Re: Patch Improvements
 

didn´t know of the downgrade done so far. I was talking about the spell. even then the bonuses are an unneeded plus.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

One improvement that would really be nice : An option to _not_ have any mercenaries show up for the first 10 (or X) turns. An awful lot of Dom2 games had to use "no hiring mercenaries the first 10 turns" as a house rule, just because early game mercs could be so imbalancing.

And it's looking just the same with Dom3 : the nation that gets the first mercenaries is often getting the first three or four mercs, because of the leg up on expansion & thus gold income it gives.

And it should be trivial to implement, along the lines of :

IF NoEarlyMercs AND TurnNumber LESSTHAN 10
...SkipMercenaryCheck
ELSE
...CheckForMercenaries

The mercs are wonderful for SP games, but can add too much of a luck factor to MP : getting a full 20-60 temporary troops in place of 3-10 regular troops is a huge boost.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

Why shouldn't it be a "no-brainer"? It's a low level buff spell, one of the only ones for water magic, and a 3 defense boost is eaten up by the now increased defense penalty of 2 for every consecutive attack against a single target in a turn.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

well, if you have unit with 2 or more attacks they get multiplied by 2 and each attack gets you a +3 attack. and more defense (+3) there´s no reason not to cast it in a SC or thug, better if it´s the mass quickness (quickening?) in a group of units with multiple attacks.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

This is true. However, a SC or thug either has to have Water, which isn't too common on the suitable chassises, or makes you choose water intead of something else like Fire or Earth or Nature for Fire Shield or protection spells/Earth Power or Personal Regeneration; or the SC or thug has to wear Boots of Quickness/Jade Armor, which need Water magic; or the SC or thug needs a friendly mage to cast Quickness (Quicken Self is where Quickness used to be, Quickness is AoE 1 version of it), in which case you might want to add other SC/thug or some bodyguards to keep the mage alive.

This is Water version of Luck. Not Body Ethereal, but Luck. A considerable bonus good against almost everything but, on its own, not enough against powerful opposition.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

Are the various gem-producing items even still in the game? I don't recall seeing them...

That said, I've already loudly noted my wish for the blood-slave pooling command. How easy it'd be to implement, however, I can't say.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

Is having a reason to cast a spell a bad thing?

Quickness is already nerfed by no longer allowing 2 spell castings on the same turn. It most certanly doesn't need another nerf.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

I can readily understand your point and might even agree. I do tend to find that the mercs really -do- make a huge difference in early expansion. That said, one balancing factor might be that the bidding system helps check this somewhat. If I put half of my starting gold towards a mercenary, I'm necessarily also gutting my magic research or my early expansion if I -don't- win the bid. Even though I get the money back, that's a turn of research I've lost or, worse, I have the cash to buy soldiers but not the resources. So that makes it less of a no-brainer to buy mercs as you may have to overpay just to be sure you don't get the shaft of not only not getting the mercs, but slowing down your growth even further by not winning.

I'm not convinced that this is -enough- balance, mind you. But it's a thought.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

No, there's no reason not to cast it, just as there's no reason not to cast mirror image, mistform, body ethereal, personal luck, astral shield, personal regeneration, fire shield etc.

It's a powerful spell for water magic that generally lacks powerful spells.

Re: Patch Improvements
 

They are. Clams now require W3N1, while I haven't yet looked at the stats for the Earth Blood Stone or the fever fetish.