1) The original map was about 6 Stronghold VS 6 Tower VS 6 Dungeon teams fighting each for themselves. I wanted to make it more diverse and challenging. Stronghold with it's all 6 combined mage guild towers could never be a serious threat to Tower, which having the same amount of mage guild towers literally could build up to 12 level 5 spells and up to 18 level 4 spells - that was a hugely overpowered team in that map, so o i've decided to add different allies.
Team 1: 3 Stronghold + 3 Conflux
Team 2: 3 Tower + 3 Castle
Team 3: 3 Dungeon + 3 Inferno
This way i've made the teams more balanced. While Stronghold is a weak link in terms if spell power, it's new ally Conflux not only bolsters level 5 spells in it's 3 mage guild towers, but has a school of magic. So this new Stronghold + Conlflux combined team now has a perfect balance of power. Conflux now occupies the former north territory of the map.
Since Tower is already the most powerful spellcasting team, it's new ally had to be somewhat compromised. Castle was the most obvious choice to have an ally having populated the previous south-east territory of the map.
Dungeon populated the whole underground, and now it's new ally Inferno occupies the underground territory in the center of the map.
2) Restoration of Erathia ---> Shadow of Death. From now on Clashing Trilogy V2 is a SOD map. All the spells, artifacts (except Armageddon's Blade) and heroes are available.
3) Different predetermined heroes. Evey team having 3 buildings will have 2 predetermined heroes starting near each other - first warrior type, second spellcaster type. I've selected the best hero for each team possible and another will be a resource generator: Dracon + Rissa, Mullich + Caitlin, Kilgor + Saurug, Monere + Grindan, Mutare + Sephinroth, Xeron + Calid. The main hero starts will an additional leadership skill.
4) Topography of the map has been changed. The map will look both familiar and different. Some "unpickable" game objects are now in different locations. This means different paths, distances, different terrain type, seas and roads, changed connection types between buildings and so on..
5) Ballanced resource generator and creature dwelling count. Each team has the exact number of resource generators and the exact number of creature dwellings. Creature dwellings have been added to the maximum map capability.
6) Several predetermined level 4 and level 5 spells added. Nooone wants a situation where 3 Dungeonkeeps would get 3 same Sacrifice spells in their 3 respective made guild levels, right?. I've made sure that some "must own" spells have been added according the the magic school alignment of each team.
Dungeon (earth magic alignment): earth elemental + implosion, town portal + resurrection
Inferno (fire magic alignment): fire elemental + sacrifice, inferno + fire shield
Tower (air magic alignment): air elemental + fly, chain lightning + counterstrike
Heaven (water magic alignment): water walk + prayer, water elemental (guarded by archangels)
Conflux (all magic schools): dimension door + magic mirror, clone + armageddon
Stronghold will not have predetermined spells,
7) Balanced creature stacks guarding money and artifacts. Each team has town related creature stacks that guard specific artifacts, related to the teams. Example: the titans guard parts of Titan's Thunder in their home territory, while the archangels guard parts of Angelic Alliance in their home territory. Example second: upgraded Conflux creatures guard parts of Statue of Legion in their home territory, while upgraded Inferno creatures guard parts of Ring of the Magi and Admiral's Hat and some other minor artifacts in their home territory.
8) Superdragons added. Each territory will have it's super dragon dwellings with their respective representatives - fairy dragons, rust dragons, crystal dragons, azure dragons, and some of these dragon dwellings will be hard to get. Powerful artifacts are guarded by those dragons.
9) Most important and final change - each of the 6 teams has balanced map exploration and movement benefits and penalties.
Tower: home territory adds no movement penalty, logistics skill available nearby, level 5 fly spell bonus, does not have teleporters.
Dungeon: home territory adds no movement penalty, logistics skill available nearby, level 4 town portal spell bonus, does not have teleporters.
Stronghold: home territory adds no movement penalty, logistics skill available nearby, no spell bonus, but it has build roads between towns, does not have teleporters.
Conflux: foreign territory adds movement penalty, pathfinding skill available nearby, level 5 dimension door spell bonus, does not have teleporters.
Inferno: foreign territory adds movement penalty, pathfinding skill available nearby, natural gateway bonus, no spell bonus, does not have teleporters.
Castle: foreign territory adds movement penalty, pathfinding skill available nearby, level 4 water walk spell bonus, has teleporters between towns 10 block radius each.
So when you think about it, each team has some advantages and penalties over one another. For example Dungeon's town portal spell bonus is better than Castle's real teleporters, because town portal spell can teleport you to whichever town you like, that has been occupied by you, while teleporters are located only near Castle towns, but then Castle has it's own spell bonus water walk, which gives some extra boost in map exploration, despite being less important than town portal. In comparison Inferno, also having it's own version of home teleporting, does not have any movement spell bonus predetermined, but it's towns are connected through a center link and that center link has the biggest concentration of resources per square meter in the whole map.
Thus Clashing Trilogy V2 will be much more balanced and enjoyable than it's original predecessor, that i've made back in 2007.
Testers and suggestions will be needed. More to come.
