Fighting Commanders and Equipment.

[Chazar]

I feel very much the same about low-level items on commoners. It might be fun, but it isnt even remotely cost effective and takes too much time. It is a shame that all this is wasted...

Here is my solution: Alter the mapfile and add some simple commanders to all provinces, each having the random-equip flag set at low-level. Those certainly do not make it more difficult to conquer the independents, but cause that there are many trinkets around waiting to be won in battle. So one can have some fun discovering some unusual items...
However, it is a shame that there is not a single setting allowing to give random trinkets to all independent commanders...


Another option is probably the difficult research option, where the usability window for low-level items is prolonged...

[magnate]

There are a few low level items which do not become obsolete - the Burning Pearl is my favourite - make it straight away and then pass it to an Ice Devil later on ...

... but on the whole I agree with spirokeat - there are a fair proportion of items on the forge list which are rarely or never used. Imho this is a real shame, and a priority for fixing/rebalancing in Dom3. I'm not saying every item should be a no-brainer - far from it - but after 18 months of playing this game I would like to be able to say "oh yes, that comes in really handy when ..." for each item.

But maybe part of this is me - after all, I'm the only person I know who's never forged a Staff of Storms ...

CC

[Endoperez]

I haven't, either... in DomII. I did, in Dom:PPP, when I played Caelum in multiplayer...

I mainly used Air Elementals, as they could be summoned without gems. SoS offered quite a nice protection. However, my most active offence force were my hordes of Caelian Scouts. They must have captured dozens of undefended provinces. And I had a sneaking, flying, teleporting Archfiend with Boots of the Planes capturing one of the magically rich provinces every turn, thanks to the one-turn Eyes of the God I had cast before. Ah, good times... But the game did take at least half a year, probably closer to a full one.

[Arralen]

There is a very simple solution to the low-level item problem:

They are too expensive. As we can't change that, simply make all summoning spells 2 times as expensive.
As long as you get one or more summons for the gemcost of the lowliest items, no-one will ever make those as the summons give much more "bang for the buck".

PS: I like dropping some Stinger and Black Tower Shield on indie commanders. Not really cost effective, but fun

[sushiboat]

I make use of only a small percentage of summoning spells, so increasing the cost of them all is overkill. Besides, I get to Construction 4 around Turn 15. Construction 0 items just can't compete. You can't make me forge them. I won't do it (with rare exceptions), no matter how much summoning spells cost.

I like the idea of indie commanders owning magical trinkets. Perhaps even commanders you recruit should have a chance of owning a trinket.

[shovah]

but if you manage to get out the forge of the ancients and ( dont no if it stacks but it does in unpatched domII ) play ulm with their smiths you can seriously crank out items and give them to every1 ( 75% forge bonus )

[spirokeat]

magnate said:
... but on the whole I agree with spirokeat - there are a fair proportion of items on the forge list which are rarely or never used. Imho this is a real shame, and a priority for fixing/rebalancing in Dom3. I'm not saying every item should be a no-brainer - far from it - but after 18 months of playing this game I would like to be able to say "oh yes, that comes in really handy when ..." for each item.
CC

I agree whole heartedly. Theres just tons I like the look of but never forge, I just think its a shame not a major game imbalance. A lot of love and attention went into those items and I would like to repond in kind.

I've never forged a staff of storms either...chuckle.

Spirokeat

[Endoperez]

The low-level items shouldn't be very useful, but they should have some use. Of course, the items without any real powers aren't very good (armor piercing isn't enough alone), and some abilities are more powerful than others (SCs have often have higher str than att, so swords are better than axes) even without considering magic. Some items are just hard to use well, because their main use would be as special replacement weapons for normal units (Star of Heroes isn't that good for an SC who should kill critter/turn or could use something that works better against another SC).

Its the second ones I'd like to use more. Star of Heroes is a good example, as is Evening Star, Fire Bola, Flesh Eater, Vine Whip, Rat Tail, Shield of the Accursed (it is easier to just cast Horror Mark against SCs) etc. The chance of losing them is just too big. Maybe, when a commander with bodyguards dies, they should return (most of) his items with his body.
Also, one reason mundane commanders are not used much is the fact that you must choose between buying a mage or a non-magical commander. I'd like to be able to recruit both martial and scholarly commander every turn. This would let me to buy the usual 1st-turn mage, but also get another Spy as Ulm or a Tribal King to levy Slaves as Mictlan. I'm not sure what caste the priests should be in, as some of them lead armies and some of them act as morale raisers, and DomIII having more national priestly spells might change their role a little.

[Wish]

shield of accursed is by far the best shield that isn't unique, primarily because of its stats, not its horror marking. most shield give lousy defence, but that shield gives 7.

For a while I had a pretty good setup to give an assasin or succubus which included no unique items. rod of incineraton, shield of the accursed, boots of stone where the mainstays. the helmet could either be the wraith crown or the elemental helm, the first providing ethereal form and a small set of undead guards, the second would kill weak commanders on its own. (i use amon hotep once unique items are available, nothing like magic resistance and invulnerability, all in one hat. The best thing of being a wish based pretender is that you can steal unique items back from the computer.) the trinkets can beanything really, gauntlets to add more protection, etc. i usually go with a ring of regeneration and an amulet of antimagic. it made an assassin nearly unstoppable on its own.

now for a single leader who is nearly unstoppable there are some neat combinations of items. one of my favorite is fenris' pelt, soulstone of the wolves, lifelong protection, wraithlord crown, any boots (teleportation boots are nice on this one), any weapons, but faithful is nice for added luck, and maybe a shield that plays an active role, like aegis or scutta volturnus, or for the theme of added battlefield creatures: lantern shield. alternatively you can go with some staff that allows for summoning, and seet them to summon more critters into battle. you actually end up with so many wolves and undead and imps that you usually can't even get to the enemy.

[AztraGoth]

I just use the regular weak commanders as "Carriers Of The Holy Wine" just so my troops can party hardy all night long (Love low-magic/abunch of national troops settings)