Much like the "Black Guard Officers" passive of Angmar, Assistance in Time of Need should aim to make Fiefdoms viable in the late game. In addition, as FG mentioned there should also hopefully be a way to make the spell have a more general effect.
When you first start thinking about it there could be a few obvious possible options like:
- Assistance in Time of Need is now an active power, activating it causes all Errand Riders to generate at an increased speed
- Assistance in Time of Need is now an active power, casting it on a Signal Fire causes that signal fire to be instantly filled with Errand Riders to the max
- Assistance in Time of Need remains a passive, all signal fires now generate Errand Riders slightly faster
This can go on and on with many possible alternatives, but this doesn't really solve either of our problems:
- fiefdoms are still weak, you can spam more but you're just feeding your opponent
- the power is still very much fiefdom specific and doesn't have any applications if you don't have any signal fires
- spam was indirectly nerfed in 4.5 by reducing the command point limit, improving the viability of units in the late game should now focus on quality over quantity.
So ideally we need a power which grants benefits even without the signal fires but really peaks in power when you make use of signal fires.
Asssistance in Time of NeedSummon a defensive tower, protected by fiefdom troops. This tower can be upgraded with one of four upgrades:
- Duty of the Fat - Entrust the defence of the fort to Lossarnach, the tower is now guarded by a captain of Lossarnach, nearby troops deal additional damage against buildings. Axemen of Lossarnach are emboldened by your trust and gain +5% armour against melee up to +15%. If the tower is destroyed, the Axemen will be briefly demoralized by their failure and lose all leadership for 10 seconds.
- Might of the River-lord - Entrust the defence of the fort to the Blackroot Vale, the tower is now guarded by a captain of the Blackroot Vale, nearby archers now fire at an increased rate. Blackroot Vale archers are galvanised by your trust and gain increased +5% increased speed up to 15%. If the tower is destroyed, the Archers will be briefly demoralized by their failure and lose all leadership for 10 seconds.
- Bastion of the Sea-lords - Entrust the defence of the fort to Pelargir, the tower is now guarded by a captain of Pelargir, nearby troops slow down cavalry twice as much and deal additional trample revenge damage. Monster Hunters from Pelargir are renewed in their steadfast loyalty by the trust you have placed in them and gain +5% armour against ranged attacked up to 15%. If the tower is destroyed, the Monster Hunters will be briefly demoralized by their failure and lose all leaderships for 10 seconds.
- Defenders of the Crossing- Entrust the defence of the fort to the Ringlo Vale, the tower is now guarded by a captain of the Ringló Vale, nearby enemy troops are hindered in their progress losing some speed. Ringló Vale swordsmen are proud of the trust placed in them, they gain +5% damage up to 15%. If the tower is destroyed, the Swordsmen will be briefly demoralized by their failure and lost all leaderships for 10 seconds.
The numbers and effects can be tweaked, the specifics aren't that important to the concept. Also, yes, in this concept Lone Tower is removed and replaced by another power. But the basic concept is simple, you can summon a simple defensive building that just shoots at the enemy, you can then specialise that building to fit it to your need and with every gift, the fiefdom troops become stronger.
This is quite a departure from the original concept, shifting the support of the fiefdom troops from a primary function power to a secondary function. The primary function of the power is to now help you secure your lands.
Additionally, perhaps it could be made that if there are a certain number of forts present on the field gifted to a specific fiefdom then you can ask for aid at a discounted number of riders. E.g. with 5 forts gifted to the Ringlo Vale, Aid from the Ringlo Vale now only requires 1 rider (or is free with a longer cooldown or something). Or reaching that a certain number of forts could unlock additional abilities in the fiefdoms.
VisualsSince the defensive tower is now quite a bit more important than the current design can do it justice I will take this opportunity to link back to my old suggestion concerning the model:
https://modding-union.com/index.php/topic,31666.msg473439.html#msg473439Also, the tower would be guarded by troops from all fiefdoms, upgrading it should spawn a bannered captain and additional troops from the fiefdom it has been upgraded too. It would be nice if the tower had a banner hanging from somewhere that would change with the upgrade to give some visual flair.
Finally, I created this concept based on the following assumption that any effects that increase the speed at which errand riders are generated would not work in the case where you spend all your errand riders due to how the system works. E.g if you increase the regeneration of riders this will not speed up the rate at which the first rider generates.