A new and improved Pretender design poll.

[Tuidjy]

I found myself quite interested in the results of the first, improvised
pretender poll, but as some people pointed out, it had some glarring
omissions. And because I am still stuck at work, I intend to add some
more questions... I am just curious about how people design their pretenders.

Ah, and anyone who is getting tired of my polls can come to California and keep
me company while I upgrade my server farm. Haven't you always dreamed of
playing with $70,000 servers with one terrabyte of diskspace?

[Gandalf Parker]

Tuidjy said:
Ah, and anyone who is getting tired of my polls can come to California and keep
me company while I upgrade my server farm. Haven't you always dreamed of
playing with $70,000 servers with one terrabyte of diskspace?

Been there, done that, fsck'd up, your turn.
Im in California also. Hmmm that reminds me I have a garage full of ISP "parts" from the Last major gig when it went under. That old "instead of severance pay" line.

[Evil Dave]

Gandalf Parker said:
That old "instead of severance pay" line.

Oh, is *that* what ISP stands for?

[Cainehill]

Nifty. Tuidjy just illuminated a 'feature' of the current forums. 15 out of 18 people vote that the pretender's magic has to make up for the nation's weakness, and ... It reports that 17% think that's important!

Whoever Shrapnel gets the forum package from really ought to fix their poll package for checkbox / menu item / non-exclusive voting items.

[Endoperez]

Cainehill: there have been, ATM, 29 voters for that part. Many of them have voted for more than one possibility, though. The problem is that instead of voters there stands votes! If you try to count the number of votes you would probably get to the numbers you see now. It shows how many percents of the total votes go into that one...

Here is shown how many percents of the voters agree in something.

29 voters:

early game (turns 5-15) expansion: 15 52%
combatant in middle game (turns 15-30): 5 17%
major player in late game: 6 21%
expand on his nations magical strenghts: 10 34%
negate his nation's magical weaknesses: 24 83%
need to allow the use od certain rituals: 13 45%
some decent bless effects: 6 21%
powerful blessing effects: 2 7%
great site searcher: 5 17%
great researcher and forger: 2 7%
flier, or able to quickly become very mobile: 8 28%
immortal, or at least have recuperation: 2 7%
very strong dominion: 5 17%
very resistant to surprise attacks: 12 41%
cheap: 10 34%
conductive to roleplaying a Divine being: 4 14%

[Kristoffer O]

Hmm, with 35 votes I'm the only one that makes great and powerful gods with lousy scales.

Whats the point in being a God if you aren't Godly?

[PvK]

I didn't choose any in the first section, because I don't find any of those things essential when designing a pretender.

PvK

[Yossar]

PvK said:
I didn't choose any in the first section, because I don't find any of those things essential when designing a pretender.

PvK

I sort of agree. It heavily depends on what nation you're using and the settings. With a nation like Mictlan that takes a while to get going, I like to use a SC to speed expansion up a bit. A nation like Abysia with strong starting troops can get by with a lesser pretender and heavy scales and maybe just take something to forge a hammer for soul contracts. Also, smaller maps favor SCs, and larger maps favor scales. If two pretenders with little in common can both succeed, obviously there isn't much that's [i]essential[/b]. There are a few things that I pick more often than not, but nothing that I really feel is always necessary.

[Ygorl]

I completely agree. Sometimes it's nice to have a really badass bless effect (with fire and water at 9, it only takes about six sacred troops to eat through pretty much any level 9 indy province). Sometimes it's fun to have someone who will romp all over the world, crushing mortals beneath his iron heel. It's always handy when they can cast useful spells, especially when you otherwise might not be able to reach them easily. But essential? My favorite aspect of this game is that there are so many valid ways to play.