against Willzappers and other CC threats. However, it has to be applied beforehand as it does not actively cleanse. Only prevent the application of debuffs/CC.

If Primeval Watcher is to go 3Nature1Neutral, I think Nature itself needs a replacement. Every faction has at least two 2Factioncolor2Neutral units for committed hybrid decks or dipping two orbs deep into one color. This effectively leaves Nature with zero, because Spore Launcher is a root-card and has niche needs. Sure, you have Grimvine and Giant Wyrm as even more flexible splashes but that ain't the same. Primeval Watcher always was the sole T4 unit Nature offered as an "upgrade" for 2Nature splash. Alternatively, instead of increasing the orb requirements, an ability cost could be added since it is now much more powerful. Or an orb-swap with Colossus could be considered as well. So Primeval Watcher 3Nature1Neutral and Colossus 2Nature2Neutral.

@Reverend830 If you are thinking of any specific maps and got ideas on how to change these to help encourage more strategies after rolling them with taken over entities is no longer as easily doable, stop by in the Campaign Maps sub forum and share.

Partially true, the threads for maps have been up for a long time. Titans already has one proposal, namely replacing Pos4 Fathom Lord with Deep One. Now people can think about (additional) changes to these maps unshackled by NG shenanigans. It helps if first the frame is drawn within the changes occur. Basically, what would maps that previously were very much dominated by NG (to the point of people relying on it) need in order to improve the T1 experience?

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Vileblood camp. Whisperer camp. Dancer camp. # Imagine this is what players would see at all times. If the three camps got excluded from Fog of War, just like the Nightmareshard itself. Who would get baited into attacking the Vileblood camp if they saw this? It's being viewed as the "T2 camp" because of its proximity. But just the physical presence of these L units alone makes it the most intimidating. And that is on top of the harsh Maelstrom placement. I still think simply showing people what they are about to deal with can go a long way in making this map seem clearer. On top of making the camps more approachable in general. Meaning replacing the Twilight Bombard in the middle section to help reach the Dancer camp. A Hatecaster would still be strong but not knock back literally all available T1 units. Probably change the Maelstrom cutting off the Vileblood camp, yes. Just a longer interval would change the dynamic too. And with the front Hatecaster in the Whisperer camp replaced, it would be easier to get to as well.