Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Oh my Umor, that Devata looks like a can of kick-***. Demon whip, were'd ya get a blood/fire mage to make it?

A map of your conquests would be nice.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

The Demon whip I think I mentioned earlier... I either got it as a random event or in a battle.

It turns out quickness effects don't stack, although it took me a few turns to figure that out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

there's a map coming up in a turn or two - I can't go back and take a shot because I'm up at turn 71 now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Ok, I understand.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

In Dom2 each attack against a target lowered the defense of the defender by one against subsequent attacks. Is this still true in Dom3? If so, Balastha could still get beat up by a horde of little guys (imps, hoburgs) that can all make attacks, or by guys with lots of attacks.
Still, quite nice!

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Gandalf kicked some *** there! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

I think this works the same in Dom 3. Maybe I need to give him even more http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

His biggest weakness is no elemental resistance.

I would remove the anti-missle amulet since he can cast an easy spell for the missle protection. An item of reinvigoration will serve much better.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

yeah i ended up changing his equipment, especially when I researched Arrow Fend, which was his job to cast for the whole army.

Elemental Resistance is not nearly so important in MP as in SP though. Vanheim is more likely to spam phantasmal warriors or ghost wolves than he is to cast lightning spells.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Sounds like he was a good investement then.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Turn 61
T'ien Ch'i tried to wrest the city that was once his capital from me this turn; I batted his attack aside contemptuously, and stripped the magical equipment off the dead bodies of his commanders. I now possess a set of plate armour imbued with the power of fire and two large swords designed to fight demons.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...1demonbane.jpg

Vanheim also attacked Cathedral Gap again, but was beaten off more easily this time.

Balastha the Devata is working his way south to join up my army in T'ien Ch'i's capital. Once he arrives I will divide the army into two and while one guards the capital the other will sweep up T'ien Ch'i's remaining provinces. Then it will be down to just Vanheim and me.

Speaking of Vanheim, his false god is wandering about alone next to my provinces in the west. Unfortunately I do not have any fun remote attacks to throw at him.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

That Demon Bane looks like a superb weapon.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

By extreme damage, do you know if it's 2X or 3X to demons? Seems strange and "not right" that holy swords (from another thread) do 3X to undead _and_ demons, while demon slayers do just _2X_ to demons. The less specific flag seems like it should do less damage to each, but affect more critters.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

I don't know what the specific damage to demons is for the Demon Bane, and I haven't had much of a chance to try it out in this game since neither Vanheim nor T'ien Ch'i is big on summoning demons.

One interesting thing is that there are several spells and items which target demons specifically - which is a very welcome change for all of us terrorized by Ice Devils etc. in Dom II

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Thamks for the AARs. Well written and enjoyable. And I'm learning a bit from reading them too! Keep up the great work.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Well, even if they changed it so that the Blessed Quickness and the Weapon/Spell Quickness don't stack, I hope the heroic version of it still does. I guess it makes sense that the blessing doesn't stack any more. If it did, he would get...

6 attacks per action, with 2 actions every round, but 3 actions every other round. That's 30 attacks every 2 rounds (an average of 15 attacks, basically).

Since it doesn't stack, he should be getting 12 attacks per round versus a maximum of 2 unique squares.

=$=

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

thanks! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Turn 62
A quiet month: I took over another water province; T'ien Ch'i again tried to take back his city, but it was a feeble attempt.

I am calling another Devata. Dhritiman the Siddha is settling down from site searching in the forest ramparts I took from T'ien Ch'i and will defend the frontier, and in his spare time make amulets of missile protection to protect the Yakshas.

I am giving orders for the Yakshini who holds the frontier to the east of T'ien Ch'i's now conquered capital to advance southwards, even though she has only a small force - I think T'ien Ch'i's resistance is broken.

It seems that of all the heroes in the world, my four trusted lieutenants are the only ones alive: Anuprabha the Yaksha, Guruprasada and Bemra the Yakshinis, and Devasura, who is still a hero even though his is crippled. Sadly Ananda is no longer recognised for the great hero he is, but the good news is that he has developed what is known as a 'third eye' which enables him to see beyond the reaches of his normal sight, and makes him more sensitive to, and therefore resistant to hostile magic.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...5375-62map.jpg

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Great going there. The two don't stand a chance against you!

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

I meant to ask this before and I guess I didn't: Does enemy PD show up on the map? I'm assuming your own PD doesn't.

=$=

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

it doesn't show up graphically I don't think, but it'll of course tell you in the description box.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Turn 63
Another Devata has answered my call: Devarama. My armies truly will be unstoppable. I will outfit him and send him to the front as soon as possible.

One of my Markatas (Amoghavarsa) witnessed a battle between T'ien Ch'i and Vanheim. It would seem that T'ien Ch'i has enlisted the services of The Whispering Legion, a notorious mercenary group of otherworldly beings.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...-63whisper.jpg

Hansanadini moved her small force of Yavanas on the frontier into enemy territory, and encountered some resistance - it would seem that the local population organised some kind of militia to resist her advance. Nonetheless she took the province, and found two Water Bracelets on the wrists of an enemy mage. These are always helpful for Yakshinis such as Hansanadini, although the effects do not stack, so only one is really useful.

Balastha the Devata is moving into enemy territory, backed up by Bemra the Yakshini, and Bhadrayu and Avilasa the Yakshas, and 90 Yavanas. I have given him instructions to perform the incantation to call Celestial Music - we will see which of our troops it affects, and how much (since the water 9 blessing already gives partial quickness). His destination is a T'ien Ch'i fort which is being besieged by Vanheim. Looks like the besieging army is 260 strong, but by all accounts including a lot of militia and serf warriors, as well as heavy infantry and presumably Hirdmen and Huskarls.

In other news I finally found a wizard able to cast Augury, an incantation for finding sites of fire magic.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Maybe in a patch or the future they can use a different icon to represent PD. Maybe a number of little shields or helmets can represent how much PD is there.

=$=

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

maybe...but the risk is that the screen become too cluttered. No harm in suggesting it though.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

So are computer AI opponents actually good at bidding for mercenaries in DOM_3 ?
I know with DOM_2 they were poor at making bids for mercenaries allowing the human players to usually acquire them.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Turn 64
My tests have been positive! My Yavanas went from 14 action point to 21 when blessed, to 28 when Celestial Music was cast. The incantation also affected the Gandharvas and Apsaras, as well as the Yakshas and Yakshinis. Here is a shot of Balastha casting the spell.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...1-64battle.jpg

Balastha is now crossing the border into the province where Vanheim is besieging T'ien Ch'i's fortification. He is co-ordinating with Hansanadini and Ananda, who will have no frontier left once this city is captured.

My researchers this turn discovered the words of power that will protect a whole army from missiles. This knowledge is being rushed to the front, where Balastha can put it into practice immediately. My researchers are being tasked on discovering unique magical artifacts.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

mmmm... Stacking quickness makes my mouth water almost as much as the new lighting effects. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Btw, all spell effects look better now. Remeber that slime spell effect? It looks cool now.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Also, it made pretty blue sparklies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Indeed, the new lighting effects are awesome. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Coolnes. I hope to see Orb Lightning in action...

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

I thought the point he was making was that they don't stack. From 14 to 21 due to bless means +50%. To then go on to 28 means a total bless effect of only +100%. Had he not cast the bless but only the other spell, it would have gone from 14 straight to 28. The test he was conducting wasn't about stacking quickness, anyway. It was whether the Yavanas were considered Celestial Dancers or not.

=$=

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

true true. Maybe in light of this spell (Celestial Dancers) I should have gone for a fire blessing instead of water... although it takes a while to get up to Ench. 6 or whatever it is to cast Celestial Dancers - plus the fact that the only national mages that can cast it are summons. Probably better early to mid game the way I did it, and better mid to late game with a fire blessing.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Choices choices. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

But that's what we love in this game, right?

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Turn 65
Success! I dislodged Vanheim's army of more than 300 troops from T'ien Ch'i's fortified city. I lost 11 Yavanas in the process, but their death toll was much higher: 281 warriors and 7 commanders. The walls are already in disrepair, so I am taking advantage of this to storm the city. Soon T'ien Ch'i's last stronghold will be taken. After this he only has two provinces, which will quickly fall, and then it will be down to Vanheim and me.

Devarama is heading south this turn. I have outfitted him a little differently from Balastha, as you can see below:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...64Devarama.jpg

Since I realised that quickness does not stack past a certain limit, if he is blessed and casts Celestial Music, the boots of speed do not do very much for him. Instead I gave him Birch Boots, which reinvigorate the wearer a little, and provide some poison and cold resistance.

My researchers discovered how to call a global enchantment that will aid in the forging of magical items. Anuprabha (with the aid of some earth boots) has enough familiarity with earth magic to complete the incantation, and will begin immediately, and then I will be able to outfit myself and my commanders with the best equipment that can be made.

Last month I sent 6 Yakshas and Yakshinis who were helping with research towards the front. They will be better used there, in the fight against Vanheim. Half are going to the west, through the pass in the mountains, and will form two army groups, headed by Devasura and Dhritiman respectively. The other half are going to the south, where I will have three groups, headed by Bishen the Siddha, Balastha, and now Devarama. Vanheim will surely fall.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

It seems to me that the quickness do not stack at all. Try casting the celestial music first. My guess it that it would give ordinary quickness which will double ap to 28.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Birch shoes? Interesting. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

I realised this after my field test of celestial music. The reason I had hoped otherwise is that heroic quickness can get over double your starting AP. However, I guess this is not accomplishable by other means.

This is exactly why I switched out the boots of speed for the birch boots.
also consider the discussion about blessing, where I was exploring the merits of a fire blessing instead of a water blessing, because once you can cast celestial dancers the water blessing becomes somewhat redundant.

so yeah, it doesn't stack http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Air bless could have been good, very good. Maybe not Air 9. Just Air 4 or 6 to get the Air Shield. Fire, pretty much always useful..hmmm, perhaps I'll try Kailasa with a Naga and 4 Blessings here and there...

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

I thought about air, but I figured I could archer decoy with those Bandar, which mostly worked pretty well, but it would have been easier to just have air shield from bless. If I could get a water9 + fire9 blessing that would be pretty impressive, but difficult to do, especially considering most of the fun summons are astral, and the most powerful national mage in astral magic is the Guru at astral 2. Gettting a water9 + fire9 + astral4 blessing (for example) would be pretty hard, especially considering you want a strong dominion to recruit lots of sacred troops.
Although the one thing I definitely would change in my pretender design if I could go back would be the sloth scale: I took sloth 1, but could easily have gotten away with sloth 3, which would have given me 80 more design points to work with.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

There are no Naga pretenders any more. There is a race of Nagas, and I really hope you didn't expect to see lots of size 6 monstrosities as recruitable creatures... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Water 8 works well, even with Celestial Music (as I take it bestows the form of quickness that increases defense). Water 8 wouldn't be worth it just for the blessing, but Water 6 might. Patala has Water/Astral pretender, with whom it is easy to get both high Water blessing, and enough Astral in a Dormant form to be able to summon the national summon at higher levels of Conjuration. While Water Blessing mightn't be optimal, it can still be very good. It's also an easy answer to any demon problems you might have.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Sadness. I knew the nagas were weak pretenders but I would have prefered to see them fixed rather than being axed. Ah well.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

As I said, if there are nagas that can be recruited, there can't be divine Size 6 Nagas. I think you'll like what I just posted to the screenshot thread, however. It's one of the new pretenders.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Nagas are part of Patala (lete era of Kailasa) nation now.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Eh - that's like saying that because there are recruitable humans, there can't be semi-divine human pretenders. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Yes.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

For me it seems that a earth blessing should work great. Reinvigoration for your mages and your sacred heavy infantery. That will also work well with the quickness spell.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

reinvigoration is helpful, especially for mages. But it seems less helpful for Yavanas, since they don't wear much armour, and thus don't have much encumbrance. I don't think I've had a battle in which they have gotten tired so far in my game. Then again, I haven't really experimented with an earth blessing much.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Turn 66
Apparently one of my provincial rulers has been hiding his true nature: he has been revealed as a Vampire Count! He attacked and overthrew the militia in the province he used to rule with a force of Thralls and lesser Vampires. This kind of thing cannot be allowed to happen. I must send away immediately a strong force to destroy this vile creature of darkness.

Aside from this vile creature commiting such treason the news this month has been good: Balastha captured the fortified city of T'ien Ch'i without problem. Here is a shot (zoomed out really far) showing the city:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...66fortcity.jpg


I also wanted to include a shot of one of my Yavanas, now with some experience, and having had several enchantments cast upon him:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...4-66Yavana.jpg

Hard to know who could stand against an army of these proud warriors and live to tell about it!

Vanheim attacked one of T'ien Ch'i's remaining provinces (one of my Markatas was there to see the whole thing). Vanheim succeeded in the end, but T'ien Ch'i nearly prevailed. (I think the elephants routing and trampling his prophet in their mad rush off the field made it a little harder).

T'ien Ch'i attacked me in his former capital, but I was able to withstand the assault easily, even though Anuprabha was in the labratory casting his global enchhantment, which, by the way, succeeded perfectly. I will now set many mages forging many interesting items.

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

Nice progress. st.patrik could you show us the power graphs?

Re: Silent Seas AAR
 

I can, but only for turn 78, which is where I'm at currently (trying to stay ahead so that I can post fairly regularly here).

I have been trying to not look at them too much... more of the rpg element...

Maybe I should post them when the game concludes, so that the progress of the whole can be seen?