Nerf
 

In light of the recent CBM 1.7 discussion, I think I've figured out where my frustration with Dominions stems from. It's the excessive nerfing tendency. Every time someone finds a relatively easy and effective strategy to use, it gets nerfed. I suppose for multiplayer this makes sense, where balance is more important. But in SP it just tends to turn the game into a troop slogfest.

So, the secret to SP play seems to be antinerfing. I find the following game startup works well:
Sites: 75%
Money: 50%
Resource: 50%
Research: easy
Clam forging: essential

Once you're drowning in gems (relative to cash), you can start truly playing around. Slashing the number of troops on the board also vastly improves the effectiveness of thugs and SCs.

I wonder how this setup would work in MP? Clam forging does give WN nations an advantage over others.

Re: Nerf
 

My secret to playing SP is this:
Sites: 35%
Money: 100%
Resource: 100%
Research: standard
Clam forging: none

I haven't ever run into problems executing even my most absurd strategies, although that rarely guarantees their success...

How can you blame them for removing "i win" buttons? What's the point of SP if you can just spam X for victory?

Re: Nerf
 

Removing gem generators entirely isnt so much nerfing as it is gameplay redesign...

I mean gem-generators arnt necessarily imbalanced, you could have a version of the game where every race has equal access to gem generators. It would be balanced. I only picked up Dominions 3 earlier this year and I've never played MP, but my understanding is that gem generators were removed for gameplay/micro reasons.

It kinda reminds me of Supreme Commander- the vanilla version had exponential growth through mass fabricators, the expansion kicked early mass fabs in the balls so it was much more restricted.

Re: Nerf
 

Gem gens like clams are so much of a pain. I even stopped using them in some games where I have a lot of these, because forging a pair of these every turn and clicking the button to store 50 more astral gems in your vault each turn while reassigning manually the gems to the 3 or 4 mages who are in a lab but must have S gems handy each turn is a chore.

Re: Nerf
 

Don't play with the CBM.

Play with a version you like.

Re: Nerf
 

You can do that already. Play Pangaea. Take a sleeping Oracle, max your scales, recruit Centaur Warrior [40 gold 12 resources] hordes, and flatten everything the AI throws at you.

The fun is finding new ways to win that aren't 10 times more difficult to implement. When you find one, cheer, then try something different.

Re: Nerf
 

Wrong.



also, you win SP by taking one province, 125pd, take another province, 125pd, rinse and repeat. Forever. It takes probably gazillion turns and wins you the game. It's still not fun. SP ai is so very boring and fsckd up that it's almost unplayable.

Re: Nerf
 

Every AI ever is susceptible to rush tactics and gaming the system, that's not new. So, um, if you want to have fun, don't do that.
How not? Please note that balance != gameplay you don't like. I hate gem gens.

Re: Nerf
 

Other nations get more w/n income or constr site, they win. Unless you meant by "equal access" that every single nation got exactly the same w+n income and mages, in which case yes, you are right.


Which I doubt.

Re: Nerf
 

Even that isn't necessarily balanced because choices for each nation have to be balanced internally. Giving every nation the same cheap super unit, for instance, still would not be balanced.