.com.unity Forums
  The Official e-Store of Shrapnel Games

This Month's Specials

BCT Commander- Save $7.00
winSPWW2- Save $5.00

   







Go Back   .com.unity Forums > Illwinter Game Design > Dominions 3: The Awakening

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #71  
Old September 20th, 2007, 09:38 PM
Velusion's Avatar

Velusion Velusion is offline
Colonel
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Dallas, Tx
Posts: 1,712
Thanks: 0
Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts
Velusion is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

MA Ulm really does need a boost. I'm pretty sure that if a poll was taken of MP players of the worst nation MA Ulm would be in the bottom three nations - if not the very bottom.

I think simply making them have excellent MR and morale stats (instead of the the crappy ones they have now) would even things out dramatically and even work thematically. It'd be kinda cool to see a nation that produces troops with a very high natural MR.
Reply With Quote
  #72  
Old September 21st, 2007, 01:18 AM
Tuidjy's Avatar

Tuidjy Tuidjy is offline
Major
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: La La Land (California, USA)
Posts: 1,244
Thanks: 0
Thanked 30 Times in 11 Posts
Tuidjy is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

The developers have said, repeatedly, that Ulm's low magic resistance is here to
stay. A friend of mine says that Ulm is the way someone is working out his
frustration with Germany and Germans :-) MA Ulm needs help, more than anyone else.

Here is what I would do, and I am not sure it would be enough, anyway.

1. A boost to some basic stats - strength, hit points, morale, and endurance.
The last means low basic encumberance - they're hardy and carry their armour well.

2. A bonus to the specific Ulm equipment. Lighter armour, more damage to weapons.

3. Recruitable troops that are not burdened by heavy equipment.

4. All restrictions lifted from the extra magic pick. Let them have everything but blood.

5. An extra 10% earth pick.
__________________
No good deed goes unpunished...
Reply With Quote
  #73  
Old September 21st, 2007, 01:48 AM
Rytek's Avatar

Rytek Rytek is offline
Second Lieutenant
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Holbrook,AZ
Posts: 456
Thanks: 3
Thanked 11 Times in 11 Posts
Rytek is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

They could lose the old age on their mages too.
Reply With Quote
  #74  
Old September 21st, 2007, 02:56 AM
Aethyr's Avatar

Aethyr Aethyr is offline
First Lieutenant
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 729
Thanks: 66
Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts
Aethyr is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

Am I the ony one that thinks Bandor Log (MA)is seriously under rated?
__________________
Power is an illusion...
Reply With Quote
  #75  
Old September 21st, 2007, 08:38 AM
Edratman's Avatar

Edratman Edratman is offline
First Lieutenant
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Reading, PA
Posts: 724
Thanks: 93
Thanked 37 Times in 27 Posts
Edratman is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

Quote:
Aethyr said:
Am I the ony one that thinks Bandor Log (MA)is seriously under rated?
Bandar Log is my favorite MA nation. Great troop diversity, great troop cost/resource options, recruitable anywhere sacreds, good magic paths and good magic diversity for MA nation. Troops also have good movement. The only negative is weak priests, but no nation is strong in every single catgory.

I've always been surprised that Bandar Log has not been more highly regarded in the forum. Of course I am SP only and it is obvious from the forums that there is limited correspondence between SP and MP.
__________________
Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Reply With Quote
  #76  
Old September 21st, 2007, 08:54 AM
DrPraetorious's Avatar

DrPraetorious DrPraetorious is offline
Major General
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Lake of Hali, Aldebaran, OH
Posts: 2,474
Thanks: 51
Thanked 67 Times in 27 Posts
DrPraetorious is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

Bandar Log is a nation that looks mediocre on paper and turns out to be quite strong.

I think that the way to fix Ulm is to give them national spells that play to their existing strengths - and to the weaknesses of existing enemies, especially astral nations and sacred troops, which, since their official job in life is to hate magicians and priests, works fine.

I put together a list of them for my spells mod, and added more - they made Ulm decently fierce, at least in tests.
__________________
If you read his speech at Rice, all his arguments for going to the moon work equally well as arguments for blowing up the moon, sending cloned dinosaurs into space, or constructing a towering *****-shaped obelisk on Mars. --Randall Munroe
Reply With Quote
  #77  
Old September 21st, 2007, 09:41 AM
Reverend Zombie's Avatar

Reverend Zombie Reverend Zombie is offline
Lieutenant Colonel
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 1,266
Thanks: 18
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Reverend Zombie is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

Quote:
Edratman said:
Quote:
Aethyr said:
Am I the ony one that thinks Bandor Log (MA)is seriously under rated?
The only negative is weak priests, but no nation is strong in every single catgory.


Not quite the only negative: MR is a serious problem for most of their recruitable troops.
__________________
In strait places gar keep all store,
And burn the plain land them before:
Then shall they pass away in haste,
When that they find nothing but waste...

Reply With Quote
  #78  
Old September 21st, 2007, 10:05 AM
Humakty's Avatar

Humakty Humakty is offline
Second Lieutenant
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: country of stinky fromages
Posts: 564
Thanks: 29
Thanked 15 Times in 13 Posts
Humakty is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

I find Bandar Log to be quite strange. They have longbows that don't fit well with their low prec.
Anyway I always thought that Indian archers used to pull even greater bows, using their feets. Changing this could give them a great strategic diversity(and specificity), bad shooters being at worst dangerous for your own low prot, low shield troops(and at best not justifying their cost). Another point that renders most of their units pointless : what is the use of a 20 gold maceman ?
Hard to mass, ill equipped people haren't a great army.
I find them to lack all that gives Lanka it's power.
If you nonetheless survive to mid game, you can always cast gift of health, so you can reppel ennemies without too much looses.(I think astral/nature are good long term magics)
__________________
10 times more numerous, by nigth and backstabbing.

Senior member of the GLIN !
Reply With Quote
  #79  
Old September 21st, 2007, 10:40 AM
SelfishGene's Avatar

SelfishGene SelfishGene is offline
Sergeant
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 247
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
SelfishGene is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Most powerful nation

MA Ulm is a good candidate for the turmoil/luck trick since their troops cost so little (taking 3order/3prod with Ulm give you an almost unlimited supply of gold). Turmoil/luck provides hundreds of extra gems over the course of a game, and getting 30+ a turn is not uncommon.

Taking 2 Drain, 3 Prod, 3 Turmoil, 3 Luck, and making a powerful SC pretender with many paths, should cover most of your bases with Ulm.

I'm a fan of 9-Path Titan pretenders, but only when you're not sacrificing too much long-term magical diversity. Since Ulm's problem is almost by definintion magical diversity, your Pretender has to take up the slack, and there aren't any sacred troops to bother with anyway.
Reply With Quote
  #80  
Old September 21st, 2007, 11:28 AM

CUnknown CUnknown is offline
Captain
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 947
Thanks: 1
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
CUnknown is on a distinguished road
Default Re: \"Fixes\" to Ulm

About the various "fixes" proposed for MA Ulm.. Well first of all I don't agree that Ulm is broken, or that it needs any sort of fix. Ulm is my favorite, and I think it is a decent nation, with strengths and weaknesses as are appropriate. Ulm has already been upgraded from Dom2 -- the random picks on master smiths are a godsend.

But, at the same time, even I admit that Ulm is not among the top tier of nations by any means. So, some small improvements aren't a bad idea.

1) The idea about cheap Marignon-style x-bows.

This would help early expansion for MA Ulm, and I think it's a great idea. Certainly not unbalancing, and it would provide a boost. However, I should note that the arbelest is one of the best missile troops in the game, and the cheap x-bows probably wouldn't be used much outside of the first 5-10 turns or so.

2) "A boost to some basic stats - strength, hit points, morale, and endurance."

Not a bad idea, but their troops are already very good. Improving this sort of thing doesn't address Ulm's weaknesses, so I don't see much of a reason to do it.

3) "A bonus to the specific Ulm equipment. Lighter armour, more damage to weapons."

Same as above.

4) "Recruitable troops that are not burdened by heavy equipment."

Same as above.

5) "All restrictions lifted from the extra magic pick. Let them have everything but blood."

Sounds absolutely delicious. This would address a basic weakness of Ulm, which is magic diversity. Wouldn't be overbalancing (because the random is only 10%). Let's do it!

6) Give a +10% chance at a random earth pick.

Same as above. With these last two things, Ulm would clearly become at least a middle-tier faction (especially with the cheap x-bows too), imo, because their forging would go for merely excellent to absolutely out of control good.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:52 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©1999 - 2025, Shrapnel Games, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.