Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

How does damage, armor, and strength work? It looks like most things just roll a single open ended die and that's how much damage it taken. If you have armor, do you get to roll a die and add your armor value to the damage prevented or do you just subtract your armor value from the incoming damage? The Bakemono wizard in Edi's AAR does 1d3+3 with his staff. Is that from some kind of magical staff, or does it have something to do with his strength of 6?

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

Damage is open-ended. Damage bonus actually increases die size. The reason why it appears as a bonus is because a staff can be replaced by a better magic weapon and the damage bonus would then increase the die size of that weapon. For monsters with natural weapons, strength increases (from spells etc) directly increase die size of weapons.

Armor doesn't get die rolls added, it's a direct subtraction. The mechanics are a bit more involved than that, but it's all going to be in the manual.

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

CoE3... Sounds just like a game for me!
Faster paced and with a better AI than Dom3? Cool!
The combat screen looks about as exciting as a cancer-patient, but I can live with that I suppose.

A few questions:

1. Are there more graphic terrain-types than just forest/mountains in the world? Would be nice to see and wander some deserts for example.

2. Is there any "leader" class that specializes in melee? Only heard about a necro and some enchantress so far.

3. What MP alternatives will the game have except hotseat?

Extra thanks to all the people who bothered to write AARs! Cheers nyiggahs

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

1) Many. Rivers, lakes, volcanoes, savanna, desert, mesa, jungle, swamp, and many more. The Map Editor presently lists 196 tiles altho some of those are variations of the same terrain and some are special sites.

2) Yes. I would say Baron, Troll King, Senator, and Pale Ones. They tend to rule the early game and smaller maps. Dwarves and Burgmeister (hobbits, halfings) also tend to play a melee game very well. But they are more horde (large numbers) and are slow so they are better for the turtle defensive player.

3) Only HotSeat, and Direct Connect over the net like Dom3 does. No PbEM (and I think it plays too fast for that anyway). I predict it will popular in IRC channels and Chat rooms.

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

I'll throw this into the void: could there be a game option to randomize the first side to attack (rather than the defender always getting the first attack)? Maybe a check box in an in-game menu?

That would add some extra element of surprise and make skirmishes a bit less about amassing a couple more units as cannon fodder.

Although, as I reflect on this tactic, having the defender always attack first adds an extra element of strategy to the game (e.g. if you have a slightly smaller force than your enemy, then you would have the opportunity to retreat since the enemy would be hesitant to attack).

It's way to far into development to implement this, but this is an idea: certain tiles could have random chances of allowing first attack to the defender or aggressor. For instance, if you attack while on a forest tile, maybe there is a 30% change the aggressor attacks first due to forest ambush. With a castle or tower, the defender would always attack first. If a swamp, the defender would be more likely to attack first.

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

I hope in the future an initiative value will be given for each unit, and each round of combat die rolls are added to it to determine action order. Each unit only gets one action per round but then the high initiative units have greater chance of going first. I'd keep the variation in initiative low so stacks of high initiative units don't hugely dominate.

Maybe in the future, I'm just keen to start playing :)

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

I wanted to correct something I said earlier (in relation to recruitment and allow commanders to lead other units in COE2), this feature is already in CoE2. You can make a commander a unit by viewing that commander's stats and pressing "d."

I should read the manual more closely. Have fun playing CoE2 until CoE3 comes out :)

Oh yeah, one other thing. Instead of the game winning screen saying "You won!" You should offer nuggets of wisdom, easter eggs, story ending depending on statistics or the commander with which you won, or insight about the game (a la nethack fortune cookies).

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

That is a fantastic idea. CoE2 is lots of fun, but winning... kind of sucks. It is anti-climactic to say the least. I can't tell you how many times I've strung out a game just to mess around with stuff because I don't want to see "You've won!" and then game over.

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

Dom3 does that too if you actually play to the point of winning. You get a message saying "A true god has ascended!" and then it drops you back at the start screen. Rather anticlimatic.

Re: Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log
 

I keep wanting the end-game screen to say "One of your commanders has decided he deserves to be thought of as more than a mere mortal. He is continuing into the rest of the world to claim his godhood. (check out Illwinters other fantasy game Dominions 3)"

And then link to my Dominions 3 link so I can get a couple dollars off of each purchase.