Sentient Machines - [Game on]

[Dragar]

I'm keenly anticipating my pretender, it's quite exciting not knowing what you are going to get. Hopefully this leads to some strategies not normally employed

Any chance we can keep pretenders altogether secret from other players? It would keep a nice edge to the game, not having any idea what you're going to run into

[Fakeymcfake]

Actually yeah, now that you mention it knowing what the other guy has would potentially give people a bit of an edge, unfairly in my opinion. Plus surprises are fun.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Dragar

Any chance we can keep pretenders altogether secret from other players? It would keep a nice edge to the game, not having any idea what you're going to run into

Originally Posted by Fakeymcfake

Actually yeah, now that you mention it knowing what the other guy has would potentially give people a bit of an edge, unfairly in my opinion. Plus surprises are fun.

Well, the pretenders will be mostly secret. Because there is no way to make the mod .dm file secret (anyone can just open it and take a look easily), the base modded chassises will be available for all to view. However,

1) You do not know which chassis is for which nation, and

2) You do not know exactly what magic does the chassis possess and with what scales and level on dormancy.

For example, Calahan PM's everyone their choices, waits until he hears back from all of us and presents a mod with 10 modded pretenders are like this:

1. Red Dragon with F2W2D1

2. Great Sage with F3S3A1

3. Manticore with B2W3

4. Cyclops with E3F3

5. Skratti with B2E2N2W2D2

6. Cyclops with E3D3W1

7. Master Druid with B1N1D1W2F3 and domstr 5

8. Blue Dragon with W2, with path cost for additional magic 0

9. Monolith with E1D1N3S3

10. Titan with E3A3 and domstr 5 to begin with

Okay, now tell me which nation has what chassis to begin with? Can you tell if they're going to be awake with horrible scales or dormant? exact domstr?

This might fail a bit if someone uses a clearly nation restricted pretender (like the Son of the Fallen for Hinnom), but still you won't know the level of dormancy, nor any other details about it. Besides, because you are presented with 2 options, you can always opt to choose a "vanilla" pretender for that extra mystique.

What I meant with the gang-bang analogy was the true dom3-way. If some bless-giant nation hits on a imprisoned blesspretender and start taking up territory like madman, the other nations will probably react to the threat.

Originally Posted by Dragar

I'm keenly anticipating my pretender, it's quite exciting not knowing what you are going to get. Hopefully this leads to some strategies not normally employed.

Yeah, this is what I'm hoping too. With a less than optimal pretender, you might need to look beyond the regular choices and try to devise another way to play the nation.

Perhaps I (EA Hinnom) will end up with 3-sloth in both of my builds and are unable to leverage the chariots/my sacreds for expansion. I'll probably then have to rely on the caveman guys at the beginning of my roster for expansion.

I'd also like to bring up the awake E1D9N9 manticore with somewhat bad scales from the example builds on page 2. It's not SC right from the start, althought it has pretty high fear due to death magic (+14 b*tches!) bonus. You need to leverage options and tinker with early game expansion strats to get the most out of him. It'snot obvious, but that pretender is really versatile and packs a bunch even with low-research. Consider this: Sleep cloud with +4 penetration and AoE 11! Heck, even sleep with +4 penetration right from the start could suprise someone trying to leverage sacred giant rush against you. Or just hit Summon Earthpower + Ironskin + Personal Regeneration + hold +hold + attack rear.

[Calahan]

Hope to have contacted everyone with their Pretender design options before the end of today. Stay tuned

[Calahan]

Ok, I think I just about have 2 viable designs for each nation. I will type it all up neatly (rather than my scribbled short-hand versions) and PM you all seperately very soon.

But, @ Burnsaber - With regards the mod I have to make, what happens if two nations have the same Pretender chassis for their build? For example, one nation chooses a Cyclops with Water8, another a Cyclops with Fire8. I can't put F+W on the Cyclops because then both parties benefit from having base paths they shouldn't have. And at 80 points per new path, I doubt I could leave the Cyclops without a base magic path and still have it as a valid design for both players. And obviously this only gets worse if in the above example the two Cyclop's have non Earth paths like W8D8 F8N8.

Is this a problem, or am I missing something?

[atul]

Thanks for your work!

As to cyclops problem, isn't it possible to duplicate pretenders via mod?

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Calahan

Ok, I think I just about have 2 viable designs for each nation. I will type it all up neatly (rather than my scribbled short-hand versions) and PM you all seperately very soon.

But, @ Burnsaber - With regards the mod I have to make, what happens if two nations have the same Pretender chassis for their build? For example, one nation chooses a Cyclops with Water8, another a Cyclops with Fire8. I can't put F+W on the Cyclops because then both parties benefit from having base paths they shouldn't have. And at 80 points per new path, I doubt I could leave the Cyclops without a base magic path and still have it as a valid design for both players. And obviously this only gets worse if in the above example the two Cyclop's have non Earth paths like W8D8 F8N8.

Is this a problem, or am I missing something?

In my code I supplied, all monster you make are new, they don't overwrite excisting ones.

So you just create two different new cyclopes. One with F and the other with W.

EDIT: Must.. Resist the urge.. to refresh PM page every 3 seconds..

[Calahan]

Thanks for the answer Burnsaber. Only two more nations to type up. And because I like you so much Burnsaber, I'll PM your choice to you last

[Calahan]

Hurray, it's done!

You should now hopefully all have received a PM from me with the two Pretender choices you have for this game (please PM me or post asap if you have not). I don't think I've made any mistakes in either typing, or in sending the correct choices to the correct players. But please accept my apologies in advance if I have made any errors, since a lot of cutting&pasting, PM-ing, typing lots of important numbers etc went on in the past 2 hours, so a little mistake here and there way well have crept in, and like I said, apologies if it has.

Once you have decided on your Pretender, please PM it to me. Also use my text in your reply if you can, as that way if you choose option 1 for example, I can easily see that we are talking about the same option. I have my own set of notes for this game, but doing it this way helps limit the chances of a mistake occuring from option 1 in my notes being different to the option 1 I sent you (while I'm pretty certain this hasn't happened, mistakes can creep in like I said).

I have tried to come up with two viable builds for each nation, and I have included a comment in your PM if there was any area of concern I had over your choices. Of course as Burnsaber has already stated, balance in this sort of game goes out the window, so some Pretenders will be a lot stronger than others.

I think I have a fairly good knowledge of the game, so I hope none of the Pretenders are completely crippling to their nation. But of course at the same time I haven't sat down and worked out a game winning strategy for each build I have offered in order to see how viable it was. That's your job! But if anyone does have any serious concerns about their choices, then please PM me, and I'm sure something can be sorted out.

So get those brains in gear folks, because it's unlikely you can just simply rely on Baalz's many excellent guides for this game

Now after all that I need a long rest, and a 24 hour break from Dominions (if my current games will let me that is. Damn speed merchants everywhere )

[Burnsaber]

Ok, you have the options by calahan and want to test them out. But is the pretender too costy? Allow me to help! Copy this piece of code into some old mod.dm file you have lying around and edit it to make your pretender happen! (you can open & edit .dm files with a simple notepad or any equivalent)

Remember to activate CBM first, and after taht the mod you edited to include this piece. (so that all changes the CBM makes will be included in this new pretender)

#newmonster 2951
#copystats 1011 --- Set the monster number of the pretender in question here. You can see the monster number by clicking Shift-i while viewing the pretender in-game
#copyspr 1011 -- This command tells the game what moster sprite it uses for the unit. Should be the same as the copystat.
#name "This quoted text is example" -- This gives the monster a name. The name needs to be insade the quotes or **** will happen.
#magicskill 0 0 -- This command sets starting skill in FIRE magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#magicskill 1 0 -- This command sets starting skill in AIR magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#magicskill 2 0 -- This command sets starting skill in WATER magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#magicskill 3 0 -- This command sets starting skill in EARTH magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#magicskill 4 0 -- This command sets starting skill in ASTRAL magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#magicskill 5 0 -- This command sets starting skill in DEATH magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#magicskill 6 0 -- This command sets starting skill in NATURE magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#magicskill 7 0 -- This command sets starting skill in BLOOD magic. Set the amount by replacing the rightmost number (0).
#gcost 0 -- This command sets the pretenders starting cost
#startdom 1 -- This command sets the pretenders starting dominion
#pathcost 10 - This command sets the pretenders costs for additional paths.
#end

However, once you are done with testing, I suggest you remove the code.