The MA Ulm issue.

[sum1lost]

Tuidjy, if you think that CUUnknown is a troll, you don't know what real trolling is, m'kay?

[Tuidjy]

One can be a troll without being the worst troll in existence.

By the way, I am stuck at home, sick as a dog. Anyone of those who think
that Ulm is "not that bad" wanna play a quick one on one? I'll take any
human race. Ermor, Man, Pythium, Marignon, the rather underpowered Tien Chi,
you name it.

[Humakty]

I...Well I would...But...Some work you know...Stuff and the like....May you recover promptly.
Ah, I know...I have an enormous map to test!!! Yeah this one is THE excuse.

[sum1lost]

If you knew what a troll was, you would know better than to attack one while having personal information stored under this handle on other sites.

One might call such an action retarded, especially for a programmer.

However, since I am not in the habit of calling people who disagree with me retarded, I won't.

[Tuidjy]

Petar Ivanov, MIT alum, IT Director of a company for which I do not speak,
Bulgaria People's Army hand to hand combat vice champion for 1989, twice a
world finalist in the ACM programming contest, Volvo modification enthusiast,
computer game fantatic, amateur kickboxer, archery nut, ... which one of these
should I be ashamed of, and how could you use it against me? Buddy, if I had
cared to remained anonymous, I would not have used the same handle since 1993.

[sum1lost]

Tuidjy said:
Petar Ivanov, MIT alum, IT Director of a company for which I do not speak,
Bulgaria People's Army hand to hand combat vice champion for 1989, twice a
world finalist in the ACM programming contest, Volvo modification enthusiast,
computer game fantatic, amateur kickboxer, archery nut, ... which one of these
should I be ashamed of, and how could you use it against me? Buddy, if I had
cared to remained anonymous, I would not have used the same handle since 1993.

Why would you think I would use it against you? If you think I threatened you somehow, I apologize.

Edited to be less flamey.

[CUnknown]

I'll try to stop myself from posting anymore after this one.. We are getting angry, on a topic that's sort of a side issue anyway. I just want to be on record for a couple of things, then I will shut up.

I know that Tuidjy would kick my a$$ in a duel, especially since he's done it before. If I chose Ulm as my faction, it would probably not help my chances one bit, admittedly.

I'm trying to defend Ulm as "not being that bad" but I know just like anyone that a small boost to their infantry, mages, or whatever couldn't hurt a thing, because they still wouldn't be in the top tier of factions even then.

I grudgingly admit that the power of arbelests is debatable.. since we've been doing just that. I thought that my simplistic analysis of "how much damage does it do?" when adjusted for rate of fire would convince people, apparently I was wrong. Tuidjy's more complicated analysis is probably more accurate for many in-game situations. But.. it subtracts away killing damage from the average damage of non-killing hits, so I think it is weighted against arbelests (since arbelests have a high % of killing hits), and I think this was done on purpose. But... yeah... if you start doing some complicated analysis and looking at it in depth, it is debatable. But certainly the arbelest is a good weapon, the best against heavily armored foes.

[Tuidjy]

> But certainly the arbelest is a good weapon, the best against heavily armored foes.

That I will agree with 100%. But you see, the problem is that you do not
necessarily want this with Ulm, and you definitely do not want just that. A good
player will make sure that your arbalests first shoot at a smallish (10-15) group
of shielded, lowish armour infantry, and in that case you want something that can
break them quickly.

I would be surprised to learn that most players do not jump of joy when they get
independent crossbows or, even better, longbows with Ulm.

> I'm trying to defend Ulm as "not being that bad" but I know just like anyone that
> a small boost to their infantry, mages, or whatever couldn't hurt a thing,
> because they still wouldn't be in the top tier of factions even then.

But you see, by arguing that they have "the best missile weapon", and that their
infantry "plays its role" well, you make it that much unlikely that they will
receive that much needed boost. MA Ulm and Tien Chi need help. Maybe
Agartha does too, I do not play them. But the help comes from the devs, and
they would are more likely to listen if the players agree first.

[Kristoffer O]

We have learned not to trust players long ago

Getting asskicked in an MP game is way better. I got trampled by elephants as Ulm a month or two ago. I designed a god with a nice blessing, only to discover I didn't have sacred troops. Thought I was playing some Iron faith version of MA Ulm

[Folket]

I did my own tests with Ulmish infantry against Principes. 40 units on each side. First Pythium attack and lost 19 units while Ulm lost 2. In the second battle Ulm attack and lost 9 units while Pythium lost 36. Both battles was in neutral dominion.

The Infantry of Ulm costs 24 resources while principes cost 21 resources. Given that Ulm have a resource bonus and principes costs 15 gold I find the battle fair if not a little edge to principes given that thay had 50% more gold in the field.

Ulm allready have a national spell that increase resistance to thier troops. That should be enough to counter thier low MR.

In general Ulm have very potent infantry and I guess that whoever tried these battles earlier only tried the black plate variaty who I consider are just inferior to the ordinary infantry of Ulm.