Are castles worth the points?

[The_Tauren13]

From an enjoyment point of few, there should be some alternative to blanket castling.

[tinkthank]

Oooh -- another mad castling thread! Yay!

[NTJedi]

Ways I see to stop mad castling:

1) Improve Province Defense... my ideas posted On WishList sticky page_19... Date: 01/17/05 05:21 PM

2) Have some terrain where it's impossible to build. This is logical since several areas in the world it is impossible when comparing the building technology used in the game. Examples= Swamps, High Mountains, Rain Forests
Also building time should be increased for Wastelands.

3) Make the more expensive castles much more powerful in terms of DEFENSE pts and stronger battle defensives. Such as boulders falling or flaming arrows or something more.

4) Make the more expensive castles give bonuses to defending troops. Some examples = such as 20% air shield, morale bonus, attack bonus against flyers, etc.

5) Add spells which target destruction of castles. Spells could target overall castle defense and thus weaker castle-types would fall using fewer gems. The most expensive castle-types can be immune or rarely crumble. The capital can be immune to this spell.

6) Provide an option for the host to remove building castle-types completely. Since it's an option players will decide whether or not to include this feature.

[PrinzMegaherz]

And allow nations to have more than one castle type available. Most of the more expensive castles are inferior to the cheaper ones, if you can only have either one or the other. If you could take fortified cities and Watchtowers, one could build some capitals (fortified cities) and defend minor provinces with watchtowers.

[Oversway]

specially the defense value seems to be massively overrated

Yeah, I agree with this. I think the resource values are also not helpful in games. If we could mod castles I would definitely raise the defense and resource values (or lower the point cost).

[Tuidjy]

> Ways I see to stop mad castling:

The last time that there was a poll, the overwhelming (80%) majority was
of the opinion that ubiquitous castles may not be much fun to take over,
but are in no way unbalancing, and part of the Dominion gameplay. So do
not be surprised that many people will meet your call for making 'mad
castling' ineffective with the disdain it deserves.

On the other hand, it is more or less a fact that many castles are improperly
priced. If they were not, people would be using them, which is all the
evidence that matters. There was a thread that discussed ideas for spicing up
some of the big castles.

What I would love to see is a way to build 'enhancements' to existing
fortifications, i.e. to spend additional cash in order to add a wall, battle
towers, a clerk office, a granary, a defender barack, etc... Because lets face
it, the game gets interesting at about turn 30, and by then, neither troops nor
missiles matter much.

[tinkthank]

Tuidjy said:
> Ways I see to stop mad castling:

The last time that there was a poll, the overwhelming (80%) majority was of the opinion that ubiquitous castles may not be much fun to take over, but are in no way unbalancing, and part of the Dominion gameplay.

That is not entirely true.
To which poll are you referring?
IIRC, many (most?) people seemed to feel that
"mad castling" may not be "imbalanced", but it is not a feature or an option which they wish to have to rely on in competetive MP. Also, IIRC, many (most?) people considered it less fun than using castles as recruitment / administration centers, but did not do so because they felt that this would put them at a disadvantage in MP. "Mad Castling" encourages summons and discourages national troops, which is why I tend to find it less fun, but realize that it is important.
I offered a few suggestions on the Wishlist for improving the situation, which include
- Flexible Castle Purchasing Systems(tm)
- Increase cost / difficulty of Distant Province Attack Spells
- Greatly changing the way Castle Defense, Castle Design Point Cost, and Castle In-Game Gold Cost functions

I think it would be nice if there were some SMALL incentive to have troops patrolling or defending in provs without castles, I think this could enhance the number of strategies viable in competetive MP, and doing so (enhancing the number of viable strategies available in commpetetive MP) also happens to be causally related to the amount of FUN I have in playing such games.

[sachmo]

NTJedi said:

Ways I see to stop mad castling:

2) Have some terrain where it's impossible to build. This is logical since several areas in the world it is impossible when comparing the building technology used in the game. Examples= Swamps, High Mountains, Rain Forests
Also building time should be increased for Wastelands.

Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.

[Saber Cherry]

sachmo said:
Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.

:

So you're saying, that some types of terrain should have a "Castle Sinking Percent"? Actually, a random "Your castle sank into the swamp!" event would be pretty dang funny (in swamp provinces only, of course!)