Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

Well, in the standard Ulm armies the Siege Engineer and Sappers look like they *do* build catapults and so on when sieging.
The idea is cool though, so we could have other things than Jotuns to hurl boulders ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
We can even give catapults some flame attack - naphta/boiling oil !! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
For naval combat we have to wait - same for any "transport" unit ... too bad ... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

And J.O., you know what's funny ? Back in MoM days one of the worst abuse was to have flying invisible warships to wreck havoc on the whole map !! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ January 18, 2004, 19:22: Message edited by: PDF ]

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I was thinking about this yesterday. It's almost possible to mod something interesting, but the problem is that there is no way to restrict the movement of such ships to the water - it would always be possible to drag them across land provinces, which is silly. So unless and until IW decide to implement something to help with that quibble, they have to be rationalized/imagined as at least partly magical, like the pocket ship or Vanheim leaders.

The added problem with items like Pocket Ship is you can teleport them for free using magic labs, or give them to a flying unit or undead cavalry or other fast leader type, and move them very fast across land.

The added problem with "leader" ships is that there is no way to use them to transport other leaders.

Still, adding magic ships to more races could be interesting. Some maps (such as some of Gandalf's random maps, and the England map) bring up some interesting maps for coast-to-coast ship movement, such as when there are many land provinces all adjoining one sea province, so sea movement can not only bridge obstacles, but also can allow much faster coastal movement.

Siege engines could be fun, but I would wait for the weapon mod and then make them not very efficient, so even if people Gift of Nature them and add silly powers to them, they won't be too powerful. That is, a missile-thrower would be innaccurate and have an extremely low rate of fire (should be quite worse than an Ulmish arbalest, or even simply ammo = 1) - the advantage is if it does hit something, that thing is almost surely kaput. I would give practically all siege engines a strategic move of zero, as well (not one).

PvK

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

Perhaps it shouldn't be possible to Give Reason to mindless beings or constructs. Poor Iron Dragons http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">NOooo!!! Boo. Hiss. I knew IW had a dislike for giving the Gift to Void summonings! The truth comes out! Squid-heads of the world unite. We must crush this foul, evil idea before it takes firmer root! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The spell name should probably be changed to gift of command then, as reason implies some thinking ability.

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">NOooo!!! Boo. Hiss. I knew IW had a dislike for giving the Gift to Void summonings! The truth comes out! Squid-heads of the world unite. We must crush this foul, evil idea before it takes firmer root! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The vastness has astral for a reason, namely as a slight bonus when and if anyone tries to make it reasonable, same with the 10 strat move. So no one is going to take that particular toy away from you.

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">And such a lovely toy indeed it is. Thank you, thank you!

(poster goes back to lurking ... in her void gate)

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">And such a lovely toy indeed it is. Thank you, thank you!

(poster goes back to lurking ... in her void gate) </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">...until Pythium or other astrally powerful nation teleports in some prepared Magic Duelers before you can take advantage of the 10 movement points that turn.

Everything dies to something. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">R'lyeh is every bit as capable of teleporting starspawns around as Pythium. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Rise of the Machines suggestion
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ah, invisible flying warships, how I miss thee. Especially invisible, flying, spell-locked warships. Dispel that! It was fun starting out with flying warships, then upgrading them to invisible, flying, spell-locked, hasted warships.

It was almost as bad as the endless free elementals for a 13(?)-book mage. Especially free air elementals with your invisible flying warships. Just start spawning out the endless hordes of elementals, phantom warriors, and phantom beasts ad-infinitum once you found a random book that made them free. You could even get to the point where you had a graphical glitch of them appearing in the wrong place with the wrong graphic if you did it enough.