Charge!

from Elemental Forums

Charge in it's current form is pretty useless, in my opinion. You usually can't reach your opponent (on foot, without tireless march at least) on turn 1 of combat, and simply end up isolated from your accompanying troops on the far end of the battlefield in first strike range of your AI opponent. Wouldn't it be better if you could charge... when it was a good time to charge? These changes allow a unit to charge (on demand) once every 5 turns. In my experience... most combats are over in 5 turns, but this is easily changed by changing the "Cooldown" number in the charge spell below to something much higher.

I simply replaced the two charge entries in CoreAbilites.xml to:

 

<AbilityBonus InternalName="ChargeAbility">
    <AbilityBonusType>Unit_Design</AbilityBonusType>
    <AbilityBonusOption InternalName="Charge">
        <DisplayName>Charge</DisplayName>
        <Description>+3 Moves and +3 Attack for one turn</Description>
        <Icon>Ability_Charge_Icon.png</Icon>
        <GameModifier>
            <ModType>Unit</ModType>
            <Attribute>UnlockCombatAbility</Attribute>
            <StrVal>Charge</StrVal>
            <Provides>+3 Moves and +3 Attack for one turn</Provides>
        </GameModifier>
        <AdditionalTrainingTurns>20</AdditionalTrainingTurns>
        <HideWhenUpgraded>0</HideWhenUpgraded>
        <Type>Aggressive</Type>
        <AIData AIPersonality="AI_General">
            <AIPriority>5</AIPriority>
        </AIData>
    </AbilityBonusOption>
</AbilityBonus>
<AbilityBonus InternalName="ChargeAbility_Level">
    <AbilityBonusType>Unit_Level</AbilityBonusType>
    <AbilityBonusOption InternalName="Charge_Level">
        <DisplayName>Charge</DisplayName>
        <Description>+3 Moves and +3 Attack for one turn</Description>
        <Icon>Ability_Charge_Icon.png</Icon>
        <GameModifier>
            <ModType>Unit</ModType>
            <Attribute>UnlockCombatAbility</Attribute>
            <StrVal>Charge</StrVal>
            <Provides>+3 Moves and +3 Attack for one turn</Provides>
        </GameModifier>
        <HideWhenUpgraded>0</HideWhenUpgraded>
        <Likelihood>100</Likelihood>
        <RarityDisplay>Rare</RarityDisplay>
        <Type>Aggressive</Type>
        <Prereq>
            <Type>AbilityBonusOption</Type>
            <Target>Unit</Target>
            <Attribute>PathOfTheAssassin</Attribute>
        </Prereq>
        <AIData AIPersonality="AI_General">
            <AIPriority>5</AIPriority>
        </AIData>
    </AbilityBonusOption>
</AbilityBonus>

 

 

and added to CoreSpells.xml (hit enter to create an empty line just after     </DataChecksum>    and insert the following):

 

<SpellDef InternalName="Charge">
    <DisplayName>Charge</DisplayName>
    <Description>+3 Moves and +3 Attack for two turns</Description>
    <Image>T_Berzerk_Painting.png</Image>
    <IconFG>T_Berzerk_Icon.png</IconFG>
    <IconBG>T_Berzerk_Icon_BG.png</IconBG>
    <IconColor>237,79,48</IconColor>
    <Cooldown>5</Cooldown>
    <CanStack>0</CanStack>
    <SpellBookSortCategory>Unit</SpellBookSortCategory>
    <SpellBookSortSubCategory>UnitEnchantment</SpellBookSortSubCategory>
    <SpellType>Tactical</SpellType>
    <SpellClass>Defensive</SpellClass>
    <SpellSubClass>Buff</SpellSubClass>
    <SpellTargetType>Self</SpellTargetType>
    <IsCastable>0</IsCastable>
    <IsSpecialAbility>1</IsSpecialAbility>
    <GameModifier>
            <ModType>Unit</ModType>
            <Attribute>AdjustUnitStat</Attribute>
            <StrVal>UnitStat_Attack_Boost</StrVal>
            <Value>3</Value>
            <Provides>+3 Attack for two turns</Provides>
            <Duration>2</Duration>
        </GameModifier>
        <GameModifier>
            <ModType>Unit</ModType>
            <Attribute>AdjustUnitStat</Attribute>
            <StrVal>UnitStat_Moves</StrVal>
            <Value>3</Value>
            <Provides>+3 Moves for two turns</Provides>
            <Duration>2</Duration>
        </GameModifier>
    <AIData AIPersonality="AI_General">
        <AIPriority>10</AIPriority>
    </AIData>
    <HitSoundFX>Spell_Beserk_01</HitSoundFX>
    <SpellDefEffect>
        <EffectName>T_Berserk_Particle</EffectName>
        <LocalPosition>0,35,0</LocalPosition>
        <EffectScale>0.7</EffectScale>
        <EffectDelay>0</EffectDelay>
        <SnapToTerrain>1</SnapToTerrain>
    </SpellDefEffect>
</SpellDef>

 

I have tested the trained unit version successfully already, and anticipate the champion version will work as well (since it's very similar in implementation to other champion "on use" abilities). This might actually make charge more on par with other trained unit abilities due to the first strike nature this can grant front line troops! Such an easy fix too. Wouldn't it be great if the vanilla game worked this way?

11,038 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I always use charge on mounted troops. It works fine.

I think it was designed for mounted troops only (??).

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I always use charge to counter archers, even if I don't reach my target I will for certain use 1½ turn less to catch my enemy.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

On mounted troops escorting a couple of heroes with tireless march... I find charge to be pretty much useless because I'm already crossing the battlefield on the first turn, so in my mind it has a better place as something non mounted troops do at the start of the battle to gain favorable position and a first strike against possibly faster foes.

 

I can respect your "working as intended" point of view though.

 

It just doesn't see much use in my traits mix as designed, and this makes it something that can compete with some of the +3 attack for the entire battle traits because I can choose the moment of my strike. My goal in modding the game is to make all of the choices viable, but different and it just didn't seem attractive enough to me.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting TBS, reply 3
On mounted troops escorting a couple of heroes with tireless march...

I think that tireless march is the problem with Charge. IMO, Tireless March is completely overpowered, it shouldn't stack and shouldn't transfer to tactical. Take that out and Charge jumps in desirability quite a bit.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

It would definitely be good if they disconnected strategic moves from tactical moves.  But this is probably a significant piece of code-work that potentially cause a bunch of other problems.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

BTW, you may want to move this into the Modding subforum.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting TBS, reply 3
It just doesn't see much use in my traits mix as designed, and this makes it something that can compete with some of the +3 attack for the entire battle traits because I can choose the moment of my strike. My goal in modding the game is to make all of the choices viable, but different and it just didn't seem attractive enough to me.

And I understand this, this is a very good change if you ask me, and I hope LH include it ;)
And I hope the AI can use it.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej