Re: The next patch
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, in my experience they do get steamrollered. This isn't a convincing argument however, as one can always wrangle endlessly about who's competition is better and who's really the better player, so I left it out (and I am _not_ presenting it as an argument now).

Plus, while I am confident I have some skill, I know there are players with far more experience than I. Wendigo, NGF (Jaques Vidal?), Alex Poger, and Pocus/Pythie spring immediately to mind, and I'm sure there are others as well.

Re: The next patch
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Is this a good time to mention my preferred solution (water-1,nature-1) again? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The next patch
 

Let me preface my idea by saying I haven't even gotten into an MP game yet. Since it seems most people don't want clams too heavily penalized, would it be possible to change clams into one of the artifact types that don't stack? (like, if I remember right, 2 wineskins only allow 25 supply bonus not 50 if on one commander). Then at least the initial recruiting and upkeep costs of the hoarder would increase and they'd be slowed a little by a need to recruit more commanders. If that wouldn't be enough deterrent you could combine it with one of the previous posters suggestions to make it have a %chance of success, though I'd say 25% is a bit low.

If only one clam worked per commander and it only worked 50 - 75% of the time I'd think that would slow them down enough. I don't like 25% as the clam would then be pretty useless to commanders in the field who just want a gem or two to cast battlefield spells without having to put up a lab.

Re: The next patch
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">So? You could simply disable the graphs. Besides, as far as "military intelligence sense" goes, it's not like army commanders, modern or ancient, didn't know locations (and thus the number) of major enemy fortifications or the general composition and size of their enemies' forces. In Dom2, however, you don't even have reliable information as to the physical location of the other nation, let alone their army movements or positions of their forts, unless you actually send spies out to investigate.

[ April 07, 2004, 03:51: Message edited by: Alexander Seil ]

Re: The next patch
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The more I think about it, the more I think that this is correct. Wish for example, allows you to buff a vampire queen up to 150 hitpoints, with all stats (other than MR) in the 30's. With decent items, it can become a nightmare to kill such a beast.

Re: The next patch
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">So? You could simply disable the graphs. Besides, as far as "military intelligence sense" goes, it's not like army commanders, modern or ancient, didn't know locations (and thus the number) of major enemy fortifications or the general composition and size of their enemies' forces. In Dom2, however, you don't even have reliable information as to the physical location of the other nation, let alone their army movements or positions of their forts, unless you actually send spies out to investigate. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You missed the gist of my point, such as it was. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Other people were saying that you could, by looking at the graphs, tell if someone was hiding away just building clams, and set forth to wallop them before the clam-hoarding turns into Wishing.

Which isn't possible if the graphs are turned off, and as I attempted to point out, there's many reasons why the graphs would be turned off in a MP game.

Re: The next patch
 

Clams, clams, clams, clams,
Clams, clams, clams, clams,
Lovely clams, wondeful claaaams!

Re: The next patch
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The more I think about it, the more I think that this is correct. Wish for example, allows you to buff a vampire queen up to 150 hitpoints, with all stats (other than MR) in the 30's. With decent items, it can become a nightmare to kill such a beast. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">So we see that Zen is smarter than we think he is. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif (No offense Zen)

Obviously I agree, since I posted the original quote... but allow me to expound.

Clams are nice, Clams are good... I make them myself. But what do they really do?

They let you chain cast WISH while possibly having an unassuming amount of territory in an MP game. IE You can come out of nowhere and win the game... because that is what WISH was meant to do. Change the game.

We're talking a Vampire Queen every turn.

The old rules don't apply.

HOWEVER

If you can't cast WISH what now? Well, you can chaincast Ethergate, which is pretty sweet... but not worth it. I love Ethergate, but I can't imagine commiting that much, if all I'm gonna get is a buncha big dudes with moonblades.

You can also convert those pearls to other denominations pretty easily... which is nice, but not a game breaker.

[ April 08, 2004, 23:28: Message edited by: AhhhFresh ]

Re: The next patch
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hrm... Why a vampire queen instead of a doom horror?

I played with wish a bit, and really couldn't find a better bang for my buck than a doom horror... GOR him and send him to take just about anything. Stat move of 10, and apparently impossible to kill. If he had hand slots he could take fortresses with a couple gate cleavers... sadly, he does not.

Is there some fatal flaw in the doom horror that I haven't seen? I generally give him a pendant of luck and an amulet of magic resistance.

Well, I often don't get up to wish before a game is over, so 'generally' might not be accurate.

Yes, these are SP games... My skills aren't up to taking on human opponents yet.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The next patch
 

The thing about WISH is that it has a seriously high coolness factor. It would be a real pity to lose it, and I would prefer any other solution that works.

Maybe alter the wishes themselves? No more asking for specific creature types - maybe you could wish for a "saviour" or somesuch, and get a random creature from a pool of pretty-good critters.

Maybe also do something about chain-casting Armageddon. In general, have wishes that improve the position of the wisher, rather than trashing everyone else.

Or just make clams water-1, nature-1 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif