Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-32013442-20180117064757/@comment-32013442-20180118190944

Barangolo wrote: I'm a bit lost regarding the causality of this suggestion (i.e. Orcs are like other factions -- HENCE elves/dwarves are created weaker -- BECAUSE evil cannot amass too many to compensate for their weakness -- HENCE let's create a new Orc entity that is stronger because it consists of more Orcs), but I understand that the essence of the proposal is to create stronger Evil enemies when bundled, as they are weaker individually. I think this does not add any improvement to the (already sophisticated) battle aspect of gameplay, being the banner bearers. Banner bearers do exactly that: they improve the combatants' stats, therefore making them stronger when in groups. This suggestion would mostly give it a different twist, but basically result in the same concept, being stronger enemies in groups vs as individual combatants. On top, this creates significant technical challenges that may even slow down gameplay.

As this is a balance issue, I must say I feel the game is quite balanced as is. I recently created a base in Ithilien and experience a very high frequency of Mordor invasions to my base, where I would not stand a chance if it weren't banner protected or quagmire trapped on the perimeter. When I started building the base and had no full fence yet and made the mistake of not planting a banner right away, an invasion with bombardiers and Olog-hai pretty much wiped out my full squad of 30, proving the point that on open (=unprotected) terrain Evil is quite strong due to explosives and Trolls, even when not in numbers. Odds are well balanced out, in fact when moving around with forces they eat into resources significantly, even when unit hiring is down to 20-25 coins. I do not see the need to create any more (complex) variations to topple this balance even more in favour of Evil forces, especially when these are just variations on existing balancing solutions. I know that evil factions are very powerful Baralongo. The problem is not evil npcs running around in their own land and being too weak. (Walked into Mordor recently?) The problem arises when you want to invade somewhere else such as gondor, lindon, etc with your army of 30 orcs. If you are on single player, there are no restrictions because the lag affects just you. On a server however, evil players have to use a limited number of units as large armies just make the game unplayable for everyone.