The next patch

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Taqwus:
Exponential clam growth strikes me as somewhat unlikely, because that requires a corresponding exponential growth in the number of water mages, and that's difficult to do unless you have an absolutely incredible amount of water gems coming in for Sea King's Court and can also deal with the exponentially growing maintenance cost.

If all you want is 100 clams, then you'll never need more than between 5-10 water 1 mages to make them once you can build water bracelets.

[PvK]

Ok here's a suggestion:

Make Clams require Water-2, Astral-1, 10 Water and 5 Astral to forge.

This would slow the expansion, and require the forgers to have Astral magic as well, which is appropriate (since they create astral gems), and also harder to get the required forgers.

PvK

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by PvK:
Ok here's a suggestion:

Make Clams require Water-2, Astral-1, 10 Water and 5 Astral to forge.

This would slow the expansion, and require the forgers to have Astral magic as well, which is appropriate (since they create astral gems), and also harder to get the required forgers.

PvK

That would work too.

[Zapmeister]

I prefer my suggestion (nature-1 water-1) because it requires nature gems (not produced by the clams) and R'lyeh has water/astral mages straight out of the box.

[mlepinski]

Originally posted by Zapmeister:
I prefer my suggestion (nature-1 water-1) because it requires nature gems (not produced by the clams) and R'lyeh has water/astral mages straight out of the box.

I agree that Nature-1/Water-1 mages are much harder to come by than Water-2/Astral-1 mages. (In addition to Ry'lyeh, Atlantis also has Water-2/Astral-1 mages right out of the box).

- Matt Lepinski :->

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by mlepinski:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Zapmeister:
I prefer my suggestion (nature-1 water-1) because it requires nature gems (not produced by the clams) and R'lyeh has water/astral mages straight out of the box.

I agree that Nature-1/Water-1 mages are much harder to come by than Water-2/Astral-1 mages. (In addition to Ry'lyeh, Atlantis also has Water-2/Astral-1 mages right out of the box).

- Matt Lepinski :->

---

Water/Nature perhaps makes more sense from thematic point of view. But if clams would be made along this elements than I think 10 water 5 nature would be much better, especially if clams will be left at con4.

As for hard to come by at mages capable of making them - I disagree. Any amazon priestess could make them since they have nature 1 water 1 magic pathes. They are extremely cheap at 100 gp, in addition to being sacred troops that halve their maintaence. Any present lvl 2 water mages would cost much more than that, so it would be a step backward in this regard of mainanence cost.

Amazon provinces are quite common forest type province. Besides nature 5 water 5 is too low anyway, IMHO clams should cost at least 15 gems total to slow its return of investment.

10 nature gems and 5 water would work better than 10 water 5 nature btw - this wat at least if the player is going to use cheap mages with patch enchansers to mass-produce clams he would have to pay 10 nature for wristle mace to raise nature level from 1 to 2, intead of paying just 5 for water braclet. (as in case with water 10 nature 5)

Also as it was mentioned nature gems are more valuble in general than water, tempting the player to spend it elsewhere.

[ April 05, 2004, 02:57: Message edited by: Stormbinder ]

[Zapmeister]

Water/Nature perhaps makes more sense from thematic point of view. But if clams would be made along this elements than I think 10 water 5 nature would be much better, especially if clams will be left at con4.

Clams and fetishes are both Con2, and there's little to be gained by raising either to Con4, IMHO, even if we agree that clams are out of balance.

Any amazon priestess could make them since they have nature 1 water 1 magic pathes... They are extremely cheap at 100 gp, in addition to being sacred troops that halve their maintaence...Amazon provinces are quite common forest type province. Besides nature 5 water 5 is too low anyway, IMHO clams should cost at least 15 gems total to slow its return of investment.

Maintenance on the clam forgers is not really an issue, amazons are not common (at least not as common as national troops) and our objective is to slow the rate of clam production which can be done without increasing their total cost, IMHO.

Changing clams from water-2 to nature-1,water-1 is a small enough change to have some chance of being accepted by the devs, and the folks that think there's no problem to be fixed.