1. On Kapaku balance

My first impressions on Kapaku it's they overpowered.

I will not list their features point by point, I will just write what I think is overpowered :

- Enough science output to reach era II before turn 11 : They got a good science land with volcanos land + they grab science each time they explore a ruin. It gives them enough science to go to era II before turn 10 is over. So is give them access to early empire plan at level 2.  It's ok as it is, but it's a very strong first advantage over others races.

- Regular good science output by searching ruins from the era 2 : As it grow with the eras. I think it grows too much.

- A superb administrator hero with increase the volcanos lang output a lot : The wild walkers hero does not have such a big bonus (+2 science +1 industry and +1 dust compared to the +1 industry bonus on FOREST land only). This bonus should be reduced a bit I think.

I have not explored a lot their military aspect, but it seems they are fine here, with a FREE UPKEEP unit and a good rider unit.

2. On Eclypses features balance

Few Eclypses features look very interesting, others looks a bit boring, others look underpowered :

Wild Walkers have their senses heightened by the Eclipse, enhancing their bonds to Auriga to such extent that they have Global Sharing and reduced Movement Cost on Forests. This allows them to anticipate their enemy’s movements, and gives them the added mobility to react swiftly and meet them head on.

- Great.

Broken Lords, uniquely attuned to shifting of Dust in Auriga, are able to harness the Eclipse’s power to increase the power of their armies, but at a great cost. Their units and heroes gain a new army action, similar to the Allayi Forced Shift, granting them a new capacity for a turn. This Consuming Fire increases the Damage of units by 30%, but causes the unit to take 10% of its maximum health as damage at the start of each combat turn.

- Good military bonus.

Vaulters / Mezari can harness the power of the Eclipse to increase the accuracy of their Teleport. While the Holy Resource Boost is active During an Eclipse, units can be transported directly to a Vaulter or Mezari Hero’s Army – anywhere on the map. Instant reinforcements!

- Super good. Superbe offensive strategy possible. +10 !

Necrophages will notice something some of the components of their Recycled Stockpiles are not as dead as they seem, receiving bonus Battleborns from Stockpiles. These not-so-fresh recruits receive all the applicable bonuses from buildings on the city, and make excellent last-minute defenses while the main army is away from the colony.

- Looks good, but it's weak and not usable. First, when you got a food reserve as necro, you use it as fast as possible, to grow. As you cannot predict if there will be an Eclypse and when, it's really more reasonnable to use it at fast as you can.

Two, as you maybe now, reserve can be used only one per turn per city. If you use more, there will have no effect. So, you cannot imagine banking food reserve and use it at last moment to defend a city against one army (unless the feature has been changed and you can add several food reserve at same turn).

At last I would say something : Necrophages are already the weakest civ of all. In multiplayer at competitive level, no one play them. They don't have pacification quest, they need to pacifiate all cities manually then rebuilding villages. I think they are the first race which should be buffed a bit (by a better eclypse bonus, or another bonus somewhere).

Ardent Mages, already uniquely attuned to Dust Magic, discover new depths to the power given to them through Ardent Fire. During an Eclipse, Ardent Fire provides bonus Damage as well as Attack, making their units even more dangerous while on low life.

- I don't really like this bonus. Why ? Because Ardent Mages are already the strongest military power on Endless Legend. They got 3 stun usable per turn, they got a storng attack bonus, and they got the Wings unit (who ressurect) which is the strongest unit of the game.

I would have prefered another thing (maybe a new spell to use, or another pillar I don't know).

Roving Clans may not be as fond of battle as other factions, but that doesn’t mean they are unable to take advantage of the unique opportunities of the Eclipse. Their Setsekes find the Dust-rich atmosphere invigorating, gaining massive stat boosts to Speed, Attack and Damage when packed up and on the move. Even while unpacked, their good spirits are infectious, providing cities a life regeneration area around them, similar to the effect found on Watchtowers.

- Interesting. Very depend on circumstances, but potentially very good.

Drakken Diplomats are able to take advantage of the general confusion and bouts of arcane mysticism the Eclipses bring to the other factions, and as such there are able to lean on others more easily, havingReduced Influence Cost for all Diplomatic Actions – Even Forced Truces and Alliances.

- Good.

Cultists, on the other hand, spur the feelings of zealousness and fanaticisms that the Eclipses instill in Minor Factions as a sign from the Queen, giving all Minor Faction Units a Stat Boost based on City Level. This effect is similar to Unleash Potential, but multiplied by the City Center level of their Capital.

- Very logical with their lore and perfectly adapted with their exterminator nature. I love it.

Forgotten can leverage the liquidity of Dust during an Eclipse to perform a unique Infiltration Action, Dust Opportunist steals directly from the coffers of the infiltrated faction. This action steals a small flat amount of Dust and a small Percentage amount of Dust from the target, meaning that it can bankrupt poor factions or produce large amounts of Dust by stealing from rich ones.

- Very good even if it's probably hard, and very situationnal, to use. I mean, stealing tech is already very rewarding. One tech mean less dust used to research it. So why aiming to steal dust then ? Unless the risk to be catch is reduced, or something like that, I don't find it very interesting to use.

Allayi see this unnatural turn of events as a clear sign of Auriga’s last dying throes, and in this Time of Need they move swiftly to save her. All armies under their control gain increased Movement during an Eclipse, as well as an additional action point.

- I don't like this bonus, beacuse Allayi are already the fastest units of the game. Especially the Skyfin. I don't see that as a very original feature for Allayi. But okay.

Morgawr are the only faction able to take advantage of the rough seas created by the Eclipse’s influence. As Riders of Wild Winds, they gain massive Embarked movement during an Eclipse.

- Good feature to help them controling the seas !

The Kapaku, although strangers to Auriga, have a very keen sense of earthen energies. During Eclipses, they are able to sense the locations of Map Boosts in their settled regions and their neighbors', and they receive increased effects from the Boosts they collect.

- Perfect.

3. On Kapaku difficulty to harvest enough strategic ressources

- Kapaky needs a lot of strategic ressources to build volcano lands on their new cities and expansion. If you start taking it's becoming more expansing. But that's ok, that's normal.

- But the problem is that I tend to be short in strategic ressources in all my games to do any others thing than volcanoes and needed building. I never use strategic ressources to build equipement, whereas it should be In their lore I guess (a bit like the Vaulters).

- A suggestion to reduce this problem maybe : take 30 % of strategic ressources from sea fortress, and give them back to the land (as it was before Tempest. Currently, there is really less ressources. Controling sea give already enough advantages (and it's easy to accomplish with one Morgawr hero + puppets).

4. On Kapaku siege interesting feature and the reserves tech boost

- The reserves tech are very overpowered (as always, but it has never been changer). You take the era III tech, and it give you +600. Like +600 industry. Which is IMMENSE. You can just bought reserves at trade market, for a minus cost.

- Kapaky siege is very interesting. I love it. But this aggravate further the unbalance of the reserves tech boosts. 

- My suggestion about the reserve techs would be to suppress the era IV booster, because it's too much. And to make -50 % in the Era II reserve tech bonus.

Hi guys. I'm speaking from experience of 1300 hours of playing multiplayer. 

Im my view, Jojo is right about most of ideas in the article. 

Kapaku seem to be overpowered. Getting to era 2 before turn 10 gives them an advantage over factions that can't do that and the governor is very strong. May be it would be better to limit the governors' power at least. 

Stockpiles bonuses have to be weakened. Right now the bonus +500 +1000 is so high, that among strong players we agree never to research this tech. It became somewhat of a fair play rule. 

Quite agree that so far I feel Kapaku are too strong. I was baffled at the FIDS output they got early on, plus amazing governer skills, plus solid science on ruins, plus high amount of strategic resources (I kept starting with a lot around me). Later when you get the golem tile you can get even more crazy output by grabbing tiles with anomalies you'd otherwise not get.

I feel if played around a bit, they're a faction that can get a crazy early start rush, with higher industry than even Wild Walkers can dream of, strategic resources on the level of Vaulters almost and reaching next era quicker than anyone else can, which could allow them to go right into strategic resource gear, big army and just rush the enemy with a pretty solid infantry unit that costs nothings.

I've not played around on it, but I felt there was a playstyle I wasn't utilizing with my lack of knowledge and steering away from what the faction should be played like. I felt I was getting way more strategic resources than was demanded for terraforming early on, that there was room to not do it that much, and I even started with adjacent volcanic regions so it wasn't even necessary for a while. I could be wrong however and just gotten a very lucky start, but I didn't feel the terraforming and strategic resources was that much of an issue as long as you only terraformed the tiles you were using.

I do agree on the Necrophage bonus during the Eclypse is quite lackluster. Not sure what you could give them cause I don't play them much, but the same thought crossed my mind in how you don't exactly save up stockpiles for it to ever be useful. The Allayi one I'm unsure of, as someone who plays them I love it, and the movement increase is fitting and fun, but might be a bit "too much". I do however think the additional action point adds to it.

Yes, they really start very strong. I even believe they have the best start of all factions. However they will have trouble from middle to late game. I think they are balanced by their vulcano limitation. They can't expand like crazy without vulcanoforming. Making vulcanoes start cheap but it is always increasing price. Without these resources you can't have access to volcano tiles and that means no food. This is like the creep limitation from the Undead (Warcraft) and Zerg (Starcraft). It is strong enough to counterbalance the freedom others factions have in relation to expansion (except Cultists/Allayi/Morgawr). They have a good start but their expansion is very expensive and takes time.

Necrophages: One recycle stockpile should spawn two battleborns

Argent Mages: Push the area of effect for the stun spell to level 4 and 5 while level 1-3 will be single target. Reduce base price back to 30

Kapaku: Adjust their governer first skill and increase strategic resources needed to terraform and the time needed to detonate.

I will be honest I thought that the science Katapu got was just a change to the base game (as in all faction can get it).
it made sense and would make searching ruins actually feel rewarding, while it being a kapatu only ability seems rather over powered.

Hi everyone. Sorry it took us so long to get to this thread, but thank you all for your input.

Reading over your posts, it seems that right now the Kapaku are capable of very explosive and snowballing starts, which I believe is clearly bound to the Volcanic Terrain and the Bonuses they get on it. What I'd like to know, in order to better think how we can go about this issue, is this: How appealing is it right now to take volcanic regions as a Non-Kapaku Faction?

You see, my main concern is that if we try and stall the Kapaku by nerfing the terrain, we will ultimately make the new tiles just plain bad for any other faction. We are currently discussing different ways to apporach the issue, but it'd be great if you could give us your impressions on the terrain when playing other factions.

kassapa wrote:

Hi everyone. Sorry it took us so long to get to this thread, but thank you all for your input.

Reading over your posts, it seems that right now the Kapaku are capable of very explosive and snowballing starts, which I believe is clearly bound to the Volcanic Terrain and the Bonuses they get on it. What I'd like to know, in order to better think how we can go about this issue, is this: How appealing is it right now to take volcanic regions as a Non-Kapaku Faction?

You see, my main concern is that if we try and stall the Kapaku by nerfing the terrain, we will ultimately make the new tiles just plain bad for any other faction. We are currently discussing different ways to apporach the issue, but it'd be great if you could give us your impressions on the terrain when playing other factions.

CHANGE [INFERNO]

• Increased the Resource Cost Cap for Volcanoformers from 16 at 7 to 998 at 498.
  
  

Ain't this a bit overkill tho? x) Just asking. They are mostly forced to play Tall now.

@kassapa,

Helixagon's mathematical simple calcul is a clear argument. The problem comes mainly from the Kapaku governor. But to answer specifiquely to your question :

"How appealing is it right now to take volcanic regions as a Non-Kapaku Faction? "

It's not appealing, but not awfull. It's not awfull for this reason : If you are smart, you are going to settle near the industry/science/dust hexagones of this volcanic region, and avoiding the food hexagones. For exemple, you avoid the +3 food hexagone, because it will give you zero food. But you aim for the +2 science and +1 industry hexagones you can often find in volcanic region.

So, to recapitulate, if you got a good pacification quest in the region, and if you find a correct spot with not food but others output, volcanic regions are appealing.

Broken lords as they don't use food, are fine with volcanic regions. ^^

SamWAR wrote:

kassapa wrote:

Hi everyone. Sorry it took us so long to get to this thread, but thank you all for your input.

Reading over your posts, it seems that right now the Kapaku are capable of very explosive and snowballing starts, which I believe is clearly bound to the Volcanic Terrain and the Bonuses they get on it. What I'd like to know, in order to better think how we can go about this issue, is this: How appealing is it right now to take volcanic regions as a Non-Kapaku Faction?

You see, my main concern is that if we try and stall the Kapaku by nerfing the terrain, we will ultimately make the new tiles just plain bad for any other faction. We are currently discussing different ways to apporach the issue, but it'd be great if you could give us your impressions on the terrain when playing other factions.

CHANGE [INFERNO]

• Increased the Resource Cost Cap for Volcanoformers from 16 at 7 to 998 at 498.
  
  

Ain't this a bit overkill tho? x) Just asking. They are mostly forced to play Tall now.

Yes I agree it's not good. They should be able to play wide. Maybe a quick way to balance the things before a more profond rebalancing of their features ?

I wish too that the factions will be rebalanced a bit too. Few Eclypses really has to be (I think to the Necrophages and the Forgottens which are very weak today especially).

SamWAR wrote:

kassapa wrote:

Hi everyone. Sorry it took us so long to get to this thread, but thank you all for your input.

Reading over your posts, it seems that right now the Kapaku are capable of very explosive and snowballing starts, which I believe is clearly bound to the Volcanic Terrain and the Bonuses they get on it. What I'd like to know, in order to better think how we can go about this issue, is this: How appealing is it right now to take volcanic regions as a Non-Kapaku Faction?

You see, my main concern is that if we try and stall the Kapaku by nerfing the terrain, we will ultimately make the new tiles just plain bad for any other faction. We are currently discussing different ways to apporach the issue, but it'd be great if you could give us your impressions on the terrain when playing other factions.

CHANGE [INFERNO]

• Increased the Resource Cost Cap for Volcanoformers from 16 at 7 to 998 at 498.
  
  

Ain't this a bit overkill tho? x) Just asking. They are mostly forced to play Tall now.

+1 000 000

kassapa wrote:

Hi everyone. Sorry it took us so long to get to this thread, but thank you all for your input.

Reading over your posts, it seems that right now the Kapaku are capable of very explosive and snowballing starts, which I believe is clearly bound to the Volcanic Terrain and the Bonuses they get on it. What I'd like to know, in order to better think how we can go about this issue, is this: How appealing is it right now to take volcanic regions as a Non-Kapaku Faction?

You see, my main concern is that if we try and stall the Kapaku by nerfing the terrain, we will ultimately make the new tiles just plain bad for any other faction. We are currently discussing different ways to apporach the issue, but it'd be great if you could give us your impressions on the terrain when playing other factions.

Honestly volcano terrain is actually "okay" as long as its not the first or second region you settle. They still mostly give 3 fidsi, which is standard. Most hurtful is probably, that anomalies lose their food aswell, so even if you have a nice anomaly cluster in a volcanic region, it may still be lacklustre. Maybe make non-food anomalies more common on volcanic terrain.

As soon as you get your hands on a Kapaki governor, volc terrain is pretty decent for all factions.

As for the current nerf, I generally like the idea of it. It makes natural lava regions more important for the Kapaki (which i like and is a good balance when playing on standard settings). Maybe the cap shouldnt be as high, but we'll see. In general I think reducing the science gain from ruins by half and reducing the volcano former resource cap to say 50 or 100 should basically make them relatively balanced.

The Kapaku main quest also gives Exotic Gear a bit early... That means Tier 3 titanium and hiperium gear that your hero can use to give HUGE army bonuses to all units. That may be a bit unbalanced against other factions.