Big Problem - Unbalanced random events

[jaif]

I could think of a few things that could be done here:

1) Like I said, reduce the percentage of pop hits. It feels out of place to me.

2) Why can't "travellers from afar" decide to settle in a province? It needn't be a big number, but plopping down 500 new settlers from off-map into a province would be neat.

3) An at-start moratorium on *all* events as an option from 1 to 10, with events starting on turn X.

Just some thoughts.

-Jeff

[Peter Ebbesen]

The most important point as I see it is that the real level of luck, what the player will feel as lucky or not is not really determined by the luck scale at all.

With +3 luck and other negative scales, the player is going to see a veritable horde of catastrophes as many good events are prevented from happening and many negative are made possible. It may be that the player overall gets more positive than negative events, but the door is open for all but the most nasty events while many positive are prohibited.

Contrariwise, at -3 luck and very positive scales, while bad events are more frequent, some bad events cannot happen because the country's other scales are too positive.

As such, luck is a magnifier on the other scales, not a scale with an inherent worth (unless you are into void summoning or cross breeding).

And that is a LOT to pay 120 nation points for (luck+3) if it means that your other scales are less fabulous.


The issue is compounded by the 3 random event limit, as it means that, unlike all other scales, the effects of the luck scale does not scale with the number of provinces owned.

If you invest in order, production, or growth - you are benefiting all your provinces each and every turn with a tangible benefit. Likewise heat/cold for those that use it. Even magic, as it affects the MR and research of all creatures whereever your domain holds sway. And it works the other way as well, take negative scales, and you suffer in each and every province each turn.

Only luck is an exception.

Whether you have 3 provinces or 100, you will only get 3 random events. As such, the larger your country grows, the less relative negative impact you get from misfortune and the less relative positive impact you get from luck. Once you reach the threshold where you receive 3 random events per turn, the effect of luck peters out with further expansion - which makes those 120 points for luck+3 even less worth, if you expect to run a big nation.

In other words, luck is not just an exception, its functioning principle is very nearly the opposite of the other scales'!

Get rid of that 3 event cap, please.

[PvK]

I thought there was an immigrant event - just apparently rare. Am I mis-remembering?

EDIT: Good points, Peter. That probably has a lot to do with why I haven't seen lots of bad events in my Lucky games compared to others. I didn't lower my other scales much in those games, and probably the people who got nailed by bad events did. Though, I think Luck does also increase the odds and/or possibility of some of the best positive events, so there would still be some effect even after the "threshold" is reached. I agree though that it'd be nice to remove or tweak the 3-event maximum.

PvK

[ March 29, 2004, 22:18: Message edited by: PvK ]

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by PvK:
I thought there was an immigrant event - just apparently rare. Am I mis-remembering?

EDIT: Good points, Peter. That probably has a lot to do with why I haven't seen lots of bad events in my Lucky games compared to others. I didn't lower my other scales much in those games, and probably the people who got nailed by bad events did. Though, I think Luck does also increase the odds and/or possibility of some of the best positive events, so there would still be some effect even after the "threshold" is reached. I agree though that it'd be nice to remove or tweak the 3-event maximum.

PvK

Oh, it certainly does. Having good scales in general AND a good luck scale will regularly give you some VERY good events. It is just that the way it seems to be working currently, unless you are cross-breeding/void-summoning or already have maxed most other scales, it is almost a no-brainer on any decent sized map not to invest in luck but to invest in other scales instead - or to take an extra magic path to 3 or 4 for the 120 points.

There are exceptions to this rule, such as the -3/-3/-3/-3/+3/+3 Ermor setup, which funnels nearly all good events into gem events (which is exactly what Ermor needs) and where the majority of the bad events (and you will get many bad events) don't really matter because people are already dead anyhow, but they remain rare exceptions to the general case.

[ March 29, 2004, 22:37: Message edited by: Peter Ebbesen ]

[Argitoth]

has anyone suggested that random events be totally disabled for the first 10 turns of the game? or 5 turns or 15 turns? maybe that could be a new game option. feel free to twist, add, subract, deform, and/or reform this idea.

[ March 30, 2004, 01:46: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
has anyone suggested that random events be totally disabled for the first 10 turns of the game? or 5 turns or 15 turns? maybe that could be a new game option. feel free to twist, add, subract, deform, and/or reform this idea.

If I remember correctly most of them are. For 10 turns I think. And the ones that arent are downplayed to the point that you almost have to take the extreme settings which could translate as "just plain asking for it" to get the worst ones to kick in. But this is foggy memory stuff.

And we do have a game setting for random events. Isnt there a thread somewhere here that tested all that?

The only test I ever did on this stuff was turning ALL scales to the worst possible settings to make maximum use of blessings (achieving all 4's and a couple 9's) and being very surprised that my capital didnt totally crumble in the early part of the game.

[ March 30, 2004, 02:02: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Argitoth]

there are still events like labs burning down during the first 10 turns. One time I used a pretender with no magic, and before I could recruit my first mage, my lab burned. I just quit the game after that. (this was an MP game)