Poll: How much will the new bless effects affect your pretender design?

Teleolurian · #1 October 29th, 2003, 07:25 PM

I have, so far, found two games in which Bless effects were tremendously useful:

1. Ulm "Iron Faith" theme. Quality Black Templars buffed with Earth and Fire bonuses. I often mowed through strong independent armies with a quarter of the forces they had.

2. Jotunheim's "Nieflheim" theme. Those giants are *begging* for bless bonuses. In general, I like to delay creating a prophet until I can field an army of quality troops; changing the number of magic levels I take to accomodate certain bless effects is minor in relation to the bonuses, even if it's only *one* army that gets the effects.

ywl · #2 October 29th, 2003, 07:25 PM

Trying to stick to the subject title.

I've only tested intensively with Ulm and Jotun. Without too many holy units, Ulm can't benefit too much from the bless effect. The "Iron Faith" is a possibility but I don't find it impressive.

But for Jotun, it's significant. The blessed Jotun Woodmen are very powerful. Jotun Scout is sacred, stealthy and cheap enough (50 gp). Being commanders, you can recruit them at any castle. You could, in theory, use them an a stealthy army. You will need a stealthy priest but that can be done by prophetize you first Jotun Scout. And of course, if you used the Niefelheim theme, the Niefel giants would be even more terrifying while blessed.

Teleolurian · #3 October 29th, 2003, 07:27 PM

Wow, simultaneous post about the exact same thing. Somebody's been eating their telepathic Wheaties...

ywl · #4 October 29th, 2003, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Having designed a few gods and struggled to get any worthwhile bless bonuses at all... hmm.

Going from 8 to 9 is insanely expensive, even for gods that start at level 2 in something. It makes strong blessings only accessible to nations that get free design points (Caelum, Jotun, Abyssia, Ermor), or cripple themselves. I think setting the big bonus at level 8 and starting the incremental bonus at level 3 would be more interesting... plus... it would make rainbow mages much more fun.

-Cherry

I agree - though I think 4 and 8 will be the better levels to start the effects.

Nerfix · #5 October 29th, 2003, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ywl:

quote:
Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Having designed a few gods and struggled to get any worthwhile bless bonuses at all... hmm.

Going from 8 to 9 is insanely expensive, even for gods that start at level 2 in something. It makes strong blessings only accessible to nations that get free design points (Caelum, Jotun, Abyssia, Ermor), or cripple themselves. I think setting the big bonus at level 8 and starting the incremental bonus at level 3 would be more interesting... plus... it would make rainbow mages much more fun.

-Cherry

I agree - though I think 4 and 8 will be the better levels to start the effects.

I agree that you should get the second tier blessing at 8 and i think its best to keep the first tier at 4. Every time i try to make a god with 9 in one path and 4 in another, i keep thinking how could the betas afford them?

Saber Cherry · #6 October 29th, 2003, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ywl:
I agree - though I think 4 and 8 will be the better levels to start the effects.

The main problem with 4 and 8 is that then, at level 8, you get two big bonuses, and nobody would EVER want level 9. Also, all the odd levels are worthless.

Not to mention, you're just saying that because you Ph3@r my 1337 all-level-3 rainbow mage=)

-Cherry

P.S. As it stands now, I doubt anyone would ever, under any circumstance, pick level 10 in anything, even though you get an increment there. But if the big bonus was dropped to level 8, and increments were made even, you might increase the big bonus again at level 10... and still nobody would ever use it, but at least they would gaze at it wistfully.

-Cherry

[ October 29, 2003, 17:57: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

st.patrik · #7 October 29th, 2003, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
As it stands now, I doubt anyone would ever, under any circumstance, pick level 10 in anything, even though you get an increment there. But if the big bonus was dropped to level 8, and increments were made even, you might increase the big bonus again at level 10... and still nobody would ever use it, but at least they would gaze at it wistfully.

-Cherry

Maybe instead of changing incrementally the abilities should change exponentially! So with Fire at lvl 4 you get +1 att, lvl 6: +2, lvl 8: +4, lvl 10: +8. There would be some motivation to get really high levels - I mean, +8 anything is pretty impressive.