Quote:
Originally Posted by Sombre
I think this runs pretty much counter to the philosophy of, say, CBM, where the idea is to increase the breadth of strategic options, but it could definitely make for an interesting experiment in a game. I don't personally think the answer to the tart problem is to accept that the endgame /should/ just have 1 default SC castable by all - I prefer the route taken by llamabeast in his as yet unreleased mod which added a variety of SCs in different paths, to try and break the dominance of the tartarian and the necessity to pursue death and nature like crazy.
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I agree with the CBM philosophy. The problem is that if you don't have recruitable/summonable SCs your only option is tarts. My suggestion was a quick and easy way to give nations access to some kind of SC and at the same time fix the tart problem.
But opening up other SC options through llama's mod is a much better option. It might be interesting to combine that with a mod adding national SCs to nations that lack them. With other options in place the cost of tarts could be made more realistic. As I recall QM didn't want to make them too expensive since it would make things even harder for nations without GoH/Chalice. With other options now available tarts could be priced accordingly (not necessarily on base CBM since it probably wouldn't include the new summons).
As an aside, I think at this point it is unlikely IW will be adding much content to the game (especially revisiting existing nations). If it seems like there's an interest in adding national SCs to nations that lack them I'd be willing to coordinate and put together the mod, but I'd need help with graphics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kuritza
If you have national summons, but dont have the gems to summon them in sufficient quantities, you are still in trouble. A whole one thug wont save you. Even whole two thugs are often not enough.  |
With the removal of gem gens I'm not against adjusting the costs of some summons downwards. The last thing you want to do is give nations with recruitable SCs even more power. My point was directed more towards the fact that there are some nations that currently don't have an end game SC option if they don't luck into the Chalice or GoH. And towards the fact that tarts are out of line with other SC costs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sambo
Here's another idea to reduce micromanagment. In my limited experience, the problem isn't the forging, moving guys around, hoarding gems, etc.; it's the fact that you have to do it in a million provinces!
Solution, shamelessly stolen from poker: raise the blinds.
After 40 turns (or whenever), reduce the provinces by half. Seriously, just mash them together. Do it again after 80 turns, and again at 120 if it goes that far. The big 400 province map, necessary when you started with 24 nations, is now a maneageable 100. Like in poker, the little guys get screwed, but that's kinda the point. : 
Dunno if it's possible. There would be a large issue of merging sites, fortresses, units, etc. |
Interesting you should mention this. I had the same thought a while back but didn't see any way to implement it.
You know, there's a cap on how many units you can recruit due to upkeep costs. I wonder if a lot of the late game drudgery would be eliminated if summons also had an upkeep cost - paid in gems, not gold. This would limit the number of summons you could field. Having to make tough decisions on how to allocate limited resources is what makes the game interesting to me. But barring IW making that change that seems impossible.