[Scott Hebert]

Originally posted by Zen:
The VQ is still perfectly servicable as a SC in every instance of the word. Now though, it does not have the potential to be a rainbow Immortal. That is left to the Liches.

Hrm. By Rainbow Immortal, what do you mean? A Rainbow mage with Immortality? A suicide mage-combatant? Not exactly sure here.

The PoD vs VQ is not an accurate depiction. Since a PoD does not have Immortality. If you take the best Lich (Sauro or Queen, depending on your perspective) you'll see that they fill the niche just as easily as the VQ did previously.

Well, you're looking at it from a question of form. By form, the closest thing to a VQ is a Lich. I'm looking more from the standpoint of function. What function does it serve? The PoD and the VQ share many more functions than a Lich and a VQ.

As for the second point, the Lich Queen and the Saurolich are both heavily restricted Pretenders (to Ermor and C'tis, respectively, IIRC). The VQ is not. If the VQ had been restricted to Ulm only (e.g.), I would take the comparison a little better. My comparison of VQ to Lichdom will be to the standard Lich.

Ermor is purely thematic in not having the Vampire, I would hope that having more pretenders restricted and other pretenders added would be a desire for players of Dom2.

It is for me. The VQ, however, is in no way 'restricted'. IIRC, it was available to every land race before 2.12, and in 2.12 is available to 14 of 15 land races. This to me is the core of my 'issue' with the VQ in 2.12. I can't think of a single other Pretender that is available to 14 of the land races, with the sole exception being on the grounds of 'theme'. Now, if this is the start of Pretender restrictions on a wider scale, I'll be happy for it. It's just a little disconcerting at present.

But if not, there is no reason you have to patch at all. Everyone can refuse to patch because something/anything was changed in a way they do not like. They can also make as many mods and play games with said mods to create whatever vision of balance they have.

Certainly they can. SP games, at least. In MP, you have to find a group of people that believe as you do to play, and Dominions II is supposed to be a MP-centered game (as, indeed, it is). This leads to the 'official' Version of the game (as in, 'latest patch with no mods') the most likely Version of the game to be played. So while I agree with your statements, I do it with the reservation that I play exclusively SP, and don't have to deal with MP issues.

Also, IW does not work at the speed of light, or the speed of other's desire. This game in it's current state, with the Battle Speed fixed, has had more support than a good portion of games out there, for less money and no cost of expansions. So personally I feel they have done enough for 'me'. Whatever they do now, is just icing on the cake.

Edit: With the exception of Bug Fixes, that crop and are patched usually as soon as Illwinterly possible.

Certainly, Zen. I'm not trying to be 'in IW's face' to change anything. And, really, I think my track record is that I favor the approach IW takes.

Just chalk this up to my slight annoyance that my 'VQ Blood BE Ermor' l33t strategy has been totally demolished.

Scott