Luck/Misfortune Nerf.

[Gandalf Parker]

But I thought the game was already setup so that those things didnt happen early. Or at least, didnt happen unless you had taken settings that specifically said "Im willing to take the chance"

[HoneyBadger]

Which is why I initially wrote this post, Gandalf.

I was trying to spread out my poor Mictlan Dom (2) and in the middle of it, lost the lab for my home provice. It happened before the 3rd year was over and I had a Luck of 0. It wasn't in this case a particularly enormous loss, I admit, but it could have been had I been using a different strategy, or playing an MP game-or even seriously endeavoring to play a game, rather than just testing theory.

I didn't ask for bad luck, I also didn't ask for good luck-please note. But it certainly was reason enough to post about it. I would appreciate it if other people could take the time to test this and see how limited catastrophic events are in the first 3 years of the game, just so that Gandalf and I could compare notes.

Thanks.

[SelfishGene]

The problem, in a nutshell, is starting with 1 province.

[HoneyBadger]

But I like starting with 1 province.

[Gandalf Parker]

I think that at the moment the safety zone is set for something like 3 turns. So its not the want as much as the range of the safety that is in question.

And of course, starting with one province is a game option. I often like to start with 3-5 on large maps.

[thejeff]

Losing your lab sometime in the first 3 years isn't really that big a deal. It's a one turn delay on recruiting capital-only mages and researching/casting in the capital along with 500gp. Not a game breaker.

Losing your lab in the first few turns when you might not even have recruited a mage yet. That's a game breaker, especially with dormant/imprisoned pretender.
Same for early temple loss.

[Agrajag]

Have you tried using Random Events Are Rare?

[TwoBits]

Is there any "safety zone" at the start of a game? I don't think so.

Once my capitol got hit by vampires on the 2nd turn (before I had the chance to even think of attacking my first independant) of a small , random map MP game (and I had +1 luck to boot).

Wiped out my PD and income right from the get-go. I had to demand a restart, and justifiably, I think.

That's the kind of irritating (and major time wasting - we're talking days if you're playing PBEM, like we were) event that needs to be mitigated against.

[HoneyBadger]

Ok, so what I'd like is the option to set the "safety zone" to a maximum of 36 turns with possibly some options in between the two extremes. Maybe 3, 6, 12, 24, 36.

Thejeff, that's just a minimal example of a bad situation that repeatedly comes up. Losing your lab within the first 3 years might not be catastrophic in and of itself, but if you are playing a no-income nation (and I often do) and have to wait up to a year or two to gather 500 gold, and you can't cash in gems, then it becomes really viciously bad for your nation.

Frankly, I'd be pleased if there were a way to cash in gems without needing a lab. It seems just as reasonable, since the game uses a gold economy (the basic dollar equals a POUND of gold at a time...assuming it's pure 24 carat gold, and assuming mining techniques are primitive, especially in Early Age, where are they getting it all??? A pound of silver I could see. An ounce of gold I could see. Paying 10-20lbs of gold for a militia unit, nope.) to be able to cash in gems without needing a lab/alchemy.

Maybe as a basic function of the Fortress, and extend it to all gems, possibly keeping different prices per gem, and maybe having a fluctuating price based on the size of your nation-so that gems are worth more, the larger your nation is (at the time when lots of gems are more valuable to you), divided by decreasing in price the more the market is flooded by a specific gem.

Ofcourse, the nature of the game tends to preclude a nation-to-nation trade option, I guess I understand that, but there could still be a shadow economy going wherein a nation would put gems on the market for purchase by-for instance-that damned old witch who keeps cursing my troops.