Dear CA - Buff Effect Ranges Please

[Lesurous]

It's obnoxious for the game to be set up for ultra unit size but for 95% of the effects (buffs, debuffs, etc.) to be set at 35 meters. It really stifles a lot of potential across the board, as 35m will at most buff/debuff 2 units, which is just awful. You can find examples across all the rosters, but here are some specific ones;

Lore of Nehekhara - Usekhp's Incantation of Dessication - 15 winds for an AoE enfeebling foe. Small range only makes it hit one, maybe two units if they're bunched. 6 winds for Enfeebling Foe.

Vampire Counts - Corpse Carts - Only 35 meters on their aura means, again, only one to two units will benefit. This makes them a pain to use on a faction capable of fielding massive armies of cheap units, of which you're only able to buff a minute fraction of.

Effects that require nearby entity deaths are also limited significantly, as they're only able to gain intensity from very nearby fighting, and their buff/debuff gain only affects that limited area.



tl;dr: 35 meters is extremely limiting and makes many abilities, spells, etc. essentially useless or too much hassle to utilize. Setting a new, higher standard AoE size and/or making the effect sizes scale with unit sizes would drastically benefit the usability of a ton of abilities, auras, units, and more.

[Ashardalon]

requiring you to consider positioning in a strategy game
how dare they

[Grinch]

"Vampire Counts - Corpse Carts - Only 35 meters on their aura means, again, only one to two units will benefit. This makes them a pain to use on a faction capable of fielding massive armies of cheap units, of which you're only able to buff a minute fraction of."

Have you ever actually played VC? you don't spread them out like a thin line of butter, you blob them up and EVERYONE gets the benefits, just like 90% of the lore of vampires spells...

[IonizedMercury]

"Please make the game dumber so I don't have to think that much playing it"

Yeah, how dare the game actually add some downside to already pretty darn brainless point and click abilities! Why even fight battles or play the campaign at all? You should get an immediate victory message the moment you start it!

[ope84]

Lords / Heroes abilities that boost Leadership aura should buff also the various ability radius

[Falaris]

The basic point he makes is valid:
As unit size increase by settings, the radius should increase as well.

It makes sense that a spell that covers 2 units at one scale should still do so at another; the number of units it should cover should be the same.

The equally valid counterpoint is that, a unit that might be able to get out of a smaller radius, might not with a larger, making it more effective than intended.

Blobbing is something I would not at all mind if the AI was better at punishing, but that's another discussion.

[Fendelphi]

35 meters is fine in the situations where it matters. Imagine some of the powerful effects that have a range of 20 or 35 ranges and consider how absolutely insane they would be at 55.

If you cant hit/affect more than 1-2 units with the abilities, you are not setting up the situations correctly. Practice a bit more or use a different tactic altogether.

Your Lore of Nehekhara example: You are comparing a 6 cost, single target, debuff that last 17 seconds, with a 38 seconds AoE debuff. When used right, it can be used to debuff 2-3 units and 1-2 Lords/heroes, at the same time and with a single cast, giving a massive, local momentum shift for a prolonged period of time(enough to win or stall those engagements).
The 2 spells are used differently.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Falaris:

The basic point he makes is valid:
As unit size increase by settings, the radius should increase as well.

It makes sense that a spell that covers 2 units at one scale should still do so at another; the number of units it should cover should be the same.

The equally valid counterpoint is that, a unit that might be able to get out of a smaller radius, might not with a larger, making it more effective than intended.

Blobbing is something I would not at all mind if the AI was better at punishing, but that's another discussion.

Even if you avoid outright blobbing you can still easily morph your formations to be thicker so that a equal number gets the effect as would on a lower unit scale.

[MulticornRB]

I wouldn't be against to do this with a revised leadership aura buff skill.

[Aleera]

Originally posted by Falaris:

The basic point he makes is valid:
As unit size increase by settings, the radius should increase as well.

It makes sense that a spell that covers 2 units at one scale should still do so at another; the number of units it should cover should be the same.

The equally valid counterpoint is that, a unit that might be able to get out of a smaller radius, might not with a larger, making it more effective than intended.

Blobbing is something I would not at all mind if the AI was better at punishing, but that's another discussion.

I disagree actually.

Imagine your platoons being 40 man each. It's far easier for your leader to adress each.
Now imagine the platoons being 120 man each. Getting all your soldiers to hear your voice, or to recognize you on the battlefield becomes so much harder.

[Falaris]

Originally posted by Rianne:

Originally posted by Falaris:

The basic point he makes is valid:
As unit size increase by settings, the radius should increase as well.

It makes sense that a spell that covers 2 units at one scale should still do so at another; the number of units it should cover should be the same.

The equally valid counterpoint is that, a unit that might be able to get out of a smaller radius, might not with a larger, making it more effective than intended.

Blobbing is something I would not at all mind if the AI was better at punishing, but that's another discussion.

I disagree actually.

Imagine your platoons being 40 man each. It's far easier for your leader to adress each.
Now imagine the platoons being 120 man each. Getting all your soldiers to hear your voice, or to recognize you on the battlefield becomes so much harder.

I see the logic in that, but I assume that the graphics settings doesn't actually change the unit sizes, just how they are represented on the battle map; commanding them should be identical, and indeed, is.