Conceptual Balance (Discussion)

PDF · #1 October 30th, 2006, 08:04 AM

Quote:

FrankTrollman said:
I will say that Abyssia's reduced effects from Death Scales are all bad. They are old and need to find little girls for their powers, so Growth scales are good, but they don't get extra supplies from it.

On the flip side, while they avoid starving from Death scales, they still still suffer the worst effects (increased age effects and reduced blood hunting). That means that they get hosed coming and going.

Abyssia would be happy if their death scale "resistance" was taken away.

-Frank

Wouldn'it be simpler to just alleviate old age from Aby mages (ie make them younger)? Still they'd suffer from reduced hunt, but 80 or 120 design points is still no thing to sneer at...

Nerfix · #2 October 30th, 2006, 08:22 AM

That sounds like a plan. Especially Warlock Apperentices and Anathemant Salamanders need to have their age dropped. It's ridiculous that every single one of their mages starts as old. Demonbreds, Anointeds of Rhuax and the latter-day humanbred mages excluded.

calmon · #3 October 30th, 2006, 08:30 AM

Hmm, whats the problem of being old? I tried a test game with abysia. During 2 years noone have died. If they drop old the mages would be more expensive (like the mictlan non-old good mage). Both late Era.

Nerfix · #4 October 30th, 2006, 08:34 AM

In my test games with Abysia, using growth 1 or 0, the mages swiftly racked up afflictions and died.

Twan · #5 October 30th, 2006, 08:42 AM

Quote:

calmon said:
Hmm, whats the problem of being old? I tried a test game with abysia. During 2 years noone have died.

It's the problem. Short term effects of old age are a pure random factor. With the same nation/settings you can have all your good mages feebleminded or mute in a year or none affected. The aging system is good for long term, but may or not have big consequences in the early game and it's not very good for balance.
The problem is the same for bad random events (in fact the "very bad random events in early game" problem is worse... plague in turn 2 with luck !?

).

PhilD · #6 October 30th, 2006, 09:39 AM

Quote:

PDF said:
Wouldn'it be simpler to just alleviate old age from Aby mages (ie make them younger)? Still they'd suffer from reduced hunt, but 80 or 120 design points is still no thing to sneer at...

Don't forget that Abysia already get 120 free design points in the form of Heat scales (OK, slightly less than that 'cause they need a strong dominion to push the scales as fast as possible, but still, strong Dom is typically something desirable).

Hmm, actually, this all might be why I'm so bad with Abysia - I like Growth scales, or at least I dislike Death. (The other thing being that I tried it, EA, before I got your patchlike-mod)