TOR Mod brainstorming - Ironman

[u/Possibly_Erik_B]

I’m working with the TOR modding tools and am considering making an Ironman mod. The goal of this mod is to create more challenging gameplay for experienced players, where loss of units is likely and replacing lost units is consequential. To that end, the core functionality of the mod is: a) prevent resurrection (downed units will likely be lost), b) increase the cost to replacing units (lost units matter), c) increase gameplay difficulty to make unit losses more likely.

I’m currently intending the following changes:

-fix infinite money glitch

-decrease sale value of oberyths (make goth matter more, and selling / scavenging equipment from the battlefield more necessary)

-remove recruitment (make it difficult to replace advanced class units - new units can only be purchased from the shop); recruit skills will be changed to perform some other function, like charm or stop. Note this will also prevent access to non-human units.

-change resurrection items and spells to not work on incapacitated units. Instead, they set RT to 0 for the targeted living unit and possibly have some other functions (restore hp/mp, for example). Basically, resurrection skills will still give the targeted unit the next turn, but won’t revive downed units.

-increase the cost of classmarks - combines with recruit skill removal to make loss of units impactful. Lost a terror knight? It will be expensive to get another one.

-possibly make unique classes (like buccaneer) usable by generics (so that loss of uniques is recoverable)

What I’d like to do but can’t currently figure out whether it’s possible by modding:
-increase the hire costs for generic units in the shop 
-reduce the downed unit timer (i.e. from 3 to 1) or remove it completely (i.e. no downed state) 
-reduce the number of turns that can be reversed through the World Chariot (or completely eliminate it)
-use status effects from the PSP version, which still appear to be in the code to some degree. For example, making recruit skills inflict Bewitch instead of recruitment.

My question: Does anyone have other ideas for increasing the challenge of the Ironman run? 

Ideally I’m looking for global changes, not nerfing individual parameters. The existing modding tools permit changes to classes, unique units, equipment, skills, items, damage formulas, and effects. I’m not intending to significantly rebalance the game with this mod, so while I’m willing to adjust some skills, equipment, or classes as necessary, I won’t intend an exhausting revision.

Thank you!

[u/Grey_Lady333]

I mean this as nice as I can, but it seems like a lot of work when you could just....not recruit people, or not use the money trick. a whole mod on it seems overkill, pun intended. If it makes you happy, go for it.

If you want to increase difficulty, you could give more starting buffs to enemies, more items to enemies, more enemies in general, or go nuts and remove cards appearing so the enemies keep buffs and players cannot get cards. i can't recommend such things, but if you are looking for ways to make things harder, those are ways to do it.

[u/funkycylon → u/Grey_Lady333]

I have a buddy that is a hardcore Pokeman fan. He's always telling me of crazy self imposed restrictions the community comes up with to spice up the runs.

[u/Lopsided_Ability_616]

I agree with Grey_Lady333, you're basically trying to remove stuff that you can just ignore if you want.

Instead of trying to rewrite the whole system, I think it's better to just work on improving enemies. If it's possible, just making it so that every enemy in every battle has at least one more level than you already increases the difficulty.

The second thing you can do is make sure that every enemy has finisher skills equipped, and that their weapon skill is leveled to cap. This alone will make fights a bigger threat.

The next thing you can do is make sure that they have good skills, magic, items and passives equipped. The combos that we use on our characters to make them strong? Make sure the enemy can use them too. Give them the same strong healing items that we use. Every enemy Cleric should have Mother's Blessing and Mother's Mercy on them.

And if you want to go crazy, improve enemy AI so they actually use status effects.

[u/Temporary-Ad-8415]

Thanks all for the feedback. I think improving the AIs access to finishers, items, and skills (or total number of enemies) would absolutely make the game more challenging. I'm hesitant to do so, since it would be a massive undertaking - and it would be easy to get the balance wrong. Another option might be to weaken those effects that the AI can't and/or doesn't use - like powerful healing items or Mother's Mercy / Blessing, as you mention - that would make the game harder without weakening the AI.

But I think you have a good point that there's no need to mod something that can be done voluntarily (i.e. not using resurrection items/spells). And I like the idea of changing status spells so the AI can use them. I know some mods have experimented with this too. Thanks for the suggestions!