I have run into a bit of a problem, and that is figuring out how to make the Goblin Bomber work. Been toying with different ideas, but not sure how to make the AI use it properly.

Any ideas?

Explosive death plus resurgence? Giving them the health of tier one and no ranged attack might make the A.I. Run them in like they do with scout drones?
Although the resurgence might be overpowered for the effectiveness. Plus it basically guarantees that they will get to gold rank and above if you are smart about it...

Basically a unit like the bomber might just be arrow food. A way to deter ranged fire for a turn or two (if you’re lucky you might be able to stick him right next to a melee unit) but without a way to self detonate than it might be a bit awkward to use. Since A) if it’s a relitive weak melee unit (which is what I imagine you want to be going after) then it might not have the damage output to kill your bomber and you get the reward (Big Boom) or B) you make the health of the Bomber way to low and they can’t survive getting into melee because they will be shot to pieces...literally. So, perhaps the answer is some sort of sucidical charge? That causes the unit to die and maybe stuns those caught in the blast as a little bonus for your troubles? Maybe it doesn’t go over cover like pounce but instead some sort of line of sight ability? Don’t know how that would work exactly...IDK

The ideal is this:
Melee attack that targets enemy/wall but damages self instead and a new variant of Explosive Death that deals higher damage.

However, I fear that if the AI gets their hands on ability that damages their own units, and I am unsure how to make an ability "backfire" like this in the first place. The alternatives will likely have them either explode on startup or be an ability that deals splash that hurts self, but such an alternative will deal far less damage if destroyed by another unit, making it easy for the enemy to run up to it with strong units and detonate it.

Currently, I am going for very low damage, wall crushing (so it can target walls) and relying on retaliations detonating the unit plus an ability so it can target itself, but I fear that in this case, the AI will instead detonate the unit on startup. Getting the AI to work properly is the hardest part.

Well...what about having the bomber summon in something to use against walls? Like a breach charge that basically acts as an expolisive death mine or barrel? Does extra damage against walls has good damage anyway so you don’t have to worry about self damaging abilities just a exploding battle summon...I don’t know if that would be harder or not... That way the A.I. Doesn’t just blow itself up right out of the gate but then agian it might just auto summons this (basically useless if placed badly) powder keg...

For now, I will settle with it having a weak melee attack (no wall crushing) which will coax the enemy into hitting it. I tried various ideas but after many failings and even a hard crash I have decided to go with the easier route. The explosion is twice as potent as the regular explosive death, so they will be worth producing.

It should be noted however that Dreadnoughts especially will have great use of them during sieges, as they can learn sabotage thanks to being irregulars. This is also a reason why I think it might be best to keep them like this, making the AI use them more cleverly and they will run for the gates otherwise, most likely blowing up wall sections before getting there.

Ok, replying about coldspawn here as requested :) In-game description of coldspawn does not list which units it can evolve into so I assume it is the same principle as for hatchling i.e. almost equal chances of getting tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 units. In this case hospital as prerequisite is not very good IMHO because it is optimal to just build a tier 2 unit instead (on average hatchling becomes tier 2 after evolving but it takes much XP, carefull play and turns, it is optimal to just spend some extra 40+ gold and get tier 2 instantly).

It’s seems like the sarcophagus of the betrayed is also unlocked by the Grand Palace. But anyway, loving the new Firework Cart. Haven’t tried out the sarcophagus, mostly because I haven’t played nercomancer in a while and want to get the full experience.

Mini-patch, fixed the issue with the sarcophagus and moved the coldspawn to shrine. Hospital made a whole lot of sense lore-wise, but shrine is better in terms of balance and fits the lore still (magic being very important to Draconians).

Edit: Oh, and I threw in a wild manticore. Reasons.

Hi Tasty,
love your work, its very impressive how you doing all those stuff and fast updates :D. What I would like to see are some unit models from „AoW 3 two point ouch” mod. There are some cool models like Azzura etc, but author kinda goes crazy on balance stuff, like I was able to make 3ple kill of enemy units by just one tier I pikeman with his aoe spear abilities and without couteratack xD (abilities itself are fine just dmg rockets to moon). And bcs of not only that I choose and tried your units they felt better its a blast to play, so many options^^ Every game I can make sth else from previous or get :D Idk if you consider to make some units for „Ebm” maybe if you expire vanilla buildings ;p

Also don't know if sb mentioned is there a possibility to make more naval units from renaissance and pirate times like santa maria, corvets and idk some liner ships from XVII century xD etc (just a frigate and galleon feel kinda bland and unexplored to me) or it is out of your range ;p I play mostly rogue, drednought and sorc that's why, saw some old man and marine mod will try it out soon.

Maybe we could get some units for sorcerer like genies? For idk tigrans/humans sth like that and they could cast some spells or give buffs. I saw you made a Lich didn't experience that unit yet but could get some summon effect one of your others skeletons you made, but could be too strong, depends. If I get some ideas I will wtite up more anyway keep fantastic work man, cheers :)

Unfortunatly I don't know how to rig new models. Would love to do so if someone would help me with it.

I am planning ships, but I am (for now) limited to the models in-game. May try out some crazy stuff, but I looked through the ships and the texture wraps looked confusing. I want to get to them, though.

Genies is a good idea! Would need to figure out how to make them look decent, but they would be pretty great in terms of gameplay, could also inhabit nodes for more enemy variety.

I think it's a given the Goblin Dreadnought will get a giant robot similar to the orcs, but I would like some feedback on the name.
Is Goblinator good, or too silly? I keep calling it that myself, the name has been stuck in my head since I came up with it back in what, 2005? But yeah, is the name good or should I go with another one?

Great to hear. About Goblin D. Goblinator is fine I can give you sth like: "Gobo-Clank" :D or "Gobotron" :D

Is it possible to remove machines from starting army as non-dreadnought? I got 2 brass automations as Tigran Archdruid and I don't have any way to heal them :(

The automatons are unique that way, you could keep them as town guards for the time being or have them in a dreadnought's army.

How about a Goblin exterminator? A hunter who deals with all the animals that live in and around the fedid swamps that Goblin’s love and monsters that would love to get their jaws around a goblin. Maybe a warlord unit that is a more ranged variation of the monster hunter or an archdruid unit that has animal, monster, and undead slayer? Maybe throw in hurl net or a new trap ability to give them something to make them stand out?