A few Beta6 things I'd like

[LPhillips]

Ah Ken, that's the point. It's not just about balancing the current items (which are too weak to affect the game, for the most part). Powerful items can't be allowed to exist right now. But they could exist, and be used, if the system were changed. This is a theoretical discussion about opening possibilities up.

Also, we're not talking about any additional programming. We're talking about two possibilities:
1) A single rule, that equipment can only be changed before a hero moves each turn.
2) Or a slot-specific restriction on what attributes certain item types can effect, and possibly a smaller backpack.

The only significant programming would be the rebalancing of the items themselves and addition of new items, which we all hope is already part of the agenda.

The bottom line is that the current system can't actually be balanced. The first option is my initiative, and it allows a greater variety and availability of items, with few limitations on what can be included. So lots of interesting items and abilities. The second option is KGB's initiative, and it allows much less restricted tactical employment of items, at the expense perhaps of needing to exclude certain items and abilities.

The specific example we keep using is not unbalanced if the hero's stack must remain airborne after moving. This game includes strong anti-air abilities that were not previously included, so the hero's stack would be extremely vulnerable to attack from even cheap Eagles, a very fair tradeoff for flight which was not possible in DLR.

We could consider a combination of the two proposals, but that is where things would become complex.

[magian]

I have always really enjoyed the ruin searching and hero leveling aspect of all the warlords games. I actually like my golf bag of items. Sure it gives an advantage to the attacker, but so does the ability to adjust fight order. Do you propose that fight order should not be able to be changed after any attacks are made? As a defending hero, I like the challenge of choosing the best possible defensive items my hero possesses vs known enemy threats.

I think that matching certain item slots to certain item powers is a really elegant way to deal with the bonus stacking issue. It wouldn't need to be absolute, perhaps rings could provide small bonuses of any type. Then stacking could happen, but two(or more) large bonuses of the same type would never be stacked.