when is the next patch scheduled?

[Blitz]

Patches are never scheduled.
They are also not promised and not pre-listed.
They are free gifts and should be treated as such. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Patches a gift? Not in today's competitive gaming market. I've gotten my money's worth out of Dom 2, but balance patches are part of the deal when you are selling a multiplayer game. Seventy bucks is the most money I've ever spent on a game bar none. I paid that with the understanding that things such as this forum, patches, webspace dedicated to file downloads were included in the deal.

The developers haven't disapointed me in the least, but I'm not sure we should have to kiss any *** for a balance patch Gandalf.

P.S. Good job on the Vampire Queen decision. Raising her cost to 150 gold was always my prefered solution, and I have no doubt that it's the route they took. The VQ was obviously undercosted when compared to her most-similar alternatives (Lich, Archlich). I still can't believe there was even a debate over this issue, let alone a heated one. Just look at the lich and the VQ and it's obvious to any but those blinded by either bias or developer fanboy worship.

Hopefully there will also be some costing changes to some of the more obviously useless pretenders. For example, I'm not sure I'd use a Shedu if he cost 0 points. At 125, it's not even worth talking about. There are easily a dozen overcosted avatars, not including the humanoids, who are all incorrectly priced. Just off the top of my head, here's a few I'd change (in addition to every single 10-path cost humanoid).

Sphinx - is 600hp on an immobile really worth 60 points?
Fountain of Blood - S2/B2 wouldn't break the game now would it?
Titan - 100 points would be a better deal for a dubious blessing choice.
Father of Serpants - 100 points seems more reasonable for a second-tier SC.
Great Mother - Bad stats for a SC, Prohibitively expensive for a dual-bless base, 80 point paths don't add up to 75 points.
Lord of the Desert Sun - Very cool avatar that costs too much. 100 points seems more reasonable.
Scorpion King - Needs a body slot and he's a very competitive pretender.
Cyclops - See titan. 100 points.
Naga (green) - Worse than the fire Naga, but costs the same? 75 points.
Great White Bull - No slots, Gets owned by fatigue. 50 points.
Monolith - Immobiles suck. Free please.

That's not including humanoids or national heroes. I'd like to see bless effects become more affordable. As it stands I really only use a few pretenders. The undead pretenders are all good, as are the Virtue, Carrion Dragon, Allfather, Jade Emperor, Lady of Fortune, Nataraja, Son of Neifel, and Wurm. Sadly only the undead, Wurm, and Virtue are available to (almost) everyone. I'd like to see more viable choices in the game, and I bet a lot of other people would too.

[quantum_mechani]

I agree several pretenders need a boost, bu many of those you mentioned seem fine
[quote]Originally posted by Blitz:

Sphinx - is 600hp on an immobile really worth 60 points?

This I agree with, but only becuse it can't use teleport. An oracle that makes your capital a bit harder to capture is not worth an extra 60 points.

Fountain of Blood - S2/B2 wouldn't break the game now would it?

No, but it dosn't really need it. If you really need it to teleport, you can still give it astral. Right now it does exactly what it was meant to, give you a running start with a blood economy - for zero points.

Titan - 100 points would be a better deal for a dubious blessing choice.

I would not mind this change, but I don't think it is necessary. Air bless is not bad, and with that much air, mirror image would also make him good in combat.

Father of Serpants - 100 points seems more reasonable for a second-tier SC.

Again, I would not mind it, but it dosn't really need it.

Great Mother - Bad stats for a SC, Prohibitively expensive for a dual-bless base, 80 point paths don't add up to 75 points.

I think you underestimate the value of of a regenerating trampler in the early game. And staring with two paths that you might not have easy access to.

Lord of the Desert Sun - Very cool avatar that costs too much. 100 points seems more reasonable.

Fire and nature work well together using eagle eyes and some kind of long range fire spell. Still, I wouldn't mind it being a bit cheaper.

Scorpion King - Needs a body slot and he's a very competitive pretender.

Two paths and a fairly tough chassis seems OK for the price.

Cyclops - See titan. 100 points.

I agree, the Cylops is not great, but I think a better solution is to improve the earth bless.

Naga (green) - Worse than the fire Naga, but costs the same? 75 points.

The fire naga is not much better, they both need a price cut.

Great White Bull - No slots, Gets owned by fatigue. 50 points.

Agian, a tough trampler is quite good in the early game.

Monolith - Immobiles suck. Free please.

I invite you to play agianst me using a monolith sometime, just becouse you need to teleport to use it as an SC does not mean it isn't worth it.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Blitz:
Fountain of Blood - S2/B2 wouldn't break the game now would it?

S2 only costs around 56 points, and S3 is 80, which is definetly good value for the cost.

Titan - 100 points would be a better deal for a dubious blessing choice.

75% lightning resist is a huge blessing against certain nations. Especially when you consider those nations with expensive and hard to replace sacred troops. Air 9 is also extremely powerful for battlefield magic.

Father of Serpants - 100 points seems more reasonable for a second-tier SC.

If he didn't run when the serpents died, he'd be very good. Nature and death magic frees up a life draining weapon, regeneration item, and gives 50% elemental resist, which is pretty good.

Great Mother - Bad stats for a SC, Prohibitively expensive for a dual-bless base, 80 point paths don't add up to 75 points.

She has terrific stats for smashing regular troops. In only dominion 3 or 4 she'll have 330+ hitpoints. Add on invulnerability, earthpower, iron will, personal regeneration, and strength of gaia. You can get her regeneration over 50-70 points per turn.

Lord of the Desert Sun - Very cool avatar that costs too much. 100 points seems more reasonable.

He's fire immune, and makes a great support mage, in addition to being hard to kill once he gets his buffs going. Maybe a bit overpriced.

Scorpion King - Needs a body slot and he's a very competitive pretender.

I think that he should almost certainly have a body slot, which would make him very good. Right now he's marginal.

Monolith - Immobiles suck. Free please.

The monolith is a perfectly servicable caster SC chassis, so I definetly wouldn't want to see it any cheaper.

I'd definetly like to see some more viable choices, but many of the ones above aren't that bad.

[Cohen]

I'd like to see Immobile a little more nice.

I agree with body for Scorpion King.

Hey, we're missing all the range of human pretenders that none use!!! (unless forced by houserules!).

[Blitz]

Agian, a tough trampler is quite good in the early game.

Is it? How about a Virtue? Ever try an A3/E3 virtue when expanding? You can have that, dominion 7, and 320 points for scales/castle. A far better early SC, plus the lategame potential of any SC for less points. A third path at 3 (water, death, nature, whatever) leaves you with 200 points. Compare that to a bull which is going to cost the exact same to get your paths regardless of which you take, except that Nature isn't a common SC school, especially considering you already regenerate. The virtue has the same path choice, a powerful ability in awe, and FAR more lategame potential.

I invite you to play agianst me using a monolith sometime, just becouse you need to teleport to use it as an SC does not mean it isn't worth it

I can't find a comparable 40 path cost, 40 point pretender to argue this with that didn't suck, So I guess we're going to have to fire back with the Lady of Fortune. For 50 more points you can both move around and use 6 extra slots. Is that fair? Even if you think that's fine, consider the LOF's amazing special ability. If your plan is to throw up Astral Shield/Soul Vortex and cast away, you probably would be better off with a little defense value, which the LOF has in spades over the Monolith. If you intend on using direct spells, I point to the LOF's 8 more precision. Even when using foul vapors, the LOF can wear a PR ring and still have you beat by 5 item slots. Whatever you are up to with your monolith, I can almost guarantee you there's a better chassis out there.

Please remember... just because you can win with a chassis does not mean it's balanced. Remember the Vampire Queen? Lots of people beat them, but they were still too cheap. This is the same thing. Why is the Nataraja good? Because it's free. If it were 100 points it wouldn't be as good. But I can promise you one thing... if the Nataraja had been introduced at 100 points and someone posted that it should be free there would be a whole slew of Posts about how great Natarajas were and how they are well worth 100 points. Think about it... if the Great Mother was a 50 point pick would the game suddenly be flooded with Great Mothers? Probably not. It's a very limited chassis that would still be rarely used.

[Teraswaerto]

The Monolith is cheap and has high starting dominion. It has 200 base hp and 28 base protection. I don't see it needing any improvement, though having 2 misc. slots would be nice.

[Blitz]

The Monolith is cheap and has high starting dominion. It has 200 base hp and 28 base protection. I don't see it needing any improvement, though having 2 misc. slots would be nice.

Out of curiosity, how often have you actually used one?

[quantum_mechani]

Originally posted by Blitz:

quote:

---

The Monolith is cheap and has high starting dominion. It has 200 base hp and 28 base protection. I don't see it needing any improvement, though having 2 misc. slots would be nice.

Out of curiosity, how often have you actually used one?

---

I don't know exactly, but likely on my top 15 list of pretenders.

[Teraswaerto]

Quite often, though usually as a replacement for the Oracle with nations that can't use it (the Oracle, that is). I have one in a MP currently on turn 81, for example.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Blitz:
Think about it... if the Great Mother was a 50 point pick would the game suddenly be flooded with Great Mothers? Probably not. It's a very limited chassis that would still be rarely used.

Different people, different experiences. Mine suggest the Great Mother comes 3r or 4th as a popular choice, close behind the VQ and the Ghost King, about on the same rank as the Lady of Fortune.

In Dominions 1 she was also very popular, sharing the top spot with the Wyrm and the Sphinx. But in Doms 1 the Wyrm costed 50 points less, the Sphinx could gate/TP and had more slots, the VQ and GK didn't exist, and the LoF sucked big time (was known as the Daughter of the River).