[Calahan]

Originally Posted by Amhazair

First off, for those looking for answers from me: I did say I'd be gone for the weekend, and would see about making final decisions after getting back, so shame on you for all your impatience!

Disappointed to hear about your lack of omnipresence. But Dimaz might have been around (although not sure what decision making powers you've given him during the design stage)

Originally Posted by Amhazair

You do have a good point about casting AI behaviour Calahan, (which I admit I did not think about) but since all people who expressed an opinion before were in favour of using the Holy War mod, and since Llamabest assures us there were no issues with the previous well-tested version that's good enough for me.

I'll update the OP to refelct we'll be using CBM 1.83 and the Holy war mod.

I'd be interested in knowing what games the mod has seen action in, and in particular what nations and players were involved. As nations without (important) mage-priests like (all LA) Man, Jomon, Pangaea won't be affected much at all by a load of new holy spells. But the likes of Arco, Mictlan, TC to name just a few of the many in LA with mage-priests, could have they top line mages severely affected by a load of new spells. Plus some players don't tend to scrutinise the battle replays close enough to report feedback on this sort of thing, as it's nowhere near the same as testing units. Since if you got royally stuffed in a fight, you're unlikely to replay it several times to notice your mage-priests casting junk, and hence report it as a problem

And I hate to sound like the elitist jerk I know I am, but there are very few players I trust when it comes to testing and providing proper feedback, and that list narrows to less than the digits on one hand when it comes to observing casting AI behaviour. Since when wars are going well and you are tanking someone hard, who bothers to take the time to notice what your mage priests were casting after the 6th round. And while I haven't tested Holy Wars mod yet to know for certain how it affects nations (but I will try to soon), I do know enough about the problems with mage-priests in general to know you likely can't just add new holy spells and expect there not to be potentially adverse side-effects. Especially for 0 fatigue spells (I'd be surprised if Faith Healing wasn't very popular with the casting AI).

It way well be that most nations aren't that effected at all, and most may well benefit. But if just one nation/player has their game severely compromised or even ruined by these new spells due to no fault of their own, then I for one would find that very unfair, and even wrong. And that's regardless of whether I was that nation or I was fighting it (since I certainly don't want to win fights or wars due to problems caused by a mod. And I'd rather be that nation in that case for the challenge, rather than fighting against it with an unfair advantage)

But democracy has spoken it seems, even though democracy often just sees people voting "we want more" (which is one reason why it sucks). Do you want more spells? "Yes". Do you want the government to mint lots and lots of extra money and give it freely to everyone? "Yes, that sounds great". More != good, as it's almost never that straightforward.

Anyway I've said my bit, so I'll shut up and leave it there I think.

Originally Posted by Amhazair

(If Calahan confirms participation.)

I'll hopefully be able to let you know in a few days. Also, I think you've left a few players off the list (Ghoul31, NooBliss), unless they are still awaiting clearance.

Originally Posted by Amhazair

In the meantime (and assuming no more people sign up: Any map suggestions? From the ones I have on my disk Cradle of Dominion seems the best fit. (Rather roomy, but not too much so, and not too many water provinces.)

Here are two wraparounds to consider.

Riverlands (231+17) - http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43606

or if you want a tighter fit

GreeeceStain (181+18) - http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44078


The Wiki has a good range of maps to browse through (and the llamaserver has most as well)
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Category:Map


Edit - Are caps going to be VP marked? and are starts going to be random, or is someone going to place them? If the latter, then the former will decide the range of people who can do that. Since if caps are not VP marked, you need someone not playing to fix the starts. And VP caps also means "capture and hold capitals for X turns" is a trickier option, as the game auto-ends once the target is reached (although there are ways around this by setting the in-game requirement to all VP's, but then using out-of-game requirements at half+1 pr whatever. Which is no probelm as long as players are aware the in-game winning line on the VP-graph isn't the actual winning line. If that makes sense)