Noob questions! - Page 4

Pocus · #31 October 8th, 2003, 08:21 AM

Frankly it must be me, but I dont see the point in this whole arena concept, as it is now. Well, if the goal is to weaken the AI, then it works perfectly.

The sole interest, and nearly all your Posts confirm it, is that it is a way for the player to abuse the AI.

No sane player would dare commit a decent leader into the arena. On the other hand, the AI is coded to engage a worthy combattant, be it a prophet, his god, or another commander.

yes it can be fun at time, example your first solo game of dominions. After you discover what lie behind the feature, you only use it to exploit the AI opponents.

DominionsFan · #32 October 8th, 2003, 09:11 AM

Yup, the AI must be tweaked for the Arena matches in Doms II.

[ October 08, 2003, 08:11: Message edited by: DominionsFAN ]

johan osterman · #33 October 8th, 2003, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pocus:
Frankly it must be me, but I dont see the point in this whole arena concept, as it is now. Well, if the goal is to weaken the AI, then it works perfectly.

The arena is not supposed to have a point, it is supposed to be fun. The trident is not supposed to be the best weapon in the game, it is supposed to be a sticky trident. The whole thing is just a feature slapped on because it is neat, there is no particular point to it.

Mortifer · #34 October 8th, 2003, 09:28 AM

Johan, it is a very good thing to have an arena combat. I think that it should be upgraded even.
I think the champ should get random magic items. Those items should be unique, and only given for arena champs.
I agree that the AI should be tweaked for the Arena matches, IE. the AI should make an Arena competitor only with the right equipment, and stop sending in his best leaders in bad equipment, etc.

[ October 08, 2003, 08:28: Message edited by: Mortifer ]

Pocus · #35 October 8th, 2003, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by johan osterman:

quote:
Originally posted by Pocus:
Frankly it must be me, but I dont see the point in this whole arena concept, as it is now. Well, if the goal is to weaken the AI, then it works perfectly.

The arena is not supposed to have a point, it is supposed to be fun. The trident is not supposed to be the best weapon in the game, it is supposed to be a sticky trident. The whole thing is just a feature slapped on because it is neat, there is no particular point to it.

ah yes, it is fun in the sense 'what can I do to screw this stupid AI this time? Should I bring explosion medaillion, cursed items, totem shield?'.
I can understand than one can have fun reviewing the battles generated and see all these AI prophets or gods going down or be cursed or afflicted.

Aristoteles · #36 October 8th, 2003, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pocus:

quote:
Originally posted by johan osterman:

quote:
Originally posted by Pocus:
Frankly it must be me, but I dont see the point in this whole arena concept, as it is now. Well, if the goal is to weaken the AI, then it works perfectly.

The arena is not supposed to have a point, it is supposed to be fun. The trident is not supposed to be the best weapon in the game, it is supposed to be a sticky trident. The whole thing is just a feature slapped on because it is neat, there is no particular point to it.
ah yes, it is fun in the sense 'what can I do to screw this stupid AI this time? Should I bring explosion medaillion, cursed items, totem shield?'.
I can understand than one can have fun reviewing the battles generated and see all these AI prophets or gods going down or be cursed or afflicted.

LOL..sad but true. Arena is a very good idea, but the AI sucks in Doms I. It is way to easy to abuse the AI. [Curse etc. etc.]

[ October 08, 2003, 11:14: Message edited by: Aristoteles ]

johan osterman · #37 October 8th, 2003, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pocus:
ah yes, it is fun in the sense 'what can I do to screw this stupid AI this time? Should I bring explosion medaillion, cursed items, totem shield?'.
I can understand than one can have fun reviewing the battles generated and see all these AI prophets or gods going down or be cursed or afflicted.

I think you are overstating your case. If you bring an amulet or veneance or other similar item you can just screw with one of the AI nations. And so what if the AI's prohpet dies, it is not like it puts a huge dent in his carefully laid plans.

Mortifer · #38 October 8th, 2003, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PDF:
I agree with both Johann - the Arena concept is fun - and Pocus - it's an open door for abusing AIs ...
May I suggest some tweaks that I think will make the "game" fairer and more interesting ?

1/ NO items in the Arena, the combattants enter naked, all their stuff go to the Lab
2/ At the end of the fights, all survivors are fully healed/cured/restored/curses removed, they come back as new, only the dead remain dead !
3/ Prizes should be various powerful unique artifacts, or a big pack of gems, not always the same half-potent but cursed weapon

I think that those rules would kill most of the arena cheese, the players would either have to pass on an opportunity to kill enemies and gain something worthwhile, or send themselves powerful leaders (as the AI does and as the devs intended to design Arena combat).
I concur that the Dom1 Arena prize isn't that good, it's nice with a supercombatant pretender or a big fighter type leader if you get it very early, but even so ends later as a drawback as you can't get rid of it when you can forge better stuff ...

Hell yeah! Very good ideas! I agree with this totally. This would stop the AI abusing.

Pocus · #39 October 8th, 2003, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

quote:
Originally posted by Pocus:
I propose a challenge : take a nation, put the scales at disorder 3, sloth 3, death 3, luck -3, drain 3, and add some 2-3 impossible AI. The one which Last the longuer will have his name praised in the forum

Ermor & maritime nations excluded ?

Something like that was already done in the past - we call that a "death game": no Ermor, common random events, everyone has to pick max turmoil and max unluck.

If you ever play in this kind of game, let me give you a hint: growth and production aren't worth s***, except in the very early stage. After a while your provinces will be so depleted you won't see any difference between growth+3 and death+3 ;-).

Stone idols allowed?

[ October 08, 2003, 16:30: Message edited by: Psitticine ]

licker · #40 October 8th, 2003, 04:43 PM

As to the arena thing...

Perhaps a penalty should be assesed to nations that don't enter the arena, futher penalties could be assesed depending on how well your champions does. Loses right away your people get more unrest, wins the whole thing, unrest goes down, or extra cash is raised... somethings like that.

This way it makes sense for every nation to start training arena competators (at least to some extent) otherwise they can get hit in their economy. Heh if you want to be really cruel give curses to all commanders of a nation that doesn't send a representative to the arena