Elf Faction 0.9.7 & 2.0A (Both MG Compatible)

[andy_5995]

Now elves_A7.7z is released

Smaller file size
more particle effects
Enemy units near the Lore House will be poisoned (negative attack boost)

Pizza, I'm not sure yet about the sanctuary yet. I'm sure titi will let us know if it's BAD xD

By 1/5 of their energy missing, I think you mean HP. That's because when an upgrade increases MAX HP, newly produced units will come out with the HP specified in their unit file, not the original total plus what an Upgrade gave them. So if the grey elf archer is set to have a max of 850, and later an upgrade increases by 300, they will be produced with 850 and will slowly regenerate to 1250. You can see what I tried to do here with "starting percentage" which works in the EP field, but after I tested it didn't seem to make a difference for HP.
 
Btw, you may have noticed minstrels can heal other units just by standing near them. So you might want to make a habit of putting a few minstrels near newly-produced units.

[andy_5995]

Exciting new changes, version A8 released today (see page for details and download link).

[andy_5995]

- Do you feel adding a sanctuary at the beginning is ok or too powerful? Since there is already the guardian forest as starter. I think it was balanced also without sanctuary but that's my 2 cents.

I forgot the forest guardian stores grace. Here's a change I just made to -testing

[Pizza90]

I played A8 vs Cpu and noticed that the first thing AI does is to build a sanctuary :/ which means wasting resources and slowing down the attack (so it is easier for humans). Maybe AI is hardcoded to build whatever building makes resources as first step, so having already a sanctuary causes problems.

I am sure you had the best intention but I give a  to the brown shirt of archers, it does not look elvish to me (more like a slave thing), what do you think? I feel if you reduced saturation of the previous version (from bright red to darker red) it would look cool. What do, and others, think?

I haven't tested the latest git with guardians storing graces but doesn't it render sanctuaries useleless? I feel they are a defending not storage units, but then again that's my 2 cents 

[andy_5995]

I played A8 vs Cpu and noticed that the first thing AI does is to build a sanctuary :/ which means wasting resources and slowing down the attack (so it is easier for humans). Maybe AI is hardcoded to build whatever building makes resources as first step, so having already a sanctuary causes problems.

Good suggestion.. so I've increased the grace output of a sanctuary and to compensate I increased the time it takes to build one. https://github.com/zetaglest/elves-testing/commit/ee688acdd4a8ecfa0722274f191d5ba81d4d5c0c

The AI is not hard-coded to build a resource producer at start; there's some threshold hard-coded (I don't know what it is) where they will build a producer when the resources gets too low. So with the patch shown above, they will build 3 academies.

I also made a change here https://github.com/zetaglest/elves-testing/commit/2e1e5c5d16754995c3316fb9624c3e5a82ea97ca , otherwise they build 3 academies and 3 corrals before they build a wood hall. with that patch, they build 3 academies (not 2, even though 2 is specified) and then a wood hall.

I haven't play-tested those changes with anyone yet so maybe they'll need fine-tuning in the near future.

I am sure you had the best intention but I give a  to the brown shirt of archers, it does not look elvish to me (more like a slave thing), what do you think? I feel if you reduced saturation of the previous version (from bright red to darker red) it would look cool. What do, and others, think?

Definitely I'll listen to feedback from you and others about the brown. To my eyes, brown's ok, it being an "earth" tone. And we agreed in an earlier post that there was too much green in the elves faction. But I'm definitely not opposed to making the whole top tunic the team color, as you described. I just don't know how to do it, as I mentioned before I'm not a blender or graphic artist. There's already a ticket open to improve team color on the archer.

I haven't tested the latest git with guardians storing graces but doesn't it render sanctuaries useleless? I feel they are a defending not storage units, but then again that's my 2 cents 

In the commit I linked to in an earlier post, I removed the grace storage from the guardians.

[andy_5995]

elves_A9.7z released

[andy_5995]

not poolished enough yet.
balance, AI playablility, teamcolor adn so on is missing. Mod center is for things that are ready to play.

Ok, titi, but could you put elves_A9.7z on the server?

[-Archmage-]

I see you guys are running into a lot of the same problems that I did.
I restructured the entire faction multiple times trying to find a more unique structure that the AI would play.

Ultimately, it's hard to drift far from Tech's structure in my experience.

[andy_5995]

Hi Archmage. I think you are right. The uniqueness was cool, but as you know...

Right now the AI plays it pretty well. As for balancing against other factions in megapack, that's just an annoying guessing game I don't have patience for and won't be attempting it (there's no templating system to keep units among other factions balanced). I've removed the faction links from A9.

Here's a screenshot from a game played using version A9.

[andy_5995]

Ok, titi, but could you put elves_A9.7z on the server?

titi approved this idea, but we will wait a little longer. He's working to improve the gryphon model, and I've made a few changes to the data since the A9 release. Maybe we can polish it enough so that it's suitable for the mod center.

For those who don't know, if something is "on the server", that means it can be played on the headless server, even if it's not available for download from the mod center. So having it on the server is some good progress.

[Pizza90]

I am not an expert but that gryphon didn't look very gryphonish to me, so I am looking forward to see titi's model 

[andy_5995]

Here's a video of a game with the elves

[andy_5995]

Though no new gryphon models yet, but elves_10 is released.

It's also on the headless server now, so can be played multi-player regardless of who is hosting. If you don't already have the file, you will get offered the download when you join a game where someone is hosting the elves.

[Pizza90]

Great, thanks Andy! what are the changes betwen a09 and a10? I couldn't find a changelog on github

[andy_5995]

Great, thanks Andy! what are the changes betwen a09 and a10? I couldn't find a changelog on github

You're welcome

No ChangeLog, best way right now though not ideal is the commit log. Commits from May 2 to May 13 are the changes between 9 and 10.

[andy_5995]

Released A11 and it's now on the server.

Changes are mostly related to adding visual and audio effects.

[andy_5995]

Elves_A12 released.

[Pizza90]

Thanks for the work Andy! Is the 12 already on the mod center?

[andy_5995]

Thanks for the work Andy! Is the 12 already on the mod center?

You're welcome, Pizza. It's on the server but not in the mod center. I think it would need more playing and testing by titi before it could get approved.

He and I played it a couple days ago. One thing he mentioned is that he likes the Ent! He'd like to see it become available sooner; I haven't decided yet how that would be. Perhaps after the first upgrade in the lore house instead of the 2nd (mystical forest).. or I could move mystical to the first slot. And then reduce the time cost of producing the Ent.

[-Archmage-]

This is pretty cool, I'm glad to see development is still moving and it's available for multiplayer now! 

[andy_5995]

Thanks @Archmage