Suggestions to the devs: improving ME Ulm

TomD · #1 December 8th, 2006, 12:36 PM

Good idea, that works for me. And bodyguards just show that you can't trust foreign scum.

Of course a Black Lord (I think that's the name, the commander version of the Black Knight) would be an awesome assasin even without items. It probably needs a nerf somewhere to make it balanced.

BigJMoney · #2 December 8th, 2006, 01:06 PM

Ulm got rid of its stealthiness in EA to embrace the fielding of horses. I particlarly think a national forge item would make Ulm complete. Then again, I suppose this isn't something the Doms 3 system is built to support.

On another note, Sorlakind's best point is that a monthly construct command is sorely lacking from the game. It's rather surprising there is monthly spell-casting and not monthly forging.

=$= Big J Money =$=

olaf73 · #3 December 8th, 2006, 01:12 PM

Yeah we need monthly forgings.

Sandman · #4 December 8th, 2006, 02:00 PM

Regarding Ulmish assassins, how about a 'mage hunter', with very high magic resistance and a magic weapon?

Gandalf Parker · #5 December 8th, 2006, 02:44 PM

Ahhh now that makes sense. I like that. And a nice rock-paper-scissors balance to it also.

"Ulm, having learned its lessons in the Early Era, has trained special assassins to target other nations mages."

Taqwus · #6 December 8th, 2006, 04:42 PM

After all, there have been plenty of spies in the mundane world.

A spy with a siege bonus would be interesting; let the bonus reflect having sufficient knowledge of engineering to identify likely weaknesses in fortifications.

Tyrant · #7 December 8th, 2006, 05:38 PM

Not sure the assasins would help. My experience with non-glamoured stealth units so far in Dom3 is that they have a very hard time. With the bigger economies and better troops, PDs of 25 are very common and 40+ is not rare, but stealth rating have not gone up. Thus- lots of assasins killed by PD. For instance, in one game i'm playing atm, 6 out of 7 enemy assasins have been nailed by my PD.

Sorlakind · #8 December 9th, 2006, 12:12 PM

Great suggestion, sandman: a mage-hunter with high mr and a magic weapon to hunt for enemy mages. Very thematic and well balanced. Nevertheless, as Tyrant points out, with the high values of PD available, you would have to give him at least the stealth of a spy and even then, they probably would die easily. I still would like to see 2 of my suggestions implemented (I dropped the crossbow one, one can always compose things with independents):

- Raise chance of an extra magic pick to 50%. Even 20% (1 out of 5 instead 1 out of 10) would already be a big help. Even if it would mean a little more expensive smiths.

- Monthly forge command: this is the only way to *really* take advantage of the forge bonus and earth picks that Ulm has for a construction strategy. As things are right now, it's a micromanagement hell.

Best regards

Sandman · #9 December 9th, 2006, 01:42 PM

Assassins have a lot of limitations, but the threat of them would force enemies to treat Ulm with a bit more respect. Even for purely defensive operations, they'd be useful, disrupting the enemy advance ahead of the slow-moving Ulmish armies.

I'd also give Ulm a standard-bearer and cheaper (non-elite) cavalry, so they've got more options on the battlefield.

Endoperez · #10 December 10th, 2006, 11:54 AM

Few things:

MA Ulm's PD is WONDERFUL! It's insane, really. Arbalests don't fire that often, but they can damage anything without Air Shield, and they are medium infantry with shortswords against that something WITH Air Shield, often accompanied by the very heavy infantry you get from PD over 20.

Ulm Arbalests are very good, actually. They're VERY slow to make, but work surprisingly well even without support from the other troops.

Re: 10% chance on Master Smiths:
Turn 26 on a blitz game. I had had at most 6 provinces in the blitz. I had acquired a second castle late into the game, but hadn't gotten any Master Smiths with funny randoms from there. I had pretty much managed to keep to the 1 mage/turn rule. I had one Master Smith with Earth random, two with Air, and one with Astral. Statistically, I was a bit ahead - 23 or so Smiths and 4 Master Smiths makes for almost 18 per cent... but I was "due" two any way. One in ten adds up pretty fast when you don't recruit anything else. Ulm is also one of the nations that can pretty easily aim for a second castle early in the game without forgoing military - they just build Black Plate inanftry.