I like that idea also.

Actully it did give me the idea to make two more factions thanks

Yeah, i think it would help to reduce the number of factions to make them unique. Quality vs. quantity would reduce the time to design faction specific AI, techs and spells. Probably 6 factions and the ability to design the own faction are enough to make the factions unique and to give the player enough enemies to populate a large map.

+ 1 Karma. I think that is a great suggestion, because it would make the factions different and the resources on the map more useful.

Well, let's give it a shot. Each resource gives each faction one cavalry option, either a second cavalry option or a "hero" unique unit (only one unit available per resource held), and one attribute.

Altar: [Canines] Altar gains access to Swift Hounds (Light Cavalry), the Pack of War (a pack of dogs), and Superior Scouting (+ Strategic vision).
Capitar: [Horses] Capitar gains access to Purebreeds (Light Cavalry), Warhorses (Heavy Cavalry), and Supreme Logistics (+ Caravan speed).
Pariden: [Magical Golems] Pariden gains access to well-armored Golem Chariots (Heavy Cavalry), the Pegasus Knight (a magical, animated Pegasus statue), and Stone Resolve (+ Defense in city that possesses resource).
Gilden: [Boars] Gilden gains access to War Boars (Heavy Cavalry), the Boar Master (a Gilden Warrior who has the strength and speed of the boar), and Tilled Lands (+ Grain yield in city possessing resource).
Tarth: [Forest Drakes] Tarth gains access to Drakelings (Light Cavalry), Master of the Forest (a powerful Green Dragon), and Speed of the Serpent (+ Unit Speed through Forests).

Magnar: [Fire Dragons] Magnar gains access to Dragon Knights (Heavy Cavalry), Master of the Desert (a powerful Red Dragon), and Fire of the Soul (+ Speed in Enemy Territory).
Resolyn: [Specters] Resolyn gains access to Pale Riders (Light Cavalry), Pegasus Ghosts (Heavy Cavalry), and Spectral Subterfuge (+ Unit Dodge in city possessing resource).
Kraxis: [Spiders] Kraxis gains access to Spider Riders (Light Cavalry), Spiderling Horde (a blob of tiny spiders), and Defense of the Web (- Attacker speed in attack against city possessing resource). 
Umber: [Bears] Umber gets Bear Cavalry (Heavy Cavalry), the Bear Tamer (a skilled Fallen tamer, with two of his ilk), and Bear Necessities (+ Material in city possessing resource).
Yithril: [Wargs] Yithril gets Pack Riders (Light Cavalry), the Alpha Hunter (a magical, deadly warg), and Warg Tamers (+1 Warg unit bound to all resources in Yithril's territory).

The cool thing could be that, if you were to capture an enemy city and they failed to raze their resource, then you would gain access to their unique creature features.

True. If you have metal, you might want to skip leather and just go to Chain and/or Plate.

(I think Chain might should be a prereq for Plate though?)

meanwhile if you don't have any metal, you might want to go down the mundane leather path (or even magical leathers as well, if you have that option-> aka Tarth)

(with potential upgradeable leather types, Chain types, and Plate types ... other than simply X and Masterwork X)

For instance, Simple Leather, Hardened Leather, Studded Leather, and finally Skath-hide Leather or Troll-hide leather.

If I was designing the armour tech line I would have:

Basic leather as first tech.  This would allow access to second tier, improved leather and basic chain (different techs).  Taking basic chain would allow third tier of basic plate and improved chain (while improved leather would lead to superior leather as third tier tech).

The defence bonus of armour would be pretty much (maybe slight variations) the same at the same level tech (i.e. superior leather = improved chain = basic plate) but would have different secondary characteristics - protection from partiular kinds of damage, encumbrance penalties, production cost etc.  Plate would be better but only once you get to the top level.  Leather would be cheaper to tech to the top level but not as good (in terms purely of defence bonus).

Guess if I ever make a mod I'll do something like this...

I wouldn't add to many new armors myself, the current gaps could be plugged by 1 or 2 new armors. We definitely need a early game medium weight choice like splintmail for Strength champions. Splintmail would be an inferior version of chainmail. Then you could also add a midgame heavy option like halfplate, which would be an inferior version of plate. This way at every stage of the game you would have access to at least two armors.

Basically something like this with an advantage/resistance for each category.  The leather branch might allow for a blunt resistance, The chain branch could have a pierce resistance, the plate branch a slash resistance perhaps.  Faction specific armor would maybe have a small bonus (Outside of the stylishly good looks)  Umbers renowned banded armor might have a con bonus as well as being very economical,  Tarths Chain might be so well made it also has a slash bonus,  Paridens Brigandine might have a point or two of spell resistance...(perhaps their armor is revealed in the magic tree)...

I'm game for adding more techs, to me they equate to more choices, and that should add more weight to the decisions we make playing.  

Off topic (as it just popped into my head) The eyes of the eagle spell should +1 to your sight range, +1 per air shard, then it might actually be useful.

Splint armor:

Metal strips (splints) sewn onto a backing, usually leather or sturdy fabric, and usually only found on vambraces, greaves, rerebraces, and sabatons. 

Scale armor:

There are many forms of scale armor, lamellar being one of them, all having similar characteristics being usually pieces of metal or cured leather tied to a backing, usually leather, and arranged to look like the scales of a fish. Advantages to scale were that is was more cost effective than other types of armor, chain and plate, and that it could offer better protection to blunt attacks than chain. Disadvantages were that it offered less coverage and loss mobility/flexibility.

Brigandine:

Small metal plates were riveted to cloth or leather backer and typically worn over a chain mail shirt. The advantages to this combination were close to the effectiveness of plate, though not as effective, while still remaining much cheaper, as plate was very cost prohibitive.

Cuir Bouilli:

"Boiled leather," typically thick leather immersed in hot water that increases its thickness and hardness but also its fragility. Often this process was used to make lames for lamellar.

For me, armor is a minor factor in battle - more important would be the availability of tactical traits for each army unit.  Tactics? Like the Defend order that you can give to defending units, tactical traits would give each combat unit different combat abilities. Some tactical trains would only be available to trained and expery soldiers.

Example: Build Units With Charge Ability tactical trait - they gain once per battle the ability to +1 move and +50% attack, Units with Arrow Shield tactic trait (requires equipment: Shield) give units using this tactic +20 dodge vs ranged attacks, -20% armor (as the shield is held high over their heads. Etc.

Agreed, a dispel magic spell. The effectiveness of the spell would be a function of Spell Mastery and Spell Level. I.e. A caster of Level 1 spells would be unlikely to dispell a Level 5 spell and a caster of level 5 spells would be more likely to dispel a level 1 spell. My initial tendency would be to make the dispel magic spell a researchable spell, thus you could learn how to cast Dispel Fire it but it would take some research effort, OR a selectable trait for those in the path of Magic: i.e. Dispel Fire, Dispel Air, Dispel Earth, Dispel Water are traits that can be selected by one on the Path of Magic.

I've been following the development of Fallen Enchantress from the beginning, ever since buying War of Magic. I have played a lot of strategy games, and I don't want to cause any offense, but I honestly don't care at all about the background lore for the factions here. When I think back to memorable strategy games, I remember them by the factions unique units, and what made them stand out from each other, not the background fluff. For instance, the Paladin Knights, or the Lizardman troops in MoM. The Supertanks, or the free fremen units in Dune2, the Enhanced Elven archers from one of the Heroes of might and magic games, etc, etc.

This sums it up perfectly. I appreciate its almost certainly too late in the day to change any of the above, but honestly, changing the "all human" existing factions to completely different races would make this game have much more widespread appeal to gamers.

I can see why the paperdoll system evolved as it did, as it was a popular feature in Galciv2 being able to customise your units. Also relying on armour rather than shields/point defence made for an interesting research dynamic. However in a fantasy strategy game like this, I don't really care about maces/swords v chainmail/platemail. Its not very exciting, and doesnt have the same kind of interesting tactical depth that you would get from say: Griffon mounted Knights vs Treants, or Ghouls vs Lizardmen.

 

These are some great suggestions. The idea of being able to have a unique, faction specific building, that enabled unique (non human!) troops is also a great idea. If those troops were non-customisable and had set equipment, it would minimise any potential extra modelling work that was required.

Each city on the map should look radically different from that of a different race. I think going the good/evil route for the two "sides" is a sensible plan, because you can then at least go with the obvious stylistic changes like graceful towers, vs spiky fortresses for example. I haven't played the most recent Heroes of Might and Magic games, but I remember in the 4th game of that series, the various cities looked radically different from each other, with each faction having entirely different sets of units.

I think radical faction differentiation is going to be crucial to the success of this game, and making factions hugely different from each other is going to make this game much more replayable. A +10% here or a +1 to stats there is not going to b enough, the sides need to both look and feel very different from each other.

In any case, good luck with the rest of the development of Fallen Enchantress.

A few ideas from a new player:

[Altarian] Focusing on their hero specialization, I believe Altarians could have a unique advantage if their standard troops would eventually spawn a (Level 1?) champion once they reach a certain level. The level required for the champion's creation increases depending on the size of the unit.

[Altarian Alternate/Addition] Another way the emphasis on heroes might work is if each unit had a sergeant/commander who would be significantly harder to down than the standard troops (2-3x the HP). This by itself may help their units survive battles and gain XP. If combined with the above idea, this sergeant would step down and become the new champion. This weakens the unit itself but I feel the pay off may be worth it.

[Kithril] I feel the Trogs may be best suited as the "monstrous horde" faction and should have many of their advantages tied to conquering monsters. Instead of destroying most lairs when they move over the tile, they'd convert it into a domesticated version which could then be built over once that tile fell under their territory. They would also be able to outfit their monster units with new armor and weaponry.

[Tarth] Not simply a bonus, but perhaps it might work better to subtract 1-2 from all Tarth troop sizes to make them the "small army" faction? The bonus might need to be improved to compensate and the starting group size might need to be upped from 3 to 4-5, although such a change may also help early units in general not be as useless.

[Resoln] Perhaps instead of simply healing, Wraith troops who get a kill during combat operate for the rest of the battle as if they were at full strength, replacing their numbers with skeletons or simply making up for lost numbers with the surge of power they received from their victim(s)?

Also, I'm not sure if this would fit well within the existing factions and their lore, but I think it would be interesting to create a faction whose army was based entirely on summoned units (think either Conflux or parts of Academy from the HMM series). It seems the Wraiths are getting a few mana resource units which is nice, so that might be able to fall under their territory?

Another faction could, instead of upgrading weaponry, be mutated/transformed (possibly unlocking additional trait options?). I just can't think of a great place to put it... possibly under Tarth if it veers towards the classic 'druidism' archetype somewhat in addition to being wilderness rebels.

Also, not a by itself thing, but maybe give traits prerequisites, including race trait requirements. This could allow for some selections of troops to perform better in certain areas. It's a minor thing and probably shouldn't get too much a focus compared to differentiation with impact (i.e. unique effects that make the entire faction play out differently than others.)