Both of the 3.X levels have trouble with enemies being too powerful, and not worth fighting due to leafcutters not being able to make use of corpses. While this does do well to encourage passive strategies, which is good for variety, both leafcutter levels do force the player to engage with strong enemies from time to time. Rather than weakening most of the opponents in the rainforest, it might be better to revisit some of the colony balance as a blanket solution. Any one of these suggestions might fit the bill, and I've organized them from best to worst (reading top to bottom), in my opinion.
Regeneration:
A lot of losses aren't realized in an initial engagement. Even if, say, 70% of your ants survive, almost all of them will be under half health, especially when going up against powerful AoE attacks. Leafcutters could be differentiated if they're rewarded for having survivors, as opposed to taking low damage, and I think a very high regeneration when out of combat long enough would do this. Leafcutters at low health, when left alone for several seconds, quickly start to regain their health, leaving them healthy for the very next encounter after a relatively short time. This would give new purpose to the majors' abilities, since they'd be used to prevent deaths rather than merely reduce damage.
Flat Hatching Cost Reduction:
The reduction from 8 to 6 on the media was definitely a necessary balance change, but it might not be enough. I still favor 5 as more reasonable, and I still believe Majors could due with some reduction if they're going to be the main combatants (and, therefore, the brunt of the player's losses). My original suggestion for 10, down from 15, is a bit much, but 12 I think I can argue would be enough to change the meta.
Upgrades Reduce Hatching Cost:
This would be an interesting unique change to leafcutters strategically. Not only would it make upgrades a valuable investment for ants other than majors (currently optimal to upgrade), it would reward slower play in exchange for the ability to use brute force against almost any opponent. This is interesting in 3.1 and 3.2, since both are very time-sensitive missions. You'd be giving the enemy leafcutters or army ants and the environment time to ramp up in their threat to you, but you can now face these greater dangers with a significant reduction in the cost that would otherwise make them impossible to deal with. This would require a fairly significant reduction in hatching costs, though. It could either be implemented as a gradual reduction per upgrade, or a lvl 3 bonus that lobs off a significant percentage.
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Please do something, though. With the way leafcutter food acquisition works, it's just not suited for EotU's combat as of now.
Regeneration:
A lot of losses aren't realized in an initial engagement. Even if, say, 70% of your ants survive, almost all of them will be under half health, especially when going up against powerful AoE attacks. Leafcutters could be differentiated if they're rewarded for having survivors, as opposed to taking low damage, and I think a very high regeneration when out of combat long enough would do this. Leafcutters at low health, when left alone for several seconds, quickly start to regain their health, leaving them healthy for the very next encounter after a relatively short time. This would give new purpose to the majors' abilities, since they'd be used to prevent deaths rather than merely reduce damage.
Flat Hatching Cost Reduction:
The reduction from 8 to 6 on the media was definitely a necessary balance change, but it might not be enough. I still favor 5 as more reasonable, and I still believe Majors could due with some reduction if they're going to be the main combatants (and, therefore, the brunt of the player's losses). My original suggestion for 10, down from 15, is a bit much, but 12 I think I can argue would be enough to change the meta.
Upgrades Reduce Hatching Cost:
This would be an interesting unique change to leafcutters strategically. Not only would it make upgrades a valuable investment for ants other than majors (currently optimal to upgrade), it would reward slower play in exchange for the ability to use brute force against almost any opponent. This is interesting in 3.1 and 3.2, since both are very time-sensitive missions. You'd be giving the enemy leafcutters or army ants and the environment time to ramp up in their threat to you, but you can now face these greater dangers with a significant reduction in the cost that would otherwise make them impossible to deal with. This would require a fairly significant reduction in hatching costs, though. It could either be implemented as a gradual reduction per upgrade, or a lvl 3 bonus that lobs off a significant percentage.
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Please do something, though. With the way leafcutter food acquisition works, it's just not suited for EotU's combat as of now.
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