Implement hero auras for ptolemaic and Seleucid heroes.

[sanderd17]

The Sele and Ptol hero auras contain aura descriptions, but without any form of a "TBD" tag.

These civs can't be released like this, as it would cause confusion to the players.

Also, as A16 will be the localisation release, it would be good to update the tooltips to reflect the actual values ASAP.

[Silk]

I'm going through and adding the missing auras based on the design docs and what's described in the files.

Perhaps I'm just missing something because I'm new, but some of the auras described in the tooltips don't seem possible given what's currently available to describe them. For example, from "sele_hero_antiochus_righteous.xml":

"Conquest" Aura: All nearby bipedal melee units gain a +2x attack versus buildings, siege engines, and ships. Building capture time reduced by 25% during his reign.

I can't see a way to describe the fact that the aura should be specific to vs buildings/siege-engines/ships.

Assuming I'm correct in that not currently being possible, what's the preferred way to handle that?

On the other hand, if it is possible, could someone point me at how? (Or at how to make it possible?)

[sanderd17]

You could make the attack bonus multiplier tech modifiable (Attack.js::407). The bonuses are defined in the templates as "Attack/attackType/Bonuses/bonusName/Multiplier", which is a bit error prone to modders, as both the attackType and the bonusName need to be correct (and the bonusName is a completely free name). But I see no better way of handling it.

This means it's a hassle to add a useless (multiplier = 1) bonus to every melee unit, just because there's an aura that wants to increase the multiplier.

I think it's best to change the aura description. If he was strong against buildings/sieges, and had a good melee army, it could be split into two auras: +50% melee attack and -50% building/siege armour or health for the enemies.

[Silk]

Adds Auras for the heroes for which there is currently sufficient description to actually do so.

[Silk]

Added the ones I can easily do right now. I'll take a look at the other ones later, assuming no one else does first. Note that that patch is currently untested, as the (unrelated) work on i18n is causing things not to work right now.

[sanderd17]

You can always revert to r14949 if you want to test stuff. We didn't change anything to simulation or aura templates, so there should be no problem.

The auras look good, but if you can't make the aura, you should better alter the description to something you can make (if you think it will never be possible), or add a TBD tag to it (if you think it will be implemented eventually, f.e. the building capturing), so it's clear to players that the aura is missing.

Also, when modifying attack values, it's better to add some value than to multiply it. Adding causes units to get stronger in the same way. And you don't have to keep yourself to the values mentioned in the tooltip. If you think something is really too big, just change it.

[Silk]

Replying to sanderd17:

You can always revert to r14949 if you want to test stuff. We didn't change anything to simulation or aura templates, so there should be no problem.

I think I just needed to rebuild. But I wanted to go home and have dinner at that point.

The auras look good, but if you can't make the aura, you should better alter the description to something you can make (if you think it will never be possible), or add a TBD tag to it (if you think it will be implemented eventually, f.e. the building capturing), so it's clear to players that the aura is missing.

I think half of them are actually just missing a description that's detailed enough to implement, and I'd rather not make game-balance decisions.

[sanderd17]

This ticket was actually meant for a balancer/history enthousiast to fix it. But as none replied ...

My general tactics with this is making sure the new auras are underpowered. When you have an underpowered hero, he will just not be used by the player. This will disturb the game far less than one OP hero.

[sanderd17]

Any updates? We will go into feature freeze this WE.

[Stan]

What is needed for it to be compatible with transifex ?

[sanderd17]

Nothing, the xml and json data schema gets recognised by the messages extractor automatically. Only code has to be adapted (so nothing in this patch).

[Stan]

Missing Ptolemy IV, Cleopatra + One sele Hero. Pushing it to A17

[Silk]

Adds in most of the rest of the missing Auras. Cleopatra and Antiochus IV still have a couple of missing things.

[Silk]

Typo fix for the previous patch.

[Silk]

Ok, added most of the missing stuff in.

Cleo is still missing one of her Auras, because the description is *very* vague, and it should be run passed a design person to find out what they want.

Antiochus IV is missing part of one, because it's currently unimplementable. (Needs buildings to be capturable).

The rest of it should be good to go.

Not sure if anything needs to be done re: i18n/l10n.

[Silk]

All-in-one patch

[sanderd17]

In 15197:

Add ptol and sele hero auras. Fixes #2444. Patch by Silk.