[Wesnoth-dev] Drake Revision Reasons

[Richard S .]

Yesterday, Monday 30th of May, several changes were committed to the 
drake faction by Jetryl that we believed were unbalancing to the 
faction. These were done without our knowledge or approval, so we have 
reverted them back to their previous state. I have written a summary 
for each change for why they should not have occurred.

#1 Saurian Tribalist
Changes
Hitpoints  18->27hp
Cost 16-18 gp
Ranged 5-3 Magical -> 7-2 drain

Currently Tribalist occupies a critical important mission profile for 
the drakes. It was used primarily as a unit to dislodge high defence 
units for the drake faction. It was particularly effective against 
certain defence tactic where opponents  chose to purchase archers (or 
similar projectile secondary units like the thunderer ect.) and place 
them on high defence terrain (mountains, forest ect...). Since most 
drakes were highly vulnerable to piercing attacks, and were unlikely to 
kill or severely damage these defending units, the defending archer 
would be able to do often effectively inflict grossly distorted combat  
exchanges against drakes (who had poor terrain modifiers anyways). This 
was even more so true for the Burner whose main attack is ranged, which 
 would be countered by a ranged piercing attack. In essence, to 
undertake any attack successfully, Drakes had to commit proportionally 
more resources than other races to undertake a successful attack. (this 
strategy was particularly effective when drakes had -20%, now it only 
effects piercing units that do more than 5 damage -> dextrous E. 
Archers, O. Archers during night and human archers)

 Saurians Tribalists provided a solution to this defence by enabling 
the faction to remove them at a lower cost. They did so by being less 
vulnerable to damage both in attack and in counterattack. The superior 
resistance to pierce weapons (20% more than their drake brethren) and 
superior defence, made it more resilient to these attack. Secondly and 
most importantly to this change was their ability to actually hit units 
in defendable terrain, which was the problem with the other units. The 
magical attack enabled a player the ability to dislodge these 
defendable units that no other drake unit could do. By changing it to 
drain the drakes now have a serious capability hole which can be 
exploited by opposing players.

Other negative effects are clearly visible. Drakes have been 
consistently hounded about their high cost in comparison to other 
factions. Upping the cost to 18 just makes another drake unit that is 
at 18 gold, and one less in the 14~16 range.

As for the predicted effects effects of having drain, and increased HP, 
this will likely have the exact opposite effects as jetryl intended. 
Drain is a powerful effect when it hits, and players will likely use 
the unit as a front-line fighter across a wider spectrum of usage than 
is the current role that the saurian is used for now. Also these 
changes have caused the removal of the icecaster... a curious change 
given that these changes are supposed to increase the diversity of the 
factions.

#2 Drake Clasher
Changes
Melee  6-4 Spear (pierce) -> 8-3 Mace (impact)

Conceptually the drake clasher is different from the rest of the drake 
line, as is very clear by its unit description and traits. This is also 
quite true for its use in the game. In multiplayer, clashers are the 
prime unit used to combat human and elvish units. Its higher than 
average resistances for drakes, and its effective melee attacks made it 
the prime unit (with saurians) to combat units in these factions. The 
spear attack was particularly useful against horsemen, which would have 
to risk serious damage if it attempted to attack a clasher. Nominally 
the horseman would be a devastating unit against drakes. The Horseman's 
pierce allows it to inflict serious damage to drakes, and the lower hp 
of the saurians make it an easy target to be picked off by a horseman 
(unless it misses).

The alteration of the secondary attack of the Clasher from spear to 
mace really is unnecessary and weakens the primary role of the clasher. 
Mace attacks (impact) are optimized towards the undead... however given 
that the drakes already have several effective units to attack undead 
units (burners for instance) there is no need for this change. 
Furthermore, the principle strategy for the undead against the drakes 
doesn't use units vulnerable to impact. The current main strategy for 
Undead is to buy 4~5 Dark adepts, and a horde of Walking corpses. The 
dark adepts usually do severe damage to drake units, while the corpses 
defend the adepts as blockers and finish off the weakened drakes. A 
change to mace will have no effect on this strategy at all, as none of 
these units have any weaknesses to impact. Even if other units do 
exist, it is preferable to used range fire to kill them so not to incur 
damage. Therefore, the prime reason for this change does not exist.  
The only other unit that the change to mace could be effective against 
is trolls, with no resistances to impact (vs 20 to pierce and blade). 
Yet even here firebreathing units are preferable since many of the 
other northerner units do not have ranged attacks to counterattack 
with.

All this change will do is exacerbated some of faction's weaknesses 
vis-a-vis loyalists, which the drakes already have serious problems 
with. The change to mace only overlaps the current strengths of the 
faction, and opens up new weaknesses. For these reasons we have decided 
on revision.

#3 Drake Pierce Resistance
Pierce resistance -10%->  -20%

Had this have gone through with the clasher change, any game between 
humans and Drakes would be a completely one sided affair. The 
resistance was just changed in 0.9.1 to 10% for precisely these 
reasons. At -20% two spearmen in the day could have a reasonable chance 
of killing a burner, at -10% its very unlikely. This also increases the 
effectiveness of all archers... giving the elvish archer a 6-4 attack, 
and the human archer a 8-3 attack. If these revisions were to remain, 
the drake faction would become easy prey for factions with pierce 
damage overall. Of all these changes, this one would have had the worst 
effect on balancing.

#4 Proposed Movetype changes to saurians
Hill 1-> 2 movement cost, 60->50% defence
Mountain 2->3 movement cost 60% -> 40%defence

The Saurian is a very temperamental race. It sits on a razor edge where 
a minor  change could upset its delicate balance. Currently (0.9.1) the 
skirmisher is overpowered.  The most unbalanced strategy in the current 
version is the saurian rush where a drake player essentially buys all 
skirmishers. For its "combat statistics" the saurian is an balanced 
unit. What was unbalanced was its movement.  By utilizing its 7 
movement range and skirmishing, the skirmisher just runs around 
everything.  The unit is exceptional in being able to evade attacks by 
dispersion, and then instantly concentrating their attack on a exposed 
unit... then dispersing again.  Yet, these changes just cripple a unit 
that relied more so than almost any other unit on its defensive 
modifiers to fight effectively in the game... its combat statistics 
were balanced.  By diminishing its modifiers on hills and mountains, 
essentially these units will be that much less effective, making its 
relatively low HP become that much more apparent. Really the only 
problem with the saurian skirmisher was its ridiculous movement that 
became apparent when combined with skirmishing. This enabled it to 
either ignore zocs and evade attack by outrunning its opponents, or 
striking critical units deep within enemy territory, like units weak 
and recovering. It had little to do with its low terrain movement 
costs. So these changes would have little effect on their unbalanced 
position today. These alteration will also have serious effects on the 
other members of the saurian faction, which did not have skirmishing 
ability. These units were never complained about before, but now will 
be at a disadvantage, both on terrain and their movement... thus 
unbalancing, balanced units.

Our proposed change of increasing its cost from 14->15 gold and 
decreasing its movement from 7->6 would have corrected this problem, 
without hampering other saurians. This change actually specifically 
addressed the problem at hand.


#5 Glider
Add marksmanship

Currently the drake faction does have a significant problem, its units 
are very pricey. Many people have also complained that the Glider is 
underpriced as well. So by adding marksmanship to the glider, 
essentially the gold cost of the glider will have to increase as 
well... and then the drakes will saddled with another high cost unit 
further putting it at a numerical disadvantage. Furthermore I do not 
see an effective use for this ability. The glider most certainly isn't 
a general combat unit. It  has limited health, and drake flaws. If used 
against other scouts (its likeliest target), marksmanship not so 
helpful against the elvish scout (who would counter with arrows), and 
doesn't do enough damage to gryphons or cavalry. That leaves bats, 
which yes marksmanship would be effective against. Yet as I have said 
before, there is no need for them to make the drakes more effective 
against Undead.


In conclusion these changes would have made a drake faction that would 
have been seriously crippled when confronted by other factions, with 
the exception of the undead. Of particular problem would be against the 
humans, which was only remedied in the last release, and now a 
regression is occurring again? This makes little sense. The ranged unit 
defence tactic would return in full force, with drakes being even more 
susceptible to this tactic as they would suffer even more damage from 
ranged attack, and having little recourse to it with the removal of the 
tribalist as an effective counter. It is our belief that this would 
have had a worse effect on balancing than the 9.0 Dwarven changes, and 
thus we have committed a full retraction.

  I welcome any comments or criticisms. I will try to post a more 
general list of our own changes to the mailing list tomorrow evening. I 
have already done so in the message forum, so I encourage all to post 
there if you are interested in the meantime
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6125


Richard and Bartek