Same thing applies to cavalry:

Spear cavalry will have their defense reduced when mounted, but they will benefit from their charge value. When dismounted, Spear Cavalry units will have much better defense than when mounted, so (as in history), spear cavalry could defend itself better when dismounted.

Sword and Axe equipped cavalry will excel in melee, but will have weaker charge compared to spear cavalry. Yet, they will prevail in melee combat against spear cavalry once charge bonus diminishes, or if they charge spear cavalry first.

Additional changes will include:

- reworked formation for Javelin Skirmishers - new formation will be deeper with wider spacing between ranks, so when unit engages enemy, javelin throwing will not be simultaneous but rank by rank - this will be especially effective against charging enemy as missiles will hit him continuously as he approaches the defensive line.

- Javelins will now deal more disorder than before. Heavy javelins especially will be now able to cause disorder on targeted unit before the clash. Similarly, in defense, throwing javelins at attacker will have same effect.

- Javelins will now halve the charge bonus for enemy unit they hit, again, making them excellent anti-charge weapons.

- Arrows will now suppress enemy ranged units by applying huge penalty to reload (-100) Unit that his his by arrows tend to take cover than continue firing. projectile applied penalties take around 5s (so targeted unit will have 0 reload skill for 5seconds). This effect was previously applied only by slingshot.

- Melee infantry charge distance will be reduced, therefore heavy javelins will be thrown at shorter distance. This is mostly to allow skirmishers to evade such throws (previously, they started to retreat and got hit by these javelins in the back). This change is mostly to make Javelin skirmishers more effective and less likely to get annihilated by enemy charge (historically, javelinmen could easily avoid heavy units)

All mentioned changes should be part of beta 14 update (next one)

Here are some planned naval changes:

-Ships will be divided into clearly defined classes - light, medium and heavy. Light ships will deal standard ramming damage only to light ships, their ramming damage to medium will be reduced, and relatively small against heavy ships, to the point it wont be a good option how to fight these heavy ships.

Medium ships will deal more damage to light ships, but reduced damage to heavy ships. This way, they will be great at hunting the lights (as they were commonly used in real life), but wont be able to face heavy ships with same tactics.

Heavy ships were not really optimized for ramming, therefore will deal just average amount of damage to light and medium ships (yet it still be enough to take out light ship).

Transports, all barbarian raiders, Hemiolias and Biremes are all in light ship category. Yet there are differences in amount of hitpoints between these ships (heavy barbarian raider will survive a lot more damage than transport ship or Hemiolia)

Trihemiolia(these were ramming specialists), Trireme and Quadreme are all in Medium ship category.

Everything else (Quinquereme and larger) is Heavy ship.


This should cover the Naval warfare for now, until i implement marine units for all campaigns as in 3.0

One thing i plan to change for Rise of Republic is the way how Camilean Hastati are portrayed. I'm personally not really convinced Hastati ever used thrusing hasta spears like Triarii did. The way they are described to fight, doesnt really fit with long and quite unwieldy almost 3m long spear... Instead, they would most likely use some sort of an universal Javelin-Spear, that would be suitable for both melee and throwing, while they would still keep sword as a backup weapon when needed.. Therefore as such, Camilean Hastati will have swords again, but instead of 2 heavy Pila, will get 3 lighter normal javelins (or light Pila).

Similarly, Rorarii were typically described as a "lighter" supplement to Triarii, standing in third line.. therefore, i will convert them into spearmen, but they will get light javelins, so they will work in their described role as unit that supports Triarii when needed.

In next update, i plan to adjust armor parameters for light units a bit, to make a bigger difference for units without helmets against projectiles.. Technically, not wearing a helmet was a huge disadvantage when facing enemy ranged units, as single slingshot could instantly kill you with a hit to the head.. therefore all light units that do not wear helmets, now have "armor" that got "weak against missiles" parameter enabled. At the same time, missile penetrating modifier was adjusted, so projectiles will be 2x more effective against such armor. This will make slingshots and arrows particularly effective, as their relatively lower damage will face 2x less armor value than before..

Next update will bring some love to Hoplites.

Besides standard minor unit stats adjustments, Hoplites and other similar disciplined spearmen will receive new ability - "Push!"

Ability will have two phases - in first phase, unit will receive charge and melee bonuses. Unit speed will increase slightly, as well as acceleration. after 20 seconds, second phase will kick in for 10 seconds, providing bonus to bracing, melee defense and smaller melee attack bonus, together with cohesion boost.

Ability will allow player and AI to use Hoplites offensively, while allowing unit to restore cohesion for a brief moment, similarly to what Roman Legionaries can through their "Reform!" ability.

Unrelated to Hoplites, but also important change in next update is slight change how "Rally" ability works. Instead multiplicative bonus to morale, bonus will be just added, because units can actually go into negative morale, therefore this bonus had no impact on them. "Rally" will give straight +50 to morale to nearby units.
At the same time, It will also boost speed for all affected units. This should help routed units to get away from enemy, so they can potentially rally.

On similar note, Barbarian melee units (units armed with swords, axes or clubs) will receive "Wedge" formation. Formation increases charge damage, charge speed, reduces deceleration (so unit will crash into enemy line) and morale. At the same time, unit will suffer small defense penalty.
Historically, Germanic and Celtic tribal warriors commonly used this type of formation for charges, as it was easier to control the group, which followed their leader.

For next update, i plan to change how General abilities work. Instead of having unlimited use, these will be restricted to single use during battle, which should promote strategic thinking, and using the right ability at the right time, instead of continuously clicking General abilities buttons as they recharge..

With that in mind, several general abilities will be made a bit stronger than previously to make their single use worthwhile.

I also plan to reduce shield defense for all cavalry. Cavalry without stirrups did not had stable seat on horseback therefore shields were couldn't be used for active defense, but were practically a counterweight and passive protection from left side. And while advanced saddles that appeared in first century BC helped a bit, they still didn't solved the balance and reach issue cavalry had, not until invention of stirrup.

from game play perspective, it goes right with intended cavalry role of fast flanking force, that cannot sustain prolonged melee with heavy infantry (except for very heavy cataphracts of course, but those did not had shields in the first place) Overall, this change will also help Lancers which do not have shields but rely on armor only.

( On similar note, Barbarian melee units (units armed with swords, axes or clubs) will receive "Wedge" formation. Formation increases charge damage, charge speed, reduces deceleration (so unit will crash into enemy line) and morale. At the same time, unit will suffer small defense penalty.
Historically, Germanic and Celtic tribal warriors commonly used this type of formation for charges, as it was easier to control the group, which followed their leader.)


did you put the cool down there?

yes, there is a cooldown so they wont always stay in that formation. My intention is to have them use it for charges mostly

Small preview of things to come:

All melee cavalry armed with spears will be reclassified into Shock cavalry. This will help AI to use these units for short charges, and will try to disengage, instead of staying in melee.

All units that do not carry shield, but have decent armor on them, will not get missile deflection chance from the front (not possible to make it all around). This should help heavy shock cavalry units a bit, as well as any heavy unit using two handed weapons.

Disorder speed bonus will get increased, while overall movement for units will be decreased. This way, units will move slowly with good cohesion, but will run fast when disordered. This boost to speed wont apply to skirmishers, who are immune to disorder effects, while Light cavalry will now receive same attribute for same reason ( to prevent them from running way too fast when disordered) This speed boost should allow broken units to run away from enemy faster thanks to the bonus, and return to normal speed as they regain cohesion.

One of bigger changes are new unit stats values. Attack/Defense/Morale stats have been reworked, and go closer with weapon type. For example, Longswords now will have higher hit chance, (slashing attack is easier to perform) but will have less damage as slashing attacks are not as lethal as thrusting attacks (sword needs to deliver a lot more energy with slashing attack to deal lethal blow to body, while with thrust, just few cm deep thrust can be y lethal.) Shortswords will deal more damage but will have lower hit chance compared to longswords. (swords like Spatha will have best of both worlds stats)

At the same time, melee formula values are adjusted, to take into assumption these values. Frontal attacks against shields and defense are still usually least effective, but certain elite units will now benefit from their superior combat skills more. Just dont expect them to kill well protected enemy who is using large shields (like Scutum). Flanking hits will be more effective than before though.

Heavy Javelins used by Heavy Infantry will be now thrown in single continuous barrage when on defense. This will make these heavy units a lot more lethal at the start of the combat, while it will deplete their missiles before melee starts. Because of this, heavy javelins will lose stagger bonus, but instead, their effect duration will be slightly increased. To reduce amount of friendly fire, that might occur when units are standing close to each other, firing cone will be slightly reduced.

At the same time, Javelin Skirmishers will now use different javelins, based on unit quality. Low quality skirmishers will throw their javelins at much shorter range than higher quality units, while there is still difference in range for Hellenic/Roman units which used javelins together with leather loop (ankyle/ammentum), while barbarians usually didn't.

And at last, one new unit class/ unit rework - former Greek Peltasts will be now reworked into PELTOPHOROI - units used by Macedonians who on some occasions equipped their pikemen with javelins to be able to fight enemy in terrain that doesn't fit to phalanx. Units will use short swords, and two light javelins, but wont use them during charge but only defensively. They will be excellent flanking force that can be used to guard Phalanx flanks.
All Peltophoroi units will receive new unit icon.

With Peltophoroi replacing Peltasts, Hellenic technology requirements will be changed, as they will no longer upgrade into Light Peltasts. These lightly armored peltasts will be equivalent to Greek Thureophoroi, and as such will be mutually exclusive - factions that have access to Light Peltasts, wont have access to Thureophoroi and vice versa.

In regards to new Scouting mechanics, Cavalry now has much higher visibility, than infantry, due to horse height which provides them further view. But, only minimum and maximum visibility is increased, ability to detect enemy in trees or scrub is reduced now, which means skirmishers will still be able to stay hidden in such terrain, despite cavalry being relatively close.. especially archers/huntsmen with their bows can take advantage of this, and be able to shoot arrows while hidden.

Visibility increase greatly helps AI to form better formation, and not chase nearest unit, while ignoring huge army nearby because its "out of range".. Yet, terrain features still play role, i would say even bigger as before, because hills still obscure enemy view and therefore you can still surprise enemy...

Next update will bring some adjustments to Army Legacies. One of planned changes is to move ability to build barricades from Stalwart defenders to Expert Engineers, where it makes more sense. SD will still keep some deployables, but mostly of lighter type (stakes, caltrops)

Ambusher Legacies will receive ability to deploy spike traps, brimstones and fireballs, where it makes more impact, considering how easy is to ambush enemy in Rome 2 (due to force march)

Together with these changes, i plan to adjust the deployables a bit as well. Barricades will be now shorter, but more of them will be available, so player will be able to construct nonlinear defenses easier. Caltrops will be more numerous and their spacing will be tighter. While other deployables will also have their spacing adjusted.