A thought on the Talisman / Live on Pay-Per-View: Geo vs. Fyron

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
MM does not have to please everyone.

Only you, right?

[Fyron]

Originally posted by geoschmo:

quote:

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Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
MM does not have to please everyone.

Only you, right?

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I am sorry for suggesting that MM operate as 90% of the industry that releases frequent update patches does in regards to those patches. Most games get frequent balance fixes in patches. Se4 has only had one or two of them, which just sucks.

[Erax]

I say, leave the Talisman the way it is. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

[Gozra]

I have seen and been a part of Talisman disscusions over the years I have been playing SE. I have also watched space empire discussion evolve amoung a group of friends that I play SEIV face to face. I won't forget that one time I said what do you need extra cargo space for and my friend agreed that the cargo faclity was useless. Well now that I have played more I find that the cargo Faclity is very useful. I have also found that the game is very well blanced. The talisman is not the uber weapon that a lot of people imply. It can be defeated in many ways. I have found also that for every advantage there is a counter to that advantage.
I would suggest that Fryon play 5 people in ten games each player would get to be the Talisman player alternatly and see what type of win stats Fryon could rack up.

[Cheeze]

Without the Talisman, the Deeply Religious tech tree is interesting but not up to being a racial tech equal to the others. Given the component size, and generally in conjunction with the decreased Aggressiveness that many Religious players and races have, it goes down pretty quickly in a fight and leaves that ship next to useless. If the talisman is replaced by some component that works as an enhanced combat sensor, then the Religious tree needs other additions. I would suggest some mix of "religious" weaponry: a converter (works as Allegiance Subverter, perhaps with the same weakness or one that works on the master computer), a superior weapon destroyer (some sort of "pacifist hippie" device..hee hee) or reload limiter, and maybe a wormhole-beam style weapon or tractor/repulser. That Deeply Religious comes with no special weapons is an inherent weakness in the trait, but it also does not give that player the option having to research that tech line, and instead focus on the more standard options.

That being said, I enjoy playing with the Religious trait, irrespective of the Talisman. I do like the Religious facilities, the Nature shrine being perhaps my favorite. I love watching all my planets' resource values go up 3% on the .1 turn of the year!! I think the Time Shrine should boost more than resource production in that system. Given its description, it should raise research and intel as well!

[Fyron]

Gozra, I have played plenty of games, and I know the effects of the Talisman very well.

Can you honestly tell me that a situation in which 30 ships armed with Talismans (I forget the size of the ships) managed to defeat over 200 max-tech Dreadnoughts with only 5 losses is a well-balanced system?

[ July 18, 2003, 22:36: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Baron Munchausen]

One possible 'mod' of the Talisman is to make it really HUGE (100kt or more) and expensive and make it an 'area' effect device rather than only the ship it's on. Do the facility combat modifers work on components? For a whole fleet? In other words, a 'portable' death shrine. That would make the 'Talisman' essentially area effect ECM/ECCM. This would let you have some advantages, but balanced with a vulnerability (if the enemy gets to that one ship and poofs it, you're advantage is gone.)