Loremasters' small change

[dgsgomes]

I will try to be objective with this one. Loremasters now seem to be a little out of place for some players in Imladris; some say their look doesn't fit the faction, some say they are similar to the Istari, some say they are quite vulnerable in certain situations (like arrow fire), some say their powers vary a lot depending on the situation - the fact is, because of all this facts, they are normally not produced by players (they are, however, spammed by the AI, which is another fact that annoys players).

So my proposal is to change a few things:

1- Give to all of them the same blue cape that a Imladris' swordsmen has, while also changing their hoods color to the same blue color - this is to make them blend better with Rivendell's army so they get more integrated instead of having the actual bright different colours.

2- Make now loremasters produced in a duo instead of as an unique unit (keeping the individual unit stats); in this case, the loremasters duo would cost 90 command points and would cost 1000 resources - doing this, we would make them feel more integrated to the army as well, as uniting 2 duos of loremasters would create a battalion of 4 units. Also, as a battalion they would be stronger and harder to kill, but their higher cost would make rushing for them risky.

3- Make a loremaster duo type to be purchased only once (for example, you can only have 1 duo of earth loremasters, 1 duo of air loremasters and so on - 1 duo of each type); with this, a player will only have a maximum of 8 loremasters on an army, which means 4 duos or 2 groups of 4 loremasters (2 pairs of duos combined) - doing so, we would reduce the maximum amount of loremasters spammed by the AI, we would further integrate them as special units with many game possibilities, but at high cost (even more considering that Library's price increased), and we would also make them few more integrated, as small battalions with special uses.

I hope you consider it 

[FG15]

1- Give to all of them the same blue cape that a Imladris' swordsmen has, while also changing their hoods color to the same blue color - this is to make them blend better with Rivendell's army so they get more integrated instead of having the actual bright different colours.

2- Make now loremasters produced in a duo instead of as an unique unit (keeping the individual unit stats); in this case, the loremasters duo would cost 90 command points and would cost 1000 resources - doing this, we would make them feel more integrated to the army as well, as uniting 2 duos of loremasters would create a battalion of 4 units. Also, as a battalion they would be stronger and harder to kill, but their higher cost would make rushing for them risky.

3- Make a loremaster duo type to be purchased only once (for example, you can only have 1 duo of earth loremasters, 1 duo of air loremasters and so on - 1 duo of each type); with this, a player will only have a maximum of 8 loremasters on an army, which means 4 duos or 2 groups of 4 loremasters (2 pairs of duos combined) - doing so, we would reduce the maximum amount of loremasters spammed by the AI, we would further integrate them as special units with many game possibilities, but at high cost (even more considering that Library's price increased), and we would also make them few more integrated, as small battalions with special uses.

I hope you consider it 

1. As lore-masters are quite powerful it is integral to recognize them. Therefore some kind of obvious visual representation is needed.

2. In the past loremasters came in groups of 3. I don't remember why we changed that but I remember there was some kind of reason.

3. That is not possible. As soon as you combine them, they won't count for the unit limit anymore.

[dgsgomes]

1. In the sketch below I made, imo they are still recognizable and blend better with other Imladris units (these dark blue hood and dark blue cape would also be dressed by the other loremasters types):



Sorry for the lack of editing skills I chose the earth one because it's green colors are very striking; as the water loremaster has a more vivid blue color, it would work just as well with the dark blue imo


3. A way to solve it would be to make them be recruited already with a type instead of having to choose afterwards (gameplay-wise is also preferable imo); in this case, it would only require to make a maximum of 1 unit/battalion for each loremaster type.