Let's talk about Experience and Ranks in Warhammer 3

Sagez#6761

For many this may be a minor thing, but I'm hoping (not expecting!) for Experience and rank rework. For me it has always been very satisfying in Total War games to gain chevrons and have ''veteran'' units, units with their own history made through battles. It adds much to the roleplaying aspect of the game.

I think that max experience rank for units should be raised from 9 to 12 (let's call 10, 11 and 12 levels ''legendary'' or ''diamond'' chevrons). Now you can gain golden chevrons really quickly and when you have access to RoR units (instant 9 rank) experience is largely unimportant part of the game... RoRs should start at level 5 I think.

It would serve two purposes: 1. Preserving early game and cheap units could be much more beneficial for the player (especially if ranks 10-12 would benefit weaker units more). The weaker you are at the start, the more you can gain in the long run. For example, lowly goblins can learn more than demigryph knights (knights are crazy strong from the start). 2. It would make Training abilities better. 3. It would make experience more impactful overall, it would make the player feel like he really earned it through many battles. Bonuses from 10-12 ranks could be doubled in comparison to 1-9 rank bonuses.

Gaining the max rank could unlock a special&final upgrade(s) for a veteran unit, something like ''scrap'' upgrades for Greenskins, but for free. Like you could choose if you want that unit to cause terror/give a public order bonus/gain an ability/chosen stat upgrade. Would be cool if you could establish and rename that unit as your own RoR too! (singleplayer only of course)


I'd love to see ranks expanded, because I'm seeing a big potential there - with more ''RPG'' elements and unit customisation (which we can already see - Grom, Drycha, Throt... - it's a good direction for the series!) Right now unit ranks don't mean much - as someone suggested, the term for that is veterancy ceiling. Quote: ''(...) expansion to 12th max rank, as that would be the easiest way to preserve the current bonuses but allow units further xp gain. It always feels like a pity to let max-rank units gain kills (wasted xp!)''

What do you think of those ideas? Would you like to see them implemented? What would you add? I shared this idea on reddit a while ago and it was met with positive responses. People seem to talk a lot about new races and lords, but there is a lot in terms of game mechanics to add potentially.

(on a side note, I think we all can safely assume that character level cap will be raised to 50 in Warhammer 3. Level 50 as max level isn't even that high if we take the enourmous global map into consideration)

veresh1989

A good idea. Each level should require more experience to make these levels difficult to obtain. In addition, these levels should provide a stronger squad boost than they currently are.

humility925

Hmmm, it's would make sense turn those troop to higher rank or upgarde, like a footmen to men's at arm to knight, getting better equipment replaced, along with skills, rather than mere gave bonus and those guy still stuck as footmen with cheap leather and weapon. Most shouldn't be stay in low rank too long, they just move up for most case.

avvve

Yes! Like the idea. Always felt that its to easy to get chevrons through techs and buildings and so for the AI. Should be a harder task to achieve this.
I guess there is a mod that has an interesting take on this, where units have to complete a certain condition to achieve a special buff , much like so what you mean at chevron 12.
However the total war games have always had 9 chevrons, would be cool if they eventually changed that.

aMint1#4859

Why stop at 12, make it 1000, just think how much history you can feel with that experience. Same goes for skill points, 482 seems the sweet point. Otherwise how will I keep up.

DeadpoolSW#7283

I like the idea of giving a unit a trait at max rank (eg immune to psych, perfect vigour, cause terror) to make you're own RORs (though obviously not as powerful as normal ROR).

TheShiroOfDalton

Absolutely against the idea.

I don't see any reason to add even more buffstacking to the game, period.

No, that wouldn't encourage using early game units because of all the "ranks on recruitment" buffs you get and because the game is set up to favor certain unit types vastly over others, namely ranged and monsters who receive 2x-4x as much XP than any melee unit in any battle simply because they have the largest damage output and the AI can't deal with them.

No, what needs to happen is that all the ranks on recruitment nonsense is removed and ranged units and monsters either get cut down to size or get higher XP thresholds.

Adding additional ranks would add nothing positive to the game.

Sagez#6761

Thank you guys for your comments and thoughts! Any critique is valuable to me.

aMint1 said:

Why stop at 12, make it 1000, just think how much history you can feel with that experience. Same goes for skill points, 482 seems the sweet point. Otherwise how will I keep up.

Partly because I don't want it to look hilarious (game must have it's limitations because of *balance*), but I get what you mean. @ShiroAmakusa75 also got interesting points, which I'll discuss below.

ShiroAmakusa75 said:

Absolutely against the idea.

I don't see any reason to add even more buffstacking to the game, period.

No, that wouldn't encourage using early game units because of all the "ranks on recruitment" buffs you get and because the game is set up to favor certain unit types vastly over others, namely ranged and monsters who receive 2x-4x as much XP than any melee unit in any battle simply because they have the largest damage output and the AI can't deal with them.

No, what needs to happen is that all the ranks on recruitment nonsense is removed and ranged units and monsters either get cut down to size or get higher XP thresholds.

Adding additional ranks would add nothing positive to the game.

I must say I agree (100%!!!) with a lot of things you said - Yes, ranks on recruitment are a nonsense, ranged units and monsters should require more XP to gain rank, as they are indeed very powerful. I should add those points to my idea.

Let's just think of a scenario where unit caps are in vanilla - and then getting basic goblins to rank 12 would mean something, I also said that the weakest units should benefit the most from ranks 10-12. That way more unit types would be fun and ranged/monster domination would end.