Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

Lowering the price is the only thing that can be done with the current tools that are available, I suppose. But thematicly the prices of the units in the base game do seem right. If you balance the amount of resources you spend each round amoung calvary and infantry, the amount of calvary you get compared to the infantry does seem right. It is the game mechanics that are wrong. If the game was able to make better use of movement, and 'attack rear most enemies' worked better so many units in the game would be balanced. As is, the CB mod is the best way to balance it.

Anyway, what brought this is up is I am currently in a multiplayer game where I am building a lot of Cataphracts. I should probably build less of them, but then I would be building almost only one type of unit, and dang it!, that just isn't as much fun.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

Maybe you should play CB multiplayer - that way you'd get a better deal on the serpents.

Also just because people say the serpents are bad doesn't mean it's certainyly true. If you use them heavily in a MP game you might come to a different conclusion. Of course I think you're more likely to see that you can't field enough of them because of the cost and that they get splattered by magic just as easily as cheaper troops.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

I would like to play CB multiplayer. But the problem is too many people are opposed to the mod, and there are very few CB multiplayer games.

And I agree about the assesment about the unit. If I was facing them, i would certainly take advantage of the fact there were size 3 to wipe them out with spells. But still I will try to make use of them. When used with Hydras they are the national unit with the most chance of avoiding the Hydras posion, due to their faster speed and chance of getting behind the enemy.I just have to keep them out of the way of magic.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

I think the problem with the CB mod is that a lot of people-including myself, I have to admit-felt that it was premature. It didn't come out long before the game itself came out, and the things it did, noone had time to figure out whether or not they were good ideas, necessary, or balanced.

Also, I'm not sure what exactly the CB mod does and doesn't do? I haven't read the posts on it in a while, and when I did, the ideas presented, I felt, made the game different, rather than balancing it out.

I'm open-minded towards the concept and, atleast in theory, I'd be willing to help, but I definitely don't have any real handle on it, and I'm a little wary of downloading it without knowing the exact changes and the exact reason why things were changed.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

Well there's a list of the exact changes in the mod-zip.

Morkilus also wrote a short guide explaining the rationale behind it.

I was a bit wary of it at first and I don't know it well enough to talk about how much better or worse it is, but I can see that's it's fixed a lot of things that bother me about the game, so I use it. For instance it makes light cavalry more useful and that means the AI isn't just throwing money down the drain when it uses them.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

That's true on the forums, but on the dominions IRC channel CB is actually used more than base. And I don't think there are a whole lot of people opposed to the mod, just a couple of them and a lot of people going with the flow/not knowing much about it.

I think I did jump the gun a bit by releasing some CB so soon after game release, I didn't account for the big difference between the dom2 community and the dom3 one. The veteran dom2 players that stuck with the game long enough to try/get used to CB only made up a tiny fraction of the sudden masses of people.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

Well, it really isn't your fault. I mean this game probably has atleast 4 times as many hardcore players as Dom2 did, and that's just a guess off the top of my head. I imagine that the "core" people playing it are significantly different too. More fractious-which can be a good thing, since the friction generates creativity. I honestly think it's that friction that has resulted in so many good mods.
Eventually, though, that friction is going to force a desire for a great many changes in how the game works and how it's balanced. As long as the CB mod keeps evolving, itself, and keeps in touch with what people want and what they want left alone, then eventually-maybe a year-it'll be a major player, where mods are concerned.

That's my opinion, which is one of the reasons I'm interested in helping out with it. As soon as I figure out the best way to do that-in a way I feel will be true to my own ideals for the game-then I'll offer my services, for what they're worth.

Right now, I'm just trying to get my own mods into the final stages, so I can show them off http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm really going to try to get the one completed enough this weekend that I can atleast establish a thread for it, since I've got 4 days off, almost in a row.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

Keep in mind that QM had already played Dom3 for about a year before it was released as part of the beta team.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

This made me laugh. I have been to the IRC channel and wonder if this is really how you see it. When I was there there were people wanting a plain game but none started. On the other hand there was also people wanting a CB mod game but it was only the guy who made the mod. One or two other people would agree to play it but no one else requested it (and that game didnt start also).

Most of the conversation was a turn off also. Too much like this thread. Nitpicky perfect or crap designations of every little thing which did nothing but trash the game. I think we need a new IRC channel.

Re: Dud units / monsters / summons
 

You don't like the thread feel free to just move along.