[Taqwus]

[quote]Originally posted by onomastikon:
Wow, thanks for these great replies, and so quickly too. Yes, I am still a bit overwhelmed. Kristoffer O, that was very helpful; I am still unsure on the magic thing, since I figured gems would only be for ritual spells you can "micromanage" outside the tactical battles; it just seems odd to me to have the AI choose which spells to cast in the tactical battles,


Consider that (a) this game is meant to be playable via PBEM, and (b) there can be quite a few battles per turn involving possibly quite many spellcasters. Tactical combat is a must for practical reasons, so the AI ends up making decisions about things such as spells once it's exhausted the up to five specific instructions (like casting specific spells) and one general (like 'cast spells' or 'stay behind troops').

Given the number of spells in the game, and number of possible situations, it'd be pretty tricky to have players script the entire spellcasting AI, and not very kind. At least with AI control, players don't need to script to be competitive.


especially if they cost gem resources. Since you asked, I am still trying Jotunheim, since that was the race in the walkthru I downloaded, but I would like to try others with more spellcasters.

- What does the Fatigue rating mean with the spells and how does that affect the casters? According to the in-game popups, fatigue is for melee only.


Fatigue is for anything that causes, well, fatigue. Swinging that weapon causes fatigue (but firing missile weapons doesn't!), flying causes some IIRC, and so does casting spells -- with more powerful spells generally causing more fatigue and often requiring gems to boot, baking on a magically hot battlefield costs fatigue if you're not immune, etc.

More fatigue makes you easier to hit. Reach 100 fatigue, fall unconscious. Reach 200 fatigue, start taking hit point damage and possibly die.

Fatigue from spells =
(spell base fatigue / (1 + number of levels the caster exceeds the spell's primary path + extra gems/blood slaves spent)) + unit's 'base' encumberance + double(!) armor encumberance + modifier from drain scale (fatigue reduction in magic scale) + additional penalty if it's fire magic during rain. Something like that, heh.

If you're unconscious (100+ fatigue), you regain 5 fatigue points that turn, but you can't cast spells KO'd... Spellcasters will benefit nicely from use of fatigue-reducing magic e.g. 'Relief' spell, assorted 'reinvigoration' items.

Primary path = Every spell has requirements in usually one or sometimes two paths (the four 'elemental' paths of fire, air, earth, water and the four 'sorcery' paths of astral, death, nature, blood; or the priestly holy and unholy paths). When two paths are listed, both requirements must be fulfilled but only the first of the two paths counts for fatigue reduction, and all magical resource requirements come from that path as well.


- do I see right that you need not research Priest spells (blessings)? Do the priests cast automatically too?


Automatically researched, 'tho the unholy prayers vary by race/theme. Priests still need to meet the minimum holy/unholy requirements for casting, 'tho (e.g. 'Smite' can only be cast by a holy-5 priest.)

Priests, just like other spellcasters, will generally default to casting in the absence of other orders.


- Can I change the level of mageness of any of my casters (including Pretender) during gameplay?


Yes.

For the 'magely' elemental and sorcerous paths,

(1) Empowerment, which requires that the commander -- who doesn't need to be a mage yet -- be in the same province as a lab, and takes a turn. To gain level 1 in a path that the commander doesn't already know takes *50* resources of the appropriate type (gems from that path, or blood slaves).
To achieve level 2 in a path that's already known at level 1 costs 30 resources; every additional path requires ever-higher incremental investments (+15/level, e.g. level 3 costs 45 more, level 4 cost 60 more...)
The rather high cost of empowerment means you generally shouldn't do this too often. The 60 gems you just burned to increase a caster's power from 3 to 4 in, say, earth, could have been turned into items, conjured monsters, etc.

(2) Equip your casters with magical items that boost assorted paths. Note: duplicate items on the same commander do not have additional special effects. A Ring of Wizardry, for instance, grants +1 to all the caster's known paths (but it doesn't give level 1 in a path the caster doesn't know yet)... but even if you could afford it, giving a second RoWizardry to the same caster would be pointless.

(3) Cast boosting spells in battle. Some paths have spells which result in a (non-stacking, of course) one-level boost -- usually only in that path, but astral's "Power of the Spheres" boosts all known paths. Blood's "Hell Power" boosts all known paths by TWO for that battle, but has its risks... and Communion can produce very impressive boosts, e.g. while 1 communion slave justs offloads fatigue, 2 slaves boost levels by 1, 4 slaves boosts by 2, 8 slaves boost by 3, etc...


Holy/Unholy is far harder to boost. Empowerment doesn't apply. You can declare one commander your prophet, in which case he gets +1 priest level or a priestly level of 3, whichever is greater, but you can only have one at a time, and if he dies you need to wait 6 months before you name another one. There are also two unique weapons, one of which gives +1 holy and the other gives +1 unholy. Communion also boosts (un)holy power in battle.



- I thought you can only "give gems to commanders" -- can I give em to any spellcaster?


The set of spellcasters is a subset of the set of commanders. Mere 'units' don't cast full-blown spells, although certain units may know magic that could be of use if only you'd magically turn them into commanders, and others have built-in abilities that could be considered spells such as the ability to disguise themselves with illusions. These abilities, however, do not use magical resources.


- On another level, does it make sense to have one of my commanders be a Prophet as fast as possible?


If you won't have access to a priest of at least level 3 soon, it might well make sense because your Prophet will automatically get level 3.

If you can recruit or summon a priest of level 3 or better yet 4, doing so and making him a prophet would generally be advisable, as there are holy/unholy spells restricted to levels 4 and 5.



- What exactly is the difference between resources and supplies and upkeep?


Resources = represents things like good-quality steel. Used only when recruiting troops, especially troops with heavy armor and weapons, e.g. Ulm Black Knights. Does not accumulate from turn to turn. Affected by presence of fortress; fortresses do, in fact, draw resources from neighboring provinces owned by the same player without fortresses of their own.

Supplies = represents food. If you don't have enough supplies available, a random sample of hungry units (not all units eat) will starve for that turn. Starving units suffer a substantial morale penalty. Units that starve twice in a row contract a (terminal) disease. Available supply is based on population, growth scale, type (e.g. farmland vs. wasteland) of province, distance from nearest friendly fortress. Net supply consumption can be greatly reduced by bringing along food-providing items. Don't get cut off without sufficient supply generators.

Also, being besieged cuts into available supply. While fortresses have a base supply rating representing stockpiles, on turn N of the siege the effective supply rating is (base/N).


Upkeep = Represents pay, other overhead of keeping your troops happy. Measured in gold. Costs every turn. For most troops, it's based on recruitment cost; 'sacred' units provide a discount (!). Certain summoned troops like trolls need to be placated with gold, too. If you can't afford it, troops will become unhappy and will probably leave.



- What exactly happens if you change those scales at the beginning during God creation? Is Unrest important? What about population?


Scales = VERY important.

Order/Turmoil affects taxation income considerably. It also affects probability of random events, which can have pretty significant impact.

Productivity/Sloth affects resources. Matters more for nations that rely on resource-heavy troops like Ulm.

Heat/Cold affects taxation, certain other things. All nations/races have a 'preferred' setting; deviating will hurt taxes. Certain magics and magical beings are affected by heat/cold, and extremes tend to cause fatigue.

Growth/Death affects population increase/decrease and available supplies (the latter effect does not affect Abysia).

Fortune/Misfortune affects both probability of events occuring (IIRC) and the likelihood that events are good. Certain extreme events only happen at extreme fortune or misfortune. A number of events depend on the other scales as well.

Magic/Drain affects ease of casting magic (fatigue cost), ease of resisting magic, ease of magical resource.

Setting initial dominion strength (candles) will affect things like maximum dominion strength you can have in any given province (until you build many temples).

Oh, and unrest: it hurts. Unrest decreases tax income and resources, IIRC. At 100, you can't recruit troops there. At very high levels, there's a risk of spontaneously losing the province if ungarrisoned. You need to deal with unrest, perhaps by lowering taxes or sending in patrols to make examples of dissidents.

Population affects tax income and supplies. Important. It also affects the likelihood of finding sacrificial virgins if that's what you're after.


- Does placing fortifications also deter your own taxation?


No. With a non-zero administration, it'll actually improve tax revenue in the province. The main effects of fortresses are something like

- Being able to recruit 'national' troops at that province, so long as there's not a land/water difference, e.g. it's hard to recruit heavy horse underwater, or to find illithids on land. Undead auto-reanimation is similarly more powerful with a fortress present.

- Having a place to retreat inside if the province is overrun. Castle storming battles can be fairly ugly with the more defensive structures.

- Providing a supply distribution center.

- Increasing tax collection efficiency in that province without side-effects such as increasing unrest.

- Gathering resources from neighboring non-castled friendly provinces so you can actually recruit heavy horse at a reasonable rate.



I have played like 6 games now, and I have never even become close to beating the Easy AI. Yikes. Is this the case in the Full game too?


There's a considerable learning curve. You might want to try large maps and strong independents to give yourself more time before you run into AIs. You'll also probably want to solicit advice about particular nation/theme combinations, what scales seem to work etc.

For some head-bashing without too much micromanagement, try Ulm with a Prince of Death, a Fortified City or other high-admin fortress, and strong economically-oriented scales e.g. Productivity 3, Order 3. Use Drain 3 for more points because Master Smiths basically laugh at drain scale, and magic is generally an Ulm weakness anyway. Consider a small or medium map with few opponents, and perhaps Rich resources. Research Construction, get some Earth Boots for your Master Smiths, and construct some armor and a decent weapon for your PoD. Meanwhile recruit armored troops... A PoD with decent gear can be a very formidable fighter against an AI, although human players would probably dig into their troves of anti-undead and anti-supercombatant tricks like Maggots or Paralyze.