Derek, what do you think about the ideas in my post just previous to yours?

just add more magic and skills

monster compart is so lacking there

combats are so cool when enemies are balanced, i made high lvl ogre trolls etc with shamans and stuff and fights are so much better

there is no need to truncate fights, just balance them and youll see everything will work

Tactical Turn Limits

1. Does it match the games focus?

It could if the mechanic is balanced to make each move count as one battle and battles are set up to seem like engagements over the course of a season.

2. Does it solve a problem?

Yes. It does make Initiative based kiting take a lot longer. 

3. Does it solve multiple problems?

No. It makes kiting take lots of moves to initiate lots of battles, which is already something a kiting unit has plenty of. It adds many more battle initiations, which increases some current memory leak problems. It requires a ton more balance for all monsters and units. City defense units will have problems, as they either disappear after one battle in season or regain all their health currently. Movement will become too dominant on the strategic side, making Tarth so much more OP and screwing over people with low movement and no mount resources. It makes it so that monster attacks can be avoided in the battle, making monsters that are easily kited totally irrelevant. I can just bypass them by escaping the battle. It adds hours of tedious gameplay in a game that already has too much of that.

4. Does it have drool factor?

Only if it comes with other major features that really integrate a sense of time to the strategic gameplay. More likely it will piss light users off.

5. How difficult is it to implement?

Easy enough if we are considering it in beta 5. But adding anything this fundamentally different should have been done six months ago if you really want it to be balanced and well integrated into the game. It is almost certainly going to feel like you are gluing my camera to my phone and calling it a cameraphone. Better off to get it right and add it in the expansion.

As long as Freeze is in the game, every enemy without a constant ranged attack can be kited.

I don't like being able to escape from every combat, it takes the pressure off of battle (specifically when to attack) and it doesn't help with kiting issues.

Teleporting back to your capital is cool, Recall scrolls were added in this patch that do that.

While you're there have a look at some of those high level monsters' stats. I have killed a ogre with a single champion 25 turns into the game on expert difficulty, yes a real none banished ogre. Their initiative is so low you get 2 attacks for their every one. Slow them and you get 3.  Very very very few monsters are a serious threat to even a basic group of spearmen in leather. 

Rebalancing Monsters to Prevent Kiting on the Large and Powerful

1. Does it match the games focus?

Yes. Large, one unit monsters are part of the game. Making them impossible or nigh impossible to kite seems a must have.

2. Does it solve a problem?

Yes. With the right amount of extra moves, counterattacks, teleports (called flying strikes and burrowing), random charges and deadly ranged attacks the problem is effectively solved.

3. Does it solve multiple problems?

Yes. It fixes lots of imbalance with hero leveling, human advantage, mount superiority and general monster easiness. The fight against the world factor affects all other areas of gameplay and is really screwed over by kiting. It also makes a nice distinction between monsters with lots of units and monsters with lots of power.

4. Does it have drool factor?

Yes. Seeing a dragon fly up and then come crashing down on a wimpy kite unit would be very worthy of the gameplay trailers.

5. How difficult is it to implement?

Easy. I have pretty much done it for my mod. Just a few number changes and maybe 10 new abilities to thwart the kite.

I think improving the balance of monsters and spells is a much better way to remove the kiting problem. For example Air Shrills could stun the target for 1 round if it doesnt resist or Water Shrills could remove the movement of the target, too, if it doesnt resist.

well that just one of the non balanced spells in the game

try putting 150 mana on it and see if you can kite each fight

Or have Freeze only affect strategic movement like Tremor and reduce Initiative slightly. Kind of a bad idea to let me spend mana on freezing a Clambercoil Dragon and getting 4 levels for my new hero. 

yes this pretty much its the point

balancing monsters (and other units too) solves so many problems at once all other options fall apart

and having cool dragons be a menace to your empire is so much cooler than soloing them with a stupid human warrior

I do like the ability to see ogres chuck a huge rock at the person.

Obsidian Golem get a crushing imprison spell would be rather neat too. I think an obsidian spike being shot to impale the kiting unit would be just as neat too.

For the regen arguments, regeneration was only broken because it occured on the units turn, making very high initiative units heal for insane ammounts. Changing regeneration to a fixed timer irrespective of the units combat actions would make the effect much less broken, and considering that setting a limit on combat turns available would require making a fixed timer anyway I don't see why it couldn't be implimented this way. That said, if regeneration no longer works in combat, it's effect on the strategic map needs to be much more powerful than it is currently. Healing the unit to full (or practically to full) after each turn would make this enchantment worthy of the mana cost per turn.

For the combat turn limit arguments, a reduced number of turns actually encourages different tactical behavior and adds more strategic depth with the possibility of reinforcements. Turn limits should be imposed that directly impact the ability to defeat units however, rather than just designed to prevent kiting over long periods of time. That is to say 20 turns is long enough to prevent excessive kiting, but doesn't provide any opportunities to reinforce a group against a reasonably sized army. If turns were limited to say 6 or 7 then defeating defenders might take several attacks, and rushing your soldiers in to suicide to take that city before reinforcements come would be a viable tactic as would simply having all your defenders use the 'pass' turn option to increase defense while waiting for backup from another location.

However... armies can attack multiple times per turn, and this would place an unbalanced priority on strategic move speed. A fix of this nature would likely require a limit of 1 attack per turn per army (that does not consume movement and the unit can still move afterwards) and would require units to form armies on tiles they pass through and are not simply told to enter, to prevent multiple units in seperate armies from blocking enemy advancement.

There is a secondary issue that might be overlooked however, and that is completing quests that force the player through multiple tactical stages. The arena quest and several dungeons would be impacted through a turn limit timer and if the only reason for a turn limit is to prevent kiting, this could very easily be resolved by requiring the unit to expend movement points (or remain stationary) to fire.

Deleted.

Poor Miredesi and her crappy armor: http://screencast.com/t/UEZy3JtG6

Oh now you are just teasing us....

Is Quendar blood going to be boosted by removing the cold vulnerability so it is comparable to other blood traits that don't have any downsides?

get a rope!

Are you referring to the fact that the Gallows reduces unrest?

Released!

Initiative / Movement / and Range have become the heart of tactical strategy in this game, this must be brought to light: EVERY unit must be balanced in regard to this rock/paper/scissors relationship, or buffs that manipulate one of them to an extreme will be taken advantage of (as in the case of regeneration and the banished ogre in your example), potentially even by the AI.  A turn limit on battles will indeed solve this specific problem (and create new strategies), but it does not address the core issue at hand, which will have to be considered with every new addition.

Thank you very much for all your time spent with this community by the way.

Nice.  Just got my first enchanted collar and Pariden (not Quendar) wine.  Can't get enough of that, and I'd love to see more variety on all levels, since it varies the experience in replay.

Encumbrance　bar color will change with stats ? 

now only blue  ->

Light : blue

medium : yellow

heavy : red

holy jebus.  hard to get a word in edgewise here.  6 pages of comments in a few hrs?

Quote; "Shortened the desc on the Dark Spire so ol' man Wardell doesn't have to get out his reading spectacles".

You've already thought and done everything I like but 1.

Can we get a movable UI?  It would make the game feel so slick.  It already feels slick.  Im asking for olive-oil-on-a-tarp-on-a-hill-in-your-front-yard slick.

Having to look at all 4 corners of the screen before you hit "turn" is a little annoying.

If it aint possible please let me know.  Anyway, looks darn good.

I don't have access to a gaming computer for 3 hours. I guess everyone will just have to wait until then to play. Wouldn't be fair otherwise...