The idle mechanism introduced in Retold is my least favorite. They are complicated to understand their true value and counter-intuitive for an RTS game, in which you don’t want to keep any units idle. Currently, it is being used in 5 cases:
The Hamadryad ability is boring and exploitable. The best way to use it, is to keep the unit on passive stance and pray it explodes every 6 or 10 seconds. Suggestion: make it an active ability (not usable if enemies are within activation range) with a couple of seconds transformation time that can be interrupted, and a normal cooldown (~20 sec) that starts after exploding.
Servants of Glory (Ullr) increases infantry speed while idle but is lost fast if they move. Why wait to move a bit faster later, when you can just..move the whole time and arrive earlier? Suggestion: make them immune to ensnare instead.
Silent Resolve (Vidar) increases Berserk attack while idle but is lost fast when moving. So the best case is to keep your units idle and hope your opponent walks towards your trap? Suggestions: give them increased build speed instead.
Petrification (Helios) increases siege weapons’ hack armor while idle and is lost when moving. By the time you move in to attack, the bonus armor is all lost. You are never going to keep them idle outside your opponent’s base for 10 seconds just to get a bit more hack armor. And if the enemy sends units to attack your siege, you won’t stay idle, you will run away so this bonus is useless. Suggestion: give them hp regen instead.
Rock Solid (Nuba) increases myth unit armor when idle. Same as above, if a hero is coming towards them, you will run away. Suggestion: remove the idle part and increase upgrade armor boost.
I fully agree with your premie, doing nothing / standing iddle is often times risky, and unfun to interact with.
Or not be damage but a stun, a slow, a snare, instead of a nuke
This feels a bit too strong once vidar berserk get going but im sure it would be worth a shot seeing how it goes.
I would rather you switch this effect you suggest with the classic age one. Since you mostly care about build speed earlier on when you dont have that many units, and it would synergize with getting the Fort god power up faster.
Agreed, or Just the flat armor increase would also work, could be less than the full iddle would give but it being unbounded by that mechanic
Have seen ideas of turning this into something that increases favor gathering, since china has no current tech that does that unlike all other pantheons that have a minor god or multiple that interact with their favor gain.
The description says “standing still”. Tbh I’ve almost never used fire siphons with that upgrade. So if the armor isn’t stacking up while attacking, it seems like a bug.
For example, Vidar’s silent resolve is supposed to keep the damage levels while the unit is attacking but not moving, for example while attacking a building or sitting in defense. So the fact that fire siphons lose the armor while they attack is most probably a bug. this particular one is pretty good in defense.