Middle Earth: Battle For Arda - Official Thread

alkexr

@thedog said in Large Middle Earth - official thread:

Can the Battle Calculator be trusted to give an accurate outcome compared to in game?
If so, to what degree would you trust its outcome 80%-ish or more?

Depends. The percentage is likely accurate, and so is the average TUV swing. But the variance tends to be really high, especially compared to other TripleA maps. In some cases, when the opposing forces are closely matched (20% - 80%), and especially during sieges or if a duel is present, the outcome can vary from you having 20/25 units left to your opponent having 20/25 units left out of less than 20 attempts! (Probably an extreme case, but still.) I sometimes do go for small battles even below 80%, but for large or otherwise crucial battles, not a step below 95% (variance drops dramatically as you overwhelm your opponent).

The reason for asking is, I take the formula, Trolls (have no clever addons so have -1 PU) and 2 hits have a 15TUV x7=105 in the Battle Calculator fight their enemies with infantry and cavalry with 100TUV-ish on the plains, they perform in a balanced way.

Trolls counter infantry + cavalry, in some sense. They are not affected by armor, shield, charge, flank, etc.

(have no clever addons so have -1 PU)

You very seriously underestimate the significance of clever addons.

But add in enemy Wizards, Ents or other special units the Trolls tend to get slaughtered

And that's exactly why you don't send in 7 trolls into a battle without other units helping them out. In fact, trolls are cost-ineffective in battle, and so are all multiple-hit units to an extent. Their utility lies not in fighting well, but in generating free hits. (They still perform in a balanced way vs some infantry + cavalry compositions despite their cost-ineffectiveness, due to quasi-countering them as mentioned above.)

So how do you calculate 2+ hit units?

The heuristic I used is that being 2 hit adds roughly 8 PUs to the cost, meaning that (calculating with 4PU fodder) after 2 battles they start returning on investment, except that you missed out on the power of the potential fodder in those 2 battles. Also the opportunity cost is high (you're basically trading the short term for the long term).

TheDog

@alkexr
Thanks for the replies and insights.

Here is a list of 1 hit units with suggested PUs for you to review and consider.
halforc 7
uruk_pikeman 11
ranger 10
tower_guard 10
warg_scout 10
wainrider_chieftain11
noldorin_warrior 10
trollman 9
dwarven_halberdier 10
raven 9
helming_warrior 8
kings_company 13

Cernel

@alkexr said in Large Middle Earth - official thread:

Anyway... I tried to use similar heuristics, but it's just... not that simple. I think the costs will be fine-tuned during the balance playtesting period. Then you can try buying the units your formula calculates as most cost-effective, and prove me wrong by stomping me into the ground with those units.

Genenally, I don't think that the trial by combat is reliable, since there are so many other more important factors in play, the one with the better understanding of units' values would hardly get the upper hand. Nor do I believe that being better at evaluating units theorically traduces into being a better player, but for a small part of it.

I very much doubt that units balance can be fine-tuned with playtesting. Still just talking in general; I know this one is much more complex than what I've experience with, but I think this is just going to make experience even less insightful.

alkexr

@thedog said in Large Middle Earth - official thread:

wainrider_chieftain11
helming_warrior 8

Dude! Try sending in 8 wainrider chieftains (88 PUs) against 22 helming warriors (2x 88PUs)! And then you are not even using the 8 leadership of the wainrider chieftains!

Wainrider chieftains have

6 attack
3 defense
10 charge
2 armor
8 leadership

This amounts to a total potential combat effect of 29, of which only 9 is the raw attack / defense! The rest you're ignoring!

But ok, then, here is roughly my line of reasoning. I don't remember the exact formula, but it was something very similar.

First, we calculate the normalized combat effect. This is the sum of

50% of the attack power (halved because attack-only)
50% of the defense power (halved because defense-only)
50% of the charge (halved because attack only; it only fires in the first battle round and it can't always be used, but targets are common enough that it is counterbalanced by being a first strike)
70% of the flank (not 100% because targets are not common)
80% of the leadership (not 100% because you only get the total effect in large armies)
90% of the terror (similar to leadership, but malus to enemy is better than equivalent bonus to you)
120% of the armor (again, malus is better than bonus)
80% of the shield (ranged units are much rarer than melee)
10% of formation (soo very situational)
20% of antiair (targets are rare, but they are an effective deterrent)
X% of the abilities I missed

Then we add

40% of the normalized combat effect we calculated above
+4 per siege roll
+8 for 2 hit, +16 for 3 hit
+3 just for existing and having a hitpoint
+1 for having a favourable terrain preference category

We further modify this by

+15% if unit has 3 movement
+25% if unit has 4 movement
+10% if unit is mountaineer

Aaand then you get a value that seems very reasonable with the battle calculator but is quite off when you start to actually play.

So here is how the balancing is going to go. If there are units that people are abusing the hell out of (and winning), then those will be nerfed. If there are units which no one is buying, then those will be given some love. We simply have no hope of actually finding a balance - but we don't have to. So long as players, playing to the best of their knowledge, see interesting strategic choices, we can call it balanced.

TheDog

@cernel
I have been testing using the FastAI for all players, is it the most appropriate AI for repetitive testing?

My first objective for many reiterations has been no major capital to fall before turn 10, again is this a suitable objective?

Hepps

@thedog Not really sure that testing with the AI would produce any usable results. Given that many of the things going on within this map would be incomprehensible to the AI.

redrum

@thedog The Fast AI will perform very poorly on this map because of all the complex units (targeted attacks and support). You really need to use Hard AI to probably get anything within reason even. But player vs player testing will be key either way. And some of the small nations can probably lose their capital before turn 10.

alkexr

@thedog said in Large Middle Earth - official thread:

I have been testing using the FastAI for all players, is it the most appropriate AI for repetitive testing?
My first objective for many reiterations has been no major capital to fall before turn 10, again is this a suitable objective?

I have already ran many hands-off AI games, and they slowly but steadily revealed how irrelevant they were with respect to balance.

redrum

@alkexr I believe the AI should handle most of the features in this map. Balancing large & complex maps to any reasonable degree will always need player vs player games though. If you notice particularly poor AI behaviors, let me know.

alkexr

@redrum said in Large Middle Earth - official thread:

I believe the AI should handle most of the features in this map.

There are ways in which a player can abuse the AI's lack of understanding, e.g. countering its units without the AI realizing, or that the AI only uses siege accidentally, so building walls on places you want to defend for longer periods is a no-brainer. But it's tactically competent and does pull off some impressive operations sometimes.

If you notice particularly poor AI behaviors, let me know.

Well I did notice for example (not map-specific) that Hard AI is more likely to take a territory if it's defended than if it's not. I understand how this behaviour can be effective in cases, but on this map it really hurts the mobility of the AI (with armies moving 2+, controlling territories of whatever little value can extend the range of threat/pressure of a main force, or simply limit the options of the enemy). Because on this map advantage in mobility is worth more than one cheap unit. (Of course, on maps with small stacks this might not be the case.)

This is especially weird in cases like Age of Tribes, where sometimes the AI decides to stay in their capital and not conquer anything ever.

alkexr

Release draws near...

Planned name: Middle Earth: The Battle For Arda
Endorsed acronym: TBFA

I also plan to create a new repo for it, since

it requires relatively recent prerelease, and as such people updating the old map could get stuck with an incompatible version
it's been massively changed since old LME
large_middle_earth being the folder name would make no sense anymore
then we can keep the old version as a deterrent

Planned repo (and folder) name simply: the_battle_for_arda
Release date: whithin a week

Will likely not contain

placements hand-picked for every single territory (it will happen eventually)
PU placement
awesome unit charts by @Hepps (the "unit help" menu and the auto-generated tooltips are reasonably good, so don't worry)
finalized game notes (it will come with adequate game notes, I hope)
balance

Waiting for feedback on all the points above and people willing to play games against me.

Rules:

PBF (never played PBF, might need some help setting it up)
I accept at most 6 games at a time
If I already have 4 games with the same side, I insist on choosing the other side. Otherwise, you choose side.
Low Luck and Low Luck for AA ON (edited, as LL is apparently working)
Free For All OFF, obviously
Mountains restrict movement ON (It's an entirely different game without this, and not one that is relevant to balance)
Fortification protects against targeted attacks ON (even more so)
Units repair hits start/end turn (one or the other; not neither, not both); All units Blitz; Unlimited unique units; Buildable fortress; Sea units: you choose
I answer any questions regarding game mechanics to the best of my knowledge.

redrum

@alkexr Sign me up. Can help you setup PBF if needed.

redrum

@alkexr The rules look good though the one thing you might want to consider is "LL on" as when initially balancing a map, I think that helps reduce the variability.

alkexr

@redrum Wow! Low Luck AA got fixed? POS2 xml threatened me with errors if something doesn't divide into something else. Now I tested and everything seems to be working fine.
Okay, then, I think LL is reasonable.

redrum

@alkexr Yeah, I put in what I believe was the fix for LL AA. Though it hasn't been tested that much so this would probably be a good opportunity to test it out

alkexr

Download version 2.0.4 here
Map has been moved to here
This is going to be the version released in-game initially (except for potential bugfixes)
You can also watch a trailer I made
Shouldn't we rename this thread to reflect name change?

redrum

@alkexr Renamed. I think you have the first map ever with a trailer!

Cernel

@alkexr said in Middle Earth: The Battle For Arda - official thread:

Shouldn't we rename this thread to reflect name change?

Are regular users unable to rename their own thread?

Cernel

@alkexr Cool trailer but I would have it full HD quality (it says its 480p max), remove the "Stunning visual design" comment, as I'd let the images speak for themselves, and "tactical" should be changed to "strategic", because tactics are like in those games where you command your units on the battlefield and decide what to engage (instead of rolling dice and picking casualties, like in TA).

alkexr

@cernel Yeah, that's the best quality I could squeeze out of the free slideshow editor I'd just googled. Imagine the worst one