So I played Dark Magic against Magic against Tech and against Dwarvesbeta-gimli on the Four Rivers map (like the Anarchy scenario but with four factions instead of two), on GAE 0.2.12a.
Dark Magic is fully playable now and, AFAICT, the whole diagram is implemented. Sure, some models and animations still need a lot of rework (some are actually just same models from Magitech with different names and sometimes stats) and so do the .xml's.
Overall, it was easier to win the game than it ever was before but to be honest, I think that was because I had never mixed in the Dwarves before - the dwarves being clearly overpowered (even if, apparently, the AI did not make a single FlameTeam or Bombard). Fact is, I easily got aways with doing two and a half 16-units platoons (about 40 units in total) withtout ever getting bodered with either the Magic or the Tech players (those who were closer to my base, the dwarves were on the diagonally oposite base from me); ok, there was an initiate strolling around but it did no kill whatsoever, even if it faced mainly morlocks. When I got to those almost 40 units, I sent one 16u platoon to attack the Tech base and shortly after the other one full platoon atacked the Magic one.
By the time both main buildings (castle and the Magic equivalent, I forgot the name) were down, the dwarves had basically killed all of my (by then) 16 units of my third platoon but one air-unit (the dwarves, after leaving the Tech and Magic basically defenseless, that's how my first and second platoons found them) had attacked my base... Spliting the dwarves army by attacking their base with the remains of one platoon and attacking the dwarves who were attacking my base with the remains of the other worked alright (while continuing to do more units at my base, of course).
So... in brief, I can't actually compare Dark Magic's
balance against Magitech because the Dwarves (who I'd never put in that situation) did most of the work for me... But in the final confrontation, I guess Dark Magic balances out better with the overpowered Dwarves than with Magitech.
A few comments on units:
Morlock: Incredibly weak HP (the lowest I've ever seen) makes them little more than a defensive diversion... Their attack is pretty decent however and they do, unlike the Magic Daemons and for what it's worth, have HP regen. I'm unsure about their stats, but I guess they can be a relevant unit to produce (they also come cheap as hell! lol). Of course, there is absolutely NO model of its own, so no comments on that...
Sorceress: A very good model IMO and nice animations too.
It is for me one of the most finished units in the faction.
Dark Mage: Funny, very funny... Almost exactly the model I'd envisioned for the Shadow Walker! lol Other than, for a Shadow Walker it had to be more misterious, its forms more hidden (namely the front torso, arms and legs) and overall darker in colors. But the (kind of) helmet for the head and the cape (including the very nice tearings in the end, which I'd envisioned some time afterwards we discussed the Shadow Walker, as well as its up and down movement, which I would myself had done less prominent, fit the Shadow Walker very well; I would not have done the SW's cape that wide unless it actually curved sideways to the front of the body). This to say that in my opinion the Dark Mage looks more like a dark warrior/swordsman than a mage... Maybe it's a cliché but I envision any magicien-like unit as wearing some kind of long cloth, covering him to below his knees at least - if not so, at least, not have profuse colors on its cloathing (one general color + team color and that's it!).
Also, the attack animation is quite wrong! The Dark Mage moves one hand forward but its FlameThrow (or whatevet its attack is named) comes from behind the arm, actually from the center of the body.; matter of fact, if you're viewing him from the back, you can see a glow of blue flame coming from behind his back! But I guess that's just NOT the DM's attack yet, just something taken from another unit til its own animation is done...?
For the stats, it's in its present form, the best value unit in Dark Magic so far! It's utterly cheap (85 gold from a building you build quite at the begining of the game) and has (if I'm not mistaken) a damage-power of about somewhere in-between the Magic's Battlemages and Archmages...? Maybe too strong an unit to be available so cheap and soon?
Imp: Besides the model and animations I covered in my earlier post, very good HP, incredible speed but a rather weak attack... Seems maybe too expensive and late in the game to be worth it? Which is a shame, given as it's turning to be such a great and different model...
Shadow walker: well, see pages 19-20 (I think) for the discussion on its modeling and animations (and maybe also what I said in this post for the Dark Mage), none of it done yet - though it looks kind of nice already (in the Magic Ghost Armor kind of way...
). Also a bit too expensive to be worth it if you can make Dark Mages... Though it is a good smooth next-unit after the morlock for the Sorceress to conjure.
But I would make its damage-points considerably higher (relative to the in-faction balance, overall well balanced out with Magitech, of course).
The flying thing... NOT the wyvern, the other one, the one the Sorceress conjures, I forgot the name. I think it's a well balanced aerial unit, appropriate stats, appropriate pricing, appropriate timing to start producing. Modeling, of course, to be done.
Acolyte: OMG, how did I forget to mention this one before! Amazing job on a worker-unit, the most original worker-model I've seen. Just superb! Very much like the awesome animations too! Though I think the mining-energy-pan (or whatever that is) should be displayed more forward than it currently is (maybe the havest wood too but not so much, I think). Not sure about the building animation... I guess it's still not done, but could still work, in a strange way, as it is... lol
Very nice!
Dark Elder: Haven't seen much of it (late in the game in a 64x64 map) but looks just perfect: model, stats (as I remember), skills! Very good.
The later two units:
The gargoyle: Is that an original? I thought they'd be more like stone-statues brought to life? Or am I just messing up my concepts?...
The wyvern: I'm pretty sure I saw a completely diferent model around this topic... That was just a dragon-model I saw in-game... don't remember the stats...
The buildings: looking quite good, in general.
Though I think the crystal in the Devination Crystal has a too long up-and-down movement. I think it should hover more gently, but that's just my thinking. On some views it looks just perfect! lol
There is something about placing the buildings in the map (choosing their position) that sometimes makes them not appear complete...? Could rather be a GAE issue instead...?
And I guess that's pretty much it.
Overall, I'm liking where this is going. Congrats to all of you!
I
Poll