Re: Hidden in Snow
 

He hacked the code!

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

> I think the game is playing favorites. FAVORITES, I SAY!!

I'm inclined to agree. I'ver had more luck in my game than anyone deserves. Especially in the beginning when it counts the most.

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Time to resurrect an old thread ... can Hidden In Snow get some help from Cold or Luck scales in the next patch?

2 casts in MP, the 1st one gave 25 warriors total and a D1 mage ... not too terribly shabby, especially for a nation with horrible upkeep problems, a bit of surplus water, and dire need of ground forces AKA chaff. But the second cast gave no mages, and a whopping total of 7 units. In a cold-3 luck-3 province. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Should have just gone for another Kokythiad, and it would even have been cheaper.

Edit:
Whoops, I gotta learn how to count. 6 units for 55 water gems, not 7:
1 Unfrozen Lord
1 Flint Sword guy
4 Stone Spear guys

That's got to be the saddest tribe ever. More of a little nuclear family than a tribe, really.

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Wow, that second cast was bad. I think I have always gotten the 25 undead warriors, though the mages are always kind of iffy. I haven't cast it in ages though, probably two patches ago was the last time I cast it.

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Are the results completely random without regard to caster level?

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

There's no "caster level" value set in the Number of Effects for the spell. But the custom code for the spell that determines the number of Unfrozen could look at the caster level. I guess it needs to be tested. Or ignored. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Indeed a sad count http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

See, I think now the spell should be made even LESS reliable, but maybe a little better on _average_, so actually very good when it works. And require mountain terrain. That way, one can't just go around automatically finding hidden tribes everywhere. And most importantly, the T-shirt will still be valid comedy, and the players who hate to get unlucky will still be annoyed and not use it, even though on average, they should. ;-D

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

From the Dominions 3 progress page...

Cool! Hate to poke a gift horse in the eye with a pointed stick, but how about the cold scales ... do they actually have any effect on Hidden in Snow? I know they're supposed to, but it doesn't seem like it (or maybe it's just the randomness).

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

The first belly-laugh I have ever had from a Dominions post. Nicely done Borsuk.

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Hear hear Borsuk!

Also, this development pleases me. As one of the more thematically interesting spells, it was sad to have it on the sidelines.

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Cold doesn't have any effect. After all it should be easier to get a tribe when a glacier is melting. Perhaps making it castable only in mountains, but that would be a new feature I'm not sure I would manage program-wise. More of a JK thing. (Actually I'm a bit proud of adding the scale effect in the spell, I wasn't sure I could do it without help).

Turmoil and magic scales increases the ratio of warriors.
Luck increases the mage chance.
Changes to the mage chance makes the first one easier to get and the second less common.
Approximately an additional 20 units. About 40 seems to be a common random result.
Cost upped to 75.

Not sure about cost balancing yet. Beta will have to say something, but you can as well if you have opinions on the above info.

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

Cost upped to 75...eek! How about making the results scalable based on caster level as an alternative?

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

KO, thanks for the info about the scales.

I don't mind the higher cost. More units for one cast instead of several means your caster can spend the next turn researching instead of summoning again. And it's really nice to have something upkeep-free to spend water gems on, rather than Trolls that exist only to ruin your finances. Or boring clams.

Unfrozen are really pretty nice: they heal, don't eat, they have nice MR, great HP, and good resistances. LA Atlantis should love these guys!

Re: Hidden in Snow
 

I find it very ironic that in order to get more predictable results from the spell minmaxers will have to take very unpredictable Luck scales .

http://www.viruscomix.com/page329.html