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Foodstamp said:
Hooray for single player games like Master of Magic where balance can take a backseat to variety.
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While this is generally true, MOM has exceptionally bad balance. Mana cost of some summon spells is just crazy.
- War bears from nature magic cost 80/2 turn if I remember correctly, and they're likely to lose against swordsmen. War bears have no redeeming qualities.
- Ghouls cost 80 mana. While they're nice and can create undead, they don't heal at all and if you want to use them as an undead factory, be prepared to soften enemies with spells like Weakness etc.
- Hellhounds cost 40/1 turn and they absolutely kick ***. Unlike ghouls, they heal. Fire breath is a form of first strike. It also allows them to fight flying creatures. Hell hounds easily destroy ghouls 1 on 1, as well as war bears, which are twice as expensive.
- MOM is a very buggy game, and some spells just flat don't work. For example Flying Fortress. Neither does Aura of Fear. Subversion does opposite what it's supposed to. Why would you cast a spell that only harms you ?! This is just wrong. MOM, even patched (the version from The Underdogs) is buggier than Fallout.
Balance of many things is so wrong it can easily be considered a bug. There are many ways to play MOM, but there are also many easy ways to win. Any 11 book wizard (all books in the same magic) has access to POWERFUL spells right from the start. Wraiths, Chimeras, or Torin will conquer at least half of the map without breaking a sweat.
I think Sprites are not very cost effective. They have high cost, upkeep, and only 4 shots.
Besides, Sprites are not better at running away than any other creature. I remember, from manual (available on The Underdogs) that there's a flat chance of running away. The chance is something like 50% or 75% per unit, and 0% on Easy difficulty. You'll need a lot more than 4 shots to kill something like a Great Wyrm ! How many groups of Sprites does it take to kill a Wyrm ?
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You know what ? I think Dominions3 is more of a SP game than MP game. Kristoffer clearly cares much more about flavour than balance. I don't blame him, he's a bit like a mad scientist :-). And, best of all, he/they gave us tools to fix balance ourselves. But most games (especially from EA) have less bugfixes than Dom3 has extras added in patches. Alternatively, Dom3 can be considered a 'roleplaying MP strategy game'. But this carries a risk of running into a minmaxer.