Re: End game diversity mod
 

Have you found what you need now GB? The Endgame Diversity Mod thread in the Mods and Maps subforum should contain all the info you need (plus pictures!).

Amhazair - thanks!

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Wow, that is great...

It really helps a lot and answers a lot of my questions also!!

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Okay, I'm sorry for being rather harsh, but even someone who isn't really quick with computers should be able to use google, or start up a simple practice game to check, or click back a page or two in the maps/mods section. Posting questions that are truly easy to answer oneself communicates itself to me as laziness, and continually claiming computer illiteracy as an excuse makes it seem like you have no desire/made no effort to learn.

This drives me up a wall because overall I tend to see the dom3 community as being composed of reasonably intelligent people, especially in comparison to most internet gaming communities.

And for the record, I'm not sombre, really. I haven't posted in hardly any of his mod threads, made almost no posts in that forum entirely IIRC, and that would be a rather strange behavior of his would it not?

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Maybe I should make it more to the point concerning my knowledge of computers (or lack there of).

I honestly just don't get it when it comes to electronics...

Put me in the dirt with a brush and a trowel and I might find you an artifact of a civilazation that might have actually worshipped some of the creatures in this game. I don't believe this game takes that much intelligence to play (although it seems everyone on here is very smart). It does take the dedication to keep abreast with every nuance, new mod, and hours to play test games (which I have never even learned how to load that mod).

I believe that I have the tactical and strategic skill to play this game as well as anyone up until about turn 50 or so, and then it is over my head.

I just don't have the time or effort to put into this game owning 2 small companies, traveling to play Rugby 5 months out of the year and Playing on a traveling tournement softball team 4 more months out of the year.

So, I ask questions in order to semi keep up with you guys. I know it irks a lot of people when they seem simple and have been talked about over and over. But please remember, I don't have the time to be on here and read all the posts, or even 1/4 of them. All I ask is that someone with some knowledge answer or point me in a direction. The rest I will have to figure out myself. If those that find it tiresome don't reply, I have no problem with that. If no one answers, I have no problem with that either. Being berated for trying to stay on here so you guys can beat on me and be semi competitive, I do have a problem with that. Just ignore me and go on with your business. Why take the time to constantly tell me that I should be looking here or there? It just takes away from your time better spent and it isn't going to do any good anyway.

I hope this explains it and excuse me if I went a little over the top...bad day at work.:(

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Can we stop the personal attacks.

Did Grudge ask an easy-to-answer question? Sure. Does that mean he deserved to be attacked by a couple of people? Not at all. It doesn't hurt to answer the easy questions. And its not inappropriate to ask them either, nor does it harm the forum in any way.

Now, there's not necessarily anything wrong with the 'here's where you can find the information' responses in content. You might not remember the answer off the top of your head either. But the tone of 'i can't believe you're asking this' is way out of line.

Of course, Jarkko doesn't help much by being aggressive himself, which perpetuates the nonsense. But seriously, everyone chill, take 5 minutes, and then be civil. Not that I mind a good troll-fest over something ridiculous, but try not to direct your ire at someone who's clearly not keen on participating.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Squirrel.....your right, no need to keep a running gun battle going. My apologies to everyone and I hope my explanation was enough to take some of the ire out of answering my very basic questions.

I will not participate any longer with this argument.

Jarkko, I still thank you for taking the time to answer my question.:up:

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Treants, I find it somewhat weird that treants are more expensive than treelords.
Even with a small decrise in price they will still not be used as nature gems are very precious.
So maybe split their cost into another path, say earth. 20N and 20E for a treant?

Now Zmey, I personally find them unusable. First time I summoned one I didn't even notice the extra forms as it died in a single turn against Jotun militia and a few non commander banes. They might be worth occasionally as anti SC if you place horned helmets, burning pearl, a strength item and a stone bird. But I don't know, I've still had mine lose to simple PD.

Shinyas, I changed my mind about those after I got my ars whooped a few times. They seem to fair well as anti thuggish, SC's types, but lack item slots, or is it sloths?:P, to make them widely usable, durable.

Ember Lords, heh, great. As Amhazir said you just need some elemental resistances, reinvig and regeneration (which is manageable) and they can hardly get killed.

Cyclops, I think they're nice, good HP, good prot, can self reinvigorate to eliminate that start fatigue. Can be used for magic and for fighting. Decent for the price. They're pretty much the same as the Cyclops pretender.

Asynjas, I love those. I love anything you can thug out, teleport and sneak around! If I played Cealum and go as far as making one an assassin. An SC assassin, now that would be nice, wasteful, but nice :)
And every once in a while you'll hit a good cross path. In any case they're good for the price, and if you're too late for ERoys.

Firebird, never summoned one, never think I will. Too fragile and can't really be used as a caster I think. Maybe a slight boost in fire or a bonus of sort?

Wendigo, pretty nice if you can afford to wait around. Can do the fighting and the spell casting too.

Grendelkin, hmm, boxers! Giving them anything but the gloves of the gladiator is a crime! They're excellent at supporting armies and killing almost any kind of SC, but I wouldn't risk them by sending them out alone. They do have good protection, and HP, and you can even boost their MR very high, but elemental damage will still kill them instantly.

Ettin, crap. Too expensive and unusable in any situation. You can't thug them out, they'll die to just about anything even with full armor, very low MR, just really bad...

Roc, never used one, Wall Shaker/Horn or something like that is still cheaper. Doe the cloud trapezing part is nice. :)

Kraken, they're a bit hard with being an underwater summon and all, and still you need to place amulet of the fish if you want them on land, which leaves only the head and one misc left I think? They are hard to use in battle, can't reinvigorate themselves as they only have E1, and you can't place a booster, no bloodstones anymore. You have W3 but can't cast even quickness due to fatigue, and B1 gives you nothing, both for fighting or for spell casting, just an expensive blood hunter. I guess a reverse communion can be used on a Kraken with them having B1, but you need to drag along mages and blood slaves, and I think the blood communion has very high fatigue right? Which would make it unusable even with a communion other than as a very expensive spell caster.
They can't even be used as potent battle mages as W3 doesn't give you much.
I can only see them being used in water with a water bracelet, water power and casting shark attack and stuff.

Mehanical giant, no opinion, never used one.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Can't do that. Spells can require different paths, but use one sort of gem only (ie not similar to crafting items, which can use different gems).

I whole heartedly agree with your comments on the nature summons, as I have from the very first day. The nature summons in EDM are useless and overpriced.

In my opinion the True Firebird is useless if you can not cast Phoenix Pyre. Even with PP not very useful IMO, a unique summon that is practically impotent against its "main" target (undeads tend to be supported by death mages -> death mages will just fatigue with shadowbolt/blast netherbolt/dart the bird to cinders in a couple rounds). It needs an army for support to survive death-mages, and if you have an army then you don't want to use PP or have the army go blind :p Works as a solo raider against PD, but then again what doesn't?

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Ah, I stand corrected, I forgot about that. But I fear that will render Treants obsolete from almost any game.:(

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Just a quick post to say that the Firebird is a good EDM summon in my opinion, just as long as you realise it shouldn't ever go into battle. As if you are sending it to battle, then it likely is pure rubbish.

Since if you read the description, it will tell you that the Firebird "encourages good events" (or something like that). Which indeed it does, as I had it for the last 20+ in Prep2, and I had at least a dozen good events in the province I kept him in, and not a single bad one either (with Misf2 scales). So if you can get the Firebird, then there's a fair chance it'll pay for itself with good events pretty quickly. Especially if you have Misf2 scales.

I think some players need to realise that not every single summon in the game is designed to head to the battlefield. Blood-random Asynja's for example would likely never leave a lab in my kingdom, since they'd be too busy summoning Storm Demons. (unless I needed them as part of a communion)

(Edit)
The value of a lot of summons depends entirely on the nation and on the situation. Some nations will find a certain summon useless, while others will find them invaluable. Shishi's are a good example of this IMO (and I reckon their stats/price is pretty much spot-on right now). As to a nation without any magic phase raiders, they are likely worth their weight in gems. But to someone like Eriu, they are nothing more than a luxurious expense. So judging a summon out of the context of its surroundings isn't always the correct way of establishing its relative value. At least IMO.


Also @ Amhazair - Death random Asynja's are great because they can cast Winds of Death or (especially) Wailing Winds. Granted, if you're a nation like LA Caelum then you likely don't care about getting access to A/D paths. But if you haven't got A/D paths already, then A/D Asynja's are pretty sweet :)

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Hmmm, not a bad point. I have to say I've never yet used either of those two spells, nor had them used against me. (And people call me a vet. Sheesh!) I think one of my Asynja's has a D pick. (Along with the earth I was using him for.) Gona see if I can think of a good situation to experiment in.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Firebird has a great niche of destroying big undead armies using only a low number of fire gems and relatively low level conjuration research. Just don't use them by themselves, obviously. Use it with guys you don't care about going blind (chaff, guys with recuperation, PD) and SCs with high MR and it can be a great bang for the buck when a huge C'tis or Ermorian army shows up and you've not got the mages/research to drop the classic goto spells for that situation. Handy for countering an opponent who is beating you over the head with darkness to.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Since quest for firebird is a unique spell, hardly a nation truely need it can afford the risk of waste....

Re: End game diversity mod
 

On krakens:

I tend to differ with the general opinion. Kraken is, I think, a very cost-efficient super-thug. It does not have slots... but then it does not need some to provide good army support. Amulet of fish, RoR and a reinvig item is enough, then cast stone/iron skin, quicken self, maybe breath of winter/ fire resistance (you have it through E-W combo) if needed, et voila. Multiple AP attacks provided by tentacles is really like a good magical weapon already and combines very well with quicken self, stone or iron skin and good HP removes the need for magic armor, one reinvig. item is enough to deal with fatigue as encumbrance is low.

If you plan to fight SC rather than armies, you can replace reinv. item by a cheap attack of strength bonus which works well with the 8 tentacle attacks by round.

Healing afflictions is a plus to ensure a good return on investment, as when you are opposed with Black Bow or just regular battle wounds.

Of course not the most powerful SC you can find... but for the price in gems, a very efficient one, IMHO.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

... and you get to say "RELEASE THE KRAKEN!" in a dramatic, moving voice. ;)
ssj

PS Got me thinking if there are any SCs where you could make a case to empower them with some path. Granted there are other things to spend gems on but there could be special circumstances that might trump the opportunity loss.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

I've just finished a MP game in which I was at war against Machaka who was relying on a lot of ember lords. I've sent a lot of anti-SC to counter them and 3/4 of them got blind while fighting the ember lords (the ember lords where alone and they didn't hold an eye shield).
Is it just bad luck or does the ember lords have some kind of special capacity?

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Are you sure no other mage casting blindness? No eyebow and no solar brilliance been casted?

Re: End game diversity mod
 

The Ember Lords could have been packing Eye Shields as well. Fairly common and nasty SC gear.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

My Ember Lords had some Eyeshields, some sorcerers were scripted on spamming Blindness, and a Firebird was wandering around. I guess all of that have destroyed some fragile eyes.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Can ember lord go underwater?

Re: End game diversity mod
 

do you have any idea what testing means? its what SP is for

Re: End game diversity mod
 

I've always founds this community to be friendly and helpful. Thank you priestyman for your concise and generously helpful response.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Ember Lords can't go underwater, unless they're given a water breathing item. You can see they don't have the "amphibian" symbol. However they're not utterly un-underwaterable, like Air Queens or vampires.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

and lords of elemental fire- thats why i asked... i thought it might be similar

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Ettins are fun as an early thug that you can turn into a decent anti-thug. It's got basic resistances and great ambidexterity so if you've got some blood slaves you can give it 3 flesh eaters and a warrior ring and have it do a pretty good at guarding a sideline or backing up another thug to take out an SC. It's also handy with a lucky amulet as a cheap throwaway to counter life-for-a-life spam (targets highest HP unit).

Krakens are a great unit for a non-water nation to jump into the water with. They have decent some base resistances, high HP, good attack against high-defense or high-prot units, recuperation and can handle raiders very well. If you get 2 of them you barely even need to bother with reinvigoration unless someone's making a serious push into the water. Luck amulet + girdle of might + antimagic amulet work well, especially with earth picks where you can ironskin + holdx4 + attack