Message from Abysia

[PrinzMegaherz]

We declare war upon Illwinter!

In earlier days we were a nation of fiercy warriors and mighty wizards, dominating the battlefield with fire and steel. Now we have become a nation of fierce warriors and old men!

After the awakening of our new goddess, she declared her first anathema dragon to be her prophet. Too bad the prophet cought a disease in late spring and died shortly after on old age. Same happened to the mages the pretender gathered in his capitol to research magic and the likes for him, they seem to die faster than he can recruit new mages! Conquest of new lands have become scarce, as those mages escorting the troops have bad eyesight due to their age and wouldn't hit a target even if it was standing directly in front of them!

Now, it's the late summer in year 4 of the ascension wars, and our goddess, the almighty enchantress has grown old herself! How long until she dies from those terrible illnesses? next time, we will surely worship something more lasting, like a well or a huge stone!

[Nerfix]

Take some Death with the Enchantress. Death magic.

[Endoperez]

Death scale makes old age more severe. Growth scale helps to keep the afflictions away. Death magic helps to survive longer before getting afflictions from old age. Nature magic keeps you younger. Fire magic slightly lowers your maximum age. The maximum age of Abysians is lower than that of humans.

Personally, I'd like to see Pangaea's and Abysia's ages switched around. Abysians would live for slightly longer than humans (perhaps 75 years), while the half-people of Pangaea had the shorter age now given to Abysians. Satyrs and Centaurs would suffer from old age sooner than the Minotaurs. Panii would always be few centuries old, and perhaps have a chance of old age even with their Nature magic. This has nothing to do with what nation I prefer to play or think is more powerful, but I'd rather see Abysia taking Death and Pangaea Growth than the other way round.

[KissBlade]

Seriously, I've said this numerous times in the channel. Old Age: Dumbest mechanic ever. What is it for? Flavor? Annoyance? Adding in even more random factors for a strategy game? Lame.

[PrinzMegaherz]

Well, Illwinter oriented itself at fantasy literature.

Imagine how Lord of the Rings would have ended if Gandalf hadn't died of old age in the mines of Moria! Or imagine Merlin changing the looks of Uther Pentragon as he wanted. Thank god he lost his eyesight to old age before he could do that.

[Endoperez]

Gandalf didn't die of old age, he died fighting the Moloch of the Shinuyama in the Cave Castle they had taken from Agartha in an eralier war. Their patrols had caught the sneaking force, who had counted on Shinuyama not buying much PD. Thankfully it was Aragorn the Bard who hauled the rest of the Fellowship around, and not Gandalf the Arch Druid. I think the Moloch died of dominion loss and not in the fight, btw. Gandalf himself died while retreating into enemy dominion. He was soon called back, however, and summoned Fangorn the Ivy King. Things really got rolling after that.

[st.patrik]

KissBlade said:
Seriously, I've said this numerous times in the channel. Old Age: Dumbest mechanic ever. What is it for? Flavor? Annoyance? Adding in even more random factors for a strategy game? Lame.

Actually I think it's a pretty good addition - now instead of your most powerful mage being the obvious buy (if you have the money) maybe you'll think about buying some younger mages, who last awhile longer. Thus more units get used, and the game just got more strategic depth.

[Nerfix]

I also like it. Besides it's fun to scramble for ways to prolong the life of your brittle mages.

[Cainehill]

st.patrik said:

Actually I think it's a pretty good addition - now instead of your most powerful mage being the obvious buy (if you have the money) maybe you'll think about buying some younger mages, who last awhile longer. Thus more units get used, and the game just got more strategic depth.

Eh, I've seen nations whose "youngest" mages are still getting diseased by old age before the demo runs out. I have to agree with KissBlade - it's a mechanic whose unintended consequence is simply to irritate the living snot out of many if not most players.

Of course, doing away with the option to view the spell lists while creating your pretender (as you could in Dom2) might also seems to be designed to irritate players. Ditto for removing the mechanism for having researching commanders greyed out when looking at a province on the map - how the beta testers let that one go by I'll never know. Doing away with themes, thus limitting diversity and removing one of the only ways to try to get close to using all your pretender points? _Hopefully_ some of these are oversites that'll get fixed via patches, but Old Age may be the single change that keeps me from getting as much game time from Dom3 as Dom2.

[KissBlade]

st.patrik said:

Actually I think it's a pretty good addition - now instead of your most powerful mage being the obvious buy (if you have the money) maybe you'll think about buying some younger mages, who last awhile longer. Thus more units get used, and the game just got more strategic depth.

How does it add more strategy? Cheapie mages had always been the favored researchers as they offer the best Research per Gold ratio. The reason people purchase expensive ones is because they offer the best combinations for battle mages and sometimes gives you the desired paths to cast a spell. Instead now, there's an even worse random factor because you could've finally got that S5 mage you're looking for and OOPS FEEBLEMINDED BECAUSE OF OLD AGE! Not to mention, there's the varying lifespan per nation which makes me think it's even sillier (Despite flavor reasons). I think I'd rather reliable mages than hiring some guys who'll just keel over when you're about to embark on an expedition. "Sorry our war against Ryleh went poorly because their mages are all still alive while half ours keeled over from old age".