Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Just picked up Dom 3 (looks nice!), I've played just a bit sp w/ Tien Chi (one of my old favorites under Dom 2). I haven't played this enough to say this conclusively, but it seems like Early Age TC has been generally improved, with the big, huge exception of old age effects on Celestial Masters. afaict, my celestial masters are picking up afflictions left and right, and this makes it unwise to invest in empowering these guys, as they will likely die during the game.

Is anyone else experiencing this in a full game w/ TC? Or am I perhaps just having a run of bad luck in this game?


Also, two aging related questions:

1) Is it possible for a character to simply die of old age? If so, is there any notice of the character has died under the messages? (and, yes, I think this happened in my game)

2) Is there any kind of random factor in aging? I could swear I've seen some of my CM's age faster than 1 per game year...

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

1) Yes, if he gets diseased.

To prevent aging or atleast slow it down forge boots of youth/elixers of life for you good mages and take some growth scale.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

There is a random factor in how old they are when you recruit them. Some of your CMs were probably much older then what it says in the recruitment window.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Also nature magic increases max age iirc(not sure if they can get random nature)

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Might as well mention that death magic decreases the chance of a mage picking up afflictions from old age.
Also, fire magic decreases the life span of that mage.
And finally, there's a blood spell that Rejuvenates the caster (takes off 10 years).

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Well, this is all great info, thanks a bunch!

However, I suspect that this is too strong an effect on TC, EA. Two of the suggestions involve blood magic, and that's very difficult for TC to develop (problematic, even). I do see also a

Anyone out there w/ MP experience have comments on whether TC is still a weak nation for MP use?

For anyone reading this, there is a recent post w/ general answers on aging (here)

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Just go talk to franktrollman

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

It is still quite decent in MP, better than in Dom2, even.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Early T'C is very nice. Their armies really work well together, and it's easy, from a strategic point of view, to figure out where to put them and how to use them on a battlefield.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

That's good to hear - I'll give it a try, then.

Actually, playing a little bit more in SP, I am seeing that the suggestions posted do work, and the old age thing can be worked around, even w/o blood magic. It does look like a nice additional bit of detail, to me.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

I'm currently playing EATCMP and not suffering at all from old age. I am suffering from Eagle Kings, though.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

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Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Better than dom II pre cb wise? or cb5.4? Because pre cb, turmoil scales are horrid so it's not saying much qm. And there is no way in heck it can compete with cb5.4 S&A because cb5.4 S&A in dom II was IMO one of the top nations in the game XD.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Dude, that Tien Chi advice rules. Have you considered making a guide for them? I would definently be interested. I am completely new to the game and don't even know about the summoning chain you described. Thanks!

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

Def agree. Although I did take 1death for the points. Went with a rainbow pretender and through construction summons can cast build EVERYTHING.

SP though, so grain of salt.

Currently I have such a lead in everything its pretty much over, took the early magic/gem lead and never looked back. (wished my pretender up to 10 in all 8 schools with wiz ring/sorc ring/sorc robe).

Beyond the end game foolery - I had my masters casting and creating pretty much everything with summons and construction bridging the gaps. Now I send 2 or three per army, flame arrows + windguide + archers = whoopage.

Up to this point i've never used the eye of aiming - generally hate cursed items as i like to swap around. For this game I got a good chunk of air gems and just churned em out - so now single target/small aoe spells are fantastic. I also went the route of giving most of my commanders ranged weps... so while my archers are mincing theirs, my commanders (with wind guide and eye of aiming) are peppering the commanders.

New to me, but now one of my fav nations. Going to try them out in the different ages now to see how they work.

I also use worthy heroes mod and IMO they have THE best SC potential hero. Flying, immortal, good stats, 3 misc slots, and astral. I had him running around defeating whole armies no sweat. Finally got greedy and got him killed by exhaustion, but hes even better as a mummy + kurgi.

sorry for the rambling, but they are fun, diverse, and work well together.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

One nice thing about the very rare and occasional 2-Fire Master of Five Elements that pops out is that they are one of the most accurate artillery mages in the game. Machaka has this option with the occassional Witch Doctor Chieftan to some extent.

Although i don't know honestly, if Wind Guide works with spells. I don't think i've tried. If it does, well, your in for some fun with Eagle Eyes.

Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

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Re: Old Age & EA Tien Chi?
 

First off, thanks a bunch for your two posts in this thread, Frank. I've referenced your first post any number of times as I'm working through the learning curve of both Dom3 generally and EA TC specifically. Between these two posts you've got a good chunk of a TC nation guide here.


I've always recruited very few Masters of the Elements, but now you're making me wonder if I've missed the point. My thinking has been that once my economy is large enough to start recruiting the MoE's, its an easy step to recruit CMs, and CMs are so much more versatile, potent and convenient that I almost always recruit CMs.

Now the two clear things that a MoE can offer that a CM cannot is E2 and N2. Now this may be my big mistake (and I'm probably biased by SP testing), but I like to take an E1 CM, and empower to E2, and use that to get to Earth Boots and then Dwarven hammer. Perhaps worse yet, I then empower to N1, maybe even N2. At least in SP testing this is just such a lovely item constructing mage that I find it irresistable.

But maybe this kind of empowerment is massively inefficient use of gems? Still, there are some items that seem like they would be a pain to construct w/ the MoEs (e.g. crystal coin). Even given that I am likely overdoing the empowerment, I'm not sure I'm in love w/ the idea of recruiting MoEs. For example, if the big purpose of recruiting MoEs is to get E2, and avoid empowering a CM in order to get to dwarven hammers, you could end up needing to recruit an awful lot of MoEs before you got your E2 MoE.

Anyhow, any discussion on the tradeoffs between recruiting CMs vs MoEs would be welcome.