Project Groove: Scaling Back the Mod

So before I start the large binge of post-event article writing and pre-event work for 2022, it’s time to take a quick look at where we are at with Project Groove.

Project Groove in 2021

So to give a brief recap of the year, a few things need to be explained to give some context.

• The workload for Groove of War was pretty hefty this year. Combined with people returning to work and other real-life responsibilities after much of 2020 was in lockdown. Tasks were prioritized and Project Groove was shifting to the bottom of the list.
• There was a general sense of people enjoying the current version of Wargroove throughout the year. The game still has its faults obviously, but why push for a mod when people seem to be happy.
• Test Your Mettle was also given a lower priority this year, which was the primary place people would find Project Groove matches.
• Chucklefish hinted a bit more at “Moregroove” and the possibility of a sequel or update meant a fan balance mod would be rendered pointless depending on if that was to release in the near future.

Now over the course of the year, things happened with some of the circumstances surrounding the above list changing. People aren’t in quite as much of a rush to spend time together in person now that lockdown hasn’t been as severe for a while. There are some issues with the base game that is more frustrating again. Test Your Mettle now runs on a regular basis, but as a more laid-back event once every 2 months. A lack of solid Moregroove information likely means we’re playing the current version of Wargroove for the next year at least.

With this in mind, we’re starting up the development of Project Groove again, but with some changes.

Project Groove in 2022

So with 2021 in mind, there are some big changes coming to Project Groove to match new goals with the mod.

• We will be scaling back some of the bigger changes to the game to keep it more in line with the original. This won’t mean we aren’t going to try some things, but we will be aiming to keep it closer to current gameplay than before while trying to address specific issues.
• Making a serious attempt at making this viable for use in tournament play. That doesn’t mean it will be confirmed to be used in tournaments, but it does mean we will aim for it to be at that level of quality. Ultimately how the mod will be used is down to a larger discussion with the community and looking at player base data for things like the percentage of players on PC.
• Focussing on things that can be realistically improved in a short amount of time. This includes things like how fast commanders build groove, giving map makers more freedom, making smaller adjustments to units, and recognising things like naval just isn’t worth the effort.

So let’s talk about changes.

No More Mana

For as much as mana did right, it also fundamentally changed how Wargroove worked to the point of requiring specific maps to be made for it. I stand by it being a cool idea that was fun, but it changed the game too much and there are other ways to balance the game in a way that solves the same problems.

Farewell mana, you were fun while you lasted and we learned a lot from your existence.

Reverting Some Other Changes

So the normal game’s meta has come a long way and some changes turned out to not be needed in the end. Namely Elodie and to some extent Nuru.

Elodie: Groove charge changed from medium->slow.

Elodie has proven to be a solid mid-tier pick with some tournament results under her belt now. Her groove charge is being reverted back to slow and we’ll likely see other commanders being brought closer to her level rather than buffing her.

Vesper: Groove reverted to the current game version of her groove.

Vesper got a pretty big overhaul before and is also being reverted to her current form. Most likely we’ll nerf her groove in the future to keep it close to its original form but tone it down a little.

Nuru: Groove charge changed from fast->medium. Groove unit cost changed from 2x -> 1.5x base unit cost. Can still only spawn formation units

Nuru isn’t quite to the same point as Elodie, but we’re changing her back to fast charge with a 1.5 times multiplier on her unit cost. We’re still keeping the formation unit limitation though to prevent Nuru+treb.

Ryota: Groove charge changed from fast->medium. Damage is 50% of base commander damage. Damage ramping was removed completely.

While the ramping-down version of his groove worked from a balance point of view, it did add a lot of complexity to the groove that some players found undesirable. We will be changing his groove to the original 1.3 medium speed and leaving the damage at 50% of base commander damage.

Mercia: Mercia 5% overheal reduced to lasting one turn from a permanent 5% overheal.

It was pointed out that Mercia would be a bit too strong with the commander damage changes mentioned further down, so we’re scaling her back to having a single turn of burst damage and extra hp. This should make her groove more flexible without giving it a huge amount of extra power.

Other Commander Changes

One big thing that has happened since the last update is a general consensus on the top tiers really being top tier. With that in mind, we made a small balance change mod to test out some top-tier nerfs.

Caesar: Groove charge changed from medium->slow.

We made the most obvious change in the world, nerfing his damage from medium to slow. His groove is one of the most powerful grooves in the game while also being hard to make changes to its functionality. Nerfing the charge speed is the most obvious change to make since his groove is already better than most slow chargers.

Ragna: Groove damage is lowered from 65%-> 50% of base commander damage. Groove splash radius is lowered from 3->2 tiles.

Ragna groove is incredibly powerful while also being incredibly simple. While her groove is fully charged, she is capable of dealing massive AoE damage at a huge range. This allows her to break walls, hurt win condition targets and set up sword critical hits simultaneously.

Her groove was strong in sheer firepower alone and was toned down in that regard. She still has similar functionality to its previous form, but at a reduced overall power level.

Koji: Koji bombs damage taken changed from 50%->90% damage.

Koji’s groove offers a lot of flexibility and some incredibly high-skill plays. That said, its ability to wall enemy units with ease required a huge investment from the enemy player to break. By increasing damage received, more critical hits and witch hexes can now be used as tools against the bombs to give players fighting Koji more options while keeping them as useful blockers.

Wulfar: Maximum groove range reduced from 8->7 tiles.

This change might not be needed alongside other changes coming to the mod, but we’re trying it out for this update to see how it feels. Wulfar has sat high in the ban and pick rates since the launch of Double Trouble, but there has always been a question mark if he was actually too strong or if people just didn’t want to fight him. We will see how this change plays out and if we need to reverse it in the next update.

Wulfar groove at 7 range instead of 8.

System Changes

So while the aim is to move away from larger design changes, we will be trying out some wider changes to systems in the game. The main three of these will be tinkering with the way RNG is handled in the game, how spells work when used by multiple units, and the damage values of commanders.

RNG Changes

We have messed around with RNG changes in the past and we are trying something new again. This comes in a few forms, so I’ll start with the easiest to explain change first.

Building RNG: Buildings no longer have RNG on taking or giving damage. Due to the nature of buildings keeping their full damage regardless of their current health value and how important getting correct rolls matter when it comes to taking control of buildings, getting a low roll on a building hit can basically cost you the game.

We have tested this in a smaller build that mainly focussed on a smaller set of changes and the removal of RNG damage against buildings received universally positive feedback.

Unit RNG: We have also changed how RNG interactions between units work as well. The base damage of an attack is now based on the average damage an attack does or what can be seen as the amount of damage an attack does when RNG is disabled.

The RNG range varies between 0–5 additional damage which is decreased or increased depending on the defense of the target. Attacking a target on a plains tile will have 0–4 bonus damage, attacking a target on a mountain will have 0–1 bonus damage, and attacking a target on a river will have 0–7 bonus damage.

This should give the defender more control and a better defensive bonus when on defensive terrain, even when on lower health. It also makes the game more reliable for the attacker, as the number of coin flip situations is significantly reduced. Balancing damage amounts can be more precise as well since the damage range is smaller.

It does come with the side effect of damage being slightly higher on average, but numbers can be adjusted to work around this.

Spell Use Changes: Simply put, witch hex and mage heal can only be used on 1 target unit per turn. A unit will no longer take more than 10% damage from witches on one turn and will no longer heal more than 20% health from mages on one turn.

One of the biggest map-making problems we have had in Wargroove is that once maps reach a certain size and income, it becomes incredibly difficult not to see massive amounts of witches banking up for a really big hex in 1 turn. The player who hexes first tends to decimate their opponent’s army or flat out kills their opponent’s commander with ease. By limiting the number of hexes that can hit a target each turn, this problem essentially becomes solved.

Mage heals are also in a similar conundrum, where they can drop incredibly cost-effective heals in the late game while providing a strong tempo boost. Large numbers of golems backed by mages become incredibly strong, resulting in a stampede of high damage units that can be reinforced while being used to attack. It also makes going for plays where you grind down an important enemy unit over multiple turns much stronger.

Commander Damage Values: The general gist of this is to do two big changes to how commanders function. Reduce their damage taken across the board and reduce their damage done across the board.

Something that has been an issue since the game’s release and was made more significant with the release of Double Trouble is how powerful commanders are in the early part of the game. This has been tempered by map makers reducing their starting health and giving them weak starting positions. These methods come with making the start of the game significantly more complex for both players and map makers. If appropriate steps aren’t taken, the commander can steamroll weaker units and villages to build groove quickly.

The other side of this is commanders are pretty fragile later in the game as well. There are a number of reasons why higher fund maps aren’t made, but this is part of that even if other reasons are more prominent. If players are running around with a higher number of knights, golems, and dragons, commanders have to be used with incredible care lest they be killed. Ironically, their increased damage against swords and spears in Double Trouble created a heavier focus on suiciding units into them to allow more lethal opportunities.

So with other changes coming in to allow for higher income maps and wanting to give mapmakers a bit of quality of life, we’re going to try the following number changes with the plan to make further adjustments where needed.

Commander damage output

Swords: 120->95
Dogs: 120->105
Spears: 80->60
Wagons: 75->60
Mages: 85->70
Archers: 135->110
Knights: 60->50
Ballista: 65->55
Trebuchet: 60->50
Golems: 45->35
Commander: 45->35
Structure: 75->50

Commander damage taken

Swords: 15->12
Dogs: 20->15
Spears: 20->15
Mages: 25->20
Archers: 10->10
Knight: 30->25
Ballista: 15->12
Trebuchet: 30->25
Golems: 40->30
Rifles: 10->10
Harpies: 20->15
Dragon: 40->35
Merfolk: 15->10
Warship: 30->25

Other Changes

Harpy: Harpy damage against golems reverted from 20%->10%. Harpy crit multiplier changed from 1.25x->1.5x damage. Harpy crit condition changed from while harpy is on a mountain tile to while harpy is on a mountain tile or attacking a unit on a mountain tile. Harpy movement type changed from flying to float.

So the harpy got a lot of buffs this time around alongside a minor damage nerf against golems. The damage nerf against golems mostly came down to the other buffs making up for it. Golems got nerfed a bunch in the mod, so having a golem killer isn’t as needed as much.

The crit changes make harpies scarier around mountains, the terrain type that currently gives them a minimal benefit. With the new changes, they can zone out ground and air that come close to their tile of choice.

The float movement type allows them to threaten ground units where other air units can’t. This also allows map makers to delay more expensive air unit reinforcements while still allowing harpies to come forward and support the army more quickly.

Going Forwards

I have no doubt that some or many of these changes will be changed again in the future. A few changes such as building RNG damage being removed and the high tier commander nerfs seem popular, but other changes seem more contentious.

We will try out this version of Project Groove in the upcoming Test Your Mettle January. Feedback will be gathering and the more solid changes will remain for the next update in time for Test Your Mettle March. At the end of April, a discussion will be had about whether any of the Project Groove changes would be worth including in Groove of War 8.