upkeep

[Endoperez]

Boron: Conjuration 9 is HIGH. At that level summons are meant to be very cost-effective, worth every gem you use. Wights are. (Sea) Trolls are nice mid-game, and might be the one thing that forces you to defend instead of researching, or that kills you before you get access to Wights. Also, if you have the right mages and want to use them for summoning instead of researching, you can summon one trolls for one gem. With, say, 10 national mages summoning trolls for three turns you get 30 trolls for 30 gems. It is slower, but very cost-efficient in gems, although less so in mage time. All those mages could be doing something else, like forging, fighting or researching, or searching for sites.

Besides, recruiting trolls for 0gp/piece would become boring after a while, don't you think?

[Boron]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
Boron: Conjuration 9 is HIGH. At that level summons are meant to be very cost-effective, worth every gem you use. Wights are. (Sea) Trolls are nice mid-game, and might be the one thing that forces you to defend instead of researching, or that kills you before you get access to Wights. Also, if you have the right mages and want to use them for summoning instead of researching, you can summon one trolls for one gem. With, say, 10 national mages summoning trolls for three turns you get 30 trolls for 30 gems. It is slower, but very cost-efficient in gems, although less so in mage time. All those mages could be doing something else, like forging, fighting or researching, or searching for sites.

Besides, recruiting trolls for 0gp/piece would become boring after a while, don't you think?

the site where you can recruit trolls should be removed or modified of course . i didn't mention it because i thought it is clear .

ok if you summon 1 troll for 1 gem it is costwise cheaper . but you could instead summon vine ogres. the cost is 1 gem too , with items / special summoners you can get even more .
a ivy crown costs only 5 nature gems and you already get 2 vine ogres / summon .
the vine ogres don't have regeneration but are mindless so they never rout . that makes them ihmo an as useful "shield" as ordinary trolls.

although i don't use them much myself contact draconians is a good comparable spell too :
like trolls you get 15 draconians +1 chief.
the chief is no mage but can summon further draconians. but they are upkeepfree .

worth a test would be to give the troll king summon allies ability too and reduce the gotten trolls to 10 but make them upkeepfree .
trolls are the only summons which you can't summon endlessly if you have enough gems .
this makes them clearly inferior to all other summons . and they don't have such great abilities which justify paying upkeep .

[NTJedi]

I'm not sure why the developers decided to have black hawks cost an upkeep.... they want/need money the same as great lions, wolves and other animals. Perhaps they just don't like birds.

[PvK]

Good question. I wondered that too, but I was also wondering why Black Hawks and similar common animals don't have stealth. Seems like they should have it, by virtue of most animals not being magical minions...

PvK

[Gandalf Parker]

Dont birds get a patrol bonus?

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PvK:
Good question. I wondered that too, but I was also wondering why Black Hawks and similar common animals don't have stealth. Seems like they should have it, by virtue of most animals not being magical minions...

Well, wolves get it because they're wolves. They tend to be everywhere and nobody pays too much attention to them.

Bears, lions, tigers, and elephants, on the other hand, people notice when they start nosing around!

And Black Hawks make people point at the HUGE BIRD flying overhead.

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Dont birds get a patrol bonus?

They don't have a specially added patrol bonus, but they do receive a bonus when patrolling by virtue of being fliers.

[NTJedi]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Dont birds get a patrol bonus?

They have as much patrol bonus as a draconian flyer... yet the tiny black hawks have a gold upkeep and draconians don't.
Maybe they only eat the really expensive and sophisticated bird food !!


The developers know the real reason... but they've locked away that secret in a security box at The Chicago Bank... at least that's the rumor on the street.

[ July 14, 2004, 19:26: Message edited by: NTJedi ]