Very disappointed in the tome of evolution.

[Fuzzleberry]

I love the idea of units that get stronger with rank and evolve but I wish they want full in with it, atm you get a sub par creature that needs to get to max rank to evolve into a rank 3 monster. But that's where it ends, no more evolution on that monster, I would've liked to have seen it get to a full on max rank monster if you could just keep it alive, keep it growing.

I would love to make an entire evolving army but unfortunately they went too careful with it and it just feels lacklustre for me.

Devs please try going more ham with these ideas.

[jasons073]

I've only played through one game since the new DLC came out, but I found an effective strategy. Basically I had one army with my ruler full of a powerful army, and two other armies following him consisting entirely of tier 1 evolvable units (mostly wyvern hatchlings). I then cast the enchant from the tome that gives those units resurgence, and went ham killing enemy stacks. They evolved pretty quickly, and since they were bolstered by my ruler's army the resurgence kept be from losing anyone. Ultimately, I ended up with a ton of tier 3 wyverns relatively early in the game.

The enchantment from the tome doesn't work to help the Young dragon units evolve since those units start at Tier 3. But there's a spell from the tome of revelry that can enhance the XP they get, which can be used to help them gain the XP needed to evolve.

[OakenWall]

So you want a T 5 monster from a Tier 1 tome?
Its not a terrible idea, but more for a t3 or 4 tome maybe.
I have not really played around with the new tomes yet, been trying out the necromancy ones.

[chronobomb]

It would be cool to have more evolutions on a creature like the psi fish had in Planetfall. Maybe they will add this when we get the Druid DLC.

Counterpoint:

1. This Idea could wreck your economy, especially imperium.

While you do get units that can evolve into tier 4 or 5 but you get to control when you recruit those units and they usually have a fairly lengthy investment to get them.

2. This also trivialize strategies. You have resurgence only on units up until they are tier 5 means you would quickly steam roll. I notice this with the spiders and dragons in once you get them. They are powerful and can’t be killed.

3. You can fairly easily get 50% additional xp per battle on animals which means you’d end up with 2500 power stacks very early.

[Djtooth]

It would be nice if units kept enchantment bonuses that only effect evolving units after being fully evolved.

[GamerBear]

As with any other tome, it's all about the synergies with it. No T1 tome should get you T5 units. Logically, you should need one other tome to get T5 units, which lo and behold, Tome of Dragons does for you. By the time you have unlocked that tome you're in a good place to start switching over to dragons for the evolution.

So far it has been pretty darn good when you take Feudal Culture + Tome of Evolution + Tome of Beasts. Between the peasant pikemen, the slither, wyvern, and spiders or worms you can quickly make cheap units that can quickly go from T1 to T3 (or more)

While T3+ units with evolve don't get the resurgence, they still get the +20% XP and taking the Sheperd hero skill can make them pretty tough.

Once you get to Tome of Dragons you can start switching over to young dragons that will evolve to better ones (and during that time they will get the sheperd bonus)

edit: as a side note, spiders are really good for the evolution becuase they do get up to T4 for a few of them.

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by OakenWall:

So you want a T 5 monster from a Tier 1 tome?
Its not a terrible idea, but more for a t3 or 4 tome maybe.
I have not really played around with the new tomes yet, been trying out the necromancy ones.

No, I want a T5 tome from a T1 monster.

[Fuzzleberry]

I probably should've cut this into separate comments but... I didn't, enjoy!

having a read through, I'll put it this way, I don't know how well it would balance without tweaks but I know its what I would want and I think its different enough and not too much work to add.

Originally posted by OakenWall:

So you want a T 5 monster from a Tier 1 tome?
Its not a terrible idea, but more for a t3 or 4 tome maybe.
I have not really played around with the new tomes yet, been trying out the necromancy ones.

Yes, I do want a T5 from a Tier 1 but its not free, you've got to freed them, protect them, nurture them so they can grow strong until they become strong enough to fight for themselves and if they die.... Many tears. Of course if you're fighting against a human, they aren't going to let that tiny dragon grow, they'll focus that thing down.

But potentially we could have a spell in the Tier 3 book that enhances these units to allow them to evolve into tier 5 units.

Originally posted by chronobomb:

It would be cool to have more evolutions on a creature like the psi fish had in Planetfall. Maybe they will add this when we get the Druid DLC.

Counterpoint:

1. This Idea could wreck your economy, especially imperium.

While you do get units that can evolve into tier 4 or 5 but you get to control when you recruit those units and they usually have a fairly lengthy investment to get them.

2. This also trivialize strategies. You have resurgence only on units up until they are tier 5 means you would quickly steam roll. I notice this with the spiders and dragons in once you get them. They are powerful and can’t be killed.

3. You can fairly easily get 50% additional xp per battle on animals which means you’d end up with 2500 power stacks very early.

they could add it in the Druid DLC but I'm not sure that would make me happy or just sad that this would be a slightly less version of that.
1. Yeah probably, but that's down to you to balance that and of course how the devs balance the price, this could also be a good point to have a spell in the Tier 3 book to stop them evolving when you didn't want them to.

2. I thought that only effected tier 1 and 2 units?? maybe it should,

3. yeah my thought is maybe the experience to level never goes down, so they get harder to level as they go up and I would have it that these creatures get less effected by xp buffs or a cap for xp buffs on them say +20%?
That way it would keep the balance between people who go full rush and people who don't.

Originally posted by Gamer Bear:

As with any other tome, it's all about the synergies with it. No T1 tome should get you T5 units. Logically, you should need one other tome to get T5 units, which lo and behold, Tome of Dragons does for you. By the time you have unlocked that tome you're in a good place to start switching over to dragons for the evolution.

Once you get to Tome of Dragons you can start switching over to young dragons that will evolve to better ones (and during that time they will get the sheperd bonus)

I understand that the tome of dragons give kinda the next step and I should dump my old units that I've been nurturing and switch over to dragons, But why not take it a step further?
Make these units more special than just the monsters that were in the game anyway, like the spiders you talk about, give them the extra step, they don't all need to grow to Tier 5s but that extra evolve makes them unique and too a theme that someone like me might want to play.

[Magic A. I.]

Originally posted by Fuzzleberry:

I love the idea of units that get stronger with rank and evolve but I wish they want full in with it, atm you get a sub par creature that needs to get to max rank to evolve into a rank 3 monster. But that's where it ends, no more evolution on that monster, I would've liked to have seen it get to a full on max rank monster if you could just keep it alive, keep it growing.

I would love to make an entire evolving army but unfortunately they went too careful with it and it just feels lacklustre for me.

Devs please try going more ham with these ideas.

The race transformation in that tome also sucks. I hear there's another tome in the expansion with two more transformations, but I didn't have the opportunity to test them yet for aesthetic value due to game being largely unplayable.

[Azunai]

The slither is a decent t1 skirmisher that becomes a pretty good t3 skirmisher. It's also an animal, so you can boost it further via animal buffs from nature tomes.

And the bonus XP and resurgence from the tome also works for other evolving units (lesser elementals from cryo & pyromancy, rocks, evocation and the various t1/2 spiders summoned or built from tome of beasts)

The minor transformation gives +3hp per xp rank, so it's actually quite decent. Almost doubles the bonus HP per rank for t1 units. Less effective for higher tiers that get more HP per rank. Stacks nicely with the bonus HP from other nature transforms (supergrowth, gaias chosen)