Just my thoughts

[Cptn2469]

Ok so I'll start off by saying great game! I have only been playing a few days but I am hooked. I used to play a game similar called haypi kingdom. Until they ruined the game by adding in these horrible stones you could by to "enhance" troops. Making them faster, stronger, etc. anyways. My suggestions to this game.

I would like a ranged infantry unit. Archers. (I know they have been suggested already) next I would like a battle interface. Where you control your units in battle. Say there's a field. (6 movements long) you have your units on one side enemies on another, and you control which unit moves up first, each unit can move one "space" per turn. With this option a ranged unit could be used to its full potential. After all its a ranged unit for a reason. They attacked first, and got attacked last. They would do a great deal of damage but be very inaccurate at a distance. Something like 100% divided by how far a unit is away. Plus a 2% bonus accuracy for 100-500 troops. 3% for 500-1000 etc. etc. (just because the more troops to hit. The more likely you are to hit something. Even if on accident) For example if the units are a full 6 turns away the archer would be 16% accurate. And if they had 1000 troops they would be 19% accurate. With a turn based battle it would bring more strategy to the game by allowing people to control what units fight and what units hold position etc. I'm no programmer so I have no idea if this is possible, or how easy or hard it would be. But I think it could be fun. And bring a new challenge to the game. I just don't like how if I have 10000 lancers. 500 balistas. And I attack 7000 units. I lose balistas, and lancers. When in reality. I wouldn't lose a ballista unless I lost all of my lancers. (You could also add in a % chance to hit your own unit with a ranged unit if your units and enemy units are attacking each other, in close proximity.) let me know what you guys think.

[Filthysnotrag]

Sounds like a totally different game, and the advantage would always go to the attacker, because they would be online, and therefore able to control their side. I don't see how it's feasible in a game like this. People have to be away from the game once in a while.

[bananabandana]

Glad you're enjoying the game and have abandoned "Happy Kingdom," as we call it around here. I have not played that game since the introduction of these "horrible stones," but I trust your judgement that they are not for the better of the game.

I actually did some preliminary research after reading some of the first archer posts on our forums on creating an archer unit that has specialized abilities due to its "ranged" capabilities. The difficulties I ran into followed similar lines to what you are proposing with having to change the entire battle system in order to make archers and the ranged abilities more appealing. A new battle system is indeed a popularly held idea and has plenty of room for innovation, but, with our current system, would be incredibly hard to implement.

That said, there are ways to incorporate unique abilities into our existing battle system that would still make archers a viable option, they just aren't quite as interesting and probably would fall short of community expectations. I am interested to know if you have any further thoughts on the archer unit given this information. The community has shared some pretty interesting proposals that you may be interested in reading as well, if you can managed to find them littered throughout the forums.

[MidevilMonk]

I think archers would be a great addition, you could have their damage (limited) occur before the battle similarly to rams. Possibly change ballistas (when on defense) to work at the same time to balance it out.

That would result in archers, rams (for attack), and ballista (for defense) attacking first and then the rest of the battle would play out. This would definitely make the archers a viable option as they could limit loses to your main forces since they will clear some of the attacking/defending troops before the main battle occurred. Also, it would increase the value of ballistas which I keep hearing no one bothers to make.

[LordFirefall]

I make them all the time. Ballista come in handy when you want to demoralize your enemy. Nothing ruins your day more than to see your farm, academy, and forge get reduced to nothing

[Cptn2469]

First thank you for reading the post and coming back with an answer and a reason why it's difficult to add I appreciate the fast response. I like the idea of having the archers just attack first, and balistas, attacking first. Like rams do. That would be a great start to archers. I just don't like having to lug around balistas at how slow they march. Archers (while weaker per hit) are much easier to add to an army and attack with. Balistas are great ranged defense. Archers are attackers. And I hear people say that they target certain buildings, but I'm a little confused on this how do you lower buildings lvl? Thanks for the help, and hope we can work out a happy medium between what we want. And what you can actually do.

[LordFirefall]

Ballista's target whatever building you set them on. It tears the buildings down. I enjoy taking enemy farms from 30 down to nothing

[Cptn2469]

Sweet. And that's in every world? Awesome!

[bobalon2000]

I think there should be a whole new building for the ranged units like a range. The units might be like archers, crossbows, and javelins.