misc questions
 

I am playing my first game of D2 and have the following (newbie) questions:

(1) My pretender god was listed in the Hall of Fame but never received a heroic ability. Why?

(2) In the recruit units screen there is a "Holy" status value listed. What does this mean? By the way, my 8-year old son was playing D2 and the holy value was wildy fluctuating to values like neagtive 32, negative 8, etc

(3) In the army setup screen, once you have selected a bunch of units is there any way to deselect them all whitout having to click on each one?

(4) Diplomacy: I understand that the game does not have a diplomacy model (I actually read an older thread on this forum on the topic), however I am wondering what triggers the AI to attack me or declare war via a message. Are my agressive actions against an AI nation "remembered" or does the AI compute this on a turn-by-turn basis? Are there certain nations that are fundamentally opposed and will naturally be more agressive with one another? Those of you who have played any Civ-based games will know where I am coming from.

Re: misc questions
 

(1) Pretenders do not receive heroic abilities.

(2) Holy is the number of sacred units (not includin commanders) you can recruit in a turn. You can queue up more than your Holy value as long as you have sufficient gold- this will take it negative. It will then recruit the maximum allowed per turn.

Your Holy value is the same as your maximum dominion - i.e. pretender starting dominion, +1 for every five temples built.

(3) There is a "Reset Recruitment" button at the bottom of the army recruitment screen.

(4) Having a small army and low provicial defense is the best way to get the AI to attack you. Make sure you build large prov defense in border provinces with the AI.

EDIT: Spelling (scared = sacred)

[ March 01, 2004, 16:47: Message edited by: ceremony ]

Re: misc questions
 

What ceremony said is of course right.
If I may add to (4):
- There is consensus that "We hereby declare war upon your unholy nation" is unpredictable.
- I think that if you attack the AI (*not*: you attack an independent nation that the AI also happened to have attacked the same turn and conquered too) it will become "more aggressive" towards you at least in the sense that it will want to have its old provinces back.

Re: misc questions
 

The engine itself does not appear to hard-code national antipathies.
The AI will also be willing to declare war if other avenues for expansion are less viable, even if you haven't blocked it yet. It would not surprise me if certain globals also served as provocation. Killing gods (possible to do this unintentionally if you enter the arena) also seems a likely trigger.

Re: misc questions
 

Ceremony, thanks for the answers on (1) and (2). Regarding (3) I was refering to the Army Setup Screen - not the Recruit screen.

Let me summarize both of your feedback to (4):
(A) small armies and low provincial defense = AI more likely to attack
(B) There is consensus that "We hereby declare war upon your unholy nation" is unpredictable
(C) Capturing an AI's province makes them more agressive towards you

(A) seems fairly obvious. As for (B) and (C) it would be REALLY nice if the D2 developers could either agree or disagree to the validity of these points, as well as state any other things that affect AI hostility towards you.

Re: misc questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If you'll take my word for it, based on numerous games I can confirm this one.

Re: misc questions
 

I actually like not knowing exactly what the AI is going to do.

But I agree with Arryn that taking the AI's provinces makes it more aggressive toward you.

It's sometimes funny to watch an AI that hasn't even found me yet in terms of national borders...maybe has a scout I can't see in my territory...declare war on me.

I would love some hard-coded national antipathies. Like marignon-ermor. Maybe atlantis-ry'leh(?sp). I think that would add some additional flavor to the game. But the game has plenty of flavor already. And I'm not sure if you'd want marignon and ermor to go at each other rather than attacking a player who seems to be winning.

Re: misc questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">To unselect the entire group, just "move" them to the same group they were in in the first place. In other words, if you have 5 archers and 5 javelineers in a group, and you select the 5 archers to move them but then decide against it, you can click into the group they're already in and it de-selects them (or move them into a new group then move them back... but that's extra effort). The only way to "partially" de-select a group is one at a time, though.

Re: misc questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thnanks Arryn. Have you noticed if the number of AI provinces captured have a stronger effect? Does the AI "remember" previous hostilities even though he may have recaptured the provinces you stole from him?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">For some reason this does not work for me. I can not select the same group they were in (nothing happens). I can select the leader of the group but it creates a new squad.

Re: misc questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The AI doesn't remember, per se. What happens is committing "hostile acts" increases the chances of the AI considering you as "hostile" and responding. In my AAR, I'm pretty sure that I'm now at war with Vanheim, despite not even taking any of their provinces. What happened is that I attacked Man's capital on the same turn Vanheim did, and my pretender defeated the Vans. The next turn, Van tried again, while my pretender was sieging. Again I defeated Van. Turn after, Van attacks another of my provinces with Call of the Winds. Not exactly a peaceful thing for them to broaden the dispute ...

Basically, the AI viewed my attacking the same target as them, and defeating their armies as "hostile". Wouldn't you? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

OTOH, in a non-AAR R'leyh game, I had traded provinces with Man, Caelum, and Jotunheim for many turns. I eventually bloodied each of these nations very badly in the retaking of *my* provinces (provinces that I originally took from indies), and I built strong PDs, so they left me alone -- for several years. This left me free to devote my attention to smashing Pythium and Marignon, as I had never viewed those aforementioned three nations as a threat (until they became opportunistic).