Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

I think you are right in saying it's limited, but not totally limited. The Fortune Teller is your friend http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I think her random is only Sorcery (astral, death, nature, blood) so she in and of herself doesnt have alot of leeway. The Counts are decent (2 Death, 2 Blood) but overall they don't have very much mage variety. And I'll be the first to admit that Blood doesn't have very many combat spells.

If they did ... eh?

Also most of their mages are recruitable outside of their capital (Illuminated Ones, Member of the Second Tier) so it works well with they hyperexpansion and later the uberraiding of the theme.

I just can't seem to get past how quickly you can get a factory of the counts rolling while almost totally ignoring researching Blood. Combine it with a strong foundation of armies (again, xbows and free patroller/fodder) it seems that Black Forest was given all the cards while some nations/themes are sitting in the trailerpark watching it on TV.

I don't know how abusive the Ice Devil strategy was in Dom 1, but if the sacrifices (Getting a Pretender with Blood/Death, forced Misfortune (no big deal)) allow you to win the game then it should be addressed if not *For* Black Forest, *for* all the nation/themes that don't have an easy way to deal with Supercombatants (I.E. Paralyze, Blindness).

[ January 13, 2004, 20:51: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

Just a rather odd note, shouldn't the ghoul guardians still be wearing their full plate of ulm suits? From what I understand, they died before those went out of fashion and it seems odd that undead would change their armor over time =)

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Good point!

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

For the purpose of upkeep:

Thralls cost 1 gold (1/15 per turn). Wolves are free. And taking a 9-Blood 3-Death FoB makes you incredibly powerful... wolves and thralls make good patrollers to control the unrest. However... I'm thinking gypsies and witches... and bats. Bats are essential. Did gypsies and witches live in Transylvania? Or is the fortune teller a gypsy? I guess so...

Maybe this theme should have a forced misfortune scale, and a propensity for peasant revolts.

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Better yet, it should be forced to have at least Misfortune 1, Death 1, and Magic 1. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

Jasper is mean to the furry ears http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

If you didn't notice, it does Saber http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I think this would be hard from a MP aspect (though I want to be a beta tester!) as the games take hours/days/weeks in order to complete. Logical deductions can be made and SP tests can be done, but if IW decides to do a beta testing team, they need to make sure they can find people who play (often) and who are abusive to the mechanics http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

More than a week would be needed for anything more than initial impressions. (Especially for new spells and such).

I don't mind being used as a paying beta-tester, if the game works and it doesn't crash every hour. Most companies do regardless, at least here they try hard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ January 13, 2004, 22:20: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

If you want to pay to be a beta tester, try out Knights of the Old Republic by bioware, that has to be the buggiest pile of goo I have ever played...there is NO WAY that thing had more then an hour of QA...if even!


And I made a good point for once wohoo...it seemed weird the guardian ghouls were wearing normal plate. I don't really see any balance reason as high level priests are still going to make altar boys outta em http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hey, what are you two implying? I knew that! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

But still, I think national bad events would be very thematic... involving peasant uprisings, garlic farmer uprisings, silversmith uprisings, bloodslave mercy-killings by the kindly old butler who found the key to cellar door, national antiheros like Buffy appearing... the birth of daywalkers / compassionate vampire rebels, lynchings, vampires accidentally sucking the wrong blood type and dying from massive hemmoraging... those things! Floods, barbarians, earthquakes, and such tend to be much more rare in vampire-rich areas.

Any chance we'll get national events in the next patch? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Black Forest - Ulm
 

National Events would be very cool. I'd settle for exported and modifiable events however. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif