What SC do you wish for?
 

I am trying to diversify from Seraphs. So I've begun to wish for 4-armed pretenders. Who or what else is powerful enough to waste 100 Astral gems on? :)

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I recall someone wishing for Rudra; but wouldn't 4-armed Pretenders better? Or are the resistance bonuses from the Rudra off-set the hit points deficit?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Oh, I also wish for Mother of Rivers as a Niefel Flames launcher :)

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

The Chayot is a solid wish. At least as good as te seraph.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Rudra has 3f 3d 3a, which pretender chasises don't. The hps are lower, but the magic paths much higher and of very useful paths (you can cloud trapeze, but not be magic dueled). You've also got flying including stormflight, immunity to lighting and fire and a fear aura.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Mandaha is another candidate for a good SC. 3A, 3D, 2B, 3H, auto darkness, auto sleep cloud, flying, sacred, fear aura, all slots.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I guess you are right. Also HPs can be easily made up by Wishing "power"--and Astral gems ought to be abundant at that point.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I will Wish that one next--thanks!

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Nice. Just got him.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Where /how is all this wishing taking place? You mean in the game you can wish for stuff?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Yes. I am play a single player game against 11 Mighty opponents.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I wish...heh...that there were wish-forms for Pretenders. Like, if you were to wish for a Cyclops, he'd come with atleast enough magic to make him comparable to the high level wishable summons. The Pretender chassis would be separate from Wishes, and it would open up a much, much wider selection of good SC's to wish for. National Pretenders could be Unique-and if already selected as Pretenders-Unwishable-giving another reason for Nations to take their own Pretenders, since it keeps them out of enemy hands.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Well I think a Oni-Dragon might be a decent idea myself :D

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Wish is Aleration 9 ritual spell requiring requiring an S9 mage and 100 pearls.

There are many threads in the forum about what you can and cannot wish for.:)

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Thanks I haven't survived long enough yet but good to know.:up:

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

It's a uber-powerful spell. I actually think some of the things you can Wish for is plainly over-powered. For instance, you can Wish "magic power" and get 1 level of magic level each. All for just 100 Astral gems. Compare that to what it would require you to get a level 9 mage in every paths to level 10 in every paths. Over 1000 gems altogether?!

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

ROFL, I tried to Wish for a Grigori, and I ended up getting a weak dude with a head scarf.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

But he has the longest lifespan in the game :)

Unfortunately, he has other business to attend to and will leave your service in a couple of months.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

[quote=Skirmisher;639373
Thanks I haven't survived long enough yet but good to know.:up:[/QUOTE]

If you want to fully experience the magic possibilities, try the mod "Gem Valley".

To win you will have to use magic, rituals, battle magic and summons, because the recruitables are limited, weak and quite vulnerable. But the mages are very powerful, if wild, and you have the means to access enough gems to fulfill your wildest magic dreams.

All spells and items, excluding anything related to blood, are possible, but not guaranteed.

Updated to Ver 1.2 today.

The above message brought to you by the "School of Shameless Self Promotion". :D

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

[quote=Edratman;639424]Sounds interesting. But how will Ulm play? Ulm ME is simply a nonmagic war machine, a Nichtzauberpanzer :D

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

There is one way to find out. Try it.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

In fact, if you play as Gem Valley on a map with about 125 provinces using MA Ulm and the 5 nations in the "Improved Computer Opponents" mod at impossible or whatever setting you feel comfortable with (more shameless self promotion), I absolutely 100% guarantee a game like you never experienced before.

Furthermore, if you find these claims misleading or misrepresentative in any manner, the FULL price of the mods will be cheerfully refunded. (Shipping and handling fees not included.):D:D

:party::party::party:

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I resent that statement completely. MA Ulm can easily be a magical powerhouse. Especially with a blood stone factory. They can also unload huge amounts of magic items. They are anything BUT non-magical. Sacred power on the other hand is non-existent.

Edit: Getting back on the topic, I would love to summon a pretender but the limited magical abilities often prevent this. One exception would be the immortal thug gods like the Risen Oracle. Low magic power but amazing HP and MR for an immortal unit. My guess is that a national hero might easily trump this option though.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I've taken a 180 on the Wish issue. It's way too unbalanced (esp. in SP, because the AI doesn't seem to know how to utilize it at all), and makes the SP game too easy. So I've disabled it altogether. I may even begin to use Kristoffer's mods that restricts your magic research if I deem too many upper-level spells are over-powered.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

You really can't expect end-game SP to be balanced. To much of the game is focused on being able to react to your enemies strategies, especially later in the game when you have so many options available.

Without actually producing a real learning AI, the game just can't counter what good player can throw at it. It could be improved, but it's never going to be able to respond to tactics the way a real player can. SC counters, army destroying spells, etc, etc are far too situational.

It's much better earlier in the game when the gold/production advantage impossible AIs get is more relevant. Especially with some of the tricks suggested here (NI mod, using map commands to design pretenders, etc)

So, yes, Wish is unbalanced against the AI. So are dozens of other high-level spells. That doesn't mean they're unbalanced in MP.
Besides I've never gotten to Wish in an SP game without being already so dominant it's not fun anymore. With the SCs and hordes of battle mages I'll have by that point it's just a matter of slogging through the remaining provinces.

But I still lose to the AI a good chunk of the time in the early game.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

What setting do you play at usually?

Though I've never played MP, I am very skeptical that Wish is not over-powered even in MP. You may be right in the sense that most MP games are decided before Wish is researched; but once someone has it, sheer arithmetic demonstrates that it is too powerful (see my example of what "magic power" does and compare it to how many gems it would require to pull off the same at the higher levels). Another MP factor that I may not be sufficiently account for may be, however, that the AI rarely dispels my Arcane Nexus global, and hence I am getting 100-plus Astral gems per turn easy.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

You are correct, Wish is the most effective way in the entire Dominions universe to raise your magic skills. (Unless you already have a rainbow mage with all or almost all magic paths. Then a Ring of Wizardry or Robe of the Magi is better.) However, that in of itself is not a winning strategy. It is instead investing more gems into a single unit which can be destroyed. It only amounts to victory if those extra skills allow you to do something you couldn't before, which is in actuality the victoriously overpowered spell.

Wish, by itself, can't make a province yours. Wish can't assassinate a particular unit. Wish can't even grant you an army. (A huge pile of militia does not count as an army. It counts as a waste of your gold via upkeep cost.) Wish is a tool to be combined with other spells. It can't even grant you an actual super combatant until you cast Gift of Reason afterword. Even then you need to forge quality items in order to keep that initial investment of 120 gems safe. Just because you see it amazingly efficient at doing one thing, does not make it overpowered.

Edit: By the way, you really need to play a MP game.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I usually use impossible AIs. These days I've been playing smaller maps so there's more action early on when the AIs are more effective.
If I'm rushed by huge AI armies from multiple nations early on, I'll probably lose. If I get time to grow to midgame, the AI stops being able to compete.

As far as MP goes, I've never really been a factor in the late-game, so I'm mostly judging from commentary here. Bear in mind you won't be the only one wishing in MP. Arcane Nexus is one of the game-ending spells. Don't cast it in MP unless you're actually intent on declaring war on the rest of the world. Clamming and eventually wishes for gems are the usual way of funding wishes.
Magic power is generally not considered a particularly useful wish, sure it would take far more gems to duplicate without wish, but it's not all that useful to have 1 caster with 10s in every path. Hardly needed for rituals and if you send him out on the field, even fully equipped he'll likely die in a battle or two. Sure arithmetic shows it's powerful, but is it useful?

Everyone will have an end-game strategy. Using clams to fund wishes, mostly for Seraph class SCs is one of them. Maybe even the most effective. Clams require a lot of investment upfront and can be hard to mass if you're forced to fight most of the game.
Blood nations have their own paths. Tartarians are still effective and cheaper.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I know! But I don't see how things can work out logistically. How can you coordinate a turn-based game with over 10 people (which is the critical mass required to have a good game)? Do a turn a week? :)

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Usually a turn a day (or more if people get to it quickly) to start, eventually slowing to every 2 days or more as turns take longer.

It's well under an hour a day for the first few years. Just sign up for a game and try it out.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

That's what I'm waiting for too ^^ But MP games good 4 n00bs come out with much less frequency than expected and I really don't have the experience to organize one myself :o

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Half the games I see posted, say they're for newer players, or rookies, or some such. ;)

In fact, one filled up just a couple of days ago.

It's actually quite easy to admin your own game on Llamaserver. Just go through the create game page, and set it up much like you would an SP game. Then post on the forum like the others you see, listing age, # of players, map, settings. As people sign up, list them in the top post. Eventually, you may even find a sucker, er, helpful person to pass off the admin to once the game gets rolling. But really, Llamaserver is mostly very simple and intuitive.

<3

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

To the original topic:

The best SC to wish for is THE GIANT MOUSE OF MINSK!!


Lifeless, Mindless, Never Heals, Fear +10,000, Animal Awe +10,000 :D

(Whoever remembers this, wins one million points :D)

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Goodbye Mr. Ratcat. Catrat?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Is that rat monster from Fieval, an American Tale?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

"go for the eyes Boo, go for the eyes"

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

You can't post that without this:

"BUTT-KICKING...for GOODNESS!!!!"

:-)

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Ok this makes me want to put a giant minature space hamster in my dom 3000 mod :D

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

How big is giant miniature?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

well normal sized really, don't you know Minsk and Boo from baldurs gate?

Google for giant space hamster (there really is a DnD sheet for them for the spelljammer thingie, never played ti but I saw it once)and Boo is a miniaturized version :D

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

A Stellar Dragon from 3rd Edition Dnd.

These dudes are actually entire constellations linked with sentience kindly watching the Universe. They love gathering info and chatting with wizards. Information forms in shapes of pearls in their bodies.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Do people often avoid seraphs to wish for, on the grounds against an astral nation, a few astral duels (even from S1) and one of them is going to stick?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Along these lines - does anyone know if a Chayot is "immune" to astral duels by virtue of the shapechange? i.e. do they just convert form, or are they down for the count at that point?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

AFAIK they just change form, like Hydra hit by Soul Slay.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Hrrrm will a Chayot hit by a Dimension Rod or a spell like Claws of Kokytos that banishis them to an icy real actually work? or will they just change shape.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

I fought one on several occassions in Glory.

They are hardy little bastards. I killed all but one of his forms on multiple occassions -but killing him was tough. Finally managed it by cutting off his escapes and making him route.

Definitely an awesome unit - and to my mind superiour to a seraph. However, he was using the chayot bug. IF that were banned, I'd call it more close to even.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

What's the chayot bug?

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Do they keep their equipment when they change shape ? The last patch tells me they should, but I wonder if anyone tested it.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

If given a Ring of Wizardry, they suddenly have access to magic from all 4 forms, rather than just Astral.


And yes Humakty, all shapes have all slots, so retain all gear.

Re: What SC do you wish for?
 

Now that's interesting. I wonder how empowerment affects a Chayot?