misc questions

[Nethog]

I am playing my first game of D2 and have the following (newbie) questions:

(1) My pretender god was listed in the Hall of Fame but never received a heroic ability. Why?

(2) In the recruit units screen there is a "Holy" status value listed. What does this mean? By the way, my 8-year old son was playing D2 and the holy value was wildy fluctuating to values like neagtive 32, negative 8, etc

(3) In the army setup screen, once you have selected a bunch of units is there any way to deselect them all whitout having to click on each one?

(4) Diplomacy: I understand that the game does not have a diplomacy model (I actually read an older thread on this forum on the topic), however I am wondering what triggers the AI to attack me or declare war via a message. Are my agressive actions against an AI nation "remembered" or does the AI compute this on a turn-by-turn basis? Are there certain nations that are fundamentally opposed and will naturally be more agressive with one another? Those of you who have played any Civ-based games will know where I am coming from.

[ceremony]

(1) Pretenders do not receive heroic abilities.

(2) Holy is the number of sacred units (not includin commanders) you can recruit in a turn. You can queue up more than your Holy value as long as you have sufficient gold- this will take it negative. It will then recruit the maximum allowed per turn.

Your Holy value is the same as your maximum dominion - i.e. pretender starting dominion, +1 for every five temples built.

(3) There is a "Reset Recruitment" button at the bottom of the army recruitment screen.

(4) Having a small army and low provicial defense is the best way to get the AI to attack you. Make sure you build large prov defense in border provinces with the AI.

EDIT: Spelling (scared = sacred)

[ March 01, 2004, 16:47: Message edited by: ceremony ]

[tinkthank]

What ceremony said is of course right.
If I may add to (4):
- There is consensus that "We hereby declare war upon your unholy nation" is unpredictable.
- I think that if you attack the AI (*not*: you attack an independent nation that the AI also happened to have attacked the same turn and conquered too) it will become "more aggressive" towards you at least in the sense that it will want to have its old provinces back.

[Taqwus]

The engine itself does not appear to hard-code national antipathies.
The AI will also be willing to declare war if other avenues for expansion are less viable, even if you haven't blocked it yet. It would not surprise me if certain globals also served as provocation. Killing gods (possible to do this unintentionally if you enter the arena) also seems a likely trigger.

[Nethog]

Ceremony, thanks for the answers on (1) and (2). Regarding (3) I was refering to the Army Setup Screen - not the Recruit screen.

Let me summarize both of your feedback to (4):
(A) small armies and low provincial defense = AI more likely to attack
(B) There is consensus that "We hereby declare war upon your unholy nation" is unpredictable
(C) Capturing an AI's province makes them more agressive towards you

(A) seems fairly obvious. As for (B) and (C) it would be REALLY nice if the D2 developers could either agree or disagree to the validity of these points, as well as state any other things that affect AI hostility towards you.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Nethog:
(C) Capturing an AI's province makes them more agressive towards you

If you'll take my word for it, based on numerous games I can confirm this one.