Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Thank you!
I'll try to keep this short and to the point:
- WHy does "shroud" help old warlocks?
- What are the chances of Growth scales not giving old-age afflictions? Does that help a lot?
- So being unconscious doesnt actually drop your defense and attack to 0 like if you are paralyzed?
- Will growth scales counteract LA Ryleh population kill?
- Gave my warlocks a Dwarven Hammer, but still use 100% of slaves in forging. Does blood not count in forge bonus or are warlocks bugged?
- I gave my Abysian Assassin two Fire Bolas, but he didnt seem to use even one of them, just stood there and got killed. Can you not dual-wield single-handed weapons?
- I see a lot of units with darkvision. Is that ever actually useful?

THank you!

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Q WHy does "shroud" help old warlocks?
A If you have a nature bless and put a shroud on a diseased unit, hit point loss will stabilise. It won’t prevent disease or other subsequent afflictions
Q What are the chances of Growth scales not giving old-age afflictions? Does that help a lot?
A Quite a lot, not sure specifically. My feel is maybe you get 1/3rd the afflictions (with growth 3), just a guess
Q So being unconscious doesnt actually drop your defense and attack to 0 like if you are paralyzed?
A Unsure
Q Will growth scales counteract LA Ryleh population kill?
A No – they will help some, but the dom kill domains are stronger than growth/death scales
Q Gave my warlocks a Dwarven Hammer, but still use 100% of slaves in forging. Does blood not count in forge bonus or are warlocks bugged?
A Soul Contracts and Lifelong Protection get no bonus from hammers, other blood items do
Q I gave my Abysian Assassin two Fire Bolas, but he didnt seem to use even one of them, just stood there and got killed. Can you not dual-wield single-handed weapons?
A What script did he have?
Q I see a lot of units with darkvision. Is that ever actually useful?
A Yes, when you or someone else casts Darkness, of if the Utterdark global is active

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Being unconscious or paralysed is worse than having 0 attack as you don't attack at all. 0 attack can still hit if you're lucky.
Fire bolas are ranged weapons. I'm not sure you can use two ranged weapons at once. It's quite normal that assassin won't move with ranged weapons, but he should throw it.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Double fire bolas work. Their range is pretty short though, dependent on strength.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Thank you, thank you!
- OK it was a lifelong protection, good to know. I suppose no forge bonus makes sense. Would the Forge Lord also get none there if he had Blood to forge it?
- My fire bolas were definately not working. I scripted him to "fire". I am pretty sure my little assassin didn't do anything at all but try to get closer. I saw a fire bola work in the same game (my opponent, the Japanese-sounding fellows, had equipped some Generals, I think, with some -- errr actually, come to think of it, I think he got a fire bola off my assassin who didnt scratch him!!), there is a little animation and a fire thingy flies off. Next time I will try only one fire bola?
- So having a Nature Bless helps vs. Old Age afflictions -- will that also work for Old Aged Sacred people just researching (like Pythium) if they have nature bless?
Thanks so much again

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Nature bless doesn't directly help against Old Age afflictions. What it does is give regeneration which stops hit point loss due to disease. This does not work on sacred units unless you send them into combat & bless them at which point even diseased units will regenerate up to full. Putting a shroud on makes a unit blessed all the time, thus giving them regen outside of battle and stopping hp loss from disease. Putting a regeneration ring on them would do the same thing, but is more expensive.

Again, a better approach for blood nations is Boots of Youth, which stops aging and prevents old age afflictions in the first place.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Nature bless helps against diseases by healing your unit's hp and thus preventing it from dying. You need a shroud of the battle saint (or be a prophet) or actually participate in a fight to get the benefits.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Thank you all very much so far. GOod stuff! I am back for more!

1. I had a mage cast Call of the Winds in a distant province X. Same turn, I commanded three small sneaky armies to combine forces and attack that province X. One army was in X that turn, 2 armies moved to X from adjacent enemy provs that turn -- at least I think that's the case. What surprises me and what I dont understand is this: There were TWO battles. First, a "magic" battle -- but one of my sneaky armies joined in! Then, later, near the end of the turn, there was another battle, where the two sneaky armies that did not join the first one did battle. Help! I dont get it. I would understand it if (a) ONLY the hawks fought, then all three of my sneakers would fight, or (b) ALL of the armies plus the hawks would fight (what I was hoping for -- I had never tried this before!). But sadly, c was the result, and I dont know why. Can anyone explain?

2. Can anyone tell me what settings are kind of "standard" for MP games? I would like to get used to them. For this reason, I currently play SP with CBM and Better Independents Mod, hoping that is "standard". And I turn Renaming On. (Why is Off default? Cant imagine playing wthiout it.) What else is standard? Do people leave gold, resoruce, magic and research settings alone? What about independent strength? Are score graphs left on or turned off? THANK YOU.

Darn I had a lot more questions saved but I forgot them -- ill be back!
thank you

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

1) Sneakers attacking the province they're in will join magic phase attacks? And other sneakers won't?
I'm not sure of this, but it matches some behavior I've seen

2) CBM is standard these days. I don't think Better Independents is, but that's mostly to keep the AI from buying too many worthless chaff troops, so it wouldn't really affect MP too much.
Big games often make research harder. Renaming is on. Gold & resources usually are default. Magic sometimes goes up a bit, particularly in the later ages. Default indy strength is most common. Score graphs go both ways.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

The jeff is right about sneakers. If they attack the province they are IN (not an adjacent province) one of two things will happen:

1) A friendly magic attack happens that turn. The sneakers join the magic battle.

2) No magic attacks. The sneakers attack during normal battle phase (with other allied forces if there are any).

3) There is a non-friendly (neutral or enemy) magic attack. This situation is a bit sketchy (search for ghost riders+scouts for the full details), but it appears the sneaking attackers will join in the magic battle phase and attack with their own battle (before or after the magic armies). This is not generally a worry unless one or both sides are casting lots of remote attack spells (especially the summon neutral attack ones).

A final point, defending sneakers are not affected by any of this. They are always either defending/patrolling (and then are treated just like any other defender) or hiding (and then they do not fight at all).

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

It's not the province that the sneakers attack that is important. The important thing is you are casting a ritual to attack a province with currently-sneaking sneakers in it, and those sneakers have an order to attack the current province or move (not sneak) into another province.

That will cause the sneakers to fight in the magic phase.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Are you saying: Even if they are moving somewhere else?
Boy, that's complicated!

One more: Magic items dont stack, right? Or wait, some do and some don't? I got that "Sun Armor" off a famous guy, and it gives me awe. I thought: Awesome! Lets make more! And made me a golden shield. But it didnt add awe. But +Fear items seem to stack. Is there a rule on what stacks and what doesn't?

And: Blink. I've been watching a lot of battles lately, and it seems that the AI will also cast this spell at the worst possible moment (blinking a weak mage into the midst of a routing army). But then again: I have never seen the RIGHT moment occur, ever. I suppose the spell might be useful if you had a really tough buffed astral-thug, but I don't see why blinking randomly would be more useful than just walking over to the next enemy and killing him thusly. In other words: This spell seems to do a LOT more harm than good in 90% of the cases I have ever seen or can imagine. So.... is there any way to turn some spells OFF? (Or maybe just plea to have them eliminated in a patch?)

Last one for today! Mercenaries. I don't like them. I mean, they are nice and all, but I play SP and they really make it almost too easy for me, since the AI doenst bid effectively (and will bid full price on mercs with all their guys dead). In the game setup screen, I do not see a way to turn them off -- can anyone help me please?

THANKS AGAIN!

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Blink sucks - fewer than 5 times in 100 is it useful.

Thanks for the reminder: in my balance mod I will put a gemcost on this to deprecate the AI casting it.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Afaik all item effects from different items stack, unless it's a either or effect. Luck doesn't stack, but awe should.

Just don't bid on the mercs, problem solved. :)
And the AI isn't the only one who bids on mercenaries that have been killed.
"Wait, noone bids on him? He has even reduced prices. What an opportunity..."

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Awe might stack, although IIRC you have to click on the awe icon to see the correct awe value.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Thank you!
I have awe+2 with sun armor on and nothing else.
I have awe +0 with the golden shield on and nothing else.
I have awe+2 with both items on together.
I induce from this that awe doesn't stack. Help my faulty reasoning?

My problem is: If I dont bid on the mercs, the AI will get them. I suppose I could play that way, but it doesnt really feel satisfying.
I find it odd that this game has so many options and choices, all good stuff, and there is no switch for "mercanaries available: on" in the game setup. Wouldnt that be easy to have? (<-- sorry, I am not computer saavy, this is a real question.)

Chris, are you the gentleman responsible for that CBM mod? Thank you! I would be happy to have an updated version where blink did not ruin my day. Thank you!

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

@ Happygeek.

I just tested the Sun Armor and Golden Shield, and when equipped together I get an Awe of +3, which is what I expected as it's in line with Awe stacking from separate items/ability.

The Conceptual Balance Mod is mostly the work of 'quantum_mechani' I believe. 'Chris Pedersen' sometimes uses his own altered version of that mod when he organises a new game.

One tip for not getting your mages killed by the Blink spell is to research Evocation 1 before Thaumaturgy 1, as then your mages have the S1 spell Star Fires to cast instead, which the AI usually gives a higher priority for casting than 'Blink'.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

@Happygeek - which version of Dom are you running? Some early versions failed to display Awe correctly.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Just a quick question. Is there a way to view previous battles?

I've got a battle report that my spy found, I'm looking to keep the battle report. Is the only way I could do this was to keep that turn file?

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Yes. Save the turn file.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Someone wrote a script that backs up turn files automatically for you. search for key word backup and I think you'll find it.

Re: Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)
 

Hello!
I am running 3.23b.
I notice at least one discrepancy in awe here: On the character sheet, my mouse-over awe listing is *always* 1 point lower than when I click on the awe icon and get the details. E.g., I have awe +0 displayed on the commander page, but when I click that, I see awe+1.
In either case, I just relooked again, and the awe does *not* increase with the golden shield. But there might be a problem with the other items of that sun armor "set", I seem to get awe from the helmet too altough this is not listed in the description.

Where are the saved game turns located so that I might save them to reload as Sun Empire suggested?