First impossible game... too easy?
 

Ok, im running my first game set at impossible with independants set at 9. Its the aran map with 8 players (including me). For some reason it just seems too easy, and i blame this on the cheesy setup i have going.

I'm playing ermor with the ashen empire special dominion with a ghost king, i maxed out cold (because undead dont care), sloth (because i dont use resources), and Death (surprise!), i also maxed out order, fortune, and magic, and have dominion 10. I have 4 death, 3 astral, and 2 water, and the 20 point castle. Net result 0 points left over. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

It just seems ridiculously easy, i run over the independants and most enemy armies like its cool. I've lost a couple armies in enemy provinces that had high dominion, but once my dominion reaches them i crush them. All i spend money on is temples, and i get it by launching taxes up to 200% when i conquer a province and then down to 0% when there arent enough people left to make any money. The only thing thats actually hard to do is storm castles (so far i've done 1 and im besieging 2). My research sucks, but im gaining and expect to gain more when i break down those castles and get their gems. I'm astronomically higher in provinces, dominion, and army size. I usually get 1-3 free commanders with 50 undead for them to command each turn and i only have about 15 provinces, plus i have my arch-bishops on constant reanimate. I kill population like a lawn mower over a rabbit hole, but so what, as long as i keep expanding i keep getting more money and thats the only thing i need them for.

I dont think im all that good at this game, i just won my first game on normal a few days ago (and posted jubilantly about it). i think setting your empire up like that is just unbalanced....

it is fun though
and thats the point.

[ March 25, 2004, 18:58: Message edited by: Cheezeninja ]

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

It's probably mainly that the AI doesn't know how to deal with Ashen Ermor very effectively. Ashen Ermor has a big advantage against the AI.

PvK

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

Oh by the way, undead dont really need the order, and by ditching it and getting turmoil 3 you gain 240 points, to be used for neat magic skill. Also, when pop goes low, leave taxes on 200, it does no harm and if there is a gold-creating site (like a gold mine) you get double income. Also, if you have turmoil 3 you cannot get as much income from those provinces by just taxing, but you can easily get it by pillaging. ~100 undead pillaging a province empty it very fast, giving you a nice amount of gold and also ensuring that the province is lost to all AI's forever.

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

this just keeps getting better...
I dont think i'll ever play any of the 'nice' races, why be a man when you can be the sinister and uncaring force that scours all life and hope from the planet?

I really want to figure out a winning strategy for the illithids...because i love illithids as well.

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

You are right. With that setup its way too easy. Just dont let it convince you that you can take that show on the road (jump into a multiplayer game with the same results).

The AI for Dom2 is one file using generic responses that are averagely good for all of the nations. In a multiplayer game anyone seeing Ermor will start cranking out priests and making cauldrons for food. Nations such as Marignon in particular will prove much harder with a human managing things.

[ March 25, 2004, 20:05: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I believe C'tis is more powerful against Ermor.

-Powerful priests
-Easy access to Wither Bones

.. that's about it.

[ March 25, 2004, 21:57: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Gandalf, you seem to be an expert in SP games, based upon your Posts that I've read so far.

What settings would you recommend for the "ultimate challenge" vs AIs? Large map like Orania, indep 9, all AIs active and on Impossible except Ermor(don't want him to crassh all other AIs), Marignon (too weak whan played by AI as far as I can tell), and Jotunheim (broken) ? Or something else? What about magic side frequency and world richness?

I am looking for the Last big SP game vs as challenging computer opponents as possible, with me playing some race that I haven't tried so far (probably Vanheim). I am pllaying only MP games atm, but I would like play one more SP before switching to MP completely.

Advice from other people is also appreciated.

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

I'd say if you want a challenge, play on one of the largest maps, like Orania (as you've suggested) or the World map, include all AIs except Ermor on Impossible, and then choose either Pangaea Carrion Woods or T'ien Ch'i Spring & Autumn for your own nation.

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

You could play Ironman.

Play a GP exclusive All-Ally huge map. Take a living nation then -3 to all scales, 3 dominion, Watch Tower, Human-non-immortal pretender with your picks in magic.

It's possible to win, but it's definitely not easy.

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

The ultimate of all AI's aligned against you I dont think Ive done yet (though I could whip one out quick enough, maybe later today).

For now there there are random alliance maps you can get HERE. Pick the one named for the race you want to play it fills in random opponents with random alliances to each other. They are re-rolled every day.

Or in that same place is "Poke in the Eye" which adds random alliances amoung the AI's and random monsters to every province. It makes for a very different game but actually tends to handicap the AIs more than it does the human players.

Also there, if you have the excellent Miirunst map then downloading MiirunstX.map will add scattered monsters which make it a different play.

Some that Im still messing with can be found in the PROJECTS directory. The Indeps.zip makes Man a nation with no pretender uniting the independent provinces against everyone. Not too hard, just a fun change. The WEvsTHEM (grab the .map and the .tga) is an effort at making a game too hard to win alone. It unites Rlyeh, Atlantis, and Ermor down in one corner given them extra castles. Its a long game and supposed to make it so that human players have to ally to win (still in testing). And the latest is Mazes and Monsters (grab the MazeMons map and tga files) which is designed to add more strategic play to a game by providng more choke-points, random castles scattered around, and monsters with equipment.

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

sorry for me being off-topic, but this is awesome.
gandalf, thank you very much for those two links and your projects. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ March 26, 2004, 14:32: Message edited by: Morbius ]

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

Thanks to everybody who have posted their advice here, it has been very helpfull.

Gandalf, I am definetly going to try one of your allied map, great idea and implementation. If I understand your system correctly all "map" files with the name of the nations are based on the "tga" files that are generated daily in your "random map" folder, correct? Are they totally random maps produced my random-map-generator of yours, or they are semi-random with the some prototype geographical map with surface, seas, and provinces links "set in stone", and with random elements like "type of the land in surface province", etc.?


About this Miirunst map that you've mentioned - is it better than Orania map? Are you the author of it? How big is it in terms of number of provinces? (I've noticed on your website that it has impressive 30 MB in it, that's why I asking before downloading - my DsL is dead for the next 2 weeks, so I am using dial up for now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

Also Zen has mentioned "GP exclusive All-Ally huge map" in his reply. Is it one of your big random maps with random alliances or some special one?

(Sorry if some of my questions do not much sense, I haven't played with map-making in Dom2, so I maybe totally wrong with some of my guesses here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif )

Re: First impossible game... too easy?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">NO the early projects like Poke in the Eye or the those random ally maps use tga that came with the game. Poke in the Eye uses the eye.tga and the random opponents ones use the aran.tga because both of those came with the demo and the game. Everyone has them already.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Some of both. Most of the ones I package as a scenario start with one of the randomly generated ones. Then I write a program to add randoms to the .map file (in BASIC of all things though they are available and easily modified to other Languages if anyone is interested). Usually they keep the terrain, province, and nostarts that the random map generator makes, then adds random province locations for whatever fun stuff Ive decided to try. Many of them Ive setup so that the program runs nightly generating a new randomized Version of the .map file.

I have some thoughts on doing one where both the tga and the map use new random Versions each day but havent yet. The randoms dont produce really playable maps everytime with the settings Im using now. I would need to play with the generator settings abit to get that to work well. Maybe after PhilD (or some other programmer) does some more touchups on the DomMap generator program.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No the Miirunst map is MUCH more pretty than any of my random junk. It was done by Tiltowait and is definetly worth getting. You should get it from the Illwinter.com maps page because Im not sure if mine is the most up-to-date Version. I thought the map was too nice for my kindof messing with but Tiltowait specificall asked me to do one for his map. So now on my site there is a daily randomized Version that adds surprises to the Miirunst.tga
I named it MiirunstX so it doesnt overwrite the original .map but just gives a second verion to play off the same tga.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Im not sure. I havent done one yet where ALL of the AI's are allied against you. I thought that was a bit much. But now that so many maps are becoming available I guess there is room for such an extreme for those that want to take a stab at it. It wouldnt take long to do. An easy edit to the .map file. I will probably just keep watching for a decent random map to use as a base, and whip one out. Hmmm name it something like Way2Hard or 2hard4u or Xtreme, maybe Ultimate? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

EDIT: Hmmm if I only add "all AI's allied" and none of the other random stuff I do, then I dont have to worry about creating un-passable chokepoints (which forces me to carefully choose from the random tga's). This could be the first one that would work as both a random tga reselected every day. Hmmmmm

[ March 27, 2004, 14:51: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]