Big units and afflictions

PDF · #1 November 28th, 2003, 10:30 AM

I'm not sure there is a catch, what you notice is rather tied to cumulative % chance and the fact that "small" units usually just die fast

.

For example, a 100hp unit that fight once, get two 10 hp wounds, then fight again and take 3 hits, only has a (100%-10%)^5= 59% chance of *not* having got any affliction !
OTOH a 10 hp unit usually either is wounded once - and often get an affliction also - then die, so you just don't care..

Overall I agree that affliction is "overdone" IMHO, and units get too much of them and/or too grievous ones - a 10 hp hit on a 100 hp creature just *shouldn't* have a 10% chance of chopping a arm or an eye out, the system should be non-linear, for example
affliction % = (hp taken/total hp) SQUARED
(that'll give 1% chance for a 10% hp^loss, 4% for 20%, up to 81% for 90%)
The other problem is that afflictions never heal except under special circumstances, and that *hit big* effectiveness of big units (except for Arco ..).

Teraswaerto · #2 November 28th, 2003, 03:38 PM

Maybe it should be possible to cure afflictions a bit easier, but other than that they are just fine. Something to keep big units from being too powerful, and it adds a pinch of realism too. Getting struck with a sword or an axe would probably cause permanent damage (=affliction) even with todays medicine, let alone back in the times Dominions is set in.

Pocus · #3 November 28th, 2003, 09:40 PM

somehow it balances the big creatures against the smaller, so I'm unsure I would be willing to reduce the affliction chance. And anyway, a ring of regen will reduce affliction to a very small level (I dont remember the figure, but the reduction was enormous).

Also in doms2 everybody can get a remove affliction creature with a Faery Queen. Not super marvelous, but still you can keep her in your capitol on continuous healing, and direct all your injured there. I'm sure you will appreciate the service given...

PvK · #4 November 28th, 2003, 11:10 PM

I think Arralen had the answer. Given the damage and affliction system described, it would be more likely for huge beasts to get afflictions over their lifetime, particularly when fighting lesser opponents, because they tend to survive many more blows than weaker units, who tend to die more often from fewer injuries. Players no doubt also tend to check their big minions more frequently than they check all of their little minions, so they also may not notice all the limps and amputations going on amongst the cannon fodder who survive. When I play Ulm and try to keep my well-armored humans alive, I notice that many of the veterans end up with afflictions, if they had to do a lot of tough fighting.

PvK

HJ · #5 November 29th, 2003, 01:38 AM

Thanks for the replies. I just wanted to see if there is some "equalizer" algorythm tied to size and introduced by design so as to make big units more prone to the afflictions. If there isn't then I can accept that those were only the unlucky rolls.

Taqwus · #6 November 29th, 2003, 02:52 AM

One of the more brutal aspects is that large units also tend to be the ones targeted by the long-range, fairly common (lizard shamans, totem shields, others. Think twice before taking your pretender into an indy province controlled by lizardmen), unresistable, and permanent Curse spell which IIRC greatly increases the chance of afflictions per hit.

Then there are the attacks which have an unusually high, sometimes 100%, chance of causing afflictions -- the Black Bow of Botulf causes Feeblemind, Vision's Foe removes an eye, one of the scythe artifacts causes crippling... and whose owners are likely to have "fire/attack large monsters" or something like that.

Windreaper · #7 November 29th, 2003, 07:44 AM

Yup, it's devilishly easy to cripple supercombatants nowadays. Even crossbows can do it. I'm personally very fond of the Blindness -spell (Machaka starts with it, yay) even though it allows a mr. check.
I don't mind the current affliction system since I find it reasonably realistic (real combat veterans weren't scarred for no reason) and gives supercombatants something to be afraid of. There could be some positive battle afflictions like 'impressive scars' to increase ld or 'horrible scars' to give lesser fear or so, though. It however goes without saying that Pan and especially Arco got a huge advantage here. Faery Queen having this ability is very nice but it's so high in the tree that it's basically the priviledge of nature-heavy nations (Pangaea, Man etc) who go for Conjuration anyway.