Message from Abysia

[Cainehill]

Morkilus said:

You mean you're not having any fun sending those feeble old wrecks to the front lines, ahead of the pikemen to slow down a cavalry charge? You either have no sense of humor, or are just a soft excuse for a pretender god bent on the destruction of the world for your glory.

Problem is that those old, feebleminded mages tend to often have map movements of one - guess incontinence makes it difficult to travel fast. In dom2, I often saw where it would take 10 turns or more to drag useless troops (and "free" militia) to a valid front line to get them killed off. Given that _every_ turn you have to find that army and update orders, since there's no pathfinding or waypoint mechanism, it's a royal PITA.

And I have another gripe about the age system - following up in new post.

[Cainehill]

It also has (presumably) unforeseen consequences such as making EA Arco's philosophers a very dubious choice now. Yes, their research rate is high, _but_ they start old. Priestess's start with a good 30 years to go before hitting old age.

So, let's see - why would I want to recruit philosophers who die of old age, instead of priestesses? And yes, I noticed this in my very first game : philosophers were dropping like flies from age.

Secondary side effect of aging : a quick test makes it look like _all_ units have Christmas birthdays, ie, all units age in Late Winter. So - want to buy a mage on the cusp of old age? Buy him/her in early spring to have more time before aging. And don't _EVER_ buy in mid-winter, or you may be bitter.

[Nerfix]

Cainehill said:

It also has (presumably) unforeseen consequences such as making EA Arco's philosophers a very dubious choice now. Yes, their research rate is high, _but_ they start old. Priestess's start with a good 30 years to go before hitting old age.

So, let's see - why would I want to recruit philosophers who die of old age, instead of priestesses? And yes, I noticed this in my very first game : philosophers were dropping like flies from age.

Did you perchance take Death scale? I usualy take 1 Growth or neutral growth with early Arco and I have yet to see significant amounts of Philosophers to die. I recruit them early on because they can give a significant research edge.

They become less attractive to me when you hit the point where your Mystics can do something else than shoot Fire Flies and forge Enchanted Pikes anyway, but that might just be me.

The only one with whom I had serious old age problems was Abysia. Now, those fellas could use some extra five years before they hit old age. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img]

[Cainehill]

Ah, joy - just got my copy of Dom3, and have yet another source of bitterness about the Aging mechanism, and the manual which is supposedly worth five dollars.

Perhaps it was senility that led the manual to have no mention of Aging, Old Age, etc, in the index or table of contents? A major new mechanic in the game, and no bloody mention of it?!? There's been talk here on the forums about various things having an influence on aging - magic paths, growth scales, etc....

And yet, looking in those sections of the manual, there STILL isn't any god-forsaken mention of aging or the influences of Growth/Death scales or Nature/Death magic paths.

Before I was disgruntled, now I'd color myself a subtle shade of pissed.

(Not even to mention the school of design that led the Age stat to be displayed via ... Fatigue! It's even worse than putting Size "behind" HPs. Hmmm, I better check.... Whew! I thought maybe a new Sanity stat had been added onto
Move, or maybe Precision now displayed Upkeep, or Attack Skill displayed Moral Alignment. *mutter*)

[Nerfix]

So that's where it is displayed. I wondered about that myself. It ought to be moved under HP or somesuch.

[moodgiesanta]

I like the age thing a lot. It adds a lot of flavor and some interesting mechanics and it makes Death scales matter in small games where depopulation isn't an issue. Abysia is a country that really has no issues with aging except in the very beginning. It's a simple and cheap ritual to decrease age by 10 years. In fact in my latest game I got a blood mage down to zero years old. Was hoping he'd go negative but it seems you're capped at zero. Sadly the graphic didn't change into that of an infant but hey.

[Nerfix]

Anathemants can't cast Rejuvenation.

[Theonlystd]

Morkilus said:

You mean you're not having any fun sending those feeble old wrecks to the front lines, ahead of the pikemen to slow down a cavalry charge? You either have no sense of humor, or are just a soft excuse for a pretender god bent on the destruction of the world for your glory.

An aside: I immediately sent that joke of a mercenary Madame Fortuna into the front lines when she hired on with a feeble mind. Then I realized my commander had was feebleminded immediately after the battle. Off he goes to the front! It happened again. I then read the text for this slave collar that was being passed down. Oops.

whoa am i the only one that saw a potentially lame tatic with this?


I asumed slave collar would be destroyed when the wearer died. Make a bunch put them on crappy commanders have them attack the turn before your army and hopefully feeblemind varius mages???


Or where you giving poeple the collars?

[Nerfix]

It's about equaly lame as passing that shapeshifting amulet to others.

[Fate]

I really like the old age system. I am now playing as Pythium, with +3 growth, and I have had at least 70 very old mages (starting age is 60/50) and so far maybe 5 have died of old age, and another 4 are diseased. And remember, diseased mages can still work until they die!

I don't have any problem with the aging system. A growth +1 scale is sufficient protection, normally.