THoT exposes a design problem in the LEADERSHIP ability.
For storyline reasons, the units in the campaign's Loremaster line
have leadership at a level one above their actual level. This
reflects the position and function of Loremasters in Dwarvish society.
This supernormal charisma is not a mere detail, but integral to the
plot of THoT; the defeat of the Masked Dwarf (in "Fear") and the
unmasking of Karrag both depend crucially on it.
In order to express the Loremasters' special ability, I gave
the L1 Witness leadership 2, the L2 Annalist leadership 3, and the
L3 Loremaster leadership 4.
This caused a problem in the help strings, which assume that the
leadership effect is proportional to the difference between the leader
and the led unit's level. That is, they nail the unit's leadership
level to its general level.
I fixed it by rewriting the help strings for the leadership abilities
(and the associated SPECIAL_NOTE) not to depend on that assumption,
but apparently having different strings for these abilities causes
problems in the help system because they all have the same ID.
I still think fixing these strings not to rely on this assumption
is the right idea. All the other fixes that have been proposed
address symptoms, not the actual problem.
For example, it has been suggested that the Loremaster ability be
packaged in an "inspiration" ability. Which would be fine, except:
what happens when a designer wants to create a unit type with a
different leadership-level offset than 0 or 1 (say -1)? This is not
an entirely theoretical case -- I've been thinking about giving
LEADERSHIP_1 to my L3 Barbarians. Welcome to another special-case
macro and having to make up yet another contrived term for it.
Proliferating ability macros just so we can preserve the assumption
that leadership level is the same as level also has the disadvantage
of making more work for translators and culuttering up the help
system.
Let's solve this problem *once*.
--
<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one
who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it
but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are
inevitably ruined." -- Patrick Henry, speech of June 5 1788
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