While viewing some forum posts, I found this - viewtopic.php?f=26&t=43
And it got me thinking that a potential variant of certain units could be added into the game to give more variety.
It also made me think of the undead immediately. Being my favorite race, there's obviously a bit of bias here.
I was thinking over the different colors of the Mutants in these files, specifically these ones Each color could be a single unlockable in the gem shop, as in, you purchase the upgrade, and you receive all of the variants for use in research, or you could have each color individually listed as a good way to burn some gems.
Each color would also have its own strengths and weaknesses, think of it more of a situational upgrade. One color is better in certain situations, while another is better in another.
I have two ideas for how the upgrading works
- 1. Upon researching one of the upgrades, the other upgrades which would change the mutant's color and specialization would be locked permanently. This would more than likely render the upgrade less than useful, as the player you are against would quickly adapt to the change. However, this would also be a good counter to some of the main known strategies (such as cavalry rushing)
2. Once you upgrade to a certain color (In this case, we'll assume you upgraded to red), you are still able to upgrade it to another color, but you would lose the benefits of the previous upgrade, and the red upgrade would be locked. This would effectively give you more variety with the mutants, and could benefit in both short, and long term. This would also be considered a bit over powered, since you could just use the upgrade to give yourself an advantage over an assaulting force.
- Green - Standard mutant.
Purple - Lifestealing mutant. Similar to how the vampire works (If the vampire was weaker, slower, and could be killed pretty quickly). Pretty self explanatory of how this one would work. Could maybe gain some hp to give it more presence on the battlefield?
Orange - Spell caster mutant. Loses a lot of its mobility, hp, and damage, but instead gains the ability cast Hell of Pain by Sacrifice, and Pain and Hit. (Would have recommended animate dead, but the units that use that spell are core parts of most undead armies, and giving a lower cost alternative is a BAD idea.
Black - Juggernaut mutant. Would lose a majority of its damage, but instead serve as a moving wall (That would just kinda be torn down pretty quickly by mounted units lmao). Higher hp, and a tad bit more armor (Potentially less speed as well?) Could be useful in holding off assaults while you organize your forces.
Red - A damage focused mutant. Would lose it's pierce armor of 4, and instead be a glass cannon of sorts. With lower hp, but higher damage.
Blue - Seafaring mutant. Would essentially be the undead equivalent of the murlock. With lower hp than the standard mutant, it gains a small damage boost against ships (If this is possible to add).
Keep in mind, this is a unit that only takes 3 turns to produce, so it would be more than reasonable for these upgrades to take a long time to actually research. Plus, if any stat boosts were in order depending on the variant, they should not be too different from the original. This should prevent spam, but i'm not really a professional on that, so i'll leave that up for you guys to decide on.
This is also my first recommendation, i'm more than open to some creative criticism. If you do not like the idea, please, let me know.