Maybe instead of calling them (and thinking of them as) Angels, you could have the faction be the Matryred, whose buildings could be temples made of ivory with shiny gold domes.  Their goal would be to cleanse all the damned from the world, thus gaining Paladin-like traits: Turn Undead, Holy Fire, Blessings, etc etc.  Lots of Life Shard love.

I considered that too, to have them as the anti-empire faction with lots of "kill the evil guys" traits. But... if a player then fights angels, one of two scenarios will play out. 1) the player is kingdom, the angels get rolled because they're weaksauce 2) the player is empire, the player gets rolled because they're op.

I like the idea with a play on life shards though. I might build on that. Like resoln with death shards.

Yeah... the angels could have some sort of blessings that buff them in combat. And the more life shards you have, the more powerful they become. So they're the most magically connected faction. That means they scale with magic, and become very powerful in the end-game. Unit cost = roughly the same as others. But strength? Weak in start, but when you have 5 life shards they'll be strong as mustard, and you're not paying any more for them.

There's lots of interesting interactions we can make with shards. For example, we can make a super-unit in the unit designer that actually drains "shard power" from the faction while alive. With such a concept, you'd be able to design super-units like Archangels or Dominions.

I'd have to see the AI use the "corruption" spell though. Otherwise it is no good.

I demand dark elves! I want to play as Dumners.

Haha, I am just messing with you. Sounds like some awesome factions.

Instead of making them just life-shard dependant, different shards could be granting them different bonuses.

Each life shard: +10% health and +10% life healed at start of every tactical combat, +2 magic resistance

Each fire shard: +10% attack and ignores 10% of armor

each earth shard: +10% defense, ignores 10% of all physical damage

each water shard: 20% chance to ignore prone attacks, +1 accuracy

each air shard: +1dodge, +1 move in tactical combat

It actually fits fairly well with the story I have for them. They were agents of some god before the cataclysm, but in the eyes of that god the angels failed to safeguard the world. As a result, they were cast-out from the heavens, and lost the ability to fly. But now they find this new power source, and it makes them go zoom-zoom. (ps. they remain fanatics, as they believe they can work their way back into the good graces of the god. their change from agents to a full-fledged faction is because they are taking a more direct approach since their previous method failed so hard)

edit:

They would also have a unique building like the living stone, it can be built once. It would give 1 life shard power, and decrease unrest in local city by 10%. In addition, they gain diplomatic bonuses (not related to the improvement)

Yeah, I'm feeling quite good about this concept for angels. It defines them as the shard-powered faction (not necessarily the "magic" faction). They would be late-game bloomers.

Maybe make them quality over quanity based race? Strategicaly - like Kuriorates from FFh2, tacticaly - like vampires from FFh2(but instead of killing population for power, they maybe just must "medidate or "training" inside cities, where they will get more expirience). And of course some holy traits, and some wing-usage. I see this not bad overall, also that fullfill concept of "rare, powerfull, last - empire of outcasts. Maybe there can be some others concept's, but it is big question of your ability to make this.

Also, will be there - some race that have insane initiative and attack, but armor and hp - lacking?

The singular unit idea is reserved for frost giants, who cannot train units with more than 1 member. It will be very tricky to balance.

The Shadows faction will have free movement in tactical map, and always start every fight with +10 initiative. They are weak in defense.

And your's is more conducive to a fun gameplay experience.

A couple of ideas:-

• Don't allow them to have more than one unit in a troop at a time. They are also very expensive and very powerful. Each angel unit is like having another low level hero. Maybe a series of very powerful traits that only angels can use?
• VERY powerful angel units and spells that cost a life shard to cast / summon.
• Maybe make them into a crusader state kind of deal? Commands come from on high to destroy a faction or kill a powerful creature?
• Or just make them into a city state? Only one city for angels and any cities you conquer get auto-razed.

There's a lot that can be done with them. Overall, though, I'd say just doing them as summons would be best.

EDIT: OOOH, I just thought. Why not a paladin-esque faction for Kingdoms and a demon-summoning faction for the Empire?

Thats good to hear, about shadows.

And what about making angels a spellcaster race, but not magicaly gifted, more like faith or some natural abilities. I mean, some special spellbook, like one of Wraiths, that is able to cast by every angel, question of power and usability is only in skills of their leader (sovereign, hero, or maybe some costly trait gifted unit).

Maybe even a faction isnt angels himself, just some group of people that are bonded with angels. And this spells can summon an angel, or make a unit into angel. So some assortment of holy utillity spells.

See this comment: https://forums.elementalgame.com/416160/get;3068525

So you will do that? Thats awesome . Also, can you tell, what other factions will be oriented, or thats secret?

You definetly going trought right way, some uniqueniess is what fantasy tbs game needs. I only hope that u will not abandon your idea.

Short of me dying IRL, this is going to happen.

I've posted snippets of info throughout the thread. Some more:

Drota - hunters. Will be able to build on any "recruitment world resource" except human. Free diplomatic resources for this purpose. Bad at diplomacy with other factions. Excels in killing monsters.

Death Legion - Various random effects, applied when they get attacked on themselves, or on others when they do the attackin'. High degree of randomness in every fight.

Golem - antimagic faction. Extremely high magic resistance, deals extra damage towards imbued champions, enchanted units and anyone wearing magic items.

Frost giants - specializes in killing normal units. Think "overpower" trait on an entire faction.

Hot damn, Heavenfall, I've said it before and I'll say it again: you rock!

The greenskin faction has changed as a result of AI being too good with it, and limitations to the engine. For each orc unit you train (except pioneers) you will gain 2 goblin resources per orc in the unit. This is a one-off bonus. Greenskin may also build in each city a goblin creator of some kind. That goblin creator creates a small amount of goblins each turn (~0.1 per citylevel). If another faction captures a goblin creator, they can recruit goblins.

Goblins can no longer be designed in the unit design window. Instead, they come pre-packaged as unit types you can't design, like monsters. Goblin units cost goblin resources, and a small amount of production. New goblin units are unlocked as you progress down the tech trees, but they are limited in what they can wear (max chain mail, mostly weak weapons). Some special types will also be available, such as warg riders (extra cheap wargs, don't worry). They will also have different traits (that cannot be changed)

Is there any way of making Heroes less powerful than in the original FE. I hope they will balance things but we will see, for me the ability to have regular armies and even beeing able to upgrade them would be so much more fun than having two heroes and just throwing around fireballs I guess that I wonder if the intention of this mod is to have armies alongside heroes instead of just the stack of doom.

I really love the idea and the dedication you have put into this mod!

Since they're still adjusting balance in the BETA, I see no point in modding such stuff (yet). But it is possible, yes.

Kawaii! http://i.imgur.com/hCqpS.jpg

This is the problem with modding. You start doing a few snotlings and three days later you're still crafting bloody goblins.

The Goblin Lunatics: http://i.imgur.com/RZGVu.jpg

Goblin lunatics have two traits plus the flaw of being born Goblin:

Goblin - -40% to normal damage, armor and hitpoints. The unit will gain only 1/3rd of normal experience from battles, and killing a Goblin unit gives only 1 experience. At the start of every battle, there is a 1-in-3 chance that the unit will start a brawl with itself or anyone nearby. When this occurs, this unit will lose 33% of its maximum hitpoints. This Infighting can kill the unit.

Bloody Lunatics - Lunatics may perform the Lunatic Attack. The Lunatic Attack can only be used once the Lunatics have less than 50% health left. This attack always hits and each living Lunatic will deal 5 undefendable damage. The target is stunned, but the Lunatics die.

Tooth and Nail - Lunatics who suffer from Infighting at the start of combat will wipe themselves out completely. Discipline cannot reduce this damage. Absolutely there will be no deals made there that day.

damn, you are awesome

With a few new tags in this game, I think it could easily be converted to a full-on pre-designed units only game, like AoW. Of course, the AI would be terrible at it. Still, I find it very simple to come up with new unittypes with special traits. The fact that they can't be altered saves a lot of thinking time, since the variables are static.

Take this goblin shaman as an example:

That's a pretty cool look, if you ask me.

Oh god!

I need to learn Havoc. Today.

I would appreciate a quick tutorial on loading a basic unit designs from FE or WoM and then I can just go on Youtube, I assume, and watch some example videos to learn the rest. That is just too cool to let you have all the fun. 

I think I would prefer predesigned units like AoW... 

As would I. Is there a way to lock that now? 

Also, is it possible to restrict paths for champions. For instance, if a champion has "Path of Defender" I don't want him to have the possibility of picking up "Path of Assassin" later on.

Yes, I made a post about it here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/415919/get;3073202

Yes, create a new global unitstat, set it to <DefaultValue>1. Then, create a modifier inside each path in the abilitybonusoption, to reduce that new stat by 1 for each path chosen. Then, create a prerequisite for the unitstat inside each path, demanding it be at least 1 or the path will not appear.

In essence, everyone should have 1 of the stat. But, as soon as any path is selected, that number will fall to 0. The path traits will require at least a 1, which means that they will never appear.